Triplet Delivery

I got a steriod shot on Monday afternoon because the babies were going to come soon and they wanted a few days of steriods for their lungs. I took this photo of the carseats and posted on facebook, a coming soon update. Little did I know that less than 12 hours later, we would have our babies.

baby car seats waiting for their future occupants

On Tuesday morning, very early, I woke up to what I thought was my water breaking. So I got up to figure it out, only it was water. I was bleeding all over the place. So I woke up Bryan and said we need to go to the hospital now, I’m bleeding everywhere. I think that is the fastest I’ve ever seen him get up and get dressed. I think he was up and dressed in less than a minute.

Then we rushed to the hospital. They did a quick ultrasound to make sure the babies were still ok and prepped me for a c-section. Within an hour we were back in surgery and the babies were delivered.

I actually thought it would be interesting to watch, but they put up a sheet and maybe it’s a good thing. I wasn’t really looking forward to a c-section and I didn’t have any time to think about it or panic. They just went in and got the job done.

Baby William was born first. I didn’t realize he was born till I heard a baby cry. He needed some oxygen when he was born and for a day or two afterwards.

William a day or two after birth

Baby Hailey was born next. She needed a ventilator initially, but is now doing great.

Hailey on the ventilator

I couldn’t tell when Hailey and Anna were born, they must’ve had smaller cries. I did hear what I thought was one baby, but I didn’t know for sure.

Anna streching out in her incubator

They didn’t show us the babies after they were born because they needed help breathing. After the surgery, they wheeled me into a room to recover and took Bryan to see the babies. But he didn’t get photos and couldn’t really see because they were working on the babies and he just kindof had to watch from the doorway.

Later on my mom came and Bryan and my mom went and saw the babies. I wasn’t in good enough shape at that time to see them. Later in the day, they were able to get me into a wheelchair and then I went to the NICU to see them. We just had to look at them in the incubators though.

The babies are doing great now and are off oxygen and the ventilators. Now we just need them to grow big and strong so they can come home. And they need to learn to use a bottle and gain some weight.

baby Anna

Bryan holding tiny Anna

William in his incubator. They washed his hair and put clothes on him and he did not like it and was very upset with the nurse.

Hailey after she got clothes. She had a rough few days but seems much happier now.

My Mom holding Hailey. She has awesome hair.

And finally, my last belly pic. It was at 31 weeks. I had planned to do another one, but then I had the babies instead.

Now I’m home and recovering. Hopefully by the time the babies are released from the hospital, I’ll be all ready to take care of them and feel much better.

Bryan has been so wonderful and supportive. He’s gotten up in the night to take care of me. He probably didn’t realize that when we had our babies, he’d be getting up with me instead of them. But, he has been so great to help me in any way he can.

Halloween and More

 

For Halloween my siblings came over and we went trick or treating. I wore one of those skeleton shirts with three babies on it. I was much skinnier a month ago. It was easier to walk even if I got tired. Now I’m so huge I don’t think I could wander the neighborhoods to go trick or treating.

It’s amazing how much being pregnant takes out of you. Not sure if three is harder or not, but it probably is. The doctor wants me to stop working now and in another 6-8 weeks I’ll be getting a c-section and the babies will be coming early. Luckily my work is so awesome and will let me work from home so I don’t have to quit, and technically, if I’m laying in bed working, it’s not really like going to work so it doesn’t count as working and I don’t need to stop.

We are going to be staying in Utah for Christmas since it’s not a good idea for me to travel, so we got a Christmas tree and some ornaments. One day soon we will put them up. Mostly it will be me laying on the couch watching Bryan put it up.

About a month ago, I got the brilliant idea that we should repaint the interior of the house and redo all the baseboards before I had the babies. It’s now December and the painting is finally done (minus the touch up), our house is one big messy pile of furniture and belongings, and I can no longer lift or do much. Poor Bryan is now the one who has to haul and move everything while I lay around acting all helpless. But it is nice that he ties my shoes for me and brings me water and snacks. He’s wonderful. And it’s nice to have someone else carry the laundry baskets and stuff.

My parents are also awesome. They have both been so helpful. My dad has mowed our lawn a few times, helped in the yard, and has done so much for us. My mom has brought us dinner and helped in the yard. We stayed at their house for several days while the painting happened.

The babies are moving a lot now and it’s kinda fun. And it’s kinda crazy. Sometimes I can feel movement that I think is probably all the babies because my tummy is moving in three different places.

It’s been a lot of fun to see the ultrasounds and Bryan loves to come with me so he can see the babies too.

Our IVF Journey

Before Bryan and I got married, we knew the only way we’d have children was to go to a fertility specialist. Since we both had heard it takes people a long time, we started the process in February, right after we were married. First off, we didn’t know whether or not having kids was even a possibility, but we weren’t going to say it wasn’t until we went to some specialists and they told us that.

We selected the University of  Utah because they have one of the top ranked programs. We figured they have the highest standards and the best technology since they are a medical school. They also were more reasonably priced than some of the other places we researched in Utah.

At our first appointment, they sent us both down and had us get labs. The doctor seemed so confident that we’d be having a baby in no time. Bryan had to go  to a different doctor and then we had to wait and see what the other doctor said. I felt very positive and confident that they would be able to help us have a baby.

Then my lab results came back. They were not good. 😦 Apparently I have almost no eggs in my body. The doctor even mentioned an egg donor or donated embryos. Then the doctor told Bryan news that was also discouraging. But we were determined to try for our own baby. Bryan’s part came first. They gave us a 50% chance of success. I felt very good about it and very hopeful.

We had success with the sperm part. We were both so thrilled. Then we had to start the egg retrieval part. It was actually a very long process. I had to go to get all these tests and things done before we could even start. Like most doctor tests, they were not fun or enjoyable, but had to be done. I had to have at least 6-8 eggs they could find to even start. They could see 14, so we could start the process.

Then came the medicines. Since I was the worst case scenario, I had to have the highest doses of medicine that they could give me.  It also cost the most. I was giving myself 4 shots in the stomach every morning. It really sucked. Two of the medicines were powder that I had to mix with these other solutions. And one of them really hurt to give myself. It would leave giant spider bite itchy welts on my stomach.

The photo above is what 5K worth of medicine looks like. It may not look like much, but I’ve never been so glad to finish up a pile of medicine. I was taking Saizen, Luporn, Gonal-F, and Repronex.

The medicines made me feel very sick. Kinda like being pregnant, but it also gave me horrible headaches and I felt super bloated. I just wanted to lay on the floor at work every day because I felt so sick and miserable, but I couldn’t, so I just worked away. I wasn’t allowed to exercise during this period, but since I felt so sick, I guess it didn’t matter.

At a certain point in the medication, your eggs are mature enough that they can harvest them. Then I had to give myself a trigger shot in the leg. Below is the size of the needle. I had to poke it all the way into my leg and then pull back and make sure I didn’t hit a vein. It was super hard for me to to. The tummy shot needles weren’t as long or thick. I just kept praying that I could give myself the shot because it wasn’t something fun.

 

After the trigger shot, I had to go to the IVF doctor exactly 36 hours later to harvest my eggs. I thought it would be very interesting to watch, but they put me to sleep. Apparently it works best if you are asleep. I guess maybe some women would freak out if they were awake. My best understanding of the retrieval process is that they poke this giant needle into your ovaries and suck out the eggs somehow. Bryan had to wait in the waiting room, he didn’t get to watch either.

When I woke up I found out they were able to retrieve 8 eggs. 5 of them were mature enough to fertilize.

I felt totally fine, just drowsy, the day after the egg retrieval. The next day I decided to go to work. I was feeling a bit drowsy and sore. By halfway through the day I went home because I was hurting. The next day, I really hurt. I had to lay around and not do anything because I was sore and miserable.

Once they had my eggs, they had to use a special method to fertilize them called ICSI. They actually inject the sperm into the egg. Then it is cultured and they wait for it to turn into a 5 day blastocyst.

On day 5, we went back to the IVF doctor to get two embryos implanted in my uterus. I was very nervous on how it would go. Usually there is a 50-60% die off of the fertilized eggs, so we didn’t know how many we would end up with. The doctors warned us before the procedure that we might only get 1 embryo and that most likely we would not have any to freeze. So, we really didn’t know what to expect.

When we went there, there were 4 embryos alive! They were actually surprised that so many lived. Only one died. They gave me some medicine to make me relax and then took me back to the procedure room. Bryan got to come for this part. By that time, I was half out of my mind from the medicine and very loopy. I was sitting in this chair that had all sorts of buttons that I decided to push. I somehow made it so my chair was dumping me out and couldn’t figure out how to get back in the chair. Bryan had to fix it.

I really liked the doctor who put the 2 embryos in my uterus. He went over everything with us and said that if I were his daughter, this is what he would advise me to do. He also said he we would be in his prayers. I really felt like he was a very caring and spiritual doctor.

They gave us a 50% chance of the procedure working and me getting pregnant. Then if it did work, we had a 40% chance of success. There was a minimal (like 1%) chance of triplets.

After that, I had to be on bedrest for a few days. Bedrest is very boring. I can  only watch so much tv, read, and play on the computer so much. I wanted to get up and run or walk, or just get out of the house. But I didn’t. I stuck to it.

Then I had to wait a few weeks for a pregnancy test. The night before our test, I decided to take one of those home tests. It came back positive. I really felt confident that the test worked for reals and it would be a positive result. The next day we went to the doctors for our blood test.

The called us a couple of hours later to tell us the test was positive. My HCG levels were 852. The nurse said it was a really good number. Then I was supposed to  go back in a few days to make sure the numbers were increasing. The next time I went in, my numbers were like 2000. They said it was really good. Then we had to set up an ultrasound for a few weeks later. They said to check on the baby and to determine if I was having twins.

As a side note, apparently those HCG levels were quite high. But every woman is different, so there really isn’t a way to determine multiples by just a blood test.

A few weeks later we went back to the doctors for our ultrasound. The first baby popped up on the screen and it was so cool to see the tiny baby. Then the next babies came up and the doctor said “one split”. Turns out, we were having triplets! So cool to see all three babies on one screen. Bryan and I were both surprised. We knew twins were a possibility and I thought maybe we were having twins because I felt like my pants were getting too small, but triplets never crossed my mind.

Right before the ultrasound Bryan joked that we should tell everyone we were having triplets. I told him we should stop joking about that in the waiting rooms because there were lots of sensitive hormonal ladies around.

After the ultrasound, we called family to tell them the news. Because I like to joke around, some of my sisters thought we were kidding. Bryan had to talk to one of my sisters because she really didn’t believe me.

The nice IVF clinic gave us three baby hats. Some ladies who have been there for treatment make them for all the women who go through the process. I thought it was super nice.

We are now at 12 weeks and just starting our second trimester. Bryan and I can’t be more excited about our three little babies. We both know that it is a miracle and that Heavenly Father is blessing us with these children. Triplets are so rare, even in the IFV area, and we are the 1%. That doesn’t happen by chance.

The other cool part about triplets is that every time we go to the doctors, we get an ultrasound. It’s super fun to see the babies growth every two weeks or so. We have lots of nice pictures of our babies already.

We are due in March, but the doctor doesn’t think I’ll make it more than 32-33 weeks, so most likely our babies will be born in January and spend a few weeks in the NICU. I also have to have a c-section. But it will make me tough and I’ll get a really cool scar. Course it will most likely be somewhere I don’t show off, so you’ll just have to trust me that it will be cool.

Thus far, I’ve felt sick and miserable. Much like taking 4 shots a day, but without the tummy welts and bruises. I also eat a million times a day and sleep a lot. I think I wake up to pee about 5 times a night, and I have to keep a snack by my bed because I wake up in the night sick and have to eat. I can’t run any more, but I’ve been walking. My tummy is about the size of a womans who is at 20 weeks pregnant with 1 baby.

But hopefully we’re almost through with the nausea period. Bryan has been so loving and helpful. Each day when I get home from work and lay on the couch, he figures out what to feed us. Before bed when I’m too lazy and tired to go downstairs, Bryan will go get me a snack and bring my my gallon of nightly drinking water.

I really hope one or two of the babies look like him. And it would be nice if they have his kind temperment. He is one of the kindest, most Christlike people I know. I am a better person because I have him in my life.

 

Bryan and I – Our Dating Story, and Finally some wedding photos

First Meeting

Bryan and Leslie met through Bryan’s roommate. She was having a movie night and invited Bryan to join them. He remembers the incredibly tasty brownies, she remembers him being nice.

As they got to know one another, they began to spend more time together socially. In fact, they discovered that they both attended the same ward!

First Date

One day Leslie agreed with some friends to find a date and go on a group date with them. They set a date and a time and then all agreed to get a date. Shortly before the day of the date, Leslie frantically began searching for a date. She texted Bryan and his roommate, neither responded.

Then, both responded and agreed to be her date. Rather than leaving one behind, she found another girl to add to the mix. Which was good since the originally scheduled friends did not end up with dates.

Bryan considers that more of a friend thing and his first recollection of our date was when we went to a friends birthday party dinner at Wingers. It was made more entertaining and awkward due to the situation in which we sat between a roommate and his ex-girlfriend, and another girl brought along a guy who was her date when a different member of the group thought they were going out later. Fun times!

Blue Cloud

When Leslie and Bryan would get together, they would sit on Blue Cloud, a giant Love Sac that made movie watching much more comfortable. One day when Leslie and some friends were watching a movie, Leslie texted Bryan and said “Blue Cloud misses you”. It was then that he realized, he wanted to keep Leslie around. 🙂

Easter Egg Hunts, Manti, Outer Banks and more

Since their first date, Leslie and Bryan have spent a lot of time together. They’ve hosted amazing Easter Egg Hunts, Halloween Parties, and gone some beautiful places. They went to a family reunion with Leslie’s family in Manti, they went to the outer banks in North Carolina with Bryan’s family, they went to Idaho, San Francisco and plenty of other places.

Home Remodel

In 2012, Leslie bought a short sale house that needed a lot of work. To start off the project, Leslie, Bryan, and many helpful friends ripped out all the flooring and gutted the bathrooms.

They threw all the trash out the second story window anticipating that eventually they would get a dumpster. Bryan really enjoyed throwing a toilet out the window and using a sledgehammer on the bathroom.

One giant part of the project was painting. Leslie is not the most coordinated of painters, so painting meant getting very messy.

Though there are still quite a few projects left on the house, Bryan and Leslie have worked hard to make the house liveable and nice. Never once has Bryan complained or questioned why Leslie had to buy a house that needed so much work. He has been the most helpful, supportive, and loving person throughout the process.

When Leslie spent time out in the yard working on the sprinkler system, Bryan pitched in and helped. He helped roof the shed, and has made many trips to the dump with Leslie. Without Bryan to help, Leslie could not have accomplished as much. He makes her projects and ideas possible.

The Proposal

Bryan knew Leslie was an extraordinary woman and so an ordinary proposal would not suffice. He wanted symbolism and depth. He found it at “This Is The Place” Park, the location where the Saints first arrived in the Salt Lake valley. At that time, Brigham Young declared that “this is the right place” for the Saints to settle and build their homes. They had arrived at the end of a long journey, and were about to begin their lives anew. Likewise, Leslie and Bryan, born about 24 hours apart from each other near the end of 1976, had a long journey before meeting each other, and are now ready to begin their lives anew, together.

Bryan scouted out the park the day before he proposed and discovered the Mary Fielding Smith (Hyrum Smith’s wife) home, which was away from the main village. This home was dedicated to the pioneer women of the church. Behind the home was a bench overshadowed by an 1800’s style pergola, in addition to an excellent view of the valley. Bryan sat here for a few minutes and imagined Leslie as one of these pioneer women. He believes she would have been a leader and a strength to the other women of the time. He thought of how he would ask her to marry him the following day.

The next day (Sat., Oct. 26) Leslie was under the impression that her and Bryan were going on a hike mainly because it might be the last warm day of the year. He let her suggest park locations to visit on their leisurely stroll that would hopefully end at Mary Fielding Smith’s home. With just a little help from Bryan, including a strange interest in a lamp post in the distance, they arrived at the home and Leslie opted to sit down on the bench. After talking and cuddling for a few minutes, Bryan said, “So, this is the place”. Then he said, “Do you know what else? You are the right person.” After a moment he then said, “Do you know what else? This is the right time.” Then he took a ring out of his pocket as he lowered himself to one knee, and asked Leslie if she would marry him. She didn’t suspect a thing until his proposal. She said yes and he slipped the ring on her finger.

 

The Reception and Wedding

 

We held our reception on a Thursday night and had our wedding on Friday morning, followed by a lunch at the Tuscany. I loved the way we  did it. I would’ve been so tired if we had crammed the reception in on Friday night. As it was, by the time lunch was over I was tired and sick of wearing my wedding dress. The photo above is with some good friends who came to the wedding. Don’t anyone else feel bad your photo isn’t there too. It was taking forever to load photos, so I gave up on adding any more.

Our reception was a carnival. Below is the cake. It turned out really nice.

 

The wedding was wonderful and special and it was great to marry my best friend. I never grow tired of being with him. It’s a joy to have him in my life. When I’m sick, he takes care of me, and when I’m not, he still does. I love water and I always need a bottle or two of it on my nightstand for when I wake in the night. He always makes sure I have plenty of water to drink so I won’t be thirsty.

 

Wedding Pictures and wonderful Bryan

So the photographer hasn’t gotten us our wedding photos yet. I’m hoping we get them soon, but until then, I thought I’d add a few in from my iphone.

We had the most awesome wedding cake. Our reception was carnival themed and our cake had a ferris wheel on top with a bride and groom. It was one of the coolest cakes I’ve ever seen. It far exceeded my expectations. The woman who made the cake was amazing. She also made very yummy tasting cake. It must’ve taken hours for her to make it.

There is a tradition that you freeze the top layer of the wedding cake and eat it on your first anniversary. We didn’t. We ate it on Sunday after church. The thought of eating frozen year old cake did not sound appealing. We’re not really cake people anyways. I can’t even remember the last time I made a cake. Probably a year or two ago.

Here’s me eating the bride off the ferris wheel.

Here is Bryan eating the groom from the ferris wheel.

I felt a little bad eating the cake because it must’ve taken hours to make and looked so amazing. I can’t wait to get wedding photos back so I can post how cool the cake looked. Some people are really talented that way.

Below is our house. Some friends decided to decorate it for when we got home. They purposely spelled married wrong so we would think it was someone else. We didn’t.

 

Both of our families were so supportive and helpful. They pitched in and ran the carnival games without complaint. My sister Jenny and her husband Tyler, and my sister Angela and her husband Bryan kept the food and drinks stocked. People had to run to the store and buy more plates and cups because we didn’t get enough. They helped with the cleanup and setup. All of my sisters and all of Bryan’s siblings were so great. It turned out great because we had some wonderful people helping us.

So I made this photo cutout board for our reception. It actually looked better once I finished trimming the wood. I thought it was super cool and turned out awesome. Bryan wasn’t as excited about it because he thought it looked a little bit too homemade, but since I worked so hard on it, I told him it was staying. And honestly, I thought it looked really good for a woman having made it. I know it wasn’t perfect, but I did the best I could with what I had and it was a hit.

I didn’t even have to buy supplies for it. I had the wood in the garage leftover from where I removed part of the workbench I kept hitting with my SUV. I hit it one too many times and dented poor Thor (my SUV’s name) and after that I decided that I had to rip out the part I kept hitting. Then I had to pay for a dent repair. So it’s good the wood was re-purposed.

There were so many generous people who gave us wedding gifts. It was so good of them.  I was actually able to get a nice steam canner and pressure cooker with some of the gift cards. That will be super nice for when we have a giant garden. I’m planning to can tomatoes, corn, and probably beans. I also found out you can freeze peppers, so I will be doing that with some of them. We cook with peppers and onions all the time.

We also bought the wood to frame the basement with the Lowe’s gift cards we got. Our wedding site mentioned that Lowe’s was my favorite store. As a result we got several cards for Lowe’s. I’ve been wanting to work on the basement, so it was really great to get them. I’ve got a good portion of the basement done and a good portion to go, but in another few months it will be done. Maybe sooner. It all depends on how the garden and yard go. I’ve got a few big things left to do in them before I can go back to the basement.

It seems kinda crazy that we have been married for a couple months already. Time has just flown by. Bryan is such a great guy and it’s nice to have him around every day. He helps me in my random projects even when he’s not super thrilled that I decided to start them.

One day last year, before we were married, he came over only to discover that I had decided to make a very very large batch of applesauce. I think it was 2-3 bushels worth of apples. I guess I wasn’t thinking about how long it would take because I started at like 7. He never pointed out to me that we shouldn’t have started making it that late. By the time we were done, it was like 1 or 2 in the morning. But now we have lots and lots of applesauce. Hopefully enough to last all year. Store applesauce is yucky compared to homemade. And we didn’t have to add in sugar because the apples were sweet, so it is super healthy too.

One thing I really love from when I was younger is apple turnovers that my mom makes. She puts applesauce in pie dough and folds it into a turnover. She sprinkles a little milk and sugar on top. Even now, those are such a treat to eat. I might have to make them for Bryan one of these days.

Below is a photo of Bryan and I when we were working on the house. He was so good to help me with the remodeling of our house. Even though we had just started dating, he came over and helped me night after night. I knew he was a keeper. He took trips to the dump with me and helped me put in a yard. He painted and then painted some more. And just when he thought there was nothing left to paint, I decided that I no longer wanted the wall color and I want to repaint the whole entire house. We haven’t done it yet though. I have to finish some of my other projects first. Then my room is going to be light and bright.

Formal Photos

Here I am about 5 days away from my wedding. I’m excited to marry my best friend. We had formal photos taken a few weeks back. I know there are traditionals out there, but I wanted to not stress so much about getting nice photos on our wedding day and we both wanted nice photos. Here is a photo from our photo shoot.

Drunken Candy

Once upon a time, one of Leslie’s coworkers told her a vendor always sends candy filled with alcohol to the office. He said he ate about 10-12 one year and started feeling weird. Said coworker also told Leslie how the chocolates were so incredibly yummy he just couldn’t help himself. He didn’t realize they had alcohol in them until another coworker told him they did. Since then, he’s avoided the chocolates at all costs.

For months, Leslie has heard the story of how this coworker got drunk off of chocolates and how clients shouldn’t send each other candy with alcohol in it. Leslie has never personally seen any chocolates with alcohol in them at the office and has sampled a variety of chocoaltes. Her favorites were they creamy mint ones.

Yesterday, the creamy mint chocolates came! Oh happy day. Leslie gobbled one up and brought one in for the alcohol candy eating coworker. Alas! He could not eat them because they were the chocolates with alcohol in them. Leslie reviewed the ingredients and the chocolate makers website. No alcohol in them….but there was an ingredient called “Chocolate Liquor”. Pronounced differently and completely different. If you google it, it’s basically liquid chocolate. No wonder those candies taste so yummy. How can you not love liquid chocolate?

Laughing, Leslie gave the chocolates to another coworker who is in the ward with the drunken office mate of Leslie. He went in and started munching down the candy. He said it was the best way he knew to avoid important church callings.

Then Leslie broke the news that the chocolated did not contain alcohol. Said drunken coworker googled it and agreed. He then munched down on chocolates. Tragically, the said coworker did not get drunken off the chocolates this year. No woozy head, not drunken behavior. Just coworker chowing down on chocolates. Maybe Leslie should’ve kept him in the dark so he would’ve left more chocolates for her to eat.

Leslie’s coworker spent the rest of the day telling her why the candys gave him a drunken feeling. The excuses ranged from the chocolate being such a high quality that they probably contained a higher concentration of caffiene than any other chocolate (he even thought they had more caffiene than a cup of coffee LOL!), to the richness and sugar in it providing a sugar high.

All Leslie could do is laugh. Illness and health are definitely tied to mental thought sometimes.

Leslie ate the last chocolate this morning. Goodbye yummy famous mint chocolates. You are some of the tastiest christmas chocolates ever! Leslie will buy some more of you someday.

For those of you who want to try the most amazing chocolates ever, this is the link: Mrs Cavanaughs.

Apparently they also give tours and they are located in UT! I wonder if they’d let you swim in their vat of liquid chocolate and drink up the yummy goodness of those candies. MMMM..Maybe Bryan would like to take a honeymoon tour of the chocolate factory and spend the day munching on chocoaltes.

Wedding Dress Shopping

I first tried on Bridget’s dress which did not fit. I thought it was going to kill me. Well, somehow the way it fit it felt like it was crushing my windpipe and I decided no amount of altering was going to make me put it on again. And the sleeves were tight and hurt. She told me the sleeves were tight and bugged her when she wore it. My neck hurt for about an hour after I got the dress off.

Sicily, Briget’s daughter, was funny. She was so mad that I tried on the dress. She said “I was saving that dress for my wedding.” She did not want me wearing it or trying it on.

Then we went downtown to gateway bridal and prom. They claim to have the largest selection of modest dresses in the country.

So then they had all these “store sample dresses”. You just try them on and then if you like them, they call somewhere to determine what sizes they have available.

I told the girl my spending limit. I didn’t want the dress to cost as much as a car. The girl in the room on the other side of me was trying on dresses super expensive dress. And they weren’t white, so I guess if she was having a tem ple wedding, it wasn’t going to be in the dress she was picking out.

I didn’t even bother looking at the super expensive ones. They were pretty, but too much money. And all of them were completely covered in lace which is not what I wanted on my wedding dress.

But when I sent the girl a list of all the dresses I liked from online, she said “I don’t know if we have any of those in stock”. They were part of the latter day bride section which apparently they were almost all out of and it was going to be 4 months before they had any again.

Nora tried to get me to try on a plus sized dress on clearance and I told her no way. It was big enough that the dress would need to get cut in half to fit. I figured I might as well buy a dress my size that doesn’t need to be redone. Although, if they had to cut the dress in half, maybe I would’ve had 2 dresses for the price of one!

Then I picked out a few dresses and figured I’d find something other than the ones I had pulled up from their website. Then the girl found two dresses from the site that I liked. I tried one on. It was cut weird. Bridget laughed, I did too. Nothing like having a weird ribbon bow thing smack in the middle of the chest area to make it look awkward and weird.

The one I picked out was really cool. I loved it. It was actually between two dresses. The girl checked on the sizes and the one I got had one that would fit me. The other one, I would’ve had to get altered several sizes smaller.

When I went back and picked up the dress, they had me try it on to determine where it needed altering. The coolest thing is that it fit absolutely perfect. They didn’t need to alter it at all. How amazing is that?

Now, the trick will be to not ruin it, spill on it, or trip over it when I’m wearing it. All of those things could happen….

Wedding Invitation and website

We’re hoping to get the wedding invitations sent out before Christmas. Here’s a PDF of the invitation: The Wedding Invitation

We have our website up and running here: www.bryanandleslie.net

With just about a month to go before the wedding, here’s a photo of us doing a snow angel. Not the best idea when it’s freezing outside.

Engagement Fun

Here we are going to a BYU game. We made it to about halftime. Snow slush games aren’t so fun.

Here we are at engagement pictures. Still cold. I’m thinking cold is a winter theme.
Trying on wedding dresses. It was actually kind of fun.

If you want to see our wedding website, go here: bryanandleslie.net