Dear Baby Bump

I'm finally starting to really show that I am pregnant. Like to the point that people I don't know well feel comfortable asking me about my baby - because it is obvious that I am pregnant. It's a really interesting stage to be in. I'll be honest... I thought that I would be to this point much sooner than the six months that it has taken me. Don't get me wrong... I am not complaining! I am so grateful that this pregnancy has progressed the way that it has, because as long as my baby girl is still growing strong - I will take small and less un-comfortable any day. But as I was taking this week's photo - I thought that it might be fun to show a progression of my "baby bump" up to this point. I saw a friend do this when she was pregnant and fell in love with the idea - so every week we take a picture and then write a little letter to our baby. I haven't posted them all (because i'm sure that you don't want to read all 25 weeks worth of letters/pictures) - but I posted a few so you could see the fun progression.

One of my friends asked me if I was worried about committing to doing something like this for Baby #1 - because then I would have to do something similar for Baby #2 & #3 etc... But, I'm not really worried about it right now. I've loved having this little bonding experience with David and with my baby girl every week and cant wait to compile all of these little letters into a book for her. I'm sure that we will come up with something special for our other children... but this has been perfect for us now. Isn't it fun to see my "baby bump" grow? (Even though the last two look like they should be switched - they really aren't out of order. My clothes just make me look different.)

Have you seen any fun baby progression photos for either pregnancy or baby's first year? Do you have strong opinions on the subject? I'd love to hear them.  I've loved this and would definitely recommend it!

Todays Thought: On Life

I am on my lunch break right now. Eating my Ocean Spray fruit snacks (hands down my favorite kind) and thinking about life. I was reading through some of my favorite blogs - and for some reason I was incredibly touched by this blog post over at Young House Love.

The post addresses the issue of dealing with criticism that you receive through blog comments - but I think that it is such good advice and really applies to all areas of life. The four tips that they gave for dealing with this are:

• It’s your blog.
• Be who you are. That is enough.
• Try to give the good feedback as much weight as the bad.
• Do all things with love.

Oh my heck, I loved it! It's your life. Be who you are, that is enough. Give the good feedback as much weight as the bad. Do all things with love.  What inspirational words. I encourage you to go over and read what they have to say. All I know is that today I am grateful for David. For my life. For my baby. For everything. Sometimes I really let criticisms get to me - but this is such a good reminder to just shake it off.

People can be insensitive. Love them anyway. Be who you are - because that is enough.

That's my thought for the day. Now i'm going to get back to grading assignments so I can leave work early and go out to dinner with my love. It's almost the weekend! Hallelujah. Happy Friday everyone.

Tagged.

I have this awesome friend Kellie - and she did this fun fact thing a while ago and tagged me to do it as well. I saw that she had tagged me, felt special that she had thought of me, and then immediately dismissed the idea of actually doing it. (I know, I'm kind of a loser.) But then she Facebooked me to remind me that she had tagged me, and so here I am. I just love her and can't refuse a point blank reminder to do it. (Seriously, this one is for you Kell. )

Rules:
1 - you must post the rules.
2 - post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3 - answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
4 - tag eleven people and link them on your post
5 - let them know you've tagged them!


Fun Facts:
1. I seriously almost didn't graduate from college because of a 30 hour Preschool Internship I was supposed to complete. I knew about the stinking thing from Day 1 and put it off for 4 years - finally completing it over spring break during my student teaching - just weeks before graduation. It was awful- but now I'm teaching the information and can grudgingly say that I'm grateful for the experience.

2. I was blond all through my childhood. As soon as I hit 7th grade I started highlighting my hair and it wasn't until I went to college that I realized that I was actually a brunette. I had my stylist dye my hair back to its natural color and was shocked. However, I love it brown and probably won't ever go back.

3. David and I own our own business, Red Ladder Design, and we love it. My favorite part is going to Bridal Fairs with David and working together to "sell" our product.

4. I hate it when you are taking a picture with a group and there is more than one camera at a time. It stresses me out unless the picture taking people are very clear: "Everyone look at this camera. *click* Okay, now everyone look at that camera. *click*"

5. I like to soak my feet in the bathtub after I get home from work. I will grab a book (or our iPad), turn on the water and sit on the edge of the tub while the warm water runs over my toes. It relaxes me after a long day.

6. I am pretty long-winded. If you look at Kellie's "Fun Facts." You will see that she is very concise and to the point. I don't have any fun facts like that - or at least, I don't have the ability to express them like that. Pretty much I just like to talk. Or write, as the case may be. (I'll try to be less wordy.)

7. I love old school TV shows like Remington Steele, Quincy, Murder She Wrote, The New Adventures of Superman, Star Trek, etc...

8. I don't watch PG-13 movies. (And haven't for almost 8 years now.)

9. I like people to like me. I feel like I am a fairly likeable person, in general, and it really gets to me if someone doesn't like me. I've learned that you can't win them all - and I definitely don't try to change myself for other people... but it still gets to me sometimes.

10. I enjoy speaking in front of large groups of people. Church talks, teaching Sunday School, teaching school-school, lecturing at conferences - it's a thrill. (But don't ask me to confront someone one-on-one! That scares me to death.)

11. I love to read. Like, LOVE to read. But I've been in a bit of a book-bind lately. I can't find anything that I love. (I did just finish Seeking Persephone which was cute, and I just started The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson which I am really excited for. However, I would LOVE any suggestions you might have. Please send any good book recommendations my way!)

Kellie's Questions:1. Who is your favorite Kardashin? Ummm... I don't even know who the Kardashins are. Except, didn't one of them get married for like 30 hours or something. After spending like 2 million dollars on the wedding? Yeah... that one is not  my favorite.
2. Twitter or facebook? Facebook. Definitely.
3. Favorite place to eat out? Right now - probably Costa Vida or Zupas. Or Chilis.
4. What did you do today? Taught Interior Design 2, Early Childhood, Financial Literacy, and Child Care 2. And ate Beef Stroganoff for lunch. Yum!
5. What is the last movie you saw in theater? Did you like it? I don't watch movies in the theater very often. (Goes along with the whole no PG-13 thing.) I think it was... Rio? And yes, I enjoyed it. Although- I didn't LOVE it. 
6. You just had a baby! What did you name your baby girl? Wow, this one hits a little close to home. For these purposes, I would probably name her Oaklyn or Adaley or Payson. But I don't know if I would ACTUALLY name her those things in real life.
7. Who was the last person you called on the phone? I set up a consultation for Red Ladder Design.
8. Where do you want to live when you grow up? Draper. Its classy, and close to family and Davids job.
9. What is your favorite piece of clothing? why? Today it's my Belly Band. My pants won't button anymore and I'm too cheap to buy maternity pants until I absolutely have to.
10. How many children do you want to have? 5 (ish)
11. One place you want to go before you die? I want to go on an Architectural Tour. I don't mind if it is around America or Europe - but I do love me some good ole architecture. (That sounds nerdy, but hey ... I'm pretty nerdy.

This was actually pretty fun - however, I'm going to be a loser and not tag anyone. I would LOVE if you would do it.

p.s. I just discovered Nutella. Please someone tell me that it's good for me, because I just might be in love!

My Baby Girl

Yesterday I had my 24 week appointment with my doctor (whom I absolutely LOVE). I can't believe that there are only 16 weeks left until we get to meet our little sweetheart. 16 weeks is like ... nothing. I really believe that the time is going to fly by! I'm getting a little nervous about being ready for her when she gets here. My school is so crazy right now - and will probably just continue to be crazy for the rest of the year. Plus I only have a couple of weeks left in the second trimester and although I haven't gained much weight or gotten too uncomfortable yet - I anticipate that it will hit full force pretty soon. We haven't done much but talk about getting baby stuff. However, the things that we have already gotten make me SO excited! Our girl is going to be here before we know it.

I've been feeling really good lately - a little tired, but really good. It's so fun to feel her move so much during the day (and at night) - it really reassures me that she is healthy and strong. I want David to feel her move, too - so I am constantly putting his hand on my stomach when she starts wiggling. He hasn't really felt her yet, but the other night he would lean over and talk to her and she would start moving around as he talked. When he stopped talking, she would stop moving. I don't know if it was just the loud noise so close to her, or if she can already tell that it's her daddy's voice, but I like to think that she is already as in love with her papa as I am.

This pregnancy has been really interesting for me. I haven't told many people about this before, but I had a miscarriage earlier this year and it was really hard on both David and I.  Also, I was SO sick for SUCH a long time. We found out that we were going to miscarry around 9 weeks - but didn't actually miscarry until around 12-13 weeks. I was sick for pretty much three straight months. Anyway- I compare a lot of this pregnancy to that pregnancy. I haven't been nearly as sick (thank goodness!) and as soon as I hit the second trimester the sickness pretty much stopped altogether. It was wonderful! After being sick for so long before - it was like "Am I really pregnant still? I feel so good!" I also had a hard time at first being really excited. Of course I was excited to be pregnant and to have a baby - but it wasn't the same as the first time. We were SO SO excited we could hardly contain it. I had a harder time letting myself get attached because my heart had broken the first time around. It wasn't until I heard my sweet baby girls heartbeat for the first time that I really felt myself open up to her. (I also got to see her little picture on the ultrasound - and I cried basically through the whole thing. It was so amazing.)  I already love her so much - sometimes I even surprise myself with how much I love her. I mean, she isn't even here yet - how can you love someone so much that you've never even seen. I sure don't know. All I know is that she is one of the most important things in the whole world to me.

I constantly giggle at how predictable she is. If I eat food or drink water, she starts wiggling around like crazy. This girl already loves her food! She is also totally predictable, in that she follows all of the things that BabyCenter/Old Wives Tales say to look for in a girl-pregnancy... specifically that she loves sweets. Smarties, lifesavers, chocolate... oh my goodness chocolate, pretty much you name it and if it's loaded with sugar ... I want it! I've never appreciated sweets, specifically chocolate, as much as I have learned to in the past couple of months. The other day, after a particularly earnest request for something full of chocolate and sugar, David responded "Who ARE you?"  Its amazing how someone who loves salty things can transition so much into craving those sweets. I just always say "Baby girl needs _______." And she gets it.

I don't really know where I was going with this. I guess I just haven't blogged much about my sweet baby girl, even though she is pretty much all I think about! I've been really appreciating how good she is to me - she's put up with a lot of stress and mistreatment from me(no food for long stretches of time sometimes) and she responds by being a REALLY easy pregnancy and just kicking around to let me know that she is there. I'm so grateful!

A New Year and some thoughts.

I have been such a loser at blogging lately. I don't know why. I have loads of things to blog about. In fact,  the plethora of items I want to blog about is probably a large contributing factor to my mental block. I will do a Christmas Break post soon - not because it's super interesting (although we did have an AWESOME break), but because we took lots of fun pictures and I want to get them on here. Someday I am going to print this blog into a book, and so I definitely want to have them here. (Update: I did this post, but postdated it so that it was actually posted in time to fit into last year's book.)

Today, I don't feel like being structured so who knows what this post will end up being about. Its the end of the term at school and things are fairly chaotic and I am battling conflicting emotions of excitement that the school year is halfway over, sadness at loosing my students, fear at what next semester will bring, anger that I have to switch my classes, stress of trying to get final grades completed, and super excitement about my little baby. It's a lot of emotions to take in all at one time. No wonder I am exhausted every day when I get home from school. I pretty much come home, make dinner, try to time it so it is ready when David gets home, then fall asleep on the couch as soon as we finish eating. My sweet husband then puts dinner away and studies for the CPA exam until it's time to go to bed. I don't like falling asleep so early, but I am seriously so exhausted that my body shuts down. They say that the third trimester just gets more exhausting. I hope that I can survive with my new classes and everything.

I haven't made a big list of New Years Resolutions, because I think that sometimes I try too hard to change too many things. However, yesterday I had some time to sit and think about the few things that I really wanted to focus on this year. This is what I decided on:

1- Deliver a healthy baby. (This may seem silly, but it's a lot of work and a big deal so I decided to include it in my list.)
2- Continue to develop an attitude of Charity. Make sure this shows through my actions to the people around me. (i.e. give the benefit of the doubt, don't complain, don't judge, perform acts of service.)
3- Do my visiting teaching every month. No excuses!
4- Be more involved with Finances/ Budgeting.

I tried to pick one thing from each area of my life. One attitude thing, one action thing, one real life thing. I don't know if that makes sense. But I had so many things that I want to improve I had to just pick one from each area.

As I think about my life lately, i've been overwhelmed with how blessed I am. The tender mercies of the Lord have touched me and taught me. Sometimes it gets easy to complain about the $1,000+ car repairs that we had to do on both of our cars, or the change in my school schedule, or the fridge door that breaks on the morning that I am really late to school. But then I think about how blessed I am to have a good job, to have a loving husband who was able to travel across the world and back without so much as a scratch on him and I think - How lucky am I? I had experienced a terrible, stressful, exhausting day at work last week and I was on the verge of tears all day. On my way home I heard on the radio about a group of policemen that had been shot at earlier that day. One of them had been killed and several others were in critical condition. They had a sound byte of one of the wives who was talking about her husband and about the situation and I just started crying. What would that woman give to come home to her husband and be able to complain about her crappy day at work? The rest of the night, I enjoyed every second that I got to spend with David. I loved every burnt noodle, and every stressful item on my to-do list. There was nothing that I would have changed about my day. Because this is how I feel... we are all going to have hard times. We are all going to experience things that we don't want to experience. But, the way that we treat those hard times- that is what really matters. I'm realizing more and more what the phrase "Come what may, and love it" means. At some points it may just mean "Come what may, and love that it isn't something worse". But things are going to come no matter what.

In other news, this weekend we celebrated the birthday of my dear friend, Tausha. It was awesome to get to see her and hang out with some of my favorite people in the whole world. It was even more awesome because all four of us will have a baby within 8 months of each other. Tausha just had her baby at the beginning of January, then May, June, and July/August - Kayla, Bekah, and I will deliver our babies. I am beyond thrilled. The only thing that could make it better is if I could convince Kayla and Tausha to stay in Utah so our babies could actually grow up together.

Well, thats about it for today. Happy Monday everyone!