4 Years...What??

Riley and I celebrated our 4 Year Anniversary this week. We've had so much fun in these last 4 years, and it's just been the best being married, especially to someone who is as fun as Riley. I've loved being able to spend the past 4 years with Riley; just me and him, but now we are ready for this baby to come and we're so excited!

Since we probably won't be traveling around as much after the baby, I thought I'd document a few of the places we've been and the things we've done since we've been married. We have great lives and we've been able to do a lot of fun things. I sure do love that husband of mine. I'm glad he's mine forever.

Puerto Rico

Mariners Game, Seattle

Disneyland!!

Up the canyon at Tibble Fork

Bryce Canyon, UT

Brianhead, UT

Botanical Gardens in San Antonio

Sea World San Antonio

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Grand Turk

Miami, FL

Puerto Rico

Georgetown Cupcake, Washington DC

Lincoln Monument

Hawaiian cruise for our honeymoon

Arlington Cemetary

Camden Yards - Baltimore Orioles Game

Capitol Building

Honolulu, Hawaii

Maui

Snorkeling the Molokini Crater, Maui

Kauai

Hilo, Hawaii

Polynesian Cultural Center

Laie, Hawaii Temple

Parasailing in Hilo, Hawaii

Moab, UT

Mount Vernon

The Ranch in Fiddletown, CA

Auntie's famous front porch. Ione, CA

Zions, UT

Park City, UT

Oregon Coast

Baby at 32 Weeks

I'm still pregnant. And we're down to single digit weeks left!! People are always asking me, how do you feel? And I can honestly tell them that I feel great!

So far, my pregnancy has been a breeze. No morning sickness, no crazy mood swings, no more back pain (he was laying on my kidney for a while, and it was painful!), no heartburn, I sleep great at night, feel the baby kicking a ton, and I really enjoy being pregnant. I know I have it a lot easier than a lot of women, and I am so grateful. It'll definitely make it easier to have more kids now that I know how my body reacts to being pregnant. 

The only bummer things about being pregnant:

1. This baby can kick HARD, and I'm pretty sure my right ribs are bruised (that's the only place he likes to kick). I put an ice pack on them which feels so good, but I don't think the babe likes the cold because it just makes him kick more. Riley and I always wonder if he's going to have a feisty personality like seems like he has now.

2. Finally not able to wear regular pants comfortably. I went a while wearing my same old pants with a  rubber band tied to keep them up, but I'm just too big now. I can still fit into most of my shirts, but they're definitely looking tighter...I would like to wear sweatpants every day, but it's so freaking hot--that is not happening. 

3. The heat. When I walk outside, my hands swell up like a balloon. If I know I am going to be outside for more than a few minutes, I wear my larger ring. It feels much better than having my hands swell up so much with my regular ring that my finger feels like it's going to fall off. I'm starting to get cankles (boo!!!) but they're not too bad yet. I'm usually a cold blooded person, but I can definitely feel my body temp rise. Even last week in the temple where they usually keep it pretty cool, I just about passed out from heat.

4. I often forget I'm pregnant, only to come to the realization when I try to get out of bed/bend over, that I can't really do that anymore. Reaalllllyy lame, and it's just going to get harder the bigger I get. I never thought trying to tie my shoe, pick up my keys, or get out of bed would be hard for me, but there's nothing I can do about it, so oh well. 

We are so excited to meet our little guy! I'm sure I'll start to freak out the closer we get, but for now I'm just enjoying being pregnant and spending the next few months with Riley, just the two of us. 

We're not great at taking these pictures, but this was at 30 weeks. 

Cancer Sucks

My mom was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer back in October. Breast cancer is generally pretty treatable, but triple negative is more aggressive, fast growing, and more complicated to treat. The good news is that it responds really well to chemotherapy and if she goes into remission, it is less likely to come back later. She went through chemotherapy this winter, and had a double mastectomy in April. She's still recovering from the mastectomy, but not even that could keep her from going to Quilt Market this week, just 4 weeks after surgery! She will still need to go through radiation and reconstructive surgery, but I'm feeling pretty good that the two seemingly hardest parts are over. 

My mom has been so optimistic the whole time she's had cancer and that rubs off on the rest of our family. It was hard to see her lose her hair and be so sick, but because she has a good attitude, it's less scary for the rest of us.  We feel like this experience has brought us closer together and we have seen so many miracles.

Her hair is even growing back! 

The Finley Fam

Best Dad Ever

A lot of wives say that their husbands are going to be the best dad, and I'm going to say it too, but my husband really will be. If you've ever met Riley you'd know that he'd rather be holding a baby or playing with the kids than hanging around adults. And he is a total baby whisperer. Seriously. Babies love him. And he loves them. He's already planning on teaching our little boy how to fix leaks and ride a horse, so he'll be all set for life.

Riley's been wanting a baby for a long time and I can't wait for him to meet our little boy because I know he will just want to do everything for him (which will make my life easier). I married a really good guy and I just love him to pieces.

Good thing we had a new niece and nephew last year, right?

Baby Lyman at 20 Weeks

We had our 20-week ultrasound on Thursday and everything went great. It made us feel better to know that 1) our baby was, in fact, a boy (I was a bit skeptical after our 16 week appointment) and 2) that he looked healthy and normal. Not deformed. All ten fingers. Enough fluid. Etc. The best part about it was that Riley was literally on the edge of his seat the whole time saying things like, "this is amazing!"  and "that is so cool!" He looked like he was about to cry; it was just the sweetest thing.

Baby Lyman waving to us 

When we first got married, people told Riley to just wait 6 months and Talia will want to have a baby. The funny thing was that right around 6 months after we were married, he's the one who wanted to have a baby. I was definitely not ready, so we waited to try until we'd been married about 2 years. I was still kind of nervous about having a baby (our lives would change so much and I just loved our life the way it was) when we first started trying, but when we had a hard time getting pregnant I felt so bad that I'd made him wait and now we had to wait even longer. When we finally got pregnant, though, instead of being a bit apprehensive like I was at first about having a baby, I was just plain excited. We're not nervous that having a baby will be hard while Riley's in school (he graduates this month!!),  or about not having enough time just the two of us, or about pregnancy being hard, but we're just excited. I think Heavenly Father had the perfect timing for us.

So far I've had the easiest pregnancy of all time. I have never had morning sickness and didn't start really showing until 20 weeks (wore maternity pants for the first time this week. Hey yo! They are sooooo comfortable!). The only symptoms I have are peeing a lot, being tired sometimes, and my back hurts like crazy when I sit for too long. I thought for sure I would have terrible morning sickness like my sister but I felt totally fine. Everyone tells me I'm lucky, but when I never felt sick, we were worried that I might miscarry. I'd heard there's a higher chance of miscarrying if  you're not sick,  but once we made it past the 1st trimester, we felt much better.

I just know that because I've had a great pregnancy (I hope this I doesn't jinx it!) that I'm going to have a hard labor and/or a terrible baby. Haha. It can't all be easy, right? But we are so excited we don't even care. 

Baby News

We are so so so excited for the Baby Boy that will be joining our family in August!

We'll post more details soon. If we remember. Because we're terrible bloggers...

PS Can you see Riley's mustache? Ew.

The Incredible Edible Egg

Our regular carton of eggs wasn't cutting it for us, so we recently bumped it from 18 up to 5 dozen (that's a normal bump, right?) Riley literally eats 6 eggs for breakfast every morning (sometimes more), and we LOVE breakfast for dinner. Sheesh! There's only two of us! I can't even imagine what our fridge will look like with teenagers!