Preggo Update

So I'm nearly 32 weeks now (HOORAY!), and just had my latest check-up! Baby Thatcher is growing great, and I'm still not gaining any weight. Weird.  My doctor gave me 'carte blanche' to eat whatever I wanted, and told me to 'fatten up' at Thanksgiving :)   I'm dilated to 1 cm, which is no big deal, but they did a FFN test just to make sure everything is okay. I got the results back today, and the FFN was positive. Ugh. That means I'm at a higher risk for delivering prematurely. So I got to go into L&D for a little while and get monitored (everything's great), and get a betamethazone shot -- have to go get another one tomorrow. Those things HURT! That's a steroid they give to 'boost' the baby's lung development, just in case he's delievered early.  Dr. Seale doesn't think I need to be on strict bed rest YET, and told me just to 'limit' my activity -- "if you don't have to be up, don't be up". Not sure exactly what that means, but I'll do my best!  Everyone keeps saying that since I delivered Gray at term, I have a better chance of hanging on til term this time, too.  I gave Thatcher a long lecture about not coming for at LEAST another 4 weeks. Let's hope he complies! 

This year's Christmas card!

With Love Chartreuse Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

The Best Things in Life are FREE!!

INCLUDING CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! Doesn't it just make you happy to get a Christmas card in the mail? I LOVE getting them, and I love choosing which one to send out every year. Shutterfly is a wonderful photo site that I've used before for photo gifts and photo prints. Now that I have my yearly family photos done, I've been looking for the best/cutest Christmas cards to send out to family and friends. I've also been scouring the internet for the best deals on Christmas cards. I think "FREE" tops everything!! Thanks to my awesome friend Jessica's blog, I found this fabulous promotion that Shutterfly is doing! Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

They have some of THE cutest pre-designed cards -- couldn't be easier! I was all set to go with another site, but I was totally settling for an "okay" card design, just because it was cheap. These are SO cute, no one is going to guess I got them free! (Except you who read this blog.....shh, don't tell!) Here are some of my favorite designs:
 

And those are just a FEW of them! I seriously spent an hour looking at all the cards, and I will spend MUCH longer before I decide which design to choose, I'm sure! Too many cute options!!!   Go HERE to browse all their beautiful Holiday cards. And they also have a great idea called 'Story Cards' -- which is a great option if you want to go the "family update letter" route -- check those out HERE
(And I just had to play around and customize a few cards -- just to see what they'd look like! Here's a link to one I'm in LOVE with right now: Wayment Card).  Thank you, Shutterfly!!

More Family Photos!

Here are some more pictures from our family photo shoot. A big THANKS to Kandis again for the awesome pics!!!

30 Weeks!

So far so good!! I'm 30 weeks pregnant now, and feeling great! (Well, compared to the last pregnancy, anyway!)  That's 2 weeks past when I was put on bed rest with Gray, so I'm tentatively hopeful that maybe this time I can stay away from the pre-term labor! At my last doctor's appointment, I was dilated "a fingertip" (which is less than a 1cm), and the doc said not to worry about it. I have some pretty good contractions now and again, and quite a bit of pressure pain, but hey, as long as I'm not dilating, I'm fine with that! I just hope I don't go beyond that "fingertip"! Little Thatcher is growing great, and I'm measuring exactly as I'm supposed to. I'm still not gaining much weight, however -- I've only gained about 3 lbs the whole pregnancy! But again, the doc isn't worried about it, and I'm measuring fine, so I'm okay with that :) I'm actually pretty surprised that I haven't gained like 40 lbs, because all I crave is SWEETS.  Chocolate, donuts, candy, muffins, cookies, cupcakes, chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. Seriously, I have DREAMS about Krispy Kremes. I try to get my sweet fix by eating lots of fruit, but usually end up eating a snack-sized 3 Musketeers afterward. :)  It's so weird, because with Gray, all I wanted was SOUR! Just goes to show how different each and every pregnancy can be! I'm trying to enjoy all I can about this pregnancy before it's over and the little man is here -- because 7-10 weeks is SO SOON!!!!! There are for sure some things I don't love about pregnancy:
1. the HEARTBURN.
2. being unable to sleep a whole night without waking up at least once -- for various reasons
3. I really miss taking super-hot baths, and sleeping on my stomach
4. being unable to see my legs so I nick myself a dozen times while shaving them/being able to see my feet to paint my toes
5. needing help when I try to get up after sitting on the ground
6. the difficulty bending over to pick something up/put my shoes on
7. did I mention the HEARTBURN?!
8. the moodswings -- I HATE that I snap at Grayson sometimes -- I've NEVER lost my temper with him before, and now I seem to do it several times a week -- hate, hate, hate it.
9. the crazy dreams -- seriously disturbing sometimes/ never feeling like I get enough sleep to feel TRULY rested.
10. all the aches and pains -- everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

But there are also some things I LOVE about being pregnant, too!
1. obviously - duh - I get a BABY out of it!!! :oD It's so exciting to know that I'll get to meet this new member of my family soon! I can't wait to get to know him!! And it makes everything above totally worth it!!!!
2. feeling the baby move! It's absolutely incredible -- every time! Even when it hurts a bit, or keeps me up at night. I love every kick, punch, stretch, hiccup, and roll!
3. people are generally a bit nicer to a pregnant woman -- you get random smiles everywhere you go, and people let you go ahead of them in long lines, etc. Pretty sweet.
4. not caring (for once) if I look "fat" -- because I'm SUPPOSED to have a nice big belly!!! Ahh, freedom from body issues!
5. hearing Steve talk to the baby -- makes me get a big goofy grin on my face
6. when Gray pats and kisses my tummy and says "Baby Brudder!"
7. getting a free pass to get people to do things for me -- lifting things, doing labor-intensive jobs, etc.
8. my hair and nails LOVE it when I'm pregnant. And most of the time, my skin does, too.
9. no one judges me when I order dessert after dinner. :)
10. the anticipation is wonderful! Speculating on what he will be like, look like, etc. -- it's just so fun!

Well, here's hoping that I have enough time to do everything I need to do before Thatcher comes -- there's a LOT to do, PLUS the holidays! This pregnancy definitely seems to be going by more quickly than the last, but I'm not going to complain about that! 30 weeks down, only 10 ten to go! Woo hoo!!!

Family photo peek

My amazingly awesome, talented, wonderful BFF Kandis took our family pictures a few weeks ago! I haven't gotten the full CD of all the pictures yet, but she posted some preview pics on her website, KJoPhotos. (OO! And she's doing an end-of-year sale -- an hour photo shoot for just $50!! Super-good deal! You should all go book a session right now!) Go take a look! I love them! :)  I was so worried that we weren't going to have ANY good ones -- it's not exactly easy to get a good picture of a wiggly, excited 2 year old boy that just wants to explore and climb the trees! But she got some GREAT ones! I will post more here when I get them all. :)
P.S. Don't you love that Elly the Elephant has to be in our family pictures, too? She IS part of our family for sure! Hehe

Happy Halloween!

We had a pretty fun, laid-back Halloween. We went to Autoliv's Trunk or Treat on Friday night. There were a TON of people there! It started at 5 pm -- we got there at 4:30 and had to stand in line for an HOUR before we got into the part of the parking lot where they were giving out candy! Gray did surprisingly well waiting -- he had fun watching all the other costumed kids running around. I got a little nervous watching the two brothers full-out wrestling on the grass, though -- I'm not sure I'm ready to have two little boys.... Anyway, Gray quickly got into the Trick or Treat spirit once we got to the cars, and was very nice to say "Thank You" every time he took a piece of candy. He stayed very far away from everyone in masks or anyone who looked scary. I thought he'd have been super excited about the real live fire truck, but he was in the candy zone and only paused by it long enough to get candy from the firemen and thank them -- then he was off to the next car! Here are the only pictures I got of him in his costume:

He is getting so hard to photograph! It's impossible to get a good picture of this kid, I swear! Anyway, he's a little teddy bear, because the lion costume I spent FOREVER making (of course) got rejected because Gray wouldn't keep the hat on (it came all the way down his head with a mane around his face -- he didn't like that, and wouldn't keep it on). Thank goodness I made the hat and tail big enough that (hopefully) he can wear it next year.  So last-minute, I crocheted this bear hat and a little bear tail, stuck some felt on a sweatshirt, and called it good.  It's good for a two-year-old, right?!?! :)

"Nanny Witch!"

On Saturday, we went to my mom's ward's Trunk-Or-Treat, and it was raining. Blah. I gave it a good go, seeing as how Grayson had so much fun the day before, but he was wet and cold, and kept saying "Go bye-bye in car?", so we got 6 pieces of candy, a cookie, and a hot dog before we gave up and left. He didn't seem disappointed at all, and we had a fun night just hanging out at Nana's house! She dressed up as a witch, and he was wary of her at first, but in the end thought she was great (he's still asking for "Nanny Witch!").Gray also decided that every time she gave candy to the trick-or-treaters, HE got to pick out a piece, too. He ended up with quite the candy stash :) At least he told her "Thank You, Nanny!" every time. He even got his own special treat of a pumpkin Pez dispenser -- he loves Pez!



Here he is counting his candy with Nana. What a lucky boy! :)



Of course, the best part of having a two-year-old at Halloween is that you can totally raid their candy stash, and they never know it!!! I've eaten every single piece of chocolate in his bag. Not even gonna lie. He doesn't miss them. :) And I figure his little brother needs some Halloween candy, too!!! Right?! ;)