Happy Halloween!

and a couple other cute pictures...

Kyla is already 4 weeks old and I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Every mother will say this about their newborn but she really has changed so much in these first 4 weeks and continues to change each day. Her little cheeks are starting to fill out and she doesn't have wrinkly knees anymore. At her 2 week appointment she had gained a whole pound! She is one good eater. Nate and I are starting to interpret her different noises and cries to know when she wants to eat, when she wants attention, and when she wants to poop. We have found that she likes to be moving more than anything, so if ever she isn't so happy all we need to do is take her for a walk or a car ride and she will be asleep in no time. She also is starting to not like her bassinet but likes to sleep in her vibrating bouncer instead. Whatever makes her happy! (or sleep)

Miracle of miracles, I am still able to manage my classes. Getting caught up was a little stressful but I'm surviving and only have a month and a half to go before I'm a graduated stay-at-home mom. Yay!

Nate got his LSAT score back and did a great job. We are now applying to a bunch of different schools and will see where we end up next March. We could be anywhere from Manhattan to L.A. or somewhere in between. Nate is the cutest dad ever and I love seeing him hold Kyla or hear him talk to her. Something about your husband with your baby girl just makes your heart melt.

Here are more pictures of our baby doll. It is the neatest thing to be a mother and to hold a precious little baby in your arms... especially one that looks like you!

Grandma and Grandpa Meikle

Grandma and Grandpa ThornSo precious!Visiting a pumpkin patch with her auntsSupporting the CougarsMakes me meltTrying on her accessories

Kyla Jean

First off, Nate and I love having this sweet little girl with us. She is an angel and the best baby ever. We continue to be entertained with her funny faces and noises, and she keeps us on our toes with her exciting diaper changes/surprise messes. For some reason the open air is stimulating. :)

I will quickly recap our experience in the hospital. Monday the 28th we went to the hopital at 5:00 am to get induced. My confidence was a little shaken when I threw up twice after I got my IV. For some reason I hate those things and I was a little nervous that morning anyways. Nate will say he got nervous now, but at the moment he was very positive and encouraging. They hooked me up to pitocin and at 9:00 I got my epidural. Biggest surprise ever... the epidural wasn't bad at all! Honestly the IV was so much worse for me. My doctor broke my water after that. I was at a 4, Nate and I took a 45 minute nap, then the nurse came in and told me I was at a 9! It went so fast I couldn't believe it. They turned off the pitocin because my body was contracting fine on its own. An hour later I was ready to push, and an hour after that Kyla was born. I really feel quite blessed because my first experience was smooth sailing.

Now we have a precious baby with us and we couldn't be more happy. Sure our nights don't really exist much, but I don't even mind because I get to be with my sweet baby. Here are some cute pictures of her...

Our first family photo

Heading home from the hospital

Bath time!

Time to burp (eating makes her so sleepy)

She loves her hands

She has arrived!

Kyla Jean Meikle was born September 28th at 1:18 pm. She weighs 6 lbs 11 oz and is 21 inches long. Our sweet little girl is finally with us with a head full of dark, thick hair!

Baby Showers

Thank you to everyone who threw baby showers for me and all the time you put in to them. They were all so fun! And thank you to everyone who came. I loved seeing you all. Here are a couple pictures of some of the showers... I wasn't very good at taking pictures at them so there isn't much.

13 more days to go!!!

Cravings = Hokulia shave ice and Pace popsicles. Yum!

Island Park

For our August vacation we spent a week in Island Park, ID with Nate's family and had a very nice, relaxing time. First, my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law threw my first baby shower which was so fun! It was more exciting than I imagined to open up cute little gifts for our baby girl. She got some cute cute stuff. Thanks everyone! Then a big group of us stayed at the cabin and had a great time. We floated a river, canoed, fished (kind of), hiked, visited Yellowstone, saw Old Faithful and paint pots, saw a moose family, played cards and bocce ball, and had fun just hanging out in the cabin with all the adorable nieces and nephews. Last vacation until our little girl joins us!

New York!

This July, Nate and I were able to go to New York with my entire family to pick up my parents from their 2 week service mission. We had the greatest time there together. We started the trip in Palmyra to see all the church sites. We saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant, Moroni's monument, the Grandin Building (where the Book of Mormon was published and my parents served), the Martin Harris farm (a relative of Nate), the Smith family home, the Sacred Grove, the Palmyra Temple, and the Peter Whitmer farm. It was so neat to be around all of those historic places where the church was restored.

Nate and I also celebrated our 2nd anniversary while we were there on July 20th, so we went to an incredible restaurant together that was kind of hidden in Rochester. It is called Tournedos and it is an absolutely amazing steak house with the best food we have ever eaten. I can't believe it has already been 2 years, but they have been nothing but amazing!

After visiting northern New York, we made our way down to Manhattan by following our new GPS blindly. She took us down some crazy little highways, but we kept trusting her and eventually made it to the Lincoln Tunnel. We only spent 3 days there, but boy did we fit in a lot! We took a bus tour to see most of Manhattan, rode a ferry to the Statue of Liberty, went to the Top of the Rock, took a Circle Line cruise, visited the MET Museum, strolled through Central Park, saw Ground Zero and Wall Street, and saw Lion King and The Phantom of the Opera. Our hotel was right off Times Square so we saw it all. We also fit in a little shopping to get I love New York socks for our little girl and a purple purse for me! (You can't go to New York and not get a purse) We loved it all, and I couldn't believe how lucky I was to feel good the whole time (pretty much). Thanks mom and dad for a wonderful and memorable trip!
Check out our fun pictures below.

Palmyra Pictures

Manhattan Pictures

For those of you who have been wanting to see my baby bump, here it is. :) This is a picture from the 4th of July before we spent the evening enjoying the Jonas Brothers (ha!). I'm almost 30 weeks now so we've got less than 3 months until our little one joins us!

Bedding

Nate and I made our first big purchase for our little girl and I'm so excited about it I wanted to post. :) We bought her bedding and I absolutely love it! We bought it online so it won't get to us for a couple weeks, but I can't wait to decorate with all the fun colors, and most of all have a precious little girl to put in it. Our espresso crib is coming, but we don't have it quite yet.

It's a Girl!!

Nate and I found out we are having a girl and her due date is set as September 30th. We love being able to refer to the baby as a she instead of an it. I'm definitely getting a bump now, and it's fun because I'm starting to look pregnant instead of just chubby. :) And I feel our little girl moving inside me all of the time. It is such a crazy feeling, but so exciting to know she is really in there.

Thanks mom/grandma for her first gift!

Wicked

Last weekend Nate and I saw Wicked up in Salt Lake with my family, and it was absolutely incredible! I knew we would love it, but it was even better than we expected. We loved how clever it was, and there were so many funny lines. They did a great job, and we had a wonderful night. We were also celebrating Pyper and Nate's birthday, so Happy Birthday to them both!

Exciting News!

For those of you who may not know...

I am pregnant!

Nate and I are going to be parents and we are so excited. I'm due the first week of October, and so far I couldn't ask for a better pregnancy. I feel great and have been able to keep up with everything I have going on. I feel a little nauseous and tired, but nothing bad at all. I'm 12 weeks along, and we saw the baby's face, hands, and heartbeat, and it is moving all over the place! I'm just barely starting to show a little, but it isn't very obvious yet.

Here are some pictures of our very little one.

(I think about 2 inches is all!)

Profile shot

Profile, body, and little hand on the top

We will find out what it is in about 2 months. :)

Rexburg Temple

Nate's good friend Kevin Tallman got married in the Rexburg, Idaho temple, so we made a little trip up and had a great time celebrating with them on their special day.

Snowboarding!

It's official, I am now a snowboarder - well, I tried at least. For our anniversary in July we bought me a snowboard, and then for Christmas I got all my snow clothes, so Nate took me snowboarding for my first time ever. I'm not much for winter or being in the snow so I didn't think I would have the best time, but I wanted to finally give it a try. Turns out, I love it! We had so much fun together and Nate was a great (and patient) teacher. We spent all day up at Sundance just the two of us. I still am yet to get off the lifts without crashing all over the place, but I have learned heel and toe side and am trying to carve now. The next morning my whole body ached, but I had a blast and can't wait to go again.

Right before we got off the first lift

Right after we got off the first lift
(Nate was watching with the camera - thanks babe!)
I'm doing it!
Ouch.

Christmas

We spent this Christmas with my family in South Jordan and had a nice relaxing break. Christmas morning was fun with my little sisters, and my family got a Wii so we played a whole bunch of that. Nate even snuck out of our room in the night and played until 3:30 in the morning. Ya, he likes video games. We also went tubing up at Soldier Hollow with another family and crashed our train of 16 people every time thanks to the rowdy guys. I don't think the people there liked us much, but we had a great time.

Las Vegas

After I barely survived the week of finals, Nate and I drove to Las Vegas for the bowl game and to celebrate my birthday. We stayed at the Palazzo, and our hotel room was honestly about twice the size of our apartment! It even had 3 flat screen TVs.

Then Nate surprised me on my birthday by taking me to see Cirque du Soleil's LOVE show and it was incredible! It was all Beatles music which was fun and there was tons of great dancing and aeriel acrobatics. Extremely entertaining. Unfortunately BYU didn't win, so that wasn't so great, but other than that our weekend together was perfect.

Air Force

The Air Force game took us to Colorado Springs and it was beautiful there. It was cool too to see the cadets on the field for pregame and parachuting from the sky. Once again, I was Nate's statistician on the sidelines with him. We loved it!

Fort Collins

The next football trip of the year for us was to Fort Collins, CO for the CSU v. BYU game. To get into the stadium early Greg Wrubell gave me a press pass, and it just so happens that with that pass I was able to be on the sidelines with Nate for the entire game. I was his "statistician," and let me tell you, I helped him so much. One thing's for sure, we were definitely spoiled and that was something we could easily get used to. It looks like I'm going to have to apply for a job with KSL. It was an intense game though and we were right there together for all of it. We even took a picture with CSU's mascot. :)

Then to top off our football weekend, John Beck helped us get tickets to the Bronco's v. Dolphin's game in Denver. What an experience! We were definitely a little out of place and surrounded by lots of wild people, but we had a great time. It was our first NFL game so just being there was great. After the game we got to go in the blocked off player area to talk with John, and while we were in there we got a picture with Ricky Williams, the famous, friendly, misunderstood, Ricky Williams.

Pumpkin Carve

Every October my family throws a huge pumpkin carve party with my extended Thorn family and this year it was just as fun as ever. I have such a great family. Nate and I had fun carving our pumpkin too. We made a good team. Isn't our ghost adorable!

Seattle

It's football season and along with that comes little vacations on KSL. Nate and I both love his sideline job benefits. :) The second game of the season was against UW so we got to spend the weekend in Seattle and we definitely made the best of our time there. Friday night we went to Safeco Field to watch the Mariners beat the Yankees and it was amazing! It was my first MLB game, and although I'm not much of a baseball fan, I couldn't help but love every minute of it.

Saturday, the game was a little too close for comfort, but it ended perfectly - an excellent call and a blocked kick - it was great. I was screaming my guts out. The stadium was incredible and it was a perfect day for football.

Sunday, we went to church and spent the day with my parents. We saw the beautiful Snoqualme Falls, the sites from the top of the Space Needle, and Pike's Market. We had a great trip and a fun time together to start off the semester.

One Year Anniversary!

Nate and I celebrated our first anniversary on the 20th. It's crazy it has already been a year but it has been the best year of our lives. Nate surprised me on Friday and took me to Park City for the night. We stayed at Hotel Park City and ate at Ruth's Chris, which was delicious. It was a beautiful hotel and it was so nice to go somewhere together and just relax.

The next morning, before we headed back home, we rode the Alpine Slide and it was so much fun. It was Nate's first Alpine Slide experience and after he challenged me to a race I of course beat him to the finish line. :)

Lake Powell

Our summer vacation this year was at Lake Powell with 5 other couples and it was wonderful. It was my first time to Lake Powell and now I know why everyone says they love it there. We rented a house boat all together and enjoyed the sun, boating, cliff diving, sleeping under the stars, and we even got attacked by gnats! To top off the trip for me I finally got up on a wakeboard and went in and out of the wake (thanks to Coach Nate). Soon I'll be jumping and flipping like him :)

Golfing

Nate and I have picked up a new hobby this summer. He just bought himself a new set of clubs and I will soon be inheriting my own. We are having so much fun playing with family and friends and becoming better golfers (at least Nate is, I mostly like being outside and riding in the cart but I can at least handle 7 holes).

Florida

This year Nate was able to come to Daytona Beach with me for our national competition. It was so fun being there together and I especially loved having him there for support. The dancing went extremely well and I was happy since that was my send-off for Cougarettes. After the competition for our free day we went to the Daytona Speedway and even though I wouldn't consider us Nascar fans, we loved it! The place was gigantic and the cars were insanely fast. Nate was even tempted to pick up a new hobby.

This semester was pretty busy for the both of us. I was completely occupied with school and Cougarettes and Nate was working for CBRE. Luckily we had time to be together in the evenings to keep us sane. Basketball season was great and we had fun watching the games together. Nate always got a good seat too thanks to the saved Coug benches.

Cruise to the Caribbean

This Christmas, our gift to each other was going on a Cruise to the Caribbean. We sailed on the Holland Westerdam ship for a 7-day cruise and visited the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and Puerto Rico. What a vacation! The weather was beautiful and the cruise experience was to die for. Since it was all inclusive we ate like we had never seen food before. We found some incredible beaches to play at, toured ruins in Puerto Rico, and bargained at the street vendors. It was the most relaxing week of our lives. We both even came home with a little bit of color which is quite a success. (of course it was gone about two days after we got home, yay for fair skin)

Christmas

This Christmas break Nate and I travelled non-stop. We went to Las Vegas for the BYU Bowl Game right after finals and enjoyed being there together. For Christmas we spent the week in Idaho with Nate's family. We stayed in a cabin in Island Park for a couple days and had a blast in the 3 feet of snow playing and sledding. It was our first Christmas together and we loved it.

experience the wedding day

Honeymoon!

Nate and I went to paradise for our honeymoon. We went to Kauai and it was incredible. Probably the most beautiful place we have ever been and we had a blast! We went on a helicopter ride and saw the whole island (and got motion sickness), we found our favorite Marriott hotel and spent most of our time there, went boogy boarding, and ate at some fun and outstanding places. Mostly we just did whatever we wanted and it was great not having anything to worry about. We also went to church there and met Elder Uchtdorf, crazy huh! We stopped by in Oahu to leave and walked Waikiki beach too. We were there for just about a week and it was sure hard to leave.

July 20, 2007

Nate and I were married for time and eternity on July 20th. The day couldn't have been more perfect!