34 weeks (7 1/2 months)

 

This is me at 34 weeks pregnant.  Yes, there is a reason this is blurry.  There is no need to see the details of how HUMONGOUS I am.  Trust me, I'm huge.  I've gained a ridiculous amount of weight with this baby and most of it is not in the belly.  This has by far been my hardest pregnancy ever.  So sick, so tired, so miserable, so not motivated to participate in life.  If it wasn't obvious by my lack of blog posts, I basically checked out of life (as much as I could) for the past 7 1/2 months.  I feel like I was still an adequate mom and a sometimes nice wife, but for the most part I have just been trying to get through each day.

Over the past few weeks I've been slowly starting to check myself back into life and I've realized that I really do miss it!  I'm really loving the end of my pregnancy (besides the whole pre-term labor, millions of uncomfortable contractions, bed rest issues).  I ABSOLUTELY love feeling this baby move around inside me.  I love my boys constantly wanting to touch my belly.  I love to hear them talking about their baby brother.  I love the idea of having a new baby around and it just seems like he can't get here soon enough (he is obviously impatient too).  I am so excited to almost be done with this miserable, horrible, awful pregnancy and say, that was absolutely 100% worth every single second!  I know that's how I'll feel once I see this sweet baby boy.  I'm so ready for the payoff.  

Trust me, I'm not being overly dramatic or ungrateful.  I thank my Heavenly Father a million times a day for this incredible opportunity.  Also, I feel like I've had a really great attitude most of the time.  I just need to be honest for record keeping purposes.  I know in a few weeks I won't even remember how miserable I was.  I'm blessed with a memory that seems to only remember the good things.  I'm just being honest so that I can really remember how this pregnancy was (or in case I ever think it's a good idea to get pregnant again).

We are ready, but waiting patiently.  We need this baby boy to make it to 36 weeks.  We're in the home stretch and we're all dying to meet our new little man.  Stay tuned...

back to school

Payton started back to school on Tuesday.  He is in the 4th grade.  How is it possible that I have a 4th grader?!  We are both so happy because he has an awesome teacher that we already know so well.  She was Parker's Kindergarten teacher last year.  Also, Payton has his two best friends in his class.  Below is Payton and Alex waiting in line.   Here's to hoping that this year is just as amazing as last year! 

Parker started school on Wednesday.  He met with his teacher on Tuesday and was so excited to start school he could hardly wait an extra day.  Parker is in 1st grade this year, which means he'll be gone ALL DAY LONG!  We are sure going to miss him, but we know that he is so ready.  He absolutely loves school.  He insisted on taking the bus on his first day and wouldn't let me take him.  Mr. Independent is ready for a great year!

It was so wild to walk back into our house at 8 am and realize it was just Cooper and I together all day long.  We looked at each other thinking, "What do we do now?"  Cooper retreated to the playroom and started playing by himself and I retreated to my office for the first time in months.  It's been nice to have some quiet time to finally get my blog updated.  We'll enjoy these long quiet days together for only a couple weeks until this baby comes and rocks our world once again!

last weekend of summer

We tried to soak up the last bits of summer as much as we could this past weekend.  Parker was the lucky one who got to go to the infamous Jones Family Reunion with his Grandpa & Grandma.  We (especially Cooper) were so sad to see him leave for the weekend, but he had so. much. fun for 4 days without us.   

While Parker was away, we celebrated Tim's Birthday and watched Payton play in a soccer tournament.  On Thursday night (Tim's Birthday), all of my family drove up to Layton and we ate dinner at, The Rooster, then we all watched Payton play his first game of the tournament.  Their team did awesome and they won!  It was so nice of all my family to come celebrate with Tim and support Payton.  Friday morning we headed back up to Layton for another game.  They lost their second game, but it was so close and such a good game.  We decided to stay the night in Layton (since there was another game the next day and Tim has plenty of free hotel stays).  We checked in to our hotel and relaxed for a bit and then headed over to see Harry Potter.  After the movie, we went back to the hotel and the boys swam.  When they got sick of that we left and went out to dinner.  Then headed back to our room to get some rest!

We obviously had fun playing with the instagram app on my phone.  On Friday morning we grabbed some breakfast at our hotel then went to watch the "red" team play.  The lost, bummer!  We went back to the hotel and packed up then headed to Payton's game.  They also lost and it was also a bummer, but they played one of the best teams in the state and they did a great job at the tournament.  We were so proud of Payton and we had a great time!  That night Tim & Payton went to the REAL game and Payton got to walk out onto the field with his team before the game.  Here they are all in the tunnel chatting before they walked out.  (Another crappy phone picture, sorry.) 

It was a fabulous summer and fabulous weekend to top it all off, now...Back to School!!

summer fun

This summer has been a whirlwind of too much fun to count. We finished the basement, switched bedrooms and have been working on countless house/nesting projects. My sister, Erika, her husband, Brian and little girl Harper have been in town all summer (Brian did have to leave early to go back home and work!) We have spent so much time with my family. Hanging out in my parents newly remodeled kitchen. We've been at their house at least once a week all summer (since that's how often I've had my doctor appointments). We've spent a ton of time at Clint & Becca's pool. My boys love playing with their cousins Harper and Sophia. We've also had tons of play dates with friends. Payton and Parker have both been playing soccer all summer so we've had two nights a week of soccer, soccer and more soccer! We've enjoyed parades, the fair, fireworks and all the other fun stuff that summer time brings. Although, I've had to take it easy for a lot of the summer, we still managed to fit in too much fun!

cooper's new room

Since Payton and Parker moved downstairs, Cooper got to move into their room.  He was so excited about his new room that he could not wait for his bed to sleep in his room.  He absolutely loves his new room and has so much fun showing it off to everyone!

 

basement complete!

I won't feel like the basement is complete until it's all decorated and the few odds & ends we need to tie up are done.  HOWEVER, we do have a functional basement that we love.  The boys love their new room.  Tim loves his new tv, sound system and set up downstairs.  We all love the comfy recliner couches.  I love that I have my storage room back.  It was not even functional during construction.  I love that my kids disappear downstairs and my house upstairs is completely silent.  It's so nice having the extra space.  I love how everything turned out and I couldn't be happier...although I could definitely use some better pictures (Clint, can you help me with that?).  Again, these were taken with my iphone for purposes of getting this blog updated quickly.  I apologize for the horrible quality, but you get the point!  

Who's coming over for movie night?