40 weeks 2 Days

We had our 40 week appointment today, and unfortunately we have not progressed much since last week. We are about a half centimeter more dilated, and still at 50%. The only improvement is that he is now sitting at -1 to 0. Since the appointment and having her help to get things moving we are still waiting for him to show his little face, and in the mean time he is just getting bigger and bigger. So now instead of having a 8.5 to 9 pounder we will probably have a 9 to 9.5 pound baby. Plus I asked her when they would induce me and she said that technically I am not overdue until I am 42 weeks along. So it sounds like she won't be inducing me anytime soon. Keep your fingers crossed that he will come soon.

40 weeks

Well, our due date came and went without any signs of the baby. I would say I was surprised, but after having Emily be late there was no way that I could see him come anywhere close to my due date. I am so ready for him to get out. I didn't mind having Emily in for an extra week, but this time around he is just reeking havoc on my body. My back and hips have never hurt this bad before. It is a little bit of a double edged sword because my body wants him out, but my mind is saying no I don't want to go through labor and delivery again. Well, we will see where he is at tomorrow with my appointment and hopefully we can get things going.

39 weeks

Well, had another appointment today. We were hoping we would be dilated and effaced enough to have a little help in getting things going which would give us a baby hopefully in the next day or two. Unfortunately for us there was no progression from last week still 2cm, 50% and he is sitting at a -2. The midwife said that it looks like a possible Christmas baby or even a New Years baby. Looks like I will be doing a lot of  pelvic tilts and squats to get him to move down.

38 week appointment

I have some other posts that I need to post from Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I need to figure out how to shrink the size of my pictures. I was told that I have met my space allotment for pictures in this blog. So I am going to go back and shrink down pictures in past blog posts, and the ones waiting to be posted. If that is going to be too time consuming I might just create a new blog every time I run out of picture space. Each blogger can have up to 100 blogs which I don't think I will ever use all of them.

On to the fun stuff. Here is a little update of what has been going on with the baby:

We had an ultrasound to measure how big he is at this point, and he is currently approximately 7lbs 15 oz which if he goes full term he could possible gain up to 1 more pound, but the midwife said that he will probably be no bigger than Emily was when she was born 9lbs! That is a relief that he won't be any bigger.

She checked to see how dilated and thinned we are. We are currently 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She is thinking that he will probably be here sometime next week so keep your fingers crossed.

D & W Racing

In September Nathan and I went out to D & W Racing out in Rainier, WA. One of the guys that Nathan works with, Danny, owns the flat track. He invited us to come out and watch the last races of the season so we decided to go. It was fun, but boy was it noisy and super dusty. The crowd was really interesting to be around too. It was a lot of fun to go out and experience something new, but I don't know if I would go again. There are only so many times I could watch motorcycles and quads go around in circles.

I just realized...

I just realized that I did not post about Emily's Birthday this year! Her Birthday was back on June 18th. On her actual Birthday which was a Monday we had the Grandparents for cake and ice cream, and then the following Saturday we had her big Birthday party. We did a Mickey Mouse theme complete with Hot Dogs, and lots of polka dots! The day turned out really nice, but with the first trimester of this pregnancy I ran out of steam. We had the family over for lunch and Emily had a blast with all the attention and presents. Here are a few glimpses of the day:

Memorial Day

This Memorial Day weekend was a nice relaxing weekend. I was able to make soup for my in-laws. Suzanne has not been feeling well. It was nice to be able to do that for her. I used the recipe that I found here. It turned out so yummy! Nathan also made some homemade bread to go with it.

On Monday we went on a picnic with my parents to Wildwood Park. I was afraid that it was going to be packed. We drove past Bradley Lake Park and there was no place to park at all. When we got to Wildwood park we were one of the few cars in the parking lot. We had a nice picnic with pitas from pita pit, and Emily actually ate some of her lunch too! We had to sneak her past the toys or else it would have been a crying fest on our hands to go on the toys. We basically had the entire playground to ourselves, and Emily had a good time on the slides and throwing 'boats' or sticks into the stream and watching them float down. I will have to keep this park in mind for future reference. I like how there wasn't very many kids at the playground.

Pool Time

We spent quiet a bit of time in the pool this past summer. She especially loved to fill up her own pool, and would stand there holding the hose until the job was done. Emily had so much fun, and I have a feeling that she will love going swimming even more next year.

Nathan's Birthday

Nathan's Birthday this year was kind of a weird one. We ended up spending the weekend at my parents' house because one of our neighbors got evicted and he actually blames us for that. We have been a little afraid that he was going to be a little vindictive and take it out on us somehow. He moved out on Saturday August 25th so we just decided to not even be anywhere around him or have anything there (like our cars) for him or one of his friends to do something to them. Which I did find out that they did something to our neighbors car so it wouldn't start up. Because of that I am so glad we made the decision to spend the weekend at my parents.

Because of all the excitement that went on we didn't get to have the big get together party we were hoping to have for Nathan's birthday. I tried to make it as special as I could for him by making him a homemade chocolate chip cheesecake with a chocolate glaze, and a nice steak dinner. It was a little more laid back, but I hope he realizes just how much we care for him, love him, and are so blessed that he is in our lives. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and father to my children.

I have a bike!

Emily loves bikes. Every time she sees one she wants to ride it so bad. Sometimes at the store we even have to let her sit on one, and push her around. Grammys luckily came across a big girl bike at a garage sale for only 5 bucks! When we came  over one afternoon they had it set up on the back porch and boy was she so excited that she has a bike. She hasn't quiet figured out how to peddle yet, but she loves getting pushed around on it. The rest of the night she kept saying "I have a bike!" Can you tell she loves her bike:

Ryan and Ashley

On August 17th my brother-in-law, Ryan, got married to such a sweet, fun loving gal, Ashley! It was such a nice day and happened to be the hottest day of the summer that we had all summer. The morning started out a little stressful with running out of time, and having to go drop Emily off at my parents house and make it back down to the Stake Center. Lets just say that I was flying on the way back, and just barely squeaked in in time for the wedding vows. Which Bishop Johnson did a wonderful job with. I can't wait until next year when they are able to be sealed in the temple.

After the wedding we took pictures down in the meadows, and I ran to the store to pick up a few things for the luncheon. Suzanne did such a wonderful job with the luncheon. It looked so nice, and all the food was so tasty.

Later that night we had the reception up at the 176th Building. They decorated it in such a fun Hawaiian theme, had a photo booth with props, and lots of yummy food complete with a pineapple palm tree! and sparklers to send them off with.

It was such a nice day, and we couldn't be more excited for the two of them.

Point Defiance

During the summer while Matt and Tiffany were here in August we took an afternoon trip out to Point Defiance for a picnic and for a walk around the gardens, and to play on the beach. It was a hot day, but we had so much fun!

It's a....

That's right we are having a baby and we found out on August 14th that we are having a BOY! So now we have one of each. Nathan couldn't have been any more excited. I thought his face was going to split in two from smiling and beaming so much.

We decided to tell our families with a box full of blue balloons. Emily was so excited to show everyone the blue balloons. She has been the sweetest little thing. She says hi to the baby and gives him a big kiss all the time.

Junior is scheduled to come to our family on Christmas Day.

August

August has been such a busy month! The first weekend started out with helping my parents clean their carpets and Nathan helping Scott out with the music for a wedding. That Saturday we picked up a big girl bed from my cousin Robin and then rushed up to the temple to do a session with the Gray Family in preparation for Ryan and Ashley's wedding later this month. It was nice to get back to the temple.

The following weekend Nathan went on a boys bachelor party camping trip up to Green Water. Sounded like they had a really fun time shooting, eating and enjoying each others company. While the boys were gone us Gray girls got together to go out to lunch at Red Lobster and shopping until we dropped at TJ Maxx and my new favorite store Home Goods. That night we went out to dinner with Ashley and some of her friends for her Bachelorette party over at Red Robin. What a fun filled packed day.

Monday the 13th we went to the eye doctor for a quick check up on Emily's eyes- things are looking really good. No drifting and no preferences starting. It is kind of annoying though because you go sit in their office for an hour just to be seen by the doctor for like 2 minutes. Later this night we went over to see Matt and Tiffany who came for the week. It is Matt's birthday so it was nice to help him celebrate.

Family Reunion

The end of July we had the opportunity to make a quick trip to Utah for a Gray family reunion. We left early Friday morning (right around 4) and got to Utah around 6 that evening. We spent the night at Nathan's cousin's house- Corey and Lindsay up in Brigham. They are such a cute couple, and so much fun. I wish that we lived closer to them. Lindsay is so cute, and she has the same taste in things as I do! They have a trampoline, and Emily just loved jumping on it. That was all she wanted to do.

The next morning we got up bright and early to beat the rush into the shower (we got to be the first ones in!). After everyone was ready we made the trip down to Alpine. We had to make a few stops on the way to pick up some food for the BBQ. Luckily Emily took a little nap on the way down. The reunion was really fun. I got to meet the rest of the Gray side, and it was nice to just sit and chat. They had some fun water activities for the kiddos. A giant blow up slide with pool and a giant slip and slide made out of banners. Emily had such a fun time running and playing with all the big kids, and a big thanks to Auntie Kirsten for taking her down the slip 'n slide! They also had a craft station with materials to make masks. Emily and daddy had a fun time crafting away!

Later in the evening after food they played some games. They did and egg toss, and a gunny sack race. Kirsten won the race, and Scott landed in the mud from the slide.

Instead of making the drive back to Brigham that night we decided to spend the night with my brother and his wife Tiffany in Provo. We then went over to see Bill and Nancy and Grandpa Leale, and then made the trek back to Brigham City to have dinner with all the Bowen's. I felt bad because Emily wanted to jump on the trampoline quiet a bit, and he didn't get to spend as much time with his cousins. We had to get to bed as early as we could. I think it ended up being around 1 in the morning and we had to get up early to make the long trip back to Washington. Emily did so well in the car. The portable dvd player was such a life saver.

We had such a fun time being with family this weekend, and hope to be able to spend a little more time next time.

A Quick Trip to Salt Lake

On May 25th my sweet Mormor (Danish for Grandma) passed away. My parents, Emily and I made the long trip to Salt Lake to attend the funeral and to get some of the things settled with their possessions and work on getting the house ready to go on the market. The funeral turned out really nice and it was wonderful to hear about her life and the memories that her children had of her. It was so nice to be around the family and to see what they have all been up to. It was such a hot day, but it was nice that it was not raining. We had a wonderful luncheon of soup and salad. The two munchkins Emily and Ezekiel did such a wonderful job during the funeral and didn't fuss too much.

The rest of the time we spent there we had a fun time going to temple square where we were able to have lunch with Matt and Tiffany, and see all of the fun sites including playing in the water features. Such a long, fun, hot day and thanks to Matt and Tiffany for running after the kiddos all day.

We were able to spend a day shopping with stops at Tai Pan, Hobby Lobby and Seagull Book. We were also able to stop and spend time with some of my cousins- Kirsten and Jessica.

Easter

I had such a fun time getting things put together for Easter. Even though Emily doesn't really know what is going on, she had a really fun time- makes everything worth it!

The night before Easter we put a carrot out for the Easter bunny by the front door.

The next morning I said to Emily, "Did the Easter bunny come?" She got so excited and ran straight to the door where the bunny had left her a basket full of goodies and a baby doll.

We had such a fun time getting ready for church. Emily got a beautiful new Easter dress, and she loved wearing it. She is such a girl and loves to look at herself in the mirror. We only stayed for Sacrament meeting (Emily needed a nap before we headed up to the Easter festivities). Sacrament meeting was so much fun the program was a musical one about the life of the Savior. Emily loves music and sat on  her Daddy's lap the  entire time just listening.

It was such a gorgeous day and made for a really fun Easter egg hunt. Megan and Quinten hid all the eggs, and Emily knew just what to do. She found all of the eggs and wanted to find even more. I don't think I have had so much fun on Easter in a long time.

Egg Dying

Emily loved loved loved to dye eggs. She loved to put them in each color. We had to watch her carefully because she would throw the eggs into the dye. She would say, "I throw rocks!" She wouldn't even bother with coloring them with crayons and just wanted to dip them in the dye as fast as she could get her hands on them.

We were lucky enough to get to dye eggs twice. We had a family home evening activity with the Grays coloring eggs and then that following Friday we had a pre-Easter activity with my parents where we made sugar cookies, and colored eggs. Emily was a pro by now with the eggs and she learned how to balance them on the loop and place them in the dye. She had such a fun time, and so i stocked up on lots of half price egg dying kits to do through out the year.

The Friday before Easter we had my parents over for a pre-Easter ham dinner, and a little activity of making sugar cookies and dying more eggs. Emily had a blast doing both as you can tell from her little facial expressions in all of the pictures. Having a little one around sure does make the holidays a little more special.

Toe Picker

Emily and her Daddy are a little more like each other than just looks. Around April and May Emily discovered that she has toe jam. She would sit there picking it out from between her toes until there wasn't anything left. Apparently her daddy around that same age would pick the lint from between his toes and he wouldn't go to bed until it was all gone. It is so funny for me to see just how much these two are two peas in a pod.

 

I haven't really had the energy or the desire to post any blogs the past few months. I will be playing catch up the next little while with the major things we have been doing as a family.

Hunger Games

On March 23rd I had a girls night out with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law Kirsten and neighbor Kaylea. We all got tickets to go see Hunger Games! Such awesome books and an amazing movie! We went to the AMC Loews theater out in Lakewood. It is such a wonderful movie theater with giant red leather recliners that have a button that lifts your feet and reclines your seat. A super comfy way to watch a movie. Plus you can bring a blanket and get super comfy. I had such a wonderful time, and I can't wait to see the next movie in the series!

Does anyone know of another good series to read?

St. Patrick's Day Decor

I was looking through my holiday decorations and realized I didn't have any for St. Patrick's day. On my birthday I took a walk to Joann's and while we were there we picked up some fabric to make a runner for the hall table and to make a pillow cover for one of our couch pillows. I ran out of time, but I also found on pinterest a tutorial on how to make a shamrock out of felt. I am still working on it so I will have it done for next year.

Eat Your Vegies

I have been trying to come up with ways to get Emily to eat her vegetables. She will not eat them at all! I have tried making cheese and bean quesadillas, and putting corn in with mac and cheese. I found this website the other day and she has lots of ideas and recipes for food that her toddler would eat. She has lots of vegie recipes and especially muffins and breads. Emily loves bread! So I made up a batch of her mini sweet potato recipe and Emily gobbled them up! She was even sneaking into the kitchen and climbing up on a chair to get them off of the counter. I figure that if she wants to eat them I am not going to stop her (to an extent). I can't wait to try some of the other recipes.

My Birthday

I had such a wonderful day. It is a little bit harder to make it a special day when you get older and have lots of responsibilities, but my loving husband and adorable family helped to make it a little extra special.

I started my day out by cleaning up the house. It didn't take too long though. I have been trying to keep up on it a little bit every day, and it seems to be staying pretty clean. After doing some cleaning Emily and I took a walk over to Joann's. We live on the street behind it so it didn't take us too long to get there. I got some fabric to make a St. Patrick's Day pillow and table. I was hoping that I would have enough time to get them made up before the party, but I ran out of time.

My cute neighbor, Kaylea, came over with a fun birthday treat. She is such a cutie. Cupcakes with fruit snacks, and a gift card to my favorite store Joann's!

My parents came over to watch Emily while Nathan and I went out to dinner to Olive Garden. We were going to do the 3 course meal for 13 bucks , but we decided to get the shrimp mezzalun instead. Cheese filled raviolis with shrimp! Nathan let it slip to the waiter that it was my birthday, and he brought out a big bowl of ice cream on the house! That was a fun surprise.

Around 7 the rest of the family came over and we did presents and cake. I got money to go towards some of the bigger things that I want, and a fun candle poured into a tea cup, and a really fun wrought iron looking wall hanging with picture frames in it. I can't wait to find the perfect spot to hang it. My husband spoiled me rotten and got me the most beautiful citizen watch with mother of pearl face and diamonds. The cake was so delicious one of those super chocolatey, rich cakes from Costco.

I had such a wonderful day. Thank you to everyone who helped to make it so special!

Feeling Old

My Birthday is tomorrow, and I can't help but feel old. The other day I was talking to Nathan about when I lived in Utah for a year after High School. I stopped and added up how long it has been since then- 8 YEARS! I can't believe it! It is crazy how fast time flies, and how it took turning 26 to feel old. Usually when people hit the big quarter of a century is when you feel old, but for some the following year is harder for me. 8 years since high school and only 4 years until I turn 30. Just a little depressing to think about. Plus I looked in the mirror and found two WHITE hairs not grey but white!  On the plus side the other day we were talking to our neighbor and he thought we were both under 25. Which was really nice to be thought of as younger than you actually are (26 and 31.5). So that helps to soften the blow of getting old.

I can't help but think- What have I done with my life? I have actually accomplished quiet a bit. Graduated from high school, got my associates, and BS. I found the love of my life, got married, and have a beautiful little girl. Getting older just makes you realize how precious time is and how we need to make the most of it. It is time to make the most of the next 26 years!

Glasses!

Emily girl got her glasses yesterday. We initially had a hard time getting her to put them and to even touch them, but her Auntie Kirsten was able to get her to wear them for an entire hour! Then this morning she wore them for an hour and a half and then for another half hour. We still have a hard time getting her to put them on, but once they are on she will leave them alone.

Ezekiel!

I am so excited because after a long long wait to start their family my sister and her husband got a call a few weeks ago letting them know that a 2.5 year old little boy was up for adoption and they were picked to get him! On Feb 16th they made the long drive to North Carolina to be to the lawyer's office by 10 o'clock the next morning where they signed the papers and picked up Ezekiel. After the long weekend they finally got the call that they could leave North Carolina to head home, and as of  the 24th he is theirs! He is such a cute, active, smart little guy. I can't wait to see him, and have the two E's play together. Such a long wait full of heartache, but I think this little guy was worth the wait.

The Sweetest Words

Emily is such a sweet, cute little girl. It has been so much fun to see her grow and especially to watch her as she learns more words and to put sentences together. Lately whenever she says something directed towards me she will say "Thank you Momma" or "Welcome, Momma" and even "Funny, Momma". I just love the way she says it too. She has such a soft, cute, little girl voice. I can't wait to hear what other fun things she learns how to say.

Eye Doctor Update

We went to the eye doctor on February 16th to check up on Emily's eyes. The prescription is the same. Boy am I glad that I got her records from the other doctor because he took those numbers and compared them. He didn't have to start from scratch. I sure wish that when you are waiting to see the doctor that they would expedite your wait time if you have little kids because by the time you get them to be good in the wait room they are just about done with the doctor's office by the time you get back there for them to be seen. Dr. Shields was really nice and really explained everything well. We will be going to get a pair of glasses for Emily soon. Hopefully she will like them and wear them the way she should. I will post pics of her as soon as we get her glasses.

Valentine's Day

I don't know why with every holiday I always seem to bite off more than I can chew. I want to do so many fun things for Nathan and Emily. I guess I might just have to learn to manage my time a little better and not procrastinate. This year for Valentine's Day Nathan and I went out to eat the week before to beat the rush and the weekend. We went to Red Lobster and did their 4 course meal for $15.

On the actual day we stayed home and cooked up butternut squash raviolis, white prawns and carrots with Martineli's and Nathan got a red velvet cake from Costco. So yummy! Nathan is so cute he got me  a dozen red roses and a box of chocolates. He also got Emily a cute necklace with white and black diamonds on it. We will have to wait until she is a bit bigger for her to wear it, but she loved it. I tried to make Nathan a book made out of a deck of cards with 52 reasons I love you. This is what took me a while during the day, and I didn't get it finished in time to give it to him that day. (This is where I needed to not procrastinate.) It was so nice to have a nice, relaxing day home with the guy I love.

When we got the cake out Emily decided to sneak some licks of icing.

The necklace Nathan gave Emily

I made a book of 52 reasons why I love Nathan out of a deck of cards