The Nursery Version 1

So, I'm not very creative, nor am I very good at utilizing small spaces, but I AM good at putting self-assemble furniture together. Hence showing you the beginnings of my little man's nursery. The walls will change once we have some pictures to put up and when we know what his name will be. I'd like to find a sand/tan colored linen bedskirt for the crib, and my wonderful mom is making and bringing me the quilt that's going to pull it all together. It's going to be wonderful!
The "It's a Boy" hanging on the wall was a cute decoration my sister in law put together for my baby shower. I figured I'd use it for the time being to give the space a little "love". We'll see how my sweet man's little corner turns out in the end!

Also, just for the record, here's a picture of me today at 38 weeks. Please forgive how tired I look. I took this picture at 10:30pm and, geez, I'm very pregnant! Haha ;)
Also-also, a little joy of today is that my sweet husband cleaned the house for me before I got home. Ahhhh that really does put a giant smile on my face! Coming into a clean home (that I didn't clean by myself) really does mean a lot. Cheers to kind, caring husbands!!!

I'm Officially Full Term!

As I was getting ready to make this blog post and I was uploading new pregnancy pictures, I realized that I could show some comparison pictures to REALLY show how big I'm getting. That will be my celebration of the fact that today is 37 weeks, which marks that I have officially reached "full term" and baby can come any time now and be completely ready for the world! Yay! Any bets on when he'll actually be here? My 40 week due date is October 25th.

So, some comparisons! Here I am back at about 27 weeks....
And this is what happens in about two months... WOW! I was shocked at the difference:
And here I am back at 28 weeks:
And 9 weeks later... holy baby bump! I guess you really do grow a lot right at the end!!:
Ready to meet this little baby boy! Getting the nursery ready and I'll post pictures once it's done, which could be a while ;)

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!

The Hubby Graduates from BYU

I am very pleased to announce that my husband graduated from BYU with an Undergraduate degree in Business Management (Finance) on August 12, 2011! Congratulations sweet man! You're officially done! :D

Graduation pictures are always tough to take (poor lighting, far distance, moving people, etc) but please enjoy my captures of the day:
The undergrads walking in (above) and seated (below). T is second in on the right.
The Dean speaking. I love seeing the cool robes that many of the professors have. You can see some of them if you look closely in this picture:
At the end, the Dean had the graduates turn around and applaud their friends and family who helped them through the process. I'm so sad this picture turned out blurry because T is looking at me, smiling, and clapping. It makes me feel like one very proud wife!
After the ceremony, we took some pictures in the lobby/atrium of the Marriott Center. That's one handsome couple if I do say so myself ;) -
With Kanyon and Scarlett, Meghan's oldest two:
With Grandma Deanna and Grandpa Kayle (his mom's parents). I had a hard time getting Kayle to look my direction haha:
With all of his siblings except Mical (we missed you!) who had a busy weekend in Las Vegas where she lives:
With his parents, who have been great influences to him throughout his life:
And another picture of us. I requested to have my belly in the shot, so I can remember that we were a family of three :) I was 29 weeks and 3 days in this picture:
Oh, and I must not forget to mention that I bought T a used bike for graduation and surprised him with it! Thanks so much to my friend Anna who was selling it :) He's excited about it because he had taken up running as a hobby and was really enjoying it, but it made his knees hurt pretty bad. So, biking will be great because he can still get the aerobic activity without the impact on his knees. Plus you can go farther and see better scenery!
Like I said, he was pretty excited :) And I was excited to give it to him because I've never surprised him before. And that picture is an actual shot of his first reaction when he saw it!

Anyway, it was a fun day. T even wore the same cap and gown that I wore at my graduation over two years ago. Different tassel, though. I told him it probably wouldn't work if he wore my old '09 tassel to his 2011 graduation ;)

I also filmed the actual moment that he walked across the stage, got his name called, and accepted his diploma. Hopefully the video uploads... 45 MINS LATER.... Nope. It didn't work. Lame. Good thing there's Facebook: Go HERE to view the video :) Enjoy!

Oh, and don't forget to check out my post from earlier today, below :)

Belly Pictures!

Wow, so SHAME on me. I just realized I haven't posted a belly picture on my blog since I was 23 weeks along. Ooooops! And now that it's Sunday, which seems to be my weekly day of choice to update my blog, I figure I better update some pregnancy pictures. Today I'm 30 weeks and 5 days along. Sooo, it's about time! :)

Watch me grow:
(Above pic taken in my parents' bathroom in NC, below pic taken at beach house bathroom in NC, both on vacation woo hoo!)




And that very last one was taken today, August 21, 2011. So it's how I currently look. I feel like I'm growing, but definitely went through more of a quick growth spurt from 26-28 weeks.

Some fun pregnancy facts about me:
1. I get twinges of sciatica in my left butt cheek (yes, only the left side).
2. I've learned how to avoid getting charley horses in my sleep. If I feel one coming on, I pull my foot back and flex it toward me as quickly as possible, and, so far, I've avoided getting one for a while!
3. Passed the glucose test, which means I don't have gestational diabetes. In fact, my score was a 76 (normal is 60-140), so I'm actually near the lower end of blood sugar levels. I have used this as an excuse to eat more sugar! But having lower blood sugar does cause me to feel lightheaded occasionally, mostly in the mornings.
4. Little boy is VERY active still. More rolling around now than punching, but he's definitely excited to be awake and moving most of the time.
5. Yoga saves my life. My body would probably break apart without it! :D And it also means I can still touch my toes!!
6. Sleeping is starting to get a little more uncomfortable, but I'm still pretty darn good at getting to sleep and staying that way :)
7. Most days I have lots of energy and I feel great. Pregnancy has really been easy for me, and I definitely don't take it for granted!!