As it turns out...I have much less spare time than I thought I would. I thought being at home with the baby would be a walk in the park. They are supposed to sleep a lot, right? LOL. I had imagined laying in bed all day in my pajamas with my baby and FaceBooking my life away. Well, let's just say that I'm doing none of the above. And, while I am thoroughly enjoying this little sweetheart, I have no time to write all the details that I want to! So pictures it is! (Next order of business: a post about what an awesome [surprisingly so] experience it was bringing Olivia into the world!)

The Fun Has Arrived!

She's here! I still can't believe it. I still can't believe I'm here in the hospital with a baby sleeping next to me. She is perfect in every way. Her adorable red hair is amazing. Her little face is so perfectly round and chubby and even her cries are just angelic. I am so proud of Ryan for being so calm and collected through the whole thing. I am so grateful that I did the laundry yesterday, even though it was Sunday and I was going to wait. I am so glad to have had an awesome nurse who just happened to be in doing office work, but was then assigned to us. More of the story to come, but here a some pictures of our darling Olivia Grace, who arrived at 4:46pm today via C-section and weighed in at 7lbs. 1 oz. and 18.5 inches long.

My Beautifully Crafted Plan...

...is falling apart! Don't worry, all the REALLY important parts of the plan are still in tact (go to hospital, have baby, bring baby home, be a family) but the details have changed slightly, that's all! As of right now, I have a little, tiny baby head tucked neatly into the right side of my ribcage. And according the the ultrasound that was done at our doctor's visit on Friday, the location of my placenta and the level of amniotic fluid will make it not so easy for baby to be turned around from any outside force. So it's up to her and I! I'm trying all these silly little tricks that I am reading about to try and get her to go head down (and, more importantly, stay that way), but we have a C-section scheduled for December 23rd just in case. And if all goes according to the NEW (but not necessarily IMPROVED) plan, baby will be wearing this on Christmas Day.

Big Bang Theory

I'm feeling selfish. Or perhaps the hormones are finally getting to me and making me extrememly emotional. But things in general definitely feel more impossible these days. And it's not just the tasks that involve moving my body that seem impossible...but those ARE on the list. :)

Every time I think of how frustrated I am with something, I then proceed to think to myself, "If this is hard now, think of how hard it is going to be with a little baby!" Not exactly a healthy thought process, but that's just naturally where it is heading as my 'ticker' counts down. I find myself constantly telling myself that I need to simplify before our baby arrives, but today I am ready to quit EVERYTHING. But I won't. Yet. LOL

As you can see in the picture, we are now at 36 weeks! As you can also see, there is definitely some change needed in the bang area. I thought I wanted to grow them out. That was working ok up until this point. Now they are too long to really sweep to the side. But not long enough to go behind my ear. And I really don't like pinning them to the side. I really like having straight across bangs. But the stubborn side of me keeps reminding myself that I've been growing them for 6 months and cutting them now would be a waste! LOL. Any opinions? Still not sure what direction I'm leaning to right now, but when I had those good ol' straight across bangs, I saved a lot in the make-up department...not having to put any on my forehead. :)

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

Gordon B. Hinckley

Coming to My Ward? BYOS (Bring Your Own Sweater)

I'm becoming one of those people.

You know, the ones who think that their comfort in church comes before everyone else's.

I never knew I could be this hot on a continual basis. I've never been like this before. I used to take a sweater with me EVERYWHERE. Not anymore, friends. I had to sit on the stand for entirety of sacrament meeting today. It's even hotter up there. So...since I wasn't going to be able to sit with him anyway...I made Ryan sit on the bench by the thermostat. And I made him turn it down to medium cold (Hey, I could have had him turn it ALL the way down. Give me some credit). And I made him guard it with his life.

Church was heavenly.

The Countdown

I'm getting antsy...so to get myself through the next 6 weeks, I have come up with a few new ways to count down to D-day. :)

• 6 more shampoo sets on Beverly & Mary

• 5 more ward choir practices

• 21 more hymns to play during sacrament meeting

• 6 more Relief Society lessons spent wandering the hallway while I'm waiting to play the closing hymn (sitting on those terrible chairs after the first two hours is absolutely torturous. I'm not being dramatic).


• 5 more doctor's visits(and hopefully only 5 more pounds when I get weighed in at those visits! LOL)


• 24 more loads of laundry (I know, my 4 loads/week is about to turn into about 10. Oh well!)


• 6 more times to clean my bathroom. My favorite chore. Yay.


• 3 more times to fill up with gas

So maybe this'll help me get by during those times when life seems to be in slow motion just when I need it to go by quickly! We'll see! Oh, and now that I see myself in these pictures instead of just in the mirror, I completely understand why I seem to just roll (literally) out of bed most mornings. After all, that's how a soccer ball moves. It rolls. LOL

Why I Shop Alone...

Showered!

We went to Salt Lake this weekend for a couple of baby showers. So much fun...so much work! But all totally worth it. The first party was on Friday night and was hosted by Ryan's aunt and mom. They worked so hard, and I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband because everyone just loves him so much that they do all this for he and I! We had so much fun and got such great things.

The food was wonderful. We had German sausages with mustard sauces (Ryan's favorite), lots of salads, and lots of desserts. Yum!
These are the favors. I forgot to snap a pic of what was in the boxes before we tied them all up though! They were chocolate 'porcupines' (the party was animal themed) filled with mousse, and layers of yummy stuff (I didn't actually eat one, so I'm not exactly sure what was in it!)

Gifts. We are so grateful for all the wonderful things we were given. We loved it all. The cradle was Ryan's when he was a baby and his mom is letting us use it! I am working on finding a mesh or more breathable crib bumper since this one is the original and is plastic-covered. But no worries...Ryan's dad assured us that it was NOT painted with lead paint...even 28 years ago. LOL

This rocking horse is HILARIOUS. When you push it's ear, it makes galloping noises and whinies, all while the tail and head move back and forth. It is a 'stay at Grandma's house' toy. :)

This is a bad picture, but I just thought it was funny. As you can see, the whole room is about to be enlightened as to what the heck a "BUMBO" is. Google it. LOL

Baby shower number two was on Saturday afternoon and was a combined shower with my step-aunt Laura who is due just one day after me! What a great idea she had to have it together! We chose 'Rubber Duckies' as our theme and ran with it. Ryan even drew little duck-prints on the sidewalk and steps up to the door. He is an amazing artist, eh?

More ducky prints.

This amazing cake is courtesy of my multi-talented and amazing Aunt Martha. She made our wedding cake, but this one is pretty much my favorite of all time! How much cuter can you get??? The bubbles, the bar of soap, the faucet? Amazing :)

Laura and I got some GREAT and practical gifts! I am so grateful for all who took time to come. Best part? We laughed so hard that I am pretty sure I burned off both the chicken salad sandwiches that I ate! Thanks Mom and Aunt Shirleen for being such lovely hostesses!

After we got the showers out of the way, we were able to spend Sunday with Brian, getting last minute things together for him and seeing him off at the airport. He has to report back to Camp Pendelton in San Diego in the morning and then he leaves for Afghanistan on Wednesday. The primary classes in my mom's ward wrote him letters that we sent with him since he won't be able to get mail for about a month. I peeked at a few of them, and those little children are just so sweet! My favorite one was just a picture of a camel. That's all. Just a camel...with one hump. LOL. But I'm so glad that he'll have those to look at. We are going to miss him a lot, but he is in the Lord's hands and we are grateful for his service to his country. Oh, and we all got our "SKYPE" programs working on our laptops, so hopefully we can talk often!

Favorite Post of the Day...

Went to the doctor this morning (8 am. Way too early. Not doing that next time.). Everything is measuring great (except the scale in the office. I think it is broken. LOL :) and my glucose test was in the normal range, so no gestational diabetes worries. But the highlight of the day has got to be this post by friend of a friend. I've only met Brittany a couple of times, but as she is a very good friend of one of my very good friends, I keep up with her blog. She and her husband are in the process of adopting a little girl after losing their own baby a couple of years ago. I actually don't think it gets better than this. Read it. With tissues.

"It Will Go Away!"

17 Weeks
23 Weeks

28 Weeks

Working while pregnant has really been an interesting experience. People react in so many different ways when I tell them. But the classic had to be little Mary. She is the shortest little lady with beautiful white hair and I've missed her the last few times she has come in. But this last time I was sitting at the front desk when I saw her pull up. I was basically just waiting for the clock to turn to 5 so that I could go home when she came in. And it was the funniest thing. She totally walked right past me and went to one of the other girls to ask her if she could give her a perm. Didn't bother me. I don't like doing perms that much anyway, plus I was getting ready to leave. The other girl said she could, and that she would just be a few minutes. So little Mary walks to the waiting room and sits down, when I walked over and said hi to her while putting away some magazines. She had no idea who I was. Well, long story short, once the other girls told her that it was me, she came up and apologized for not recognizing me, told me congratulations on the baby (she hadn't known before) and proceeded to explain that the reason she didn't recognize me because I have put on so much weight! "But don't worry, dear. It will go away!" Exactly what every woman wants to hear, right??? Yes, I do look at the scale at my checkups! I know precisely how much I've put on and it is not THAT much. But I was paranoid for a few days wondering if that is all people are thinking about me now! I'm ok with it now, and as I was looking at the few pictures I have taken through the pregnancy thus far it IS pretty obvious that a lot of the 'round-ness' has gone to my face. Oh well. "Don't worry, dear. It will go away!" LOL

The Problem

The problem is that I had a good little workout tonight and now I want to eat everything in my fridge! "Sigh," says I. "Growl," says my tummy. :)

I Think That...

1. ..this baby is either going to be some sort of gymnast or world kick-ball champion. I'm just saying that I don't think we have to worry about any kind of muscle weakness in the leg region. The kicks this kid can produce are insane.
2. ...the best times I have with Ryan are when we just talk to each other and laugh and laugh some more...usually when we should be sleeping.
3. ...because of the regular occurance of the best times (above) I am getting into a terrible sleep pattern where I stay up all night talking, go to work in the morning, and totally crash around 6pm...only to wake up and stay up all night again...sigh.
4. ...I am not telling clients at work what we have chosen for our baby's name. I DID tell one guy the other day and he told me it was a terrible name! Who says that?! He said something about it being 4 syllables and only 6 letters and what a mouthful and yada, yada, yada. So no more of that.
5. ...tomorrow will be fun for a couple of reasons. First, it is the primary presentation. :) Second, I get to play "How Firm a Foundation" as one of the hymns. Possibly my favorite to play on the organ. And people might actually sing.
6. ...I probably should have gone to the Relief Society broadcast tonight, but I was too afraid that I would get stuck sitting on a metal chair. I know. Pathetic. But sitting anywhere for that long gets uncomfortable, let alone a hard, folding chair. Good thing they'll re-broadcast it on BYU-TV sometime tomorrow.
7. ...I will make banana bread sometime soon. Yum!

I Give Up!

I give up! We have three smoke/carbon monoxide alarms in the living areas of our house. They are all hard-wired into the house and all connected to each other somehow. AND...they all keep going off at random times and for no reason at all!!! Ok, so they beep a few times, and then they're done until tomorrow. Big deal. But it always seems to be in the middle of the night. And I'm sleeping. So it's not OK. And it IS a big deal. We've tried it all. We've replaced all the batteries multiple times, rotated them, and cleaned them out with pressurized air to get rid of all the dust. Yes, I am whining. But I'm allowed. :) I'm now going to Google this problem and see if there is something else I can try. Any suggestions would be welcome! In the meantime, let's hope that the smoke and the CO stay away until I get the units put back into their respective outlets(they were ripped out rather violently in the middle of the night a few weeks ago. LOL).

What's in a Name?

We've chosen a name for our baby! I'm so excited to start sharing it with our family and friends. People have always told me you have to wait and meet your baby before naming it, but I am thinking that the less I have to think about after giving birth is probably for the best! It took us so long to decide on two names that we agreed on that I am glad to have the decision made!

First Name: Olivia

The girl's name Olivia is pronounced oh-LIV-ee-ah. It is of Latin origin, and its meaning is "olive tree". Coined by Shakespeare as the name of a much-wooed aristocrat in his play "Twelfth Night" (1599). He may have derived the name from the olive plant, or as a feminine form of Oliver. Biblical: the olive tree is a symbol of fruitfulness, beauty, and dignity. Today, "extending an olive branch" traditionally signifies an offer of peace.

Middle Name: Grace

The girl's name Grace is pronounced grayce. It is of Latin origin, and its meaning is "favor; blessing". A virtue name referring to God's grace.

Hope you all like it! We sure do!

Happy Leather Anniversary, Honey!

"The 3rd wedding anniversary is often when a couple is aware of their durability of their relationship. That is why leather is the traditional gift for this celebration." Well, I guess we're officially durable! LOL I'm copying some of my friends and just putting up some fun pictures of the memorable times Ryan and I have shared during these last 3 years. Note to self: take more pictures of us together!

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else...

Ok, this picture of my mom belongs on one of those Mastercard commercials:

Cruise to Mexico amidst Hurricane Jimena- $$$$

Shore excursion to swim with the dolphins- $$$

Visitor's pass so Dad could watch shore excursion to swim with the dolphins- $$

Dolpins making Dad jealous- Priceless.

ABCs of Me

My friend Aubrey did this and I thought it was so fun to read!!! Plus, she tagged me...and I have no other thoughts today beyond how quickly the chorister was leading the hymns today in Sacrament meeting...so...

A - Age: 23
B - Bed Size: King...worth every penny. Especially since I've been taking up more and more room lately with my pillow collection(who knew sleeping while pregnant was such a hassle? Especially when I'm so tired all the time?)
C - Chore I Love: Do we LOVE chores? I like feeling like I've accomplished things by crossing things off my chore LIST, but I do not LOVE any chore specifically!
D - Dog's Name: Max. The beagle.
E - Essential Start To My Day: Shower, and I must shampoo my hair EVERY day!
F - Favorite Color: Black or brown.
G - Gold or Silver: Silver
H - How Many Times Have You Been Outside The USA: Trips back and forth to Canada over the years, and to the Bahamas once.
I - Instruments I Play: Piano, and sort of Organ (I don't think that one counts because I cheat and don't play the pedals:)
J - Job Title: Cosmetologist
K - Kids: 1 little girl on the way(think we've decided on a name...will possibly share soon:)
L - Living Arrangements: Husband, Me, Cat
M - Most Popular Dessert At My House: Ryan likes ice cream, but I prefer cookies or cereal :)
N - Number Of Times I Have Stayed Overnight At The Hospital: 0
O - Outdoor Activity I Have Never Tried, But Would Like To: river rafting or kayaking.
P - Pet Peeve: Wow...where to begin...LOL. It truly bothers me when mothers let their children run around in the salon. Kids are welcome, and there is a place for them to sit and read, but they still need supervision. Peeve over. LOL
Q - Quote From A Movie: "Is there anything on this menu that is not swimming in GRAVY?" Yzma, The Emperor's New Groove
R - Restaurant I Could Eat At Everyday: Pizza Hut...good thing that's not an option every day. LOL
S - Siblings: 4 Brothers
T - Time I Wake Up: As late as I'm allowed...but not usually past 9.
U - Unknown Fact About Me: I love to play with Lego! Having kids is going to be dangerous, because Ryan and I are already looking at all the toys we want to play with!
V - Veggies I Dislike: Red cabbage.
W - What Is My Dream Vacation: Anywhere warm with no cell phone service :)
X - X-rays I Have Had: Just teeth.
Y - Yummy Food I Make: Chicken enchiladas, Chili, Funeral Potatoes (hey, they're yummy to me!)
Z - Zoo Favorite: I haven't been to the zoo in forever, but I do like the felines! Lions and Tigers.

I tag.....Oh, I can't pick! If you feel so inclined, please go for it!

Leaving So Soon?

So some of the articles I've been reading tell me that I won't be able to feel the baby moving so much when she gets bigger. Do all you moms agree with this? Because this is so much fun!!! She moves more at night and when I lay on the couch. I love feeling her move (it reminds me that even though I'm getting fat, it's all for the cause. LOL) and I don't want it to stop!

All you wonderful mommies out there...please help me know what to expect!

23 Weeks!

I can't believe how far we've come and how good I'm feeling...knock on wood. Life is pretty much normal, if you don't count the obnoxious heartburn and the bazillion trips to the potty every day (sorry...TMI. LOL). That might be due to the fact that this little girl is really active when I sit still, and there is just less and less room for my vital organs these days(like, say, my bladder!).

Yup, everything seems to be going ok, and I'm not sure when this nesting thing is supposed to kick in, but my white board (that wonderful invention that nicely and neatly separates my life into 3 columns of 'home', 'work', and 'church'. Ha! If only it were that easy...) has suddenly filled to capacity with all the things that need to be done from now until next MAY! Talk about overwhelming! But I've always been a list maker, and having things written down makes me feel better for some reason (even though I'm pretty sure that, as much as I want to, it is just too early to be making Tyler's graduation announcements! LOL).

My Husband Rocks...

Just today, He:

Did the dishes
Changed the cat box
Went to Wal Mart
Took out the garbage
Fixed my laptop (AMAZING...I can't live without the dang thing)
and (the kicker)
Agreed to be my guinea pig while I practiced on our new waxing system at work! Come on, how many guys do you know that would let you wax their necklines without knowing beforehand what in the world they were in for? That is real bravery.

Boy oh Boy...

Boy oh boy...it's a girl!

Doctor: "Well, I wouldn't stake my life on this one, but I'm pretty sure it's a girl."

So, sorry for all those who voted for a boy! Ryan claims to have had a 'gut feeling' that it was a girl. I didn't have a 'gut feeling'...go figure. LOL. And I just love our doctor. He called our baby a "little rascal" because she is facing my back, which obviously would make it difficult to determine the gender. He acted quite certain, but we are so excited that it won't really matter if we end up taking home a little boy in a little pink outift come January!

Take a Stab at It!

We have our ultrasound on the 24th to find out what baby is. There are only two options in this poll....twins are out! LOL I'm excited to see what you all think!

Mirrors

There are too many mirrors at work. I see myself all day long. But today when I took my apron off, I looked in the mirror one final time before leaving and I thought "Whoa, that girl actually looks kinda pregnant". LOL

Too Early...

Last week/weekend's project...I know its still way too early to be doing this...especially since we don't know the gender of our baby...but I do enjoy a good painting project! The measuring and taping of the squares was the most tedious part of the whole process. Our walls are textured, and we've never had very good luck with getting a nice, clean line when we tape to paint, but I saw a tip on HGTV a little while ago. It suggested putting a layer of clear glaze over the tape before you paint to get a good seal and, for the most part, it worked like a charm!

Ryan's mom made us the beautiful quilt, we already had the curtains, and we got a killer deal on the used crib and table. And now my creativity is used up for the rest of the year.