Protection for the 11 week old fetus for life

I sure hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This holiday has been nice to not do anything at all (related to school). We have been able to just relax and Chill out.

Baby this week:

11 weeks old

Size of a large plum (2.5 in, .5 oz)

Digestive system is starting to work better and stronger

Making plenty of white blood cells

Me this week:

Stomach is starting to pouch out

Haven't had an easy week.... Feeling a lot more queasy than usual, but no throwing up still
Having a hard time swallowing certain things, like pills for example

In other news, I started watching Bones on Netflix this break. I have seen at least two episodes so far that have to do with young children rather being killed or kidnapped. I have experienced my greatest fear so far...

I will protect my children with my life until the moment I die. I cannot think of anything worse than having my children experience the kind of pain that some do in this world. Obviously pain is not going to evade them completely. They will have their heart broken, have wounds that a kiss from mom or dad will fix, heck probably even some surgery. However, I will always protect them from the unnecessary hurts and pains of the world. 

Week 10

Baby this week:

Size of a lime (2 in, .3 lbs)

Growing hair follicles, fingernails and maybe ovaries if it is a girl

Ears are almost all in shape

No more froglike webbed hands and feet! All fingers and toes

Me this week:

Still feeling great

Feeling old since I will be 22 on Sunday

June 19

Grand news from our family to you! Chad and I are expecting! I am due June 19, 2014! I am 9 weeks along, as of today, and so far I haven't been too sick. Hopefully it stays that way.

I have good genetics on my side though... right? My mother wasn't very sick with any of us, and I have two sisters who were like that too. Unfortunately, I have two sisters that were sick all nine months for each of their children. Aside from that it has been every other sister, good pregnancy, bad, good, bad.... then me! So that means good vibes right?

I haven't thrown up yet which is fantastic, but I have had some queasiness and have missed a few classes or work just a bit. Chad is so excited to be a Dad and he will be a wonderful one too.

Baby this week:

9 weeks

1.5 inches long (size of a Prune)

Heart might be able to be heard with Doppler

Mommy this week:

Doctors appointment to take all the prenatal tests

I pee all the time so I don't sleep

Headaches are common

Pelvis/Tail bone hurts all the time

Nose like a hound dog 

Food Aversions: Sweets like cookies and chocolate or peanut butter... mostly Recess Peanut Butter Cups

Food Cravings: Fresh Food! Meat aka steak, Sandwiches of any kind, fruit and veggies (apples and broccoli mostly)

Here is to a wonderful week of the last signs of Autumn (most likely)! I welcome the snow. 

A Grateful Husband

Kaitlin is usually the one who makes blog posts but I feel inclined to write one now....

In the days after General Conference I've looked over and thought about the words of several of the inspired talks that were given. Many of these talks focused on women and the importance of women in the home and in the church. I know I am young in years and in time being married, but I can still say that now that I am married, I can see first hand how this is true.

My wife is an example to me continually of how dedicated one can be to the service others and to God. Her example is what allows me to do what I am asked to do in my own church calling. The story of how this calling was extended to us and how it has shaped our marriage is one that means a great deal to me.

A week before Kaitlin and I were to be married we were asked to visit with the stake president of my YSA stake at the time. I scheduled the appointment so I could get my temple recommend filled out but I was also told the stake president had something he needed to speak to Kaitlin and I about. Of course I was freaking out and didnt really know what to expect. Kaitlin was feeling the same. After signing my recommend and speaking to me for a few minutes about Kaitlin and married life, he asked if Kaitlin would join us. Now, I remember this part plain as day and I probably will for the rest of my life. The stake president looks at both of us and asks if I would serve in the bishopric of the ward I had previously been a member of. At that moment I said to myself in disbelief "what?" and looked to my right to look at Kaitlin's reaction. While I was expecting her reaction to be similar to mine, it turned out to be quite the opposite. While I turned to my right and looked at her in my state of shock she was looking straight back at the stake president and, smiling, she said "ok". Our contrast in reactions taught me something very important in that instant. I would never be able to do what I was asked to do without her. And as long as I have her on my side I will always be able to do what is asked to do. After we both agreed and accepted the call that was extended the stake president looked at me again and said,  "Brother Lanham, your wife is what always will come first. No matter what you do, take care of her. If this calling strains your marriage in any way I want to know." He later proceeded to say something very profound I have heard other men in my life tell me. It goes along the lines of "for every good man there is an even better woman". I know that both of these statements are true.

So why am I saying this? In light of the talks given in Conference and how important Kaitlin is in my life I came across an LDS.org article titled, "Today's Family: Love Your Wife". This peeked my interest and so I decided to read further. At the time, I was reading the article in Portuguese but have since found it in English. There is one part that particularly stuck out to me and is the reason why I wanted to write this. 

"Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explains the responsibility that husbands have to love their wives. He says that of all priesthood duties, a husband’s primary responsibility is to his wife.

“Priesthood offices, keys, callings, and quorums are meant to exalt families,” he says. “Priesthood authority has been restored so that families can be sealed eternally.  So brethren, your foremost priesthood duty is to nurture your marriage—to care for, respect, honor, and love your wife. Be a blessing to her...""

I try my very best to be this man for Kaitlin. And I try my very best to put our marriage in the forefront of everything I do. 

I want to tell everyone how grateful from the bottom of my heart I am to have Kaitlin as a companion for eternity. I would not be who I am without her. She is my best friend, my confidant, my buddy, my counselor, and my wife. How truly blessed I am to have someone who is so willing to serve and support in any way possible. How truly blessed I am to have someone who loves me as much as I love her. And how truly blessed I am to be with her never to part. Love you, honey. 

"That love never changes."

Yesterday was a good day for me. Almost every time I got onto Facebook I saw something that was uplifting. I got on blogger and read some blogs of friends and was uplifted even more. I am so thankful for those people that felt the need to get on the internet and speak well of things, people, ect. Thank you. Now, it is my turn.

Your Heavenly Father loves you so much. No matter what you do, if you are worthy of his love or not, He will never love you less. Remember his love - always. 

Our prophet is a man called of God. That is one thing that I can testify of for sure. I love him and all of his counselors with all my heart.  I am excited for conference to come and I invite all to go and listen to the voice of the Lord this coming weekend. There will be a spirit there that will be a guiding light for you life. 

Something from the last session of conference that really touched me was from Elder Ellis' Saturday Afternoon talk.

He said, "Again, I witness the Lord has the way! Our heavenly FAther knows us, loves us, and wants to help. He knows best how to help. We are not spiritual orphans!

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is 'the way, the truth, and the life.' His way is based on eternal truth and leads us to 'peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.' I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

The Lord does not leave you alone. He is our Father, literal father, and knows has a way for us to get back to him. Conference always reveals more of the way that the Lord has for us to attain Celestial life and Exaltation. 

May I challenge you to attend conference. I promise you will not regret it.

Modesty

*DISCLAIMER* I am going to talk about modesty as you can tell from the title. So if you don't like it and don't want to read it, then don't read it. You have the agency to do that at any time you wish.

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I have a lot to say about modesty. When I was younger I ALWAYS wanted to wear a bikini or those short shorts because it was always so gosh darn hot during the summer and I didn't know how to cope with it well. However I never wore them knowing that it wasn't the right thing to do and didn't send a very good message to those whom I would be in contact with.

My Dad was one of the biggest influences in my life when it came to modesty. My Mom was a great influence as well but the most vivid conversations about modesty come from talking with my Dad. One day as a Junior in high school, I was running late for ballet. I hurried to get changed and ran up stairs. I was in a t-shirt, leotard, tights, and short shorts (or biker shorts). I think I was making a quick bagel when dad walked in and stopped me dead in my tracks. He flat out, calmly said to me, "You are not going out like that. Go put on pants or some other shorts because that isn't acceptable." I of course challenged him with some sort of response that explained I was only going to be going out to the car, and then getting out of the car to go into dance. Then the process would be repeated as I came home. I asked him, "What is the big deal?" That is when I remember him looking at me with pleading eyes and asking me to please change. I was confused. And was about to say no and that I was in a rush, but he started talking again.

"Kaitlin, I don't want to look at you like that. I don't want some man to look at you like a piece of meat. What would you do if your car broke down and were dressed like that? I wouldn't want a mechanic to see you like that. I want them to look at you and know that you respected who you were and what your values were. They will respect you more and will not take advantage of you in any way." Well, that is never going to leave my mind. I had never thought of it that way.

The ironic thing is, a year later my car broke down and I had to walk with my friend until someone offered us a ride to my house. I was wearing modest clothing and I am afraid that if I hadn't been they wouldn't have stopped and helped us.

Something my Mom helped me realize is that I should never wear anything that I couldn't wear after going through the temple. So the short shorts and tank tops were ruled out. I came to respect my body and the bikinis never happened because of that. Modesty wasn't all about helping out the men in my life. Modesty is about respect for your own self. I will always teach my daughters and even sons about respecting their bodies and I never will allow the skimpy clothes that I see all around me, even and especially at BYU, to show up on their bodies.

When I say BYU I really do mean it. There are a lot of girls that don't seem to understand that concept. I cannot tell you how many girls I have seen this past week (at any time actually) where I am afraid to look at them because I may see their butt. No joke. I wish this wasn't a problem with all my heart.

Modesty is showing respect for yourself and for the love you have for the Lord. Don't wear things that hinder you in spirit. Wear clothes that you would not feel bad seeing the Lord and Savior in. That is what it really comes down to in my humble opinion.

Fall Semester Is Upon Us

I am not ready for school to begin. However, I am not really wanting to keep the summer going.

I am tired of working full time with nothing to do for half of the day. Next time I work full time, remind me to never get a job like that. It just makes me feel bad as well as making me feel like a horrible employee when my boss looks at me and I am reading or writing a blog or looking at pictures because everything is done for the day and all I can do is answer phones. It makes for a very long day, and this week has been longer than most.

School. I have a very love hate relationship... mostly hate. The love comes from the people and that is about it. Yesterday I had to deliver a package of rhinestones to the ballroom main office. I went there, no one was there (which is odd because I literally had just gotten off the phone with Linda), so I dropped them off at the dance office just down the hall. On my way back to the van I walked back down past the folk dance room. I didn't actually think I would see anyone for a few different reasons. But Lo, and behold Will Farnbach comes walking down the hall. We hugged and I decided to peek into the room to wave real fast. I thought for sure, and so did Will, that they would be busy at work rehearsing and learning dances... but we were both wrong. There was everyone, just sitting on the ground stretching and taking a break. I said high for a few minutes and then I had to leave. I got some hugs and compliments on my hair from people and I felt genuinely loved by these people. That is when I left and got into the van to drive back to work. That is when I just felt so broken.

All of the sudden thoughts of making the wrong decision to not continue on with folk dance teams came flooding into my head. I felt lonely. I felt like I had no purpose at BYU anymore. I didn't realize how much I missed it. Now that I think about it, I almost tried to avoid it with out actually trying to. I went to one rec night. I missed all three performances done by various teams (SPAC Showcase, Festival of Nations, and the PAC Covey performance). It wasn't that I tried to, I just had so much on my hands.

If I could, I would go back to my very first semester of BYU and take clogging and do a folk dance team. I wanted to but I was nervous to try out and didn't think I would make it. I would have, I'm sure. I would go back and not do so horribly in certain classes. I would have passed certain ones the first time. I would have worked harder if I had known what I would be feeling now.

Would I have traded getting married? NEVER. But it will be interesting to see what I end up doing.

Where Oh Where Has The Summer Gone?

Oh where oh where could Summer be? This has been a great time of life. The hubby and I have had a lot of fun adventures.

1: We got married! I am so grateful that I have been able to marry my best friend. He has been such a gift to my life. He is the better half of this relationship, that is for sure.

One of my favorite pictures from the wedding.

2: We were able to go back to New York during the beginning of June for our reception out there. It was so nice to be back there. This time I got to see it all green and rainy. I had real wings (no more buffalo before them...) from Duff's and was in love! I am not huge on wings but these... these were different. Along with Duff's, we went to a lot of other great places for food. 

Other than eating a lot, Chad and I took some alone time and went up to Palmyra, New York. I was able to go there during Thanksgiving Break for my birthday but it was so cold and wasn't really super green. This was an amazing day. It was raining but when we were in the Sacred Grove we were not getting wet. We could hear the rain come down and hit the leaves but we were not even touched. It was so cool for me since I obviously did NOT grow up with this kind of terrain here in Utah. 

It was so nice to be with family while we were out there. I was able to get closer to Rachel, Auntie J, and Uncle Greg as well as meet some of the families that Chad and his family raved about that lived in their ward boundaries. It all depends on Grandma for Christmas if we end up going to New York or if we will be in Grand Junction. Either way, Christmas is with the Lanham's this year and I am quite excited (Thanksgiving will be with the Clark's).

So beautiful.

3: Chad and I celebrated our first real holiday together (other than memorial day). We had a good day for the Fourth of July. We watched fireworks and had a good dinner before hand. It was nice to forget work troubles for a day of fun and patriotism.

We love silly faces.

4: We became Grand Junction bound! We visited Grandma for a weekend. We played cards, looked at pictures, ate food, and just relaxed. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures while we were there of us or our doings, but I did pull my phone out and get awesome pictures of Chad and his siblings (mostly Scott, maybe one of Morgan) when they were little. Check out those awesome Halloween costumes! This picture has to be bigger so you can see the magnificent smaller ones.

Look at Scott's half man half woman costume! And the toothpaste Chad was!

5: I got my wisdom teeth pulled. I was in more pain before I got them pulled than I was afterwards for the most part. I also didn't really swell up at all. As you can tell by the picture. I couldn't move my mouth much for a while but I am feeling back to normal.

See? Not much swelling.. even by day 3.

6: We moved! Yay! Wymount was great and all..... uh.... Anyways! Our old place was around 650 square feet and we paid $607 for one bedroom, gas, and water. Electric was around $20 every month so in general we would pay about $630 per month. It was great once we got Chad a bike and we didn't drive as much. We were close to work and loved being there for the most part. 

One day in June we got an email from BYU saying that the payment for our apartment would be going up a certain amount. A one bedroom apartment like ours would now become $620 something... not including the electric. I had been feeling that we needed to be leaving and moving somewhere else but I couldn't put my finger on it. 

Well Chad and I were on our way to Grand Junction when we found out my best friend Celeste was moving to Texas. It turns out that they needed to sell their lease. She asked if we would be looking for a new apartment and if we would be interested. She gave us the details and it was the best deal ever! We have a washer and dryer with two bedrooms and no utilies for only $600 a month! We love it at our new place. It is exactly what need need.

7: We have made a lot of great food! I love to cook and bake. I love trying new things and making our own favorites. We are taking recipes from Pinterest, Grandma, our own parents, and I have made a few awesome recipes up. I have made changes to some old favorites from home to make them my own, and that is how it should be.

My Mexican Lasagna is our favorite recipe I make.. unless it is the chili... Gotta love great food

8: When Sundays come around I have been finding myself really wanting to just chill and watch a movie. I think that may become a tradition in the Lanham home. Some that we have watched lately are Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, 17 Miracles and many more that I cannot think of at the moment.

I would put pictures up of our new home but until I get some things put on the wall and I really do a lot of cleaning it won't happen. Life has been busy this summer as you can see but the Fall semester is fast approaching. We will see what life brings us from here on out.

And I promise, pictures of our place will come soon. I want to do that before school starts. Maybe on Saturday or sometime next week.

Kaitlin's Life List

My sister Gillian put her own life list on her blog and I was looking at it today and thought to myself, "I should put one up of my own. Why not?" So I am going to model mine after her list, since we have a lot of the same things, and post it here.

My Life List:

1. Visit Scotland and Ireland in one trip
2. Learn to swim and love it
3. Own a house
4. Get Married in the temple of the Lord
5. Have Children
6. Pay for someone's groceries 
7. Do the 12 days of Christmas for a family at least once
8. Grow my hair out to the middle of my back
9. Learn to play the Guitar
10. Learn to play the piano
11. Fill up a whole journal- hand written
12. Build a home with a wrap around porch with land (I don't want to see my neighbors bathroom)
13. Be a great cook/baker
14. Win a chili cook off or pie contest
15. Learn to make the best sugar cookies ever
16. Learn to sew really well
17. Ride horses with my husband (and not have him freak out)
18. Own a horse or two
19. Run a 5k and enjoy it
20. Throw a huge, successful surprise party
21. Host a favorite things party
22. Go to Hawaii and see Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona
23. See a broadway show
24. Go to a Sara Bareilles concert
25. Go to the rodeo with my husband
26. Watch my Children get married
27. Visit Barcelona, Budapest, and Sienna in another trip
28. Visit every temple in the United States, because come on, every temple in the world?
29. Get kissed at midnight on New Years Eve (midnight)
30. Meet Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith. Oh! And Emma Thompson
31. Have a mistletoe kiss
32. Own a nikon/cannon... Well a good DSLR in general
33. Learn how to drive a stick
34.  Read Harry Potter to my children
35. See Cirque Du Solei
36. Have awesome in-laws
37. Be endowed
38. Become crafty and have a super cute decorated home
39. See all National Parks in Utah (I have seen none)
40. Go to the Sacred Grove
41. Go to Niagra Falls
42. Be a good mother
43. Make a great Thanksgiving meal
44. Make homemade pie crust and have it turn out well
45. Make homemade pizza
46. Tap with Nigel Lythgoe and Savion glover (I sort have done that.. I will be counting it)
47. Be a dancer for the following: Stacy Tookey, Sonya Tayeh, Tyce Diorio, Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo, Christopher Scott, and Travis Wall
48. Try a cannoli (It wasn't as good as I thought... too thick of filling, like frosting, for me)
49. Stop being scared of needles
50. Create a painting from paint in water balloons, like The Princess Diary's 

What's on your life list?

-Kaitlin

Wedding Pictures Part 4

Reception time. Let's party!

Copyright Amanda Castleberry Photography

Baby Nixon! That would be Ally's baby boy.

Rachel (my  new cousin) and our friend Maggie! Maggie is from the same home ward as Chad but is out at BYU for school. We met in the dressing room fall semester. It was quite funny how we pieced it together.

Jaymie and my nephew Sam. 

Sure looks like Geoff had his hands full with this rambunctious Austin.

You can see it formulating in his eyes. 

Told you. He totally smashed it in my face.

Don't worry though, I got him back.

Matt!!! 

I am definitely his daughter. Can you tell?

Our first dance. You and I by Michael Buble.

Same five girls. Different Summer. Different wedding. We got a picture at our friend Sirie's wedding last summer. None of us were even engaged at that point and now three of us are married. I think Ally is next since her missionary just got home. ;) But I could be wrong. 

This is Maci (I think I may have spelled it wrong....). She is a doll. I grew up being friends with her older sisters. This little one is a sweetheart. I can't wait for the day that I get to attend her reception to see her all grown up and married in the temple.

Okay these two make me laugh. I love Whitney and Danny.

Folk Dance!

Ammon. What a stud.

I wasn't sure if I was going to clear the string of lights that were practically right above my head. But I did.

Note Sarah in the back. Ready for the kill.

Kill.

Chad says I have a nice butt in this picture. Well thank you honey. I pride myself in a well shaped butt now. 

And were off to Heber City!

All in all we had such a wonderful wedding. Our sealing was so very special. I love everyone so much, but I love Chad, my very best friend, the most. 

Thank you for asking me to marry you those (almost) six months ago.