A Touch Of Tyrell

#1. Heidi. The thrower of my shower. *Begged for this picture! # 2 Dirt by Heidi. Boy Food #3 More boy snacks by Delee #4 Jill & Julie #5 Nilda, Margaret, and Traci (the one that looks like a movie star) #6 Traci playing "pin the sperm on the egg" #7 I was so far off. Good thing Jake had better aim! #8 Possible portraits of our son. LOVED THEM!!! #9 Me and my 6 sons. It seems as though there are 6 babies in my tummy...its big enough and there are plenty of stretch marks to go around. #10 Reading my "farewell friend" card from Jill. She starts out her card like this: "Hey best friend that use to be my friend w/out a baby, but how has a baby...." Now you can see why we are friends...she is hilarious! #11 Good times. Thanks to Heidi & Friends!

Our last weekend away turned out to be a good one. Every year the company has a spring awards program for the entire state of Washington (for the previous year). Both Friday and Saturday nights were packed with food, music, and awards. Jake ended up with a few awards of his own. I feel like the proud momma watching her little boy get awards at school! He's kind-of a big deal.

I had no idea how badly my skin would stretch. Jake wants to cry every time he has to look at my belly. Some of my new stretch marks are starting to bleed, are super shiny red, and are bumpy. On Sunday Jake was joking that our baby was just going to crawl out of one of the stretch marks. Poor me. The only good thing about them is that they are vertical....and vertical stripes make you appear smaller (smaller than horizontal stripes anyways!). But on the other hand, isn't spring so beautiful?

Just packing for our last weekend away together.

I went to the Goodwill today after my Dr. appointment. I thought I would celebrate a little. Our babe is doing well, he is even head down. So off to celebrate at the Goodwill I went. I found the greatest thing for $3. I didn't even know how great it was until I got it home. Its like a office organizer from the 70's but it is brand new. *I have no idea if it is from the 70's...just made that up. Once I got it home I discovered that the biggest part is deep enough to store the big scrapbook paper. Amazing. I also found a toy for our baby-soon-to-be-toddler. It was not as good of a deal...$4 but it had his name written all over it.....No Heidi, his name isn't going to be Tonka! It was definitely a day of celebrations. Good news and good deals. With the good always comes the bad.... I forgot to put yeast in the bread dough I was making (isn't the first time) and I pulled an Austin Powers in the Dr.'s parking lot today. I decided that I could drive the truck today an...

I honestly was so physically tired yesterday. My bones hurt. But the day had to go on. Jake and I are lucky to live in a nice house with a gigantically over sized master bedroom. A few months ago we bought a cute bassinet on craigslist for 20 bones. So cute but a little girlie... and girlie doesn't fly for a newborn baby boy. I had to man-up this bassinet a little to meet our manly baby standards. It originally had a very sad sad excuse for a mobile.... a yellow sun, blue moon, and a pink star. PINK. So I customized our future baby's view. I have been following makeitandloveit for a few months now and Ashley is always sewing things out old shirts and sweaters. I've been saving my old clothes to use as fabric and it totally paid off to be a pack rat. First I made this kitty out of an old shirt. Then a dog with an old sweater and some blue felt Then a teddy bear with another brown sweater I absolutely love love love it. And it fits nicely into our huge room. Now we just need...

It feels like this baby is eating my bones today.

I'm at home today. I spent two days last week at home too. We are slowly "firing" me from the office. It has actually been kind of hard. When we first moved to Washington from Utah, I asked Jake if I could just be a homemaker and stay home. He had his own construction business that kept him busy and I was so new to the area and had no idea where anything was....and I just didn't want the stress of finding a new job. Jake has always been 100% supportive and was totally okay with me just staying home. After a few months I was adjusted to the area and found a job. I worked there until I got a job with American Family. Then when Jake became an agent, I worked with him. For the last year and a half we have worked side by side....doing everything together. We get along so well and working together was not a big deal. I always had a say in everything. We hired employees together...and fired employees together, trained employees together, changed the way we did things togethe...

I have never enjoyed seeing too much of anyone else's skin....especially stretched out skin. But for some reason I have mustered up enough guts to show off my ever growing belly. Funny thing is...I always wished for an "outie"

I thought I would do some spring cleaning...on our tooth brushes! We just replaced them not long ago, but toothpaste does weird things sometimes, so I thought I would clean them up a bit. So I did the only logical thing.... put them in a pot of boiling water for a really long time. - They are clean! - Crookedly clean! - - When they weren't as clean, they were straight and the bristles were much closer together. - But honestly, who needs close bristles? - At least I laugh when I look at them now!

I took a stroll on down to the library today. It was such a nice day I couldn't spend it indoors. On the way there I inhaled 5 gallons of exhaust, dreamt about living downtown, and passed a uniform-wearing Catholic school. I spent 3 hours reading about pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. It all sounds quite exhausting....and I have not even completed one of those steps. I am not worried, just a tiny bit nervous. I figure knowledge is power and the more I know, the more prepared I seem.

We had some fun on Sunday

Once upon a time there was a very lucky baby (who wasn't even born yet). Lots of ladies showered him with lots of gifts....and his mom gave him lots of cake with blue and green frosting. I really had a great time. I can't believe how much support we have and the network of people that support us. We are so blessed!

Mom is still here....she's having fun being a tourist in Washington. She had sushi for the first time today.

Jake can't tell a lie. He really can't. When he told me that he had a life insurance appointment in Federal Way yesterday morning, I totally believed him. He never lies. He left for the appointment and came back about an hour later....with my mom I was so shocked. I didn't understand. Did he find her on the side of the road on the way back from his appointment? Where did she come from? Turns out the entire office and Pam had been keeping this secret for the last couple of weeks. Mom planned this trip to come to Washington for my baby shower tonight and to cook tons of freezer meals for us when we have our baby. She has been cooking all morning. Isn't she great!

This morning something was outside that wasn't there the day before.... or the day before that.... or before that. It was the sun shedding light on our precious young garden We planted the raspberry bushes about a month ago.... we just dug them up out of Pam's garden and brought them home. Don't I wish it was that easy to bring a baby home! We planted carrots, radishes, broccoli, lettuce, cucumbers, and peas last Saturday. I am really surprised some of it is growing because it has been a sun-less flood since then. Something else can grow without the sun....my belly (and I am not the only one that notices!)When I checked my Facebook page this morning, these comments awaited me: "Holy crap girlie, didn't know u were expecting! Congratulations!!!! Looks like you're about ready to pop! You'll be a great mommy!" "oh my gosh! look at you, your about to pop! you look great girl congratulations!!! when you due?"

Pregnancy. I just want to be done. Making a baby is hard work. I feel like it should have been over by now. It seems like I have been pregnant for ages. I just want to see the product of all of this hard work. I still have a ways to go. Discouraged. But then again....what do I do with a baby. I am terrified but overly anxious. Today I'm exausted.

So many stories to tell. This weekend was awesome. Story #1. WE GOT TV . Just in time for conference. Boo-yeah grandma! The install guy was there for 5 hours....apparently our house is hard to hook up. Jake and I re-arranged our whole house around getting TV. It looks pretty sweet. Story #2. The Hunt. The Easter Bunny hid new shampoo, hair gel, movie tickets, and lots of chocolate candy for Jake I got plastic eggs with money (just coins!), chocolate, orange cadbury eggs, and 2 Webkinz. Story #3. Webkinz. We were at Fred Meyer the other day and I saw these little stuffed animals on sale. Not only are the stuffed animals super cute, you enter the secret code they come with and you can play games online...you know, kid games. My little sister-in-law got one a few years ago and she let me have her password so I could play the games online. I am a dork. Jake sneak attacked me and bought two for Easter. He hid the gorilla in a plant and the dog in the nursery. This reminds me of another st...

Monday morning...the start to our VERY long day. *The oldest building in Sydney. It used to be right on the water/beach back in the day. We went out walking around the Botanical Gardens behind the Opera House. Such a beautiful city Lots of spiders, birds, plants......and BATS! Once we spent our last Australian $20 on 2 T-shirts, we went back to our hotel and checked out. We had to catch the 11:00 bus to the airport. Well, we had to catch one of the 4 buses full of Amfam..ers and their luggage. About 1/2 of the convention left at 11 and the other 1/2 left at noon. Jake says that they didn't want to "put all of their eggs in one basket." Only the top 4 percent of the entire company made it to Sydney and they didn't want to risk it. Although they got an extra hour in Sydney.... the ones traveling to Seattle didn't land until 11 pm (and we landed at 3:30). Sydney in the background. You can see the tower at the top. This was me practicing being swollen on the plane. I ...