April 16th - The day that everyone's happy!

It's only 4:00pm and I've already had such a great day! I woke up in enough time to have a little conversation with Cody, which hasn't happened in the mornings for a while.. I like to push my "get out of bed time" wayy past an acceptable time.

When I got to work, I parked a little further away than I'm used to because management requested that we leave the main parking lot open for parents dropping off and picking up. So as I got a little closer to the entrance gate, there was a mom and her 4 year old son there, walking in about 10 seconds before I got to the gate.. Which was plenty enough time for them to keep walking instead of hold the gate for me. And that was fine; I was expecting it. And then, all of a sudden, the little boy ran back to the gate and held it open for me, only me, to walk all the way through! 4 YEARS OLD! I just couldn't believe my eyes, that was just the dang sweetest thing I'd seen in a long time! His parents are definitely doing something right!

And then later on, I got to go on a last minute lunch date with Cody! He didn't pack a lunch and needed some food, so I got off work a little early and we went to Artic Circle so I could have a raspberry cheesecake milkshake.. delicious, by the way! Instead of going to the one closest to our house, we went down to Lindon, because it was closer to Cody's work. Normally, there are little teenagers working there who really couldn't care less about their customers and just take the order and continue talking amongst their coworkers, but not this time!

We had an older lady take our order, and she was so invested in what we were getting! She even reorganized the way she put in our food so that my shake went from $3.50ish down to $1.75! She had the biggest smile on her face the whole time, and was just so dang sweet! Then when our food was ready, the nicest guy brought it over, asked if we needed anything extra, and with a smile on his face, he walked away. And then he returned a few minutes later asking how our food was, if we needed anything again, and asked about my milkshake. I told him it was fabulous and he responded with, "Yeah, I made it." He said that in the cutest way possible and not in a bragging way, which he followed by telling us that he's getting cross-trained to work up front, and it's his first day and he's having a great time! He asked if we wanted complimentary ice cream cones (which of course we accepted) and went right away to get them!

As we were leaving, a random customer said, "My daughters just had babies, and both of them asked me, 'Dad, when is this baby going to come?!' " and then in an Irish accent he said, "so I told them, 'when the fruit is ripe, it will fall from the tree.' " Cody and I laughed and told him that that was a good response, and started walking away, and right as we got to the door, he yelled, "The fruit fell!"


Spring is such a magical time. All of this is almost enough to make me forget about my enormously swelling feet, ankles, and calves.. almost. Cody has two softball games tonight, and I can't wait to watch! Happy Wednesday, everyone!

My due date is next month!

As we are in the final stages of getting ready for our little boy to come into this world, there are all sorts of emotions coming to the surface. If you follow me on instagram, you know that we had baby chicks in our preschool class this week, and they all hatched on their own time during the week. The first two hatched while I was at home, but the third hatched while we were all there to see. It was in that moment of seeing that tiny baby chick trying its hardest to push its way out of that shell that it finally hit me; I'm going to be having a baby.. a small human being that I am going to be in charge of keeping safe, healthy, and keeping him on track with growing. When that chick was making its way out of the shell, I lost it. There's no way that me, a 23 year old that still feels like a 20 year old with hardly any experience with babies, is going to be a MOTHER! I had no idea what to do with that baby chick.. did I just leave it in the incubator? Did it need food? Did it need some snuggles? Was I supposed to wash it or just let it try to live on its own?!

I got some really great encouragement from friends and mothers around me that made it all seem okay, and I'm doing much better with it all now. The next day I held some of the chicks, and thought about when my little one is going to be coming. I've heard that there's a lot of "motherly instincts" that just kick in once your child is born, and you know what to do for the most part.

I think I had my first semi-"motherly instinct" yesterday when we were at my in-laws and Dexter had been playing outside and threw up. He was fed way too much human food from the millions of people that were in Highland for the weekend, and it just wasn't doing well in his stomach. After Cody cleaned it up, all I could think about was him feeling better. I went and laid down on the couch and wanted to cuddle with Dexter, and I wanted to go home so that he could feel more comfortable. I just didn't know what to do to make him feel better, but I just wanted to keep trying.

This morning, I watched a video that a mom made of her little son. She took random videos of the small moments and big moments of her son's life throughout his first year. Happy and sad, good quality and bad, but it was real and it was the little moments of her son's life that she wanted to remember. I was bawling my little eyes out and just like that, I felt ready. I know I won't be as ready as I could be, but I've heard that no one really is with their first. I'm so ready for my son to come to this crazy world so that I can play with him, watch him grow, and be his mother. I'm ready for Cody to be a dad and show his immense love for another human being that is part of him and part of me. I'm ready to watch Dexter be completely confused and challenged, but ultimately accept our baby as his little brother and play mate.

There are so many amazing things that are on the verge of happening and turning our lives completely upside down, and I am so excited!

Mini Book of Lists

I was originally inspired to do something like this a few years ago when I saw this, but I just never got around to it. My mom gave me some old coasters that she thought I could use to make a book, and that was probably 4 or 5 years ago too.. so this book should have been done a million times by now! But, I'm glad I waited, because now I have Cody's opinions in here too!

So I started out with beer and shrimp coasters and a home improvement magazine! I went through this magazine about a year and a half ago, and marked the pages that I thought would make good backgrounds for my lists. Well, my tastes have changed since then, so I ended up looking through the entire thing again and choosing completely different pictures!

I thought about choosing pictures that went along with my lists, but that would have been too much work, plus I only had one magazine, so I wasn't sure that I'd be able to find all of them in this one magazine. Then I talked to Cody and we came up with the lists, wrote down our ideas, and I put the whole thing together!

Here's the book! I chose to make a simple marking to tell who was saying what by just drawing tiny stick figures of a boy and girl on each page.

It's nice and short with only five lists, and I'm glad that I only had 6 coasters to keep it this simple!

I am super happy with how this turned out! I'm also really excited that this is something that I can take further, and make another book in about a year or so to see the changes in our thoughts and lives. I also love that this was an -almost- free project (minus the magazine that I bought a couple years ago).

My little miracle.

I work with a girl who just graduated high school and is very... young. She's super awesome and I love working with her, but she isn't the most mature in some ways.

Because I'm out of shape and 29 weeks pregnant, my body is putting up with less and less, and the girls I work with see it all the time. If I stand or walk for a long time during the day (accumulatively, not consecutively), I start to waddle. My hips start hurting, and my left hip especially can't take very much weight by itself. Also, baby likes to go underneath my right ribs, and it's not as easy to bend over as it used to be.

Seeing these things every day, and then me making one comment about being uncomfortable, this girl said to me, "Why does everyone say that being pregnant is one of the most amazing experiences you'll ever have if you're just in so much pain all the time? It really doesn't sound that amazing." I responded with, "Well, if you think about it, I'm growing a human being inside my body.. he has every organ, major body part, and even a brain, just like you. It's not something your body's used to, so there's obviously going to be some side effects." She sat there and thought for a minute and said, "Yeah, I guess.."

It really made me think about this whole journey that I've been on for 29 weeks and 5 days, and how many other women have gone through this as well throughout the history of .. well, however long there have been people being born; and it really is miraculous! Our bodies can create another human being and then nourish it for 9(ish) months until it's ready to live in the world. There are many people that will never be able to have children, and others who have to try for months, years, or even decades to experience this.

Why do we so badly want to experience something that we've heard is terribly painful and disgusting at times? Because we are participating in a miracle. A MIRACLE, you guys!!! We learn and we grow and we become completely different people. I've already learned so much more about love than I ever thought possible, and my baby boy hasn't even left my body yet. I know that the feelings of love that I'm experiencing right now are going to be completely blown out of the water when he's born, and I can not wait for that day!

Being pregnant and growing a human being is an amazing experience. It's a miracle, a gift, and such a blessing to be trusted enough by God to let us carry one (or more) of his precious children. I'm grateful that I get to feel my little boy's kicks (click on that to see a video, and look at the left side of my belly) and hiccups and see his little body when I get an ultrasound. I'm even grateful for the painful and disgusting things that happen too, because it helps me appreciate what is going on in my body, as well as making me appreciate what it's going to be like to have it back to normal again. I am so grateful to have a son who will be in my arms in less than 2 and 1/2 months.

PLT

I kind of decided that trying to create these pages with pictures from that week only was getting a little difficult. I sometimes had a lot of photos, and I usually try to take horizontal and vertical photos just in case I need one or the other for a specific PL spread, but that gets difficult sometimes! And sometimes a vertical picture is needed when the rest of your week is in horizontal photos. I did just learn how to put two 4x6 photos into one 4x6 to create two 3x4 photos for the small insert areas, so that helped out a ton! But sometimes you just need a big 4x6 of a picture to get the full effect! So to avoid putting all of my horizontal photos in the 3x4 spots, I came up with another solution.

So sorry for that disgusting picture. I was almost throwing up when I put that picture in my book, but maybe I'll be glad I did someday. That's what Cody told me anyways..

 I decided to place the pictures where they looked good and fit with the page protector. I'm trying to stick to a "within this month" limit, so I don't end up having pictures from a whole year all in one spread. And you know what.. I'm having so much more freedom! I really suggest doing this if you are in a rut with your project life!

 Cody suggested that I put the exact date on or near the pictures, especially now with them randomly placed, and I thought that was a great idea! Some of these pictures were taken before I added dates, but I'm definitely going back and adding the dates! Just cause, yanno, what if I want to know the exact date that I terribly burnt my hand? Or when we hit 123456 miles on our car? Cody's pretty intelligent, that's for sure!

 Also, I have a little confession. I had actually finished quite a few spreads to where I was in the end of October, when I looked through my pictures and figured out that I didn't do any pages for a huge section of pictures! But that's the greatest thing about project life.. I just went back to where the pictures would have fit in, and added another insert right there! The last 3 pictures and the one below this were the result of adding in some extra inserts, and I'm so glad I did it! If I didn't include these pictures, life would have gone on, but it would have been a sad thing to miss out on in the future!

I'm just so happy with the progress that I've been able to make, while at the same time, maintaining a regular schedule throughout my day! I'm not just stuck over at my desk the whole day, I just do it in segments each day! I just freaking love Project Life... have I mentioned that before?!

Going on vacation!

You guys, I'm so excited to take a little break! This weekend, Cody and I are headed down to Nevada for a relaxing couple of days. We really wanted to go to California with a group of friends, but I'm already struggling with walking for long distances (hello, hip pain!) and I didn't want to be a burden. Plus, this week is Spring Break for UVU so Cody doesn't have to miss any class! We are taking work off on Friday and heading down early in the morning to get the most out of our day as possible!

Honeymoon to Mexico

We booked our hotel through hotwire.com and got a great deal on a hotel about 30 minutes away from the strip, which is nice because we really just want to enjoy the nice weather, but we are going to walk around the strip for a little while, but then we'll get to leave the hustle and bustle and go back to peace and quiet.

Cody's birthday is also this weekend, so it's serving as a birthday trip as well as a little babymoon! I wish it could be longer, but hey.. I'll take what I can get! And, it's supposed to be in the high 70s and even in the 80s when we're there, so that definitely doesn't hurt!

Anyways, I'm excited. Even if it was poopy weather and we don't end up doing anything, we'll at least get to relax, which is totally worth it all for me!

Because I Often Wonder If I'm Growing,

(which I hope is a normal thing for pregnant women.. if not, well.. I'm just strange I guess) I decided to put all of the belly pictures together that I've taken into one easily viewable image. And guess what?! I've grown a lot since my first "15 week" picture! (Duh, obviously.)

So if you were ever curious to see how my belly has grown over the last several weeks/months, here you go.

It's funny to think that I got upset when people said I didn't really look pregnant when I was as big as I was in the top row of pictures. It's much different when it's your body and you're used to seeing it every day of your life. So when you see a bump that wasn't there, and that it's HUGELY different than it was the week before, you expect everyone else to see it. But alas, you must wait a month or two for it to be noticeable. It wasn't until I was about 23 weeks when I had someone come up to me at church and say, "This is the first time that I've even been able to tell that you're pregnant! Congratulations!" and then last week we went to Burger Supreme and the cashier asked if I was having a boy or a girl... and she didn't even know me! I will admit, it took me WAY off guard, but it was cool to know that I'm far enough along that she didn't need to hesitate to ask if I was pregnant.

So my advice to you first time pregnant women, if you're wondering why people aren't recognizing your most exciting new body change, it's because there really hasn't been any noteworthy change, in their eyes. But don't worry, it will happen.

Also, this is crazy. It's no secret that I feel as though this pregnancy is moving slower than a dead slug, but I just looked on my pregnancy app on my phone, and it gave me this little reminder:

85 days to go! I have been trying to forget about time lately, and we're already less than 100 days! I'm pretty excited, but also freaking terrified. Giving birth?!? BREASTFEEDING!? My golly, I need to buck up.