Real Life Tangled Moment

This has been on my bucket list the moment I found out that it existed and it exceeded my expectations more than I could ever have imagined. Someone jumped the gun and lit a lantern a few minutes before they were supposed to, but that was the moment the magic began. The single glowing lantern against the night sky was the most beautiful thing. Then one by one lanterns began to fill the sky. I feel like as each one went up my smile just grew bigger and bigger. I was living a fairytale! The coziness and magic just filled my whole being, like sunshine just beamed into my body. If you haven't done this, do it. I had no idea how amazing it would be and it was so worth it.

Birth Story

So anyone who was around me throughout my pregnancy knew I was FREAKED OUT OF MY MIND about becoming a mom. I've always wanted to be a mom. The second Ryan and I got married all I wanted was babies, but once I actually got pregnant for some reason reality set in and I was soo scared. Just being completely responsible for another human being's survival...my brain almost exploded every day! But, the first time I felt her kick...it hit me...having a child is literally the most amazing thing I could do with my life. Now, don't get me wrong, the whole thing still seemed daunting, but at the same time SO exciting. Little by little I feel like I got to know my little Rosie while she was growing in my belly. I don't know how people can talk about pregnancy like it's a normal thing because I seriously NEVER got used to it. Every day it just blewww my mind that I literally was growing a human inside my body...like this little alien was just living off of me! IT'S CRAZY!!! And they start out so tiny tiny tiny! As she started to dance more and more in my tummy I felt more and more connected to her. She was my little creation! My body was creating a person! I'm telling you I know I sound crazy repetitive, but it was a HUGE deal to me! Even thinking about it now truly makes me feel crazy! It's SO AMAZING! Heavenly Father is just really amazing.

My pregnancy all in all was pretty blissful. I know a lot of moms are going to hate me for saying that, but man I just got really lucky. I'm counting my blessing on this one because I have a feeling karma will set in on the next one :) Up until week 38 of my pregnancy I honestly never really believed I was pregnant. I had energy, I wasn't uncomfortable, I LOVED being pregnant. But, this week...week 38 I started to feel it. I just felt huge. I was ready for Rosie to make her way out of my belly. I was just tired and my belly was just so heavy! I was at my parents home in Santa Barbara at this point and I would literally go in the pool and float every day...and I really mean every single day...because my tummy was so heavy! And man, for any moms who are nearing the end of their pregnancies, the pool is the most enchanting place. It like seriously heals your soul. You'll feel like a cloud. Go float. So, anyway, I was just feeling big and my feet started to swell a little, and swelling doesn't make anyone feel dainty that's for sure. So I was ready, but since it was my first EVERYONE was telling me, don't get your hopes up, it's most likely to be late...I wanted to fall over every time I heard that.

July 2nd, 11 days before my due date, I was on my way to my normal prenatal check up appointment and I got this super intense backache. It was only there for a few seconds and then it subsided. I didn't mention the back ache at my appointment just because I figured it was just my body saying that my belly was too heavy for my back or something. I really didn't think much of it. Then on my way home from the doctor, the back ache came again. I got home to Ryan and of course I just complained about how big I was feeling and how my body was done being pregnant. But it was just the usual end of pregnancy stuff, no way was I anticipating that I was going into labor.

The next morning I went to Costco with Ryan, my sister Kim and my brother-in-law Sam. I was just throwing things in the cart lifting this and that (I never was very good about the not lifting heavy things rule). But, every now and then this STUPID back ache would flare up again! I started to tell me sister about them and she mentioned that they might be contractions...I told her there's no way because they are way less painful than I would expect contractions to be and plus they were in my back! Then she explained to me what her contractions felt like...like it's more of a radiation pain that a pulling or ache. I told her that's kind of what they felt like, but I still didn't believe they were contractions, they just weren't dramatic enough! She decided to time them just in case. So about every seven minutes they would come...I still didn't' believe it. So I went on with my day as usual! Ryan went to his house to hang out with his Dad and I went with my sister to help decorate my cousin Denise's house. The back aches persisted and got to about five minutes apart. (Kim still timing them because I was still in disbelieve), which is when the doctor told me to head to the hospital, but I just wasn't convinced. In my mind contractions that were five minutes apart had to be way more painful, especially because my doctor said I wouldn't be able to talk or walk through them and I was able to do both!

So, I went on with my day. Eventually we made our way home. I floated for a little bit, but the backaches were ruining it for me. So I got out just sat on our back patio where my sisters, Cub and Kim, and my mom were sitting and chatting. Soon it became all of them teaming up on me trying to convince me to go to the hospital. I decided to call Ryan and see what he thought. His immediate reaction was, "Let's go to the hospital!" But our hospital was 40 minutes away so I didn't want to have to make the whole trip down there to just find out that I'm a sissy and the back pain is just a normal pregnancy thing. So it became him saying, "If you don't think it's bad enough, then we don't have to go." So of course my pride kicks in, and I decide that we shouldn't go. Ryan then texts me a few minutes later saying. "Let's go have a baby!" And then calls me trying to convince me that we should just go and if we get turned away we can just make an event of it and go out to dinner and what not. So much what him letting me decide... hahaha

I finally give in. We put our hospital bag in the car and head off. In my mind I was 100% sure we were going to be sent home so on the way down all I thought about was where we were going to eat after because at this point I realized I hadn't eaten all day. So we get to the hospital. We don't bring anything in just because we don't want to have to bring it all out and we make our way up to the delivery room. I get in there and these two sweet little nurses start to take care of me. They measure me and said I was dilated to a four. So...backaches=back labor. I didn't have any in the front ever! How was I supposed to know they were contractions! No one told me it might be in just my back! They didn't tell me anything more, but they did bring me some food, which was nice. Then they just starting taking all the regular vital tests. We still didn't know if they were going to keep us or not. At this point both Ryan's and my phone had died so Ryan ran down to the car to get the phone charger because of course of families were wanting minute by minute updates. While he was gone the doctor came in, this is three minutes after the first nurse measured me. My doctor measures me and says the nurse measured wrong and I was already to a 6.5. I kept asking them if I should plan on staying or not and by this time I finally got an answer. I was admitted. And my doctor said, "This is going to go real fast." Thank HEAVENS for Ryan and my family for making me go to the hospital! So my doctor broke my water and two more nurses came into room and helped get me all hooked up. This is when Ryan finally made it back into the room and when he had left nothing was really happening so when he walked in he was kind of freaking out, thinking something was wrong since there were a million things going on and a bunch of people in the room! He was like..."So are we staying?!" haha a definite yes. So after I got all hooked up we kind of just hung out waiting for the contractions to get crazier. They were still all in my back and still not very painful. I just kept thinking, this can't be what everyone is freaking out! It's not even that bad!

Soon I threw up everything I ate and then all the sudden my contractions started to hurt reallll bad. Now, I understood what everyone was talking about. I had been in the hospital for about two hours by now and was now dilated to an 8.5. Contractions were getting pretty crazy so I finally requested the epidural (I was planning on getting it the whole time, I just was waiting till it was bad enough to justify...pride ya know? :) I had to wait about 30 minutes for the epidural and that is when it finally got real hard. Ryan loves to tell everyone that I got mean in this 30 minutes because there was one point where he was telling me a joke, but I couldn't focus on what he was saying because of the pain so I said, "hold on one sec" literally probably calmer than I ever have. I was proud of myself for staying pleasant. So then my epidural doc came in and I told him immediately when he walked in that he was my best friend. He said "Just wait 15 minutes and we'll really be best friends then." Haha I got the epidural and DANG that was the best decision I ever made. As soon as it set in I was in heaven. Seriously it was bliss! We were cracking jokes with the nurse, just hanging out, telling stories. It was seriously a fun time! They give you this clicker that you're supposed to click if you can still feel pain, but for some reason I thought you were supposed to push it to maintain the epidural not intensify it, so I may have clicked it one too many times because I seriously couldn't feel a thing. Haha WHOOPS! But of course I wasn't mad!

So we hung out for about a half hour and then our nurse said it was pushing time! Now since I pressed that button too many times...pushing was interesting to say the least. I could not tell what I was doing, but apparently I was doing it right! It was probably about 10:30pm at this point on July 3rd and as much as Ryan loves America and it would have been amazing for him to have had Rosie born on the fourth, I did not want her to have the fourth as her birthday. I just wanted her to have her own special day so people would celebrate her and not the country with a side of her. Ryan agreed, but also would have been proud to have a patriot baby, so either was a win for him. I pushed for a little over an hour and I asked my nurse if we could get her out before the fourth! She said if that's what I wanted we were going to make it happen! So 11:48pm on July 3, 2015, 12 minutes before the Fourth of July my perfect angelic little miss Rosalie Jean Kimball made her debut. Weighing in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and 20.75 inches long, she was perfect. The cord was wrapped once around her neck, which Ryan didn't even tell me till the next day because the doctor got it off so fast it didn't even seem like a deal, but other than that her delivery was PERFECT! There are non-horrific labors! She was angelic and amazing and surprisingly so cute! She didn't look like a squished grandpa like I though she would, she just looked really Asian hahaha. After they got her all cleaned up they laid her on me and Ryan and I were in complete shock. We couldn't believe our eyes! We literally created a human and she was here! I've never felt more fulfilled in my entire life. She was everything I dreamed of and so so so much more. I, to this day, cannot believe that I got so lucky. I'm so blessed and so eternally grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with this sweet, perfect child. There are no words to describe the joy. I love you sweet Rosalie Jean.

Sad she wasn't a fourth baby...

Graduation Time!

So my diploma just came in the mail last week and I never anticipated how good that would feel. I'M OFFICIALLY FREE!!! Walking across that stage was quite an incredible feeling (I was the only one that couldn't handle it to the point of throwing my arms in the air a few times--I was feeling wayy too much joy to contain it.) It's the strangest feeling in the world seeing everyone go back to school this fall and I'm just chilling with my BABY!! Ahh it's so amazing. To all those who are still in it, it's worth it, but DANG you will feel good when you're done :) BYU was incredible. I'm obsessed with all of my classmates and teachers and it honestly was a magical institution to be a part of. Now I will enjoy my homework free evenings squishing my chubby baby and endure the occasional nightmare that I still have homework...But I'll enjoying the waking up part.

YAY FOR COLLEGE!! 

6 months preggo with little Rosalie :)

Obviously I had to.

My dope brother Jack.

My sweet parents...the reason I've made it this far in life.

Mount Rushmore Patriots

This was actually from last year and I never ended up posting it, but it's pretty funny how we ended up doing this so I though I'd share it anyway even though it's wayy outdated now. 

Tyler (Ryan's brother) called Ryan up I believe it was a Wednesday and asked if we had wanted to ever visit Mount Rushmore, Ryan being the patriot he is, of course said yes. So they started to try and plan when they were going to make the trip and after trying a few dates and not having them work out, Tyler suggested...how about Friday? And Ryan's response was... why not! So two days later we ventured to good old South Dakota and saw the lovely Mount Rushmore...it was much smaller than we had anticipated, but still pretty dang incredible., We then visited a little diner where the waitress was a little buzzed for sure and slightly hitting on Ryan and Tyler (she gave us a discount so obviously it was worth it :). She said all her friends call her "Dakota Deb!" She was the perfect gem. Then we went to a water hole called "The Hippy Hole" which was this little waterfall and pond set back a few miles in the middle of this crazy forest. We did some rock jumping and some swimming and then hiked on back out. But on our way out we realized there was a bunch of poison oak everywherrrre and Ryan and I are both deathly allergic. So we go to their little gas station and got some soap and then we found another little lake/pond and had to scrub ourselves down (sorry environmentalist :/) Once we were all clean we were on our way back home! It was quite the 36 hours.

San Fran

Sooo I'm going to be super annoying right now. I have about one million draft posts that I just never got around to actually posting so bear with me as I play a little catch up :)

Back in February we went out to San Francisco for Ryan's best buddy Fletch's wedding and had the most amazing time.  I was only four months pregnant at the time...so weird to think that I used to be pregnant now that I'm not. We just did all the classic tourist stuff, but Ryan was OBSESSED with Sausalito. Him and boats...there's so much love there. 

One of Ryan's punny snaps...I had to include it.

Fletch and Ryan just being made for each other.

Bumpdate: 36 Weeks!

How far along are you: 36 Weeks!

Size: Honeydew (4.2-5.8 pounds)

Cravings: I don't think it's a real craving, but blackberries and quesadillas (not together) have been hitting the spot lately!

Nauseated: Nope. Luckily I never really had to endure the nauseous stuff!

Sleep: Oh sleeping has just barely gotten rough. It's probably bad that I'm writing today because up until this point sleeping has been pretty breezey besides the having to pee every few hours. But, last night I could not get comfortable on my side so I had to sleep in a chair and I woke up so sore. I have a feeling sleeping is only downhill from here.

Shopping: I pretty much have everything now at least for when she's born. I now am just searching for cute little bows! I love the knot bows, but I'm just too lazy to make them so I've been finding cute ones here and there!

Maternity clothes: Dresses are my jam. They always have been, but I pretty much wear nothing else now. I mostly rotate between a few of the most comfortable so don't judge me if you see me wearing the same outfit again! 

Nursery: We are moving a month after the baby is born so I haven't been able to set up a nursery per say, but we have everything ready for her! And once we get home I'm sure the nursery will be the first thing moved in. :)

Best pregnancy moment: I just love feeling her move! We went to see Jurassic World and at every loud part it was like a earthquake in my tummy! It's the best feeling in the world. It just makes it feel like we're hanging out!

Most nervous about: I think I'm most nervous about just labor in general. For a while I just didn't think about it, but now knowing that I will be going through it in just a couple of weeks... it gives me shivers! I'm also a little nervous about breastfeeding...I've just heard wayy too many horror stories.

Looking forward to: I'm SO excited to see Rosie's sweet little face! I want to see what she has from both me and Ryan and just to be able to look at her and know she's mine! I feel like that will be the craziest/most amazing feeling in the world!!

The Classic Pregnancy Post...

I thought it may be time to do the classic pregnancy questions post...

How far along are you: 16 Weeks

Size: Avocado (4.6 inches/3.5 ounces)

Cravings: None! I haven't had any all pregnancy...I kinda wish I did just so I could have an excuse to eat all of the terrible things I want to :)

Nauseated: Nope! I have been so lucky. In the first little while I had to snack every couple hours or else I'd get a little nauseous, but like barely. I haven't been sick at all! Sometimes I really forget that I'm pregnant.

Sleep: I have the CRAZIEST dreams!! Seriously when I wake up I feel like my brain has been working out all night. And my dreams range from running through cotton candy fields to hiding from crazy people...My brain is just having a ball up there!

Shopping: I am obsessed with everything girly it's killing me. We've gone shopping a few places and I've bought some pretty incredible outfits. Old Navy had a 50% off sale...hellloooo obviously I bought one thousand things. 

Maternity clothes: I just bought the most amazing dresses from ASOS and they're the first maternity clothes I've bought. The floral dress in the pic above is the most amazing find! It's just stretchy and amazing and it feels like I'm not wearing anything...it's a magical thing.

Nursery: I have decided that I want watercolors to decorate her nursery so I've been collecting adorable little sayings and what not and I'm obsessed.

Best pregnancy moment: Seeing the baby in our gender ultrasound. Seeing the little nose and legs and having it look like a real baby! I just can't believe she's really in there! I was pretty much yelling with excitement. It was an incredible feeling.

Most nervous about: Being a mom! I just can't believe that I'm actually going to be a mom! There are so many things to think about! Now don't get me wrong I'm so excited, but watching my mom, who just is a master of all things and then thinking about trying to do that myself...just a little overwhelming.

Looking forward to: Feeling her kick! I'm so excited to actually feel her! Right now it just still feels like a dream that's too good to be true and it doesn't seem real! I'm so excited to feel her moving.

Her Name...

(A little print I ordered for our nursery from Little Emma's Flowers)

If we had a boy, we knew exactly what the name would be, but we were more iffy on the girl name. We went into it thinking Elle would be the name, but there was something about it that just wasn't quite cozy enough. I just couldn't wrap my heart around it so we kept brainstorming...You have NO idea how many names we went through. 

This one day Ryan made sausage and our house smelled horrible...and being pregnant those bad smells just don't sit well with me. So we decided to be super classy and go to the school building right by our house and cook top ramen in the microwaves over there...yeah...we fancy. So we're in the elevator on the way up and Ryan is listing off names...he said a few and almost all of them I immediately responded with a repulsed look or sound (bad wife moment). Ryan really liked the ones he was listing...oopsies. Before he said the next one he had to warn me..."Annie I really like this one so please just think about it." And I realized I needed to be a little better with my responses. Ready this time I responded with a "Okay, what is it?" Again, we're in the elevator...just us two and he says, "I just texted it to you." He was SO nervous and it was the cutest thing in the entire world! I was obviously obsessed with him for a second and then took a look at my phone. "Rosalie." 

I thought about it. I was really unsure about it at first. I don't know why, but I just couldn't tell how I felt about it. I liked it, but could I see my baby being named that...I couldn't tell yet. But, then I started to really thinking about it. I imagined calling her Rosie and I imagined her introducing herself as Rosalie... and it started to sink in...I was falling in love with it. Over the next few days Ryan kept referring to her as Rosie and Rosalie and it just fit! That was the name! So at least as of now... We will be welcoming a little Rosalie Jean Kimball into our family!!! Jean is the middle name of all of Ryan's grandmothers, his sister Cassidy and my sister-in-law Holly so that was the easy part. 

Anyway, Rosalie Jean. I hope you love it as much as we do!! :)

It's a Little Lady!

To find out what our sweet baby was I decided to throw a little gender reveal party just to make the moment even more special. My sister Kim made these magical invites (you can find her stuff at Dear Dearest Design on Etsy) and it set the perfect tone for whole event!

We went to the doc and had them put the photos in a little envelope and we drove them straight to my friends Jamie and Ali because I knew I wouldn't be able to resist looking very long if I had them in my hand! So my lovely friends went to work from there! They got this huge black balloon and filled it with colored confetti and then they got these huge boxes and filled them with balloons and then throw in some silly string cans and some enormous party poppers and we were all set for an explosion!! 

Now over the next 24 hours I kept trying to get a feel from Ali what the gender was. I kept trying to trick her into telling me, but she didn't crack. I tried to analyze her reactions and still came up with nothing. But, here's the real kicker. I was CONVINCED that I was having a boy...like there was no doubt in my mind! I had no reason to think it, but I just knew it was going to be a boy! I even started registering and only added boy stuff! Seriously with every part of me I thought that explosion was going to be blue. 

So we're all gathered, my family is on hangouts and we start to countdown. In my head I just kept thinking, "This room is about to turn blue!" We get down to three...two...one...POP and tears...I immediately started crying. I was SHOCKED!!!!!!!! AND SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! I would have been happy either way, but my WHOLE life I wanted a girl first and it happened! It was just too good to be true!

I still feel like it's a dream...like the world is tricking me or something, but man you guys...I could not be more stoked about it. EEEE I get to buy bows and dresses and snuggle my cute little lady! I can't believe this is happening!

Baby Nation!

So we had some good news to share...

We're having a BABY!! I seriously can't get a grip. Every time I say that I feel like I'm lying! It's so weird to me that I am having a baby...ME! I'm the pregnant one! SAY WHAT!! We are SO excited to bring a little Kimball into the world. 

When I took the test, the test showed pregnant immediately...I was originally planning on finding out with Ryan, but it turned too quick! So, I left the bathroom to go sit with Ryan on the couch and wait and I didn't know what to do so I just pretended like I hadn't seen it! I kept asking him... "Do you think it's ready??" and he kept giving me "I'm pretty sure it takes a few minutes." In my head I'm like "IT'S READY GET YOUR BUTT IN THERE!" But I tried to keep chill on the outside. Finally, after what felt like 40 years I follow Ryan into the bathroom (filming hehe) and he see's the test and just starts LAUGHING...what the?? Haha he doesn't stop until he shows me the test and then he yells "You have a baby in your belly!" He was so excited. It was a cozy moment. From that point on I just wanted to shout it from the roof tops and tell the world because I was SO excited, but we decided we wanted to tell our moms on their birthdays because they were only a few weeks away and both of our moms share a birthday...so I had to keep me mouth shut. And it was ROUGH! But it ended up being worth it. When we came into town to celebrate Thanksgiving (which was also the day of our moms birthdays) all of my siblings kept asking us when we were going to have babies and talking about how cool it would be if it was soon since there are already going to be four babies born within a year of each other on my side of the family. I just kept shrugging it off using excuses like "We'll catch everyone on the next round of kids.." blah blah blah. Then a few days later we told our moms by giving them their birthday present which was  matching shirts that said"Best Grandma Ever" with our ultrasounds taped to the bottom. Both moms and families freaked out...it was awesome. 

And FINALLY I got to tell the world and it felt SO good. So, I promise I won't be a crazy pregnant lady and I won't post a thousand belly pics or anything, but I do hope you will celebrate with me!! EEEEE!!! I can't believe it's real!!

A Wonderland Halloween

Sooo I am officially a terrible blogger, but I started like five different posts so I figured at least before I started doing current ones I might as well post some of what I started!

So back to Halloween...yeah I'm that bad at this. It was very much a Alice and Wonderland Halloween! Ryan was the Mad Hatter and I took on the roles of Alice, by night, and Tweedle Dum by day! My co-worker Ali and I were the Tweedles and we stayed in character literally all day. We went everywhere together, said phrases the tweedles say, made honking noise if we touch and held hands as we walked...it was pretty incredible. Plus, our coworker Dale was the Mad Hatter so we were a complete team! Our work takes Halloween very seriously so the competition was fierce. Even though we went all out we still came up in third place. Our coworker Norm who dressed as Braveheart won because he would  not talk to you about anything, but war all day and the office downstairs was having a lunch and Norm ran down stairs asked them all to join him in battle and then ran through yelling"FREEDOM." Second place was Doug who was Nacho Libre and he ate a raw egg and jumped off a bridge...so they deserved it, but I still feel good about our performance. That night we met up with some of our couple friends for our annual Halloween party at the Baldwins and it was magical as always. Here's some pics and videos for you to get a little taste.