Happy Halloween

I've decided that holidays are a whole lot 

more exciting when you are either 

(A) A little kid or

(B) The parent of a little kid.

Being newly married is great.  But right now I'm wishing that I had a house full of little kids, imagining a life as a princess, a pirate,  an exotic animal, or just the always classic ghost.  I can feel their energy as they patiently wait all afternoon to put on their costumes.  And I can see them running to the door as daddy walks in from work, begging him to take them around the neighborhood.  I wish I could have whipped together some awesome homemade costumes, and decorated them with face paint.  I can't wait for that day.  But I guess being this close to welcoming our first little princess into the world is great too :)

I wish I could say we did something awesome for Halloween - but the truth is we didn't.  We got a bunch of candy, ate way too much of it ourselves, and carved a pumpkin.  No parties. No dressing up. I'm spending my night alone on the couch doing homework that was procrastinated all weekend.  

Jeremy's at work, so its just me and the babe.  

{Speaking of 'the babe' that's what Jeremy often refers to Madeline as.  It's h.i.l.a.r.i.o.u.s.  He does it sub-consciencely too which is even funnier.  She has also been called 'the child' and 'the young one'.  

What a funny dad}

Just to document that Halloween really did happen we took a few pictures:

So we aren't actually aloud to have flames in our apartment... But you can't just carve a jack-o-lantern and not marvel at how amazing it looks lit up! So we hurried into the bathroom {The community 'watch guard' lives across from us, so we had to be sneaky} lit a candle and took a picture on the toilet haha. Only we forgot to close the door... I thought it was a funny picture.

Jack-o-lantern take II

Pretty awesome, right? I gutted it and drew the face on, but Jeremy did the actual carving - go Jer!

And just for kicks, we put our jack-o-lantern in Jeremy's shirt to compare bellies.  

Can't believe that I still won biggest belly contest! It's like a 13 lb pumpkin! Alas...

Well Happy Halloween! Hope yours was more eventful than ours!

kluvyoubye

Little Pink Shoes

It seems like time keeps moving faster and faster!

{Which is totally ok with me - until she gets here.  

Then I just want to enjoy every second of her little existence}

Today I went to the doctor {I get to go every week now!} And everything is looking good.  I'm 70% effaced and almost 2 cm dilated.  I can't believe we're on our way! I seriously thought we'd never get to this point haha.  Also, we are going to the hospital today to pre-register, and I have a 'just-incase' induction scheduled for December 2nd.  Can you believe it's been 9 months!? I can't... Well I guess it hasn't been, it's been 8 ha.  

Last night we re-organized Madeline's clothes and sorted them out by size and let me just say, its ridiculous how excited we both are :) Jeremy randomly gave me the biggest hug and said,
"WE'RE GONNA HAVE A BABY!"
And he's right! We are! 25 days til her due date! ahhh! so exciting!

Can you believe that soon these little feet

Will be tottering around in these little pink shoes?

so.excited.

kluvyoubye

On my mind

A warm bubble bath in a claw-foot tub 

deep enough to cover my knees, belly, and boobs.  

That's all.  Happy Sunday.

Rambling to Madeline

Dear Madeline,

I can't believe I'm already 36 weeks pregnant with you! Seems like just yesterday I thought November would never get here - and now here we are in the final days of October.  I have so many thoughts about you and life right now.  I thought I'd jot them down so I always remember them.

First of all, it amazes me how much toll your little teeny tiny existence takes on my body! I'm exhausted and out of breath and huge and I have been having pain and discomfort and swelling and on and on and on.  But YOU are worth it! Sometimes when I'm falling asleep I say your name over and over again in my head.  Its kind of magical {cheesy}.  I love that you're mine, and that you always will be.  Your nursery is almost all set up.  We finally got crib sheets and your cousin Katelyn out grew a bunch of clothes so she shared them with you! Hurray for hand-me-downs!

I have to confess that I'm having a hard time imaging my new life with you.  I know that life will never be the same, and I'm excited for that, but I just don't know how to picture it.  I can't fathom exchanging a clock for your stomach and feeding you every two hours.  Not that I'm not excited or regretting having you! Don't get the wrong idea! I just, I've never done anything like this.  And I don't know what to expect.  Well I kind of do, but not really.  How do you prepare to go through a life changing experience? You don't. And yet its funny, because after you come I'll probably have a hard time remembering what life was like before you.  Isn't life wonderful? I love it. And I hope you love it too.

Lately you've been doing this really cruel thing to me where you stretch out as much as you can - its not fun.  You stick your bum out and your feet in my ribs and you nuzzle your head down as low as possible.  I'm convinced you try to make me look like an idiot, sprawling myself everywhere to give you stretching room.  I've been feeling you kick for a few months now, and I think one of the things I'm most excited for is watching you kick.  More than just feeling it. But actually witnessing you kick and move your arms every which way.  I can't wait to lay you on the bed between me and daddy and just look at you.  What do you look like? That's the other thing I can't wait to find out.  Like do you have hair? Or are you going to have a big round bald head like me? I want so badly to meet you and know you and hold you in my arms.  You know, technically, at the end of this week you will be considered full term :) Part of me wants you to come right now, and the other part says its fine if you come when you're supposed to.  I just have so many feelings and emotions and its wonderful and crazy all at the same time.  One thing I know, though, is that you are my little girl.  And I love you so much.  I can't wait to meet you, but for now I'll settle with putting up with your side effects haha.

Love always,

Mommy

Thanks for Listening

Have you ever had a feeling that you should call someone, or send them a friendly text? Drop by and say "hi" or just share your smile with someone? I believe that our Heavenly Father cares enough about each of us that sometimes He inspires us to do something for one of His other children.  If we're listening we get those promptings and are able to help each other out. 

Today was a horrible day.  Well it started out horrible.  It was one of those mornings that was terrible, and miserable, and not really for any particular reason other than I'm 8 months pregnant {officially today} and  miserable most all the time.... {Is it normal to feel crappy, kind of like when you're on your period? Not really cramps, but just that miserable feeling?} Anyway, walking home I might have kind of fallen apart walking home with Jeremy today simply because I wasn't walking in a straight line and he pointed it out... ridiculous I know.  Came home, burst into tears, had a good cry and was then greeted by the sweetest little Halloween greeting from someone who {yeah they sent them to several people} but we were one of those people! It just reminded me of how important it is that we live our lives so that we can bless other peoples lives each and every day.

AH that just reminded me! Someone thought of me on Sunday too.  There's a woman in our ward at church who stopped by Sunday evening to bring us cookies and wrote me a sweet note thanking me for the music the choir sang that morning.  It really didn't go over very well, I was kind of frustrated and just, I'm having a hard time.... But she was nice enough to thank me {even though she probably realized how bad it was...}.  It just, it made my Sunday.  

So thank you to all you people out there who are listening.  I'm sure you don't realize just how much of a good impact you had on me!  I hope that when I take the time to listen I'm helping someone out too.  Not that I want to know, I just want to be able to be an answer to someone's prayer every once in a while, you know?  By the way, the Frankenstein Bag had candy in it and Jeremy and I spread it all out on the couch and divvied {did you know divvied had two 'v's? I had to look it up...} it up like two little kids sharing their spoils. We're basically little kids - nbd. 

kluvyoubye!

Last Weekend {Including a recent picture of the 8 month pregnant me}

Last weekend was simply F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!

My Dad, and two of my sisters, Hannah and Rachel, and my brother Joshua drove down to Utah for my cousin Stephen's wedding.  It was so fun to see them and celebrate Stephen's special day!

They were married in the beautiful Salt Lake City Temple.  It was such a special sealing :) Reminded me of ours (10 months ago! Where does the time go?) I've never seen Stephen so happy!

Joshua had a hard time warming up to me - perhaps because I look a little different than I did a few months ago.  Plus I think he was a little overwhelmed being in a new place with lots of unfamiliar people.  But he warmed up soon enough.

Here it is - a picture of me... I seriously don't see myself this big, well I do, but it always surprises me to see pictures of myself.  But it's officially documented! We're posing with the cardboard cut out of David, our cousin (Stephen's brother) who is on a mission in Florida.  

Stephen had this grin on ALL day! It was so cute! We're so glad you found each other

 Stephen and Amy :)

Don't you love the cake! I thought the Temple was a precious touch.

You'll notice that this picture has Joshua and I out of focus.  That's because I REALLY wanted a picture of the guy just over my left shoulder.  Can you see his mustache? Doesn't even do it justice! That thing was like 4 inches long on both sides! I knew Jeremy would appreciate it, and he couldn't come, so I had my dad take a picture of Joshua and I.  Dad had never done anything like this before and he was laughing so hard lol good times... 

Cutest wedding gift ever!

{Coming from the girl who absolutely loves Martinelli's}

Congrats Stephen and Amy! Thanks for giving us a reason to get together :)

Monopoly

Jeremy loves Monopoly.  I'm pretty sure in my 19 years of life I've played maybe 2 times? And they were Monopoly Jr.  But I finally decided it was ridiculous that my husband and I had never played his favorite game, so I got it to surprise him :) 

{Is there something about being a man that says you can't show 

excitement when your wife spontaneously decides to give you a gift?}

Anyway... Monopoly is a long game! I'd forgotten just how long, but was reminded of why I never play haha.  We've had fun thought :)

 Sometimes it makes me laugh what a nerd my husband is lol but I love it! 

And I love him!!! 

Oh by the way, we're still not done.... And we've only put like 4 hours into it so far? 

kluvyoubye

An Update

It's been a little while since I shared the goings-on of our life lately - so here we go.

Last weekend Jeremy had another dental school interview. This time in Seattle, Washington at the University of Washington.  It's kind of been #1 on our list we we were excited for it! 

He said it went really well.  There are so many things to consider when making a move that will last at least four years and quite possibly affect our lives forever! yeah... But we don't have to make any decisions any time soon.  We'll make those decisions right after we've just had a baby and are overwhelmed, emotional wrecks, and extremely sleep deprived - sounds like a much better idea, right? 

While Jeremy was off in Seattle, I decided to spend the weekend/day with my Grandma Teddy in SLC.  Jeremy was gone less than 24 hours, and instead of me driving back and forth at night by myself, I decided I'd just stay the night with Grandma.  We had a lot of fun.  She lives alone, and I think she really enjoyed having someone to talk to - other than Sasha.  Her cat. Think big, orange, fluffy, likes to shed a lot and you've got Sasha.  But I'm glad she has someone to talk to. She really is lonely and Sasha is her pride and joy.  So I'm happy for her.  I just don't like spending long periods of time in her cat hair house ha.  We decided to make a girls day of our time together, so after enjoying a lazy morning, we went to see The Help in theaters.  It was so good! I highly recommend it.  I read the book over the summer and loved it.  The movie we great too. Movies never do books justice, but this one came close.  Then we went to dinner at Cowboy Grub - it was really good! I liked it.  And by then it was about time for me to get Jeremy from the airport - so I did and we came home and that sums up our Monday.  

It was kind of hard to get back into the swing of things on Tuesday... but I did.  I'm just exhausted.  I need to get more sleep I think.  Tuesday night we went to see Captain America in the dollar theater.  I thought it was good, but its getting hard for me to sit still for that long, and not be too antsy.  Sorry guy sitting next to me... 

In other news, our bathroom is having plumbing troubles. The sink won't drain... so my handy man took that sink apart and cleaned it (it was really gross...) and put it back together! It's still broken... but I'm so proud of him for trying! Then he kept trying... got a little frustrated... and now we're still waiting for the repair man.  Woot woot.  But that's ok - I have a special night planned for him :) Just because I'm that awesome! 

I think that about sums it up for our life.  Most of the time I'm either taking a pee break or popping tums.  Only 43 days til Madeline is due! Which means 41 days til Thanksgiving, and 62 days til we leave for Spokane and just 72 days til Christmas! I'm so excited :) I'm especially excited to open Madeline's stocking with her.  Speaking of which, I need to figure out what our family stockings are going to look like.../make them... *sigh* so much to do! Well I guess I'd better get to it!

kluvyoubye

FINALLY - Pictures of Our Wymount Apartment

Sorry guys - it really has been too long.  I should have posted pictures of our apartment months ago, but better late than never, right? :) I also need to post a picture of my belly... I'll get on that...eventually....

{Captions are below pictures}

This is the view of the kitchen when you first walk in

Sink and fridge

Our teeny-tiny oven.  But its ok, because its gas! And we have so many cupboards!

Pantry - didn't have one of these before! 

{Excuse the clutter....}

Look our microwave isn't on top of our fridge! 

{It was in our last apartment for lack of a better place - now its really low but at least its safer!}

Kitchen table - sorry its such a bad quality picture.  My nice camera's battery is dead.... 

Not actually part of our apartment, but a fun

 flower arrangement I made this week in my floral design class.

The view from our big open window

{I LOVE  this window! Such a big difference from our last apartment}

Living room - we can only have 4 holes in each wall and if there are already holes you can't put new ones in, so our pictures are where they are due to that. But it could be worse!

Our balcony - sorry its hard to get a wide shot of it, it really is quite big though!

This is what you see when you walk in just to the right of the kitchen.

View from the couch. This is looking at the tv/front door.

Our oh so glorious bathroom haha Lets just say when we moved in before all our stuff made it look lived in, this bathroom could have belonged to a jail cell....

Notice how the shower curtain rod is horizontal!

{It was diagonal in our last apartment and the ceiling wasn't that high...}

Sorry its really dark, but here is looking into our bedroom. 

And our HUGE closet! WOW!!! lol 

{Again, this is comparing to our last apartment...}

Just for fun, if you like you can compare to our last apartment here. Maybe understand why I'm so in love with this cinder-block home :)

And so we don't end with a picture of my closet, here's another picture of my flowers

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday! My teacher for my 5:00 class just cancelled and I couldn't be happier to spend the evening home with my hubby :)

kluvyoubye

the ups and the downs

When I was growing up during dinner we would almost always go around the table and share with the family the 'ups' and 'downs' of our day.  You had to have at least two ups for every one down (you know...  to keep things optimistic).  I thought instead of doing my awkwards and awesomes I'd share my ups and downs.  So here we go!

The Downs {so we end on a happy note}:

My doctor basically told me that I can expect to have Madeline late - because I was late.  But that he wouldn't let me go longer than a week.  This might be a December baby after all... alas... December is good too. Not November, but it works ha

Some how we kind of skipped over fall - its snowing on the mountains... bummer, right?

{Not that I'm not excited for winter - but I was really looking forward to fall!}

I just used my last packet of Apple Cider... Cue trip to the store.

I wanted to make banana bread - but they only had GREEN bananas.  So I have to wait for them to cross the entire banana spectrum of ripening to make banana bread.  *muttering* "patience is a virtue... patience is a virtue..."

The Ups

That last cup of apple cider was soooo good!

Its finally cold outside! I love the crisp magical feeling of fall in the air. Its so wonderful!

Husband let me go shopping yesterday :) Just for two cheap shirts that actually fit over my belly.

{We were virtually down to 3 shirts - makes for a rather monotonous wardrobe... Now we're up to 5 shirts haha only 2 more months!}

We had chocolate-chip waffles with cinnamon and hot chocolate for breakfast this morning!

...yes I realize that makes me appear to be a 5 year old.... whatever.

Next week marks the half way point for this semester! say wahhh? Where does the time go? 

I literally can't believe it ha

My husband is a-mazing.  I've been wearing flip flops for the past several months (they're easy to get on and my swollen feet can still fit in them) BUT seeing as its 39 degrees and rainy/snowy outside I figured closed toe shoes would be better. I, however, couldn't get them on myself so my a-mazing husband did it for me :) What a great guy!

I have successfully memorized 100 terms for my test tonight and only have like 50ish to go... ha

I only need one more up and uh... yay! 

{I realize that last one probably doesn't count... oh well...}

Hope you all have fabulous days!

kluvyoubye

Weekend

Rejuvenating (the days leading up to the weekend didn't involve enough sleep for one of us), Inspiring (General Conference), Cuddling, Pedicure (Compliments of husband :), Snickerdoodles, Clean House, Driving, Family Dinner, Happy.

Wish you could stay longer weekend!