One Last Baby Shower...

So, let me start by saying that I have fabulous friends and family. First of all, Tenneal did such a great job at being the "hostess with the mostest" by putting together a beautiful baby shower for me in her immaculate home, making delicious food, and impressing everyone with how awesome she is. Secondly, my sisters-in-law, Melissa and Andrea did a great job of putting together games, food, decorations, and making the coolest invitations ever! Thirdly, my friends and family who came to my shower gave me so much love and lots of thoughtful, wonderful gifts. So, I just want to say a big Thank You to my incredible friends and family. I am so excited to have my little boy in 4 short weeks and I am also so excited to know that I have the best family and friends to rely on when he's here!!

The shower was a Pirate theme, so here are some of the decorations along with the diaper cake that Andrea made. How cute is all of this?

Tenneal, of course, wanted to play the "Poopy Diaper" game. If you haven't played this before, this is when you melt a candy bar in a diaper and make everyone try to guess what type of candy bar it is. The players can smell (maybe even taste) the candy to accurately guess. Basically, the main point is to get funny pictures of people playing with a diaper that looks like it's full of poop. Tenneal can't just make things simple so she added pieces of corn to several diapers just to throw us off. Did I mention that she's awesome? It was hilarious!

Thanks again to everyone who helped with the shower and who was able to be there!

Christmas 2008

We had a very Merry Christmas this year in California. We left early on Christmas Eve to spend a few days with the Holloway family. Sandi had a very busy schedule set for us with lots of fun things to do. On Christmas Eve, we got to meet little Rylan for the first time, we had a delicious dinner, watched "A Christmas Story", and Blake read Luke 2 to everyone. On Christmas morning, Blake woke me up at 5:45 so that we could see what Santa brought for us...then I went back to sleep for 2 hours. Blake was so excited to open presents and get the day started, but he had to wait for everyone else to wake up. We had a really fun day with everyone. We got lots of great stuff, but the best part was watching Reese and Drake open their presents.

The rest of the week was exciting as well. Brent and Sandi rented Duffy boats for the family and some of our friends to crusie around the harbor and look at Christmas lights. It was a blast! I could not believe how amazing some of the lights, houses, and yachts were!

I also wanted to say HAPPY 5 Year Anniversary to my wonderful husband! I can't believe that it has been 5 years already! I am so happy and lucky to have such an incredible husband! And I simply cannot wait to continue on this amazing journey with our little boy! Blake will be such a great dad and I know that we have some great times ahead of us...until then, enjoy the picture from our first Winter Formal. I think I was 16 and he was 15 at the time! That was over 10 years ago! Yikes!!

30 Week Ultrasound

I am just a few days away from being officially 30 weeks and I went to the doctor today for my first ultrasound in a really long time. The last time that I had an ultrasound was when we found out that we were having a boy, so I was very excited to see my little boy again. I wanted to have proof once again that he really is a boy because we only had one picture last time. Sure enough, he is still a boy! Yay!

It is always fun to see my little guy. It is so crazy to look at how big he is getting and how smashed he is! It's no wonder that he's always kicking and moving around. He kept putting his hands around his face and by his mouth, so it was hard to get a good picture of his face.

The first picture is a close-up of his face with his little hand resting on his nose. The second picture has his face in the upper left hand corner and his body takes up the rest of the picture. There's a good shot of his chest and round belly. The ultrasound tech said that he's measuring at about 3 pounds 6 ounces. I guess that's about average or a little bigger...I just can't believe that he's just going to get bigger and bigger over the next 11 weeks!

Happy Thanksgiving...

Blake, Molly, and I went to St. George to go visit my family over Thanksgiving weekend. We had a lot of fun hanging out with all of the nephews and everyone else. We left on Wednesday afternoon when I got out of school and enjoyed the beautiful scenery on the way. We actually got to see some snow on the way and it was really pretty.

Boyd, Sara, Me, Blake, Melissa, and Ben after dinner at the clubhouse

On Thanksgiving, we ate our turkey dinner at the clubhouse in my parent's neighborhood. It is actually the place where "High School Musical 2" was filmed. It was sooooo delicious! They had amazing prime rib and all sorts of goodies in their huge buffet! Braxton (Ben's 3 year-old) had apparently never seen a buffet before. He was darting in and out of people in line and yelling, "This is awesome!" He honestly did not know what to do with himself! He ended up eating plate after plate of fresh fruit - he is truly my brother's child! Then, we went back to my parent's house for dessert along with some other family members. I got to see my cousins and aunt, and they gave LOTS of love to little Molly. She was loving every second of it.

Braxton and Caleb at Dinner

On Friday, I was up at 4 am to go to Target. I always say that I won't do that ever again but I always go. I mainly went to hang out with my mom and my sister. We actually had quite a bit of fun standing in the cold and running into the store. We found some good deals and had a yummy breakfast together. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and playing video games. I played the Wii for the first time and I loved it!

On Saturday, I had my second baby shower. It was hosted by my wonderful mom. She did a great job and it was nice to see my family. We got some great gifts and I can't wait to wrap up my little boy in his snuggly blankets and cuddle with him! We also took family pictures on Saturday and I cannot wait to see how they turned out. Caleb AKA Chubbers AKA Big Fat Panda(Ben's 1 year-old) is at the age where pictures are terrible, so he will probably be furious in every picture. I'll post the pics when we get them.

Then, we had to drive home very early on Sunday morning. We had a really great time and I had a blast hanging out with my family and just relaxing. I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving as well! It's almost Christmas...Yay!!

My First Baby Shower!

I had my very first baby shower last weekend in California. I was very excited to see all of my family and friends...and I was also excited to eat some Taco Surf! This was the first time that my mom has seen me "really pregnant". She got a little teary-eyed and it was a lot of fun to see her. Alex (my best friend of 17 years!) was the hostess and she did a fabulous job. We had our own private room, fun games, lots of great presents, and just a fun time!

I was very excited to get all sorts of cute boy clothes and other fun gifts. I felt very loved because I got so many great presents. The only downfall is that I still have 3 months before I get to see my little guy and get him all dressed up in his cute clothes and snuggle with him in his warm blankies! Until then, I'll just have fun getting the nursery all ready with Blake and patiently awaiting the arrival of our little boy!

Just to explain the pictures - I am a fan of The Price is Right and I always wanted to be a "Barker's Beauty", so that's why I'm making stupid faces while I model the fun baby gifts. In the picture above, I'm showing my excitement for the "I Love New York" onesie from Alex. And in the picture below, I am checking out the adorable pirate quilt that my cousin, Becky, made. I got so excited when I saw it because it was just so perfect! Then, I found out that the fabric was from my Aunt Robyn's fabric collection and I got really emotional because I had previously thought that I wouldn't get a quilt from my Aunt who passed away last year. Now, I almost don't want him to use the blanket until he understands how special it is, but I guess I'll let him use it every now and then!

Senior Softball

Over this weekend, I had the wonderful privilege of going to some of my dad's softball games. He is in a senior softball league and often travels with his team. Every now and then, they will make their way out to the Phoenix area, and I'll get to go watch him play. I took Friday off of work (partially because I was REALLY sick of some of my students but mainly because I wanted to see lots of his games). It was pretty funny when I was looking around because I cannot believe how many men have moustaches! I thought my dad was one of the few, but that tournament seemed like moustache headquarters.
Anyway, my dad is a very talented athlete. In fact, when he's batting, he will often be walked because he's well-known as a home run hitter. I really enjoyed watching his games and having some peaceful, quiet time to myself. Blake and Molly also joined me on Saturday to one of his games and we had a great time.
I'm very impressed with how athletic he is at his old age (ha ha). I was talking to one guy at one of his games on Friday and he commented that my dad "looks young for such an old guy". I think that is very well said! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on both days so you'll just have to take my word for it. More than anything, though, it was nice to spend some time with him, get some free lunches, and get some baby stuff as well. And, it's always great to see him fall asleep within 3 minutes of sitting down on the couch.

Wanted: Advice on Bottles

Blake and I registered last weekend. To my surprise, we had a blast and were not really overwhelmed at all. We agreed on just about everything and kind of knew what we were doing. Our only question and frustrating moment was the bottle aisle. There are so many varieties of bottles!! We went ahead and registered for Dr. Brown's, but then we went back to reconsider when I realized how many parts that make up a Dr. Brown's bottle. Then, I just got more confused. Do we want drop-ins? Do we want Avent? We decided to just keep Dr. Brown's on the registry and figure it out once we get some expert advice.

So, here's my favor that I ask of you: If you have some advice on either what bottles are great or which ones I do NOT want to use, I would really appreciate it. I plan on nursing, but I'm hoping to pump as well. Speaking of which, if you have advice on a good breast pump, that would also be much appreciated. So, please help in any way that you can! Thanks!!