June = amazing

I would have to say that June is by far my favorite month of the year! Now I know some people who would think I'm crazy seeing as how I live in Arizona and June = HOT, but let me explain why I love June so much! First of all, I was born in June. I could stop there and that would be enough to make June a wonderful month! But there are still more reasons! When you hit June you know that summer has officially started! That means pool parties, lots of sun (who doesn't love the sun?!), BBQ's, water fun, and best of all: NO SCHOOL! (well at least for the kids, us adults tend to go to school at all times of the year). The summer equinox is in June, which means that June has the longest day of the year which equals more sunshine and more fun! Oh and I can't forget my second favorite reason to love June: June is when Jon and I got married for all time and eternity! You know the song from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, June Bride? "Oh they say when you marry in June, you're a bride, all your life." I love that movie and I love that song! I love celebrating my anniversary within a week of my birthday! I can't lie, June really is my favorite month!

Jon and I celebrated our second anniversary last week. It was wonderful! :) I love being married to such an amazing husband! He seriously is the BEST! These past two years have been amazing and I'm so excited to see what the rest of eternity brings! For our anniversary my parents watched Veja for us for the night. While baby free (well at least toddler free, baby #2 is kind of hard to leave with anyone but me right now), we went out to dinner (at Liberty market...our first time trying it) and a movie. We went and saw Men in Black 3. We absolutely loved it! Men in Black is such a big part of my childhood, I loved watching the third one and reliving so many memories. Afterwards we went home and watched MIB2 and then went to bed. It was amazing being able to sleep through the night without being woken up by Veja. We really need to get her sleeping through the night.

Today is my birthday and it has been amazing so far! :) First of all Jon surprised me with breakfast in bed, mmmmm....and he got me some beautiful flowers! My favorite surprise so far was coming home from my class and finding the house clean! He did the dishes for me and cleaned up the kitchen. He knows how to make me feel loved! I'm not sure what the rest of the day has in store for me, but I'm excited to find out. :)

Here's a quick update on the nursing program:
I got all my paperwork turned in, but I can't register until I get my level one fingerprint clearance card. I sent in my application for one way back in April...I keep expecting it to show up any day, but every day I just get disappointed. Keep your fingers crossed that it will come soon so that I can stop worrying about everything I need to do between now and September to get ready for nursing school. I have 2 classes left to take that are prerequisites for the 3rd block of the program (semester 3) one is anatomy and physiology 2 (which I'm trying really hard to have a good attitude about because I don't feel like I should have to take it, my anatomy and physiology classes at BYU should transfer no problem as being anatomy and physiology 1 and 2 here but they don't) and the other is microbiology. I decided to sign up and take microbiology this summer and started a couple of weeks ago. So far I'm doing really well in the class, thankfully! It has definitely given Jon and I a glimpse of what me being in nursing school is going to mean for us. We've got some adjustments to make, but we will survive. I'm glad I'm taking it now so that I don't freak out when nursing school starts. I know it's going to be hard, but I think it would have been harder if I had been completely out of school for the two years before. I'm still way excited, but it's a cautious excitement.

Placenta Previa...

So about 2 months ago we found out at our first ultrasound that I had a condition called placenta previa (the placenta was covering my cervix), meaning a natural birth was not an option. Well it took some time but I came to terms with it and had accepted that a c-section was the way our little Natalia is going to come into this world. Of course they wanted to do another ultrasound later on to check on things and make sure that a c-section is what we really needed to plan on. We went in for our second ultrasound on Wednesday (sorry, no pictures this time, Natalia wasn't very photogenic that day). Both Jon and I went in expecting things to be about the same if not exactly the same. We went into the room and were excited to see our little Natalia again (yes, she's still a girl). When the ultrasound technician got to where she was measuring the cervix I started paying even closer attention. Amazingly she moved to a completely different view to find the placenta! I was in shock! I didn't know what to think, I still didn't want to get my hopes up until the doctor told me herself that this was no longer a problem, but I was pretty sure what that meant. When we went back for the follow up the doctor told us just that! The placenta has moved and is no longer anywhere near my cervix! I had to ask to be sure, but we can even go back to plan A of having the baby at home with my mother-in-law delivering! We are so relieved! I feel so blessed to be alive at this time with modern medicine where we can know for sure if there are going to be major complications with delivery. Thank you for all the prayers that were sent our way these last couple of months. I know there were many, I can feel the affect of them. The Lord is truly blessing us and I feel so humbled, and grateful! This is what Kaleb told me this week in his email to the family: "That is so awesome that you don't have to get a c-section! The lord is really blessing you right now. =) It sounds like everything is working out well for you guys." He can see the ways the Lord is blessing us all the way from Paraguay!

Nursing School

Guess what! I finally got into the nursing program! :) I only had to wait two years...and who would have thought that in that time I would get married, and have two babies! I was just realizing today that by the time I finish in July of 2014 I'll have a almost 3 1/2 year old and an almost 2 year old! Crazy! But it is official! I'm going to start school in September at MCC!

My acceptance letter! Sorry it's sideways...I don't know why.

There are so many reasons why this program is perfect for me! One is that I'll finish by July of 2014 which means if Jon doesn't get into an Arizona dental school he'll only have to wait a year before starting at an out of state school. Perfect! I don't want to be the reason Jon delays his schooling. Yes, I want a degree, and I feel like I deserve one after a total of 5 1/2 years of school, but his education is more important than mine. Second reason: Orientation is September 18th and the first day of class is September 24th. This is MUCH better than the regular fall start. The first day of class for the regular fall semester is August 20th...a day after my due date! Granted I'm going to have a c-section so I know the baby will be here by then, but I need more time to recover and to spend with my babies before I have to leave them for school! And the last reason is that the program is a hybrid program. Meaning I'll only have to go to classes/clinicals 2 days a week and the rest of the class work will be online! How perfect is this?! Instead of leaving my babies 5 days a week I only have to leave them for 2. It's still going to be hard, and I'm going to have to be really disciplined in order to get all of my work done and to do well. But I honestly feel like the Lord is blessing me so much! It's like he inspired the nursing program people to decide to try out a late start program at the perfect time for me! I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn't start until January and then this amazing opportunity came through! I truly feel blessed!

Computers...

Jon got a new laptop over Spring Break! We were both really excited! He was excited because he would get a new laptop and stop having to use my old one that was slow...and did I mention old (I got it the summer of 2007, right before I left for BYU). And I was excited because I would finally have a computer at home again! I could do all the things I've been dying to do but couldn't because I didn't have a computer at home. Well as luck would have it, the very first day I had my computer at home while Jon was at school it fell off the desk and the screen broke! I was devastated! So I've been without a computer since then...until now! Jon decided that it would be cheaper to just take my broken screen off and attach it to an external monitor. Here are some pictures of my "new" ghetto desktop! :P

Can you see all the wires taped down to the back of my keyboard?

I like it! Sure it's no longer portable, but it takes up less room than an actual desktop PC.

In other news, Natalia is growing quite well! It's so much fun to be able to feel her moving inside of me! :) And now my tummy is definitely a pregnant belly and is sticking out. I can officially no longer button my jeans...but my belly is still too small for my maternity pants. So again, my belly band is my best friend! Here's a picture of me last week at 20 weeks (now I'm 21 weeks).

Drum roll please....

So we went to the doctor yesterday for an ultrasound. Yeah, that's right, we got to find out if baby number two is going to be a boy or a girl! We were pretty excited! It was lots of fun being able to see the baby! We got to have an ultrasound at 9 weeks with Veja which made everything more real right from the beginning. With this one it's taken me a little longer to really grasp the reality that I'm pregnant, despite the fact that I had morning sickness for the first couple of months and I now have an undeniably pregnant belly growing that I can't hide any more. The most exciting part is that I felt the baby for the first time a couple of weeks ago! :) I was holding Veja and rocking her to sleep when I felt some movement, like the baby was trying to say hello to it's big sister!

Are you dying to know what we're having yet?! Here are some pictures that we got of our baby:

And for the sake my baby's privacy I'll just tell you what it is! We're having another little girl! And yes, we've decided on a name (all we've been able to agree on are girl's names, go figure). Our next little baby will be Natalia Jean Zuniga. Yes, Natalia is another Slovak name. :) And Jean is a family name on my side. It's my grandma's middle name and the inspiration for my mom's name, Jeanele.

The doctor said that everything looks good, the baby is growing right on schedule and is healthy. However there is one problem...her placenta is covering my cervix, a condition known as placenta previa (click here to learn more about what this is and what it means). My heart dropped as soon as the doctor told me this because I knew right away that my plan of having this baby at home with my mother-in-law delivering was flying out the window. I also knew that this meant I will have to have a c-section. I've gone through a  lot of emotions since then...sadness because I don't get to deliver at home, scarred out of my mind, and just plain worry. I know everything is going to be OK though because I have the Lord on my side, He has comforted me to help me know that it is all alright. Not only do I have the Lord on my side, but I also have Jon by my side! I can do anything as long as my Jonathan is there by my side holding my hand! :) It will take some time to accept it all and really come to terms with it, but It will be OK and I will have to oportunity to VBAC for my next babies (which will be a little further apart than these first two :P ). Here are the pictures we got of my cervix and placenta, notice that it's the same view... (the first time the red flag went off for me). Don't ask me where the cervix ends and the placenta starts...your guess is as good as mine.

On a happier note, today is Veja's birthday! I can't believe it was a year ago today that we brought her into this world! She has brought us so much JOY this year that I can't even imagine my life without her! She is the sweetest little thing too! Yesterday after the doctor told me the news Veja reached for me, once in my arms she gave me the sweetest little hug and gave me a big kiss. She could sense that I was having a hard time and wanted to comfort me! What a sweetheart! She has the cutest little wave, it's more of a princess wave, I love it! She's learning how to blow kisses and to clap her hands. She'll give her little dolly loves and then hand it over to me so I can give it loves too. :) She loves to eat and is very much a social eater! Anytime anyone has food she doesn't beg for it, she demands we give her some! We've completely weaned her as well. Meaning no more nursing...I've come to terms with this seeing as how it has helped me to have so much more energy than when we were still nursing. Also Veja seems to enjoy eating even more than she enjoyed nursing. Those struggles are over for now. She adores her daddy and gets a huge smile on her face every time he enters the room. She's started to say "mama" and "dada", and sometimes even "daddy", but she doesn't say them very often. I'm convinced that "mom" means food to her. We are still rocking her to sleep every night, some nights I have a hard time and am ready to give up, but she's so sweet cuddling into me and playing with my hair that I quickly forget about it most days. We're working on getting her used to Jon being able to put her to sleep as well. We're going to have a birthday party for her on Saturday so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and blog about that. :)

Walking

So last week Veja decided that she did NOT want to crawl any more and that walking was SO much better. So now my baby girl, who is now 11 months old, is walking. She's starting to get pretty good too. I'm excited, but at the same time scared because now she is even more mobile which equals even more trouble. :)

Other baby news, I'm 15 weeks pregnant now, which means I'm into the second trimester, wahoo! I'm not feeling as sick and tired, which is good. I'm really enjoying it. Oh, and I'm "starting" to show. I say starting because only the kids, my little brother and sister-in-laws are the ones that bring it to my attention. Yes, Chaim, Jaedon, and Ariana have all called me fat...some even before I felt like I was starting to show. For some reason it's not quite as exciting the second time around. Maybe it's because I know what's coming, the huge belly and uncomfortableness. Or maybe it's because I was finally starting to feel like I was getting my pre-pregnancy belly back and now it's gone again. I don't know. But despite not being as excited, I am still very excited! :) It's all starting to become more and more real!

News!

There's a reason I haven't been keeping up to date on my blog...I've been busy, extra tired, and frankly a little sick in the mornings (and sometimes throughout the entire day)! Veja is going to be a big sister! :) Morning sickness has hit me a lot harder this time around and it's not as easy to deal with because I can't take care of my needs first. I found I have a lot more energy since I weaned Veja down to two times a day though. Veja is taking it very well and is absolutely LOVING eating big food! :) Our only issue is that we're working really hard on getting her to sleep all the way through the night. She's getting better but she was eating every 4 hours, day and night, and so we had a couple of hard nights. She's getting better now. She'll at least sleep until morning (she wakes up at least once anywhere between 3 and 6 in the morning) so I can't complain. I am due on August 19th. Veja and her little sibling will be 17 months apart! I'm excited! I'm still getting used to the fact that they'll be so close. I have to keep reminding myself that Veja WILL be older and will be able to do more on her own. I keep picturing her the size she is with a new little baby and start stressing out. We're really excited! :)