our love garden, week 1

I've wanted to grow my own garden for about forever now,

and this year we're finally getting around to it.

since we live in daybreak,

a community that only allows gardens in shared planter boxes,

we're sharing a garden at Jeremy's parents' home.

Jeremy and Travis have been tilling for a couple of days.

and Jer and I went to pick out some plants from glover:

checking out strawberries,

which we think we're going to build a secret planter box in our backyard for.

shhhh don't tell the daybreak police.

we have:

green and red bell peppers, tomatoes (a butt ton, including roma, for my gwackamoley!), cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelon. 

jeremy finishing tilling, while I was inside reading.

if you haven't met duke,

he's kinda huge.

and he slobbers a lot when he likes ya. :)

Jeremy raking the soil smooth,

and Randy and I digging holes for our million tomato plants

Jer and I patting the soil in.

there's something about planting a garden as a family that I have always loved.

my parents did it every year when I was growing up

and I just think it's so dang romantic to do with your husband.

I'm so excited to go weed every week and mark our progress.

I'm so excited to watch our plants grow and mature

and harvest our hard work.

this summer is just going to be great. :)

hello to week 1!

ps. did you know that "yolo" means "you only live once"??

I feel like that old person that doesn't know what "lol" means.

geez! it's only been 3 years since high school!

34

so guess what?

babies born between 34 and 37 weeks generally do as well as full term babies.

so we're ready!

I've only gained 3 lbs in the last month,

which is nuts for the last trimester (I gained 6-8 in my first tri)

but my uterus is still measuring perfectly, so we're all good.

5/7 nights this week,

i didn't get out of bed once.

crazy again?

perfect and so convenient for finals week!

amelia is already so smart and so thoughtful and so good to me!

also, congrats to aunt collette for graduating college!!

in two weeks, we have our last every 2 week appointment

where how dilated my cervix will be measured.

and then we will start every week appointments.

can't wait.

i love you amelia ray!

proof

i know we moved into our home last november,

and i still haven't posted any pictures.

i truly have been insanely busy,

mainly with school and work and growing a babe.

anyway, i finished my last final yesterday

and had a huge surge of energy to get things accomplished.

seriously, i cleaned a huge hunk of my house,

and got started on making our home actually looking like one.

it's kinda a work in progress

but I promise more pictures will come.

this is in the front room, where we have a red wall,

beautiful couches my parents gave us as a housewarming gift,

and after jeremy repaints,

we will put my old piano in,

along with a wingback chair I am going to reupholster with red&white paisley material!!

this banner is above our kitchen sink,

a room where we have a ton of projects to work on:

hanging our pot hanger from the ceiling over the kitchen island,

repainting our table legs, chairs and benches,

repainting our garage door and patio door blue <3,

hanging our flatscreen,

and getting our office finished, so I stop using this space as my work area!

this wall is also in our kitchen,

mirroring the banner and our sink.

the room to the right is the master bed.

I did this wall last Christmas break (it was about the only thing I did ha!)

the top left sign says "write your hurts in sand, carve your blessings in stone"

which is a beautiful way to life, i'm working on it.

bottom left is a shadow box with tickets (movies, games, trax, etc) that Jer and i have gone to together.

it doesn't really match the blue theme we've got going on in the kitchen/family room,

but I still like it. :)

this is the master bedroom!

Jeremy has worked so hard painting our rooms

he is such a perfectionist that it takes forever to get the walls mudded and sanded.

he also has repainted our ceilings and molding white

before he adds the pretty colors

and seriously! such a big difference in the rooms he's repainted.

we just finally moved back in here last night!

anywho, just a picture of our side wall that I want to fill up with frames.

pretty much a shrine of our marriage. :)

we still need to:

hang curtains,

find an orange ruffle bedspread (suggestions?)

convince the hubby to put up shelves with orange ankle brackets,

and we're done!! with one room, at least :)

I made this for our master bed.

no idea why I'm obessessed with cute patterns for wastebaskets,

but here we are!

Jeremy has also repainted our master bath, which is a beautiful shade of light(er) green :)

this is in my walk-in closet,

right next to our shower :)

love this idea to hang/differentiate towels,

even though we share all the time. :)

anyways, i'm thinking of posting pictures from start to finish

of before and after for each room in our house.

............when we finish.

haha.

the great thing about summer vacation is all this time to get things accomplished!!!

the downside is that i've got a little ball in front of me sucking up all my energy.

who needs to work out when you're cleaning/decorating the house, right?

33

i can't believe another week has flown by.

I feel like this whole pregnancy has gone by so fast,

and it has finally started to slow down this week.

this week has probably been the longest.

also, the most achey, painful sleep-deprived, emotional, and hardest.

Amelia has grown so much, I can feel her in three places at once now.

and she throws crazy fits and tantrums

jeremy bends down right to my tummy and sternly says, "be nice to your mother!"

sometimes she listens,

but most of the time she just kicks harder.

and jeremy cracks up.

really? this is how we are disciplining our children?

everyone already knows that baby girl has him wrapped around her finger.

I also had a few contractions this week.

they're pretty rough.

I laughed at myself for considering childbirth without pain medication.

still, I'm sticking to my plan.

laugh all you want!!

stretch marks also showed up this week.

they're at the bottom of my belly, and also at the top of my thighs.

I was a little devastated

but my friend miriam said,

"mommy badges of honor is what they are! wear them proudly, only we get this privledge!"

very true.

and my sweet baby has been so healthy and growing so perfectly,

i would take stretch marks any day for that.

i've also been really grateful for the position i'm in to be able to support her.

not only are jeremy and i in a safe place financially,

we just bought our home,

we live in a safe neighborhood

i'm one year from graduating,

we have such a great support system in our family and friends.

and we're married and in love.

we are so lucky to have all of these things so we can give the very best to her.

i feel so blessed that I don't feel the I have to compromise the best for her because we weren't ready.

and i am also so thankful that we have had 9 months to get ready for her. :)

I know the next 7 weeks will fly by fast.

everyone has also told me the last weeks are the hardest.

I'm trying to stay positive and focus on how much I love feeling her move.

even though we are all so excited for her to get here,

I'm sure part of me will miss it so badly after I give birth.

until then,

i'm living for her next kick.

showered by the sweetest future nurses

Last weekend, the girls from nursing school threw me the cutest shower.

Jessica and Melissa have been planning this since pretty much the first week of semester!

It was so sweet and such a perfect conclusion to our second semester.

the food was amazing!

it was a ton of sugar, but so tasty.

we always tease these girls, saying they should be in the relief society presidency

because of all their amazing talents

(cooking, baking, party planning, etc.)

sweet little alicia made the fruit pizza on the right -- perfect, right?

here are a couple of gifts.

I tried really hard to not make weird faces for these pictures,

but you can only do so much when you're pregnant.

{swaddle me wrap; cute outfit; another cute outfit}

we played "guess the price" on baby items,

and I was really embarrassed with my score (5).

Saray got the high score of 9/10!

the girls packed up the items in a cute basket for me to take home,

and I was so excited for all the useful and sweet things!

{swaddle me blanket, outlet plugs, baby wipes, nursing items ;), baby wash, binkies, wash clothes, etc. etc. etc.}

Jessica's cute grandma also made us a sweet pink blanket!

these girls showered us with cute outfits, our first pack of diapers, fingernail clippers & gloves so she doesn't scratch herself, nighties, sunglasses, easy sqeezy feeder, etc. etc. etc.!!!

I always tell everyone this,

but I am so grateful I can truly call these girls some of my closest friends.

I don't know how I would survive nursing school without their support and enthusiam!

good thing we're all baby crazy, huh?

and academically speaking too!

I was so anxious and such a mess my first semester and these girls carried me through.

I'm so glad I get to share a career with these wonderful, loving, classy, intelligent ladies

and I'm so blessed to be loved by all of them.

I'm pretty lucky, what can I say?

{from left to right: Alicia, Miriam, Mikyla, me, Melissa, Jessica, Saray; row 2: Christie & Becca}

{thanks to Jerley, Nicole & Sara too!}

xoxo.

32

and a half.

yup, today is the last day I have to wear these scrubs until september. and then i will have a 3 month old!

these few days, i've just been a little crazy.

like the other day, I actually slept the entire night, without waking up to readjust, waking up to pee, waking up from cramping and not being able to breathe. I woke up and, for a second, thought maybe I had dreamt this entire pregnancy! and then i sat up and felt how heavy my front was and remembered. and smiled, because i do love being pregnant and carrying my sweet daughter around.

and then last night, i was exhausted, and i woke up every hour, and had such a hard time falling asleep. i hurt, i cramped, i cried, my nose got stuffy, my mouth was super dry, i couldn't breathe, etc. I probably slept for a total of 3 hours before getting up at 7 am to study for finals.

 

 

or like how the roles were switched on sunday morning, and jeremy was exhausted and i was wide awake. I bellowed the star spangled banner in attempt to wake him up (...may have forgotten a few words...). I was interrupted by his alarm, which he took his chance to mumble "give me ten more minutes" and rolled over away from me. "but you didn't even let me finish singing to you!!!" I protested. needless to say, i was a little huffy.

or when I was driving (i have no idea why?) and jeremy says, "babe, 50 is just the recommended speed limit."
I get a little defensive and say: "i'm already going 10 over!"
"well I usually go 70 around here"
silence
finally, i snapped, "well I don't remind you the speed limit and try to change your driving habits, so leave me alone!"
jeremy has taken back the driving role lately.


regardless, things are going great with amelia. she likes to remind me that she is in charge, like i could ever forget. we had our first every 2 week visit- I somehow didn't gain any weight, but my uterus is exactly 32 cm. perfect.
still can't wait for june 16th.
but i may or may not have a plan for the second she turns 37 weeks. :)


xoxo.

thankful

ever been so happy that everything makes you excited?
so happy that your long long day doesn't even seem long anymore?

we did our clinical lottery for next semester today.

I got my first choice for both rotations:
maternity (out of peds and geriatrics)
and public health (out of oncology and psych).

I have stressing about this all semester.
when they called my name,
I literally got teary-eyed.

I am so so thankful and happy and relieved and grateful.