Busy Season Begins

Well, life has been crazy, crazy, crazy for the past few weeks and is just finally settling down. It's kind of nice to look at my calendar and see it blank for a little while, at least. At the end of September Bryan and I headed down to Utah for a Whitney family vacation. Generally when we go to Utah we bring Callie with but since we were headed to Snowbird, where we would be staying in a hotel, we left her behind and had some friends in our ward look after her and the house. She honestly probably preferred this but she is a very people-loving animal so we were afraid to leave her on her own but she seemed to do well and wasn't even mad at us when we got back! It was a relief to not have to worry about anything back home.

We got checked in to Snowbird on a Saturday when Oktoberfest was in full swing there. It was only slightly annoying to have a band playing loudly outside during the day but after Sunday everyone left and it felt like we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was nice.

On Sunday we went down to Sandy and went to Sacrament Meeting at a local ward. We thought we were being so good but in conference the next week someone talked about going for all three hours when on vacation! I'm not quite there yet...

We participated in a few Snowbird sponsored activities while there. Each day there was a morning hike and Mike went out on those at least a few days a week. Shelley and the kids went to some kid friendly activities and I think Bryan and I only went to the movie ("Now Your See Me") and Bingo, pictured below.

We spent the rest of the vacation mostly just relaxing. We played board/party games pretty much every night, which was a lot of fun. Bryan and I also brought our Wii U, which was a hit. There was a lot of this happening:

Note the kids' involvement in the gaming. I especially love how in the first picture Bryan is playing with Ethan with his left hand and playing the Wii with his right-- look closely.

Months ago when the vacation was planned I couldn't wait to get in a pool, assuming that I'd be so heavy and lumbering around that it would be a huge relief. I bet when the baby is born I will notice a relief but so far I haven't really noticed this heaviness too much. Regardless of all that, I thoroughly enjoyed the pool, which was heated. We went several times while we were there and it was so fun. Everyone else had a chance in the hot tub but I didn't dare.

Here are the siblings enjoying a beautiful view in the hot tub! One morning we woke up to a snow storm! We decided it would be fun to go swimming in the snow, since the pool was heated. That was a cool experience. I wish I'd remembered the camera. Bryan especially enjoyed sitting in the hot tub while snow fell around him.

On one of the days Sandi, Shelley, Ella and I had a lot of fun putting together cute Halloween craft!

Here is my final product, which is currently sitting atop my mantel. Isn't it adorable?

Speaking of adorable, Ethan helped too. :)

From our hotel room we had a beautiful view. One day we went out for a short crisp walk in the autumn air and I snapped a couple of pictures.

I took a picture out our window on the morning of the snow storm but this doesn't really do it justice. There were several times when you'd look out and all you would see was pure white. Bryan said, "Well, it looks like the world got deleted."

We were there for a whole week and checked out on Saturday, October 5th. We drove down to Shelley's house listening to conference and finished up both Saturday sessions watching it at her house. I just loved conference this year. There were so, so many talks that I found inspiring and applicable to my life. As I said, we were driving during most of the first session and then we drove home to Boise during the last session on Sunday and I actually felt like driving while listening made it easier to, well, listen. Sometimes when you're sitting on your couch watching it its a little easier to become distracted or fall asleep, but sitting in the car, focused was really good for us. I'm grateful these sessions were so good for me since I'm worried I'll be kind of distracted during them in the coming months and years :).

Anyway, after Saturday session was over and we were still at Shelley's we set up for my baby shower, which was set to be during Priesthood Session (something we had planned before the church decided to make it available on TV and the internet, meaning Bryan sat in the other room on Ethan's glider watching it the whole time my shower was going on). Look at this awesome cupcake cake! It was so delicious.

There were many pictures of my opening gifts but I figured one would suffice. If you look in the back you can kind of see these cute Dino lanterns we made for the shower decor. I love them! I'll be hanging them up in the baby's nursery so you'll get a better view of them when I finish that and post pictures.

I just decided to include a few shots of my guests. Thank you to all who came! It was so fun and nice to see everyone. I'm grateful I got to have a shower in Utah with friends and family I don't see very often. Thank you so much Shelley and Sandi for all the work you did putting it together!

Well, as I said, we drove back to Boise on Sunday and the next day was my birthday!!! I had a lot to do that day to get the house back together and the bills paid after vacation. I guess that's what happens when you grow up-- responsibilities don't just fall to the wayside even though it's your birthday. It was a pretty low key day-- though I did have my doctor's appointment so I got to hear baby's heartbeat on my birthday. That is the best gift I could ask for. Bryan and I went out to eat at Goodwood and just ordered dessert since we didn't have anything for cake at our house. Afterwards, we went to the movies and saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" with movies tickets we got for free when we bought our car! Bryan and I both love the first movie-- this one was entertaining but, I'd say, not as good as the first. Still, it was fun.

Later that week Bryan and I attended a "CPR for Friends and Family" class at St. Luke's downtown. I'll actually be delivering at St. Luke's in Meridian but this was the only place the class was offered. It was kind of a maze to get to but we made it on time. It was very long but I'm glad we went. We're not really doing many classes but this one seemed so important. What if something happened to my baby and he needed CPR and I couldn't help him because I hadn't attended this class? I'm not saying I'll have a cool head in such a situation but at least I have the knowledge and all I can do is what I can do. Even still, Bryan is better with handling such situations so I would hope he'd be there if it did happen but I know I am prepared, at least. Anyway, it was good to take the class.

This past Saturday I had my second baby shower thrown for me by my good friend in the ward, April. We had a milk and cookies bar and everything was so cute and put together! It was kind of themed after the book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..." which was one I loved as a kid.

Don't you love the milk and chocolate milk cooling in canisters over ice? I thought that was so clever.

Here we are measuring my belly with ribbon. We played a game where everyone had to cut a ribbon and guess how big my belly was. My friend Celeste won! I think she won like three of the games, in fact!

Here I am with all of my gifts, which I somehow fit into this big bag. Thank you everyone for the awesome gifts!

Again, here are my guests, not including April herself. I wish this last picture wasn't so blurry because it is so cute!

Thank you for all your hard work and for throwing me my shower, April! It was so much fun!

Well, last but not least here are the latest pregnancy pictures, which I've been lagging behind on in this blog. I do have my fresh off the press 32 week picture, taken minutes before I pressed publish on this post!

32 weeks-- I can't believe it! It feels so much closer now. I think I still am having a hard time believing I'm going to give birth soon. I just have no idea what that will be like, no matter how I try to prepare myself. I also can't believe this is my son in here-- what will he look like? Who will he be? As I'm typing this he's nudging me in the ribs. I love feeling him move on a much more regular basis these days. It's definitely becoming more real. Anyway, enough rambling. Peace out, internet.

Baby Crafting Week

Aren't moms great? As I'm going to be one pretty soon, I've started feeling an even greater appreciation for my own mom. A couple of months ago I got this idea in my head that I wanted her to come out and we could have a craft week making all kinds of things for baby. I remembered when one of my sisters was about to have her first baby and she and her husband lived with my parents that they spent a while making blankets and burp cloths and such. I kept thinking about that and I really wanted to be able to do that with my own baby. I consider myself an intermediate crafter and seamstress but my mom has been doing this so much longer and I trust that practiced hand more than my own. The idea would not let go of me and so I practically begged her to come! She has a very busy life right now but we were able to find a time to make it work and we both had a ball!

She was supposed to get in Sunday night but, due to flight delays (with no apparent reason?), didn't arrive until Monday morning. We spent that day going over the projects we wanted to complete and the measurements we would need. We made our list, checked it twice and then headed out to doisome fabric shopping. For one of the quilts we got most of our fabric from a local quilting store called Quilt Expressions. They had the biggest collection of cute fabric that I have ever seen! We then hopped over to Hancock's and then finally Joann's. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and preshrinking the fabric.

On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment so she was able to come with me to that. I took my glucose test for gestational diabetes and that came back normal. Woohoo! I had an orange drink that I had cold and with a straw and it really wasn't as bad as some people experience. We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat, of course! He's still healthy at 150 bpm! Then we came home and cut out all the fabric for every single one of our projects. My mom was able to complete some receiving blankets (seen below) that night while I was at my weekly scouts meeting. They are very cute and go so well with my color theme of blue and green!

On Wednesday we sewed and pieced both quilts together. That sounds pretty simple in one sentence but entailed so much. For quilt #1 we had strips of flannel to sew together, then we had to cut that out with batting and minky on the back (so soft but so stretchy-- a nightmare to sew with!). Then we sewed on the satin binding, which I have never been good at. Thank goodness mom was there for that! She showed me how to do it correctly so I feel more confident in it in the future. For quilt #2 we used appliques so we had to get special double sided fusible interfacing and that was scary but ended up not being too hard at all. I had to cut out my patterns (dinos) and then fuse them onto the background fabric and then we stitched around them, sewed the border in place and then sewed that on with the batting and backing. My mom also started the side seams for the curtains. At night we had to run out and pick up a few things we'd run out of or forgotten.

On Thursday we pretty much finished! I sewed on the ribbon ties to quilt #1 and my mom hand quilted around the borders and dinos for quilt #2. We also sewed all the casings for the curtains.

On Friday we went out and had some fun shopping at the Carter's outlet, so that was our mostly free day! After Bryan came home he hung our curtain rod and we (mom, mostly) sewed the hems on that while I finished up the flannel quilt's ties. As you can imagine, we did a lot of ironing during this whole process and I may or may not have a battle wound from that. I'm so glad we were able to finish up everything that was a priority.

On Saturday, my mom flew home. The week went by really, really fast! It was sad saying goodbye but she later texted me to say, "Next time I see you, you'll be a mommy!" What a surreal thought! I'm so grateful that she is coming out to help me when the baby is born. I've got a pretty awesome mom who is so loving and giving. I'm a pretty lucky girl!

So here are the rest of the the final products:

Here is quilt #1, our flannel baby blanket. I mentioned this on Facebook but my mom made me a flannel patchwork quilt before I was born. This was back in the days before you found out what you were having so it was blue and pink! I loved that blanket so much that I took it everywhere with me as a little kid. I even remember taking it out in the garage on a scooter. That is probably where all the rips and tears came from. It used to look a lot more like this quilt but these days it looks like a rag. Whenever I was kind of sad, it was a comfort to me... so much so that I slept with it in my bed until I got married. Yes, I slept with my baby blanket until I was 24 years old! Maybe I should be more ashamed to publicly announce that on the internet, but I'm not. It now resides in the bottom of my wedding dress bag. I never wanted it to get thrown away so I kept it somewhere safe. Anyway, the point of all of that is that my flannel blanket meant a lot to me. I doubt this baby will react exactly the same but I really do hope he loves it at least a fraction of the amount I loved mine.

Here's quilt #2. Long ago, even before I found out I was having a boy, even before I found out I was pregnant I got it in my head that I wanted my baby boy's nursery to be blue and green dinosaurs. I scoured the internet looking for bedding sets that fit the bill but nothing did. I was thinking I wouldn't spend all that money on a bedding set (babies are expensive) and just find a cute fitted sheet but then the idea came to me that it might be possible to make the crib quilt that I had roughly imagined. I got on GIMP (every day I pine for Photoshop but it is not to be right now) and made a mock up of the quilt with some silhouettes I found on the internet. Then I researched appliques and everything kind of came together. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with it.

It's hard to see but the curtain fabric is the same as the dinos pictured in quilt #2. They are simple but were kind of a hassle to make because we put black out fabric on the back, which made them really thick and not hang exactly as I'd expected. That's okay, though. I'm going to be thanking myself (and my mom) when baby needs a nap in the middle of a sunny day!

Anyway, that post ended up being much longer than I'd expected and I hope I didn't ramble on as I'm wont to do. Thank you so much mom for coming out and helping me do this. I couldn't have done it (at least as sanely) without you! Also, just thank you in general for being a great mom and for loving me and this new baby so much!

A House-Touring, Car-Buying, Baby-Growing Blog Post

The other day I came to the realization that my house will probably never be done being decorated. As such, putting off posting pictures of the house until it is means never posting pictures of the house! I also realized that my house is as decorated as it's going to be for a while, at least until after the baby comes and we can even afford to buy more for the house. Right now our money is mostly focused on baby purchases-- amazing how something so little can be so expensive! I also decided it will be fun to take a room at a time on as a project when the baby is little older and that I shouldn't rush myself to have it all done now, anyway. With all that being said, let the tour begin!

Ta da! Here is our beautiful house from the outside with a freshly mowed lawn (Thank you, Bryan!). Unfortunately, due to a drought and water shortages, our lawn has died a little in parts and the grass seed we planted in the back didn't really take. You'll notice that I don't show any pictures of the backyard in this tour. We're thinking we might plant grass seed in the upcoming fall or next spring when the earth isn't scorching-- killing friendly grass and bearing ugly weeds.

This is our in-between-holidays wreath. I made it in our old townhouse to match our red door here. We love this door and when we they first installed it they put the wrong door in! We brought it up and they realized their mistake so they replaced it but again the door was wrong (it was very similar to this one but without the vertical lines and more of a wood grain). Finally, on our walk through with the builder, we told them the door was wrong and a few weeks later we finally had the door we'd actually ordered. I'm not sure how to mix up happened but we're glad they finally got it right.

When you first walk into the house you enter our living room. We like to call it the home teacher room because that's probably going to be it's main use. We especially love our beautiful bay window, which we specifically had built into the floor plan. The model home just had a blank wall. I just imagine this will be the perfect place for my Christmas tree!

Eventually we'd like to get some upholstered chairs for either side of the window and a coffee table as well. I'm also planning on getting curtains for at least the big window but I'm not sure how to go about the bay window yet.

Through the hall from the living room and past the stairs is our kitchen (probably my favorite room of the house!). I've always wanted a very light and bright kitchen and I think this qualifies with the light streaming in from the sliding door and window. Orginially I wanted white cabinetry but Bryan didn't like that and I'm sure it would get messy easier so I decided to do the darkest cabinets I could with light countertops. I think it's a nice contrast. We now have much more room for our table and keep the leaf out at all times. At first I wasn't sure about this pantry because I wanted something I could walk into but this one is actually quite spacious and I definitely haven't even filled it up (though I'm sure I could find a better way to organize it!).

I love having a window over the sink to look out as I do dishes. I also love this humongous island and have spent more than a few times rolling out tortillas or pie crusts or what-have-you on it.

I just wanted to focus in on one of my favorite things about the kitchen. This is our gas oven and stove, which was our splurge in the design studio. Isn't it pretty? I'm probably a little bit of a dork for finding an appliance pretty but I do! It came with a griddle for the stove top and can be used as a convection oven as well! It has some pretty nifty changing racks inside as well but I didn't want to show off residue of past meals that is sitting stubbornly on the bottom of the oven.

This is the fridge we purchased from Sears. It's nothing fancy other than being a french door fridge but I really love it. I love having my food on eye level! I use the fridge so much more than the freezer so I always hated having to bend down to get into it.

Our family room backs up to the kitchen. We bought this couch a few months ago from RC Willey and we love it. Three of the chairs recline and two of them are electric, meaning they have to be plugged in and you push a button to recline. Honestly, I'd have preferred them all to be manual because I hate having to plug them in but we didn't think about it when we bought it. Other than that, we really love it. We also got this simple TV console. I'm not really sure how I'm going to decorate the wall space around the TV but I guess I have some time to think on that. Last from this picture I wanted to point out Callie's throne cat tree. She sits atop it very regally. Once we bought it (the day we bought the leather couch) she stopped clawing our furniture altogether and started clawing on that so it was well worth the purchase!

This is probably the most decorated aspect of our home right now. Bryan has been hard at work hanging curtain rods, mirrors and picture frames for me. I saw this mirror at CostPlus World Market and couldn't stop thinking about it for months so we decided to buy it. I didn't take a picture any closer to it but maybe if you click on the picture you can see the neat detailing on the frame (and the top of my picture-taking head).

Past the family room and to the left is our den. We bought these two desks from IKEA (shipping was atrocious but the overall cost was much better than what we were considering in building something custom, plus it was a pretty advanced project for these novice DIYers). We love that we can both be in the office together! We used to just have a little desk for the desktop and Bryan would take the laptop to the kitchen table or the couch. We both like this much better. My kitchen table is now just a kitchen table, which I love. Past the den we have our downstairs bathroom and across from the den is the door to our garage, both seen in the video tour at the end of these pictures.

Walk back past the family room, kitchen and almost to the living room again and walk up the stairs... (We love the big window on the landing, I'm just not tall enough to open it so I have to get Bryan to if I ever want it open).

Here is the upstairs landing and the loft. When our little boy and his siblings are bigger I'm going to make this loft area into a playroom.

Here is the guest bedroom, which shares with nothing! What a novel idea! We have a two other bedrooms that are not pictured. One is very empty except for a table, sewing machine, serger and a closet full of craft supplies and storage. When we have a second baby this will be his or her room or we'll move our little boy in there and use his old nursery for his/her nursery. When that happens, I think I might make the guest room closet become my craft room (just put a table in there and close the doors when not in use). That'll be a while off though, so I have some time to figure it all out.

Here is the guest/kids bathroom. I'm considering making it a whale themed bathroom when the kids are old enough to appreciate it. This is the bathroom decor we started our marriage with!

Our laundry room is upstairs, which I love. I don't have to haul loads of laundry up and down stairs! It is just right outside our bedroom, where I fold clothes, so it's very easy. We also got this nice washer and dryer set from Sears. They are very good quality, which I am happy for since I'm pretty sure I'm going to be doing a lot of laundry in a few months...

Here's our bedroom! I know, it looks massive. I'm not even sure what we're going to put in here. We'll probably get a different TV for the downstairs at some point and so we'll move that one up here. We might get reading chairs for the corners-- maybe a bookshelf. We'll see. For now this is all we need. Eventually I would like to put up curtains and make or buy a headboard and put a picture above that.

We love our bathroom. If you'll notice to the right of this picture there is a separate little room for the toilet, which we like. We also have a double vanity and I have a little stool in the center for doing my hair and make up.

We also have a walk in shower and a nice tub with arm rests and everything. You can't really see them, but I made curtains for the little windows above the tub from our old shower curtain.

Through the bathroom is our closet. It is huge! We could almost make another room out of it.

 

Callie loves to jump up onto the banister in the loft area. She can usually be found here, in her bed, under our bed, or on her cat tree. When we first moved in we tried to get her to stop jumping up here but it was a lost cause. I used to be worried she might fall all the way to the bottom floor but I've realized cats are very balanced and she can take care of herself. We continue to adore this cat but I try not to post about it as much anymore, lest anyone realize that I actually am a crazy cat lady. She is going to have to get used to sharing the spotlight in a few months.

If you're still reading, I now have a video tour that might make sense of where things are a little more. There are other rooms the I didn't zero in on for pictures that you'll see in the video (closets, bathrooms, bedrooms). Also, sorry for the jumpiness. I tried to walk smoothly but I tend to waddle a little more these days.

 

You may notice I skipped a bedroom (next door to our bedroom) in the video and in pictures. This is the baby's nursery and it's still in progress (read: things everywhere and totally unorganized) with a definite end in sight. I'll give it a blog post all it's own when it is finished.

Oh, did you think the post was going to finally be over? Sorry! I wanted to share a few more pictures of our new car. Well, it's a used car but it is new to us. Bryan and I have been living with one car between us for our whole marriage. This means that every morning I drive Bryan to work and every afternoon I pick him up. It takes about a half an hour to get downtown so that's an hour of unnecessary driving and a waste of gas. There isn't a lot of parking downtown and you have to pay to park so even taking the car on days I don't need it hasn't been much of an option. However... in three-ish months I just can't take Bryan to work whenever. If the baby is sleeping or in need of eating or something like that, it's just impossible. We looked into biking (way too far) or using public transportation (even if he had a bike he rode to the bus stop it would still be too far) but we kept coming back to needing a second car. Bryan applied for a monthly parking pass through his work, which he'll probably get in October. We went to a labor day sale for used cars the other day and came home with this very nice 2012 Nissan Versa! It only has about 31,000 miles on it and gets great gas mileage (a must for us when we were deciding what kind of car to buy). Mostly this will be Bryan's car but I still have to drive him to/from work until he can get his parking pass in October so we'll use this much more gas friendly car in the mean time. It's going to be so weird not to drive with him every morning and every afternoon and just have him come and go. It'll be nice for sake of convenience but I will miss our little chats in the car. I'm sure I'll look fondly back on these days. Anyway, without further ado, here are the pictures. 

Now it has to be over, right? Well... Even though I tried to leave baby out of this as much as a I could (it's pretty much all I talk about) I couldn't leave off without a couple of bump pictures and a small update.  

Here I am at 22 and 24 weeks, looking more and more pregnant each time. On Labor Day (Monday) I'll be 26 weeks with another picture but it might not get onto the blog for a while. I'm sure this isn't that funny but I keep thinking how amusing it would be if someone had their baby on Labor Day (insert cheesy laughter here). Our baby is due December 9th but last Tuesday (August 27th) Bryan got a fortune with his company lunch from a Chinese restaurant that read, "Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you." We had a good laugh about that. According to the fortune, we'll have the baby November 27th, a week and a half early. Honestly, I'd be happier if he came two days later so I can enjoy Thanksgiving on the 28th! So things are going well with that and, really, he can come when it's right for him. We just want him to be healthy! Anyway, I think I earned myself a long, long hiatus from the blog with this post but I'd better keep up with things. Until next time!

Gender "Reveal"

I say "reveal" because most of you already know via Facebook or word of mouth what we're having. To the blogging world, though, it's my first chance to say we are having a boy! We are so thrilled! Throughout most of this pregnancy I've had a small feeling that our baby was a boy but I was afraid to commit to that feeling and be confident in it. What if it had been wrong? I didn't want to feel bad for saying it was a boy when it was a girl. If the baby had been a girl we would have been just as thrilled, though. I've just had a lot more thoughts of green and blue and dinosaurs in the back of my mind than of pink and frills. When we went to the ultrasound, before the tech had officially told us it was a boy she said something like, "He's really moving there," and immediately I jumped on that and said, "He???" and she just said, "Oh no, I said baby." But then, she was showing us his legs, which he'd stretched out for us and Bryan said, "Is that...?" Finally our waiting was done and she said, "Yep, it's a little boy!" The rest of the ultrasound (like an hour long!) was spent measuring different parts of his body and being jubilant. He had his head way down and was very good about showing his spine, heart, legs, arms, etc... but he just didn't want to show us his face. We got one good profile picture and a glance at his face as he moved. He was very wiggly! Anyway, it is such a relief to finally know and really start to be able to plan!

So... plans. We are painting our walls blue and just decided on the color after painting a couple of samples on the wall. It's so great to have our very own nursery meant just for baby, unlike in our previous rental, where we couldn't paint, use nails and it was two bedroom so baby would have shared with craft/storage/guest bed. I'm going for a blue and green dinosaur theme. I haven't been able to find any bedding sets in those colors with that theme so I'm just kind of making it up as I go. I found this neat dinosaur wall decal on Etsy that is a brontosaurus looking down into the crib. I got a stegosaurus picture at Target and am hoping to find it's pair somewhere in stores. I've started registering a little on Target.com and Amazon.com. I'm realizing more than ever just how expensive babies are! Today, I'm going to make baby some Pee Pee Tee Pees, which are pretty simple. My mom is going to come out in September and we're going to get busy sewing blankets and burp cloths for this little guy! So yeah, it's pretty much 90% of what I think about. We are between two names that we both like. Each of us leans toward one. We'll probably waiting until he's born and then choose, based on how we feel. His middle name will be Wallace, which is Bryan's middle name and the name of his great grandfather. I am told that he was a very good man. I think it's neat to make all the middle names significant to our family history.

I am grateful to have Bryan be this baby's dad. I think he is pretty excited but also pretty scared at the prospect of being a father. It probably won't even really sink in until someone lays this little boy in his arms. I know he's going to be a loving and helpful dad and that he's going to make our kids laugh every day just like he does with me. I'm grateful to be married to my best friend and I hope that our kids can see this as an example as they grow up. Marriage is kind of funny-- sometimes you think you know what you want and need and you find that in a person. Heavenly Father lets you try it out but knows, in the end, that he has a different and better plan for you. So, after that trial has passed and when the person and timing are right, He helps it happen. I feel like I can be completely myself around Bryan and I know that he was the right one for me and now we're really starting our little family! Anyway, sorry for the momentary cheese. I'll wrap this up by sharing a couple of pictures.

 Here is the aforementioned profile picture of baby.

 He's definitely a boy! This is the shot where Bryan said, "Is that...?" Just proving it to all of you!

Here I am at 20 weeks (about a week and a half ago). I'll try to get the rest of my bump shots up as I take them. I can't believe I still have 18.5 weeks to go... it's going to take forever!

Goings On

The other night I couldn't fall asleep because I was obsessing about babies and blogging. I probably should update this more often than I do because something very exciting is happening in our family right now and I want to give all the updates!

Well, the updates are actually not that exciting. I'm getting rounder, seen by the photos at the end of this post (sorry, my cropping skills in GIMP are sub par and the sizes are all off). I'm also suffering from some occasional round ligament pain and an insatiable appetite. I have had a craving, actually, and that is for really plain cheeseburgers from McDonald's. I just want simple flat patty, cheese, pickles, ketchup and mustard. To McDonalds' delight and my wallet's chagrin, they happen to offer a two cheeseburger meal, which has become my standard. I find myself planning my grocery shopping around lunch time because there is a McDonald's next door. Anyway, I also have had just one food aversion. Depending on how it's prepared, my stomach turns at the smell of chicken. If it's smothered and marinated in a sauce or battered really well then that can help take away that chicken-y smell.

In other pregnancy news, we find out baby's gender on July 23rd (just under two weeks!). We are so excited and impatient! We would be happy with either a boy or a girl. Sometimes I feel like it's going to be a boy but then recently I've been feeling more like a girl... it flip flops, so really no one can fault me for predicting incorrectly! We've had names tentatively picked out for a long, long time. I feel a little weird just blurting them out on the internet even though I unashamedly tell people in person so if you're curious you're welcome to text/email/Facebook message me about it. I also really like these names (the girl one we have had picked out since before we were officially engaged!) and I don't want them to be stolen... I don't mind telling you that the girl's middle name will likely be Luvera (my maternal grandma) and the boy's will be Wallace (Bryan's middle name after his great-grandfather).

So, we're pretty much ecstatic and I'm impatiently waiting pretty much everything: first movement, baby's gender, being kicked and elbowed and knowing there really is a little baby in there! Most of all, meeting my baby in December (possibly November if baby decides to come at 37-38 weeks, still full-term). I guess I just can't stop talking about babies because I've thought about them my whole life but in particular for the last 15 months + 18ish weeks. When I was little and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I always said, "a mom," so it's safe to say that this has basically been my lifelong dream. Because of that, Bryan and I knew when we got married that we only wanted to wait a year into marriage at most to start trying. We made it about 6 months-- January 2012. I alluded to the fact that it took us a while to get pregnant in my last post. Now, I'm really not trying to get heavy with this topic here but I had a desire to share about it recently. I've talked to people who tried or have been trying for many years and so I'm grateful that it wasn't longer but, even still, those 15 months were some of the hardest I've gone through. A doctor won't even see you until you've been trying for a year, even when you know something isn't quite right before that. When we finally reached our year mark we had some tests done that delayed things even more but, lo and behold, there were some issues. I won't get into specifics (unless you're a girl and you want to text/email/Facebook message me personally) but finally I started on clomid. It was actually a little miracle that I was able to start when I did and I fully and completely attribute it to my Heavenly Father. After just one round of clomid, I was pregnant! It was surreal, to say the least. Months and months and months of negative pregnancy tests and tears and wondering why I was being denied this thing I wanted more than anything else and then... yes. It is a testament to the fact that things happen on the Lord's timetable. He helped me get on the medicine He knew my body needed at the time He wanted it and then helped it to come about quickly. Some unbelievers may ask, why didn't He just make your body able to have kids without medicine? You know, I don't know all the way but I believe this was a trial that was necessary for me and that even though those months were hard, He was there beside me the whole time, comforting me. He knows and feels our pains in our trials but He knows that we cannot become the people that we need to be without taking a few journeys in this life. Anyway, I was still a wreck worrying over miscarriage for weeks and weeks. I still do worry, sometimes. I just have to keep trusting that everything happens as it is meant to. Okay, that did turn out a little heavy in the end but I would be remiss and unappreciative not to acknowledge this truth.

On one last note regarding that subject-- I hope if you haven't encountered such problems that you will be kind to those who you know have and are encountering them. If someone trusts you enough to tell you they're having a hard time, as well meaning as you are trying to be, please do not say some of the following:

1. Oh, you just need to relax. I know someone who tried for years and then got pregnant when they stopped trying! (This is the classic response and not really accurate if there is something medically wrong).
2. You do know that it sometimes takes a few months, right? (Now you're just making me feel dumb. Plus, how do you know how long I've been trying?)
3. All my husband has to do is look at me and I get pregnant! (This one just kind of rubs our noses in it a little.)
4. Oh, my sister had a hard time too. It took her like five months to get pregnant! (Again, I guess i won't tell you how long I've been trying...)

Okay, okay, that's probably enough. Those are all things people said to me and I love those people still but it's just a little hurtful. Anyway, we're very happy now to be having our baby and have those days behind us. Have I not said enough how happy we are? Life is good. We have a crib and mattress but not much else. We also just bought a new couch-- we've slowly been acquiring things for our beautiful new house. No room is complete yet so pictures are still going to be a bit. I have an inkling that the nursery will be the first room finished :).

We also had a family reunion a couple weeks ago in Utah, which was fun. We had one day with my mom's side of the family and the rest with my dad's. Since Bryan and I live away from most of my family, it was great to see everyone. I have a sister who is moving to Qatar next month so this was kind of our last hurrah for a while. I'm getting really bad at being the Bryan and Alyssa Whitney family photographer and took pretty much zero pictures there. Oh well!

Other than that, summer is progressing and it's much too hot for my taste. I think I've decided I like winter better. Of course, then winter will come and I'll likely change my mind. Fall and Spring are obviously best and Boise actually has these seasons! (Sorry, Utah.) Anyway, I'll try to update again after we find out the gender, but here are the promised pregnancy pics:

Baby Time

Well, it's been a week since we made the news public knowledge but in case you haven't heard: we're expecting a baby due December 9, 2013! We could not be more delighted! We've had to wait for this to happen for quite a bit longer than we'd expected but I truly believe that everything happens when it's meant to... even if that was a pretty frustrating concept to swallow for a while there.

They say you get a more reliable result if you take a pregnancy test first thing in the morning. I had been planning on taking one on a certain morning in early April but, on a whim, decided to take it the night before as well. I thought if I did it then and it was negative, as I'd expected it to be, that it would soften the blow the following morning. I'm not sure if that logic makes sense but it did to me at the time. When the test was done at first glance it appeared my usual negative sign-- one line. As I focused in more I noticed a very faint second line appearing. I'd never seen that before! I ran downstairs and showed it to Bryan who said, "What is that second line?!?!" We were afraid to get our hopes up so we decided to wait until the morning test to really be confident in it. The following morning, lo and behold, I really was pregnant. I'm not sure how many tests I took but I took a lot. I tried a few different brands, too, just to be sure. Included in those was the Clearblue test that simply said "Pregnant" on it. It was so amazing to see and I could scarcely convince myself to believe it could be true!

A day later it was my mom's birthday and we were headed down to Utah to spend Conference weekend at Bryan's mom's house. It was perfect timing! Since my family are all spread out and not close we called them all on the drive down and decided to wait and surprise Bryan's mom and sister in person. My family were all very excited, especially my mom! I'm her last daughter to have a baby-- I thought it was a pretty great birthday surprise. When we got to Utah Bryan's mom was still at work so we set up a banner across her kitchen ceiling that said, "Congrats, Grandma!" and we'd bought some noise makers from a party store. I was lucky enough to record her reaction to the banner (not seen in the video, as it was above our heads):

What a gratifying reaction. When we saw Shelley the next day we replaced the words with, "Congrats, Aunt Shelley!" She was very excited as well but didn't scream :).

Anyway, things have been going along smoothly. To be honest I've been a nervous wreck over how smoothly it has been going, worrying that my hCg levels aren't where they should be or that my baby stopped growing. I bet when the baby comes, healthy and whole, I'll find a new host of things to worry about. I've not really had morning sickness. I've thrown up a total of three times. Usually if I don't eat first thing when I get out of bed I start to feel gaggy and that's when it happens. Other than that I've had a stuffed nose and a blossoming of pimples around my mouth. Nicely descriptive, eh? Both are, apparently, pregnancy symptoms. I've also been having a lot of tailbone pain whenever I exert myself. My sister says it's due to a chemical called Relaxin that your body releases to make childbirth easier. It seems pretty early for it to be happening but I'm not really an expert. I had my first check up at 7 weeks 1 day and Bryan came with me. It was so neat-- they did an ultrasound and we got to see the little bean of a baby! Best of all, we got to see and hear it's heart beating! I had my second appointment a couple of weeks ago at 11 weeks 1 day. As you'll see in the pictures below, baby is starting to take on a rather baby profile! At that appointment his or her heartbeat was a whopping 182 beats per minute! As of today I am exactly 13 weeks and, from what I've read, my baby is the size of a tangerine. I'm heading out of my first trimester already and it seems to have gone by really fast. After my last ultrasound I felt a lot more reassured about not being as sick and now I'm feeling like I'm really lucky! We're very happy to be having a baby in 2013-- for tax and health insurance reasons. Baby couldn't have had better timing! Regardless, I would have been happy to have baby whenever I could. And now, in case you haven't already seen them on Facebook, some pictures:

 7 weeks 1 day

 11 weeks 1 day

I think I'll either take these every week or every other, depending on how much change there is. This is me from last week. I feel like a very subtle bump is starting to form but I'm not sure it'll look much different from this. Anyway, wahoo!!!

The House

Well, we're officially in our new house and have been for a little over a week! It's been pretty great and we can hardly believe this place is really ours to do with what we wish! I could paint all the walls bright magenta if I really so desired! Luckily, I do not so desire. Pictures will be forthcoming but may take a while. We are still not unpacked all the way and we have some furniture purchases to make once our checking account stops looking so sad. Our TV is currently residing on a box full of board games... I'll probably post about each room at a time rather than a full house walk through, anyway.

The one irritating responsibility that has been thrust upon us is the constant yard work we need to do. The builders planted sod in our front and side yard and we had them put in grass seed in the back. Well, this would normally be fine but apparently we are in a drought so the water connected to our sprinklers (irrigation water) is being severely rationed. For a few days we were told we were only allowed to use them once a week! Now it has gone back to three times a week. As the experienced gardener may know (I didn't really know anything about this until we moved in...), new sod and grass seed require quite a bit more water than just three times a week! We are allowed to use as much water from the hose bibs in our front and back yard (this is city water) as needed but that requires hooking a sprinkler up to a hose and moving it around the yard every ten minutes, multiple times a day. It's easing down now because we're suppose to water less as time goes on and the roots need to fend for themselves. Still, it's less than ideal and our yard is only barely starting to come alive.

Well, enough complaining about that! We do really love our new house. My parents are coming out this week for a visit and we're very excited. They haven't been to Boise since they helped us move into our townhouse. Now that we are less cramped maybe it will feel more inviting. Anyway, life is good! Bryan has a good stable job, we love our cat and we have this new, beautiful house! We are very blessed.