36 +4

Today I am 36 weeks and 4 days pregnant, only 24 days left until my due date! Here is a little update for the week. Yesterday we had our 36 week doctors appointment, which will mean I will start seeing the doctor every week until I deliver. This was the first visit where my doctor checked me for progress. I'm not dilated yet, but I am 50 % effaced, which is some good progress. We also had an ultrasound to check the growth of the baby. Our little guy is measuring right on down to the exact day. From the ultrasound, they told us he weighs around 6 lbs 11 oz right now. If I go until or past my due date, it is looking like he will be around 8-8.5 pounds. I am hoping he doesn't get too much bigger than that. I need to finish getting the nursery organized this week, he could come at any time now! On Saturday he will be full term, so from here on out it is the waiting game. Last night I had a TON of pressure/cramps/contractions, I had to lay down and they made me stop what I was doing, but once I fell asleep they went away. I am excited to see when our little guy will make his big debut. I am hoping for either the week before or after finals, but not during the week of finals! I hope he also comes before Christmas, we are keeping our fingers crossed, but not getting our hopes up too much. I am so excited and ready to met our little guy. I am also ready to get my pre- pregnancy back! I didn't know my belly could get this big.

Confession

I have a confession to make. I never thought that I would have one of these:

and I never thought I would like it. Confession: I kind of love it and kind of can't put it down. I might be converted. ( I bet my family is making fun of me as they read this)

Alpine Baby Shower

This last weekend one of my good friends, Darcy, hosted a baby shower for me at her house. This baby shower consisted of a few of my closest friends growing up, and it was so fun to be able to see everyone again and to catch up. We played fun games, opened presents, ate food, and got to visit with one another. Darcy did a great job and everyone had a lot of fun. We are so grateful for the support that everyone has shown during our pregnancy! Thanks everyone!

PS. The hands on belly picture is a JOKE in case  you were wondering haha. We thought it would be funny, but in no way were we serious!

Kirstin, Mary, Bethany, and Darcy playing a game

Sara and I with the cute outfits she gave me

Kirstin & Lauren

Mary, Bethany, Darcy, Me, Sara, Lauren, Kirstin

HAHA

The cute decorations Darcy had up

Danielle, Darcy, Mary, and Bethany

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family, my Grandma, my uncle Jason, and the Vanfleet family. Jayden and I headed down to Alpine Wednesday night to spend the night at my family's house. On Thanksgiving morning, we watched the parade and relaxed. In our family, it is a tradition to see a movie every Thanksgiving. All 14 of us went to see the new Muppet Movie, which was surprisingly better than we thought it would be. It was fun to see my little cousins reaction to the movie, and we had a lot of fun. After the movie, everyone gathered back at the house to eat food and play games. The food was delicious, of course, but this year was a little harder to eat my Thanksgiving meal. Since Baby Garfield is getting so big, my actual stomach is so squished that I get full a lot faster, which made me feel very uncomfortable after eating a whole Thanksgiving meal. Thanksgiving was a success and were so grateful to spend it with family! ( I wasn't that great at taking pictures this year, but this is what I have)

Thanksgiving Table

hanging out watching tv

My beautiful table that my Mom decorated

Lots of food!

Drew and cousins dishing up

We are cheesy!

yummm

I'm Thankful For Today

Since this week is Thanksgiving, I thought I would share this reminder.

A quote that I really like goes something like this...

"Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day"

I have to remind myself of this constantly. I think sometimes we let the little things in life get us down. Everyone has their good and bad days and we are allowed to have bad days. But on the bad days, try to remember the good in the day, it makes your day seem so much better. I am grateful for all of the many blessings that Jayden and I have in our life. Everyday that we are here on earth is such a blessing. The world is an amazing place and if you take a second to step back and look at the big picture, your bad day doesn't seem so bad after all.

Lesson Learned

Last night I learned a very valuable lesson. DO NOT take a 9x13 dish out of the oven and put it directly on a hot stove top. This is what happens...

Gingersnaps

This weekend I was craving gingersnaps so I found a new recipe and baked a batch. Gingersnaps are a perfect fall/winter cookie, and have a lot less fat then other types of cookies. Here is a good recipe that I found.

from http://www.sugarandspiceandallthingsiced.com

Soft and Chewy Gingersnaps
Sugar & Spice & All Things Iced

2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (may use shortening or margarine)
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4-5 cups flour*
4 teaspoons baking soda
1-2 teaspoons ginger*
1-2 teaspoons cloves*
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
granulated sugar (to roll the cookies in prior to baking)

Cream together brown sugar and butter. Then add eggs and molasses; beat well. Combine dry ingredients and mix together. Chill dough. Then form into 1″ balls and roll in sugar. Bake at 350°F for 12-15 min. Do not over bake, the cookies will harden as they cool. Makes 5-8 dozen. (I used a 1 1/2 inch cookie scoop and made about 5 dozen cookies)

Baby Shower Weekend

This weekend my home ward in Alpine and my Mom threw me a baby shower. Everything about it was so much fun and my mom and her friends went to so much hard work to make it happen. We feel so blessed and loved by the people that have supported us during our pregnancy. Here are some pictures from the baby shower. My home ward was so generous and gave us so many diapers that I don't think we will have to buy a single diaper for this baby. We have thousands! We got so many fun presents too. It was fun to see women that I haven't seen for a long time!

Lauren & I

 My Grandma and my two aunts

Baby The Price is Right Game

A cute diaper bike! So creative

Cute table that my mom decorated

A cute picture of Kirstin and I when we were little that Susie gave me

Susie is my second mom, love her and the McCabes! Susie was so nice to have the shower at her house

My Grandma and I with the high chair she got us

Family picture. My Mom, Me, Grandma, Aunt Lisa, and Aunt Chris

Rose

This beauty has been in our apartment for over a week and doesn't even look close to dying. One of the prettiest roses I have seen!

A Bowling Story

If any of you have ever seen me bowl, you know how terrible I am at bowling! I usually always get a gutter ball almost every single frame, leaving me with a average score of 30-40. Well, my luck has changed. Last night, Jayden and I attended a bowling party at a country club for his Lab that he works in for the U. It was a lot of fun! I was determined to bowl, despite being pregnant and my huge belly. I thought that it would be hard and throw me off, but quite the opposite actually. We started bowling, and I had pretty low expectations for myself. The first frame I got a strike, I thought it was pure luck...second frame...another strike! The spares and strikes kept on coming the whole game. I somehow ended with a score of 145!!! This is a big deal for me because I have never broken 100 without bumpers haha. I'm not expecting my luck to stay this way though, because the next game we played I didn't do as well.

34 + 4

Today I am 34 weeks and 4 days pregnant. We are almost down to a month! This next month I hope will fly by, there is so much going on. This week we had our 34 week doctors appointment and everything looks great! The doctor confirmed that baby boy is head down and has dropped quite a bit. Our little guy has learned a new trick this week ( it is pretty cute to watch) he sticks his little bum out so far that it makes a weird looking lump on my stomach, it is pretty freaking looking! I can definitely tell that he is running out of room and I don't think that he likes that sometimes. I have been feeling pretty good this week pregnancy wise. Jayden and I are both sick this week, we have bad colds and sore throats, but we could be worse. It has been so much fun getting the baby's nursery ready. It has been a blast having baby showers and being able to sort out all of his presents. We are slowly but surely getting everything ready and into place, it won't be long until he gets here! This week I am looking forward to packing the hospital bag and finding a pediatrician, just in case he comes early, I want to have everything ready. I am so ready to meet this little guy!

Sorry for the mirror picture, but I couldn't find my tripod!

Laundry

Today I did two loads of laundry

which included

baby blankets

baby clothes

baby socks

and baby towels

I have never loved doing laundry so much

Pretty soon our little guy will be wearing all of these cute baby clothes and baby blankets...eek!

Maternity Photos

Jayden and I decided it would be fun to have a maternity photo shoot with a local photographer. Here
are some of the photos..

photos from chelsieclarkphotography.com