Interesting Year So Far

Austin and I usually have a pretty low key life for the most part. We go to work, Austin goes to school, we fulfill our church callings, and look forward to the weekends that we can spend with friends and family. This year started out just the same until about March. We hit a few little bumps in the road.  After we rang in the new year we celebrated Austin's first day of his last semester of college... (that is for his bachelors degree haha he's still thinking he wants to get his masters.)

What a fun day for him though, I was so excited. 


 In February we celebrated a typical Valentine's day with dinner and a movie, lots of family birthdays and get togethers with friends.   This is a cupid sign Blakey gave me from wood creations for Christmas and I painted it and added the extras.

 Then came March haha......  Austin's cute Grandpa Braithwaite passed away from cancer on his wife's Leap Year Birthday which she only gets every 4 years.

 He was such a wonderful man and we all looked up to him and miss him a lot. In his obituary there was some confusion and it said there were 3 grandkids on the way... but only 2 that everyone knew of. We thought it would be funny if I was pregnant and nobody knew.
              About a week later, after 6 months of trying we found out we were pregnant and were so excited!! KEEP READING THOUGH, THE HAPPINESS GOES AWAY :(

 Then just Two days later.... we found out we'd miscarried at 6 weeks. This is something I think all girls fear, and yet they are SO common. We knew when we started trying to have a baby that miscarriage was extremely common, and we'd had experiences in our own families and friend group. So it wasn't too big of a shock to us, but it still isn't a fun thing. Our baby was due Nov. 8th which if you've ever talked to me about baby's FALL is my dream season to have a baby haha The Ballif Family has 0 Birthdays in November so I always tell my grandparents we'll try and get them a November baby. So that was kinda a bummer, because it would have been just perfect. And our sister in law Tricia is pregnant and was due just 2 weeks before us, so we would have had best buddy cousins too. Even though a miscarriage is not a fun thing, Austin and I feel very fortunate for the way it happened. I was able to pass it all by myself, didn't have to have the doctor do anything, and we were able to find out so early on in the pregnancy. I also had very minimal pain, and with us just finding out we were pregnant we hadn't gone in and seen a heart beat or anything yet. My heart goes out to women who miscarry after hearing the heartbeat and being more attached. That must be extremely difficult.  I hadn't been sick at all or felt any symptoms of pregnancy yet. We know things could have been much worse, because we've seen it first hand in our own family.  Our miscarriage is the 4th in a row in the Garner Fam. My sister had 3 in a row two of which were past 14 weeks and she had to go in and deliver the fetus, one by c-section. So when people tell us we are doing well, we tell them we were very lucky and are grateful for how it happened. Moving forward we know there is still a chance we'll have miscarriages again, but pray that we can have healthy children. The doctor said we are good to start trying immediately and as far as she can see there is no reason I can't have a healthy baby, which is very comforting. One thing about miscarriage that is really strange... is finding out and then deciding who or how you're going to tell people. Do you just tell people close to you, so they know.... or do you tell everyone to save them the embarrassment when they ask you why you don't have kids yet??? That was one of the weirdest things for us haha I didn't want people to feel stupid when they'd ask me and I tell them I actually just miscarried haha maybe that was just how I felt. Another thing I noticed after miscarrying was how many pregnant people there are... I swear everywhere I turned someone was pregnant, which I was happy for them but just makes you realize you aren't pregnant. One of the hardest things was the day we were at the doctors office finding out I was miscarrying. We were sitting in the lobby at Circle of Life waiting for my awesome doctor Machel Knowles (LOVE HER) but we were sitting next to this girl and what seemed to be her boyfriend, and they had to be 15 or 16 and she was as pregnant as can be... just crazy how it works out that people who don't want to have kids yet get pregnant without trying and others have a hard time having babies. But I just thought to myself, that is their trial and this is ours. Heavenly Father knows what he's doing! Also, the other day I saw a girl that had to be 8 months pregnant and she was smoking a cigarette!!! Made me so mad haha

                but on to some of the positives and fun things of this year. Austin and I got to babysit my brother Brad's old english bull dog, Guss for 2 weeks. We had so much fun. I'm a dog lover, and Austin is.... well not ha ha But I think Gussy really made Austin realize that he does in fact like dogs. Guss is so cute, and he's such a good dog. It was so fun to come home from work and have him standing at the top of the stairs just shaking his little butt cuz he was so excited to see ya. I'd also find him cuddled up on Austin's lap a lot, but for some reason he did not want to cuddle with me. Every time I'd get home Austin would say how calm and cuddly Guss had been, but as soon as I'd walk in the door he just wanted to play and wrestle. It was a lot of fun watching him though, and we'd love to do it anytime.
               We also decided after waking up two different times in the middle of the night soaking wet from our water bed...  to spend some of our tax return this year instead of saving it. Austin let me re-do our whole bedroom. I love everything about it!

 These are two before pictures

 We got our awesome bedroom set at Knights furniture on Riverdale road.... but I would never purchase anything from them again.. in case you guys were wondering haha we picked out our bedroom set and paid for in on President's Day (February) then they said it would be delivered in 2 weeks so we drained the waterbed, sold it on KSL, cleared out our entire bedroom, painted the walls, and got everything ready, meanwhile sleeping in our living room on an air mattress. A few days before we were expecting to get our bedroom set, Austin called Knights to make sure what day they'd be coming and they said our stuff was all on back order and would be another 2 weeks..... REALLY... were you gonna call and let us know that??? Nope they were actually just gonna let us wait and wonder and weren't gonna say anything until we called them. So after finding out our new date of delivery we began waiting.. and waiting... so Austin randomly called on day to see how it was coming and they realized they didn't even order all of our stuff! Annoying! Needless to say we finally got our bedroom set the beginning of April after waiting more than a month. But we love it and just know not to go to Knight's anymore. We did have one great salesman Dave who was great to work with and helped us out in the end. But overall we did not have a good experience, and I'm not usually one to talk bad about companies or experiences we've had, but we don't want our friends and family having to go through this same stuff. :)

Fresh Paint

                                                                       New Bed!!

                                                  dresser and crafts I've made to go with it

                                                             Just need to add some pictures

                      On April 20th Austin graduated from Weber State University with his bachelors degree in Business Administration!!! I am so proud of Austin and all his hard work. He spent a lot of hours doing homework and studying, and I'm so grateful he chose to go to college and further his career in hopes of being able to support our family. I'm also excited to see my husband again... or at least be able to talk to him and not have him be studying. If any of you know anybody hiring he is on the lookout for a job now... like every other graduate, we'd be happy to have Austin hired haha We were able to have a fun day at his graduation though. Me, my Mom, Grandpa & Grandma Ballif, Austin's parents, and sister Aleece all attended his graduation, followed by a delicious lunch at Texas Roadhouse.

Aust and his parents

The whole gang

I had a hard time deciding what to get Austin for graduation because he never wants anything... but I decided it was time he had his own set of golf clubs. My family and Austin's friends are all big into golf and he just hasn't loved golfing because he didn't have his own clubs and has to borrow peoples and didn't think that was fun. So I decided it was time, now that he's going to be in the business world and you hear all the time about "business lunches" that are actually a day of golfing, that is was time he had clubs of his own. So with the help of my good friend Blake Holbrook, I purchased a set of Callaway's used by Blake haha and my parents who got Austin a golf bag, and his family who was generous and gave him money.. Austin is now a golfer.... or at least on the road to becoming one :) (pictures to come soon)


                  This is the longest post I think I've ever done. Wow! last but not least Austin is playing on a mens soccer league with his buddies right now and a few weeks ago he got kicked in the calf as he was stepping down and this is what happened. He's hardly been able to walk for about 2 1/2 weeks luckily nothing was broken just a strained muscle.  He is eager to get back out on the soccer field.


                                       Austin's hurt leg

                                           and fat foot

We were also able to take a road trip this past week and visit my sister and Austin's brother's families in Arizona. Me, Austin, my Mom, Austin's Mom,  sister Aleece, and her 3 kids made the 14 hour drive to Arizona. We dropped my mom off with Shannon, spent 2 days with Austin's family playing games, relaxing, and shopping. Then went to Shannon's for 2 days where we went to an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game which was a blast, watched Mitch play some baseball, shopped, relaxed, and had lots of fun. Then the last day Austin's fam came over to Shannon's and we had a swimming/bbq party with the families all together. It was a blast and we can't wait to do it again. This time driving seemed to go by a lot quicker then our drives in the past.... not sure why, but we had a lot of fun and love the chance to go to Arizona. Not sure why, but I didn't take any pictures the whole trip. Bummer

   Austin and I look forward to all the events 2012 will bring. We're praying for new jobs and babies!!! Hope you all are having a good year too. Thanks for stopping by!