Quick Pregnancy Update

So, as usual, I'm a little behind. But here's a quick blog post more for my own memory than anything else :)

As of today, I'm 35 weeks and 2 days along. WOW! Here's a picture I took last week of my belly at 34 weeks:Facts about my pregnancy:
1. Baby boy still kicks a LOT. He doesn't like it when I try to sleep on my left side. It riles him up and he starts punching me. So, I sleep on my right side mostly... haha
2. I had my first bout of feet/leg swelling on September 17th (the same day of my Utah baby shower). It was rather uncomfortable, so I think I'll just lay with my legs up the wall as much as possible ;)
3. I have my crib! It's still in the box. Got to get nesting!
4. Sitting too long makes me crampy. Ouch. Gotta stretch things out.
5. I'm totally in love with tiny little man shoes. So is T. :) Why are tiny things so adorable?
6. Still no name, but I'm not too worried. Definitely growing tired of suggestions, though ;)
7. I've gained about 21 lbs, to date, in my pregnancy (6 of which were gained in the last 2 weeks!)
8. No stretch marks yet and trying to keep it that way... I've got good genes in this department, so hopefully I'll make it through without them!
9. Doctor thinks I'm going to have a smaller baby. Probably 6.5 to 7 lbs. I'm not complaining!

I am just getting SO excited to meet this little man! 33 days to go until the due date!!!! <3

Fun with Friends in August

I'm once again a little behind in blogging about the recent happenings in my life. Oh well. At least I'm doing it :) In August, Meghan and Cole Ballard flew to Utah from their home in Texas and we were able to visit with them. Well, actually, it was really hard to get all of us five couples (T and 4 of his buddies from high school and all of our families) in the same place at the same time, so we planned two visits! :)

First, on August 19th, T & I went over to Dave & Heidi's house and had a nice dinner with them as well as Meg & Cole. We had so much fun talking (especially the girl talk - isn't that the best!?!), catching up, and eating delicious food and dessert. Thanks Heidi for hosting! It was wonderful! (Unfortunately no one remembered to break out their cameras for this event, so we'll all just have to have mental memories, haha).

Then, a week later, on August 26th, Meg and I (Cole had left for TX already and T was feeling under the weather) went to Shawn & Jana's house for dinner and Randy & Jenny were able to be there too! It was so much fun to get to see all of my friends within a week's time. We definitely don't get together enough! The good news is that I actually took pictures to show you. And I hijacked one of Meghan's too ;)

Jana and Meg cheering on Luke (Jana's oldest) and Henry (Jenny's boy):
Me playing with Luke & Henry. They really enjoyed it when I put the toy rings on their heads and they would balance them for a minute and then shake them off and just laugh:
Cute couple Shawn & Jana:
Luke again (haha, cutie!). His little brother Crew had gone to bed for the night:
Henry again. Funny how kids totally give you the "deer in the headlights" look when you're taking their picture:
Cute Henry with his mommy (I'm so sad this picture is kind of blurry!):
Little Lily (Meg's cute little girl) was there too, but I didn't get any pictures of her, darn it. Anyway, it's so much fun to play with all of my friends' cute kids. It makes me really excited to have my own!! Once I have my sweet little boy, we will all officially be parents!! :D

Thanks for the fun memories friends, and Meg & Cole you better visit again soon!

Kelan's First Birthday Party

Caution: This is a "Proud Aunt" post. You've been warned :)

On August 17th, my youngest nephew, Kelan, turned 1! He is T's sister Meghan's youngest. I'm pretty sure we all can't believe how fast he's growing up already! On Saturday the 20th of August, they had a family get-together to celebrate his first birthday. And I actually remembered to break out my camera and take some pictures :)

The little birthday boy getting ready to get his first taste of the cake. He had one little candle on top and his siblings and cousins got to "help him" blow it out after we sang:
And then he got to "dig in". I'm pretty sure Kanyon was more excited about this moment than anyone else (look at his reaction in these pictures - Kanyon's on the left). With all of his siblings and cousins crowding around and getting excited, I'm pretty sure Kelan was a little gun shy about diving into his cute little basketball cake. He probably would have been a lot less shy without the audience, haha. But, he did get a good taste of the icing:
And here was the other cake that my talented sister-in-law, Meghan, made for the party. A jersey cake to go with the basketball cake, of course!
After we gorged ourselves with pizza, cake, and ice cream, Kelan got to open presents. Well, actually, Kelan got to remove the tissue paper from the bags while his helpful siblings showed him how to open his presents ;) We gave Kelan a book called "Swing". I'm not sure if you've ever seen or heard of the "Gallop" book, but this is just another book created by the same author. It just has a sports theme instead of animals. I was really glad that Kelan actually really liked the book:
He got some other fabulous toys and outfits as well. One of the biggest hits of the day was this little, soft bowling set. There were 6 little animals shaped like bowling pins and a ball that the kids could throw at it. All the older siblings really enjoyed taking turns setting up the pins and then throwing the ball:
And finally, I had to include a couple of pictures that really just melt my heart (especially because we have a little boy on the way). Here's T practicing to be "Dad" as he was playing with Kelan:

Kelan is just getting so big, and really enjoys showing off his new walking skills. It's become a fun game for him to walk back and forth between us with a huge grin on his face and arms stretched straight out in front. So cute to watch him learn. I love my nieces and nephews so much. In fact, I'm surprised how much I love them. And I can't wait to see how much more I'm going to love my own little man.

Happy 1st Birthday Kelan man!