Car Accident

Last month Jared and I were in a little accident. We were on our way home from dinner crossing the street when someone did not yield as they were turning and hit Jared's side. Luckily, we both saw it coming so Jared had slowed way down and no one was hurt. The door handle was jammed so we had to climb through the passenger side to get in. It was probably pretty entertaining for those watching.
Our poor Honda has been through so much. In Portland we were rear ended 3 times - twice while parked!

Cutest Baby Ever!

This is our baby at 22 weeks 6 days. We had our target ultrasound where they look for any deformities. The technician took her time and our DVD is about 25 minutes. It was so awesome. We saw everything there is to see: All four chambers of the heart and valves, the spine fused from top to bottom, his feet and hands, we even saw him swallow and see his tongue move with the motion, and Jared's favorite: the teeth buds. He is perfect! Baby was so cooperative and was totally posing for us as you can see from the pictures with his hand under his chin. These pictures are 4-D and we were not expecting to see so much detail. He definitely has my side of the family on the cheeks! Every time I look at him I want to pinch that cute nose.

Bishopric Calling

I have had several people ask if Jared is really in the Bishopric as indicated by the picture on the right. I know - - we were surprised too! Yes, Jared was put in the Bishopric this past June. We were totally shocked.
I had just started the stimulating process on invitro when he was asked to accept the calling. He then went on High Adventure with the Young Men the next day and was gone all week. I was trying so hard to not stress! He was sustained the next Sunday when he got back. We actually had a doctor's appointment that morning! Needless to say it was not the best timing but we had a ton of family come and support and things went very smoothly. So far it has been a huge blessing in our lives and we are grateful for the opportunity.

The Big Belly Challenge

Jared challenged me to see who's belly was bigger. Even with him holding his breath to keep his belly big I think I still have him beat. Nice try!

22 Weeks

San Antonio TEXAS

Jared had an ADA (American Dental Association) meeting down in San Antonio. We decided to make this our final vacation before the baby comes. Jared was nice enough to sign me up for some classes while he was in his meetings. LOL! Both of our meetings ended up being well worth our time so I can't complain too much. We were also able to go to dinner with some friends from the residency in Mississippi. One friend lives in San Antonio and the others came for the meeting. It was great to see them. Our favorite places were the River Walk and The Alamo. The River Walk is under the city and has tons of restaurants and shops along a river that they light up at night.

Jared & I on the River Boat Tour

The faces on this building were meant to ward
off evil spirits

This was an awesome band performed mainly with
wind instruments. The baby kicked the whole time
we listened to them.

The River Center mall lit up at night

The Alamo

It's A BOY!

We found out at 17 weeks that we are having a boy. Jared was pretty overwhelmed by that. He told me later that he had it all planned out that I would be doing all the girl things and he wouldn't have to worry about a thing. Now he gets to do all the great things that go along with raising a little boy! After a little while he was over his anxiety and was as excited as me. He is going to be an awesome dad!

A few days later I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom (my favorite place these days!) and when I went back to bed I felt a little kick. It totally took me by surprise and then it happened two more times. I was so excited I couldn't go back to sleep. For the first couple of days I would jump everytime he kicked me because it was such a different sensation. I have loved every minute of it!

Baby Bump at 17 weeks

Skeletor Baby

This was our first ultrasound with our OB doctor. The clinic we go to will do an ultrasound every month and put it on a DVD. At 13 weeks our baby is mostly a head and belly but we could also see hands and feet. Jared kept referring to it as Skeletor from He-Man because you could see right through it on the ultrasound. I think it is the cutest Skeletor I have ever seen!

6 Weeks Old
This is our baby at 6 1/2 weeks. Just a little raspberry! The best thing about this ultrasound was that we got to hear our baby's heartbeat for the first time. It was so overwhelming. It put everything into perspective for me that there really was a living baby in there.

Surprise!

Jared's assistants at work decorated his office when they found out we were expecting.

I'M PREGNANT!!!

Finally the day came that I went and had my blood drawn for a pregnancy test. The doctor's blood machine was broken so they had to send my blood to the hospital. They said it would take a few extra hours. Finally at 4:45 pm I called. The hospital had run the wrong test on my blood so they were having to retest it. Finally about 6:00 they called. I had not been feeling well all day and I told Jared I wasn't pregnant so when the phone call came I was shocked beyond words. The nurse came on the phone and told me I was pregnant. I started nodding my head and smiling so hard at Jared he thought I was crazy. I gave him the thumbs up sign and then he finally sat up like "you've got to kidding". I hung up the phone and started jumping up and down and Jared was like "stop jumping around - go lay down, go lay down"! We still didn't believe it and figured they probably mixed up my blood with someone else's so we went and bought our own pregnancy test. It was awesome to finally have it come out positive. Anyway, it was so fun calling and e-mailing all of our family and friends with the best news ever.

Invitro Fertilization

As all of you know we did invitro back in June. Here's how it works: I took birth control pills for about 6 weeks to suppress my ovaries. The last weekend in May I began giving myself shots of Lupron, another suppressor. I thought I would have a really hard time with the injections because as most of you know I pass out at the sight of blood! Jared was going to be out of town for a week so I knew I needed to buck up and do it. These injections were done subcutaneous - taking a fold of skin in the abdomen. I had a blood test and ultrasound to confirm that everything was "quiet" in my system. Then the stimulating began. I had to mix different meds together and do more subcutaneous injections. I went in for a blood test and ultrasound every other day for about 2 weeks. My body didn't react very well at first so they had to bump my meds up to a higher dose and boom all the sudden I was working right. On June 19th I went under conscious sedation to have the eggs retrieved. They were able to retrieve 14 eggs, which is normal. It was supposed to only take about 30 mins. start to finish. I have a really hard time coming out of anesthesia so I was there for about 3 hours! On this day Jared began giving my the deep muscle injection, in my hip, of Progesterone. Progesterone helps the uterine lining to remain thick and also helps the embryos to implant. They called the next day to say that only 6 eggs had fertilized. I was kind of bummed, but all six kept growing until Sat. when it was time to put 'em back in. We had them transfer 2 of the best - and the rest is history!

This is what we all started out looking like!

Embryo Transfer Day 3

Happy Anniversary!
July 8th we celebrated our 9 year anniversary. My how time flies. Jared surprised me with this beautiful bouquet of flowers at the end of my day at work. It was very sweet and the flowers are still gorgeous. We had reservations at "The Roof" in Salt Lake City (the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building). It was an all you can eat buffet (Jared's favorite). Dinner was delicious and it was fun reminiscing about the last nine years.


Top 5 things I still love about Jared:

1. He does not critize me.
2. He is sooo funny. He makes me laugh everyday.
3. He is kind and friendly to everyone he meets.
4. He is a hard worker.
5. HE LOVES ME!!!

The Ogden Marathon

May 17, 2008

We got up around 4:00 am and drove to Ogden where we then loaded onto buses that took us up to the start line in the Ogden Canyon. We arrived there about 5:30am and the race didn’t start until 7:00. Luckily, as it was freezing outside, they had bonfires going.

My dad and I ran together and we decided to use Jeff Galloway’s (from "Runner's World" magazine) advice about adding a 1 minute walk about every 4 minutes. It was suppose to help you have more energy at the end but I don’t know that that really happened. The gun went off and we tried so hard not to go out too fast. We decided to just run the first mile without walking just so we wouldn’t get trampled by the other people! My dad and I were feeling good by the half way point, but the sun was up and it was HOT, and it kept getting hotter and hotter. (It ended up being the hottest day that month) About mile 16 we had slowed quite a bit and my hips were hurting soooo bad (something I had been dealing with in training). From then on out I had to stop about every mile to stretch them.

At about mile 18 there was an aid station that had gummy bears and licorice (my favorite). I was so excited I grabbed a bunch and began munching on them. I soon found that I was pretty nauseous and decided maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. About mile 22, with just 4 miles to go I looked at my dad and almost started crying. I was hurting pretty bad and didn’t know how I was going to finish. I told him I needed to sit down so I found a rock on the side of the road and sat down. I felt really stupid sitting there watching everyone pass me. Soon an ambulance came by and I almost jumped on for a ride! I finally got the motivation somewhere deep, deep down to keep going. At the aid stations we were drinking one glass of water and dumping another on our faces. That was the longest four miles.

Finally, we turned onto the last street and about a mile down was the finish line. That was the best thing ever, yet it took me forever to get there. Right before the finish line my friend Jenni called from the side lines “GO Kari. I’m so proud of you” and I almost started crying then and there! I knew my family was cheering for me too and then I saw Jared (who had finished over an hour before me) and we slapped hands as I crossed the finish line at 4 hours and 42 minutes. I was deliriously happy! People were handing out ice and jamba juice and all sorts of things but all I could think about was laying down. Jared came around and wanted me to go get something to eat but the first patch of grass I came to I crashed.
We all swore we would never do another marathon, but now it doesn’t seem so unreachable. One day I hope to run another one although it probably won’t be anytime soon. Maybe next year? Jared is going to sign up for The Top of Utah Marathon in Logan this fall and will be running with more family and friends.
This was a great experience and I have never pushed myself so hard. It made me realize I’m tougher than I thought!

Left: Ronnie (brother-in-law), Dad, Me, Jared