Loving this!

We've made it to the third trimester!!! So, I have noticed that I've been talking more about the negatives of this pregnancy than the positives which is so weird because I really am so excited about being a mom and having our little guy!

I'm not going to lie, there have been some tough moments with this pregnancy, but not anything scary, so I can start counting my blessings right there!!! Besides the whole kidney issue, I've been perfectly healthy and so has Benson. I have a horrible time sleeping at night and I've been super congested and sick a lot, but that's all bearable! It's all worth it when I feel our little bug moving around and hiccuping and just having fun in my tummy. He's SOOOO active and I love it! (I'm not going to lie--this kid can kick, but it's so worth it!)

The only things I really haven't enjoyed so far has been the sickness--that was soooo not fun, and all the the blood work they do!! Holy cow! Do I have any blood left?!?!?! haha! I had to have my blood drawn yesterday and I go and get my RhoGam shot today, so I've been having a blast these last two days :)...Once again though, it's all worth it!

I'm finally starting to read up on what happens AFTER the baby is born...I've been doing so much studying on the pregnancy that I kind-of forgot that I need to be learning about how to be a mom :)....hehe! We start our prenatal classes next week and they include a breastfeeding class, so that should be way helpful!

Anyways, things are going great! We're all staying busy and we're having fun! 11 1/2 weeks left--that may sound like a lot to everyone else, but for someone who has already done 28+ weeks, 11 is NOTHING!

Halloween Party

We are so cool! HAHA! Josh and I went to our ward Halloween Party dressed as a baker and an oven with a bun in it....get it!?!!??! I had a bun in my oven!!!! bahahaha....okay I get it, not funny for anyone else but us, but that's okay...Here's us at the party....PS- we didn't get to finish the costume because we ran out of time, but there was a back piece that was going to have a clock on it and two more oven dials....oh well, you get the idea....PSS- my oven door did close, but I had it open for the pictures.

These are our friends, The Facer's. How cute are they?!!? haha!

Benson's Room (so far)

So, I'm not done decorating and actually making it a nursery (we want it to still look and function as a guest room until time gets closer to make the total transformation), but here's a start...We took out the double bed and desk and replaced them with a twin bed and an amoire and changing table (the boat looking thing on top of the changing table is not there anymore).

Tummy shots...

Okay, here they are...the long awaited tummy shots...I know, you've all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for these bad boys...haha!

This is me at 25 weeks...This is me at 25 weeks too...close up...wow
This is me at 26 weeks...I'm now at 27 weeks..only 13 weeks to go! We're heading into the third trimester soon!

Ahhh...We love this little guy!

99 days....WOW!!

So, I'm under the 100 mark... Out of roughly 280 days, we have completed 180 1/2 of them!!! Our little guy is coming soon! It's so exciting!!!

We have started setting up the Nursery. It wasn't so much that we wanted to start this soon (I'm 6 1/2 months +) but we found an amazing deal on a changing table and armoire that match perfectly with all of our other furniture, so we had to get them! Well, we brought them home and realized that while they fit okay in the guest room with the double bed that was in there, the room was way over-crowded, so we took out the double bed and put in a twin bed. Now there is way more room to move around in there. We're going to buy the bassinet this week (once again it's on sale for a really good deal) and so, then we'll be pretty much set as far as furniture goes. We have the pack n' play and the stroller and car seat, so all we need now is a glider or some comfy chair to sit on in the Nursery (we have a crib and glider in Illinois, but we're going to leave them there until we move to Illinois in May). We're going to take down the twin bed after the baby is born and put up a crib, but probably not until he's a few weeks old, that way we can still have a guest room set up for when people come.

As you can tell we are getting super excited! Everything is going great. I had my doctor's appointment a week ago (at 25 weeks) and everything is perfect. I did the glucose and iron tests and they came out just fine and I gained 3 pounds in four weeks, so I'm right on track! It's always nice to have good doctor's visits. It helps put my mind as ease. So, here goes the last 99 days!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Once again, I am late doing this, but the thought still counts, right!?!?

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY to our friend, Daniel!! We hope you had a great day! We miss you guys! Come visit!

HAPPY (belated) 8TH BIRTHDAY on the 10th to our nephew Jordan!!!! We hope you had a great day!!!! We love and miss you!

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY to our niece, Maya, on the 14th! We hope you have a wonderful day! We love you and miss you!


HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY to Josh's sister, Jamie, on the 17th! We hope you have a great birthday! We love you!

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY to our niece, Annalee, on the 22nd!!! We love you and miss you and hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!

Happy 93rd (!!!!) birthday to Josh's Grandpa Fred, on the 24th! We hope you have a wonderful day! We love you and miss you!

Also, happy birthday/anniversary to anyone else celebrating in October!!! We hope you have a great day too!!!

Ripples

So, as you all know, Josh and I are residents of California. That means that we are currently dealing with the whole Proposition 8 issue. Josh and I both fully support Proposition 8, so if you don't, please don't be offended, but I feel that we need to explain why we are so in favor of this proposition!

First of all, proposition 8 in NO WAY affects the rights of gay/lesbians in the state of California. They are still given the same rights and protections under the law that they already have. This proposition ONLY affects the DEFINITION of the term "marriage" for the state of California. It does not affect ANYTHING accept the definition of the term.

So, some people might be wondering why is this proposition so important to people who want the definition of marriage to be "between a man and a woman" only?? If it doesn't affect any laws, is it really a big deal if marriage is defined as between anyone? Well, here are just a FEW reasons why it's so important

1. It affects religious freedoms. If marriage is defined as between any two adults, then gay and lesbian couples could eventually say that clergy that will not marry gay/lesbian couples are violating their freedoms. So, if the Catholic or LDS Church chooses not to marry gay/lesbian couples they could be FORCED to, or then face the following...

2. Tax exemption issues: a church that will not support gay/lesbian marriage and will not perform the marriages would not be able to be tax exempt. They would no longer be protected by "religious freedom".

3. "Freedom of Speech" would override "Freedom of Religion".

4. In Massachusetts, where gay/lesbian marriage is legal, an adoption agency run by the Catholic Church was sued or about to be sued (I do not know by which group) because they were not allowing gay/lesbian couples to adopt children. It was their right as a private religious-run organization to stand up for their beliefs, but since they were "discriminating" against gay/lesbians, they chose to SHUT DOWN their adoption agency rather than be forced to do something they did not believe was right.

These are just a FEW reasons why Proposition 8 is so important to us. It's as Elder David A. Bednar (LDS Apostle) said, --I'm paraphrasing-- 'It's not just the rock that is thrown in the pond, its the ripples that the rock makes after the initial splash'.

The initial idea of allowing the definition of marriage to be between "any two consenting adults" may not same like a big deal, and it may seem like the only "tolerant" thing to do, but in doing so the ripple affect is HUGE and in the end it violates religious rights.

For more information please see: preservingmarriage.org or protectmarriage.com

Plus, below is a video that further explains some of the issues...

Choose Your Own Adventure...

So, Josh had last week off from Law School. It was a great week for us to just hang out and have fun (I had to go to class but that's okay). We did a bunch of fun activities and so we'll be posting pictures from the week as soon as I take the time to download them...so fun! It was a kind-of "Choose your own Adventure" game where I came up with 36 activities...Josh would pick either a purple or blue card...we would do the activity on the card within 2 hours... then the card would tell him to pick either a blue or purple card next and we went from there. It was fun for us! Here are some of the activities we got to do--(we ran out of time at the end of the week and so we still have some cards left over).

Played tennis
Homemade pizzas
Hung out with friends
Registered at Baby's R Us
Went to the Dollar Store and bought silly gifts for each other (limit was $5 each)
Chores around the house
Did HOA stuff
Rearranged guest room
Bought changing table and dresser thingy for the Nursery (they were on clearance!)
Made two Halloween crafts
Made Halloween suckers for friends
Saw a movie at International Cinema: Turtles Can Fly--so sad~
Went to DI and bought silly stuff (limit was $10 each)
Went to Sonic for a treat
Got the oil changed in both cars and got them washed
Went and drove around--to Spanish Fork and got Hickory Kist--love that place!
We're going on the Alpine Loop tomorrow (couldn't fit it in last week)
Went and listened to a lecture on campus
Bought two cute baby outfits for our little guy
Went and picked out our bassinet
Service Activity: did Family History Indexing
Went and got our Provo Public Library cards and checked out a couple of books
Read for fun for a couple hours--no school books allowed
Catching up on School Stuff
Rearranged/Cleaned my craft room

Activities we didn't get to do:
Buying a fish for Kiera
Taking a hike
Going swimming at the gym together
Taking recent "tummy shots"
Having a Mexican Food Night
Going to the Nicklecade or bowling together
Going to the Salt Flats
Making Carmel Apples
Going to the Movie Theater or Drive-In
"You Pick" activity--Josh would come up with an activity for us
Make Memory Clipboard (craft)

***There are a few activities I can't remember...Anyways, we had a fun week and it kept us moving and busy...Not all of the activities sound fun, but they really were!

Picture tag

So, I am supposed to go to the 4th picture file and then pick the 4th picture in that file and post it... The only problem is I have two hard drives on this computer and so I have two picture files...So, here are the pictures from both files...As it would turn out, both pictures are HORRIBLE...haha! oh well! Since I'm posting a bunch of new stuff, most people probably won't see this post, but in case they do...I tag, Stevie, Lindsey, Kati E., and Robin!

Should I just give up??!!

OH CUBBIES...WHY??!?!!? WHY I ASK?!!?!?!?

Can I explain to you all how lonely life is when you're a CUBS fan?!?! The CUBS pretty much had the most amazing season EVER, and they were totally on track to win the World Series--the last time they won was 1908 people--100 years people, I mean come one it was their time!!!! This was supposed to be the year, so imagine my HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE disappointment when I watched as Soriano swung at that last pitch on Saturday night against the Dodgers and lost the game and the series...It wasn't just Soriano's BAD swings (which it really was horrible and he shouldn't have swung at those three pitches), but the whole series was bad for the CUBS...They lost three straight to the Dodger's of all teams...grrrrr.....So, the curse of the goat lives on and I go on to another year of being a lonely CUBS fan... sooooo sad....maybe year 101 will be the lucky year for my CUBBIES...

(picture retrieved from google)

Congrats to Josh!

Congrats to Josh for getting a position with University Venture Fund! I know how excited you are! You'll do great!

For those of you who don't know what University Venture Fund is--its a venture capital fund run by BYU, U of U and Wharton Students and they basically research and invest in various companies (and they do due diligence for other companies--whatever that means)...

So, Josh is now part of a 30-50 person group and they manage over $18 million! Isn't that crazy!!! WOW! Way to go Josh! I know how hard you worked during the interviewing process and you so deserve this!