Dear Baby Jelly,
I feel that the time is getting really close to when you will make your arrival and everything seems to be more real that we will actually be parents soon. Naturally I worry and stress about things a lot, and knowing that I will be your Mom there are some thoughts I wanted to share that I hope you will always remember.
There is no recipe to being a perfect Mom, but I want to always be a Mom that shows you unconditional love. I'm excited to be a Mother of Zion and waited a while to have this opportunity. I loved you even before I could feel you move or see any of your characteristics. You were a small pea when we saw you for the first time on the ultra sound. I want to be there for you when you make mistakes so that we can learn from them together, I want you to be able to find a friend in me. I hope you remember the value of kindness as I firmly believe that how you treat others is how you will be treated in return and I only want the best for you.
I hope from a small age that you carry your Heavenly Father's love with you everywhere you go, it is a perfect love that will get you through hard times. He will always see the divine potential in you, and I want you to have the courage to live up to what you can and should be as a daughter of God. When I worked with the young women in the Twelve Oaks 2nd Ward in Chandler it would just break my heart when the girls couldn't see their heavenly beauty and all the blessings they were capable of receiving if they chose to live righteously. Treasure the virtue and individual worth you were born with and make sure to always guard it.
I can't wait to play with you and make funny faces together and just to laugh! I know that you will make me laugh a lot and your love will be such a comfort to us. Dad always tells me he can't imagine the things we are going to do while he is at work...we might have to get creative cause we are in Kingman, but we will make it an adventure! I'm excited to watch you learn and grow and to see what things you pick up on. The last couple of days I've been envisioning what it will finally be like to hold you in my arms and tell you how much I already love you. I can't wait to see you open your eyes for the first time and to hear your cry and just to feel your warmth against my skin.
I could always be better at being more patient, and I think through parenting that is a skill I will have to brush up on quick. I hope and pray that instead of getting frustrated with things that you may do, that I can see the world through your eyes and try to understand it that way. I have a lot to learn by being your Mom, but hopefully we will learn things together. I can't wait to dress you up in all the glitter and girly pink stuff I can get my hands on...I hope you don't mind that you will be my little doll for a bit! I can't wait to squish you and have our own little language together through all the little noises you will make.
I hope that through your entire life my love will be apparent to you and that you can develop a trusting relationship with me. I've been fortunate enough to always be surrounded by supportive family and friends who have helped me find who I truly am. Always take the time to search for the good in others; let their positive influence help you walk away with something of value to add to your own character.
I can't wait until you are born so I can see what traits you carried from your Dad, I think he is the cutest thing in the world and there are many things I hope you take after him. I want you to know that he is my rock and has helped me in the journey of preparing to be your Mother. He loves you so much already and it warms my heart to see the sparkle in his eye when he talks to you in my tummy. One of the traits that was always so evident about your Dad was his love for kids...I could watch him all day with his nieces and nephews. He won't admit to it, but he sings to you and says all the time that he just wants you to come out and play. Your Dad to me exemplifies faith, strength, endurance and love. He has a very tender spot in his heart for his girls, his love is genuine and sensitive and I have no doubt you will feel it right when you are born. Don't ever hesitate to turn to him for guidance in your life and for some extra faith. Knowing him I can honestly say that he will always be there for you, he is very committed to everything he is involved with.
I love you so much already and am anticipating all theses changes that we will experience in the next couple of weeks, I'm glad that I have you and Dad to help me get through it all. I know we will figure out a routine that will work for all three of us and most importantly I hope that me, you and Dad can always keep the view of an Eternal Family in our sight during all the transitions. As the primary song Families Are Forever says, "I want to share my life with them through all eternity" is exactly my goal, I hope as your Mother I can live up to this and do it with finding a joy in all aspects of life.
With all my love,
Mom
Dear Annabelle,
We are thankful for the opportunity we have to be your parents and can only pray that you will always choose to live a righteous and virtuous life as a daughter of your Heavenly Father. You've been moving a lot lately in my tummy as I'm 36 weeks already into this pregnancy and it just makes me laugh when you go about your ways in there! Fortunately this pregnancy has been pretty easy compared to what most girls go through. I think my biggest complaint would just be the non-stop going to the bathroom and my back hurting. Regardless the pain I know it will be all worth it.
Food Cravings:
1. Crepes with yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit, granola and whip cream on top
2. Waffle Pies (waffles with strawberries and whip cream)
3. Chocolate Milk
4. Hot Wings
5. Cereal at anytime during the day
6. Ice Cream
7. French Toast
8. Pancakes
9. Popcorn with parmesan cheese
I really haven't craved anything too weird and Dad has only taken me on one run to Mc Donald's for some french fries. I've been a bit cautious about how much I'm eating just because prior to getting prego I was chunky!
TV Shows we watched while I was preg:
1. Master Chef
2. So You Think You Can Dance
3. Bachelorette
4. Oprah
5. Morning Talk Shows
6. Restaurant Impossible
7. Project Runway
Random Facts:
1. I'm 36 weeks and have only put on 20 lbs so far
2. You always seemed to hang out on the right side of my tummy and for a long time you were really high and I would always press down on you
3. On 8/1/11 the Doctor told me I was dilated 3 cm's but we shall see when you want to come
4. Luckily, up until this point I haven't gotten any stretch marks
5. My feet are starting to really swell and my toes look like little sausages, Dad laughs at me all the time because of this
6. While being preg I haven't had the chance to get new garments so the ones I'm wearing do not cover my tummy at all
7. You will be the 1st grand daughter on the Shaver side, my Mom and Dad are so excited for you to come!
8. Dad is sweet and says that I still look cute even though my tummy is huge
9. I have to say that I am not a big fan of the prego clothes and miss my Buckle jeans...I hope I fit into them again one day
10. Mostly what I have been wearing are Dad's old t-shirts, black yoga pants, white prego pants, and my 2 pairs of prego jeans
What I think you will look like:
Hmmmmm...well I know you will have dark hair because me and Dad both do. I picture you looking a bit like me when I was a baby with chubby cheeks and lots of hair. I can see you being a bit darker in skin because of your Hawaiian heritage and I hope you have long dark eyelashes! For some reason since I haven't put on that much weight I think you will be a smaller baby which is fine by me! I think you will have a cute button nose and small ears. No matter what you look like you will be perfect in our eyes.
Your Name: Annabelle Alexandra Schaub
We've managed to keep your name a secret because we want it to be a surprise for everyone. This has been fun for Jeff and I to only know it! We originally loved the name Isabelle but it's been so trendy lately that we wanted to change it to something pretty and unique and Dad thought of Annabelle. We want to call you Belle when you come just like the princess you will be! Dad has already started calling you Annabees! Another reason we didn't want to share the name with everyone was because we didn't want to hear their opinions on it and have that change our minds.
Your middle name Alexandra is after mine. I got the middle name Alexandra after my Dad because his is Alexander, so it holds some history!
Well that's all for now, I'm actually getting uncomfortable sitting in this computer chair. I'm going to have Dad write you a letter too. I love you so much already and can't wait to meet you and be best friends!!
Yes, it's true...only cool people post about their General Conference Trip they took in April in August! I had been to Salt Lake City for conference a couple of times and Jeff had never been so I wanted him to experience it. It can be hard to get tickets for any of the sessions but thankfully when I called the guy in our stake he had some. We started to plan our trip and after considering all the expenses with the hotel and gas we figured it just wasn't going to work out and would cost too much. I called him back and told him that after much consideration we wouldn't need the tickets.
Our good friends Deri and Cherylee Maggard lived in UT but they were going to be gone that weekend. One day while I was at work I was texting Cherylee and she said that the plans they had to come to AZ weren't going to work out and that they would be in town and offered for us to stay with them. Yipee, it was an answer to my prayers...I just felt that it would be so awesome for Jeff and I to go to conference and now we could since there was an open room at Hotel Maggard!!! I think it was meant to be, because when I called the guy back he said the family who had reserved the tickets I gave back never picked them up and they were all ours again.
If you can try and book a room at Hotel Maggard, they had incredible service and all the meals we were fed were home made! You can't beat the fresh sweet laundry smell on the towels either...reminded me of when Cheryl and I used to live together. We made pretty good time (12 hours) to Utah and surprisingly I didn't have to make that many potty stops, but we ran into some bad traffic when we reached Provo.
Right when we got to their place in Lehi they were cooking from scratch orange chicken and rice, it was so YUMMY!!! We hardly had to go out to eat because they literally had a menu all set up for the days we were there. Some of the plates included; fancy fajitas with meat that Deri grilled, waffles for my prego cravings, biscuits and gravy from scratch, and Cherylee's famous sugar cookies! Our last night there we treated them to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory!
