Anniversary Weekend

On the 12th of this month we celebrated our 4 year anniversary. It happened to fall on a Thursday this year and ended up being a busy day for both of us, so we had dinner together exchanged a gift or two, and decided to celebrate later. Last weekend Josh surprised me with a getaway to Park City. Although PC is about 15 minutes from home it feels like it's worlds away. We stayed at the swanky 5 star St Regis, enjoyed the hot tub, amazing dinners out, hiking, a movie, strolling Main Street, the farmers and craft markets, outdoor fires at night and each other. It was the perfect 2 day escape. I loved every second of it and the uninterrupted time I got with Josh. He is, after all, my favorite person in this world.

This is where we stayed, and yes it was as cool as it looks:

Within minutes of arriving the hotel delivered us the most delectable chocolate covered strawberries and sparkling cider, in honor of our anniversary and in celebration of our baby on the way.

Josh so happy to have nothing on the agenda:

On our ski lift ride up a mountain we saw this buck below:

The view from our nature walk:

We had a rock throwing contest and I lost, surprise surprise!

We also saw these odd chickens walking down the street:

Well the weekend was 100% enjoyable. We were both a little sad to come home after only 2 days to a cute little house with no TVs built into the bathroom mirrors, and where someone doesn't turn your bed covers down every evening, lay your slippers out, dim the lights, and leave classical music on for you. I guess that's why vacations are so great.

To my Joshua Ray, I love you to death. I could squeeze you to prove it but you are too big and strong. Thank you for making my life so easy and happy these past 4 years. You are the best companion I can imagine and I am lucky to have you. You will be a fantastic father and I know our kids will adore every ounce of you, as I do. I think it's pretty darn rad that we are still best friends and still look forward to time together. You are the coolest fool in town. I love your guts.

Our Future

We have a love/hate relationship with this commercial. This is our future. It's so sad when babies grow up.

35 Week Pregnancy Stats

Well folks, I went to the doctor yesterday for one of my weekly check ups. Everything is looking great and she certainly doesn't think I will be going past my due date with how things are progressing! I was certain I was going to go over, so we'll see how things go from here (remember how I was certain we were having a boy?).

My 35 weeks stats are as follows:

• 70% effaced
• 1 cm dilated
• Baby's head is at a station -2 (she's already entering my pelvis)
• Baby is upside down and facing left, she has been for several weeks now
• 16 lb total weight gain
• less karate kicks these days, more pushing, butting, elbowing, pressing, rolling
• still only the top portion of my belly button is protruding, I don't think I'll get a full outie
  
• 36'' waist- started out with a 22'' waist, will I ever see it again?
• still no swelling or stretch marks, hopefully I can claim this one until the end
  
• Baby is measuring a little small, nothing scary, most likely because I am petite (and we thought she was going to take after Josh size-wise, thank goodness for me she isn't). She'll probably end up in the 6-7 lb range.
• get contractions when I stand for a long time, when I exercise and walk up stairs, when I get startled, in the afternoon and evening, and every time we go to Home Depot-seriously
  
• have completed birthing class and feel somewhat prepared for what I'm about to endure
• could eat strawberries all day, every day. Fruit has definitely been my food of choice these past 9 months.
• still mostly comfortable. The only times I'm uncomfortable are when she is pressing her butt into my ribs and when I over eat.

We are so excited for our little babe to be with us. We know she will bring us more joy than we can imagine. I can't believe my time pregnant has almost come to an end. Some days it feels like it's been the longest 9 months of my life and others it seems as if it's flown by. We are wrapping up on the baby preparations. Her nursery is almost complete and I LOVE how it turned out. Josh put a lot of blood and sweat into that room and I am so grateful for all his work. I will post pictures as soon as it is complete.

As excited as we are for this blessing to join our family, we get a teeny bit sad that it will never be just the 2 of us again. I will miss my alone time with Josh. I love him so much and have thoroughly enjoyed having him to myself over the past 4 years. We have enjoyed our alone time so much and I am so glad we waited to have a baby. It was perfect for us. We were able to become 100% secure in our relationship which I feel can only help us once the baby is here. We are in the perfect place, for us, to welcome this baby into our family. We have been talking a lot and both feel we need to set aside time for each other, once she is here. With how much Josh works, the baby, church callings, daily life, continuing house projects, etc. it will be easy for us to neglect each other and we won't allow that to happen. So we decided that after the delivery, as soon as I'm feeling well enough and we have a good milk supply for the baby, we will start dating again. A date a week is what we plan on. I am already excited for it and I still have Josh to myself.

We couldn't be more excited to add to our family of two. We feel blessed everything has gone as smoothly as possible. We are grateful for our health and for the knowledge we have to help this baby grow to be as healthy as we can. We can't wait to see her, have her, hold her, love her, teach her, and watch her become what she chooses for herself. We can't wait for her arrival!

Maternity Photo Shoot

We had some maternity photos taken while we were vacationing in Newport Beach. I love how they turned out and am glad we took the time to get them done.

Help!

Josh and I are having a particularly hard time tackling a name for our little female on the way (we, of course, had boy names decided on and were ready to name our first born- until we found out we were having a girl). We are running out of time and I would like to decide on something rather quickly. We might just have to go to the hospital with a list and take a look at the little babe before making any decisions.

We thought we had her name selected a few weeks ago but now we aren't so sure. As of now we have a list of about 10 names we are open to but nothing feels quite right. So, we are open to new ideas and suggestions. If anyone has any ideas to throw our way we'd appreciate it. We like more classic/old fashioned names than super trendy soooo 2000-something names. Help!

Lake Powell

So to top off our other vacations we spent 4 days in Lake Powell last week. We went with our friends, stayed on a house boat/tent, and enjoyed the few days we had there.

I will admit I have hated Lake Powell in the past and I was dreading this trip. Knowing how the past trips there have gone and being 8 months pregnant, I was not looking forward to it. I actually had a lot of fun and it was by far the best Lake Powell vacation I have been on. Josh was in Heaven and that is something I love to see. He loves it there, it's his happy place. He is happiest when he gets to be with his friends playing sports or wake boarding.

We had great weather, I floated in the water, everyone else surfed and wake boarded and we enjoyed some quality time with our friends before the baby is here which was nice. It was also nice that Dr./Uncle Brock didn't have to deliver Tori's or my baby. That wouldn't have been ok with me.

Our friend Mark goes so huge when he boards. He didn't land this particular roll but you can see how crazy he is. And to the right is one of Joshy.