Thanksgiving in ...

Tyler and I are so excited about both of our sisters' weddings this December!! We're going to be in Utah and Arizona for almost 3 weeks for both of the events. We're going to Utah mid-December for Ashley's wedding in the Mount Timpanogos Temple, then a few days before Christmas we're flying down to Arizona. We'll be there for Christmas, the wedding and then fly back to Florida on New Years' Day.

So the question I had was .... what about Thanksgiving? This year we had planned on going to Utah and spending it with Ty's family, but since we're going a couple weeks later for the wedding Ty wasn't so keen on buying more cross-country plane tickets. So we're going to spend 5 days in Utah before and after the wedding in lieu of that trip.

I've always spent Thanksgiving with family, I mean come on... it truly is the holiday all about family! So this arrangement didn't really make me too happy (spending it in Florida with no family and making our own turkey dinner.) I told Ty that if we were going to be alone for Thanksgiving, we better do something fun that week!

Little did I know that Tyler would then do some research, and came back to me with this.

Ever heard of a "Babymoon"?? It's the final trip a couple takes before becoming parents! We're going on a 7 day Western Caribbean Cruise, heading to Honduras, Grand Cayman, Cozumel & The Bahamas!! The ship leaves out of Ft. Lauderdale, so all we have to do is drive 3 hours and we're there! Since we have Florida residency, cruises are all discounted - so we're actually spending about the same we would have for plane tickets.

Tyler planned this trip when I was in the worst part of my "first trimester sickness" so I wasn't really getting as excited about it as I should have. During that time I had no desire to eat, get out of bed, let alone get on a boat! But now that I'm feeling MUCH better, I'm starting to get really excited!!

We took a cruise for our honeymoon to the Eastern Caribbean and absolutely loved it! We're really excited to be going back and we're with the same line, Princess, and check out more snorkeling and white beaches. I honestly never thought I'd go on another Caribbean cruise, especially not so soon. But then again... I never thought I'd be living in Florida either!

This will definitely be a Thanksgiving to remember -- and I'm just assuming that they'll serve a really good Thanksgiving meal that night! We'll miss all our family on that day, but luckily we'll be seeing everyone a few weeks later. Hopefully we'll even see ... you!

Family in Town

Here are a few other pictures from our eventful week last week with our family. With Ben & Paige we went to Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom. After they left we had just my mom and Steven and we went to the Beach, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disney Quest, Shopping, a Doctor's Appointment, Swimming, Jet Skiing, and Downtown Disney... it was an action packed week to say the least!!

I'm really lucky that my health has improved so much the past few weeks. If my family had visited 6 weeks ago I probably would have had to skip out on lots of the action. Since being in my "second trimester" it's a whole new world!! I've had a couple bad mornings here and there, but for the most part I'm feeling MUCH better!

Since I'm not really showing yet (I just look a little chubby in the middle, not so much pregnant) and I haven't felt the baby move yet... I honestly just feel like a normal person again! I've gained 3 pounds last month (not back to my pre-pregnancy weight yet, but I'm getting there) and 2 weeks from today (November 6th) we get to find out if the little seed is going to be a BOY or GIRL. I'm honestly not hoping for one more than the other ... I just am really excited to find out!

In other news .... Tyler's sister Ashley is officially engaged and getting married to Scott Whitaker on December 19th! This has been in the works since I posted about our year of weddings a couple months ago ... but I wanted to wait until the official ring was on the finger (and after they announced it to facebook) to make it public on here! We haven't met Scott yet, but we're so excited for them and we'll be heading out to Utah a few days before the big event!

So that will wrap up the year with 3 Jennings' kids getting married in 2009! Quite the year!

Ty's Birthday!

**Just so you all know, that really was Steven on that last post. He did that all on his own - he was hoping for a few more comments - but he was glad to know that people across the world could read his words!**

After a fun-filled busy week, Tyler and I are back to normal life in Florida. While my family was here, however, we celebrated Tyler's birthday! While I spent my birthday alone for the majority of the day, he had my mom, brother, sister and future brother-in-law all here for the occasion.

He took the day off from work so he could spend time with the family having fun! We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom, had a late lunch at Pei Wei, went swimming in our neighborhood pool, then ended the day with Cheesecake Factory for dinner and presents and cake back at our place.

There have been quite a few changes in our lives since Tyler's last birthday. Although we went to Cheesecake Factory for both years' birthdays, in between the two dinners we've both changed jobs, moved across the country and now have a baby on the way. But even with those dramatic changes, I'm sure the changes between this birthday and the next will be even more intense!!

We've been married 2 ½ years and I still keep finding more reasons why I love him.

• He's SO excited to be a dad. He gets such a huge smile on his face as soon as anyone brings up the baby on the way. We find out in less than 3 weeks if it's a boy or girl! We'll be thrilled either way…
• He has been so patient and understanding with my crazy pregnancy symptoms. From doing the grocery shopping, cooking, helping with the cleaning, sacrificing nights out - he's changed his lifestyle without complaining a bit.
• He does little things that he knows will make a big impact on me. For example when he got back from the DMV with our new Florida license plates for the Acura I was expecting the typical Florida Oranges plate, but he had this …

(There are over 100 specialty plates you can choose from here and he knew I liked the dolphin one the best. But since it's an extra fee every year, I didn't think we'd actually get one. He knows how much I love dolphins and wanted to make me happy)

• He is able to make friends with people here in Florida so effortlessly. He's setting a great example to the youth he serves with at church, and he's one of the favorite leaders.
• He's such a hard worker and has been doing an amazing job with his new company. Even though he's the "new guy" he's picked everything up so quickly you'd think he'd been doing it for years.
• He truly is my best friend and we understand each other so well. I love just chatting with him, exploring Florida together, and preparing to be parents.

I'm so excited for the years to come!!

Steven's Post!!

This is Steven (Rachel's little bro). I'm in Orlando right now!!! When we were coming home from the airport we got rear ended by a weird guy with a mustache. Here is a picture of the damage.

Me and Ty went on about every ride at Disney World. At Epcot my favorite ride was Test Track and at Magic Kingdom my favorite ride was Splash Mountain. At animal kingdom my favorite ride was Everest.

You should probably visit Rachel and Tyler because they love visitors!

On Tyler's birthday we went to the Cheesecake Factory and had cake at their house.

Ben, Paige, my mom, and I had a great time in Florida. I still have four more days in Florida and they are going to be a blast! It has been fun fun writing on the blog - until next time.

Visitors!

Starting tomorrow ... for the first time ever ... we're having visitors! While we lived in Utah there were always lots of family members coming and going, with lots of people to visit and stay with. But now, my family is coming just to visit us (and of course DisneyWorld & the Beach).

Tomorrow my mom & Steven are flying in from Arizona and they'll be here for a whole week. He has a whole week off from school for October Break this year, so they're spending it with us. I think my mom is looking forward to seeing her pregnant daughter, seeing where we live, going "baby shopping", and to one of my doctor's appointments (not our ultrasound though, we can't find out the gender until the start of November.) Steven is looking forward to DisneyWorld, Swimming, DisneyWorld, not being the only kid around, and DisneyWorld.

Then on Friday we have Paige flying in from Utah and her fiance Ben flying in from New York. They'll be here for a long weekend. Since they're living across the country while engaged - this is one of their several trips to see each other until they get married in December. Tyler and I haven't ever spent time with Paige and Ben together, so we're really excited to finally all meet!

Luckily I'm starting to feel a lot better, so hopefully I'll be able to keep up with these tourists. My appetite is almost back to normal, and I haven't felt nauseous in 3 days. For the first time in months, I was actually really hungry when I woke up. I'm sure there will be some more symptoms coming along, but so far I'm starting to like the 2nd trimester. I'm not showing yet, but I'm sure I'll start "popping" soon enough!

Birthday

My 24th birthday was definitely unique. I've had weird birthdays before: one year I went to the podiatrist, one year it was the weekend of my Grandpa's funeral, often times it falls on General Conference Saturday. But this was my FIRST birthday in Florida and my LAST not being a mom.

The main reason this one was so weird though, was that it fell during the week of Tyler's company's Regional Sales Meeting in Tampa. Since Tampa's only an hour away, it's a quick drive. With nothing much to do in Orlando, I decided to go with him for the 4 days.

Tuesday I checked out Clearwater Beach. I didn't realize how WARM the water would still be!

I'm usually a pretty big wimp when it comes to getting in the ocean, but I guess I'm not in California anymore! I had fun playing around in the waves and didn't even mind getting in all the way since it was so warm. It was just like Cancun all over again ... the water wasn't quite as blue ... but the waves, temperature, and sand was all the same.
One random thing, a seagull flew down and grabbed my half-eaten cookie right out of my hand!

That night, we waited until midnight and then I opened some of my presents at our lovely room in the Holiday Inn Express.


Wednesday (my birthday) didn't start out quite so hot ... but it got better as it went on luckily. Tyler took off at 7 am to go deep sea fishing with all his co-workers. He had never done anything like that before, but I think he had a pretty good time!

He caught this shark! ... but I think they had to let it go ...

Anyways, when I woke up I didn't feel quite so hot. I hadn't "gotten sick" for the past 3 weeks, but sadly the toilet and I were got quite acquainted that morning ...

I recovered after a few hours and then got off to my day. Since we're Annual Passholders at DisneyWorld, the "get in free on your birthday thing" doesn't mean much to us. SO instead, if we go on our birthdays, we get a $79 gift card that we can spend at any store on DisneyWorld Property. But since I had to pick it up on my birthday, I went to DisneyWorld by myself!


Tyler had set up my afternoon for pampering. I had a pedicure appt (that sadly I had to miss since my late start in the morning) and a hair appointment. Now that I'm finally feeling good enough to do my hair again, I got my hair cut and colored!

Then I headed back to Tampa for my birthday dinner with Tyler (and all his co-workers). They had planned a barbecue at his bosses house for that night, when Tyler told them it was my bday, they decided to make it a birthday bbq. They were actually really sweet and got me a cake, flowers, and decorated the house. Although I had only met these people briefly in January, it was actually a lot better than I thought it would be.


We ended the night back at our hotel, glad to finally be able to finally just relax together.

I'm sure my next birthday will be quite different with a 6 month old! Crazy .. I can't even begin to fully grasp how much my life is going to change. But I'm so excited (and so is Tyler)!!

Happy 24th Birthday!

I would be remissed if I didn't publicly tell you all how much I love my wife. Rach just had her birthday on Sep. 30th and I wanted to get on here and mention a few of the things I love about Rachel:

• Rachel's smile and laugh - too cute!


• Her intelligence - she is right 98% of the time


• Crazy memory - she remembers things that I had long forgotten


• Great cuddle buddy - no night sleep feels right without first cuddling her


• Always does what's right - she might be the most obedient person I know


• Her ability to make up lyrics to almost any song while listening to it - she has personalized songs from almost any genre (Colbie, Kanye, Rascall Flats, The Office theme song, etc)


• Her beauty - she wil tell you otherwise - but I don't think there's a cuter person in the morning before getting ready - I love you!


• The Realist - Rachel definitely knows when it's time to balance out my craziness - she's the yin to my yang


• She knows me so well - it's amazing how she can figure out what I'm thinking or needing without even asking - if anyone were ever meant to be a detective it's Rachel


• Her booty - enough said


• Her eyes - love looking into them


• Her tummy - that's where the little baby is - 15th week!


• Her testimony - Rachel knows the things that are the most important in this life, and I know that together we can accomplish all of our goals!!

In summary, I love you babe, ever since I first started talking about PB & J. It's been a great 3 years since your 21st birthday. Love you!