36 Weeks and Dance Through the Decades

We have reached 36 weeks, YEAH! It is a relief to know that there are only 4 weeks left but at the same time it is a little scary to think that her arrival could be anytime between now and the next 4 weeks. My only hope is that she will wait to make her appearance until after August 7th because Jessica will not be home until then. We are getting very anxious, nervous and excited to meet our sweet baby girl.

Anxious Big Sister and Big Brother

Hannah and her friends went to a Stake Dance on Saturday, it was a decade dance. They could choose to dress in the decade of their choice, Hannah and her friends decided to dress in the decade of the 70's. Below is a picture of a few of Hannah's friends, the others met at the dance, oh to be young again.

Easton, Allie, Hannah and Olivia

35 Weeks

This week marks week 35, it is nice to know that we are getting close to meeting our baby girl. Even though there are days that I feel pretty uncomfortable and the heat in Austin makes it more miserable I am still hopeful that she will wait until her due date of August 23rd. Last week was a very busy week getting the house ready, we had a lot of help from my Mom and Dad who were in town helping with Houston while Hannah was at Girls Camp. We couldn't have done it without them and we really appreciated there help. Keep an eye on our Blog for before and after pictures of the baby's room and our Master Bedroom, two of the rooms that we worked on.

SEE POST BELOW FOR PICTURES OF THE ROOM MAKEOVERS, I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO CHANGE THE ORDER OF THE POSTS

Let the Nesting Begin

Chad and my parents spent last week, and in particular last weekend humoring my need to nest. Huge thank yous to my amazing parents for all of their help in getting our house ready for the arrival of their granddaughter.

The nesting began last Saturday when Chad and Hannah (thank you Hannah Bear) painted the baby's room, we were looking forward to moving furniture in but wanted to wait until the carpets were cleaned. The following Saturday we had the carpets cleaned, a process that started us on a path to a very busy weekend. I mentioned to Chad that it would be nice to paint our bedroom while everything was out of it, he did not hesitate and said OK let's go pick paint. This was followed by me saying "I sure would like a different color furniture in our bedroom", our old furniture is almost 16 years old and was a country green pine. While at Home Depot we also purchased black furniture paint and began our journey to redecorating our bedroom. This is something that we could not have accomplished if my Mom and Dad had not been here encouraging us and helping us move furniture, clean and organize. Despite the exhaustion we felt at the end of the weekend we accomplished a lot and fulfilled my need to feel prepared for our new arrival. I only wish I had before and after pictures of the bedroom, it looks like we bought all new furniture. I am loving the baby's room and can not wait to have it completely finished. Thank you Chad, Dad, Mom & Hannah for all of your hard work and putting up with me.

The baby's room after painting, yes it is very pink


Our Master Bedroom after our last minute decision to paint

The finished room

The baby's room almost finished, we still need to hang pictures & the valance

A closer look at the bedding
There will be a dark brown cover on the changing table pad soon
The chair is light pink and cream stripes does not match exactly but will be comfortable

New Outfit for EFY & 33 Weeks

Hannah's cute outfit for EFY

33 Weeks and counting!!!!

With EFY comes the need for one or two new outfits, in particular something to wear to the dance or the day that the youth are required to wear church clothes. After a day of shopping Hannah and I found the outfit pictured above, I took this picture the day before Hannah left for EFY, not only is her new outfit cute but I really liked the picture so I thought I would post it.

This week marked week 33, I am a little late in posting the picture because Sunday will be week 34, I guess better late than never. So far all is well but if you look back on previous pictures you can see how much my belly has grown week to week. My ankles are still very swollen and about the only thing that helps is staying off my feet all day, like that will happen. I went for my check up on Monday, so far all is well with everything. I have one more two week appointment and then I start going every week until she makes her arrival. I am hopeful that she will hold off until my due date of August 23rd but am not overly confident of that. I had a feeling that she had moved and the Dr. confirmed that on Monday indicating that she is now head down, that seems a little too early to me but who knows. The Dr. said it should be fine as long as she stays there through 36 weeks, at that point it is not likely that she will move again. I will keep you posted....

EFY

Hannah and her friends getting ready to go to EFY

Hannah and Bekah at Registration

Traditional daily surprises for Hannah and her roommate Averi

Hannah and her roommate Averi

Hannah had the pleasure of going to EFY last week, for those of you that are not sure what EFY is it is a week long camp for young men and young women. EFY stands for Especially for Youth and it takes place on the campus of Trinity University in San Antonio. They stay in dorms with a roommate, eat in the Cafeteria go to classes, dances and fun activities. It is an opportunity for the youth to come together, learn about the gospel and have fun and spiritual experiences. Her sister Jessica attended EFY for four years and always had such an amazing experience, this was Hannah's second year and by all accounts she too had an amazing time. She of course met a few boys that she has not told us too much about but we know they exist. We are so grateful that this opportunity is available for the youth, it is something that truly enriches their lives and something we as parents appreciate.

More Than Rain SHOWERS in Utah

From left to right: My sister Sandy, my sister Kris, my Mom, our good friends Lori and her daugther Billie, me, Hannah, my sister in-law Savannah, and my sister in law Marina. Jessica is there also but she is taking the picture.

The beautiful blessing gown

While we were visiting Utah my Mom and my Sister's Sandy and Kris threw me a SURPRISE baby shower. I had no idea they had anything planned, they did a great job of keeping it a secret. Chad and I had planned to go to the Temple while we were in town so on a Friday Chad said how about we go to the Temple tomorrow morning, little did I know he was asked to get me out of the house for quite a few hours so they could prepare for a Saturday afternoon shower. I was very surprised when we returned from the Temple to find my family including my two Sister in laws and good friends Lori and Billie and of course my girls Jessica and Hannah. Unfortunately we took a little longer than we should have at the Temple and we ended up being late, I of course did not know we were late to anything. Everyone was very understanding and patient, they enjoyed eating and visiting with each other while they waited for our arrival. Everyone was very generous, I received several darling outfits for the baby, burp cloths, blankets and two darling picture frames for her room that are of course pink and brown. My mom surprised me with a beautiful blessing gown that she asked her sister Gayle to make, it is the most beautiful gown I have ever seen, she even made a matching hat and booties. The day could not have been more perfect, we started the day at the Temple followed by a wonderful celebration for our sweet baby girl. I can not wait to see her in all of her darling outfits. Thank you Mom, Sandy and Kris for such a memorable day.

32 Weeks

This week marks week 32, yeah!! That means we have 8 more weeks to go before we can finally meet our baby girl, we are very excited for that day to come. I could do without the 100 plus temperatures in Austin, the heat makes it very uncomfortable and as you can see in the picture I have a lot of swelling in my legs and ankles. My feet are always swollen and fat and my toes look like baby sausages, it is getting increasingly difficult to find a comfortable position to sleep, so my nights are spent tossing and turning. Other than those minor complaints I am doing well and am willing to endure for another 8 weeks to deliver a healthy baby girl. Keep an eye on our Blog for more pictures from our trip to Utah including a surprise baby shower my Mom and Sister's threw me while we were in town. Now that we have returned from vacation we hope to make progress on the baby's room and post pictures as well.

New Do's

While we were in Utah Hannah and Jessica had their hair cut, Hannah's is somewhat similar to her last hair cut but this is actually only phase one, she decided when she got home to go a little shorter. I will post a picture of her even shorter haircut a bit later, but for now I thought you might want to see their cute new do's. Jessica had some highlights done as well, I love her with more blonde, Hannah wanted to color her hair darker but I love her natural highlights and said NO! I know I am a party pooper, I am biased but I think they look amazing.

My Little Fisherman

Houston had the chance to go fishing with his Dad and Grandpa while we were in Utah, unfortunately they did not catch any fish but they had fun spending the day together. While the boys went fishing the girls went shopping, I know what a surprise. We had a wonderful time together taking our Mom shopping for her belated Mother's Day gifts.

How Long Does It Take to Get to Utah??

Houston taking a nap in between trips back and forth to the airport, how sweet.

One of a few scrabble games while at the airport, thank goodness for that.

How I felt about being at the airport for the 3rd day in a row "DONE"

What could be better than Amy's Ice Cream after a long day?

We had the opportunity to visit Utah the past two weeks, given the fact that I am VERY pregnant and experience a lot of swelling in my feet if I sit for or walk for long periods of time we decided to fly rather than drive. So how long does it take to get to Utah? Well the answer is it takes around 23 hours to drive and 2 1/2 hours to fly, unless of course you are flying standby in which case it takes 4 days. Allow me to explain, my dad retired from Delta and he still has flight benefits that also benefit us, the kids can travel on buddy passes which is a lot cheaper than buying full price tickets. We wanted to leave on Saturday but Chad had meetings on Monday so we decided that the kids and I would fly standby on Saturday and we purchased Chad a ticket on Frontier to leave Monday night. There are two direct flights a day to Utah the first at 6:23am and the second at 2:10pm, lets just say that the kids and I had several early mornings. On Saturday we were bumped from both flights, on Sunday there were two seats available so I decided to send Jessica and Houston. At the last minute a paying passenger ran up to the gate and Houston lost his seat, Jessica went on to Utah without us. We returned to the airport on Monday, with only one seat left I could only send Hannah as I needed to stay with Houston. Chad had meetings which meant that Houston and I had to spend the entire day at the airport. The pictures above chronicle some of our very long day, thank goodness there is food, and tables and chairs and we had a travel scrabble game. Chad came to the airport to catch his flight at which point he gave me the car and Houston and I headed home with a plan to return to the airport on Tuesday to try again. As of Monday night everyone was in Utah except Houston and I, while it was disappointing Houston was a trooper and did not complain too much. We enjoyed our time together and had fun.

We returned to the airport bright and early on Tuesday morning, HURRAY we finally made it on the morning flight and even had seats in first class. Normally I would say that's not a big deal but after spending 4 days at the airport I was very happy to be in the comforts of first class, have additional leg room, bigger seats and most importantly FOOD! Houston was very excited to finally be going to Utah, to be reunited with our family and to see his Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. All went smoothly with our trip up until the last 40 minutes of our flight. I started to feel very nauseous, followed by hot, heart racing, ringing in the ears and knew I was about to pass out. I told Houston that I may pass out and then realized he may not know what to do. I pushed the stewardess call button and told the stewardess what was about to happen, with slurred words I felt myself pass out. It only lasted for a matter of seconds but felt like several minutes, I came too and asked the stewardess if he could get me a cold cloth for my neck. I put the cloth on my neck, took deep breaths and with Houston holding my hand to make sure I was OK began to feel better. One of the passengers sitting in front of me asked a few times if I was OK and even asked if I wanted a blessing. It was very sweet of him to see my need and be willing to offer his help, I found myself feeling a great deal of gratitude for the blessings of the Priesthood. Gratefully I began to feel much better, they asked if there was a Doctor or Nurse on board and unfortunately there was not. The stewardess asked if I needed medical personnel to meet the flight, I told them I was fine and it was not necessary. Before the plane landed the stewardess informed me that the Pilot knew I was expecting and would require me to meet Paramedics when we landed. This situation went from being very scary to being somewhat embarrassing, when we landed they asked all the passengers to stay seated so that paramedics could assist a passenger that is not feeling well. Fortunately they got on the plane quickly, assessed the situation and allowed me to walk to the end of the Jetway and off to the side to be evaluated. They monitored my vital signs and made sure I was OK. Everything checked out, my blood pressure was a little elevated but other than that I was fine. After feeling confident that I was out of danger, and following some instructions to go to the hospital if this occurred again or if I started to have contractions I was allowed to go. This was quite an ordeal and something I hope I never have to go through again, needless to say despite the number of days it took to get there I was very grateful to arrive in Utah and be with my family again.