36 Weeks

Wow, I'm huge. Well, good news is that at my last appointment we found that the baby has dropped and things are starting to progress right on schedule. Since he's not all up in my rib cage anymore I can breathe so much easier, but bending down and over is even more impossible. My goal is to have this baby within the next two weeks. That's right, I want him out by the end of next week. I have been exercising, walking, and stretching, among other things, to see if I can't make any more progress. Walking hurts. Oh man, it hurts big time. So does getting up from a chair or from laying down, but what can you do, right? I want him to come as early as possible because I am SO done being pregnant; I just want my body back to myself and to hold my baby in my arms.

Stephen cant wait to meet his little man either. He regularly pushes down on my stomach telling him to come out, haha. I tell him that's not a good idea to keep pushing on my stomach besides the fact that it hurts, its not going to work. He rubs my belly all the time and talks to him telling him how much he loves him and can't wait to meet him and hold him. I love it. We finally have everything organized and put away in the nursery. I found some curtains to put up in the room to hopefully warm things up a bit in there. I'm just waiting now........any day now......

Pettingill/Watson Baby Shower

Saturday morning I got up early again to help mom finish cleaning and getting everything ready for craft day. By the time everyone arrived we had well over 50+ people there to listen to Grandma talk about Grandpa's history. We had whole families attend including husbands and children; it was really like a mini reunion, we had so many people come. Mom was worried she wouldn't have enough food for everyone, but ended up having lots of leftovers instead. She did a great job on the food. Grandma did an excellent job on her presentation of Grandpa; it was so fun to hear about his life and church callings.

After lunch we had my baby shower put on by Mom, Trish, and Heather. They outdid themselves; I couldn't believe all the decorations, and food they put all their time into. Trish had us play the 'Price is Right' game so she had several baby items that we had to guess how much each one cost and then tally up each item for a grand total. It was kind of hard to know each price since I'm not used to buying baby things yet. The closest person to the grand total won a prize and out of everyone there, it was grandma who won! She guessed within just a few cents. Which was ironic being that she was the oldest one there, lol. There were also three guessing jars full of different candies and I don't remember who won them all, but I was way off!

After the games I got to open all my gifts. There was quite a large pile for me so it took a little while to get through them all. I think towards the end everyone was getting tired of it to be truthful, but I am beyond grateful for everyone who came to support me and my growing family. I love my family so much! I pretty much got everything I needed. Lots of cute clothes, diapers, wipes--the essentials, and so much more. Heather was taking pictures during the shower with my camera and had a hard time with it because first my batteries died and then my memory ran out, so these are the only ones we got during the shower. A HUGE thank you to Mom, Trish, and Heather for doing such an awesome job on the shower, and making me feel spoiled.

 Adam was the only guy at my shower, lol all the other men were downstairs playing pool

 Trish did a great job on the game!

 Opening gifts. Thank you everyone!!

 The cute treats Heather made. They were all so cute! Goldfish marshmallow, rice krispy treats, life savor pacifiers, and oreo truffles 

My sisters who made it to the shower. Heather left before I got a picture with her 

 My favorite. Becky surprised me with three blankets she made for me before she moved to Washington. I loved all the patterns she picked out and the cute stitching around the blankets. I have the most awesome sister! Thank you Becky!!!

Aunt Jenele also made me a blanket. She put a lot of time into it because she did some of the stitching by hand. I love everything about this quilt--the fabric, colors, and pattern. I love it!

My Visit Home

I made it to a Twin Falls last week to see my family and spend some time with mom. It felt so good to be home and see all the new changes around the house. I drove into town Wednesday afternoon and met mom, dad, grandpa, and Noel at sizzler for lunch, and you can bet I had myself a nice juicy steak! We chatted for a bit until mom and I had to leave to help her old ward tie some quilts for a service project. We did that for about an hour and a half, then I dropped mom off at the store so I could go home and take a much needed nap. Later that night we headed for the fabric store to find some cute patterns for the baby quilt I wanted to make. It was a long day, but fun. At least I got a nap in.

The next day Heidi, Kolei, and Heather came over in the morning to hang out and help me tie the quilt grandma Betty made me a few weeks ago. Heidi brought her new puppy with her. She was a cute little thing! They got another miniature toy Australian Shepard, so this one will be half the size of mozzie. Then Kolei and Heidi helped me lay out and weave my quilt together. I am so grateful for their help because this quilt project that was only supposed to take a few hours ended up taking me two full days of nonstop sewing. I mean I worked for hours and hours on this quilt. Mom, of course, helped me as well. That's all I did on Thursday was work on my quilt until about 10:30 at night then mom and I had a good talk and didn't get to bed until midnight. I wasn't even halfway done with the quilt, so I knew I'd need to get up early to start on it so I had time later to help mom get food and clean the house for  craft day on Saturday. We didn't get to the grocery store like we had hoped because of the quilt. I felt bad I was spending all my time working on it the whole time I was in Twin. Mom was very patient and helpful though.

Friday morning I got up early again to try and finish my quilt. My goal was to get it done by noon......twelve o clock came and went, so did two and four o clock, haha, I just needed to get it done before we went out for dinner for moms birthday at six o clock. That, of course, didn't happen. It was so frustrating because the only two days I had to hang out and do stuff with the family I took up quilting. Not to mention the many times I had to unpick and re-sew parts of the quilt and try to straighten out my wildly crooked squares. Some of them came out so crooked there was nothing I could do but keep going. Seeing all my mistakes after it was all sewn kind of made my heart sink because I wanted it to look good. I mean, I was proud of it because this was by far the most difficult quilt I've ever done, but it didn't look like what I had envisioned. Anyway, we went out to Idaho pizza for dinner with most of the family. I'd never been there before, but it was pretty good. We met back at mom and dads for cake and ice cream and hung out with the family. I finally got the binding on and the quilt finished just before 10 o clock. I stuck it in the washer and waited for it to dry and voila! Here's how it turned out.

 I love it!

 Up close

Update

This last week was kind of uneventful. I've run out of projects to work on around the house, and it's been really cold and rainy so I have no motivation to really do anything any way because I just want to curl up on the couch and watch a movie. I don't do that, of course, because it makes me feel super lazy and anxious to get up and be busy doing anything else. I've been planning and online window shopping for Stephen's birthday coming up at the end of the month. I've been so anxious to get out of the house and shop for him, but thanks to the government shutdown I'm stuck at home and with no money. Since Stephen is a government employee we don't have a paycheck coming in anytime soon until the government learns to play nicely with each other and come up with a compromise.

Stephen put together an elders quorum activity this past Saturday. He wanted to have an authentic southern BBQ and since he has no counselors the two of us ended up doing ALL the planning, shopping, and cooking. Our entire Saturday was devoted to smoking and barbecuing  8 pounds of pork shoulder and about 10 pounds if ribs, dutch oven potatoes, funeral potatoes, and homemade BBQ sauces along with a few other side dishes. I even got up early to make authentic scones for breakfast because I had never made them before nor had I ever eaten one, so I thought I'd try it out. They turned out fabulous! I made raspberry scones and orange Julius for breakfast, yum! Then we got to work cooking all day. We took everything to the church and set up outside and waited......and waited some more. The first person to show up was 45 mins late. We only had one family, two sets of missionaries, and four couples show up. I couldn't believe it. Stephen reminded people at church, he sent several texts, and passed out fliers from house to house to premote this activity and we had only a handful of people show up. After all the food we prepared and time we took to make and plan the activity we were pretty disappointed to say the least. So we have tons of leftovers, but hardly any room to freeze it.

Our car's two front tires were almost completely flat the other day when we went out for a drive. So we have to take it in tomorrow to see what the problem is. We'd better not have to replace them because all four tires are less than a year old.

Our roof finally got fixed.....yet again, so I don't have to worry about water leaking through my ceiling. I guess I could repaint over the few yellow spots that have formed in the living room; that'll give me something to do this week. I also have activity days this week so I get to clean the house on Tuesday, and finally I get to leave for twin falls on Wednesday. Yay! I've been looking forward to seeing my family and spending time with mom for a long time. The last time I was in twin was the fourth of July when we announced that we were having a boy.

Washburn Baby Shower

Last Saturday my sisters-in-law threw me a shower at my house. I had family and a few friends come help me celebrate the soon-to-be birth of our son. I had so much fun talking and catching up with everyone. I had it at my house because there were a few people who hadn't seen my house yet, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to invite them over to see it. My sisters went all out with the food and decor, and everyone seriously spoiled me. The invitations Miriam made were so cute! Everyone was supposed to  bring a diaper bag essential as a gift which I thought was a great idea, so I got lots of the small essentials that I, would have otherwise, had to buy myself like diaper rash creams, toys, clothes, nursing pads, wipes, burp cloths, bibs, towels, and so much more. Plus Grandma Betty made me a baby quilt. It was all so exciting, and I had a great time. A HUGE thanks to my sisters-in-law who put it all together for me. Thank you!!!

Stephen was such a great help too. We took two days to clean the house so everything looked good. He mowed the lawn while my shower was going on and then came inside to fix the crib and put it together. Everyone made comments on how great of a husband he is and I quite agree.

 My old roommates came! Jessica and Amanda

 My good friend Kristina

 Another roommate Rachael

 The goods

 Grandma Betty with Daniel

 Pat with Olivia

 Isabelle was such a great helper!

 Stephen doesn't look like he knows what he's doing

 Love this one! Washburn women

Grandma Betty's quilt

Compliment?

I had an interview with one of the relief society presidency yesterday. Of course we chatted about my pregnancy and how things were going, but she said something to me that I think was a compliment, and I proudly took it as a compliment. She said she couldn't remember how I looked before I got pregnant, and that I actually looked like a mom even though I haven't had him yet. It did make me feel good to think that I have that distinguished "mom" look already.

Mothers do have a "look". You can tell if a woman is a mother or not, and there is something all mothers posess that set them apart--their hands. I call them "mom hands". Growing up I would look at my own mom's hands and dream about the day I would have some of  my own. These hands are very soft looking, some are wrinkly and others are smooth. They have just the right length of nails and they may or may not look a little worn. 

Mothers' hands are so special and unique to each woman and child they care for because those are the hands that first held you and wrapped you in her arms. Those hands wiped away thousands of tears, rocked you to sleep, taught you basics of life--from cleaning and cooking to caring for others, they clapped together to show you how proud she is of your accomplishments. Those hands grabbed you into thousands of hugs and kisses on a bad day or just because she loves you, they helped you up when you fell down, and every once in while spanked your bottom to keep you in line. They tickled, scratched, and rubbed your back and arms because she knows you love that, and made you yummy meals every day. Those hands cuddled you when you were sick, cleaned up your messes, and helped you with homework. They are always there when you need them; those are " mom hands". The list could go on, and even if this mom isn't your mom, but she has "mom hands" they are still comforting, and are always there when you need a pair.

Maple Canyon

After four and half years of being together, Stephen finally took my camping last weekend to Maple Canyon. We went with another couple that we're friends with. I mean we've been camping before with our families, but not just the two of us, so I was overly excited about this trip, and it couldn't have come at a better time. We really needed to get away even for just an overnighter. The campground was packed full and there were only three spots left, so we snagged two that were right across from each other for our friends. We set up camp and we were in charge of cooking dinner so we put together some Door Slammer Dutch oven chicken, potatoes and carrots, and made a s'mores pie for dessert. We played games while we waited for the food, but since this was our first time using a dutch oven by ourselves we didn't quite know what we were doing. We waited an hour and a half for the chicken until we checked it. It was done and ready to eat, but the veggies were still hard and the chicken was just barely done. It was 8:30 by the time we ate dinner, and we were hungry so we couldn't wait any longer. We were all excited for dessert which was also cooked in a dutch oven, but we ended up over cooking it, so our whole dinner was kind of a flop.

We borrowed some camping supplies from Stephen's brother including some cots. Everyone thought I was crazy for going camping at 8 months pregnant, but those cots, holy cow, they were so comfortable I actually slept better on them than on my bed at home. I didn't want to get up in morning; I was so warm and cozy! We had breakfast burritos made by our friends and set out for a hike up the canyon walls. Maple Canyon is world-known for it's canyon walls for rock climbing because instead of a straight cut wall they are cobblestone, so it's perfect for rock climbers and very unique looking. It's beautiful in fall because of all the maple and oak trees that envelope you as they change from green to fiery red, orange and yellow. I was kinda disappointed because we came a few weeks too early to catch the leafy show, but maybe next year. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Seth and Martha and enjoyed the great outdoors.

 Our fire was pretty smokey

 Stephen tried to climb the wall. He didn't get too far

 I love the woods! It's so beautiful

 Seth, Martha, and their dog Bleu

 One of the canyon walls

 I found this cute, fuzzy black and orange caterpillar on our way back to camp.

You can tell we've been camping because I have no make-up on and my face is filthy