Apple Fritters Attracting Little Critters

So the other day I needed to go to the grocery store ... but since it is SO hot here I try to go earlier in the morning to avoid the heat. This last Saturday was no different ... I went before Brian was awake. I decided that I'd surprise him with his favorite dough nut - an Apple Fritter. When he woke up I told him that I bought him an apple fritter and he was REALLY excited. A few hours later I noticed the apple fritter was still in the box! He must not like them as much as I thought. I tried to make some pitiful remark later on about how he doesn't like my surprises and how I just want to make him happy! (Pitiful, I know.)

--- He said NO! I love that you got me an apple fritter! That was the greatest surprise. Lauren, the apple fritter is just like the slim jim. If I hide it now, when I find it later it will be bliss. That's how much I love the apple fritter you got me.

I didn't know he had this habit ... I'm really scared to think about what I am gunna start finding around the house.

37 Weeks

Excuse my grodiness ... but this shows just how BIG my belly actually is!

Slim Jim

This post isn't about a skinny guy I know named Jim.

It's about something I found in between my couch cushions.


Yes that is a Slim Jim ... in my couch cushions ....

I asked Brian about this when he got home from work. He casually told me that yes, the Slim Jim was in the couch because of him, but it wasn't an accident. According to him, he put it between the cushions so that he could forget about it, then find it at a later time because, well, how GREAT would that be?!

You know, I really couldn't judge him because I've left money in various jean pockets before with the same intention.

36 Weeks.

This was from a few days ago. Just lovin my belly and the little guy inside it. I can't believe he is coming so soon. Contractions are getting stronger and stronger. I've had a few painful ones. Bring it on!

Plus I had to document the ONE day this week that I got ready.

35 Weeks

I am LARGE and IN CHARGE.

A Lady at the mall the other night said "Oh my gosh, You are SO pretty!"
I could have hugged her and never let go. What a nice, but not very honest person!!!

35 weeks BABY!

Baby B

When I first started feeling Baby B moving around it felt similar to how your stomach feels going down a BIG drop on a roller coaster.

Now it feels more like he is doing karate inside of me.


Just over five weeks to go. Wow.

Visits with the Hallows

Jarem and Camilla and their little ladies came from Dallas to help us move in. We spent the weekend swimming, hanging out, and not really unpacking. Then the next weekend we went up to Dallas to spend a few days with them ... We LOVE them!

Sofie wants my camera in this picture and Lucy is content .. as always.

Brian put his nacho libre mask on Sofie.

Camilla and I -- she is due with baby boy Hallows two weeks after me, but it's lookin like she is gunna beat me!

Sofie was making cookies with her dad. Note that she is wearing my flip flops .. she wore them the entire time we hung out.

Brian loves these little girls ... after we were with them for a few days he actually said "Maybe I wish we were having a girl." He used to say he wouldn't accept our baby if it wasn't a boy.

husband.me.brother.

Funny Funny

So I've been hanging out at Jarem and Camilla's house all week and I try to drink lots of water. I keep a glass filled with ice water at all times so that whenever I want a drink there is a cold one ready. Even if I'm not thirsty I just top it off to be sure it is ready for the next time. So a few times I've come into the kitchen to get a drink and my glass is EMPTY! I ignored it the first few times, but then it kept happening. Last night I went in and the water was, again, gone - so instead of refilling it I just got a new glass. I came back a couple minutes later and THAT one was GONE!

I decided to confront Jarem who just laughed and said -- I wondered why there was always a nice cold glass of ice water sitting on the counter!

The next time I went in the kitchen to get a drink of my water that I had JUST filled like 20 minutes earlier was GONE! Dang it! So I picked up the glass to refill it and there was a note under it ...

"Just Kidding. Your water is in the fridge."

Clever.

Addicted

Yesterday I became pretty concerned about my baby because I hadn't felt him moving hardly at all. I told Brian that this definitely wasn't normal and that if I didn't feel him moving today then we needed to make some calls and figure out what was going on. So this morning I got up and had breakfast and still wasn't feeling my little guy doing karate or even moving around just a little. So I decided that I would call my mom on her lunch break and get her advice.

Well I had to call her earlier than her lunch break for something else and went ahead and asked her what she thought. She said I should definitely call my Utah doctor just to see what they said. I did -- they said to go to my local hospital and be monitored just to be safe. So I called the local hospital and they said to drink a caffeinated drink and lay down on my left side and monitor the baby's movements. If his movements were less than normal then I should come in and be monitored.

So I followed their advice.

On Tuesday I swore off Dr. Pepper. I have been doing great the last 2 days ... haha! So I gladly welcomed this nurses advice. "I guess I HAVE to drink the Dr. Pepper ... the doctor told me to."

Well, B headed to Wag-a-Bag (nice name eh?) and got me a 32 ounce D P. I drank that baby dry and within about a half an hour my baby started doing karate moves once again. All it took was a little Dr. Pepper to wake him up. I feel much better now that I can feel him again, but a little guilty... my son is an addict already!

Crib Bedding

I am going to attempt to make some crib bedding. I am truly scared to death, but very excited to try. I vow to take it slow and be patient and not expect perfection. I found some really cute fabrics that I want to use ... here they are. (sorry for the poor quality of picture)



Ok so the pattern on the right ... not sure what to call it ... is what I am going to make the bumper out of. I bought thick army green ribbon to make the ties with.

The pok-a-dots will be used on the bottom of the crib skirt. I need to decide what fabric to make the crib skirt out of -- just a plain color (tan, light blue, off white) for the skirt and then I'll put the pok-a-dots on the bottom two inches or something.



Then these two fabrics along with the pok-a-dot fabric will be used for pillows and other things to accessorize the room. Gotta go easy on the floral print one so that I don't get to girly in my little man's room.

I found a tutorial to show me how to do all this .. then called my mama for further advice. She is an EXCELLENT seamstress! Now I'm asking for anyone who is reading this to share your thoughts, encouragement, experience, ideas, etc. Decorating is not my forte, but I'm excited to get going on this nursery.

B's Goatee

B is growing 1. a goatee and 2. his hair out. When I met him he had shaggy hair and a goatee ... and i loved it ... but now I'm trying to decide how I feel about the facial hair. It scratches when we kiss or cuddle. And he loves to dig the hair of his chinny chin chin into my neck to bug me.

Post Overload

This is the 4th post for the day. Wheww. So scroll down to read some more!

Pictures of our new furniture and apartment ... not that anyone really cares, but thought our family would want to see.

The babies room -- temporarily the storage and organizing station in the house. (Dresser that you see on the right will be turned into Baby B's dresser and changing table.

Bathroom by Baby B's room.


Hallway coming from the front entrance - little storage closet on the side. I really wanted a floorplan where there was a hallway from the front door and the front door DIDN'T open into the living room .. and that's what I got!!


Living room view #1. Coffee table and TV console are part of the new furniture that we LOVE. Feels good to own some of our own furniture. Our TV is playing what we love to watch- this is the episode where George gets a toupee and is a vallet driver.


Living room view #2. Couch, Love seat, Single Chair, Side Table, Lamp, (Coffee Table again) are more of the new pieces that we love. Came in a set - great deal. Came with a free 50" TV that we don't need. Couches are super comfy .. Brian will cuddle with me again now that we have our own furniture.


Kitchen with center island. We're grateful for it, but wish it had more storage. Can't really stock a pantry if I don't have one.


Dining area and the back patio. I dream of putting chairs out there so that we can sit outside and sip our diet dr. pepper out of bendy straws.


North wall of our bedroom. New dresser with attached mirror. Doesn't have too much clothing in the drawers because we have so much closet space in the bathroom. (Wish we had less there and more in the kitchen.)


New bedroom furniture: dresser in the above picture, two matching nightstands, king bed frame, new pillow top mattress and box spring set, and a smaller dresser that we will use in the babies room instead of ours. Came with a free 32" TV that we don't need. Going to try to sell both TVs. I feel so spoiled that we got all of this new furniture, but we saved and saved for this and are SO grateful that we could buy it.


Master bathroom connected to master bedroom. It's extremely spacious and we love that there is a walkin shower for B and a big garden tub for Me. I have to work my way up to bathing in a tub that people I don't know have been in. I begged Camilla to take a bath while she was here so that I could take one knowing that she was the last person in the tub. She declined. Dang.

Well that's the tour. We love it. We are so thrilled to be in Austin now and have really enjoyed the time we've had just the two of us. The drive was fun, the move in was fun, unpacking was even fun. Brian and I are excited for the next two weeks that we have to finish getting settled in before he starts work.

The Drive

Well Brian and I are here in Austin and LOVE it! We took 3 days to drive down here. I had the flu throughout the drive. Miserable. But Brian drove and let me sleep it off. By the end of day 2 I was feelin great again. We didn't listen to ANY music the entire drive. Amazing. We listened to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn instead and laughed our heads off ... such a good book.

Day 1 of The Drive.
Provo, Utah to Gallup, New Mexico. Loved the red rock and various rock formations of the Moab/Monticello part of the drive. Hated the ugly dirtiness of New Mexico. Proud of our Uhaul for going 70 mph steadily instead of the 55 mph we expected. Enjoyed our stay at the Ramada Inn .. relaxed in the hot tub and pool. Ate Cracker Barrel, watched Lost, and went to bed at 9PM - record for Brian.

Day 2 of The Drive.
Gallup, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas. Still hated the ugly dirtiness of New Mexico. Loved the ruggedness of Huck Finn. Admired the creativity of Tom Sawyer. Thrilled to cross the Texas state line- mostly because we were out of New Mexico. Spent the evening with Grandma & Grandpa. Enjoyed a tour of downtown Amarillo - given by Grandpa Jim. Ate a delicious Lasagna with all the fixins made by Grandma. Laughed and visited with grandparents. Watched Everyone Loves Raymond. Didn't sleep very well.

Day 3 of The Drive
Amarillo, Texas to Pflugerville, Texas (we've said we were moving to Austin but the secret is out that we live in a town with a horrible name about 10 minutes from downtown Austin). Went to Denny's with Grandpa for breakfast at 6am. Loved the green landscape of the country part of Texas. Got sick of Tom Sawyer's creativity. Freaked out when our GPS turned off suddenly. Celebrated when it came back on 30 minutes later. Arrived at our apartment. Got a tour ... LOVE everything about our apartment. Pool is awesome, gym is incredible, free personal trainer is HUGE, apartment is clean and spacious. Ward members arrived to help us move in -- bless them! The only other LDS couple in our complex - love that - invited us over for dinner. Camilla, Sofie, and Lucy arrived to PARTY!

Austin

Day 1.
5 police officers and a local sheriff stake out the downstairs apartment for 3 hours.

Day 2.
2 cars burn to ashes in our complex. Cause unknown.

Day 3.
Oven catches on fire. Nearly burns down our apartment.
Day 3 might be slightly exaggerated.

Proof of Day 2:

Old School

While Brian and I were packing .. we found some old pictures that I thought were pretty cute.

Hoopin it up .. yes he is wearing a white sweatband on his right calf over his knee high black socks.


This is at one of the Hershey Track Meets during elementary school -- he and his relay team STILL hold the record for the fastest 4 x 100 relay time. He reminds me of this often.

He's kind of cute here. I can see why he got all the ladies when he was young.