When it rains...

It pours! And in a good way:) When we have friends in town, we usually have 3 or 4 different friends in town during the SAME week! It's been a fun, friend-filled week for sure! First, my besties Sarah, Haylie, and Mo came to visit and crash with us Wed-Sun as they ventured out to see all the sites here in San Francisco. I unfortunately couldn't join them for very much because walking is out of the picture at this point. But Ben and I were able to go to Wicked with them, and I LOVED it. I want to see it again!

We went to dinner before the show at a ghetto diner with an awful waiter (Kev) and I snapped this priceless shot of the gals while there.... not sure that they were ready for it:

And Ben and me trying to mimic Mo's face:

Oh my gosh Ben's face makes me wet my pants.

We went swimming lots and had plenty of laughs (= lots of contractions for me), but I was sad to see them leave. Love you guys!

Also in town was Kelly and Greg for their 5th anniversary. We met up with them Saturday for the Giants vs. Red Sox game which was super fun!



Congrats to Kelly who is having a girl (kid #3) in 3 months! And last but not least, we finally met little Henry Jones, born 7 weeks ago, because Erin and Clark (one of Ben's mission comps in Mozambique) were in town visiting their families:


Super cute little boy! We can't wait to have one of those (babies that is). And coming she is--3 weeks to go!! I'm officially FULL-TERM and she could come any day now. Totally crazy. Today I've made a last (hopefully) checklist of things to get and things to do before she comes and have started a list of things to pack in the old hospital bag. Sooo can't believe this is happening. I'm 37 weeks, but here's last weeks stuff:

What I know now at 36 weeks

1. I feel as big as a Buick. Luckily, people keep telling me I'm small. Let's hope they're being honest and not just feeling pity for me. 
2. My face is starting to really fill out. It bugs me.
3. Also bugging is my itchy skin. Back of my legs and thighs. 
4. I like using my tummy as a table for my cereal bowls and plates (and then watching it move and spasm out cause she doesn't like it there).
5. I'm not losing any of my hair in the shower. Not even one strand sometimes, it's so weird. 
6. Shoes--I no longer have any that fit. The only, and I mean ONLY thing I've been wearing for the last month is crocs. I went through 5 pairs of shoes on Sunday and realized none of them fit me anymore (and not from swelling, they've actually grown a size). My feet better go back to their normal size or someone is going to be a wittle bit angry.
7. I love Ben because he paints my toenails for me and actually enjoys it.
8. I've accidentally slapped my stomach a couple of times and it scares her. It's cute, she flinches big time. I kind of feel bad, but I like it because she's an actual human in there.
9. We got this at-home heartbeat monitor from our friends to use and it was so fun to listen to her heartbeat and her moving around.
10. It's very painful to turn from side to side at night.
11. I don't have to get up at ALL in the night to pee. Yay me! 
12. Fatigue has set in again.
13. Walking has become harder and harder. I can't walk more than 5 minutes or I feel like I'm going to break into a million pieces and die.
14. People are so nice to me! I love the attention, seats on public transport, smiles and questions.
15. I was craving Blueberry bagels with strawberry cream cheese and when I got home with it... I had accidentally grabbed SALMON cream cheese. Seriously?
16. I should really look into getting a maternity belt. I probably should have a while ago.
17. Her head has been settling into the pelvic area. I get these shooting pains down there for a few seconds at a time, or painful throbbing. I'm told it can be her head hitting into the bones too. Means we're getting closer!
18. I think I'm most nervous for the whole breastfeeding part. Yep. For sure. 
19. The next time I write one of these... she'll hopefully be here!! How crazy is that. 

Big Belly

Take a look at these pics people!! My good buddy Kelley Howe, a fellow photographer, took these shots for us! Check her out HERE. She's amazing and we had so much fun. We LOVE them all and are so happy we got them.

Funny story: We asked this random lady if we could use her yard for a second for these pictures by her clothes line, she said of course but had to put her 2 HUGE (never seen bigger) dogs away before we could go back there. As we were about to leave, I guess her son came home and wondered why the dogs were tied up and so he let them go. All of a sudden, the 2 giant LION-sized dogs came belting around the corner straight at us. The lady screamed, "OH NO!!" and Kelley and I ran for the fence. Luckily, the lady caught her brown dog (coming for us) in time but the white one went for Ben. All I remember is looking over at Ben and seeing him FLYING through the air over a fence and landing on his back. He got up and we laughed all the way to the car, wondering why the heck Ben got so scared and jumped over the fence like that. Little did we know that the huge white dog had gotten a big bite of his butt!! Which caused him to fling himself over the fence without thought to how he'd land. He had a hole in his shirt and pants and a big bruise later that day (luckily didn't pierce the skin). It was so funny. But the picture is worth it:)

33 weeks pregnant {7 months}




















Look at the cute baby chick!








Cute huh? We get to meet our little lady in 4 weeks!! We love her so much and can't wait.
{Click to enlarge}
Happy Father's Day yesterday! I love my dad, he's amazing. I love you Tom for raising Ben to be who he is. Love you Kraig for all you've done for the family. Love all my grandpas! And I love Ben with all my heart and am so excited for him to be a daddy!

For you Moms

My good buddy Janelle has been working on a new Toddler Activity Blog for a while now, and it's FABULOUS! All you moms out there who want some great ideas on how to spend some quality time with your toddlers each day (so you then don't have to feel guilty about putting them in front of the TV or computer for some YOU time), follow this blog!! She is an amazing author and has some great activities, stories, ideas, and my favorite: her "hypoglycemic rages."

Click the picture:

{And be sure to check out her "About Me" to hear her inspiration for the cute title: "Where are my Mary Jane's?"}

Gettin' Ready

{Click pictures to enlarge)

We realized this last weekend that we only have 4 more weekends together alone before the baby comes. Kinda puts it all in perspective! Wow. So we've been trying to take advantage of all our time together. Last weekend, we drove up to Mount Diablo, we'd heard it was cool, and after a very long, windy drive (that made me car sick), we made it to the top of the mountain and looked out over all of the East Bay. It was really pretty.

Wednesday, we went to the Oakland A's game (against the LA Angels) with a bunch of our friends from the ward. It was super fun (and windy) and you can't beat $1 hot dogs!


Oh I love to swim. It's so nice to get all that weight off and truly feel like a whale. We love our pool and laying out and I love floating around on our little floaty.... too bad I popped it the other day.


My job ended last week (hooray) so I've also been getting everything ready and organized for Baby G's arrival. We're not doing too much decorating since we don't know how long we'll be here, but doing the basics is fun and makes us excited for her to get here. We got our car seat this weekend which made it all even more real.



Signed up for our hospital tour, our Childbirth Prep class, and now I see the doc every 2 weeks. She gave me the little count-kicker chart and told me I should count 10 kicks within an hour... but I threw that away. I have no need of counting her kicks, believe me. If I did, I'd be in the hundreds within 30 minutes. Ok not really, but seriously--our little one could use some Riddlin.

We are so excited! 5 more weeks to go!

I forgot...

I forgot last week to make this post, so here it is:

What I know now at 32 weeks:

1. I'm 7 months pregnant! It is still so surreal sometimes.
2. "Only 8 weeks left!" is starting to hit me. Just kind of though. People ask if I'm scared of labor and I haven't really thought about it yet. Maybe I should??
   
3. Ben will paint my toenails for me. How cute is he?
4. I feel very blessed. This has been a smooth-sailing pregnancy so far, and the baby is healthy.
5. She gets the hiccups 3-4 times daily. And they are BIG hiccups. When I had Jon (my brother-in-law) feel them for the first time, he jumped and said, "NO way! That's YOU not the baby!" Nope, that's all baby:)
6. According to my "What to Expect" app, she weighs almost 4.5 pounds and is about 20 inches long.
   
7. It's now June and I can say "I give birth next month" .... NEXT MONTH!!!!
8. I really want her to be born on her due date July 21st and here's why (I'm sure this was concocted whilst trying to sleep) - I was born on the 7th and Ben on the 3rd: 7 x 3 = 21. I was born in the 5th month and Ben in the 2nd: 5 + 2 = 7 (7th month = July). Also, everyone in my family (except Anna) was born on a multiple of 7 (7th, 14th, 28th) So July 21st is SO COOL!
9. I guess I really wouldn't mind if she decided to come just 2 weeks early though. Maybe she could come on the 14th and it'd still be pretty cool.
10. Heartburn isn't too bad, I'm not really too uncomfortable, no major back pain, eating habits are pretty normal, not that tired, and no stretch marks on my belly. I count myself lucky.
    
11. My wedding ring doesn't fit anymore :( My toes swell a little bit too (not ankles yet luckily).
12. I wear crocks or my feet die. I had bright pink ones, but went out and got black ones and white ones so I can wear them everyday.
    
13. I've gained 30 pounds. 6 weeks left = hopefully only 6 more pounds. We'll see.
    
14. I've been needing to pop my lower back for months now. Really wish I could twist the way I need to to do it. Really looking forward to popping it.
15. I have been getting mild contractions for about the last 3 weeks. I get one every 2 hours or so. Everything goes hard, tight, and I need to pee until it goes away in about 30 seconds.
16. I can't wait for my 3-10pm job to be done NEXT WEEK! Then I'll have plenty of time to get ready for baby.
    
17. I only have 2 more of these posts and she's here!
    

The diff:

What she looks like (according to BabyCenter.com):

See:
"What I Know Now at Week 28"
"What I Know Now at Week 24"
"What I Know Now at Week 20"
"What I Know Now at Week 16"

Until 36 weeks...