Baby Shower!

Last night (Tuesday, May 12), my sweet visiting teachers threw a baby shower for me! They really THREW it together fast-- it was announced on Friday in the Relief Society email, and 20 ladies came! It was great to meet more of the sisters in our ward. I am touched at all of the kind gifts they gave baby Joseph and me. I felt very welcomed and it was a ton of fun too!! Treats, games, and gifts... and plenty of chatting! Thanks to my new ward for being so wonderful and welcoming! I don't have any pictures of the actual shower, but here is the "aftermath:"

The heap 'o bags... I'm STILL folding tissue paper

It took a while for me to arrange all of the gifts. Baby Joseph is one lucky guy!

And the obligatory tummy picture: This is me 1 day shy of 37 weeks... I think baby Joseph is PLENTY big enough to join us on the outside, don't you?

Bread!

I have tried to make bread like my Mom's at least 3 times in the past, but I failed miserably with hard, flat rocks for loaves all 3 times! So, when I was visiting a few weeks ago, I took notes and asked questions while Mom made bread. And yesterday, I finally accomplished 2 golden, fluffy, soft loaves of half-white-half-wheat bread! Hurrah! And now for the pictoral proof:

35 weeks and counting...

This week baby Joseph and hit I hit the 35 week mark... only 5 weeks left! Wahooooo! Even better: if he is born in 2 weeks, he'll still be considered full term. All I can say is any time now, buddy! I started laughing at my profile recently because I look like I swallowed a watermelon whole. I catch random people quickly looking away all the time in public, and cashiers have started asking when I'm due, etc. So, without further ado, here's the latest baby picture... I don't think I've grown very much since the last one, but I feel TONS heavier!

The latest

Jeff and I cut up about 30 to 40 t-shirts each back when we were leaving SVU, and I finally got around to making Jeff's t-shirt quilt this past month. I looked up ideas online, and then I kind of winged it... luckily this picture does not show too many of the imperfections! I must say, I am pleased with the finished product. The hard part now will be finding the motivation to make my quilt-- it requires a lot of crawling around on the floor to arrange pieces, and my big belly gives me a big back ache when I do too much of that these days!

Jeff with his prize

Some pregnancy cliches have completely passed me by and seem quite ridiculous, like "pickles and ice cream." However, there is one that is becoming alarmingly more real every day: I CAN'T MOVE! I can't bend over without some difficulty and a little groan on the side. I can't sit in any position comfortably for very long, and at the end of the day, I always need a back rub!!! I won't even start with how uncomfy sleeping is! I'm scared I'll start waddling any day now! haha, Hurry up, baby!

Today is Little J's 33 week mark, so we took pictures... Thank goodness there are only 7 weeks left (I'm hoping he comes sooner)!!! We can't wait to hold our little guy! (and I can't wait to be mobile again)

Spring Break!

Last week, (April 3-11) was Kyle's and Mel's spring break (my brother and sister). I drove up to Seattle (4 1/2 hrs) and Em and Steve flew out from MO. We had a great week of family fun-- we were only missing Brad (serving in Portugal), Jesse (working tax season in MO), and Jeff (taking classes in Walla Walla). The Brown home hasn't had that many girls in it in a LONG time, and it was great! We went shopping, watched movies, did crafts, cooked yummy food, went to yummy restaurants, played games, and enjoyed Steve's little vocabulary. We didn't really take a very balanced variety of pictures--poor Em, the most dedicated photographer, was hit with the dreaded morning sickness half way through the week. There are still plenty, though!

Mom made us refreshing smoothies, and Steve loved them!

This is my new favorite picture of Steve

Kyle scored great Uncle points entertaining Steve during General Conference...

...and letting Steve play with his iPhone

Steve really stole the show-- he eventually was able to hit ping pong balls with the hockey stick instead of whacking his own ankles!

Aunt Mel and Aunt Shaina took Steve to the park one morning!

I tried helping Steve on this one, but my stomach was too big and we both couldn't fit behind the controllers, so Mel stepped in

Steve's puppy was never far from the action-- Em forgot it in MO and Steve's faithful aunt Cammie had to OVERNIGHT the beloved bedraggled pooch for him

weeee!

I couldn't really climb and slide with Steve, sadly, so I was photographer

Steve loves his Aunt Mel!

And of course, we had to do a craft... I finished Jeff's t-shirt quilt. It was quite bulky and hard to sew!

We camped out with our sewing machines in the kitchen

Mel worked on a quilt

I love my sisters!!!!

Moving along...

Monday, March 16th, Jeff and I pulled out of the Daniel Boone Home in Missouri for the last time. Jeff had loaded our 16-foot Budget rental truck with all of our belongings on Saturday (he only had help with the couch and bed!). We hitched our car to the towing trailer and we were off! After all that heavy lifting, Jeff was privileged to drive the 31 hours across the country in the truck because he is older than 25 and therefore rental companies charge him less to drive. So I was his co-captain the whole way. The books we had on MP3 did not work until the 3rd day of our trip, so days 1 and 2 were rather dull.

Monday we drove 8 hours to Omaha, Nebraska and visited the DeNys family-- our good friends. Tuesday we drove 440 miles across brownish gray, flat, dull Nebraska and 360 miles across grayish brown, windy Wyoming (about 13 hours in our heavy, hill-hating truck). We stopped Tuesday night in Green River, WY at a Super 8 Motel with cold showers, and then drove the last 11 hours on Wednesday up through Utah and Oregon to College Place, WA (just over the Oregon border by Walla Walla). It was an exhausting drive!

Jeff managed to unload our bed by himself the night we arrived, and I helped balance the couch on his back. Then we went to bed and got up at 5:30am thanks to our central-time-zone sleep schedules. Jeff unloaded the rest of the truck and I proceeded to unpack and organize our new little apartment over the next 4 days. And NOW, we are all moved in!!! I'm going to miss our ward in MO and my gift shop ladies and living near my sister, but I'm also ready for a new adventure!

The DRIVER with a snack--those are Utah mountains in the background

I took this picture out of our window while we drove through Utah-- unfortunately, I totally forgot to take pictures of our truck rig: Since I have a tradition of long car trips with Beaker, I propped my Beaker doll up on pillows in our car's driver seat so he could see the scenery while we towed the car along.

Here's our new bedroom!

Little J's room-- no crib yet! That white thing is our "changing table." We have this wheely kitchen island, so we got a changing mat with a grippy bottom and tied it to the top... I hope it works ok!

Jeff in the living room-- his latest joy is using the TV as his computer's screen. Now he can just sit on the couch to use the computer (he got a wireless keyboard to make it happen).

Our kitchen and living room are SEPARATE for the first time in our 2 years of marriage! It feels SO SPACIOUS! I have to WALK around our kitchen to get things from cabinets! (in our old place, I could just lean to the left or right to reach almost everything!)

Here's our lovely kitchen-- my two favorite parts: the FULL-SIZED OVEN, and the SINK DISPOSAL. I made a REAL dinner for the first time in a LONG time on our second night here: I used our 9x13 pan and our 7x9 pan (chicken enchiladas and brownies, and also salad) because I haven't been able to use them in 8 months (our Missouri Nook did not have an oven). It was glorious!

. . . and last but not least, here's the only load I was carrying around during our move! (at least Jeff got to put the boxes DOWN when he brought them in!) haha, I am creeping up on 30 weeks: this picture was taken Monday, March 23 (29 1/2 weeks).

Hello, homeSTRETCH!

It has happened: I began the final trimester! That means that on the last post I was wrong about the # of months: NOW I'm at 6 months (27 weeks down, 13 to go!). Little J has been pretty active lately-- he pummels my tummy so it jerks visibly. I feel so tight-breathing gets restricted at times-and this "little" baby still has to put on 5 more pounds before he's done stretching me out!

We will be moving across the country to Walla Walla, WA on March 16th. Jeff is going to get his master's in teaching out at Walla Walla University. We are excited for this new adventure, but I am also sad to leave Missouri: I have loved being near my dear sister Em and I love my "gift shop ladies" so much! This week, the 5 sweet ladies I work with threw me a surprise baby shower in the gift shop! I was so surprised! Thanks! There were cake and punch and presents (if I get some of the pictures from it, I will post them!)

sooo tight...the last trimester is definitely the homeSTRETCH!

Still Expanding...

More of the same... I'm so vain, I keep posting pictures of myself every week. Now Little J and I have made it through 25 weeks (6 1/2 months) together, and I must say: my nausea is almost non-existent at last. I can feel hunger without feeling barfy (usually-- unless we're in a car, that is). That doesn't mean that I like any more foods, unfortunately. I seem to be adding one kind of food back to my list of edibles per week, though! Last week it was spaghetti and plain sauce, and this week it was (oddly enough) weenies and rice. [for those of you who don't know what that glorious dish is, you're missing out].

It is increasingly hard to find clothing that I feel good wearing. Em and I went to Target the other day where I discovered this wonderful invention called the Bella Band. Basically it looks like a stretchy tube top, but it's made to be worn around the tummy! I don't really know why it is so comfy to have a thick band around my roundness, but it is nice! Can you believe that in 2 weeks I will enter the dreaded 3rd trimester????

Valentine Adventure!

Happy Heart Day! Jeff and I decided to do our Valentine date in the morning instead of night because he had to be at the Boone Home by 1:30pm for an event. So, we reserved tickets online to the top of the Arch, and left for downtown St. Louis at 8am. It took us a little over an hour to get there, but we made it in time for our elevator to the top! We didn't take any pictures on the outside of the arch because it was so cold and cloudy, and we already have pictures of it from this summer. It was fun exploring and being a "tourist" again, even if we were in and out of the Arch and the museum in only about an hour flat. I put on my Adventure Shoes that I walked all over Europe in, and I found myself wanting to explore EVERYTHING!

It was cold and cloudy outside, and we were early, so we had a tiny capsule elevator to ourselves. I was definitely not expecting the elevators to be that small: there were 8 little elevators and each one had 6 seats in it, although Jeff and I pretty much took up a whole one with our long legs.

At the very highest part of the arch.


Jeff gazing out at the view--the floor in the observation room was curved like a hill!

The windows were tiny, so we had to lean on the slanted wall to see out-- kind of scary! After we had been up top for a little while, we felt the floor start swaying a little in the breeze, and I said "Let's get out of here!" All those high cathedrals and towers we climbed in Europe were much sturdier than this flimsy little arch.

I didn't love the elevator ride because it was so cramped and jerky, and it felt like the whole thing was going to putter out on us! After we arrived at the bottom, we strolled through the Museum of Westward Expansion before heading for home. A few hours after we got home, the sun came out and melted the clouds away!

We love exploring new places!

I know a young lady who swallowed a... cantalope

24 WEEKS DOWN! Jeff started calling our baby boy "Little J," (since we have 2 possible J-names for him) and it has kind of stuck-- now we just call my squirmy little tummy Little J all the time! I actually SAW my stomach twitch visibly yesterday, and Jeff has finally felt the little acrobat at work. Whew, I know I'll be way huger by the end of this ordeal, but BOY it feels like I'm already at the limit!

Bigger and broader... I think today may be the last day that I wear one of my non-maternity shirts for the next couple of months! This button-up one was quite snug...

Earlier this week, we had a gloomy cloudy day until sunset, when I looked outside and suddenly there was this eerie pinkish purple light flooding all over everything-- Jeff dutifully applied his photography skills. These pictures are taken from our bedroom window.

That white building is the "theater," where Boone Home visitors watch a 15 minute movie about Daniel Boone before the tour starts. It smells funny in there.

It looks like an old timey filter in a movie or something!

Oh BOY!

Oh BOY oh BOY! Friday, Jan 30th, I had the BIG ultrasound and the doctor interpreted the grainy black and grey images and told me it's a little BOY in there! Hurrah! It was fun to feel the little squirmy baby and SEE those same movements on the screen at the same time. His name will be Joseph Argyle White unless he's born on June 1st, (Jeff's birthday), in which case he may be named Jeff Jr. The "official" due date is June 4th, so we'll see! I only posted 2 of the ultrasound pictures, because in my opinion, if you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. Here he is:

This his little bent leg--the femur bone looks like it's just floating there!

Tilt your head to the right, and then pretend it's Halloween-- can you guess what this is? It's his face! I didn't know they looked so skeletal in there.

This is the external view-- my stomach has really taken off since last we documented it! This is at 22 1/2 weeks (the dress is courtesy of Em--thanks!). Only 17 1/2 more weeks left! (technically)

Rounding out

Well, folks, nothing photograph-able has been happening around the Nook lately, unless you count my bulging belly: this picture was taken today (Jan. 14th), and my tum-tum is 20-22 weeks along here. We find out the more precise due date and if it's a BOY or a GIRL in there on January 30th!!! yippeeee!