Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween!!!

This year Halloween has been a little different... being at the very end of a pregnancy takes all the fun out of me, I guess.  We have basic decor, the kids have begged to put up spiderwebs for weeks with only the most pathetic results, and everything is getting done at the very last second.  For example, as these photos were loading I quickly looked up the recipe for our traditional pumpkin casserole and now I'm trying to decide if I have time to make it... which I'm still at maybe.

Marshall has been excited to dress up as Frankenstein for almost a year now.  It's been a special treat for him that I told him he didn't need to have his hair cut until after Halloween so his spiky hair could be really out of control.  It's been a good month and half and he wishes I would let him grow it as long as Justin Bieber.  Sorry pal.  Not happening.

Tyler wanted to be a bat this year and wouldn't back down!  I was actually fine with that plan until I tried to find a bat costume and realized I would surely be making one.  All the ones you can buy are really dorky looking and I couldn't let him be a dorky bat.  And I surely wasn't going to waste money on one of those stupid costumes.  Our friend Max dressed as a bat last year and luckily his mom let us borrow his costume that she worked so hard to make (she's a great friend).  I ended up making him his own shirt since I didn't want to be responsible for the mess that could appear on it after wearing it to preschool and then tonight's festivities.  Good thing too because he thought it made a perfect napkin after eating all the yummy treats from school.  I made his mask too.  Which I have to fix before tonight... I'm glad I blogged these pics just now.  I would have forgotten.

I totally forgot to not procrastinate for Tyler's Halloween party on Tuesday at preschool.  I made his costume the morning of and I almost just sent a bag of candy but had REALLY wanted to make these goodie bags (found on Pinterest) and Marshall's class wasn't exchanging treats so this was my only chance.  I stayed up late the night before putting them together.  I think I'm glad I did it.  Haha.

We had our annual friends Halloween party and it was so fun.  Everyone was relieved (as far as I could tell) that Colby's trend of wearing less clothes each year did not continue.  I thought his preppy costume was hilarious.  Until seeing these pictures, I really hadn't realized how enormous I have become.  Well, maybe that's a lie.  I know I'm enormous.  I can't do anything anymore because this big belly just gets in the way!  I just don't usually have reason to just look at it.  9 months pregnant is such a good time of life.  Haha.  You'll find a picture down there of the "festive" cake I made for the occasion.  Seriously, I would love to go above and beyond with everything these days but I have to pick and choose.  Otherwise I'd self destruct and lay in a crying/sleeping heap on the couch.

Here's a picture of our Bunco group at Nikki's house earlier this month.  

It was a costume required witches night and it was SO fun!  

I wore this outfit again last night at Young Womens when we went "Reverse Trick or Treating" and gave out treats to random families in our ward.

In Tyler's Mind...

I just had this conversation with Tyler while we were eating lunch.

T: "Mom, are our feet our legs?"
Me: "They are connected to our legs."
T: "With super glue?"
Me: "Actually, with skin and bones and muscles."
T: "Is it hard?"
Me: "Is what hard?"
T: "Putting our feet onto our legs."
Me: "Not really.  That's just the way we are born."
T: "When are we born?"
Me: "When we are babies."
T: "Oh.  Do airplanes use fuel?" (pronounced fyoo)
Me: "Yes."
T: "Fuel is gas."

Word to the Wise

Just as a warning, if next week at church I get approached by any well meaning women 

that have had babies and should know how I feel, 

and hear anything like what I heard yesterday-

"You look sooooooooo ready to be done." 

or 

"You aren't supposed to be here anymore.  Weren't you supposed to have this baby already?"

-I will not be as sickeningly sweet to them 

and will probably attach a note to my forehead that says "don't talk to me" 

and then staple a note to their forehead that says "don't listen to me."

Because seriously, as much as they want to show their concern it seems to be extremely misguided.

And rude.

And asking for it.

And for the record, 

I was NOT wearing one of Colby's tshirts to church, 

I DID have makeup on, 

and I swear I wasn't run over by a truck that morning.
And, as of Sunday, I had basically 3 weeks left.

36-ish Weeks Along

Recent observations...

On Sunday (two days ago), while Colby and I were just being lazy watching clips from the Ellen Show online, I started having contractions!  Not just braxton hicks contractions either.  They were real and painful and a little unnerving.  They lasted for maybe 45 minutes, repeating every couple minutes or so, but only lasting about 30 seconds each.  I was more just bothered because they really didn't feel good but Colby seemed to get a tiny bit panicked and told me this kind of thing was not OK to do right now.  Haha.  As if I have any control over that...  It was weird though, I could suddenly vividly remember the last hours of pregnancy from the last two times and the squirming, painful 20 minute drive to the hospital- it was all a very clear memory for me.

Yesterday I was walking through the bathroom, changing my shirt, and I caught a good side view glimpse of my growing belly.  It sticks so much farther out the front than I realize, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud.  Like, crack up "as if someone just fell on their rear end after doing something with a severe lack of judgement" kind of laughter.  I obviously have not missed the fact that I'm continually growing, but I just hadn't seen my belly in that way yet.

  

Early this morning I was sitting down and it seems that Baby Girl was trying to bust her way out of my belly!  She had her hands pushing one way, her feet going another, which had her head obviously pushing another.  Oh my goodness, I don't think I've ever felt anything so annoying and equally uncomfortable EVER.  Nothing could get her to quit for at least a whole minute, if not two.  Oh man!  I also would love to welcome her to the outside world, as long as she was healthy and happy.  But with 3 1/2 weeks left I'd still be OK if she stayed in a little longer... as long as she quit doing that stretching/ break out trick.

Also today, Tyler had dropped something and I asked him to pick it up since it is so hard for me to bend over these days.  At first he asked why, then quickly answered his own question with "because your belly is getting so big?"  I agreed that yes that was why and he said, "yeah... it is getting GINORMOUS!"  Thanks Tyler.  I'm glad you've noticed too.  In honor of this sweetheart I will include a darling picture of him.

Something I've noticed about Baby Girl is she has something of an all or nothing approach to life.  I have come up with this opinion based on the way she moves around.  She's generally pretty chill, but when she decides to move she MOVES.  Like a full on ninja fight or hip hop routine or something.  Maybe she's punching a speed bag or sprinting the 100 m dash at an olympic pace.  Whatever it is, it's full of intention and focus for a bit and then she calms right down again.  Doesn't that sound like the makings of a delightful toddler?  Haha!  Can't wait to see if this is an actual personality trait of hers.  

-It actually reminds me of one of the first indicators I noticed of Marshall's personality.  Some (mainly Colby and I) have described him as a headstrong and stubborn individual... much like both of his parents.  I can't remember how far along I was with his pregnancy when I was driving home from work one night and Marshall was clearly squished and uncomfortable.  He decided to push with all of his might with what was probably his foot right below my ribs.  He pushed persistently and I had had enough so I gently pressed back in hopes that he would give up the fight and just nestle back into his curled up position.  It didn't really work, so I pushed a little harder when finally he let up.  Then he quickly kicked me so hard that I wished I could have spanked his bum right then and there.-

One last thing... a new symptom of late pregnancy I had no idea I would ever experience.  A few weeks ago my inner thigh/groin area got really tight and I thought I had somehow strained a muscle.  It wasn't a bad enough pain to figure I pulled it, but it definitely was sore.  That's about the time I gave up going to the gym.  I've tried so hard to rest this muscle and help it any way I could, but here we are three weeks later and its definitely not any better than it was weeks ago.  I asked about it at my latest doctor's appointment and did everything I could to describe it and my concerns.  I even admitted I had been paranoid enough to wonder if it was a blood clot.  My doctor, having watched me be over anxious and worried about 8,000% more things this pregnancy, asked and asked questions and did everything he could to reassure me that it was not a blood clot.  Then he informed me that what I was experiencing was generally normal inflammation of that muscle (it goes from basically your inner knee and connects up near the pubic bone) due to everything in "that region" softening up and relaxing in preparation for delivery.  Seriously?!  I notice pain after very normal movements that hardly engage that muscle group. What in the world will it feel like once I've delivered a baby?  I straight up told the doctor that I considered that a very rude "side effect" of pregnancy and wondered why it was necessary, as if everything else we as moms endure in this experience was not enough.

Maternity Photos :: 33 weeks

I swear this is the last unimportant thing I do all day before I start running around "mach chicken" trying to get everything done that I need to in the next couple of hours.

A few weeks ago my friend Susie spoiled me with some time in front of the camera.  I kind of kept putting it off because it felt a little silly to take all kinds of pictures of just me, but I'm so glad I did it.  These will be fun to have in the future.  I really just wish I had made it happen with the boys' pregnancies.  I basically just have one or two "accidental" photos of me from that time.

We had the boys join in a few at first.  They are so excited to be getting a baby sister.  They are always seeing girly things at the store they want to buy for her and will randomly mention how excited they are to get a sister.  Tyler likes to remind me that he will not hit girls, especially his sister because he loves his sister.

Before we left for the session, Marshall insisted he needed to pick some flowers for his sister so I let him.  

He's so thoughtful and really likes to make people happy.

I thought this one turned out hilarious!  We were sad that Colby couldn't be home to be in this picture, but the message is still the same.  The kids' faces are priceless if you ask me...

The rest are just of me and the belly.  :)

I'm so glad we stopped at this spot.  It's an abandoned trailer park right on the side of a main road but we didn't let that phase us.  We were totally laughing that we couldn't just bring regular clients to weedy lots right along the highway.  Way too many cars and onlookers for most people to feel comfortable, but I was all about catching the shot in the pretty light, so I didn't mind one bit.

I really love this one and the next couple...

Tyler thinks it's great that I was in the middle of the road for these.  I'll have to work extra hard to remind him this is never ok.  Whoops.

Baby Shower

My mom threw me a cute little baby shower a couple weeks ago that had a story book theme.  I didn't get a picture of the paper lantern she made out of story book pages, but I did get pictures of the food!  It was all very yummy.

She printed up the menu on these book covers... which I thought was a darling detail.

Our sweet baby sure got spoiled!  I had actually been careful about how many people I invited because I didn't want all the attention... and not everyone was able to make it, but man alive!  She got a ton of darling little clothes.  And blankets!  And shoes!  It was fun to open up all that tiny stuff and have it be so girly.  I sent Colby this picture on his phone with a caption that said something like "our little girl is so spoiled" and he totally forgot my baby shower was that day and he thought I had gone and bought all this!  Haha.  I can only imagine how upset he was initially... haha.  Now it it true that I have bought some fun stuff for her, but nothing like this! 

Huge thanks go out to my mom for all her efforts... she did way more than I expected.

I finally got crafty!

I just made my first anything for Baby Girl!  Three little pairs of babylegs.

I just snapped a quick picture with my phone, maybe some real pics to do them justice will be taken once they are on Baby.

I was being "irresponsible" this morning -browsing Pinterest- when I came across a great tutorial (go ahead and click the link) for these babylegs.  I had pinned a couple other tutorials before, but nothing that really inspired me to get to work.  But this one had me rushing to the closet for a pair of socks I had bought for this exact purpose.  After sewing one, I just couldn't stop there and whipped out three whole pairs.

All the tutorials I have read say to get adult knee high socks.  I totally plan to do that for when she is just a wee bit bigger, but I wanted some for when she was tiny, so I got some knee highs from the girl's section and a pair of trouser socks from the women's section.  I guess we will really have to see how they work once Baby is here.  I think they will all be great... but I'm not going to rush out and buy more socks until I know for sure.

A few tips... I think the wider cuff will be cuter on bigger ones.  The purple pair has the thinnest cuff and I like the way it looks the best, but it was a pain!  At least compared to the others...  The tutorial says not to bother with pinning the cuff and "sock" together before sewing, which I agree with unless you are doing the super thin cuff.  The fabric really rolls, and it is kind of hard to get the bottom layer of fabric to do just what you want when it is getting pulled along by the teeth on the sewing machine, so I found pinning it was really helpful.  The tan ones still have a smaller cuff than the teal ones, but they were just big enough to not require pinning.

I can guarantee I will never pay full price for these kinds of things when they are this easy to make!  A pair of knee socks isn't more than a couple dollars, and are always going on clearance, so this should be a fun accessory to accumulate without feeling guilty about how much it is costing :)