Nesting

With only 5 days left, things feel a little hectic. My nesting instincts are definitely kicking in and I've desperately been trying to get my house cleaned and put together before Baby gets here. It's hard when we can't get the baby furniture until this Saturday at the earliest. Talk about cutting it close! But at least I got the nursery all painted. I'll post pictures when it's finally done.

This morning I realized that I'm going slightly crazy when I got up at 3 a.m. because I couldn't sleep and started ironing and rearranging some furniture. I think Allan was a little bit confused when he got up and saw the room because he didn't know I had gotten up. The first thing he said to me was, "I see the nesting powers are kicking in." Hopefully they stay until it's all finished!

36 Week Update

Last post of the day, I promise! It feels like there's just so much going on! When does life start slowing down? Not anytime soon, I'm sure.

I'm now at 36 weeks and am really starting to feel it. Ok, pregnancy has actually been really easy for me and has somehow agreed with my body. I do feel huge though. My only complaint is that I'm having trouble breathing. I'm in the "stand up or lie down to breathe" phase because sitting for more than 5 minutes makes it nearly impossible. My ribs ache all the time. Other than that, I'm doing great. I know that I've been really lucky throughout this whole thing because I've had almost no side effects except feeling healthier.

I got to schedule my induction a few days ago so it is now official. Baby is coming January 18th. It's now less than two weeks away! I can't believe how close it is. I'm not sure where the time went. It's now becoming real. I'm not quite at the "Get this baby out of me!" stage, but I am a little bit more ok now with the whole thought of giving birth. :) Still nervous, but getting excited. I'm so excited to meet my daughter and see what she looks like and get to know her personality. We've had fun guessing. Allan's family all thinks she'll get my blond hair and blue eyes. My family, Allan and myself think she'll have the dark hair and hazel or green eyes. We also think she'll be like I was as a child and ALWAYS have to be active and doing something and looking around. Please feel free to leave your own guesses in comments!

My last ultrasound is this week. It's weird to think that it'll be the last time I see her in black & white. The next time will be in full color and 3-D! Exciting. I'm hoping she'll be pulling faces again. The last time, her tongue was out almost the whole time. It was cute, but I'm thinking she's got an attitude now. Scary! But my tongue was out in almost all of my baby pictures and I turned out ok, right? So it can't be that bad. ;)

For those wondering, we don't have one set name picked out. Allan wants to wait until he sees her to pick one, which I'm 100% ok with. However, if I send myself into labor during the Lindy Exchange (Yes, my Dr. gave me permission to go and dance my little heart out - I love him!), her name will definitely be Lindy. Otherwise, we'll just see.

2010 Goals

Allan and I both set our big individual goals for 2010 and just laughed when we shared them with each other because they are the same! I'm putting them up here to remind us about them. Everyone else can feel free to remind us to follow through on them as well. :)

1. Get back to school (summer semester for Allan & probably fall for me)

2. Lose weight & get in shape

The best thing about goal #2 is that we want to lose about the same amount of weight. We got a kick out of that. It's going to be so much better to have a partner to work on it with. And hey, a little friendly competition might just help us push a little harder too. Ok, it'll help me for sure. We'll see about Allan. He's not anywhere near as competitive.

We haven't sat down and set our family goals for the year. I think for now we're just trying to make it through having the baby. Maybe after we get through that, we'll figure out what we really need to work on as a family. I think Baby will keep us busy for a while just trying to figure out how to be parents to a newborn. It's exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time.

Goodbye 2009!

December came and went in a flash! I can't believe how time flies. Our holiday season was full of family, parties, Christmas lights at Temple Square and fun. We got to go to my family Christmas party which was a blast. My extended family is HUGE (my dad is 9 of 10 kids)! Allan is still working on getting names down, but is getting better. We always eat and play games and one specific tradition is playing Seven On The Line at the end of the party. It's a game where you all get in a line and shoot once from the free throw line. However many people in a row make it is how many points there are on the line. If you miss, you subtract that many points from your original 7. When you're out of points, you're out of the game. Allan doesn't play sports, but I was SO impressed with his shooting skills! He managed to stay in for a long time, even under my little brother's constant heckling of "NO PRESSURE!" He even stayed in longer than Chelsea, who is on a basketball scholarship! Who knew?! My dad won this year (and last) so I was proud. :)

It was a blast to have Chelsea home for the holidays. We got to meet her boyfriend, Andrew and we all love him. He's really patient with her and takes all our teasing in stride. He started to tease us about getting Baby U of U clothing but we told him we'd get him Yankees apparel in return (he's a die hard Red Sox fan). He got the point pretty quickly. Ha ha! It was nice for me to have someone to hang out with during the day as I'm home all day by myself. She even went to a doctor appt with me and got to see an ultrasound of Baby for the first time. I think she's about as excited for Baby to come as we are. She likes to use my belly button as a microphone and talk to her. She also like to get after her and tell her to be nice when she was kicking me. I loved watching. I'm excited for Chelsea to come back home right after Baby is born.

We spent Christmas with Allan's family this year up in Smithfield (Logan). From what I understand, it was the first time all 4 siblings were there for Christmas in about 8 years or so. We taught them how to play Nertz and played it a lot! It was a lot of fun to watch them learn and get mad at each other when they beat them to a card. But we're definitely up for a rematch anytime! (Hint to Liz & Isaac)

For New Year's we went dancing (of course!) and had a great time. I'm surprised I had the energy to dance AND stay up until midnight, but somehow managed. We're so glad to have dancing in common. It really brings us together.

HAPPY 2010!

Baby Shower

Last Saturday was my first baby shower. It was with the Ambrose family (and my mom and best friend because they just have to be there too). I love my in-laws. It was a lot of fun.

We played a game where you have to pick out safety pins from a bowl of rice while blindfolded. It sounds easy, but trust me, it's not. In fact, it's so difficult that my mother-in-law felt the need to pick out a few before her time started. It didn't help. She still lost. Haha! My mom really doesn't like shower games so she didn't want to participate in the 3 way tie she ended up in. She said to just give the gift to someone else but they made her do it. In my opinion, I think she lost the 2nd time on purpose to make sure she didn't have to do it again. It was so funny! Miranda & I were the only ones who caught it and couldn't stop laughing at her.



After the games came the presents. I must say, I love getting gifts for Baby! I got some wonderful stuff that I can't wait to use. I think my favorite has to be the BYU onesie though. I cannot wait to put her in it!

The guests:

My mom & Miranda

Rosa, my mother-in-law & Abby, my niece

Future sister-in-law Whitney; cousin Kate; sister-in-law Arlen & Aunt Gloria

Liz was the one who ran everything, which is why she isn't in the pictures. She took them. And somehow Allan's stepsister, Margaret, avoided them too.

 Thank you to all who attended. I'm so glad to have you be a part of this exciting occasion!

The True Spirit of Christmas

I've been so overwhelmed with these feelings recently that I decided to post them. Maybe it's due to pregnancy, maybe it's not. Either way, this is what's going on.

Every year my family goes all out for Christmas. They always have. We have always had a Christmas tree (or two) and lights up on our house. In addition to this, we have tons and tons of other Christmas decorations around the house. I noticed this year that they even spilled into the bathroom. Yes, there are Christmas decorations in my family's bathroom. I couldn't help but chuckle at that. I must say, it's been impossible to not catch this spirit. I LOVE decorating for Christmas and putting up lights, etc.

This year, we don't have enough $ for a tree so we are going without. I think this is the first time in my life I've not had a tree. At first this was incredibly upsetting to me. I looked and looked for a tree we might afford without much luck. We don't have ornaments either or lights so I'm not exactly sure what we would've done with the tree, but still, we would have one. I was thinking I'd string popcorn. :) We also are not getting each other any presents for the same reason. My favorite part of Christmas is definitely GIVING the presents. So this has been hard as well. 

I recently realized that this doesn't have to be hard. I was the one who was making it so. I just had to choose to be happy and grateful for everything that we do have, because it really is a lot. First and foremost, we have each other. Even if I had a more lights and decorations than anyone in the neighborhood or if I was able to give hundreds of presents, it would not be one of my best Christmases if Allan was not with me. In fact, it would probably be one of the worst.

We have a roof over our heads, a running car and our health. Good health is not something I've known throughout my life so this is a really big one, especially during pregnancy! We also have our families and our friends and a wonderful bishop and fellow ward members who are doing so much to help us make ends meet. I know that a lot of people do not have a lot of people they can turn to in times of need. We do. We have been extended a helping hand by so many people that it has been overwhelming. Things are still hard, but we know that we will make it because of these other people. The Lord truly does help us through the service of others. 

I've realized that even without lights, trees, presents or other Christmas decor, I have felt the true spirit of Christmas more this year than I ever have before. Even without a lot of the simple luxuries of life, I am genuinely happy. How grateful I am for wonderful people in our lives and for the gospel of Christ that enables us to experience and know the true happiness in life that the world cannot offer.

Happy holidays to all! We hope you are enjoying them as much as we are.

Thanksgiving

Ok, I've stalled long enough. I'm going to add a quick Thanksgiving update. I was really nervous about Thanksgiving and the holidays because they seem to be centered around food. This wouldn't be a problem except that I have a very limited diet due to Celiac. However, it's been great so far. We spent Thanksgiving with my family this year. My mom made everything gluten free from grave to pies. It was wonderful! And my breadsticks were even better than their rolls! It was so encouraging to know that I wouldn't just have to miss out on all the good stuff. I've been SO discouraged lately about everything I can't eat. I've gotten to the point where I just want to avoid all events that include food. So this was a good experience. I don't know what I'd do without my mom and her dedication to keeping me gluten free! She's done so much research on all the common holiday foods and is helping me find a way to enjoy treats like everybody else but still stay healthy.

We then spent the weekend with Allan's family and had a Thanksgiving dinner up there. I took my pies and breadsticks with me (I left the stuffing out and it went bad :( ) and once again, I didn't miss out on anything. Hopefully the Christmas season will go just as well.