Sunburns and School...

Since my last post, we have brought back a family member, vacationed, and I took my first belly picture.

We moved! It's only about a half mile from our old house but it's secluded (we only have one neighbor), bigger (3 WHOLE BEDROOMS), and has a sweet back yard for the beasts! We are pretty much moved in and settled for now. I'm sure that will change in a couple of months.




The view from our new backyard.

With August came Elder Brown! Derek came home on the 9th and hasn't stopped moving since. He stepped off the plane after serving a 2 year mission in Virginia and shortly thereafter on the 12th he stepped back on a plane along with my Mom and Dad, Garrett, Bradford, and I. We were off to tour the east coast starting in New York and ending in Virginia. My parents have never been past Colorado and this would probably be the only time they would make it out to the east coast. So we dubbed Bradford our tour guide and when we stepped off the plane and JFK and didn't stop until the 19th.





We toured Liberty and Ellis Island and cruised up and down Times Square. The next morning we woke up to POURING RAIN! The rain poured all day and didn't stop just because the Browns were in town. We rode the subway out to Coney Island and unfortunately the entire pier was closed so we walked through the New York Aquarium and ate Nathan's Hot Dogs. If you have never had a Nathans hot dog you are missing out. They say it's the 100 year old grills that make them as good as they are but I think it's just the hot dog itself. So yummy and tasty in all of it's snappy goodness. Mmmmmmmm! The rest of that day, other than braving the weather, the broken down subways, and soggy shoes, we stopped at Ground Zero and see the Freedom Tower and the new memorials they are building. We then loaded up and headed down to Washington DC where we toured through the streets and saw the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Lincoln Memorial, The White House, the Capitol Building, and walked through the Museum of Natural History. Then it was off to Virginia where we hit what I think was the world's BIGGEST outlet mall, roasted ourselves at Virginia Beach. After a flight cancellation we finally made it home, blisters and all.




Garrett was the worst vacation buddy. He pouted the whole trip about how he was mad he was "missing school" but I think it was more of his little friend who is a girl back home...





Bradford's lovely 2nd degree burns he brought home from Virginia Beach

Now we are back home, school has started and Bradford is in full swing with nursing school in Globe. He loves his teacher and is ROCKING all of his tests and quizzes. I am just completely and utterly happy that he is finally in school! I will sacrifice Bradford for a couple of days a week and countless hours of studying for him to be in school and be moving forward.

As for Baby Bigler, things are going great! I have taken my first "belly picture" with encouragement from friends. I see myself as a barrel on toothpicks and I feel like a beached whale sometimes. I think to myself that I have a while but in all reality I am less than 3 months away! I have a growing list of things that need to get done and I feel like I have NO TIME to do them. The nursery is slowly coming together piece by piece but it is very slowly. He is getting bigger and I am starting to get more and more uncomfortable. My scrubs are starting to get tighter and tighter. My feet are getting bigger and bigger! I don't have a single pair of shoes that fit due to the fact I have gone up a size since being pregnant. I am starting to get more moody and emotional. I cried like a baby when Bradford told me a story of a little dog on the side of the road on the reservation that was limping on three legs. It's pathetic! My standard attire at home is a pair of Bradford's basketball shorts and a t-shirt. Baby Bigler is a mover and a shaker and loves to tap dance on my bladder, but I still love him.

Other than that we have just been busy being busy. Until next time, farewell dear friends! Prepare yourself for the belly...

Half baked...

Today marks 20 weeks for me! Half way done and I'm feeling pretty good. I have no complaints but I have noticed that I can fall asleep the minute I become horizontal. I'm normally the one that can stay up and party until the wee hours of the morning. This past week we had our 20 week check up with my Dr. and found out we are having a....

BOY!!!

I am COMPLETELY EXCITED and Bradford is pretty stinking excited too. I already have like 4 boxes of baby boy clothes and accessories courtesy of my mom and Grandma but I'm not quite sure where we are going to put everything. Our little one bedroom house was already pretty full and now adding what is going to be the most spoiled child on the planet we are going to look like hoarders with only a pathway through our house.



From our most recent appointment this is the one photo she sent us home with. Not much of a profile picture but this is the one shot that proves that little guy in there is truly a little guy.

Aside from all the hustle and bustle of preparing for a baby we have found time to have some fun. There is a pond out in Pima about 20 minutes from our house called Cluff pond and we have gone out there a couple of times this summer to take the dogs out to run off some energy. Maggie isn't very fond of the water but amazingly I was out wading in the water and she came right out after me and tried to climb onto my shoulders. Braum however LOVES the water and would lay in it all day if we gave him the chance. The rest of the summer is spent gardening, working, cleaning, working, Bradford getting ready to start nursing school in August, and more working.








We are just enjoying the remainder of our time together as a just Bradford and Valerie before Baby Biggs makes an appearance in November/December-ish.

More happenings...

There is no reason to beat a dead horse but I must say this once again that I really need to get better at this. Let me start with a short story from where we left off...

Thanksgiving was spent with the Brown side of the family this year. Like a good photographer I took a whopping three pictures all weekend. The weekend was good fun and it was nice to eat to my hearts content, and let me tell you it was YUMMY!

Christmas time rolled around and we spent it with the Bigler side of the family. Christmas Eve we went to my in-laws to stay the night and had a Wii sword fighting contest where I swear I tore my rotator cuff. I couldn't move my right arm past my belly button without yelping. It took a good week to recover. It made me realize that my dream of becoming a professional fencer swirled on down the drain into oblivion.

All in all it was a good holiday season for us in the Bigler household, even if I have but two paragraphs to show for it.

As many of you know my life from about the end of October to mid-February is consumed by wrestling. As much as I gripe and moan I really do enjoy it. Yes, every weekend is spent on the road with a bunch of stinky teenage boys but they are the funniest group of teenage boys I have ever met. I enjoy watching Bradford coach those boys and set the on the right path, not just with wrestling but with life. The past two years there have been two boys on his team that have gotten baptized and one is on his mission. As much stress and voice-less days those boys cause me, they truly are examples to each other and to me.

Here I am blogging for the first time in 6 months and I have 800 things to say but not sure how to start. I had started a post on my struggles with infertility. It seemed like I spent more nights crying and clinging to Bradford over the lack of children in my life than I did happy. I was totally and completely happy for friends and family members but there was always a tiny twinge deep in the pit of my stomach longing for that, longing for the one thing we as women were placed on this Earth for. From the beginning of this world we were placed here with the potential for motherhood and when that opportunity evades us nothing can compare to the sense of loss you feel, the sense of loss I felt. Not very long ago I was reading a story in the Ensign titled "Faith and Infertility". Knowing I have my faith to cling to gives me some comfort in those moments of deep hardships and trials.

Here now it's Mothers Day and I not very long ago I was celebrating my "potential" motherhood, now today Bradford and I are completely happy to announce and I truly celebrating my first "real" Mothers Day!

We are completely excited and thrilled to be having our OWN baby! I am so excited but it still doesn't seem real to me. Having gone so long without it makes such good news seem unbelievable. I stare at my fridge everyday realizing that little peanut is mine and I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the struggles and tears I went through to get to this point. I know I am prepared more so now than I ever have been to have this baby and to love and care for it more than my own life. Of course Bradford is pretty dang excited to but I have commandeered this blog so his happiness will be expressed through me. Along with my happiness comes my hopes and prayers for those who struggled just like me for something as special at this. I know the Lord has his timeline and in His time we all will be blessed.

So until next time...bon voyage! The next update will probably be closer the the end of May with my 12 week appointment. WOO! HOO!