thirty one weeks

Today I have hit the 31 week mark.  Only 9 weeks left to go! Yahoo for single digits.

I planned on being very diligent in my journaling and blogging in regards to my pregnancy but with work and buying a new house somewhere along the line I dropped the ball.

Here are my 31 week stats:

Uterus measuring right on at 31 weeks
Fetal Heart Tones:  133bpm
Total weight gain: According to my chart 18lbs.   In reality however, 25lbs.
Maternity clothes? Yes.  Almost daily I wear maternity pants which are super comfy.  In addition I wear some maternity tops some regular.  By some miracle my scrubs still fit and I think they will last me the next 9 weeks.
Stretch marks? none.
Sleep: Has definitely gotten better with 2 trips to the potty throughout the night.  I also need one regular pillow and one body pillow on each side so as a roll side to side I don't have to take the pillow with me.
Best moment this week:  We had our housewarming party and while it wasn't much of a party it was wonderful to see my entire house in order...clean, organized, and everything in it's proper place.
Food cravings: DONUTS, Banberry donuts was the fix for today.  I walked into the OB office and smelled syrup.. and for whatever reason I then decided donuts was a necessity so we drove all the way from Sandy to Salt Lake for a dozen of the delicious donuts.
Anything making you queasy or sick: no. my sense of smell has actually decreased (or maybe I've gotten used to it).
Gender: Boy
Name:  still unsure.. with a few possibilities.  Lance doesn't want to set anything in stone until we see him, so I just keep calling him LJ for Lance Jr.
Belly Button in or out? definitely out.
Movement: he loves to kick when I wake up around 7am, also around the time I go to bed.  Also lunch time seems to be his favorite :)
Contractions:  irregular.  Yesterday was the first time I've had a painful contraction, but I'm sure dehydration and working all day was a contributor to that. 
Wedding rings on or off? Engagement ring off. Wedding bank on.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, but entirely exhausted from working multiple days in a row.  12 hours on your feet does not make a pregnant girl a happy camper.
Looking forward to: Hopefully getting the nursery painted in the next few weeks and finally buying some furniture and baby stuff!

Housewarming

We've been busy busy busy the last 3 weeks trying to get our house in order, decorated, and things put away.  Since we've had 80% of our belongings in a storage unit for the last 7 months it was difficult trying to remember the things that we had.  For the most part other than new bed linens and a few pieces of furniture, I haven't purchased anything new for the house.  All the decor that we have on display is all stuff that we've collected and had in storage.  Who knew we had so many picture frames! Holy moly.  Here are some pictures of our new home.  Of course over the next year or so more personalization will take place, but for now everything is clean and has a home. 

 Outside:  New flag & garage decor.

Lance's Office:  This room still needs some help in regards to decreasing clutter, but with the help of a filing cabinet the clutter should be alleviated soon.

 Kid Bath:  Personalization to come....

 Guest Bedroom: This is our old bed (queen) that we no longer needed when we were generously given Lance's aunt's king sized bed.  At one point Lance wanted to sell it but now that we are in our own home I'm so glad we have a guest bed. 

 Master:

 Living Room:

 New addition:  Doggie Door & Doggie Corner

Our lives literally revolve around these two clowns.  We had Lance's uncle come over and help us install this doggie door.  It was quite a process cutting the hole and building a ramp for them.

 Yard: 

Thanks to those who came out to see our progress thus far.  I'm sure more things will change, but I'm happy to have everything out of a box and placed in their proper places.

One Room at A Time: DIY Wall Mural

Trying to organize and decorate an entire house is daunting, especially when you're 29 weeks pregnant.  We are slowly getting things done at our new house and spent one afternoon just hanging all of the pictures we've accumulated throughout the last 3 years.  We decided on making a large mural type collage to display our pictures and eventually will swap out some of the pictures so it isn't just a narcissistic collage of our wedding photos. 

Here's how we did it:
First we gathered all the pictures/frames we wanted to include in the collage.  We originally had the college extend across 8 feet, but by the time we finished adding in different frames we ended at 11 1/2 feet!  We laid everything out on the carpet and then realized we could better align things if we got some butcher paper.

We then relaid everything out across a large roll of butcher paper making sure the heights aligned.  We checked the spacing of everything and shuffled around frames to our liking. 

 Next we took a pencil and outlined a square around each frame.

 Once we were finished with our outlining we then drew a line or circle on the butcher paper in the exact spot the hooks would need to be placed.  This took a lot of measuring, praying, and guesstimating. 

the dash is where the hanging hook sits on the frame.

Next we removed all the pictures from the butcher paper and taped it on the wall.  Here is Lance making sure we were level and straight.  

 Next we took our nails and hooks and hammered them into the wall through the butcher paper and began placing the frames on their prospective hooks.

 Once all the hooks and nails were in we then pulled off the pictures again and removed the butcher paper from the wall leaving only the hooks.

 Last and Final step was to hang the pictures!!


Before:

 After:

A Vegas Trip

 This past weekend Lance and I journeyed down to Las Vegas for an unexpected trip.  My mom's sister, my aunt, had a stoke a week ago and was hospitalized in an ICU unit for 6 days before they disconnected her life support and she passed on.  It definitely wasn't the best reason for going on a weekend vacation, but it definitely made me realize just how important it is to cherish each and every moment and to spend those moments with the ones you love: family. 

It was honestly such a spiritual moment to enter the hospital room and see my mother, brother, father, husband, and cousins surrounding the bedside of my aunt.  I truly love my very diverse family and all that they bring to the table.  I am grateful for the knowledge I have of the gospel and to know that while my family doesn't consist of church members, I will one day be with them again.

We spent the majority of the weekend at my cousins house tending to her two adorable children.  My other cousin, her brother, also has two children and between the two of them their girls, Rexi and Kara, are 6 months apart (5 and 4 1/2 years) and their boys are 6 months apart (Henry & Kaden) and our little boy is due just 6 months after Kaden!  It's so much fun to watch my little cousins interact and I'm so excited to be having another boy to add to the chaos. 

My mom absolutely loved tending to Kaden and Kara and was pretty much the child whisper.

While our trip to Las Vegas was short and sweet we had so much fun just hanging out and enjoying the air conditioning :)