35 Weeks ALMOST DONE!!

Almost DONE!!! WAHOO! I am soooo ready for this pregnancy to be over and I still have 5 weeks. Let's just say I hope I get to deliver early. Baby girl's kicks are now painful instead of sweet and my Braxton Hicks Contractions are KILLING ME. My baby is measuring big so hopefully that is the case. I have my appointment next week where they will let me know more about my delivery and labor options so I am ready for that. Wishful thinking I know but I need to stay positive about something at this point. 

How far along? 35 Weeks

Total weight gain: 25 lbs

Maternity clothes? MOST DEFINITELY.. even my maternity pants are getting tight. I spend most of my time in pajamas. 

Stretch marks? EVERYWHERE! I made it safely to 32 weeks with only a few minor stretch marks, but in the past few weeks they have sprouted EVERYWHERE. ALL over my stomach, my legs and my hips.. It's all good though, if only they would stop itching....

Sleep: I am waking up pretty regularly for pee runs. Other than that I am sleeping pretty good. Either that or I am just used to waking up and have gotten pretty good at falling back asleep. Either way I adore my sleep and have been getting 8+ hours a night so I will count that as a victory. 

Best moment this week: Conner has been coming home for lunch this week and I have really enjoyed the extra 30 minutes that I get to spend with him. After 6 months of having my husband putting most of his energy into work/school it is AMAZING to finally have the man I married back. Best moment this week has been that I realized I have just a little over a month left! YAY!!!! 

Miss Anything? my comfort and energy.. This week I have been really wanting to get up and start exercising.. then about 5 seconds into that idea I am already exhausted. I just feel like a bump on a log. For an active energetic person to lose their energy and oomph is just not right. 

Movement: She loves to play with Daddy. Everytime he touches my stomach or talks to her she goes absolutely NUTS. It is the most tender thing ever.

Food cravings: Drumsticks.. the ice cream kind. I bought a box of them on Tuesday and they are gone.. WHOOPS!  Conner might have helped me but shhhhhhh. Still craving salad and buffalo wings as well and crunching ice is my favorite eating activity lately. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Just over-eating. 

Gender: Girl. 

Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks all the time, but no pattern so I guess that means no.. :( 

Symptoms: Heartburn, back pain, Braxton Hicks, Itchiness on my stretch marks and being the size of a whale. - i know, it's only gonna get worse.

Belly Button in or out? Neither, it's just chillin at flat mode.. unless I laugh, then it pops out a little. Conner thinks it is creepy. hahaha 

Wedding rings on or off? on. Only a little swelling on my ankles but none on my hands. THANK HEAVENS

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy but still crying over everything. I have been better at learning to control it.. kinda.

Looking forward to: My baby showers!! They are next week and I am so excited to eat yummy food and get ready for something. Also it means that baby girl is ALMOST HERE!! I cannot wait. 

My Birthday

I am now the ripe old age of 22. This year I expressed to Conner that I feel more like I am 32 than 22. I am a stay at home wife who spends most of her time organizing, finding new recipes, cleaning, learning new ways to save money, and completing crafts like quilting and painting furniture. Seriously, if I was a "normal" 22 year old, I would have worn a hot dress out for dinner with my friends and been enjoying my last semester of college while looking forward to starting my career. It is so weird how what I want from life is so different.  

This year my birthday consisted of me driving Conner to work since we share a car. Then eating a FREE Denny's grand slam! Thank you Denny's. Then I took all my returns that I had been saving for the next time I ran errands and some of my birthday money from family, and decided to use all the return credit on stuff that I wanted! How fun, a self-made shopping spree that I previously had paid for. Sounds like guilt-free shopping paradise to me! I spent the entire day at Kohl's, Ross, and Target carefully selecting things that I wanted. Then Conner informed me that he had gotten a ride home from work, so I wouldn't have to pick him up. He comes through the door with a sad look on his face, so I assumed he had a bad day,(he had been sick all weekend) He asked if we could find his wallet and go to the store. He had gotten a ride home to pick me up some flowers, but had left his wallet at home. Poor Conner he can NEVER catch a break. I reluctantly agreed (the flowers are already dead btw) and because I am pregnant and STARVING I didn't protest when he offered to make me a steak for dinner. Yummy. We spent the rest of the night dancing, laughing and hanging out with no electronics! MY FAVORITE BIRTHDAY to date. 

It is weird now that I am kinda grown up, all I want to do on my birthday is have a day free of responsibility and to hang out with my husband with NO distractions. If you had told me that all I would be doing on my birthday was eating breakfast by myself and staying in all night, I probably would have been HIGHLY disappointed. I am a social person who LOVES parties and fun! However spending my last birthday before I become a full-time parent "just" hanging out with Conner & relaxing was the best! I know that times like these are soon to be lost once this little one comes, so I am soaking up every second of it!

Here are 22 things about myself since I am 22. 

1. My middle name is Amelia.

2. I have my Associates Degree.

3. I am Mormon.

4. I love getting the most for my money, even if I don't need it. Clearance=I NEED IT

5. Quilting is something that I love, but am not yet patient enough to master.

6. I drink a ridiculous amount of water. 

7. Boneless Buffalo Wings are my kryptonite. Buy me some and I will be your BEST FRIEND

8. Decorating is a passion of mine, but my wallet doesn't support my endeavors quite yet, therefore I love DIY projects that let me get close.

9. TV show characters are my closest friends. Not true, but I do feel pathetically sad when a series ends. 

10. I hate my Iphone. I cracked it really bad a few months ago and now DESPISE using it for anything. 

11. Conner and I usually stay in 6 out of 7 nights a week watching movies and eating. We live a boring life. 

12. I have found a love/hate relationship with ironing thanks to Conner's uniforms. 

13. I want a French Bulldog Puppy REALLY REALLY REALLY bad. 

14. I like being busy and stressed out. If I have nothing to do I get anxious very easily. I feel like there is something I should be doing.

15. I love cleaning, but despise straightening up. I can clean a bathroom in 10 minutes flat, but picking up my bedroom, thats a 4 hour job at least. I just don't understand. 

16. I hate talking on the phone & texting. I prefer the real thing please.

17. People watching is a hobby I highly enjoy.

18. If I was a millionaire, I would have REALLY nice handbags, and nails. I associate those two things with high class for some reason.. 

19. A clean kitchen after dinner makes me so happy inside. 

20. I love living in California and am sooooo happy to have moved back! 

21. I love my best friend/husband/love of my life & can't wait for him to be a DADDY!! He will be the most adorable dad ever. I fell in love with him because I saw his dad potential! I couldn't have picked a better example for my children to follow!

22. By this time next year I will have a 9 month old.. SAY WHAT?!?!

My opportunity to serve & my priviledge to share!

I have been CALLED to SERVE in church!!!! 

I am super excited to be the Hallmark Ward's new GOSPEL PRINCIPLES teacher! For those non mormons out there, A calling in church is when you are asked to volunteer your time and talents to help serve the congregation by teaching, leading, and serving those who live in your area. EVERYONE in our church is a 100% volunteer. NO ONE IS PAID. All the leaders and teachers in our churches and temples are there because they want to be. So now every Sunday for one hour I'm going to be teaching a class for those who are interested in the church, newly baptized members, and those who have recently become active in attending church again.

I am so grateful for this opportunity and I am striving to learn as much as I can each week to prepare to teach those adults in my class! I love serving and have definitely seen the blessings that it brings into others lives as well as my own.

I have now been teaching for two weeks and I am still as nervous as ever during my entire lesson. I feel like I learn more from my class than they learn from me, hopefully I can return the favor someday. For now though, I will soak up all the lessons I can! I love having my Testimony of the Savior and my Heavenly Father grow each and every week. I have already had many answers to prayers come from stories, comments, or a scripture that is shared during my lessons.

I love the truths that are taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Honestly they are so simple and clear. It is insane how twisted people can make it seem, but when I am reading the words of the prophets & scriptures, I feel in my heart a comfort and peace that can only come from the light of my Heavenly Father. It is through these sweet and tender experiences that I know that God lives and He love me. I know that Jesus Christ is my elder brother and that He loves me. I know that I am a LITERAL daughter of God. I know that God has not forsaken this world and that He still gives us guidance and instructions through a prophet today. He loves His children and wants us ALL to live with Him again through the power of forgiveness and through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I feel both of their love every single day. I know that through making and keeping sacred covenants with my Heavenly Father that I have the potential to be with Him again after this life. I also believe that through the power of those same covenants I will be with my family FOREVER. I know this life is hard sometimes and it is easy to complain, but I know that by letting Heavenly Father and Christ into my life I have felt miracles lift my heart and it has made even my biggest trials seem small. I know that my Church teaches truth,  not because I have been told, but because I have asked God myself. I have asked Him through the power of prayer and I testify to you that I received a very clear answer to that question.

I invite everyone who is feeling lost, afraid, confused, or like something is missing in their life to let God in. The peace and joy you will feel is unparalleled by anything the world can offer you. If you have questions about anything I have previously mentioned PLEASE let me know or search the answers to some previously asked questions at this website, or better yet, ask the Lord for answers and He will answer them.

Six Months!

25 Weeks 

This past week was a big one! Six months down, four more to go! This week Conner's brother Preston got married and we took a beach trip with his family the day after. It was way fun. Wearing a bathing suit on the other hand... not so fun. I am starting to really get big 

(this picture does it no justice.) This one shows it a little more... 

But back to the six month mark... 

 Baby boy is still moving a ton, but he is mainly kicking my bladder so it is hard for other people to feel him. His kicks are now jolts of power and scare me a little bit.  

My belly button is now completely flattened out. Weirdest looking thing ever.  

My cravings are BWW mild boneless buffalo wings and pop-tarts. YUM

Along with the sweet tooth I have officially started gaining weight. -___- this one was kind of unavoidable, but it is still disappointing. 

Liam LOVES Conner and is definitely a man's man. Everytime he is around Conner or men in general he starts moving a lot. I think he likes their deeper voices. 

My minty throat feeling has been back the whole past week. At this point I WISH it was heartburn. At least Tums solves that problem. 

Breathing is a arduous task that is extremely difficult after meals and pretty much every other activity.

It is now starting to get difficult to move around and get up from the couch.. 

I LOVE feeling him move and the kicks are only getting more frequent and stronger which is exciting. 

We have our nursery decorations (Thanks Lisa!) and I can not wait to put the crib up and get it all squared away!! 

Maternity clothes are mandatory at this point. Luckily my mom and mother in law got me SUPER cute maternity clothes for Christmas so I am excited to get to wear them with my new huge belly. 

My mood is still pretty positive and I am definitely feeling the nurturing mother instincts coming on. Conner is definitely benefiting from this. Since I stopped working and we moved down the hill I have had nothing to focus on besides him. Smothering doesn't even begin to cover it. He has always been the cuddly, mushy one but now that I am being mushy and cuddly he is a little concerned that his wife has been abducted. I am hoping that this mood lasts after the baby comes or else he might feel neglected after being spoiled so much. 

14 Goals for 2014

I know I am a little late with this but I have really been pondering what I would like to try to achieve this year so give me a little break.. This year is going to bring a LOT of changes with it! Conner and I will become first time parents, Conner starts his job, and I am no longer working for the first time since I moved out after high school! YAY for new beginnings!

I have really been pondering the changes that I want to make this year. As a family we decided to choose one word to focus on this year. Someone told me that this is what she does and honestly I LOVED the idea. So it is a new tradition that we are implementing. There were so many words to choose from, but in the end we decided to choose the word CONSISTENT for our family goal this year. I know, it might not be the best choice for a year with so many NEW experiences, but we are excited for the challenge. Our goal is to be consistent in all that we do. If we make a commitment, we follow through, if we set a goal, we finish it.. etc...

So I decided that for MY personal goals this year I would choose 14 things to be more consistent with in my life.

1. Keep my kitchen clean and straightened

This is a place in my home that causes me anxiety. If it is dirty and sloppy, I am stressed out and super antsy. If it is clean I enjoy being in it which helps greatly with the second goal that I have made. My goal is to clean up as I go, and make sure the kitchen is cleaned up completely from the day before I go to bed. This will help me wake up with one less thing to do in the morning.

2. Make dinner at least 4 times a week

I am not a cook. I do not enjoy it, I can barely even stand it. I am someone who wants my food and wants it now. Especially when I am tired. Which if you read my pregnancy post, is ALL the time. So I have made this a personal goal to meal plan every week and cook AT LEAST 4 meals a week. I am hoping that this will force me to enjoy cooking, and eat healthier. Plus my husband really appreciates it when I cook at home so this one is for you Conner!

3. Keep Laundry manageable

We live in an apartment complex where we have no washer and dryers or even hookups. So it is REALLY easy to put off laundry because you don't want to pay, or in my case, lug all the baskets to the laundry room. Pathetic I know. If you have lived somewhere without a washer and dryer you feel my pain. While it is unrealistic to say that I will do a load every day, I can say that every week I will do our laundry. Since there is only two of us (for now) We have just enough laundry at the end of the week to fill up two loads with clothes and one load of towels, sheets, and rags. So this is what I will be doing every week at the end. NO MATTER WHAT. If my weekend is busy, then I better do it early because there is nothing worse than paying a huge amount to spend your entire afternoon in a laundry room with 5+ loads of laundry because you finally ran out of clean underwear. Seriously it sucks.

4. Complete my Book of Mormon Chart & Scripture Topic Journal

I have chosen a scripture reading chart here. It is a 90 day Book of Mormon Chart. If I am CONSISTENT then I will have the Book of Mormon completed by March 31st!! More info on the Book of Mormon here. I also have a goal of filling my scripture topic journal by the end of this year. My journal has 52 topics that I chose, so I will be studying one topic a week and recording my thoughts and feelings. These topics can be studied from anywhere; general conference talks, sunday school lessons, personal scripture study, and preach my gospel. You name it I am going to be studying it and adding it to this journal. Hooray for gospel study!!

5. Show my Husband love everyday

Okay so this one was a gimme, but I honestly want to remember this on days that I want to punch him, which are not very often, but do come. I want to serve him daily and show him that he is my number one priority. I want him to know how I feel about him. So I will CONSISTENTLY be showing him the entire year, every single day!

6. Attend Church EVERY Sunday

Okay so this one is also a gimme. I need some easy victories okay?! But seriously, this is something I want to make a point of doing this year. Especially with a little one joining us soon, I know how easy it would be to just stay at home the first couple of weeks after he arrives. (If I am in the hospital, I will obviously not be able to go, but this is the only exception I am making!) I am promising myself right now, that even if I am sick, exhausted, or on vacation I will at least go to church for sacrament meeting. Not just the sacrament, but the whole meeting! (Usually by that point I just stay the whole time even if I don't feel so great.) I am pounding it into my head right now so that I have no excuses later. Church is very important to me and if I miss taking the sacrament my whole week is off. So I will attend church 52 times this year. Bring it on!!

7. Mop floors every week

This one is pretty self explanatory. I have wood floors so if I stay on top of it weekly at least it shouldn't be too long of a task.

8. Visit teach every month

Okay so right now I don't have a visiting teaching assignment, let alone a calling at all, but I am planning to do it once assigned.. if that ever happens. We have been in our new ward for a couple months and they keep promising a calling, so I am preparing to be consistent in one now so that when it comes along I am ready!

9. Have the missionaries over for dinner at LEAST once a month

We have had both the sisters and elders over at least once a month each. It has honestly been such a blessing! Being new in the ward they have really helped us feel welcome and get to know people in our ward. They are really fun and Conner loves swapping mission stories with them. Everytime they are over there is a special spirit in our home. This is a thing I would like to continue to do, so they will be coming over at least once a month to suffer through my poorly cooked meals. Yay for them!

Conner and his best friend Josh serving in Brazil! Yay for missionaries!

Both Conner and I have siblings serving full-time missions in Central America right now. Conner served a mission for two years in Sao Paolo, Brazil when he was 19. What he learned and experienced continue to bless our lives every single day. Plus he learned Portugese which is SUPER cool. To learn more about missionaries and what they do, just ask me, or go here! 

10. Write in my journal at least once a week.(Blog counts!!!)

I am terrible at being consistent with this. Most of my journal entries are an attempt to cover from the last time I wrote up until the present. I am done playing catch up. I am committing to write in either my journal or blog at least once a week. This is me attempting to fulfill my personal family history.

11. Have some kind of date night every week

Whether this is just a movie at home or a nice dinner out, I want to have at least two hours of uninterrupted date time a week. Sometimes I feel like we are on one continuous date all the time since we don't have kids, but developing this habit now will help us be consistent with it once we have children.

12. Attend the temple every single month, if not more

The temple is a place I really love!! I cannot express how I feel while I am there. There is no other place on earth where I feel closer to God. Here is a video about temples. Here is a more detailed video. I want to be consistent in my temple attendance. We now live less than 30 minutes from the Redlands Temple and I want to go every month with Conner. I love the spirit there and it helps me feel refreshed and renewed. I want to go as much as possible.

13. Pay off debt & be debt free

Okay this one is a big one. Conner and I have been working on really cracking down on our debt. We have both promised ourselves that we would like to become completely debt free this year. This will require a lot of discipline and consistently saying NO when I want to get something that we don't really need. We are going to be making a lot of personal sacrifices to achieve this goal. I am ready for it and can't wait to finally say that we are debt free!!!

14. Try to be more like Christ.

Becoming more like Christ is a change in behavior and the way we think. I want to face this year with the consistent thought; "How would Christ handle this situation?" or "What would Christ's reaction be?" The more I try to line my thoughts and actions with him, the closer I will feel to him and the better I will feel everyday!

So 2014 BRING IT ON!! I am excited to be consistent this year and to see how much our little family can grow in a year! I will be posting all year long about how my goals are going and such. Happy new year from Conner and I! Make it a great year or not, the choice is yours!