Be Still My Soul

Today we slept in, ate cereal in bed, then Michael vacuumed the main room while I took a long, hot shower. I tried on a few dresses trying to decide which I was most comfortable in. We slowly got ready for church. Then we ate some yogurt and fruit out on the patio. After that, we left early for church so that we could get soft seats. Enjoyed a good day at church. When we came home, we had a nice picnic lunch in the backyard and basked in the sunlight.

Michael then made a wonderful lasagna for our dinner with his coworker and his family. There's nothing more attractive than a man in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, puppy and I took a nap. (Normally I would never post sleeping pictures, but it's what I do a lot now. It's only fair to document.)

Dinner was delicious. They brought homemade lemon bars from their lemon tree. What a wonderful February treat. I really feel our winters are a reward we get for living here with the intense summers. It was a wonderful day. The weather was beautiful and not having to do anything because my husband took over was the cherry on top. That is why I love Sundays. It's a day for the soul to rest. Even if I feel like a balloon. The clock keeps ticking!

(I know after bragging about the wonderful weather, I should have some kind of tan. But nope.)

Thoughts of the day...

So I've had a couple of thoughts today.

First off, I'm not sure how this boy...

Became this 14 year old!

He used to be my baby brother. I just don't understand. It's really mind boggling. My sisters birthdays always make me feel like they are getting closer to my age. They aren't, but it's not as weird to me. I guess moving to college when he was in kindergarten will do that. What a fun addition to our girl dominated family he is. Happy birthday to my favorite brother!

Other time zooming thoughts are thinking how crazy it is that in about 7 short weeks, our lives will never be the same. We will have a baby girl that will be ours forever. I pretty much have every emotion possible right now. I'm excited. I'm terrified. I'm tired. I'm happy. You name it. I wonder if we will be ready. I wonder if we will be good parents. I pray that she doesn't come too early because then I'll have to go back to work. I worry that I'm not prepared. I hope that she is healthy and strong. I love her little flips and kicks. And now as we inch closer, I am just so anxious to see her! And my curiosity leads me to also wonder if she will be in this category...

Or this baby category...

*I'm pretty sure this is no one's actual baby, but if it is no offense is intended, it's just one Google Images pulled up*

I know we as her parents will probably always put her in the first category, but you have to wonder...

Sabaka the Hero

On Thursdays, I work late at an after school program for kids and Michael has school. Since we are gone for such a large part of the day, the wonderful Browns are gracious enough to let our puppy play with their puppy.

This tale happened a week ago when the Brown boys were outside playing in the yard (the dogs were back there too). According to Peyton, Sabaka saved his life. He said a bee was chasing him and buzzing near his ear. But then, Sabaka ate it. When his mom heard this story she was a little alarmed because she doesn't know if he is allergic to bees or not and not quite sure if she believed what our puppy had to do with the whole story. When she went out to investigate, she found a slobbery, dead bee by the back door. So the story seems plausible... What a good puppy!

Here's a picture of her playing with her a toy. Notice the slightly guilty face.

10 More Weeks...

By then will I have a clue what to do?

Well..probably not. But we are so excited to learn as we go. I have already learned that baby sitting on my lungs and allergies are not good for my dormant asthma. I had an asthma attack at school a couple of days after my last doctors appointment. My class was taking a science test and I started getting really worried since I couldn't breathe. So I started googling asthma and pregnancy, which made me even more nervous because it was talking about how baby needs oxygen. Then I remembered that caffeine is good for asthma attacks. But I didn't know if that was legit or not. So I googled that and found out it is indeed a scientific fact. Then I googled caffeine and pregnancy. It was a lot of research all while I'm trying to stay calm and get some oxygen and making sure my students weren't cheating. Finally, I just left them taking their tests to get some caffeine. It calmed me down so I thought it was just the one asthma attack a year I get. However, I had a few others about a week after that. One night it was so bad, I dug out my old inhaler and noticed that the prescription said to discard by 2004. Seriously?! That's how long it has been since I've used that thing. Don't be jealous, but I got a brand new inhaler the next day and now I'm breathing normal-well as much as a pregnant lady with squished lungs can be. What an adventure!

This is me at 30 weeks...

We have also "started" on baby's room. We cleared out a bunch and I FINALLY got Michael to switch the ceiling fan from this...

To this...

Not a total transformation, but a vast improvement. (Much more baby room appropriate. Plus it's clean so that's a start to my nesting to do list) The list is getting long. But I'm pretty sure this is the color scheme I want for her room...

We have miles to go before I feel like we have things organized. So now, I need some opinions... What are must haves? What brands/types of car seats, strollers, swings etc? Spread the love folks.

Christmas #2

Christmas Eve morning after opening presents, Christi and her cute family left for Oregon and Michael & I headed to KTown. Christmas Eve is my mom's favorite part of Christmas which is extremely contagious to me.

We had a big dinner and our family recital which is starting to become just Annie and I playing. Will was a trooper to play our opening and closing songs. He's doing a good job staying on track with the hymns. Melanie did a good job practicing some solos. I hope they keep that up!

On Christmas Eve we get to open one present (usually pjs) but since Christmas was on a Sunday we all got something to wear to church that day. Christmas on Sunday is WONDERFUL. I loved waking up, eating breakfast, and going to church for the Christmas program with my whole family. Michael's parents came as well to hear Annie and me play in the program. So thoughtful! It was a very nice morning.

After church we came home and were allowed to open our pjs to open presents in. (Another perk to Sunday Christmas is that my hair and make up were done for presents pictures.) We were spoiled again- especially Baby Girl.

One of my favorite moments was the fact that Melanie had been begging for a puppy all Christmas and then she opened a box full of puppy toys only to be told that they were meant for my puppy. She was so excited then dejected that she started crying. No worries, when all the presents were opened, there was a little yelp from a box behind my grandparents that contained this little guy...

(Although we voted for Jimmer, Mel still insists on Beckham. She is a true soccer fan.)

The rest of the day was spent chillaxing with the family and topped off with a big fancy dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Cook. My mom makes the big dinners look so effortless and taste fantastic. It's amazing. Really.

The day after Christmas, I was able to meet up with these chicas...

Laura, Sharli, and I are all due DAYS apart. AND Janna is still friends with us! Isn't that fantastic!?

The next couple of days we did some girl bonding time at many a store. The boys played many an hour of video games. We went on a double date with my Grandma and Grandpa Cook- love them. We had a double date with the wonderful Crandalls. And I got to meet this sweet baby girl of Alisia's:

One of my favorite days home, we all went to the Bountiful temple. My Grandpa, my Grandma, my mom, my dad, Michael & I and Annie & Victor. Since my Grandpa is a sealer, we did sealings all together and it was an amazing experience Thank heavens Annie took some pictures.

No group shots because we had to hurry, my dad was already in the car ready to go to Cafe Rio. I love my family!

Christmas #1

We (and in we, I mean Michael) drove through the night so that we could get to Utah ASAP. Michael's whole family was together for Christmas and we didn't want to miss a second. We got to his parent's house at 4:30 AM. After sleeping, we enjoyed just being with everyone. The boys played basketball, the girls played with dominoes and babies. That's my kind of agenda.

Wednesday night we had a big family dinner, Baby Cian's baby blessing, and family pictures since it was the first time all the kids were together since 2009.

Since it was Josh and Laura's last night, they got to open some Christmas presents and they had us this year so we got to open the beautiful, monogrammed picture frame they got us. I cannot wait to fill it. It's already up. We just have to pick the right picture!

Puppy also got to experience her first snow. It didn't stick, but it was funny watching her tip toe across the snow and sniff it, only to have it stick to her nose and she would shake it off.

Thursday morning, Josh and Laura left back to Texas. Michael was itching to snowboard so he and the boys headed out for that, while Christi, Katie, and I headed out for some nice mani/pedis. It was a great afternoon.

Friday everyone went swimming except the big prego lady with no swimsuit. She got some last minute shopping and wrapping finished. That evening, Rebecca had gotten us tickets to Manheim Steamroller at the beautiful Abravenel Hall. It was wonderful! I loved it! We had some delicious pizza and a movie night after.

Saturday morning was a fake Christmas morning because Christi and Bryce were heading out that day. We are definitely spoiled and Christmas is always more fun with babies. Brycen is not much of a baby anymore, but our new nephew, Cian, is still a cuddly, little bug.

It's weird to think that the next time we will see the Walker clan, the boys will be much bigger and we will have a baby girl! How fast time goes!

The journey to Christmas break...

Now that my Christmas break is almost over, I should probably share all the adventures we had. My school got out the 20th so the plan was to drive straight to Utah ASAP. We decided to drive so that we could take puppy and it's always easier to bounce back and forth between our families when we have our own car.

However, a couple of days before we planned to leave, Michael found out that he had to fly to New Hampshire for a business deal and he wasn't sure when he would get back. Sorry, but pregnant lady is not going to drive the whole drive herself.

Fortunately, Michael was able to leave New Hampshire the day we planned on leaving so he flew into Vegas. I drove that leg by myself, but puppy made me feel safe. Then Michael drove the rest of the way which was great considering I picked him up from the airport at 10:30 PM and we arrived into SLC at 4:30 AM. Quite the night.

The best part of that LONG drive is the fact that I got into Vegas an hour earlier than Michael so Whitney met me fora quick stretch and a welcomed Starbucks break. I LOVED seeing her and I finally got to meet her little ninja. He's adorable and I'm still learning how to work our camera, but it was a fun little stop...

Thanks for meeting me, roommate!