37 Weeks!

Full Term!

And with quite the bump to show for it...

Getting more excited!

(And more uncomfortable...)

The doctor thinks it will still be a few weeks...

But in the mean time I'm excited about my LAST day of 9-5 work on Friday!

Let the full-on nesting begin!

My Top 5 Pregnancy Must-Haves

#5 - Mama Bee's Belly Butter - This is #5 because I think I like the idea of this Belly Butter more than it being an actual necessity... It smells so good and I love rubbing it on my growing belly at night!

#4 - Comfy Slippers - I never knew it was possible to have feet that hurt so much until I got pregnant. Since I make a conscious choice to inflict further pain on myself by periodically wearing flats that provide no support for my swollen feet, slippers are a must. After a long day of standing nothing feels better than putting on comfy socks and fluffy slippers. I actually hate being bare foot around the house while I've been pregnant so these are a lifesaver!

#3 - Cereal of All Kinds - I have always been a cereal girl, but even more so during pregnancy! I consistently have a bowl of cereal a few hours after dinner every night. Favorites? Special K, Frosted Mini-Wheats, and Cheerios.. I also have a huge weakness for sugar cereal like Cocoa Dyno-Bites, Oh's, and Captain Crunch.. I have to avoid buying these kinds of cereal because if they are in my house its a guarantee I'll eat the whole box within 2 days..

#2 - Husband's Tee Shirts - I have always aspired to be, yet never been someone who wears cute matching lounge clothes or pajamas around the house. It's always been sweat pants (yes I still wear some from high school sports) and tee shirts from various swim meets and 5Ks for me... A few weeks ago even the largest of my tee shirts stopped fitting. Luckily Nate has a full collection of shirts that are now the perfect size...

#1 - LEGGINGS! - Leggings and strectchy pants are totally my #1 pregnancy item. I love them. It's like wearing pajamas all day while still being socially acceptable. In my opinion the realm of what's socially acceptable greatly expands when you're pregnant. (Ex. wearing UGGs to work, never doing my hair, etc.) Or I'd like to think it does... I may or my not have even bought a pair of jeggings...

Ingredients for a Perfect December

A "Babymoon" trip to LA...

A Gingerbread Chalet class with tons of old ladies at the local community college...

Seeing best friends and going to Caroline's wedding...

Making traditional Christmas Candy...

Hanging out with Nate's family in San Diego...

Making delicious food...

Playing with our cute niece and nephews...

Holiday Light Walk...

Cute baby shower thrown by my sister and mother-law...

New Year's Eve Party and minute to win it games with friends...

Welcome 2011! Good luck beating 2010 :)

34 Weeks

Wow! I am so behind on blogging. We've been non-stop busy since we got back from Thanksgiving with moving, working, a wedding, getting sick, Nate's family in town, Christmas, baby showers, childbirth prep classes, getting ready for the baby and more!

But I have the feeling my blogging audience is interested in the most important thing developing in our life!

Here I am with my bump before a New Year's Eve party! I was very happy to find a sparkly New Year's shirt in my closet that still (barely) fit.

How am I feeling? Throughout the pregnancy my response to this FAQ has been great! Overall I really have had an easy pregnancy. However, the past couple weeks I have started to feel like I am indeed very pregnant.

It seems like my stomach is HUGE and I am increasingly immobile. Nate has to help me get up from the couch because I get stuck and I have to roll to the edge of my bed to get out. I have a really short torso, so I carry the baby really high. My OBG-YN actually makes a comment about how high up he is every time I go in. As I've gotten further along, carrying high has meant a lot of uncomfortable things -  like heartburn, acid reflux, and generally feeling like I can't breath because everything is so smooshed up there. Most nights I sleep propped up by a least 4 pillows. I'm looking forward to when the baby "drops" closer to my due date.

He still moves a ton which I love! One of his favorite things to do is wedge his little feet under my ribs. I now have new perspective on how annoying it must be when I try and wedge my feet under Nate's legs at night.

He is a very healthy baby and I'm blessed to have no complications. I am slightly nervous about the actual delivery part of this all and keep skipping over it in my mind. I only really think about being pregnant and then having the baby at home. I guess it's good not to dwell on it and freak myself out though. We are currently gathering all the final things needed for the baby and finishing up the nursery! Nate and I are also enjoying our last few weeks as just us two. We're sure that in a good way, life will never been the same after our little papoose arrives...

Thanksgiving at the Beach

This year for Thanksgiving Nate and I met up with my family at a beach house in Topsail, North Carolina. Growing up we used to go to a beach house in North Carolina every summer for a week with my cousins. My Dad thought it would be fun to have a change of pace for the holidays this year, and have everyone meet at the beach for Thanksgiving instead of in August. I know I currently reside 10 minutes away from the beach on the other side of the country, but we've recently turned into those lame people who live next to something awesome and never go. So we were excited about a week at the beach, and even more so a week with family!

Being OCD, I always book flights months in advance for the holidays to make sure we get a good price. It is not cheap having to make a transcontinental trek at the peak of the travel season every year. We booked a red-eye flight for the Saturday before Thanksgiving back in May (before we were aware of the fact I would be 7 months pregnant for the trip). I had visions of having to go to the bathroom or needing to get up and stretch out my puffy feet while being trapped in the window seat by a sleeping fellow passenger. Luckily it turned out ok and I passed out the whole flight out of exhaustion from packing up our apartment that day.

We arrived in Raleigh the next day, rented a car, and drove 2 hours to the beach!

The first part of the trip was great because just my Mom, Dad, and brother Wade were there with us, and we all got to hang out and catch up before the crowd arrived on Wednesday. The beach house was amazing! Nate and I got one of the first picks of 10 bedrooms and it even had an elevator. My favorite part was the kitchen.

Wouldn't you just love to stare at the ocean while doing the dishes everyday?

Hello Ocean

Topsail island is usually pretty remote, but there was hardly a soul at the beach the first part of the week.

Sometimes I think I look obese... Then I remember I'm pregnant.

The weather was awesome the whole week. We had a great time flying kites, playing
Frisbee, going to Wilmington, going to the movies, playing games, and walking on the beach.

My Dad insisted that he take his "California Son-Law" to experience some real Carolina BBQ. We usually stop at this hole-in-the-wall called Wilbur's BBQ on the drive down from Virginia. But since we were already at the beach we looked up some places on yelp and found one with a bunch of good reviews. After driving to the middle of nowhere near Jacksonville, NC we pulled into what literally was somone's house.

They turned the side of their house into a BBQ restaurant? My Dad fairly anti-chain restaurant and always says there's no way to eat but local on trips. This was a new extreme.

I'm sure it would have been awesome according the yelp reviews, but unfortunately they are only open Thursday-Sunday... So with a change of plans we decided to go to "Thigs" down the road.

How could we go wrong with a restaurant with dancing pigs on the sign?

Sadly, Thigs wasn't that good. The hush puppies and fried okra were great, but the usual tangy shredded Carolina barbecue was more like a pile of mush.

Note the slightly pained expressions on everyone's faces.

On Wednesday everyone else arrived! It was fun to have a full house and visit with everyone...

Crazy boys swimming in the cold ocean.

My new best friend Hallee! Cutest little girl ever...

My husband rolls with the 16 year-olds...

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious granted my family is full of awesome chefs like my Dad and Aunt Tracy! Everyone was jealous of my stretchy pants after dinner...

Assembling the pies...

Overall it was a great trip! We loved the big group games of Catch Phrase and Balderdash, delicious food, gorgeous beach, and time with family. That was the last time I'll see everyone before our little mister arrives.

But only 2 more months till that happens!

Goodbye Ocean! See you on the other side...