The Final 2

The final two names are decided! After 3 weeks of just staring at the the final four names we were able to come to an agreement! Lance actually told me his favorite two and they happened to be mine as well,  it was the easiest round.

The final two are.......

Brooklyn & Haylee 

We think we are going to go to the hospital with two names and see which ones fits her the best. Either name we choose, her middle name will be Marie (that's my middle name and a couple great-something grandma's). I think they both have a great ring to them: Brooklyn Marie Brown or Haylee Marie Brown. 

What do you think? 

We are officially on the down hill stretch-30 weeks down, 10 more to go! 

Highlights of the past couple weeks:

~New doctor=AMAZING!!!!

~Little girl is measuring right on track

~She is getting SO strong and I feel her almost constantly

~Lance loves watching her stretch and kick me, then guessing what body part it is. We felt her foot the other day-so little and cute!

~He gets a kick out of waking her up when she is sleeping by shaking and talking loudly or singing at my stomach. It works unfortunately.

~All 3 of us our healthy and happy! :) 

Wonderful Week!

29 weeks down, only 11 more to go! I can't believe how fast time is flying! This week has been just what I needed! Its been absolutely gorgeous outside and let's be honest, sunshine will make anyone feel happy!

I was able to go out with the girls last saturday for a much needed lunch date and shopping. It was the best day ever! Great friends, great laughs, great news... it was wonderful!

Tonight Amy and I are throwing our very first baby shower for our friend Lindsey at my place. It'll be really fun to get all the girls together and celebrate Lindsey's little boy! Its crazy how many babies are on their way!

We finally got to go to our new doctor yesterday, I am SO thankful we decided to switch doctors. She is absolutely amazing! She let me know that I am in control and that I will be able to make all final decisions regarding how I want my labor and delivery to go. It is so nice to know that I have the support from my doctor. I trust that she isn't going to do anything without consulting me first and giving me options. I finally got to ask any and all questions I had and it was seriously a huge relief. I am actually excited now and not terrified like I was. She fully supports me in wanting a pain-free delivery.

I love having control over things, I'm a little bit of a control freak.

Saturday we are finally making a trip down to the temple. I took for granted living only 10 min away from the one in Logan. It is hard to make regular trips when it is about 2 hours away.  Lance and I haven't been to the temple since October when we were visiting Palmyra. We really need to go more.

I got a new calling at church a few weeks ago and am absolutely thrilled. I got called to serve as the  First Counselor of the Relief Society. I am so excited to take on this new role and to get to know the ladies in the branch better. I know its going to be a lot of work especially with the language barrier but it'll be worth it!  I'm still going to be the Primary Chorister as well. Singing time will just be the very first thing after sacrament so I have time to get up for Relief Society. It is so fun to teach the kids new songs. They haven't ever had a chorister in the branch so we are learning very basic songs that almost all primary kids know. They absolutely love it. It has been a learning experience for me as well, since most of their parents only speak Spanish to them at home we have been learning some songs in English and some in Spanish. It has been a challenge for me but so fun learning some of my favorite songs in Spanish. This week we are singing in sacrament and I'm nervous but excited!

Sunday will be finished off with a BBQ at our place and will hopefully be the icing on the cake of a great week!

I love Springtime.

P.S Final two names have been chosen, I'll post the updated bracket soon!

In Need Of A Little Rant

*warning: this post contains a lot of whining and complaining

In Lance's words I've been a "champ" going through this pregnancy. I haven't complained too much, I've managed to keep hormones in check, and I've had a pretty awesome attitude going through all this.
However today is the first day I just want to whine and complain. I REALLY just want to be done.

I am beyond exhausted.  This past week my extreme tiredness has returned. I can sleep for 12+ hours a night and not be able to function the next day.  During the first trimester I was hit with this extreme exhaustion but was able to sleep just fine. Now, with a belly that is getting bigger and a little girl who is extremely active I am having a hard time getting a good nights sleep. The charley horses are in full force and I wake up at least 5 times a night trying my hardest to make them stop. I am in a constant fight with the covers trying to stay comfortable, it seems I've lost the ability to regulate my body temperature. Headaches have started to become a regular occurrence, and I can no longer just drink water without an awful bout of heartburn, Tums have become my new favorite thing.

This lack of sleep is really straining on the ability to keep my emotions in check. I've found that I've become more annoyed at the littlest things. People's lack of manners are really getting to me!

A friend posted on her blog a while ago about how people think it is appropriate to say whatever they want to a pregnant woman. I too am wanting to know the answer to why they think this way.  Lately I have fallen victim to some pretty interesting and some rude comments by people who simply do not know what manners are. I just wish everyone followed this basic rule: Think before you open your mouth! If you wouldn't say such things to your mother, your sister or a significant other in fear of it offending them or hurting them, you should probably not say it to a complete stranger or someone you hardly know.

Also, another small rant on manners. When chewing gum in a public setting, do not chomp with your mouth wide open, do not snap it every time you chew, and if you must show off your ability to blow a bubble do so extremely sparingly. This also goes when eating, there is no reason why you should be making that much noise when eating. If this is a way to express how delicious your food is, please do so once you have swallowed your food and verbally express your satisfaction after.

This is going to be one LONG third trimester.

Luckily, I only have to deal with this for another 83 days and the reward will be completely worth it!

Hopefully this weekend will help relieve some of the stress and help me relax a bit. I'm in desperate need of date night with the husband and a lunch date with the girls. This weekend can't get here soon enough!

Final Four Names!

We finally decided to agree-to-disagree and we were able to come down to the final four names! We are so excited but dread having to move onto another round. This is so hard! I want to pick one soon because I'm feeling super crafty and want to make things with her name on them! We thought about going to the hospital with two names and choosing one when we see her but we don't want to be arguing over names in the hospital when were loving on our little girl! I don't know what we will do but for now we are pretty pleased with ourselves for getting down to four names! So without further adieu...

A couple of weeks ago I posted about her baby quilt for her bedding that I was attempting to make. After lots of hard work and numerous amount of hours (I've decided I'm not a quilter, nor do I have the patience to deal with all those stupid squares) I finally finished! I'm actually pretty please with the final product. Its super soft and warm and I find Lance using it constantly while he's laying on the couch watching TV. I folded down the top corner so you are able to see the back of it. Its a brown fleece on the black and super cozy! 

We finally started to shop for her and I am so happy and relieved we started to get prepared for her arrival!  I absolutely loved going out shopping for baby stuff!  I'm starting my third trimester on Tuesday and we are shocked at how fast this is going by! We will have our little one here in about 87 days!

25 Weeks-I promised a picture...

25 weeks down only 15 more to go!  I'm feeling really great, this pregnancy thing so far has been a breeze (knock on wood).  The only complaint I have so far is the intense leg cramps/charley horse's I get at night, every night! Last night I woke up to one in both legs at the same time! I didn't know what to do, I just flung both legs up in the air attempting to stretch and flex while I winced in pain. They really are no fun!

Other than that the second trimester has been great. I've had the majority of my energy back, my emotions are somewhat in check (depending on the day... ok depending on the minute), and I've loved seeing and feeling this little girl kick me!

Now that the second trimester is winding down and I'm getting closer to the third, I'm starting to get more tired and my emotions are starting to get out of whack again. I'm starting once again to cry over everything. I even cry over the fact that I don't know why I'm crying. Lance really is a champ, he has been so supportive and will just sit and hold me and try his hardest not to laugh when I'm crying over nothing.

I'm starting to feel more and more like I did during the first trimester-Sleepy all the time, cranky, and emotional. The only problem is with this growing belly, sleeping is starting to get more and more difficult and I end up waking up multiple times in the night. I have a feeling this last trimester is going to get a bit tough. But on the bright side, it is preparing me for sleepless nights that I will have once this little girl gets here.

6 months 1 week and 3 days pregnant! 

Lance and I cannot wait for her to get here but at the same time we are trying to enjoy the last bit of time we have with just the two of us. We have decided to take another trip before her arrival- we are going back to either  DC or Chicago. I'm pretty sure it'll be DC because we realized the other day there are THREE Cafe Rio's out here on the east coast and one happens to be only a few miles away from DC. Seeing how I crave that place even when I'm not pregnant, I hold the trump card. I'm just upset we didn't realize its location last fall when we were there!

Only 102 days till her arrival! YAY!

Baby Names: The Elite 8

After much deliberation Lance and I were able to pick the elite 8. I'm so glad we have another 3 months to figure out this name thing because it is not easy.We are attempting to do the next round this weekend but we probably won't have it figured out for a while. Stay tuned. :)

P.S We hope everyone has a great Easter weekend :) 

Baby bedding costs WHAT?

As the months are winding down and we are getting closer and closer to our little girls arrival I'm starting to realize we have NOTHING ready. I know we have over 3 months but my nesting instinct is kicking in high gear and I want everything ready NOW! We are slowly purchasing little things but I'm starting to get anxiety over the fact that we don't have any necessary items.

I've been thinking about the nursery a lot lately and trying to decide what I want to do with it. I'm really not a fan of the girly girl colors, I don't know why but an all pink room makes me VERY uncomfortable. Plus, our dressers and clothes have to stay in the nursery as well because whoever designed the homes in Cleveland decided that people can live in tiny rooms that barely fit a queen bed. So lance has to be able to go into the room without gagging over all the pink.

I narrowed down my colors. I want to do a Pink/Green/Brown room. The room will be mostly brown and green with pink accents. That way its more neutral with a little splash of "girlyness". So the searching began, I searched, and searched, and searched. I must be really picky because I wasn't finding anything I could even compromise with.  After days of searching I finally found a couple bedding sets that I absolutely LOVED. They were perfect, not to girly, just enough pink to stand out but not make me gag. Everything was great until I looked at the price tag...$250 dollars!! WHAT!? You have got to be kidding me! It was a 4 piece set for that insane amount. Lance and I got a 10 piece queen bedding set  for our room that is gorgeous for under $100. There was no way we were going to get it. Ok, I'll confess I was still going to get it but Lance talked some sense into me and made me realize that if we get it I won't be getting as many clothes for her. Not wanting a naked baby, I agreed.

So the searching began again, and I found NOTHING.

Luckily I've been on a craft kick so I made the decision to make her bedding.  I decided to make her a quilt that will mimic the ones that I loved for a fraction of the cost.  I really don't know how its going to go, I'm really quite nervous.

Lance and I went to Joann's Fabrics and picked out the colors. After 2 hours of cutting 7x7 squares I'm almost ready to start sewing tomorrow. I sure hope it turns out good, I don't really know how to sew that well. The last sewing class I took was in 8 grade where I became a pro at sewing a pillow in the shape of a foot. Seeing how that isn't going to help me in slightest I hope I remember the crash course Lance's mom gave me before we moved out here.

The soon to be front of the quilt-I still need to work the pattern a bit. And I still may add another brown color in there...too many decisions!  

Tomorrow will be spent cutting out more 7x7 squares for the back and somehow learning to quilt while quilting. Wish me luck!