Some stuff

Well, Dave and I are both sick, but he is taking it more like a Mann than me. I feel miserable!

We had a doctor's appointment Monday and got some... news... first off I've gained 7 lbs this past month which puts my total weight gain at 19 lbs. That's a lot considering the only place I've really been gaining is my stomach. I asked if that meant I was going to have a LARGE baby and she said we would have to wait and see. She followed that up by saying that she thinks I might be able to birth an 8 lb baby naturally, but doesn't think that I could do a 9 pounder since I am so small. She said natural birth is ideal, but not to freak out if I end up needing a C-section. Oh fabulous!!!!! My mother in law had 6 babies and not one of them was under 8 lbs! Let's hope this boy takes after the babies in my family which were all under 8 lbs. (I doubt it though.)
Our doctor also informed us that she is pregnant and due April 6th which means she will not be delivering our baby. I hadn't really expected her to be delivering since it all depends who's on call, but I hoped it would be her and now there is really no chance. So that was a bummer. She started out that sentence with "I have a confession to make and you're going to be mad at me..." not exactly a phrase you want to hear coming from your doctor, but I was glad that it wasn't a lot worse.

In other news: we have our 4D sonogram in a week from tomorrow and we are really excited to see if we can tell at all who this baby looks like. We will be posting pictures from that hopefully next weekend.

Until then we are both going to try to get healthy again. I've been really lucky to have had a great pregnancy so far, but I have gotten 3 colds since I got pregnant and it is so miserable. Luckily Dave takes good care of me.

Dave's family

All the Mann-Philpott brothers.

The boys goofing of as usual.

The boys with Dad where they get their rugged good looks.

With their wives.

And a fabulous picture of Jeff!

My siblings

It looks like I'm not the only really tired one in the house. The cats have been seizing any opportunity to snuggle with mommy!

Merry Christmas?

Well this year's Christmas will be one that we look back at and laugh...
We were house sitting for Nancy and Vince and we were really looking forward to having a nice romantic Christmas morning by the fireplace. Well, Dave went and got some logs and put them in the fireplace with all of our discarded wrapping paper and using his boy scout skills started our little fire. Within minutes the house was filling with smoke and not one, but 3 smoke detectors were going off (keep in mind it's about 7am.) Dave quickly realized the flu was closed and forced me to wait outside until he could open it and clear some smoke. I tried Vince's cell phone but there was no answer so I tried Nancy's. Luckily, Vince answered and after about 10 minutes of him telling me and me telling Dave through the window we got the flu open. The house and everything in it (including us and our clothes) smelled like campfire. The romance of the fire had died so we let the fire die too. It was definitely exciting!
All in all it was a great Christmas and good times were had by all!

One down, 2 to go

It's official! I, David Michael Mann, have been accepted to University of Utah. Now I am just waiting to hear back from Arizona State and UNLV. ASU is still my top choice for now, but it is still nice to know that someone actually wants me. I feel so loved! Brook and I are enjoying our time off for Christmas, "vegging" for most of this morning. I hope all of you are well and enjoy your holidays. Happy Christmas!!

Finally fat enough!

Today we went to Joann's to get the rest of the fabric for the quilt my friend Cristina's future Mother-in-law is making for Carter. While we were there, I finally got asked by a total stranger when my due date was. I guess I am finally getting fat enough to look pregnant, or else she is just really rude.

We did get all the fabrics for the quilt and here they are:

Yummy!

I have seriously been scarfing down the food lately! Poor Dave has to eat dinner at about 4:30 every day because I'm so hungry after work that we have to get food before we even make it home. And it's not like I don't eat ALL day long... in the past 15 minutes I've had a fruit by the foot, a starburst, half a bag of popcorn, about 4 pieces of rocky road fudge AND I'm about to get my 2 string cheeses from the fridge! This is going to be one abnormally large child!!!!! Yikes!

"Mann" made baby stuff

Here are some things Brook and I have been working on for Carter. Over the weekend, Brook used her new sewing machine to make the baby blanket featured below. She got the idea from Sherrie and Jodi Moore. It turned out sooooo cute!


We have gotten a little polka dot crazy in Carter's room and now we might have too many. This project will be ongoing until we get the right concentration of dots. Sometimes Brook and I are a little too obsessed with perfection. Here is what we have so far.

Brook and I went to a new fabric store that was recommended by some friends today. I wasn't going to let her buy anything, but I suddenly felt that Carter needed a more "Mannly" designed blanket when I spotted this fabric. He will be the coolest baby ever! If you want to checkout the store's website, go to http://www.materialgirlfabric.com/.

In other news, Carter has been very active recently. We discovered last night that he enjoys being read and sung to. We read the book Brook's Grandma sent (mentioned in an earlier blog) to him and then I sang some songs by Josh Turner (a country singer with a low bass voice). He was so excited, probably because of all the attention he was getting, that he was bouncing off the "walls". Good times were had by all.

Pictures

Thanks Lindsay!

Proof that when the cats are tired they will tolerate anything. Yes, that is my sock.

Carter's first Christmas present

Carter got a package in the mail yesterday from his great grandma Joan. I can't even express my excitement of having a package addressed to Carter but the best part is what was inside! My grandma had sent a book called "The Life of Our Lord" that she had owned and read with her family every year at Christmas time. The copyright on the book is 1939 and it is still beautiful! On the inside cover she did a little pedigree chart for Carter going from my Great grandparents all the way down to him. This is one of the greatest presents I have ever received and it wasn't even for me!!!! I can't wait to read it to him!

Carter's new digs

Brook and I are in the process of putting the nursery together. Here is what we have so far!

What a difference 21 weeks make!

She may be bigger, but she is still a beauty!

The 25 days of Christmas

We decided we wanted to do something fun and "Christmasy" every day this month so we sat down and planned a bunch of activities. I'm excited because today is the first of many "Hot chocolate Tuesdays." It should be fun. Hopefully we will have pictures from some of the more exciting activities posted on our blog throughout the month.
In other news... I've now gained a total of 12 lbs since I've been pregnant so it looks like I'm right on target with how much they want me to gain. The anxiety is slightly under control and the doctor told me to try to avoid situations that would cause stress (haha... is that possible?) and to keep up with the yoga. We are also in the process of scheduling our birthing classes and we just scheduled our "4D" sonogram for January 10th so we should get some amazing pictures from that.
All in all the 2 and 1/2 of us are doing great and enjoying spending time together as a family (even though Carter has no choice in the matter!)

Namaste

Today was my first day of prenatal yoga. It was good, but I am sure I will be sore tomorrow! I was stretching muscles I didn't even know I had. I only did the sitting and standing exercises which took about 20 minutes, but I figure I should warm up to the full hour. Hopefully it will get easier, but even so it was pretty relaxing.

Isn't that just a fancy word for feeling "bummed out"?

Well, We've been having an interesting week to say the least. For a little while I've been "on edge" and getting upset really easily. Now I know what you are all thinking, I'm hormonal, and yes I am, but lately it has escalated way beyond that. Earlier this week I got so upset that I started getting dizzy and shaking and then all the sudden I started having trouble breathing. At first I blamed it on low blood sugar (which I get pretty often) but then I noticed it happened right after I ate. So last night at choir practice for the nativity choir people were trying to get us not to use music for one of the songs and I started stressing out. I seriously felt like the incredible hulk! I could feel the heat rising in myself and then all the sudden I got that same feeling! So I went out to the car and called my mom asking what it felt like to have high blood pressure. She told me I would probably be swollen which I'm not. She said when she was pregnant she got anxiety attacks on a regular basis. Ding ding... That sounds like what I'm experiencing daily. So she said I should talk to my doctor about it but I have an appointment Monday so I decided to wait until then. Today I just tried to relax, breathe and listen to Jack Johnson all day but of course the universe has this way of ruining all your plans like that. So of course today was one of the most stressful work days EVER! I just tried to keep my stress at a safe level and took lots of deep breathes. I barely made it. After work I went to Target and bought a Prenatal yoga DVD set. It looks pretty relaxing. Hopefully it helps.

Funny baby clothes!!!

Before we found out what the baby was we did a little baby clothes window shopping. Dave absolutely fell in love with some boy onesies that we saw at a local baby boutique, but of course when we found out that we were having a boy and went back to get them they were gone. It's probably a good thing considering the store was super expensive and I don't pay $50 for an adult sized shirt let alone a baby sized shirt. So of course Dave was sad... Well I went looking online and found the greatest website! http://www.trendytadpole.com/ They had so many cute shirts and onesies and they even had the ACDC one that Dave originally wanted for much cheaper! We LOVE this website!!!

It's a...

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!! Carter Pierce Mann!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gratitude

Last Sunday I taught a lesson on gratitude in Young Women's. It actually went really well and I felt really good about it until we got a message on our machine from a member of the bishopric who just happened to be the husband of the Young Women's president asking if Dave and I could speak on Sunday about gratitude. Normally I HATE speaking. Truth be told I believe I've intimidated the bishopric so badly that we've only spoken once in the 3 years we've been in the ward. This time however I feel better about the topic (It's really difficult to come home from your honeymoon and give a talk on marriage to people who have been married for 60 years) and I'm not too worried. I do know I will get emotional, especially because Kaisa wants to come, but I think that's ok. I've decided to speak on gratitude through trials and the importance of appreciation. I'm nervous but really excited.
Last night Dave and I made a list of things we are grateful for and I meant to put it on here. I will hopefully do that soon.
Well happy baby day! I can't wait for 2:00!!!!!

Like a kid waiting for Christmas!

I cannot believe that our sonogram is tomorrow! That just seems so soon! I'm going nuts with anticipation!!!!
Tonight we are attempting to make Gluten free stuffing for Thanksgiving. Hopefully it turns out ok! What am I saying I don't care about the stuffing!!!! All I can think about is finding out what Kreacher is!
We pretty much finished our registry this weekend and will have to go online and delete either the blue or the pink stuff. It's just good to have that checked off the list. For those of you interested in just checking it out we are registered at Target.
Any way be expecting a very excited blog on Thursday or Friday after we find out if it is Daphne or Carter!

Caffine addict????

Ok, so Kreacher had a Pepsi on Wednesday and ever since then I have been thumped like crazy. Apparently he/she wants another. Sadly I will be feeding Kreacher's addiction on Wednesday for our sonogram to get the little monster to move in hopes that he/she might flash the camera. WOOHOO Babies gone wild!!!!

Do you ever have those moments when you feel like a cow?

I've been feeling large and slightly in charge lately. Of course I know there's no where to go but bigger and I will eventually be the size of a cow... but I guess that is just one of the joys of pregnancy. I actually really love being pregnant. It seems like it's going by too fast and I'm just trying to enjoy it. Then again... the baby part will be cool too.
We have our sonogram on Wednesday and we are SO excited. Absolutely ZERO people have given me gender guesses so I guess nobody wants to play our game. *Insert sad face here*
Oh well.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and have a jam packed weekend ahead of us. The sonogram is Wednesday and then we drive out to John and Noelle's and stay the night. Thanksgiving there with the Mann family and we are driving home after dinner on Thursday. Friday is Thanksgiving with the Anderson/Huntington/Allison clan (my family) at my Mom and step-Dad's house. Before that we will be avoiding any retail store and just having a nice day off together. On Saturday we have dinner with the Costas (Nancy and Vince) and I get to meet Vince's mom, my fake Grandma! I am really excited! It should be a great weekend with family and food!

Applications...AHHH!!!!

For those interested in the hunt for an architecture school, I have finished 3 applications thus far: Arizona State, University of Utah, and UNLV. I just have to get my transcripts sent from the Junior College to said schools and then I should be hearing back in a few weeks. I am getting kinda nervous, with baby and moving coming in the near future. Don't get me wrong, I am totally stoked for both adventures. I guess it is just fear of the unknown. Other than what I have just written about, life is pretty much the usual. Brook and I did recently move some furniture around in the bedroom and the future nursury, but nothing is picture worthy yet. For example, I am blogging right now while sitting in our bedroom. It's different, but good. To all our faithful readers, I bid thee adieu!

As promised...

Invader! No cats allowed!

Our fort

Overwhelmed and blog slacking

Well, It's been a while since I've actually gone on here and blogged about anything. I've been a little stressed out for no reason lately and had a bit of a breakdown last night, but I'm better now.
As for Kreacher news:

• I've felt him/her move for a few days and it keeps getting stronger and more often.
• I'm definitely getting bigger... in fact I've gained 5 lbs in the last month which makes my total 8 lbs!!!!
• We've scheduled our sonogram for the day before Thanksgiving!!!! (AND WE'RE SUPER EXCITED!!!!)
• I think it may be a boy which is strange because I've been thinking girl for so long.
• We've decided on which birthing class we are going to take and will be starting them in February. We are hoping our friends the Whitelocks will take it at the same time as us.
• And we are almost halfway through! It's going by so fast!

As you can see we have an exciting couple of months ahead of us!

Kreacher is growing!