Terry Reunion

July 15th and 16th we were up in Idaho for the Terry family reunion! It was a blast getting to see everyone again! :) When we got there we went down this huge slip 'n slide set up on a hill. It was tons of fun! Sadly I didn't get any pictures this year. Jon and I even to Veja down a couple of times! She didn't mind it until we splashed water on her trying to stop. The next day my cousin Drew took Jon, Justin, Brandon, Luke, Veja, and I out on the river and the boys wakeboarded, surfed, and even got a little tubing in. Here are some pictures I took

 Veja sleeping on the boat...she really didn't like the life jacket I made her wear.

 Jon wakeboarding

 Brandon wakeboarding

 She didn't like wearing the jacket...but she did like chewing on it!

 Brandon surfing

 Luke had fun on the boat

 Justin surfing

 Justin crashing...

 He did pretty good! He let go of the rope and road the wake 

 Jon surfing

 they convinced Luke to go out on the tube.

 I think he enjoyed it

 And then Drew showed Luke what he wasn't going to do with him....

On the drive back home I got a water bottle. Veja wasn't very happy to be in the car again, but she liked the water bottle. She got mad at me when I put it on the floor, and then instantly calmed down when I brought it back up for her. She's so funny! And I'm absolutely LOVING watching her learn how to interact with the world around her! :)

We're so happy to be back home finally! I don't think we'll be going on a long trip for a while...
Veja was so good in the car, but she was definitely done with it by the time we got home!

Cardon Reunion and the beginning of July

Here I am having to catch up again! Jon, Veja, and I went to Utah for the Cardon family reunion (Jon's mom's family) June 30-July 3. The theme of the reunion was "Be Amazing" and we had an Amazing Race! It was the funnest idea for a reunion that I have ever heard of! Ever seen the show "The Amazing Race"? Take that and modify it for a family. We split up into teams with each sibling and their spouse being the head of the team. So we had 10 teams! It was a ton of fun! Each team was given a clue and then we had to follow that clue to go to the next site where we would have to preform a "task" in order to get our next clue. I had a ton of fun and really enjoyed getting to know all of the Cardon's. This was the first time I had met all of them aside from those who came to our wedding...but to be honest I really don't remember ANYONE I met that day. Let's just say I was slightly distracted and there were a LOT of people there!

Here's a picture of Veja in a hat and her reunion shirt

Here we are at the Bean Museum at BYU. One of the places we had to go. We had to find the answers to a bunch of questions by going around the museum. 

On Saturday night (July 2) we went to Jon's cousin Brandon's place and hung out with him and his wife, Justin and Chelsea, and Ben and Heidi. We even walked down to the Stadium to listen to a little bit of Brad Paisley during the Stadium of Fire. We headed back before the fireworks began and sat and watched  them on the Missionary Field across from the MTC. Veja really enjoyed the fireworks.

Grandma and Grandpa gave us a gift for Veja. :) This is how Veja got her first baby doll. She's still not quite sure what to do with it, but she's pretty darn cute! She'll appreciate it more as she gets bigger.

We drove home on the 4th of July. Luckily we left early enough that we were able to get home at a good hour. We showed up just as my family was putting dinner away. Then we headed off down the road a little bit to watch fireworks. It was a great show! I was so happy to be able to see a whole fireworks show! It's been at least 5 years since I've seen one on the 4th of July! Veja was tired, but she still enjoyed the show.

Jon hiked Mt Whitney (the tallest mountain in the continental United States) with my dad, Brandon, Shad, Savio, Eric Hakes, Rachel Hakes, Ben, Josh, Kyle, and Nicole June 27-29. Sadly they didn't end up making it to the summit because of 80 mph winds! Jon was excited to go, but he wasn't excited to leave Veja and I...especially Veja. Here he is trying to put her in his backpack so he can "take her with him."

She was OK with it until Jon actually put the pack on...then she started complaining!

Update....finally!

OK so basically I'm fired. I haven't posted anything for 3 months! But hey...in my defense the last time I posted was the day I went into labor and had a beautiful baby girl the next day! And since then she's taken up all of my time! I could complain, but that wouldn't accurately describe my feelings. The fact is that I absolutely LOVE being a mom!!! It is the best thing ever!

So I guess the logical place to start on my update would be talking about my labor a delivery a little bit. So here we go! On Monday, March 21st at about 6 PM my water broke! I had finished up working with Jaron (my brother-in-law for those who don't know him) and Jon and I were going to go say hi to my family before heading home when...duh da da dun...my water broke. As soon as I stood up after getting out of the car I was completely soaked! Now for all you mothers and future mothers I have a little bit of advice...don't wish for your water to break to go into labor...it is the most uncomfortable thing ever! I was constantly wet the entire time I was in labor. Labor is uncomfortable enough on its own. Needless to say, we didn't end up going home that day and just stayed at my parents waiting for my labor to progress enough to go to the hospital. That happened around 11 or 11:30 that night. When we checked in I was dilated to a 6 and 90% effaced (I think that's what I remember at least). So here I was in high hopes that it wouldn't take hours to dilate the rest of the 10 cm, but of course I was wrong! I contracted through the night, but around 4 or 5 in the morning my contractions started getting further apart so they decided to put me on petocin. Yeah...it was great fun! They started on the lowest dose, 1cc/hr I believe and only got up to 5cc/hour. It helped to get my contractions working harder, and closer together, but not like I was "supposed" to be. Anyway, at 11 I was ready to push...but I wasn't fully dilated yet so they wouldn't let me. Finally at 12 they did! :) That made me happy! Veronika Ann Zuniga came into this world at 1:52pm on March 22, 2011! She was 8 lbs and 15 oz (but that was after she had her first poop on me...so I'm 99.9% sure that had they weighed her right away she would have been a whole 9 lbs baby!), was 20 1/2 in long and as beautiful as can be! Being a mom has been everything I could have ever hoped for and more! I absolutely love it! It helps that she is the best baby ever! She is always so happy and has the prettiest smiles! :) Here are some pictures from the first 3 months of her life:

Veja and I at the hospital

I wore this dress when I was a baby! :) It's fun to be able to put Veja in it too!

Veja in her blessing dress on her blessing day

Veja and I watching uncle Luke play T-ball

She loves to chew on her hands! I think it's adorable.

Caiden came over to play and he kept grabbing Veja's hand! It was so cute! I had to take some pictures! :)

Veja's beautiful smile! She's so CUTE!!

She fit in the glove quite well!

Veja's first D-backs game

My grandma gave this to her, the best part is that it is so Grandma Roberts' style that you know who got her the outfit by just looking at it! I think she's quite adorable in it too!

It says "Slovak princess"

One of Jon's mission companions gave it to us

39 weeks

So guess what...I made it to 39 weeks of pregnancy...and still counting! Jon and I were really hoping that Veja would decide to come during spring break. But as you can tell she didn't. I've decided that she's determined to come on her due date. She's quite stubborn already...which is no surprise seeing as how she's both a Roberts and a Zuniga. Jon and I may get ourselves in trouble with our stubbornness. :P

This is me 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant.

Am I any bigger than the last picture I posted?

Picture update

Here I am 35 weeks pregnant and at the zoo.

Luke's preschool had a field trip and my mom invited me to come along. Note to self: don't go to the zoo when 35 weeks pregnant...especially with your 4 1/2 year old brother...you'll get worn out LONG before he does! I still had a ton of fun even though I was dead tired the rest of the day...and part of the next.

The flowers Jon got me for Valentine's day! :) I absolutely love them! The best part is that they won't die (unless I kill them by neglect) after a week of sitting in a vase. :) I love the balloon too!

At my baby shower. Just one of the MANY cute things I got for my little girl! I seriously can't wait for her to come so that I can dress her up in all these cute outfits! I have accepted the fact that my baby girl will be cuter than me. It's just a fact of life. :P

37 weeks 5 days

Dear Veja,

Your dad is getting pretty excited for you to get here. He keeps telling you to come and telling me to let you come. But I guess it's just not time yet because you're not here yet. He's been especially excited since my Dr's appointment last week where we found out that I'm 1cm dilated and 80% effaced. You're getting ready to come I can tell. All those Braxton-Hicks contractions are really starting to hurt my ribs (depending on how I'm sitting). I'm trying my hardest to get everything ready for you to come (which is making your dad even more excited because that's an early sign of labor). I've put all of your new clothes away only to find out that you only have 3 outfits that will fit you right after you come. But don't worry, we won't let you go without clothes! I can't wait to be your mommy! It's still so amazing to feel you every time you move! I love you so much and can't imagine loving you more...but I know that the moment I see you for the first time that love will expand times 100! I don't know what you're waiting for, but come please (as long as you're ready...which I believe you are)! :) Your daddy and I want to meet you and love and cuddle you to our heart's content! Hopefully we will get to meet you within the next two weeks!

Love,

Mommy