It's a ...

 A beautiful baby GIRL joined our family early Sunday morning on September 12th!! She was the BEST surprise in the whole world and is everything we've ever dreamed of!! We are all so in love with her!

Meet Rosie June Williamson 

8 lbs., 5 oz.  |  21 1/2 in. long  |  6:23 am

If there was a moment in my life where I can truly say prayers are real and that mine was heard, it was the night I went into labor. After several false starts including my contractions going from 5 minutes apart to completely stopping after arriving to the hospital and getting hooked up to all of the monitors, I really didn't think I we would be staying. In fact, I was asking to go home. Due to undiagnosed preeclampsia (I knew the excessive swelling and numbness in my hands and feet were not normal!), I wasn't given the choice to go home and was facing an induction in the morning. Between the prayer I had in my heart my whole pregnancy to go into labor on my own and moving positions every few minutes, I managed to start my contractions back up again and they progressed all through the night until finally reaching 10 centimeters early in the morning. 

I handed the camera over to Nic to capture the board in our room and discovered later that he had captured me mid-contractions too. I'm grateful for these photos from those raw moments ... they take me straight back to that quiet dark hospital room, just the two of us. Heaven felt so close as I worked through each contraction that brought Rosie into our arms. <3

Funny story ... they wrote "Nic to announce gender" on our board but as I was delivering her, our doctor caught the first glimpse and mentioned to the nurse that "she" had her umbilical cord wrapped around her body in several directions. She said it so quickly that I hardly had the time to register before looking to Nic and hearing him say, "It's a GIRL!!!" It was the best surprise I've ever had!!!

Right then and there I cried the happiest tears. SHE was here and she was so so perfect!! While she was a surprise, my mother's intuition told me girl my whole pregnancy so looking into her eyes, I felt like I knew it was her all along. Everyone else in our family was hoping for a girl and I was just so grateful everyone's wishes came true. 

Sucking her tiny thumb!

I spent my entire pregnancy praying we wouldn't have to experience the NICU again. When she came out crying and was placed in my arms, I felt the biggest flood of relief hearing those strong lungs. The very first thing she wanted to do was nurse and latched right away. It was the most amazing experience spending the next two hours just letting her do her thing while we took in every last tiny inch of her. 

I fall more in love with this dad every time I see the way he looks at our children. Girl dad x2! 

After delivery, we moved rooms and Rosie got to come with us!! Again, I could not believe it, it was heaven for me having her stay. They pushed this bassinet beside our QUEEN size bed (amazing!!) and after a long night, we all fell asleep for a little while. 

This little green outfit we brought for a baby boy, it turns out is absolutely perfect on a baby girl. <3

For the next 24 hours, I really didn't get much sleep ... between blood pressure checks around the clock and wanting to hold her in my arms. I didn't care one bit because I couldn't stop looking at her.

That sweet little hospital hat with the bow on it melted my heart! This is pretty much the only time she has ever taken a binkie too by the way. haha 

A little about her name ... before we ever officially decided to have a third baby but while we were discussing it on a date one afternoon, I asked Nic if he liked the name Rosie. He told me he loved it and I remember smiling because it's not always easy agreeing on baby names. We struggled our whole pregnancy trying to pick a boy name but our girl name never changed. There were so many moments throughout my pregnancy where her name came up like a sign from heaven. One night during my first trimester when I was incredibly sick, we watched 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' for some comic relief and one of the main characters in the movie was named Rosie. Then there was the baby blanket company I bought my first swaddle for this baby from and their pink one was called 'Rosie'. Or the one night I was snuggled in bed with Lyla reading one of her favorite books and she pointed to a picture of roses and said, "that's my favorite flower". She was meant to be Rosie. Her middle name didn't come as easy. We spent our whole hospital stay trying to decide. In the final hour before being discharged, we chose June. The two people who love her most in the world were born in the month of June. <3

So in love with those tiny lips and button nose.

Straight from heaven and with a head of hair just like her brother and sister!

She completes our family perfectly and are soaking up every minute as a family of FIVE! 

We all love you so much, Rosie!

A decade

 Nic and I celebrated 10 years of marriage in May! For so many reasons, it feels like a lifetime ago but none of the memories or feelings from that day have left me. A whole decade later and he is still the best decision I ever made. 

We left the kids overnight with my mom and snuck away to dinner at P.F. Chang's followed by a walk around downtown Boise, grabbed a brownie and ice cream from Stella's, and lounged in our hotel bed watching reruns of the Office, Friends, and Schitt's Creek. While we may not have been on that trip to Hawaii like we talked about in our early years of marriage due to Covid and a baby on the way, it was truly the best way to spend our day!  

When I opened my fortune cookie after dinner and found this inside, I couldn't help but to tuck it in my pocket and keep it as a special reminder that the best is yet to come for us. <3 

While our actual anniversary was wonderful, the next day was a little rough. We took our time checking out of the hotel in the morning and planned to go to breakfast. We tried to get into 8 different restaurants all over town between 9:30 - 11:00, all of which had over an hour wait until finally giving in and settling on skipping breakfast entirely for an early lunch. The nearest place was Smoky Mountain so we pulled up and were their second customers of the day. They immediately greeted us with frazzled faces, got us a table next to the front door, and told us they only had 2 staff members on site so the service would be slow. It took a long while to get our food while we proceeded to awkwardly watch them turn away customer after customer instead of putting a sign on their door that they couldn't offer any more service due to short staffing issues. Instead of having time to take a long leisure walk around the Village ponds like we had planned, we were left with only enough time to race from lunch in the rain to my second vaccine appointment. It was a day, that's for sure! So grateful we had the wonderful day together before and to my mom for watching our kids. 

Happy 10 years to my favorite person! I love you!!

9 years

9 years married to this handsome guy and as you can see, our anniversary celebration looked a little bit different this year. It was my year to plan it and back in January I began dreaming up a night away in McCall just the two of us. It would have been the first time since Liam was about 18 months old. We'd get room service, sleep in, and relax in the hot pools. When the corona virus hit, I was in denial and kept postponing canceling until literally the day we needed to in order to get a full refund. After I made that phone call it was the first time I really let myself cry and feel disappointed for some of the things I felt like this virus has taken from me. Then I had a moment of clarity where it made me realize how grateful I am it didn't interrupt our wedding day like it has for so many. That was a beautiful day!

My favorite thing to do with him on our anniversary dates is spend time reflecting on every moment leading up to and since the day we became husband and wife. Boy how I wish I could go back in time and tell those two young and in love souls, just wait until you see what you have in store for you! Slow down and take it all in. These are some of the moments you won't ever forget! So many of those moments along the way stand as a witness of why we are so great together. Marriage is not always easy but we fight for each other and communicate through the hards things until we reach the other side even better. I adore him.

We were so lucky this year to have two dates! Yes, it involved wearing masks and the weather wasn't in our favor most of the day but we may not have ever chosen to bring blankets, string lights, and pick up take out dinner to eat in the back of our car by the river either. It was simple, just like the dates we used to have when we were first married. And truthfully, there wasn't anyone else in the world I would have been there with than him. I love you, Nic Williamson! Cheers to 9 years! XO

8 years

You guys, summer is so wonderfully crazy, fun, and busy! I have so much catching up to do!
Let's start with one of my favorite days of the year ...

Nic and I celebrated 8 years of marriage in May!!

I made him this video (linked here) and it brings me to tears every time I watch it. So many unforgettable moments and a beautiful life we've made together! We watched it laying in bed that morning and I think he loves it just as much as I do.

In the morning we visited the Boise Temple grounds where we were married. It was our first time taking our kids there and it was like being in this crazy time warp seeing how much our lives have grown and changed since that beautiful day!

Liam's first time ever taking our picture! haha

And the second ... there are our heads! haha

I love that our love created these two beautiful humans!

In the afternoon Liam had a play date and Lyla took a nap while my sweet step mom stayed with her so we could have a date together! We haven't been in Boise on any of our anniversaries so far so Nic planned the most special walk down memory lane starting with the Idaho Botanical Gardens where he proposed 9 years ago. He reenacted the moment in the very same gazebo and got down on one knee and gave me a set of silicone rings to wear when I exercise/do yard work/hike/etc. It was so cute and thoughtful! In the moment I remember saying, "what are you doing?!" haha because I was so thrown off by it and it was the best surprise!

The gardens were covered in the most beautiful pink peonies and we were so entertained by the ginormous coy fish and lizards running around on the rocks.

After the gardens we stopped by The Bishop's House ... a beautiful old Victorian house where we had our wedding reception! There was a big sign in the front yard telling people to stay off the property and that there was some event soon so we quickly popped out of the car long enough to snap a picture and drive away.

I can not imagine my life without this handsome guy in it. We've been through so much together ... school, buying and selling houses, babies, new jobs, a big move and through all of it, there is no one else I'd rather have by my side. I'm so grateful for our marriage and excited to see what the next 50 years will bring! Love you so much Nic Williamson, Happy Anniversary!! XO

A Love Story

via

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Ever since I was a little girl I not only pictured my wedding day but would act it out.
I would put on the same dress my mom married my dad in and pick roses from the yard as my bouquet.
We had this arch in the corner of our backyard and I would sprinkle rose pedals in two parallel lines that created the "aisle" I would walk down.
The only part that would change each time was the person waiting for me at the other end. Sometimes it was a neighbor boy, close friend, or a lot of the time, my brother. {come on, we were just little kids playing pretend}
But as I grew older the acting became imagining and the imagining became less frequent.
I had other plans for my life first.

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I was going to graduate high school,
go to college,
discover who I was,
date several guys,
start a career,
and then, after I had myself all put together, I would consider settling down to have a family.
All I have to say is the Lord works in mysterious ways and his will didn't exactly match my own.
Was I stubborn about it at first? Yes. But, did I find that the different plan for my life made me the happiest I've ever been? Absolutely.

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This year was a dream come true for me and it definitely feels bittersweet that it has come and gone.
It was only 7 short months ago that I married the handsome man with the beautiful blue eyes, and while it feels like just yesterday, it also feels like an eternity away.
I didn't get married in my mom's dress under the arch in our backyard but it was more than I ever hoped it would be.

I have been thinking a lot lately where our story began.
Remembering the funny way we met for the first time,
the first date,
the first kiss,
the first time I realized that I knew what it meant to fall in love, to be in love.
While I look back on all of those fond memories, they are still very much alive.
What I thought was my fairytale ending has really only just begun.
The story of us.

To be continued...

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