the belly pictures.

Two weekends ago Russ and I got some maternity photos taken of us! As you know I am a picture freak and I can't take my own maternity pictures and of course I HAVE TO HAVE SOME! So we hired darling mrs Kathy Cole to photograph these for us. She is so fun to be around! We drove up to Flagstaff (my love) and escaped the heat of Phoenix. Russ said "Wow, I can't remember a time where I could stand outside and not sweat to death!" It was great weather and scenery. I have gotten lots of compliments on these photos and asked "how did you do your hair like that?" and "love your outfits!" If you know me very well you will know that most of the time (and especially these days) I am miss comfortable and my attire consists of Pajamas and basketball shorts. So just to set the record straight I probably only look like this only on picture days (which is probably like once a year).

For example.....

This is me today.

I am happy that I feel pretty in these pictures. It's hard to feel pretty when you have gained like 40 lbs. haha. Yep I'm not hiding it. (and I still have 2 more months....we will see the damage later) So thank you Kathy Cole for making me feel like a pretty prego. Here are some of my favs.....

I guess you are getting a baby bunny

I have heard from a few friends and family that pregnancy dreams can be pretty crazy. I am not one to really remember my dreams much but every once and a while I wake up and remember them vividly. If I wake up and tell someone right away I can remember lots of my dream.....but if I wait at all I forget everything.

One morning last week I woke up to the most bizarre dream. It was normal life as usual, I was home (here at my parents house) just hanging out with my mom in the backyard but I was 9 months pregnant (about to burst at any time). I was laying in the grass and then stood up very fast. Before I knew what hit me my baby just popped out! No pain or anything! I look down to see her and it was not a baby at at! It was a baby bunny! My mom picked it up and said "Look how cute she is!" I was pissed! I did not want a baby bunny! I wanted a real baby! I did not carry this baby for 9 months to get a rabbit I could have bought at the store! So when I woke up from the dream I was very mad! I told Russ and the rest of my family about this dream because i thought it was quite funny.

As you know we have been in the middle of buying a home which comes with all kinds of annoying bumps in the road....making offers and counters offers ect. We were chosen out of 17 offers only to find out that the home appraised for less than our offer. This is a good and bad thing. So again we had to renegotiate the offer......What do we do!? We really want this house!

So last Friday I had another dream. Not as bizarre as the last dream I remember. It was normal life. Russ and I were living at my parents house in the middle of negotiating the offer on the exact home that we wanted to buy. A specific number for an offer came up in my dream....the new offer. We offered this amount and the accepted the offer and it was OURS! When I woke up still half asleep Russ was still getting ready for work. I told him, Russ I had a dream and we need to offer it at this amount. Russ then made sure he was hearing me right. "So you had a dream and you want to offer what?" Yes Russ, you heard, that is exactly what I said. "Ok" was Russ replay. I called him at work later to see if he really took my half asleep dream comment seriously and he did! He offered the amount that I told him about in my dream! I was pretty happy about that. My dad made the comment like "Are you sure you want to listen to the crazy having a baby bunny pregnant dream lady?" hahaha....

Later I received a call from Russ. All he said was "I guess you are getting a baby bunny." And at first I was so confused, then I realized what he was trying to tell me "Your dreams are coming true!" WE GOT THE HOUSE! I was sooooo excited and don't even know what to do with myself! I'm bet Russ was glad he listened to me! All I know is that we are very blessed and we have a lot of work ahead of us. I could not be more happy! We are so excited to move into our first home. With our first baby and our first dog. hahaha.....lots of firsts (but hopefully no baby bunnies). Wish us luck!

Growing belly

Well I have been soooooo bad at taking pictures throughout my pregnancy (OF ANYTHING!) I am ALWAYS the one with the camera taking pictures and documenting events. But lately I have just not had the desire or the motivation to do it. I told myself I would take a picture of myself like every week and or month of my pregnancy to document my belly growing and had all kinds of fun things up my sleeves. But I have noticed the bigger I get the less I want to do. I had not taken a picture of my belly for like 6 weeks and I finally did it this morning. Right when I woke up, didn't even try to get cute. I thought if I didn't do it now then I never would.

Anyways. I was proud of myself.

The new prego updates.

I have been noticing I have been getting tired easier now. By about 9 or 10 I feel like I could go to sleep. Most of my pregnancy I have had a horrible time sleeping. I wake up multiple times a night, I wake up with sore muscles and insomnia. I am the type of person who could easily sleep in till 11. But pregnancy has mad me a total morning person....until lately. I went to bed at 11:30 or so last night and almost slept in till 10 this morning! What the heck! How did that happen!? It's very weird but it is nice to be able to sleep a little more soundly ( I know that is not going to last).

I have a little more back pain but not too bad. I think I did this working out thing backwards because I didn't start working out until I was like 26 weeks. (I hadn't really done much the whole first part of my pregnancy). It helps me feel not so sluggish and weak and helps alleviate my back pain as well. I was just trying to slow down the weight gain I guess....better late than never! We will see how I feel in like a month, I will be back to not doing anything.....hahaha.....

Little Brynn is doing well, she is measuring small (which is ok with me, I don't want a 10 lb baby like russ! hahah!) She kicks me like a crazy acrobatic monkey. I mean she moves like all day long. I had Russ watch my tummy last night and I feel like there was an alien trying to escape. She is so strong! I will get a video of it soon. It is really crazy looking.

My feet have not swelled up yet (although they do hurt if I am standing for long periods of time in bad shoes....aka flip flops). My wedding ring still fits so I am happy about that. I think I hate bending over, it sounds so lazy and lame but it really is annoying. I have never had any weird cravings since I have been pregnant. Russ tells me he thinks I am getting a little grumpier.....which may be true. Feeling like you have swallowed a bowling ball doesn't always make you feel all that great or cute.

I think that may be all for now.

Only 2 1/2 more months! I can do it!

WE HAVE A HOUSE! (Unofficial)

Our dream would be to find, buy, and move into a house (that I love) before the baby arrives and it seems that this dream may actually come true.

We knew that this was a lot to ask and that it may not happen. But we have been very fortunate.

Since we have moved back from Utah in May of this year so much has happened and we have felt so blessed. My sweet parents have let us raid their home and stay here until we could find a place to live. Russ was offered a job by my dad and has found work and a means to make a living. We have our sweet baby Brynn on the way (and I have had such an easy pregnancy with absolutely no problems). And we have been searching for a home..... (it helps that my dad is broker/real estate agent and we can easily search for homes) A few weeks ago we made a couple offers on homes and I found a home I absolutely fell in love with it. We made an offer on it and waited.......Out of 12 offers ours was one of the top offers they were considering. And last week we got the news (that I literally have been dreaming about) "Congratulations, your offer has been accepted."

I can't tell you how excited I am. I may be jumping to gun since we have not closed on it quite yet but we can close as soon as September 15th. How are we so lucky to be so blessed? It really has been an answer to my prayers. We will be in the home before the baby comes and everything is turing out according to plan. I mean, that never happens right? I think this means that I am going to be doing my visiting teaching every month (I made this promise to myself if we got this home, I'm not the best at getting it done). I feel so blessed and grateful for everything that has happened to us recently and I know that my Heavenly Father knows and loves us and knows our needs.

I am truly grateful for Russ and all of his hard work. I know I may complain about how much he is at work but he really does a lot to carry the financial load of our soon to be little family and new homeowner expenses. I can't wait to see our little Brynn's face and to snuggle her close. =-) Although I know that life has it's ups and downs, I definitely feel like I'm on an up and I am just treasuring the moments. I know our lives are about to change dramatically but I am ready for the challenge. I am so grateful for to opportunities we have been given and my heart is so full. I am one happy girl. =-)

And one more thing! It's right down the road from my sister Nikki's house! It will be so fun to be so close to family (after being away for so long!) We are even in the same ward!

So without further delay, here is some pictures of our new home. Obviously It needs a paint job (in the bedrooms especially) but I am so excited I could die!

Our house!

The backyard

Kitchen/Living Room

Dining Area

Living Room

Kitchen

Patio

Stairs

Upstairs Loft

2 Story!

Bedroom Downstairs

Downstairs Bathroom

Upstairs Laundry Room

Upstairs Bedroom 1

Upstairs bedroom 2

Upstairs Bathroom

Garage

Master Shower

Master Bathroom

Master Bedroom

I LOVE IT!