Guess what?!

Bump arrives

So last December I finished up my last semester of college. 

December 10th: final exams began 

December 10th at approximately 11am I had finished all of my exams (yeah, last semester!)

December 11th: we flew out to New Zealand to begin our holiday.

Little did I know that it was not just Phil and I who would be taking a holiday on the other side of the world...

We arrived in New Zealand and all was peachy. We enjoyed Cadbury's chocolate once again and indulged in creamy NZ ice cream. I started feeling bloated and just "off" about a week into our trip. I've always been sensitive to lactose so I just brushed it off as new foods in New Zealand aka much more creamy dairy products and resolved not to eat quite as much. We even went on a day trip with Phil's parents before the other siblings arrived and I was so exhausted and sick to my stomach by the time we decided to eat that I thought I just wasn't hungry.  Needless to say, 20 minutes later I was begging Phil for anything substantial. I thought I was "jet lagged" and "school lagged", nothing else.

You see, we'd been ready to add to our family for a while and and been working with a nurse practitioner as well. Ovulation tracking, monthly hormone pills etc...but still nada. And after finishing school and our vacation we figured we'd get more serious about figuring this business out! About a week and a half into our trip I took my hormone pill (as we'd been seeing a nurse practitioner for help with the whole baby thing) and expected menstruation within 7 days of taking it, as was the norm. 7 days passed, 10 days passed, etc and and nothing. I just figured everything had been thrown off by our time travelling (as my nurse said it might) and thought nothing more.

Christmas came and went and we left NZ and headed for Sydney. I became even less interested in doing much in Sydney (looking back I'm like "duh!"). Even when Phil's family planned to go see Les Miserables, which I had been openly vocal about being super excited to see, I opted out saying I just didn't feel like going. I cried when our vacation plans didn't work out perfectly-well to be honest, I cried anytime and I just thought I was having a hard time not having my own space and being away from my own home for so long. My poor in-laws. They must have thought that Phil married a dud American. Oh jeez.

We left Sydney and headed to the last leg of out trip in Brisbane. We rented our own car in Brisbane (first time in 3 weeks we were able to go where we wanted, when we wanted) and I was excited for independence! That car turned into an even greater blessing than I ever imagined. After a day in Brissy, Phil suggested I take a pregnancy test. He put together my symptoms and thought it was a plausible explanation for everything. He probably hoped it was the explanation or he just had a crazy wife! I didn't want to take another test as I'd taken one in NZ and plenty prior to that back home and was always disappointed with a negative result. Still he convinced me and we made a little family trip to the shops, just Phil and I.

I took the test the following morning. I jaunted to the restroom at Jade & Matt's home and tried to be discreet with what I was taking with me. :) I took the test and watched as one line formed and then another. I hadn't even bothered reading the box before to see what the results meant...now I know, 2 lines = baby, always.

I peeked out of the bathroom to make sure the coast was clear and motioned for Phil to come with me. We scurried down the hallway back to our little room and I asked him what it meant. We checked the box, did a couple silent squeals and tried to compose ourselves. We didn't know how far along I was therefore we decided to keep this to ourselves for our last week of vay-cay. That way we could come home, see the doctor and sort it all out before announcing anything. Our car was our saving grace as we could escape as just the two of us and talk about our news! That was all we had.  Ha-it was difficult to keep quiet but we just had lots of looks and winks and we both knew what it meant.

Well as fate would have it, the next day we were scheduled to start our theme park week. Rides, rides and more rides. But now I had a visitor who we didn't know the age of and weren't sure what I should/shouldn't go on. Needless to say our week was full of "white lies" about me getting motion sickness or just "not enjoying" thrill rides when really it was killing me to just sit and watch everyone have so much fun. I did go on a few rides so don't worry, but I was careful-we'd been waiting for a baby for a long time and I didn't want to ruin it!

A week of white lies was fine...bearable I guess but hard. But as fate would have it again, we weren't allowed to board our flight to come home as Phil had left his green card in the states. We ended up being in Brissy for another week. And that was probably the beginning of my sickness. Poor Andrew and Alex (who we were staying with) probably thought I was a picky and ungrateful eater, lazy, and boring person. Every time they'd ask us if we wanted to visit the theme parks again we'd just "avoid" it by saying we'd rather the beach or the lines were too long because of school holiday. Oh guys, I'm sorry for all the lies! :)

After a rough, rough trip home we finally arrived back in the US of A. Note to self when pregnant: "morning sickness" + 5 hour flight + 16 hour layover + 11 hour flight + 1.5 hour flight and + no eating schedule + airplane food = misery and death. No really, there were times when I felt so awful I thought I might die haha. So finally back, we had a doctor appointment the next day that confirmed the pregnancy and we found out Bump was 7 weeks along. We then told immediate family and waited a while longer before making our announcement.

So there you have it. I found out I was pregnant like any other typical woman has, with a lovely trip to the bathroom with a pregnancy test. I just happened to be in another country, thinking I couldn't get pregnant and then attempted to keep it a secret while staying with and spending all our time with family. Jeez...what a way to start hey?

Well that was the start, and now here's the half way point pic.

20 weeks baby! Bump is growing...making me grow too!

Don't let my shirt illusion fool you. Here it is exposed!

Australia 2013 - Brissy

Our final destination on our grand vacation was Brisbane. Phil had been wanting to take me here ever since we lived in Sydney. It was perfect for this trip as Phil's sister and brother both live there now with their families. 

We started off our stay by visiting sweet little Baby Krok's gravesite. Baby Krok is our nephew who passed away before birth. It was so sweet for Matt and Jade to show us this special place. 

The next week began our theme park time. This is one of the main reasons Phil loves Brissy-it's home of all the theme parks he grew up going to as a kid. We bought passes to Movie World, Wet-n-Wild, and Sea World. 

Movie World is a full on theme park based on Warner Bros. Studios' movies. Here's our view of Movie World from the outside. You can be sure that I had a giddy husband right next to me the whole way through the parking lot.

Batman greeted us on his batmobile

Wet-n-Wild is a theme park but the rides are all water rides. It was perfect during the hot Brisbane weather. They have amazing slides like the aqua loop...

Yesir, you go in a loop. Crazy!

Luckily our family was able to join us at the parks. What is better than theme parks with your friends? and cute nieces and nephew? Plus we had an unexpected addition that limited my riding capabilities so at least Phil had family to join him on the crazy rides...but more on that in another post!

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun and made some great memories.

(Bennallack Boys: Phil's Dad, Phil and brother Andrew)

(trooper kids: Leo, Pacey and Savannah)

Here's a vid I stole from Jade of all our time at the theme parks. 

(Remember this post about the jelly beans, well that's where the end of this vid comes from. Let's just say Phil ate a handful of bad ones all at once!) 

Also, check Phil & I's moment of fame at 1:16! 

Yep! Phil and I actually go chosen to be a part of the stunt racing show. Here we are getting the run down of our parts.

I was so nervous when the host of the show was explaining what we needed to do because his accent was so thick and the speakers made it impossible for me to understand what he was saying. Luckily Phil had a quick second to whisper "frightened, relieved, KISS". Saved my acting career that Aussie hubs of mine did!

While we loved the theme parks, we of course made time for other Brisbane "must-do's" like Surfer's Paradise

All oiled up!

and of course South Bank!

South Bank is a beautiful area just south of the city (across the river) that they've made into a beach-like pool, complete with sand, kiddie pools and amazing views. It's like the beach but in the city!

We loved spending time there!

Brissy was great to say the least. We even tried to leave to come back home and the airline turned us away telling us we had to stay for another week! Ha-Phil actually didn't bring his green card with him (long story) so we weren't allowed on a flight back to the USA without it. Fancy that! Thank goodness for FedEx :)

Well I cried the first time we drove away from Matt and Jade's house so at least we got to see the fam again for another week!

Thanks Matt & Jade, and Andrew & Alex for letting us stay with you and spend time with your families. And thanks for having such cute kids. We miss you all!

Australia 2013 - Sydney

We started our Sydney visit with Alyce & Eric. They read our minds as our first day there was a beach day! We were craving some sunny beach weather, and Sydney delivered. It was beautiful!

We visited The Entrance which had a tide pool as well. Perfect for cute little Landie.

On New Years Eve Phil and I decided to brave the city! People were already camping out for the fireworks show.  Check out all those heads-it is not normally like that!

We took the ferry to Manly hoping to catch some waves but the blue bottle jellyfish were everywhere-so we settled for a walk along the beach. Good ole Manly!

The beautiful bridge and Opera House greeted us on our ferry ride back to Circular Quay. What a view...I love Sydney!

After our beach outing and ferry ride we were tired, hot and sweaty so we decided to get out of the city before it got even more crazy. We snapped a new years pic and called it good!

Welcoming in 2013!!

After catching the train back up the coast we met up with the family at a soccer game. It was nice, especially once the sun went down! The game was followed by a family fireworks celebration at 9:30pm which was perfect for the young ones...and us old fogies too :)

(Check out Carter's dance moves! That kid cracks me up!)

We returned to Jo's house to ring in the New Year. Needless to say we literally forced ourselves to stay awake until 12am. Ha-what has happened to us?!

Other highlights from our Sydney visit included seeing our dear friends Caylee & Dan (and cute Dillan cheesing it!). We loved catching up with them, just like no time had passed. Love them!

They treated us to yummy chinese food. Can't beat Sydney asian food-they know what they're doing!

Followed by desert churros. We were so stuffed!

And we also saw Phil's good friend Jordan who made a trip to Hurricanes with us.

(this is after the waiter sneaked up on him with a bib, haha!) 

We had to make a trip to Hurricanes while we were in Sydney and this is why...

RIBS! and only Hurricanes serves such huge ribs. (pic does not do it justice) Oh so good!!!

That's a wrap up of our time in Sydney. Thanks family for letting us crash with you and friends for making time for us. Until next time!

New Zealand 2012 - The rest

So I realized today...I should have just made one giant post for NZ as it was so far after the fact that I actually got around to blogging. 

Well, lesson learned. 

This is the last New Zealand post, then one Australia one and then promise, I'll be done!

We headed to the Hamilton, New Zealand temple to be with Rachael (Phil's youngest sister) when she took out her endowments. Its quite the journey from Mum and Dad B's, about a 3 hour drive! Needless to say we left early. But that didn't stop us from getting Pokeno's ice cream! Massive, inexpensive and creamy New Zealand ice cream...mmm I could go for one right now.

It was a special experience to be there in the temple. We're so happy for you Rach!

Afterward Mum & Dad B were kind enough to treat us to an all you can eat mongolian restaurant. It was really tasty!

It was a long day out but great to spend time with the Bennallack clan.

During our 2.5 weeks in NZ we also enjoyed swimming at the hot springs pools

Church outings

A 1st birthday celebration for Arlandria and Savannah complete with pin-the-tail on the donkey

Aunty & Pacey bonding time/matching day! (matching by accident)

 And plenty-a-day ending like this

Miss you already New Zealand!

True Tues

Hey'all. (That's one word right?)

Anyway, life is good for us Bennallack folk. We had a great Easter weekend. It started Friday night with some egg dying with my fam. We tried rubber cement this year and we made some fun designs.

5 dozen eggs later we settled in to watch March Madness. The Easter Bunny came that night so we spent the night at my parents. Saturday we woke up to Easter goodies and an egg hunt. Phil helped out when Chantel and Jocelyn couldn't find anymore. Just my little kid :)

Saturday we spent most the day at IKEA. Yeah...good ole IKEA. We may just love that place...too much. Enough that we first stole didn't pay for our dear magnetic strip. And after going back to pay I simply left it in the cart in the parking lot. I blame pregnancy-gotta benefit somehow from this right? :)

Anyway, then it was time for the Young Womens General Broadcast. Mom and Chantel joined me at my stake dinner and then the broadcast afterward. And then it was back to the Perucca's for more March Madness...poor poor Ohio. There goes my bracket-totally.

Its ok-this guy cheered me up. He's so big!

Then Easter Sunday with the fam and Easter dinner with deviled eggs. YUM- my preggo belly said yes!

This may be a boring update but our weekend was fun. Too fun for pictures so this is all for now.

Over and out.