Spoke too soon

Well, up until lately I've felt pretty good being pregnant, but this past week I've felt the urge to vomit everyday. I'm tired and achey and I don't know how I am going to survive even 24 more days of work. Don't get me wrong I am still so happy to be pregnant and looking forward to Carter, I am just trying to hang in there and feeling really cruddy.
This month is going to be an insanely busy one. I have a shower this Saturday, after which Dave and I are going to a baby expo at the Wells Fargo Center and then going to my step dad's birthday dinner. Not to mention I am teaching the Young Women's lesson on Sunday.
The following Saturday I have another shower. The Saturday after that I have another shower and the following Sunday I have a shower. I am super excited about all of these showers, but I am just hoping I start to feel better so I can enjoy them without a massive tummy ache.
The baby is doing good and has been getting the hiccups on a regular basis which is cute. He's been recognizing his daddy's voice and likes to kick him in the head (out of excitement of course) when he gets really close to talk to him. He also likes the song King of the road. He was completely still until that song came on the radio while we were driving to work and then he started going nuts! Like he was dancing (he dances crazy like his daddy!) I think he just likes the low voice in the song because he thinks it is Dave.
That's pretty much what's going on. We will hopefully be blogging more this month as we will be doing more interesting things. Sorry we had such a big lapse in blogs but thanks to our readers for continuing to be faithful readers through the dry spell.

Reader of the Week!!!

Our Reader of the Week is our youngest reader, Mr. Aden Pierce! We recently found out that he's been reading our blog more than some of our family members. We just wanted to give him a shout out, send him our love, and thank him for faithfully reading our blog. Keep practicing that Rubik's Cube and one day you will become a Rubik's master. We love you Aden!

We found it!

Brook and I were out shopping yesterday in Corte Madera and found this snow suit we had been searching for in the right size. Attempts to find this at 4 other gap stores and online had failed, but we got lucky yesterday, grabbing the last one the store had. Now Carter will be nice and toasty in Utah!

The perfect gift

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! Brook and I spent the evening attending our second birth class. This time it was much more in your face, no pulled punches than the first time. We got to watch a video about the different stages of labor, culminating with the actual birth of a baby. It was pretty much what I expected and at the same time very new and informative. It is one thing to read about and a totally different thing to see and talk about with a group of people. I am sure that when Carter is born, it will be an amazing (and private) experience.

For Valentine's day, I tried to be a little more creative with Brook's present. Since becoming pregnant (and even before that), Brook loves juice. So, instead of a bouquet of flowers, I got her a "bouquet" of different juices and a Jamba Juice gift card. I "wrapped" the gift in a huge Victoria's Secret bag with scantily clad women on it to confuse her before she opened it. She appreciated the thought and I am glad I didn't have to spend $50 on a dozen roses.

Just swell...

Well, things are moving along. I can't believe that next week I will be 8 months pregnant! Lately Carter has been moving more and we've been able to watch him when he makes my belly move around all funny. He got the hiccups today, probably not for the first time, but the first I've felt it. For the past few weeks I've been swelling a lot. Luckily I changed my rings 2 days before the swelling started "just in case." We have a doctors appointment Friday at which I have to get a note from my doctor saying that I can wear flip flops to work. By 3 everyday my shoes feel almost permanently fixed to my feet, so it will be nice to wear something more comfortable.

In other news: I've committed not to commit to anything until after the baby is born. I have been very stressed out and still volunteering to do things that somehow I think I have time for. So, from now on until Carter arrives (and probably for a little while after that) I will be attempting to take it easy and not doing anything that I don't need or really want to do. Hopefully this makes things easier and slightly less stressful for me, Carter and Dave. I need to continue to relieve stress which is difficult for me since I am a compulsive planner and I really have no idea when this baby is going to come. I just need to make sure that I'm ok with whatever happens.

Let them eat cake!

There has been a lot of excitement this weekend. On Friday, Brook got me an early valentine's gift. It was slightly selfish in nature, but I refuse to complain about my new PSP (play station portable). In order to justify a purchase like this, Brook said that it would come in handy during labor to take her mind off of the intense pain. Regardless of the why, I think we will both enjoy playing with our new toy.

Today, Brook and I went to San Francisco with the young women from our church to see the Marie Antoinette exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum. They had on display paintings, furniture, drawings and such from the queen's chateau. After seeing the exhibit, we took a couple of the girls to see paintings by Monet, Picasso, Cezanne, Saurat and Van Gogh. They had never seen paintings by these masters in real life, so it was cool to see their excitement. Here is the group outside the museum:

Little Emanuel testing out our stroller.

One of us didn't enjoy class!

No, it wasn't me or Dave... we got a lot of our questions answered and actually got a lot out of the class. When we got home Carter seemed to be displeased with the entire birth class experience and he was very motivated to escape from his little home. The second we got home the little Mann was kicking and punching like mad! He was hitting so hard that we were sitting there watching my stomach going nuts. Hopefully this is not a regular occurance because I actually think he will eventually find a way out!
Besides going to birth class last night we started Carter's scrapbook. I found a website where you can create scrapbook pages online and have them shipped to you. It's great because I hate dragging all of my stuff out and spending a bunch of money to get stuff to make like one page. Hopefully we like the finished product!

Nevermind...

I guess my Great Grandpa's birthday is the 28th which would still be too early for baby Carter to come!

Sooner than expected!

Well, we had a doctor's appointment yesterday and we got some interesting news. So far I've gained 28 lbs (4 in the past 2 weeks) but the doctor seemed to think that was fine all the sudden so I'm not worried. She also said I was measuring at 31 weeks instead of 30 weeks which is funny because at our last visit I was told that I was "small average." She had trouble finding the heartbeat but soon found it under my belly so she says the baby is starting to drop already! She seems to also think that he will be coming early. We have Dana Carvey tickets for the 29th of March and my mom is out of town from the 27th to the 30th so I'm hoping he can atleast hold out until she gets back on the 30th. I actually think it would be really cool if he was born on March 30th because he would share his birthday with his Great, Great Grandpa and would turn 1 when he turned 100. We'll see when he decides he's ready!
Here's me this morning... Still growing strong!

Busy weekend!

Friday night we went on a triple date with 2 of my friends from work and their husbands to Outback. It was really fun and of course the boy's conversation quickly turned to sports and the 3 of them ended up at the bar watching the Warrior's game. After a while we went over there to see when we would be leaving and somehow got shipped off to Walmart! it was fun though and we got back right when the game was ending.
On Saturday I had an oppertunity to get free maternity pictures taken! It was really fun! Here is a link to the online gallery: http://www.flickr.com/gp/8679477@N04/h0kMcQ
After that we tried to get a bit of grocery shopping in, but because of my celiac we have to go to like 8 different stores so we were only able to hit 2 of them before I had to be at the beehive conference. It was fun and the girls seemed to enjoy it so that was good.
Saturday night we went over to our friends the Skabelunds house. Our other friends Katie and Jeremy were there (Katie is about 2 weeks further along than me) and we had SUCH a good dinner! Susanne must have taken in to account that 2 preggos were coming over because there was so much food.
Sunday after church we drove out to Sacramento to spend the day with John, Noelle and Abby. We had a lot of fun AND Noelle helped me find the perfect blessing outfit for Carter! I had been searching online for months and she found it in about 2 minutes. What would I do without her!

(Those are pants, not shorts.)

This morning I was not feeling well so I slept in and Dave is going to take me to work on his lunch (since we now only have one car.) We are feeding 5 missionaries tonight and we still have to do the rest of our shopping after work so wish us luck!!!