Baby Update

Well, I'm now 30 1/2 weeks! How insane is that? it has gone by so fast! Anyway, i have been having some pretty intense contractions lately :( SO not pleasent lol We almost went to the hospital the other night cause they were seriously as strong as they were when i was in labor with Lydia. We waited them out and they stopped. So i had a drs appointment today and they checked me just to see if the contractions were doing anything. She checked me and said that i've actually dialated a bit :/ She said its nothing to worry bout unless its even more at my next appointment in 2 weeks. As she was checking me, she freaked me out lol She was feeling and said 'oh my goodness...um...have u been to OB triage yet?' i told her no. Then she said 'i think i might feel this little girls head' What?! She then proceeded to push on my belly (really hard lol) and actually had a hold of the head and the butt! She said that she was trying to see if it was the head or the butt bearing down on the cervix (i dont blame people if they have stopped reading by now lol its very TMI lol) She said that by the feel of it, She thinks its the butt. She wants me to get an ultrasound in a little while just to make sure. She said if its the butt, then thats ok. if its the head, then this girl is making her way out! Lets hope for the butt haha

We are getting so excited for Christmas around here :) I cant wait for Lydia to open her presents lol She is sooo excited. She knows whos present is whos under the tree and will hand me mine and hand her dad his. She's always asking 'Kim-miis?' (christmas lol) I always feel so bad telling her 'not yet...' :/

Thats about all thats going on in the Rieck house :) I'm so excited for this next year. There are gonna be some big changes and i cant wait! (and it seems like this baby isn't very patient either hehe).

LOVE This Time Of Year!

Everything about this season just makes me happy :)
The decorating...

Family time...

The yummy food...

And just getting cozy in the cold weather...

Its even more exciting now that Lydia knows whats going on and is getting excited too. Last night, we were driving to my parents house and she wanted me to stop in front of EVERY house that haad lights up lol She just freaks out and says "Stop! Whites, Mommy!" haha And her new favorite word is Beautiful haha So we are already loving Christmas time with this girl :)

Well, i had a drs appointment a couple weeks ago (im down to every 2 week appointments! weird huh?!) and had to get an ultrasound to make sure my placenta previa was gone. Luckly it is! Hopefully no c-section for me lol They also said that the baby would probably look really skinny still cause in the next couple weeks, she should gain the baby weight. BUT when she looked at her on the ultrasound, she was shocked to see that we have a little chunk on our hands haha She has the biggest cheeks i've seen. Her height was measuring normal BUT her weight (which is supposed to be measuring about 2 lbs right now) was measuring over 3! When i was born, i weighed almost 11 lbs! My poor mom (AND she did it all natural!). This is what karma is all about... Please be nice to me, baby Brie...haha

Wouldn't it be nice?

I tried to win this amazing prize last year (and obviously didn't lol) and I'm determined to win it again this year! All my Christmas shopping will be done! haha Check it out for a chance to win!

http://laurawinslowphotography.com/blog/2011/11/21/10000-holiday-bloggie-bash-laura-winslow-photography/


It's pretty amazing :)

The Bright Side

It's been really hard for me lately to think of the bright side of things. I've been so stressed with things. Between house payments, Contractions with this pregnancy, work, and TONS of other things on my irrational pregnant mind, i can barely get any sleep at night. I also freak myself out thinking that this pregnancy will end with an awful labor experience like last time. And not only that, our new Dr only delivers at 1 hospital. And that hospital happens to be an hour away. I freak out that we wont make it.
Well last night, Max and i were just sitting and talking about things we r a little worried about. Then we realized, we r just thinking of things that MIGHT go wrong or things that we just don't have any control over. Money's tight, yes, but we are making it. There are SO many things we have to be thankful for. As far as house payments, we HAVE a house. Not only that, its an amazing house. And as far as the pregnancy goes, in February, we are gonna have another sweet little girl to add to our family :) Sure there are tons of things that can go wrong with the pregnancy and the labor but, those are out of my control. I just think of my friends who have had a hard time getting pregnant or the friends of mine who have lost their babies. It breaks my heart to think of those situations. So it makes me think 'what really am i worried about?' That i might go through some pain to get this girl into the world? That is ridiculous. I admit, the pain i went through delivering Lydia was the most pain i've ever felt. But it was the most amazing experience of my entire life. So much so, that im doing it again lol
There's just so much to be greatful for that i cant just dwell on things that are overwhelming me. I have an awesome little family. A husband that cares for me more than anyone. i know he would do anything for me. He's been putting up with my morning sickness, aches, pains, emotional break downs, and times where im just so irrational haha i also have a little girl that amazes me everyday. She's so smart and its so fun to see the world thru her curious eyes :)
I'm going to be more positive and just enjoy the now instead of worrying about the unknown :) Bring on my favorite holidays!

Update on Things

Well, things are just moving along here. So much that i forget to keep my blog updated lol This pregnancy is going by SO fast and i don't wanna look back and see that i didn't write anything about it. As most of you already know, we are having another girl :) We are so excited! We wanted another girl for and now its all falling into place :) Our girls can be close friends. Me and my sister, Alicia, were 2 years apart and when we were younger, we did EVERYTHING together. Max and his brother, Niels, are 2 years apart and they had the same bond. So we are happy our girls will have that :) And we have TONS of girl clothes (some that Lydia never even wore cause she grew out of it before i even got to it lol). We are also SO happy its a girl cause we couldn't decide, to save our lives, on a boy name. Before we were even married, we had our first 2 girls names picked out. Lydia was my choice cause I've loved that name for so long. Max picked this girls name cause he's always loved it. Her name will be Gabriella Jane Rieck (but we will call her Brie). The middle name Jane is after 2 people that i care about A LOT, my friend Janet Peterson and my cousin Kimber (whose middle name is Janelle).
So far, this pregnancy has been pretty tough :/ I got sick at 4 weeks and i JUST started to feel better about a weeks or so ago. Every once and awhile, i get nauseous but at least its not like it was a few weeks ago. I've also been having a lot of what i thought was braxton hicks contractions. When i went into the Dr's last week, i told her that i have been having some very intense braxton hicks. She said thats no problem if its only twice a day. i told her its twice every half hour! She looked a Little freaked out so she checked me. She said that i wasn't dilated at all (thank goodness!) but my cervix had thinned a bit. She said that the contractions were the real deal. i just need to take it easy from here on out. With Lydia, i started having real contractions about 2 months before she came. So they said it could just get to be earlier with every pregnancy :( But we aren't 2 worried. Just being cautious now lol
Lydia keeps me pretty busy lately. which is good so I'm not counting the minutes until this pregnancy is over haha Shes just getting so big so fast. When we moved into our new house, we just put the crib in the baby's nursery and got Lydia a toddler bed. It was hard the first couple nights but now shes a pro. Its to the point where shes saying 'bye bye' to us before we are even done saying goodnight to her lol She just thinks shes so big in her big girl bed :) She's a little chatter box and is always on the go. Now that its cooler her, we take walks and go play at the park. She loooves it. She gets really upset when the walks are over now lol
Sorry for the huge post lol just had a lot to get off my chest hehe I'll try to update more often :) and i will upload some ultrasound pics as soon as i can. Still getting last minute things sorted in our house :)

Officially in Debt...but lovin' it!

Our gorgeous new house! We signed papers for it on Friday and we will be moving in THIS week! Its been a long time coming and its actually just in time that we got it too! My brother comes home from his mission in November and we are actually in his room right now at my parents house lol and with this baby coming in February...the time couldn't be better :)
A few months ago, i posted a pic of a different house that we were trying to get and i was set on getting it. Everytime we it would get close to closing on the house, something else would come up and we would haveta wait even longer. We thought that we might as well go look at other houses, just to see. We found this one first. Max fell in love right away. We put an offer on it that afternoon. The next morning, our realtor called and said that our offer was accepted! We knew then that it was meant to be :) we pulled out of the other house offer and went full force with this one. We are so happy and excited to start this chapter of our lives. And i can really start nesting like crazy when we find out the gender on this baby next month :)

I'll post more pics once we are all settled :)

"Rella" Obsessed

Lydia and i have been watching a lot of Disney movies lately. I loooove that she's finally watching more than Yo Gabba Gabba haha Lydia's favorite right now is Cinderella (one that i LOVED growing up). So of coarse, she thinks she's Cinderella :) She tries to sing the songs all high pitch like her and everything hehe Well, when it came down to seeing who I was in the movie...theres no mom except for the evil step-mother. So, im one of the girl mice haha
After watching Cinderella tons and TONS of times, i turned on Aladdin. She was jazmine. Wheres the mommy? Then the next movie The Little Mermaid, No mom. It just seemed to happen with every movie we turned on (pocahontas, beauty and the beast, pinoccio, and so on). THEN, we turned on one that had a mom, Sleeping Beauty :) BUT she was in it for a few minutes cause she didnt even get to raise her baby girl :( Then came Tangled, SAME THING the mom got gyped lol Who's mommy supposed to be? lol The last straw was finding Nemo cause i just wasnt thinking haha

Do you guys know that moms arent really needed? you can still have a happy ending without them lol I'm not mad cause i looove disney movies :) Just something i thought was interesting. Besides there still are the VERY few like Dumbo, The rescuers down under, Mulan, Peter Pan, and Toy Story that DO have moms lol

Rieck, Party Of FOUR?

We are SO stinkin' excited to say that there will be a new little Rieck joining the family in February!

I'm only 9 weeks along but we wanted to let people know sooner this time cause miscarriages happen a lot with the second pregnancy in my family. We wanted people to know so they can send us well wishes and pray that everything goes well. AND if i did have a miscarriage now, people would kinda understand what I'm going through. I wouldn't want to have to tell people "well, we WERE pregnant but now...".
I went to the drs last week and they did an ultrasound and said that everything looked great :) Healthy baby and strong heartbeat! I have pics from that ultrasound but i need to scan them in. so i'll do that soon :)

The Fathers in my life...

I would not be the person i am without certain guys in my life.

My Grandpa Fackrell He's an amazing guy. He raised 11 kids with my Grandma. We would always go to his room for 'Papa Candy' :) His patriarchal blessing said that he would baptize MANY. He was confused cause on his mission he baptized hardly any (if none) BUT, he obviously baptized his kids and countless grandkids :) He is pretty much amazing...



Grandpa Bremer- He truly knew how to spoil us lol When i was younger, i stayed with him for a week or so in Utah and we had so much fun. He's always teaching us little tricks and always has the nicest things to say :)



My Dad My friends were always afraid of him haha But once they got to know him, they realized he's just a big goof lol My guy friends in high school would come over and play video games with him lol
He cares about his family SO much and Lydia looooves her 'Gam-Pa' hehe Max and i took Lydia out to dinner the other night and she saw the back of a bald guy's head and just started yelling 'Gam-Pa!' She was getting so upset that her grandpa wasnt paying attention to her haha



My Father-in-law He is just simply great :) He made me feel welcome into the family right away. The way he is with Lydia is just 2 funny. He will be the first one playing with her on the floor and goofing around with her :) He will even chase her around the house until you can tell he's just exhausted. She adores him :)



And of coarse, there's my husband, Max :) When we were dating, i saw how good he was with his nieces and nephews and he was SO great with mine. When i was pregnant, i had no doubt that he would be a great dad. But, i had no idea how GREAT. From the moment they cleaned her off at the hospital, he held her, talked to her, calmed her down, and just soothed her to the point where she wouldnt eat for me without him CONSTANTLY talked to her. And ever since then, she was head over heels for her daddy :) (i didnt stand a chance lol)



He has totally exceeded my expectations with the daddy role. She loves her daddy more than anyone else in the world. The proof is in the way she looks at him :)



Happy Father's Day!

3 Years!

It seems like much longer than 3 years lol

Max and i just got back yesterday from staying over the weekend at the resort that we stayed at for our Honeymoon :) It was so nice and super relaxing. Just what we needed. It went by 2 fast! haha We actually turned into THOSE parents...the ones that talk about their kid a lot when they are on vacation haha We would even be walking around a store and say, "Lydia would Looove that" haha And it seemed like, when we were driving home, we couldnt get there fast enough to see her lol Max was driving and when we would hit a light or someone would drive slow in front of us, he would say, "Come on! I just wanna see my girl! haha I love how much he loves our little girl :)

I WANT THIS!

I shake just thinking about this giveaway they are having here in AZ haha If you live in AZ, you HAVE TO enter this giveaway! Its called the MAMAS ROCK giveaway. Almost $7,000 worth of prizes! Whoever wins this is so freakin lucky haha

Check out all the details @

http://laurawinslowphotography.com/blog/2011/04/28/laura-winslow-photography-presents-mamas-rock-giveaway-2011-over-6500-to-one-winner/

you will prolly want it as bad as i do lol Even if u dont live in AZ, enter! (Just give all the local stuff to me ;) lol jk jk)

There are hundreds maybe even thousands of people entering. Just get ur name in there and cross ur fingers! Ah-maze-za-zing!

A Few Random Pics I Love :)

Happy Monday, Everyone :)

My Girl

I've always wanted to make it a tradition for every Easter with any daughters that i have, to buy frilly girly dresses. Now that i have my girl (who is super girly), i'm starting that as a family tradition. My parents would go all out with our dresses and would even make us match each year lol It's definitely something I'm gonna enjoy doing :)

Lydia @ 1


Me when i was 2ish

Happiness.

As of today, we are completely debt free! We have paid off all our credit cards and other expenses! It is one of the most awesome feelings :) We are hoping everything keeps going right for us and we get the house too lol But it always seems like when everything goes right for us, something pretty bad happens. But we are staying positive and praying everything goes right :)

Fingers Crossed!

Whelp, we have made a huge step...We Found A House! It is beautiful! It's a short sale so we don't know how long the process is gonna take. our realtor said it could take up to 5 months or it might be as short as 1 month! We are so excited and its everything we've wanted. We signed the contracts yesterday and now we just have to wait to hear back from the bank. So, the house isn't ours definitely but we are hopeful :) So everyone, keep Ur fingers crossed!

Here's a pic of (hopefully) our future home :)

Day 30

A video that makes you happy.

This is what i call 'Gabba Gabba Fever' around my house :) This is Lydia when i turn on her favorite song on Yo Gabba Gabba... (i tried to edit the video to make it smaller but couldn't :( So it takes a little while to get to her favorite part haha Dont worry bout watching the whole thing lol she gets tired)



Its kinda like her own head bangin rock concert :) I love this girl!

Day 29

Someone you miss.

I've been thinking about this person a lot lately.



My Grandma Fackrell

My grandma and i were really close. The first thing that I'd do when I'd get to her house was, run into her room to hug her and say hi. She loved family get togethers. Every Sunday, we would go to her house and play games til our bedtimes. I loved going to Disneyland with her and going on the Autopia with her and having her freak out cause i was a crazy driver :)
I was nervous about getting baptized and she would tell me what to expect with the whole thing and made me feel not so nervous. She passed away a few months before i got baptized but, i definitely felt her there. I felt her there in the sealing room when i got married. I felt her in the room when i had Lydia. i KNOW she has been up there with all the grand-kids and great grand-kids getting them ready to come here :) a few people that have known her have told me about having a dream about her up in heaven playing with a bunch of kids :) i feel that she specially hand-delivered Lydia here to me. And i KNOW she taking care of my other kids :)
We all love and miss her SO much.

Day 28

A letter.

With today being the day it is, of coarse I'm writing to my little 1 year old :)

My sweet little Lydia,

This past year has taught me so much.



From the moment you were born, i loved you sooo much. It overwhelmed me how much. i couldn't stop cuddling you and kissing you. When you were 1 week old, me and ur daddy were talking about how crazy it was that we just met you, and yet, we would do ANYTHING for you. All the hard times with you (getting up at night, the crying, the major practice of patience, etc.) were totally forgotten when you would cuddle with us, fall asleep in our arms, or we would get a little grin :)

As you started to get older...

I enjoyed our little "conversations", ur giggling, and the way ur face would light up when you would see your daddy :)

When 1/2 a year had already gone by...

I was amazed at how much of a little lady you were :) Playing peek-a-boo with you, eating candy for your first Halloween, seeing Disneyland through your eyes, and you calling me 'mama' :)

a few months later...

You became mobile haha crawling and walking along furniture. i just couldn't contain u in one little area lol Actually watching you learn things and teach yourself how to do things was amazing to me. Miss independent :)

And now at a year old! Where has the time gone?!

I love that you are my shopping buddy and my partner in crime. I love the random hugs and kisses throughout the day (that shows im doing SOMETHING right, right? lol) I love that all me or your dad has to do is hum the superman theme song and you get into the 'flying position', with your arms out and your toes pointed, just for us to 'fly' you around the room hehe And i LOVE how excited you get when i turn on your light in the morning to get you out of bed :)
I love being a mommy to such a sweet, wonderful, and adorable little girl :) I'm so lucky. I love you so much! Happy Birthday!

Day 27

A picture that can always make you smile.

These pics go hand in hand to me...




These are my BESTEST FRIENDS :) These 3 people made my high school experience amazing :) We all usually hung out everyday. We were all really close and talked about everything together. With these kinds of friends, we were never pressured into doing bad things and Brad and Scott always treated Lindsay and i with complete respect. I got married soon after the both of them came home from their missions. They drove out to AZ the night before the wedding. I was So happy to see them. And it was amazing going through the temple and having Lindsay right in my eyesight and having Brad and Scott in the front row :) They all mean so much to me.

Day 26

A family member.



My aunt Corinne :)


Everyone has that really awesome aunt. She's mine and definitely one of my favorite people. My childhood wouldn't have been the same without her. She would take me to the movies, get ice cream, go to Disneyland, Knotts, and the list gos on and on. The thing i liked the most was that she NEVER treated me like a little kid :) We would hang out like best friends and i loved it! I call her Lucy and she calls me Ethel cause we always found ourselves getting into awkward situations haha like one time...
We went to the swap meet one day and parked in the institute parking lot across the street. she found this glass top end table the she wanted. She bought it and then we realized we had to carry it across the street. So we took the glass piece off and i carried the bottom part of the table and she carried the glass. we were walking across the street and cars were kinda honking at us and laughing. we already felt so stupid but y were they all honking u may ask? We didn't realize it at the time but, the way Corinne was carrying the glass top, her chest was pressed up against the glass haha! Shes prolly gonna kill me for sharing that story but that is such a funny memory of mine :) We have always had such a fun time wherever we go. i appreciate and love her SO much!

Day 25

A nightmare you often have.

I blame this one on my husband.



A zombie attack

I'm always haveing zombie nightmares! i will wake up so freaked out. And its also a real life fear of mine. That would be the worst thing. People eating other people. I blame it on Max cause he LOVES zombie movies. Our first time hanging out (alone) together, we watched the movie 28 Days Later. Freaked me out. and now, my zombie nighmares are worse since i have Lydia. I'm always trying to save her in the dream. So ya, that would be my nightmare.

Day 24

Your favorite actor and actress.




Steve Carell and Rachael Mcadams

i know. Wide spectrum, right? lol but, i just love Steve cause he's super funny :) I love the office and i love the movie get smart. he's just pretty much amazing.
And i love Rachael cause there hasn't been 1 movie that shes been in that i haven't liked. She does such an awesome job and makes every role believable. (and im jealous of her cause she's gorgeous haha)

Day 23

your favorite book.

Yes i love Twilight and Hunger Games but my FAVORITE is...


Can you Keep a Secret?
by Sophie Kinsella

LOOOOOVE this book! Sophie Kinsella also wrote the Shopaholic books. I read this book in just a couple days cause i couldn't put it down! Its been a long time since I've read it (i NEED to read it again lol)

Day 22

something you wish you were good at.



Playing the piano


I have really long fingers and i constantly have people asking me if i play the piano. i wish! That would've been an amazing and useful talent lol

Day 21

something you wish you could forget.

well, why would i post it on here if i wan to forget it? lol Lets just let this one slide...

Day 20

somewhere you'd love to travel.



New Zealand

I just think its beautiful there. I would LOVE to go there someday.

Day 19

A picture (with you in it) that reminds you of a time you felt Love.





I really like this pic because it takes me back to that day and how excited we were. This picture was actually taken right BEFORE we were married. We did a lot of our single shots together that morning. This one was taken a few minutes before we went in. My best friend was taking our pictures and my dad was just kinda taking random shots on the side. This is one that he got in between shots with Lindsay. I love it cause we were so giddy and excite to get married :) Such a great day!

Day 18

your biggest insecurity.

This one's obvious lol...




My "all over the place" weight. I was a chubby little teenager. Then in high school, i went on weight watchers and lost a lot of weight and got down to my goal. then after getting married, i gained some. then after getting pregnant, a gained A LOT more. But now i have ALL the baby weight off and im working on my post wedding weight :) But ya, im definately insecure about it lol

Day 17

Something BIG happening in your life.






We are looking to buy a house! We are working with a realtor right now and are hopefully in our house in a couple of months :) we cant wait! Cross your fingers that everything goes well!

Day 16

A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with.




LOTS of stories. Not a lot of time. Nuff said :)