Baby Shower!

I had my baby shower on December 4th and it was incredible, to say the least. Everything was perfect, more than I ever could have imagined - I have such wonderful friends and family and I can't believe how lucky I am to have them in my lives. My best friends threw the shower for me. Amanda, with the help of Kristalyn and Lauren, made the most adorable cake, delicious treats, cute invitations, and lovely little decorations. They put so much work into it! And I couldn't believe how many people came to wish me well and congratulate us on our little guy. After it was all over and cleaned up, Chase and I laid down to take a nap and I just cried because I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. We received so many thoughtful and much-needed things for baby Finn and I know he is already so spoiled. :) Anyway, tons of pictures below... like tons. I wish I had more of everyone who came - thank you all of you for making me feel so special and loved! I don't deserve you.

We only took a couple of pictures before people showed up - I wish I had closer ones to do Amanda's handiwork justice.

The cutest cake I have ever laid eyes on. Love it!

So the theme for refreshments was "Amy's Favorite Foods" so there was Mac & Cheese, Sweet Potato French Fries, and Mini Pizzas! Mmm.

Seriously, this was my reaction to almost every gift. Haha. And I just love the cute little bear below that my friend Nikki made. :)

Finn has so much competition with his cousins. I don't think it gets any cuter than these little ladies.

Anyway, it was such a wonderful day. I enjoyed every moment. Wait, scratch that... can I just tell you that opening presents in front of a bunch of ladies who are being totally quiet and staring at you is the most awkward thing ever? I was blushing so much! But I am so grateful to everyone for coming and spoiling our little grub! :)

Thanksgiving

Okay finally getting around to updating this thing. So about Thanksgiving. It was great! We flew up to Idaho to spend the week with Chase's family. Our flight also happened to be on the night of the presumed "worst storm Salt Lake had seen in 10 years". Anyway, our flight got delayed and we figured even if we made it to the airport late that night, no one would be able to drive on the roads to come get us! So we rescheduled for a flight early the next morning. The next morning we both woke up with sore throats and stuffy heads. Oh my goodness, it just got worse and I cannot ever remember being more miserable from a cold! It ended up lasting a solid 2 weeks. I blame it on my more-than-normal congested pregnant body. Bleh. But the good news is we still had an amazing time just relaxing with the fam!

Thanksgiving Day... it was in the single digits! And Mama Child said no coats for the pictures. Probably the coldest Finn has ever been.

Love my In-Laws so much. :)

Lots of sleeping happened on this trip. Seriously, where is the fun in being pregnant on Thanksgiving if you can't taste the food?

So Chase's Uncle had this GINORMOUS swing built for the Child's backyard. It was so huge and bouncy.

So anyway, that was our Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to get away from Mesa for a bit and be with the Child family and just totally relax. Chase's mom and sisters threw me a sweet mini-baby shower too! I wish I had gotten pictures. They are so awesome and I was so grateful for how thoughtful they were to do that. :) I wish I could remember what else we did while we were there, but it's all a bit of a foggy blur in my head. Hmm.

Gratitude

So, someday I'll post Thanksgiving and baby shower pictures.... but life has been so crazy and busy lately.

It's also been pretty rough, and I'm getting so tired of it. I'm especially getting sick and tired of crying all the time. And I feel like there are too many legitimate things to cry about, even if I wasn't pregnant.

Anyway, I was just trying to tell myself to keep my chin up, everything will be fine, etc. It wasn't really working.

What does work though, almost every time, is reminding myself how blessed I am and how grateful I am for the life I have.

I have Chase. That alone makes everything a million times better. And we have Finn now. And we always, always have Heavenly Father and His Son. Things may get difficult with jobs and family and friends and other things... but they pass, and life is still incredible in so many ways.

I know without a doubt that everything will be okay. I'm not worried at all about that. But that doesn't mean it's still not hard. So reminding myself that I have so much to be thankful for, so much that so many others are without, helps me to be humble and grateful and know that it will all work out for the best.

I apologize to anyone reading this. But just needed to get this out so I wouldn't start crying at work. Stupid hormones. :)

Halloween

Forgot to post pics of our Halloween fun. We decided to go as Juno and Pauly Bleeker. Thanks Amanda for the excellent idea. :) We went to a party at some friend's house and also had a little dinner at our place where we made delicious pizzas on the grill. It was the best Halloween I've ever had! But maybe I was just excited to proudly sport my baby bump. There are a lot more pictures, but to be honest, I'm feeling really lazy so this is all I posted. Also, blogspot has the stupidest way of uploading photos and it makes them all in reverse order and at the top of the post and it really bugs me. I am definitely feeling like a feisty pregnant lady right now. Grr.







Amanda and Adam were Charlie Brown and Lucy, and our friends Matt and Nikki were... well, I'll let you guess. On a less grumpy note, our crib came! Isn't it adorable? :) Can't wait to show pictures of the nursery all finished.

This is why I love my life.

He is amazing in every way.

Save your toilet paper rolls...

...and make some pumpkin garland.





These were fun to make. I think they turned out alright, at least better than the toilet paper people I used to make when I was little (no really - I used to have a black garbage bag full of probably 100 toilet paper rolls that I hoped to turn into an army of toilet paper people, complete with little q-tip arms; our kids are going to be such weirdos). Click here for the tutorial - her's look way cuter.

Another update. I guess. Two weekends ago Chaser and I went on a little trip to the Musical Instrument Museum in North Scottsdale. It was really fun and amazing to see how humans have such an incredible desire to create music - no matter where they live. I'll admit, I sat a lot on the comfy benches while Chase walked around more... something about being pregnant makes 10 minutes of standing feel like a day's worth of walking around Disneyland. Anyway, pictures:






The turtle shell leggings made us so sad and miss our little turds Pi and Munch. :( And yes, my husband is awesome and after 30 seconds of messing around on the harp (which he's never touched before) busted out "Heart and Soul" (you know, the duet that everyone plays on the piano). Everyone got quiet and watched him. What a hunk. :)

Last but not least, our little Finn is getting bigger:



The first one is 23 weeks, the second is 24 and a half. So excited. :)

Sorry for so many pic-sirs.