Catch-up: Part 3

November

November was a busy month with the start of the holidays. Cuyler began his new full time job, which was (and still is) a huge blessing in many ways. We were not planning on going anywhere for Thanksgiving, since Cuyler was working retail and would for sure have to work Black Friday. And we were unsure how much traveling we'd even be able to do for Christmas due to his work schedule as well. So... we were so happy to find out that with his new job he had Thanksgiving weekend off! :) Since nothing too exciting happened for the rest of the month, I'll skip straight to Thanksgiving.

We flew to San Jose on Wednesday evening to visit Cuyler's parents. Thursday morning the four of us drove down to San Luis Obispo where Cuyler's grandparents live. His aunt, uncle, and cousins were there as well and we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. We stayed down there until Saturday morning, and enjoyed shopping, good food, and lots of games with the family. It was a fun weekend and I really enjoyed getting to know Cuyler's family a little better.

Thanksgiving Day

Saturday morning we traveled back up to San Jose, and spent the rest of the weekend with Cuyler's parents. It was a happy holiday and I look forward to many more with the Meade and Sumi families :)


December

Again, December was a busy month with the holiday rush and all. At the beginning of the month I finished up another semester of grad school and was thrilled for a six week break.  During my last week of school, we also found out that we would be having a new little addition to our family in August. We were overjoyed to find out I was pregnant. Of course it was not long until the joy turned into morning sickness, which was unfortunate over the holidays, but very fortunate that I wasn't in school. Plus then I didn't gain any holiday pounds since I hardly ate anything, and much of what I did eat, I threw up.

We were excited for our first Christmas together and splurged on a tree and decorations for our house :) Here's a little glimpse of our first Christmas together...

Cuyler putting the star on the tree :)

(I've always needed a chair to star my trees... good thing I married such a tall man)

So I thought I had a picture of our tree with ALL the lights and with presents under, but I can't find one so apparently I never took one. Anyway, we traveled to visit my family for Christmas in southern California. We spent Christmas Eve with my Dad's side of the family, and Christmas day with my Mom's side of the family. It was so nice to get to see everyone. It was a rather strange Christmas however, since neither of my siblings (and their families) were home for the holidays. Plus having a boy there with me (Cuyler) made it a whole new experience. But it was so much fun and we were able to really enjoy time with my parents. We were fortunate that Cuyler was able to get a whole week of work off, so we were able to spend the New Year celebrations with my family as well. We had a rocking dance party at my grandparent's house on New Year's Eve. Oh and I had my very first New Year's midnight kiss of my life, so that was romantic ;) New Year's day was spent at my grandparent's house as well, with lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was a really fun trip and I was grateful we were able to take it. Well that leads us to...

January

January was holiday recovery time with back to work for both of us, and back to school for me a few weeks later. January actually ended up being a rather difficult month for our new little family, with the biggest trial we've faced yet... something I'm not sure we even knew we were capable of handling. In early January we went to the doctor's for our first ultrasound appointment. I was about 9 weeks pregnant at this point, and we were so excited to see our baby for the first time. However, what we didn't expect is that this would be the only time we would see our precious little one. While doing the ultrasound it was discovered that there was no heartbeat and we would be miscarrying the baby. We were grateful this was discovered at the appointment so that I was able to have everything removed surgically in order to avoid the physical effects of miscarriage. However, the emotional pain of losing our baby was not anything that could be healed by doctors or medication. We are so grateful for the love and support from family, friends, and ward members (and of course the love and comfort we felt from our Heavenly Father) that embraced us during the difficult weeks and months ahead. We were blessed with phone calls, text messages, emails, cards, meals, and listening ears, and thank each of you who contributed to that out pour of blessings. I am especially grateful to my amazing husband who was so extremely supportive of me as I grieved, even though I know that he was hurting too. I feel so blessed to have such great love and support.

our sweet baby

February

Well February was basically a continuation of all of the January happenings. I was immersed in the rigors of my last semester of grad school and my internship. Cuyler was working full-time and going to school part time. Needless to say, we were busier than ever.

We had a few special treats in the month of February to spice up our busy lives. One was, of course, Valentine's Day. This was actually our first Valentine's Day together and Cuyler made it super special. First, he surprised me at school with a vase full of roses and then took me to lunch. I was not expecting it at all, so it was a perfect surprise. That evening he took me out to dinner at Macaroni Grill (one of my favorite places), and gave me a sweet card with an "I owe you" to take me shopping for a new dress (and when we finally went shopping he picked out a really cute one by the way). I'm sure I did nice things for him too, but I can't remember. Plus his sweet things totally outweighed mine, so mine aren't even that important. Anyway, it was a wonderful Valentine's day... my best yet actually ;)

Also, in February we had a few special visitors. Cuyler's grandparents took a west coast vacation from their home in New York and were so kind to visit us as part of that trip. They spent a couple days here in Arizona, and although our schedules were pretty packed with work and school, we were able to have a couple of nice dinners with them. It was so wonderful to see them and visit with them. We love you Grandma and Grandpa Meade!