Week One

Jay is officially a week old!!! It has been SO FUN taking care of him and holding him and looking at him... and even feeding him is getting less painful for me! He has started regulating his night sleep/wake up pattern to feeding every 2 hours-- not bad! He is so little! Most of his cute clothes are huge on his baby shoulders and legs. Even though he is still less than 7 pounds, I have been SO SORE from holding him all the time! I wish "Mom muscles" came in as fast as milk!
Grama Meri (my mom) came for a visit this week. She helped SO much with: cooking, cleaning, laundry, driving, diaper changing, baby-holding, and moral support. Thanks, Mom! I wish we had gotten a picture of Grama holding Jay, but it just never happened. I guess we'll have to see her again soon!

One of his few awake pictures

Baby burrito! Just like when he was inside me, he likes to KICK in his sleep*, and since it's warm enough, we let his feet fly free

I swear, the carseat weighs just as much as he does!

Napping in Mommy's and Daddy's bed after a nice meal... he can somehow sneak a little pee out of his diaper every time, no matter what defensive tactics I use. Hence the towel.

Our little angel

His knees slipped up into his little suit so he looks like a penguin!

I got lucky and finally captured a sleep-smile! He may be smiling here because he peed all over Daddy a few minutes later... and right when Jeff changed both his and Jay's clothes, Jay got him again! Why do we even use diapers, anyway?

Here is a good reason to let your baby sleep in a CRIB

Welcome Joseph!!

Thursday evening as I was happily enjoying my grilled cheese sandwich, I felt a small explosion under my seat-- like a water balloon popping. 5 hours later I was holding the sweetest little baby boy in the whole wide world!!!!!

I am very thankful that everything went so smoothly-- no complications, no interventions, no unnecessary scary big needles... and now the fun begins!!!

what a little sweet face!!!

Daddy!

Mommy!

Our 2-hour old family-- Little J's fingers are crossed! Even though his official name is Joseph, we decided that we can't resist still calling him Jay for "short"

First photo: Joseph Argyle White: born Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 10:59pm. 6 lbs 15 oz

Home at last!

"Seven Mile" Sunset

While encouraging me to take a walk every day, my doctor here in Walla Walla reccommended Seven Mile Road as the best place around to enjoy a sunset. He gave me directions, and Jeff took me out there to check it out. What a gorgeous sunset! Even though I miss the rolling, wooded hills in "the east," there still is something to be said about a nice clear horizon.

The lovely sun setting

He's not even BORN yet, and our child is already "interrupting" potentially romantic moments! Can't...reach...lips...

Thank goodness our necks still allow us to reach forward!

Lately I have been really losing patience with people who comment "you're looking so big," "how pregnant you look!" and "you look miserable," and other such comments. News flash: believe it or not, I KNOW I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant! However, every now and then I do recognize a particularly silly-looking pose... This picture cracks me up because my stomach looks fake!

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????