A Little Girl!

Yes, we're having a girl!! It's funny because I said all along that I didn't know whether it was a boy or girl, but when we were in having the ultrasound and the doctor announced, "Girl!", I was thinking, "are you sure?" I must have had it in my subconscious that it was a boy. But, I am super excited for a girl! We now outnumber the boys in the family on the Jones side and we're making up for a lack of girls on the Bryner side. I told Bryan all along that I would do better with a girl first since I know how to handle girls: playing dress up, house, princesses, singing, dancing, and doing makeup. I will have some learning to do when we have our first boy :).

This ultrasound couldn't have come on a more perfect day. I have an advanced Critical Theory class for English that met right before we went in to find out. This class has been such a difficult one for me to stomach because we study crazy philosophies and my teacher makes it abundantly clear that she hates religion and the LDS church in particular. Our discussion this day was about Gender and whether it is something given (that we're born with/biological) or something constructed (by social and cultural forces). This teacher completely attacked the basis that our identity/gender is something that is born within us. She said that when a baby is born it does not know whether to be male or female instinctively, but that just through our social/cultural construction we become who we are and find out how to act feminine or masculine.

The discussion really hit me today as completely false. The whole time the class argued about gender I couldn't help but remember "The Family: a Proclamation to the World" and the truths we learn in it. It states specifically:

"All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

These lines resonated in my mind so strongly throughout the class and I thought about it all the way to the appointment.

After seeing our little girl, I thought, "How could anyone question whether this child has a distinct identity and personality?" I just don't understand how our world is so confused on such foundational principles, to the point that they believe that gender is completely constructed. It was such a testimony to me that there IS a plan and we DO have individual identities that were formed before we even came to earth.

On a lighter note, we learned a little about our little girl in the ultrasound: She does NOT like to be photographed. The ultrasound included some 3-D images and every time the doctor flipped to 3D to take a photo the kid had her back turned to us. We have two great pictures of the back of her head and body. Bryan said that this was definitely a Bryner trait to not want to be in pictures!

We're excited for our little girl and all of the fun preparations we get to make in the next 5 months! We have three little girls coming this year: my sister Rhiannon is having a girl in December (or Nov, most likely), Lisa is having a girl in Feb (my step-sister in-law), and our girl will be here officially March 29th. It's an exciting time in our family!

PS. I took some pictures to show (mostly family) my progress as a pregnant woman. I am now at 18 weeks (or to put it in regular terms, about 4 and 1/2 months) and feeling great! I also added some pictures of Bryan at 18 weeks to show his progress :)

Front View
side view (more belly this time!)

and another :)
Bryan at 18 months. Still smiling! (a good sign!)

A little sympathy weight :)

I'm learning a few new things...

Thanks goes to Betty Tolman for this. :) I think it's a good start for baby do's and don't's.

Strange Symptoms

I read up a lot on pregnancy before we decided to sign up for this and I even continue to read all the sources I can on the symptoms of pregnancy. Some of them I came to expect, but nothing prepared me for the full joy of pregnancy!


Some strange symptoms I've been having:


1. Putting two different kinds of chewing gum in a sealed plastic bag and then into my backpack. I can't stand the strong smell in my bag and I have to have two different kinds of gum in order to outsmart my nausea.


2. Going to buy pregnancy pants and wanting to cry when I walked into a maternity clothes store, but upon trying out the pants, thinking "these are actually pretty comfy." Goodbye to my pretty figure.


3. Asking advice from the sweet old lady working in the bra dept about what will give the best support. She gives me the suggestion of some bras she really likes and I try them on. So, now I'm in stretchy pants and grandma bras. Some one save me!


4. I can't remember the last time I ate the following foods: Lime Jello, cottage cheese, pickles, and mac & cheese. But now, I crave them almost daily. I eat a pickle a day and I'm not sure that's as good for keeping the doctor away.


5. Reading one of the novels for my class and seeing the word "ranch" four or five times in a paragraph doesn't make me think of cowboys and wide open land but translates in my pregnant mind to Ranch dressing (and dipping roasted potatoes and carrots in it). I'm thinking Hidden Valley!!





6. Having the skin problems of a teenage kid (and even when I was a teenager my skin wasn't that bad) and looking somewhat tanner although I haven't been out in the sun.


7. Needing a nap on a daily basis (almost on a schedule) like my nephew and nieces.


8. Using the bathroom three to four times a night on average and almost hourly during the day. Normally, I would be following the advice for the overactive bladder commercials, but no, it's just junior!

9. Nausea, nausea, nausea. It never sleeps. It is there when I wake up in the morning, greets me during breakfast, accompanies me on my drives to school, keeps me snacking all through my classes, fills me up after lunch, wakes up with me after a good nap, and even decides to make the evenings more intolerable. It knows all my tricks and has kept me going to the pantry to try new and different snacks. What works one week will make me sick the next week. And it just increases. I'm still waiting for that "golden" phase of the 2nd trimester. If I can get over this nausea I can handle anything :).


10. Working out on a good scheduled basis but stepping on the scale each time and realizing that the number keeps going up slightly. That's not the way it's supposed to work!



Ah, the joys of pregnancy that no one tells you until you're 12 weeks deep into it! (For good reason) I learn something new about my body each week and try to adapt to the rapid changes. Baby and I seem to be on different teams right now. I think we'll have to talk and get on the same page!

Our First Anniversary

Bryan and I celebrated our first anniversary on August 30th. It's crazy to think that a full year has past since we were married. It seems like just yesterday that we started dating and even shorter since we were engaged and married.

It's been fun to look back on our wedding and engagement, to remember our temple marriage, and to think about how we felt about each other then. I feel like I know ten times more about Bryan now than I did then. I can see why people say it is a leap of faith to get married. We only knew each other on one level and now we know each other on so many other levels. I can say I am so happy with where we are a year later. I feel like we've grown so much closer and have developed a great love for each other. There are so many memories just from this one year and I know it will just continue to get better. I love Bryan so much and am excited for the years to come! I know we made the right decision to be together and everything this year has just confirmed that choice for me.

The first year is a lot of adjustments: living with a boy for the first time, putting two people's things into one place (me with all my decorations and Bryan with all his tools, camping gear, and sports stuff), and learning how to budget and care for one household. We've worked together through all the big and little stuff and come up with a way of life that works great for us. It's fun to have Bryan around all the time too. I'm with my best friend every day. Year one has been great!

We went to St. George for our anniversary weekend. We hiked in Zion National Park, went to see the musical "Aida" at Tuacahn outdoor theatre, swam, and just enjoyed the weekend together. Here are some pictures of our trip!

We did three hikes: Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools, and Hidden Canyon. We hiked for a good couple of hours. Zion National Park is absolutely AMAZING. One of the reasons to live in UT!

Bry after one of the hikes. The views were just awesome!

Weeping Rock. It cries water all day. It kept things cool on a very hot St. George day!

I think this is Angel's Peak. We didn't hike it. It was getting too hot and we didn't want to risk falling off the side (since my stability is rapidly changing!) We went to see the St. George Temple before we left. I absolutely love this Temple. A beautiful, bright temple in the midst of black and red rock. So pretty!


This is Kolob Canyon. It is the northernmost part of Zion National Park. We decided to drive through it on the way back up to SLC because it was only five minutes off the freeway. Pictures don't do this place justice.

The mountains are just huge in Kolob! We felt very small in this place.

Kolob Canyon again! We want to go back and go hiking there. It is so beautiful!

One year down, only an eternity to go :)!! I'm excited for it all! Life just keeps getting better!

Anita and Brian's Wedding

Anita and Brian were married this past Saturday (the 22nd) in the Mount Timpanogas temple. Both of their families were able to come out from GA and CA. They are, for the most part, not members of the LDS religion. It was so fun to meet them all. Brian is awesome! Anita looked beautiful and so happy.

It was fun to go to a sealing right around our first anniversary. It brought back a lot of the same feelings I had last year during our wedding and reception. I feel like Bryan and I have come so far and know so much more about each other than we did on our wedding day! Life just keeps getting better.

We are so happy for Brian and Anita McDonald!! Here are some highlights:

Coming out of the Timpanogas Temple as a newly married couple!

Anita, Brian, and her parents

What a beautiful dress!

Rhiannon came down too! It was great to see her :)

Rhiannon, Stella, and Stella's son, JaydenAt the reception. Bryan, me, Anita, and Dora

One year later and just that much happier! Bryan is the best!

Almost There...

Seven tests, eight papers, five novels, two plays, four major projects, various other chapter readings, and homework assignments due daily. This has been my life the last seven weeks or so. I feel some times like this:

And this:

Finals are next Friday. I have two papers, two major projects and two tests coming up in the next two weeks. Summer semesters are brutal, I've discovered. They don't count the fact that it is 90 degrees, sunny, and beautiful all the time. They don't seem to think that we want to do anything else but study all day every day, and especially on the weekends. It hasn't helped that Bryan and I still want to enjoy our summer and visit family so I've had to take my homework down to Price, New Mexico, and California on our vacations. Some how I've survived. This is the first semester I really feel like I've been barely keeping my head above water.

Four more class periods and one day of finals. I'm almost there!