A Year In Review 2014 Edition

This will be a long post, but I promise it'll be mostly pictures. I won't be offended if you just look at all the pictures though. 

This year by far has been the best yet (though I know 2015 is going to beat it).

We spent winter semester hanging out with friends and having an epic married couples sleepover.

We played Betrayal at the House on the Hill, had lots of snacks and lots of laughs.

 We have been blessed with such great friends here in Rexburg and I will hate to go whenever the time comes. 

Oh and we built a fort!

Later on we went down to California to visit Garett's family for a weekend and to take a break from the Idaho winter.

I must say I love going down there to see his family and also the beauty that is southern California.

 Our friends Katy and Sam added a new member to their family, their cute puppy Marley. 

 In the srping my mom came to visit and we go to go to the drive-in theater. 

In the spring Garett and I found out we were pregnant with Joshua.

I have to say it was a beautiful surprise right before mother's day. 

Though that brought about morning sickness which lasted all semester.

I was taking ceramics that semester and throwing on the wheel made it worse.

I'm surprised I survived that.

(No that wasn't thrown on the wheel, but I'm not particularly proud of the stuff I threw)

We had our first appointment right before my birthday and it started to settle in that Joshua was really there, growing and becoming an awesome little person.

I remember my doctor telling me not to increase my exercise dramatically and of course I had a travel study down to Moab, UT the next week where we got 3 hours of sleep and hiked 15 miles. 

It was worth it though! 

I made some great friends on that trip and had tons of fun despite being sleep deprived.

Goes to show that you can still handle a lot even with being sick, or maybe I just got really lucky.

 After our 2nd appointment and making sure Joshua survived that semester as well, we decided to announce his arrival!

Garett graduated with his Bachelors in Microbiology.

And my dearest friend Haley married her love Bryce.

She made a beautiful bride!

Around our 2 year anniversary we went down to California and got to go camping at Carlsbad beach with Garett's family. I loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat!

I got to see Garett surf for the 1st time in 5 years and it was by far the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Surfing is a very attractive sport. 

Shortly after that we found out Joshua was a boy!

To prepare for Joshua we moved to a 2 bedroom apartment in our complex. 

For Halloween we continued our tradition of carving pumpkins with our friends Katy and Sam.

Not pictured is that his past semester Garett and I got to have a pretty fun game of D&D with several of our close friends. Garett was our DM and made it fun for all of us.

During Thanksgiving break Garett and I went down to Utah to see my family as well as Grandpa Bonds one last time.

He was thrilled to hear that his great-grandson Bonds was on his way. 

(FYI Joshua is the 1st great-grandchild to carry on Grandpa Bonds name, so he was pretty thrilled)

My final semester kept me busy with walking lots and climbing 4 flights of stairs every day. 

On the bright side it helped me keep my pregnancy weight under control. 

In December I graduated with my Bachelors in Photography at 37 weeks.

Then we played the waiting game over Christmas break.

Due to being so pregnant, Garett and I spent our first and only Christmas alone in Rexburg.

Luckily we had great friends (Ron and Bryton) to share Christmas day with.

Shortly after the new year I went into labor and gave birth to our son Joshua. 

Grandpa Bonds despite his health lived to see Joshua being born.

Though they never met in person it was wonderful that Grandpa Bonds got to see pictures of Joshua and his arrival into this world.

It was a roller coaster of a year thanks to Garett and I finishing school, making new friends and me being pregnant for most of it.

We had a wonderful year and loved getting to share it with such great friends and family!

We love you all and this year shall be even better!

-Megan

Joshua has arrived!

In case you haven't seen the millions of posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, our baby boy has arrived!

Joshua William Bonds arrived at 3:45 am on Monday January 5th 2015. 

He was 6 lbs 8 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. 

He is absolutely adorable and I am happily biased.

I'll back up briefly though for a moment to explain how we wrapped up the end of 2014.

We got to finish the year out by seeing our dear friends Ron and Bryton get sealed, which was beautiful to see. We are so happy to have gotten to share that special day with them.

We then got to spend New Years with our wonderful friends Katy and Sam!

Below is the gorgeous Katy!

And of course Sam. Garett and Sam met on their missions to Zimbabwe.

Who knew that they would stay dear friends through both getting married and now us having a baby.

Honestly we spent New Years playing Terraria with them and getting them hooked on it. It was a fun filled evening with great friends and lots of laughs.

I guess this was the last picture of me pregnant at 39 weeks. 

 Little did we know that on Sunday January 4th around 4 am, my water would break and everything began to change.

After almost 24 hours of labor Joshua arrived to us. I think I'll do another post on my labor story. It was an exhausting one, but worth it.

I apologize for my swollen face, I ended up having to have a c-section and all those medications made me puffy. I can honestly say I was just tired and happy.

Garett immediately took to being a dad and it looks good on him.

Right after he was born they moved us to a small temporary recovery room that only had a chair for Garett to sleep in so I had him join me since I had just lost a bunch of weight and and room for him. He immediately passed out and so did Joshua. 

 And now for tons of pictures of Joshua. 

If you don't want to see a ton of pictures of my baby, then I am sorry for you.

Last week was honestly a blur. Garett and I were up for over 24 hours straight and pretty much no food and no rest. 

While we were in the hospital it felt like we were in a twilight zone. I never really knew what day it was and time didn't seem to matter since 

He mostly sleeps and eats, but even when he is asleep he is adorable!

When he is awake and not eating this is a common face of his.

He always looks like he is contemplating deep and important things that might save the world one day. I have to wonder what is going on in that brain of his. 

Like I said Garett is taking to his fatherhood thing.

Joshua's favorite thing to do is eat and then fall asleep in mommy's lap. 

=]

We love having in our lives! I have never been so tired in my life, though it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. He is precious and sweet and I wouldn't change a thing about him. Truly our lives will never be the same and we're excited for this new chapter. 

Thank you to our friends who came to see us in the hospital, to the sweet friends in our ward that brought us meals and to my dear mom for coming and helping us out for a few days. I can't wait for the rest of our family and friends to get to meet him. We love you all and thank you for all your well wishes and support. 

-Megan