Christensen Shower

My aunt threw me a shower for the Christensen side of my family. Since it was only 2 days before Halloween, it was Halloween themed and it was awesome!

Some of the cute decorations.

Me and my Grandma GiGi

Me and Berrie

Kathy got me this hilarious onesie.

See how much FUN everyone is having!? It was a great party!

The kids all had a ton of fun too!

Game Night!

Last night, Courtney and Joe invited us over for an extremely fun night of dinner and games.

I should've taken more pictures because we were having so much fun!
We used to get together EVERY weekend when we were all dating and first married and it has been years since we've been able to hang out like this!

We missed you Missy and Aaron and Jeanette and Jesse!!

Friend Showers

I've been super lucky and have had a few friend showers recently. I've loved having all my baby showers separately so that I actually get to see and talk to everyone there instead of having a million people at one shower and not having the chance to catch up with everyone. It's been busy, but totally worth it!

First I had my gym friends shower.

Ashley, Diane, Katie, Missy, Jenny, Kelsey and I went out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe in Layton.

They all bought the cutest things for the baby!

Chef Ashley made some amazing lemon cupcakes! Thanks Ash!

Then I had a shower with some of my jr. high and high school friends

How cute is this!? I love it!

Me, Michelle, Jamie, Nique, and Brianne (and baby Macy)

MORE adorable presents for baby!

Me with the darling chalkboard.

Me and Nique (she looks so tan next to me!)

Then I also got to have a shower with some of my friends that all grew up in the same neighborhood (most of these friends all overlap "groups", but I still liked that the showers were all different). We went out to eat at Olive Garden and, of course, I got spoiled again- or the baby did anyways!

How Far Along: 35 Weeks

Size of baby: Weighs in at about 5.5 pounds, I think he’s big enough that he’ll stay head down now.

Maternity Clothes: I’ll occasionally still wear a large or baggy shirt that’s not maternity, but for the most part it’s all maternity, all the time.

Gender: He’s my baby boy.

Name: I don’t even wanna talk about it. The fact that he still has no name is totally stressing me out and I cry about it all the time (although, to be honest, I cry about A LOT of things all the time- not just the name…)

Movement: He’s getting pretty cramped in there and I can feel him stretching and moving regularly. I swear one day I’m going to actually see the outline of a tiny hand or foot through my stomach! (that would be pretty creepy though, so I mostly hope that doesn’t happen)

Sleep: Some nights I only wake up a few times and some nights I wake up all night long. Either way I usually wake up because of calf cramps or back pain, or just the fact that I have to wake up to move this big body that is supposedly mine.

What I miss: You’re going to be shocked at my answer, but I miss having slightly smaller boobs. Not as small as they were before I got pregnant, but not quite as big as they are now either and definitely not as big as they're gonna get when I actually have milk- That is going to be outta control!

Cravings: I have been loving my protein shakes and anything with melted cheese! I swear EVERYTHING is better melted- cheese, chocolate, marshmallows, gummy bears, etc.

Symptoms: I blush a lot. I think the cause must be a combination of my self consciousness so I actually get embarrassed more easily and all my extra blood and increased circulation. My hands and feet get swollen throughout the day too and I think my feet may be growing. I read and heard that can happen during pregnancy, but hoped it wouldn't happen to me of course.

Weird Things: My brother mentioned that he thought my voice has gotten deeper. I thought my voice had just gotten kinda raspy and I was maybe losing it a little bit, but it never went back to normal, so I guess I have a man voice now.

Worries: I’m really anxious about getting everything ready before the baby is born. Seriously, it’s overwhelming to look at the disaster that is supposed to be the nursery. If this guy is born even a little early, he’ll probably be sleeping in a drawer (but at least he could say that funny line from The Simpsons). I’d take a picture of the room, but I don’t want you to judge me and think I’m the worst, most unprepared potential parent on the planet.

Best Moment of the Week(s): Occasionally my back feels better. I started going to physical therapy for my SI joint at 33 weeks. It doesn’t always feel good, in fact, sometimes it feels much worse, but there are times when it feels better.

Appointments This Week: We went in yesterday. My blood pressure was up quite a bit (still in the normal range though), but I’m hoping it was due to me running late and being stressed about that. The last 2 visits have been 3 weeks apart, now I’m going to 1 1/2 weeks apart, then it’s once a week til I deliver.

What I’m looking forward to: I’d really like to say sleeping comfortably and through the night, but since that won’t happen for years, I’ll go with my belly button popping back in (hopefully right back to where it was before I got pregnant!) and not having this stupid back pain!

Something I've Learned/Realized: Time is not on my side. Somehow I have lost hours from each day. I’ve cut out a ton of things that I used to do; I don’t go to the gym as much, I don’t blog or facebook as often, I don’t take naps (although I really want to!) or watch TV, I spend less time at work, I’m not taking any classes at WSU, but I still feel like I have less time than ever! It just doesn't make sense!

Pictures:

33 weeks

34 weeks

35 weeks (with the new car seat)

I had a special guest doctor at my appointment this week.

Paging Dr. Halloween Kitty

The Difference a Year Can Make

Last October I competed in a figure competition. I knew my body wouldn't stay in such good shape after the show because I'd go back to eating normal food and probably wouldn't go to the gym quite as much as I had been to prepare for the show. I certainly didn't think that I would gain 40+ pounds and look like I ate the former version of myself!

Never in a million years did I expect to go from this...

to this...

Although in both cases I was taking pictures of myself each week to watch the progress, I had a weekly countdown going, and I was both nervous and excited for the "event", so I guess it's not that different, right!?

Talk about 2 extremes!

1 Year Old

Last week we had two 1st birthday parties we got to go to- we kind of invited ourselves to both, but we were glad we did!
First we celebrated Hadley's 1st birthday, which isn't for a couple of weeks, but since they were in town, we had a little party.
Everyone gathered around the table as they've been trained to do for birthdays.

Hads was getting pretty excited!


She had her own little heart shaped cake that she ate only a few bites of.


And she never got too messy.

Then we went to Rylee's birthday party.

Rylee didn't eat too much of the cake, but she sure had fun squishing it!

Johnson Baby Shower

Neil's sister Leah was very sweet and offered to throw a baby shower for me with the Johnson side of the family.

They totally spoiled me and gave me/Johnson Jr. some darling things!

Ava, Stella, Grandma Lyril, and Aunt Anola.

This is the ONLY picture I have ever taken of Mary smiling so even though the lighting is terrible, I had to post how cute Mary and Monica are.

The hostess Leah

My awesome mother-in-law Dawn with Lola

Aunt Anola with Lola

Neil came at the end to pick me up and play with the kids for a little bit. (this is the face I normally get when I take pictures of Mary)

The California Christensens came in town for a few days last week. There were lots of activities while they were here.

As usual, the kids all wanted to play with Neil and his iPad.

Shelley and E hiding under a blanket.

Lindsay, McCord, Hadley, and LaLa playing

John Scott (being the engineer that he is) built awesome train tracks that were kept out for days and played with constantly.

Luckily, it was still nice weather so the kids could play outside a lot.

But they all played really well together inside too.

All the Christensen girls (my mom is wearing a spider web tiara, in case you were wondering)

Senior Prom 1989

Neil's sister Monica planned a surprise party for her husband's 40th birthday. Since he graduated high school in 1989, she decided to have the theme of the party be 80's Prom. It was so much fun!

Here's Kurt as he came in to his surprise party. It was so fun to see all the hilarious outfits that people put together!

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a dress that would fit my big belly. Luckily, my mom has kept all our old dresses from high school and my sister Jill happened to have worn this stretchy little number at one point!

The Johnson 5

Kurt and Monica after they'd changed into their Prom get up.

Leah, Stella, and friend.

Ryan said, "it looks like you came to the prom last year too" referring to my pregnant state :)

Jessica, Blake, Neil, and Me. You can't see it in any of the pictures, but my hair was (and still is) plastered with glitter spray, you can't really see how feathered my bangs are either...