And We're Having.....

A SWEET BABY BOY!

We found out the gender of our sweet baby on Thursday.

The night before I didn't sleep a wink because I feel like I've been waiting forever and couldn't wait another minute longer. I'm at 21 1/2 weeks which isn't really past the range for finding out gender but I've been ready to know for a long time.We no longer have to call him an "it" which is a great feeling.

The appointment went well. He started out asleep head up which was perfect for the doctor to get all the pictures of his brain and make sure everything looked normal. Sadly that was all he stayed asleep for and began being very wiggly.

Below is his bum and cute little legs.

You can't look at these feet and not sigh in awe! Are they not the sweetest???

When it was time to find out his gender he was not shy at all. By time we were ready to find out he had flipped over completely with his bum in the air.

Before the doctor even said his gender we saw it. He was not shy even a little.

It was pretty surreal to find out his gender and is only now starting to kick in.

Speaking of kicking he is a VERY VERY VERY energetic little boy!

He loves to kick and wiggle any time he is awake.

His little head, not quite sucking his thumb.

Gosh I'm in love with that little guy!

He has a strange idea of comfortable positions, I think he gets is from me.

If only I could be that flexible.

We're so thrilled to have him in our lives.

Already Garett, my mom and a friend of mine have gotten to feel him move.

It's a fun sensation to know he's there listening to my voice and growing stronger everyday. 

As for names we are far from making a dent.

In my baby book of names I've only gotten through the C's without much luck. 

Luckily we have time.

My mom came up this weekend to help us move and in doing so was able to help us get the crib set up and his nursery is slowly coming together little by little. 

I never thought a little boy less than a pound that I haven't even technically met yet could change my world so much. We really are happy beyond compare and it's only growing everyday.

He will be the first great-grandson Bonds for Grandpa Royce and the first grandson Bonds for Garett's parents. Their name-sake shall continue on!

As always we're grateful for all the support from our friends and family and we'll keep you updated as our little boy gets bigger.

-Megan

Player 3 is Entering the Game

 In January 2015!

Garett and I are excited to announce we are expecting a sweet addition to our little family in the coming year!

I am currently finishing up my first trimester at 13 weeks and baby and I are both doing well.

We got to hear the heartbeat today which is big and strong!

The ultrasound below is from the beginning of June when I was only 9 weeks along.

Baby has now more than doubled in size and is growing rapidly daily.

This is my attempt at a baby belly picture though it was probably more of a food belly, 

but hey I can dream right?

Only a few more weeks and my belly will start becoming more pronounced as baby grows.

 We are really excited and can't wait to find out the gender in a few weeks.

Look for more on the gender sometime in August. 

This is the biggest blessing minus the morning sickness which has been quite the adventure...

Regardless we are thrilled and grateful for the support of our families as we carry on the Bonds name.

We'll keep you updated in the coming weeks!

Thanks!

-Megan

I'm Not Dead I Swear!

Sorry I don't blog much anymore. School is over thank goodness. One more week of it and I was going to explode. So summer break came in the nick of time. Now my days are spent sleeping in (we need to fix that, I don't like sleeping in so late), reading and/or watching random TV shows. There is a show about every little thing, seriously. They even have one called "My Teen is Pregnant and so am I". Is anyone else as mind boggled as I am that anyone would actually want to admit that?

Garett's favorite show lately is "River Monsters" which by the way is on Netflix instant streaming (as well as Fullmetal alchemist: Brotherhood). It's kind of cheesy, but cool. Mostly the narrator's voice is just amusing to me.

We have gotten to do some fun things though. A few weeks ago we went to the sand dunes with some of our friends. We brought snacks, blankets and some wood for a fire. While there was still sun the men ran off to go jump down the sand dunes and us wives had some much needed girl time. Once the husbands came back we played "Betrayal at the House on the Hill", ate some snacks & enjoyed the fire, especially because we all forget that it still gets pretty cold at night in Rexburg and were wearing shorts. It was a lot of fun. I definitely recommend that game to everyone. =]

Friday night we had our friends over again. It was originally going to be a movie night, but ended up being a game night. We played Buzzword (thanks Jess & Nik) but quickly realized whoever was on Garett's team would win. Guess who never got to be on Garett's team....yeah me. xP So instead we decided to go around the room and have someone read the card and everyone else guess the phrases. Strangely that ended up being a lot more fun and we laughed our heads off. Partially because as married people we don't stay up late so everything after 11:30pm becomes hilarious. I felt like a kid again. It was great. =]

Yesterday we got to help some people move out, which felt great because I've felt so useless lately and being able to serve felt really good. Sad though that we're losing more people. 4 families are moving out this week which means we have about 40 people left in our ward at church. =[ (not even kidding....I counted on Sunday).

Garett has more books to read since we went to the library and I'm finally getting around to my never ending reading list. I'm currently reading "Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. He is definitely a favorite of mine already. =]

But I digress, so yesterday we got to help people move, went to the library, then work went really smoothly which was nice. We came home and got to take a walk together. That was needed even more-so since we haven't gotten to take any walks since we were in California. and we haven't really gotten to explore this side of Rexburg (aka married and family housing) I'll take pictures one day.

And then we came home, ate dinner and probably my favorite part of the day, we curled up in bed and read our books. It sounds simple but it was a wonderful feeling. There is something sweet and altogether happy about just being side by side reading. I don't expect many to understand but I hope at least Catherine might know this feeling. It's just a peaceful blissful feeling. Needless to say, yesterday was a really good day.

Not sure how the rest of the week will compare....but I hope it goes well. Saturday at least should be fun.
Oh also we've been getting a great deal of rain which means Rexburg has been nice and cool the last few days. Lets cross our fingers and hope it lasts a bit longer.

Next week we'll be headed down to Utah to see my family and Garett's family. We can't wait to see everyone =D

Love you all. =] Hope everyone has a fantastic week =D

Meg

The Story Behind My Smiles

So I guess I should tell how this ring came to be on my left hand.
Tell of Garett's excitement, nervousness, and our happiness.
His sneakiness, and not so sneakiness with a bit of cheese on top.

So our story begins on a beautiful 50 degree Thursday in Rexburg, Idaho.
Though a bit windy (it is Rexburg after all) it did not stop our plans.
Garett wanted to get some lunch and tour the apple orchards before I had to go to work.
We headed out, but not before Garett grabbed a handful of tiny cupcakes with his left hand. Silly me, I thought he was just really hungry.

And we headed out to our local Taco Bell, that does not look as good as this one.

 We got there and saw TONS of these paper Doritos shells everywhere!

 

It was weird, but they looked pretty tasty.

Garett grabbed our food and we enjoyed a quiet lunch before heading out on our walk.

We headed back towards campus. 

Garett's nerves showed through his fiddling of his fingers.

To add to it all he kept telling me to slow down, which for anyone who knows him well he walks WAY TOO fast and will NEVER tell anyone to slow down.

He could beat anyone in a speed walking contest I guarantee it.

We crossed through a snowy, muddy trail to the back of the apple orchards.

All along the way he kept saying strange things like:

"You look different today, something is missing, what is it?" 

or

"I have something important to ask you, but I can't remember what it is...."

Strangely the orchard looked a lot like this as we entered it:

 

(With less snow)

There was about 2 feet of untouched snow, and not a soul in sight.

The only signs of anything living having passed through were some weird prints that SORT OF (but not really) looked like these:

 

I have to admit, I had my suspicions. 

His nerves showed through a good bit.

We passed through row after row, talking, reminiscing and enjoying the beautiful day.

As we neared the last row he mentioned this would be the last one we would go down.

My suspicions were withdrawn with no hope left.

About 2/3 of the way down the row we were talking and he pulled away.

He knelt down to look at something, silly me honestly thought he was looking at berries or something.

And then I had an "aha" moment where it hit me what was happening, but I could not wrap my brain around it.

As I walked around to see his face, 

I saw a little red box open with something rather sparkly inside and Garett beaming nervously, but happily. 

Then I heard those words that girls wait forever (to seems) to hear:

 

"Will you marry me?"

My brain was still pretty fuzzy, so i grabbed him and hugged him and as I slowly regained consciousness I whispered in his ear "Yes". 

We kissed and smiled as he placed that oh so small, yet amazingly meaningful ring on my finger.

We kissed and laughed as we stood in those trees with no one else in the world knowing of the excitement and joy we felt at that exact moment.

The few minutes we spent walking back to my apartment were ones of trying to wrap our brains around what had just happened. We repeated the lines:
"You're my fiancee"
"Yes I am and you're mine"
about a hundred times.

Even now it is still only really starting to sink in.
Now we repeat the lines "We're getting married"
"Yes we are, isn't it great?"
"You sure you wanna be stuck with me forever?"
"Heck yeah I do!"

(We're such saps, I know)
And now we are happily planning our wedding and I have to say I am SOO excited and thrilled. I cannot wait to have this man forever! I am pretty sure it is the happiest thought I have ever had. =]
So much so that if a fairy poured some dust on me I would be flying.

So that is the story, cheesy and I know, but great.
Hope you enjoyed it!

This post was brought to you by:

English class, where my teacher somehow 

rambles for 2 1/2 hours of a 3 hour class

on absolutely nothing. 

-Meg

Sometimes

 
Garett and I are really silly.
And by "sometimes" I mean always.
And sometimes happiness comes in the form of a 5'11" sweet blonde man.
Making me a very happy Megan.

Yours truly,

Meg 

A Brief Intermission

I just wanted to say that I am happy =]

Life is pretty darn great!

I hope y'all are all having a wonderful time.

That is all.

"My friend was chasing me with a knife?"
"Why? Wait was this real or a dream?"
"Oh geez no it was a dream! "
"Oh! Phew! Scared me there...."
Meg

Thoughts of a Megan 2

After reading my siblings blogs here and here, I felt inspired I guess you could say to share some thoughts that have been on my mind recently. Lately I have been struggling without actually having any struggles, outside of feeling like I have no time. My classes are nice, work is....work, I love my roommates and I am home among the people of Rexburg. Not to mention meeting lots of cute guys lately....but I digress.

Lately I have been thinking about what makes me happy. When I say happy, I don't mean buying something cute or wearing an awesome outfit. I mean what makes me GENUINELY happy. The first thing I thought of was making dinner. As most would know I am not a cook, I don't do anything fancy. Tonight however, I was able to make dinner for my roommates as well as 2 of our guy friends that "just happened" to show up as we were sitting down to eat. And something about having everyone sitting down to share a meal and making everyone else happy and satisfied brought me joy. Out here it seems hard to find ways to serve, but my little attribute to feeding my friends gave me a good feeling.

Another thing is making new friends. I feel this past week we have met TONS of guys, by tons I mean 10 or so. We even played phone charades with some of them last night, and then those guys plus some came over tonight for game night. But I digress, it has been fun to meet new people that we may never would have met if we didn't go to the concert last night or if my roommate hadn't drawn on the guys hand sitting in front of us at church today. There is something about building friendships with people who live all over the country. Everyone comes from a different background with different experiences and that learning process is fun.

And finally just enjoying the friends you do have. I got the chance to talk to a friend tonight for two hours. I have NO clue what we talked about, I only remember laughing most of the time. But it was fun, it gave me joy to continue to build that friendship and to build the friendships I have here. I am surrounded by some amazing people, whether they live in my apartment, a block over or several blocks over, some even several states away. But we all come together and bond no matter how different we are, we get to enjoy the company of people we may have never met if it weren't for this school.

So think about it. What makes you TRULY happy? Do you enjoy laughing over silly stories, meeting new people, cooking, learning, trusting? I hope you enjoy the small things, a funny story or joke, whatever it may be. Because without those small things in our lives, we could be pretty unhappy. We're all blessed in our own ways.

But to see the blessings, sometimes we have to face challenges first. I know I have had some lately that have really tested my strength. I have had to face fears that I didn't want to deal with but I did, and I know I am stronger for it. My teacher once said we are the sculptor and the sculpture. We have to hammer away at our imperfections to become better. Is it going to hurt? Heck yeah it will hurt! But in the end we will be perfecting and creating something worthwhile.

So hammer away, but know you'll be better for it in the end. Along the way look for happy moments that make it all worthwhile. Joy is not the absence of pain, but the presence of God.

Chin up and hold strong
because you are worth it.
Meg