But who's counting anyway...

Only 99 days to go until little Gracie makes her debut. We are of course soooo excited! I decided to surprise Ryan with a paper chain count-down (hanging in the only corner of our house with any baby stuff). Both of us are terrible when it comes to waiting for something exciting, so I thought this would be a fun way to visually remind us each day of how much closer we're getting!

p.s. Lately, with the Swine Flu scare, a lot of news stations have been saying that pregnant women should get the H1N1 vaccine. Well, I called my doctor today and asked her opinion ... she said she didn't recommend it.

Sounds good to me!...

I can say I knew her when...

I want to share with my blog followers some really great music! My long-time friend, Julie Morrow, is currently pursuing her dreams in music and is creating some really great stuff. She's SO incredibly talented, and you'd never guess that she just barely learned to play the guitar a year ago! (if I'm remembering correctly) But she is also amazing on the piano and has a really rich, clear voice.

Check out her myspace page and listen to some of her songs: http://www.myspace.com/julesmorrow. My personal favorite is "The Day The First Tear Fell".

I'm so proud of Julie and that she doesn't shy away from what could be quite the roller-coaster (getting into the music industry). She knows what she wants, and she's going for it! I really admire that. Julie was even invited to perform in the Orion Music Festival happening the week before the Sundance Film Festival this coming January. She performs around Salt Lake and Provo as well, and it makes me so sad that I don't live close enough to hear her perform live. Maybe she'll give my family another private concert next weekend when I visit... hint hint, Julie...

Good luck with all your wonderful talents and goals, Ju! You're amazing.

Grateful for D.O.s

For the last couple of weeks, I've been having back pain. I don't know if you can really consider if "back" because it's really low, closer to my tail bone. It's just easier to say. Ryan was pretty sure it was my sacrum (red part in picture) but doesn't have enough training in OMM (osteopathic manipulative medicine) yet to know how to help me. 
After this pain became so horrible for a couple days that I could hardly walk or do anything without shocks of pain in my lower back, Ryan suggested I see one of his OMM professors. Dr. Galin works a lot with babies and pregnant women and knew exactly what my issue was. I'm not even going to try and explain what she did or any of the terms she used because it really is like a different language. But the experience was very neat and didn't hurt at all! No popping or cracking like some people think OMM is all about. While she's working her magic, it doesn't feel like anything is happening! But I believe it works and trust that she knows what she's doing. I have a couple of appointments set up for the near future so she can keep adjusting if I need it.
I appreciate that DOs (Doctor of Osteopathy) have this extra tool in diagnosing and treating. It's easy to be skeptical and if I hadn't been around this part of Ryan's education for the last year, and heard from people that it has helped, I would be one of those skeptics. I'm excited for Ryan to be all done with courses like this one and know all about this great healing tool!

Gotta start somewhere...

On Monday, I came home from work and found HUGE boxes all over our apartment. Ryan had gone to Walmart and bought all our the nursery furniture that we'd decided on. :) He loves to build stuff... he is a guy... but he's also a really excited daddy-to-be and we both couldn't wait to get our nursery going. He got it all built on monday so it was done before school started.

This is what we chose: it's a set of 3 pieces from Walmart (changing table, dresser, and crib) in a cherry wood finish. They're not super nice but they're built well and should last us through the first couple kids at least. Plus they were an awesome price! Since our 2nd bedroom still has a queen bed in it, we have to store the pieces like this in there until we get rid of the bed. But don't worry, future visitors! We'll be getting a nice air mattress for ya'll to use when you come. 'Cause I still want visitors! :)
This is our new glider and ottoman for the nursery. We both love this thing already. It is currently set up in our living room, and usually one of us will end up sitting in that instead of the couch now. 
It's been really fun starting the decorating process and going to clothing sales. Yesterday I went to Old Navy for their 50% off clearance sale and wow did I find some cute and CHEAP things! Some of the pieces were even under $2. Love it! Today I started a registry at BabiesRUs... but it was all a little overwhelming. I had to completely skip the entire wall of binkies, bottles, and nursing things because I didn't have the patience to look at every style and size and description and color, etc. I'll get to that... 

Party Time!

July must be one of the busiest birthday months of the whole year! Within the same week as Ryan's birthday, we had 3 other good friends celebrating theirs as well. We decided to have a birthday party for all 4 of them and invited a bunch of our buddies over for treats. It was so fun to finally see everyone again after the summer and everybody's vacations.

B-day Buddies: Ryan, Chris Larsen, Paige Reynders, Alisha Dunlavy. It still makes me laugh to remember how awkward they felt taking this picture. Folded arms... the classic "this is torture" smile...
Banana boats, popsicles, and chocolate revel bars (better known as "BTS bars")
These pics don't show it very well, but this was the fullest our apartment has ever been! I was pleasantly surprised. At least 12 or more couples, plus kids. It was such a big group, that there weren't enough seats and half the group had to stand around the kitchen. Sorry guys...
Some of the girls and kids.
Thanks for a fun party everyone! :) We need to do these more often. Who cares that there's not enough room, right?...

Last Week of Summer

Last week, we were happy to have my younger brother come down for a few days. He will be heading to the MTC (Argentina Bahia Blanca mission) in a month, so we felt lucky to have him come play with us before he leaves! We'll miss him so much when he goes.

Thanks to Ryan's cousins, we discovered YOGURTLAND! There are over a dozen flavors of frozen yogurt and tons of options in toppings. They only charge 30 cents per oz!

My brother Thomas enjoying his selections.
Thomas, me, Taylor and Tally Turner (our cousins). We had to eat our frozen yogurt pretty quickly because of how quickly it was melting outside.
This is Ryan's look of shock out how huge his sandwich was at Claim Jumper. We celebrated his birthday there and he ordered the "Motherload Sandwich". It's literally 9 inches tall! He was warned beforehand but wanted to take the challenge anyway. My brother ordered the "Widow-Maker Burger". It was full of calories but he was in love! Crazy boys...
Yummy birthday dinner! Good choice, Ry.
A new game came out last month called Bridge Troll. It was created by a guy in Salt Lake and my mom got her hands on a few when it was finally in stores. She sent one to all her kids and Thomas brought ours down with him. We really love this game! I highly recommend it and would love to teach it to anyone who wants to come over and play. :) Thank Mom and Dad!
We played several games (can you tell we like games...), including Mexican Train and Nertz. We also went swimming and ate a ton while he was here. It was a lot of fun!
Thanks, Tom, for coming to hang out with us! It was a nice way to finish out our summer vacation before Ryan starts his crazy school schedule in a few days. We'll sure miss you bro!

On friday night, Ryan and I went to the mall. I convinced him to let us walk through JC Penny to look for maternity stuff and baby clothes because there was a huge sale going on. Well I ended up hating all their maternity clothes, and their baby clothes didn't have low enough prices for our taste. But we ended up finding awesome deals in the men's section ... figures ... So we ended up getting Ryan some "back to school" outfits - lucky him! I was reminded how much I like shopping for clothes for Ryan... no joke. 

We also stopped by Motherhood Maternity to look at their jeans. I know what some of you moms are thinking... they're expensive! Well I needed to at least look because I don't have one pair of jeans that fit anymore (even with the "bellaband" trick) and I've hated every other stores' maternity jeans so far. I ended up finding the most PERFECT pair and Ryan helped convince me to go ahead and buy them. They're so comfy and they feel like they were made just for me. There's something about finding an awesome pair of jeans that makes life seem better. :) Especially when you're getting fat and not much else fits... haha.