26 Weeks--and starting to feel huge!! :)

Man, do I LOVE being pregnant! Yes, it is a little rough at times with sickness and such, but regardless, this is still the greatest blessing I've ever had the privilege to experience!!! Though I am also loving each day that we get closer to meeting this precious spirit! This 2nd trimester has gone by incredibly fast, there's only 14 weeks (about 3 1/2 months) left! It seems so close and yet so far away at the same time, but especially with the holidays I'm sure it'll go by in a blink of an eye. 

Exciting tidbits & happenings going on now...

"Baby's soaking up your antibodies,
getting his immune system ready for life
outside the womb. Eyes are forming, and
he'll soon be practicing to blink;
perfect for batting those freshly
grown lashes." (thebump.com)

• Daren is now supposed to be developing the ability to discern right side up from upside down (it has something to do with the ears...Kurtis isn't home right now, otherwise I could tell you the name of the actual anatomical part lol). He's also supposed to be turning and positioning himself down to get ready to come into the world! Woohoo!!!
• I'm starting to use my belly as a table, which is super fun. My belly is big enough that I just place the TV remote there, or put my phone on speakerphone there, and it's so conveniently close. Sometimes Daren will even kick the object I put on top of him, especially if it makes noise. :) Though for some reason when he's kicking and Kurtis tries to feel, he'll stop! Even when Kurtis tries to tap my belly to get him to kick back, he won't! It's so funny to think this guy has a little personality of his own already. :)
   
• Kurtis has been doing well in his classes, these past few weeks he took a ton of midterms but he handled them well and should be on his way to getting at least one A and B's for the semester. Yay honey!!
   
• We've been discussing future plans a lot lately, which is kind of scary but mostly exciting! I believe we've decided that I'm not going to go back to work after Daren is born, simply because we don't know who will take care of him while I'm at work. Luckily I know have Mary Kay so I can still work flexibly part time! It's been going pretty well so far, I'm slowly growing my business and getting better at teaching the skin care classes, so I hope to earn my car in the next 4 months or so! (You can also help by ordering from me online at: http://marykay.com/jessika.speer or by hosting a party--if you live in Utah!) :)
   
• Kurtis is very conscientious about our growing family and being able to spend enough time at home while he's in med school. At this point he's thinking he'll just do an MD instead of going through a MD/PhD program (which is what he had been planning on) because that will require a couple extra years--and needless to say, I'm totally fine with that! :) So for the time being, he's going to graduate with his Bachelors in April, and will then take the MCAT and apply for med schools in May/June. Then we'll wait to hear back! In the meantime, he'll probably just work full time for a while to spend more time at home and start med school in Fall 2013.

Well, that's our exciting/crazy lives in a nutshell! We're so incredibly excited for all the changes we're going through now and will go through in the near future. At times, some things are scary to think about, but we are so grateful to know that we can be confident in knowing our Heavenly Father will guide us in our footsteps as long as we turn to Him. We were particularly reminded of this simple truth as we discussed a talk that was given by Elder Carl B. Cook (a representative of the LDS church) last month, titled "It Is Better to Look Up" (you can find it here: http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/it-is-better-to-look-up?lang=eng). We are SO thankful for these sweet reminders that we need to take the time to remember our Father each day, and just thinking about the blessings He gives each of us brings so much peace in the middle of a hectic day!

With love and joy, The Speer family :)