New additions

Ty has been researching and checking out deals on TVs for months now. I've been telling him that we really don't need a new TV - our 32 inch Vizio is seriously just fine! But, he really wanted something a bit bigger and of course with a better picture. He really is a frugal guy and doesn't spend money on much else, so it got harder and harder to keep talking him out of it. Then, when his year-end bonus came in, and he found a great deal on this 50 inch TV at Costco, it was all over. We bought this HUGE TV at Costco yesterday, and it dwarfs our old TV and looks absolutely HUGE on our little entertainment center haha.

Ty was so excited yesterday though, it was really worth it to see him so happy. After a hard year's work he deserved to splurge on a little something! He got it all set up and turned the channel right to ESPN of course :-)
So after Tyler set up the TV, I went upstairs to set up something that excites me just a bit more... I ordered this Pack'n'Play online and it was delivered yesterday! We're going to use this as our bassinet for the first couple months, so it was crazy to see it set up in our room!

** I bought this from Babies'R'Us online and it was listed over $100 cheaper than the normal price - I really thought it was a pricing error on the website and would end up getting cancelled, but I ordered it anyways, hoping for the best. It came, it looks great! Now I'm excited to get the real crib and nursery furniture to get delivered later this month!! **

24 hours of ???

In the past 24 hours I've experienced symptoms of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester along with those of being a new mom.



It started out great yesterday (2nd) and I was cleaning out closets, organizing and making room for baby stuff, moving things out to the garage, down the stairs, etc. Then I felt heartburn (3rd) and then this crazy feeling that every time I leaned over, everything I ate for lunch was going to come spilling out my throat. I feel like with this growing baby boy, there's no room for my stomach down there so it has been pushed up into my throat. Weird, I know. I'm really not sure what this is, but it made it so I really didn't want to eat much for dinner last night, even though I'm hungry. Anyways, I also had extreme exhaustion set in (3rd) why did I take on so much moving around? I get out of breath so quickly, how did i all of a sudden get so out of shape?

Last night around 3 am I woke up with a terrible headache (1st) and so I was awake until 5 am, for 2 hours in the middle of the night (new mom) trying to go back to sleep but just couldn't bc the headache was so bad, even after taking Tylenol. This morning Tyler had to leave for work at 7 am I didn't even have the energy to say bye, i just waved, (new mom?) and apparently he didn't notice the wave.

This morning I woke up earlier than I would have wanted because I was super hungry (3rd) but couldn't find anything that sounded good (1st). Due to my lack of sleep I've been way tired (new mom) but when I got up to go take a shower I felt super nauseous (1st) and took a Zofran which luckily helped.

Now, I'm feeling ok at the moment, but I really don't know what to expect next. But I'm even more anxious to have some more of the "new mom" symptoms but with the perks of actually BEING a mom ... 55 days ...

I'm about to go attempt to run errands. I'm hoping for those 2nd trimester "symptoms" to come back...

February 1st!

February is here ~ meaning our little boy is due to arrive next month (well, just barely, March 31st). It's crazy how fast these last months are flying by... It's been so fun to see pictures of several of our friends who had babies in January. It makes it so much more real seeing the precious little newborns, knowing our son will be just 2 months younger than them!

Now that I'm pretty obviously pregnant I'm getting comments everywhere I go. Saturday night I went to the grocery store and the cashier asks, as she stares at my belly, "so you've got some late night cravings?" Umm, I was actually just buying a sweet onion and a can of pineapple for Sunday's crock pot dinner - luckily I don't crave raw onions. At the post office a lady decided to share her horror story about giving birth. At church people want to just touch the tummy, some people resist but tell me they want to, some people ask first, and some people just grab away. Probably the most entertaining is the 9 year-old boy in my primary class who sat with his head on my stomach waiting to hear or feel the little guy move throughout all of sharing time. Tyler finally witnessed this as the boy ran up to me in the hall yesterday at church and started rubbing away with his ear to my bellybutton.

This is such a unique time of our lives, the last 2 months before we become parents! We're just taking it all in and enjoying all these last milestones we reach. This month we'll celebrate our last valentines day alone, and our 3rd wedding anniversary! We're trying to hit up all the Disney World Parks one more time while we can without baby. On Friday night we went to Hollywood Studios and Tyler was chosen to be an "extra" in the Indiana Jones Show! He took his job very seriously in the purple turban it was pretty entertaining to watch as he jumped around the stage...






This month we're also starting to buy everything we'll need to set up the nursery! We have plenty of cute burp cloths, blankets and cute little outfits for our little guy, but I don't have much of the real GEAR. Last week we got busy and bought a crib, dresser, glider, stroller, and infant car seat. All the furniture is being delivered in 3 weeks and I'm so excited to have a room for the little guy! We have the stroller and car seat in the living room and it's so crazy to look over and know that baby boy will be sitting in there in just a couple months!

My mom has done an amazing job with the nursery bedding so far! She made bumper pads, a bed skirt, a valance and pillow. Now she's working on his quilt and I'm so excited to get it all put in the nursery. I'll definitely be posting pictures next month when it's all up and ready!

We still have quite a few things to do to get ready, but according to the ticker on this blog - we have 58 days left!

Arizona Trip

Last week Tyler went to California for his company's National Sales Meeting. He spent the week in rainy Santa Cruz in these condos right on the coast...He was going to be out of town for 8 days, so instead of being home alone - I spent the week in Arizona with my family. My sister, Paige just arrived in New York fresh off her honeymoon, Michael is back up at BYU, so my 10 year-old brother Steven and I were the only kids in the house. This was the first time it was just us two kids with my parents!

We spent the first part of MLK weekend down in Tucson for Steven's first ever soccer tournament. It's crazy to see him playing in the same tournament I played in 10 years ago.

Steven is a really good little soccer player - following in the footsteps of his older siblings. He's definitely one of the best on the team it's fun to see him all grown up!

After the soccer tournament we spent the rest of the week in Mesa. Steven and I saw Avatar, went to the Suns game, watched movies, and even did a book report on Steve Irwin.

My mom and I went fabric shopping for baby bedding, worked on the baby bedding, went baby shopping, and had a baby shower (notice a theme?)

Since we were in the black, white, and blue theme from making the little guy's bedding - we used those for the colors of the shower. The "shower" also happened to be on the same night as the biggest "shower" Mesa had seen in years! It rained 2 inches that day in the Phoenix area (it only rained 4 inches all of last year) and it was crrazy windy with tornado watches (unheard of for AZ). So yeah, we picked an interesting day to have a "shower." I was grateful that all the ladies in our neighborhood ventured out in the storm!

PS -- Here is a picture from yesterday, I'm about 7 months along and getting BIG! The little guy is moving around all the time, gets the hiccups 3 or 4 times a day and I'm loving it! It's crazy how fast time is flying!

2010 Thoughts...

It's the middle of January, the month when all the holiday happiness is over and it's back to normal life. Lots of people say it's the most depressing month of the year. It's still cold, with no thoughts of Christmas to cheer you up, and thoughts of spring are no where in sight. I didn't think I'd experience that here in Florida, but we have been experiencing FREEEEZING temperatures. Back in December, the day we flew to Utah it was 75 and I thought it'd be like that when we got home. But, ever since we got home it's been 30-50 degrees. Everyone here is really worried that the oranges and other crops will all be frozen and ruined - but hopefully not :-( I was planning on picking some off the trees around here, but most of them look like this... I really didn't expect to experience this much cold in Orlando. But it's definitely been an interesting change, and it should be back up to the 70s next week.

In other news, for us, January was always the time when we'd start really preparing for baby Jennings to enter our lives. We found out we were expecting in July, and that seems like soooo long ago! The first four months went by so slowly that our due date of March 31st seemed like an eternity away. November and December flew by, and all of a sudden, we're 11 weeks away!! I'm kinda starting to get a little overwhelmed about everything I need to do before he arrives.

In terms of baby preparedness, I have a good assortment of onesies and clothes, a few blankets, a diaper bag and a bumbo chair ... that's about it. BUT I have to say, whenever I look at "the spread" it gets me so excited!I've been looking into nursery furniture, strollers, carseats, pack and plays, swings, toys, nursing supplies, etc etc. online and at baby stores around town. I'm having a couple baby showers in the coming weeks, so I think I'm going to see what I get at those showers and then head out and get the rest of our gear! Hopefully our little guy doesn't come too early!

I've picked out my favorites of everything ... except for the nursery crib set - I've been pretty stressed out about it actually. I want to get a white crib and matching dresser/changing table - but finding a good quality one, that actually comes in white, that I like has been harder than I thought it would be. The colors we decided for the nursery is Black, White with Blue accessories (that can be switched to pink WHEN [not if] we have a girl). My mom found this cute website with great nursery ideas -- http://www.designdazzle.com/ -- we're planning on using ideas from shabby chic

and black and yellow polka dot.
But then we'll do it all with blue accents instead... I really need to just pick out a crib this week - but easier said than done...

In other other news, I'm getting bigger and bigger every day! It's crazy how much my tummy has grown in the past month! I went to the doctor yesterday and the first thing she said was, "so you're finally gaining weight and looking pregnant!" Our little guy's heartbeat still is great and everything is measuring just right on. That's all I want to hear!

In other other OTHER news - Tyler is doing amazing at work. He just presented to the University of Alabama this week and they chose to use his company's product for all of campus buildings and their future construction needs. It was a huge contract, and his coworkers are so impressed that he locked up the deal so quickly. He's been working for Wattstopper for one year now and luckily he loves his job even more now than he did when he was hired. Even though we're miles away from family -- the job has been such a blessing and Tyler has been amazing at it!

Oh, and if you want to see the most over the top, incredible nursery ever ...

PS - I'm getting bigger...

Here is my 6 month picture - no hiding the baby bump anymore!!

Wrapping up 2009

Tyler and I finished 2009 with a crazy, fun-filled December!!

We spent 5 days in Utah with the Jennings. Highlights included -- being all reunited at Cafe Rio, seeing our niece (Reece) who is walking like crazy, meeting our new bro-in-law (Scott), spending time with Tyler's grandparents and cousins, and all the festivities for Ashley's wedding.

We spent 10 days in Arizona for Christmas, Paige's Wedding and New Years'. We went to the Mesa Temple with Paige, Celebrated Christmas (got lots of cute stuff for baby Jennings), spent a girls' night at a Camelback Mountain Resort, prepped for the wedding, celebrated with Paige and Ben for their wedding, saw some close friends for a lunch baby shower, and a New Years' Eve Rock Band Party with my mom's (Stevens) family.

**I'm really not good at taking pictures, but I tried real hard to get some at the weddings! Hopefully I'll get some other pictures from other family members and photographers too, but I've included a photo overload below**

Now it's back to normal life in Florida, we got home January 1st and really caught up on sleep this weekend. Now, Monday morning, Ty is back to work and I'm cleaning the house, taking down Christmas decorations, and prepping for baby boy! I'm in the third trimester, less than 3 months to go and I've got to get the whole nursery ready!

Hope everyone had a great holiday season, the photos below are in chronological order!!

Click HERE for Paige and Ben's wedding video -- David Perry just posted it on his blog and it is amazing! Even if you don't know them, you need to watch this video - it's so beautifully done! It really did capture their emotion of the day... http://vimeo.com/8481002