Baby showers in Utah

I was so lucky to be able to have 2 baby showers while I was in Utah visiting over Christmas. I have been totally stressing lately because I only have 5 weeks to go and I don't feel ready at all! I wonder if I ever will? At least after these 2 showers I feel a little bit better because we really did get a lot of things we needed. Thank you everybody that could come and thanks again for EVERYTHING!

This was me before we left for Utah at 33 weeks.

SWISS MISS SHOWER

My mom has this wonderful group of friends and they call themselves the "Swiss misses" because they all go up to Swiss days in Heber Utah every year and have a girls trip. They are all so nice and wonderful and they put together this little shower for me at the Olive Garden.

The Swiss Misses

It had been a while since I had seen this girl! Kristen and I go way back having grown up in the same ward.

 Myself, Ann and Alli

 My wonderful mother, Robin and Kit who suggested I name our baby girls middle name after her... We will see:)

 I received so many great things...

Baby girl Murray is going to very stylin'.

This was such a fun shower... Very low key and just nice to be able to sit and chat with fun people.

THE FAMILY SHOWER

This was a big one! I was very spoiled and my Aunt Kathy and a lot of other people put a lot of work into making this so much fun. The theme was baby shoes and I loved it! All of the decorations where darling and all of the food was gluten free and delicious! I was truly spoiled here:)

Little Hadder's at the shower entertaining us with her silly faces. 

Janessa, Jennifer, Aubrey and my mother in Law Linda all made the difficult and long journey to come to my shower. I was so glad they did. Linda even came even though just a week earlier she had knee surgery! They are amazing.

 Long time friends Brittney and Ashley. I always love seeing and hanging out with them!

Aunt Linda with Haddy. I love this picture!

The classic "opening presents shot" Here I am modeling the cutest little giraffe and outfit.   

I have so many talented friends and family! My sister in law Jennifer made me tons of cute things. Here are a few of the cute things she made.

Haddy really enjoyed the wrapping paper portion of the night. 

Alli, Aunt Linda, Haddy and myself!

I love this shot. Brittney is due only 1 week after me! Our birthdays are exactly a week apart so it's only fitting that our daughters our too:) 

 Murray family

Harris family

I am so grateful for everyone coming and showering me with gifts. I really enjoyed seeing all of my family especially the ones I don't get to see very often. I love you all SO much and feel so blessed to know so many wonderful people.

31 week ultrasound

Last week Steve and I got to go have a 4D ultrasound done and it was so much fun. I was a little disappointed because we really only got one good 4D shot and one good normal shot. Baby girl had her face VERY close to the placenta and therefore the machine had a hard time determining where the face ended and the placenta began. I guess she is just getting bigger!

She is still in the perfect position for delivery and has her body bent in half with her feet right up close to her mouth. I loved seeing the 4D images but by far my favorite part of the ultrasound was watching her move her mouth, tongue and hands. It was fascinating to me to see a real baby moving around so much doing real baby things. It seemed like she had recently discovered her tongue because she kept sticking it out and in over and over again. She also kept trying to shove her hands AND feet into her mouth multiple times. 

I love this picture with her mouth wide open. She looks like she is either yawning or getting ready to shove her hand in her mouth again.

This was the 4D shot that we got. I feel like she has very feminine features and I love looking at her pretty lips.

So now we are in the home stretch. With only 8 weeks to go it is really starting to set in that we will be getting a child soon. Hard to believe because even though I know we are pregnant I have a hard time imagining that she will ever actually come out of me.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving this year we had a very pleasant surprise! We originally were planning on going to a friends house to share the great feast with them but a few days before we found out that Steve's dad Mike and 3 of the kids were going to be coming to stay with us for the weekend! This was exciting news because that meant that we wouldn't be spending the holiday alone and I had an excuse to make thanksgiving dinner (which I actually really enjoy making). Dinner was delicious and we got to play lots of board games over the long weekend. The kids enjoyed just dance on the wii and I think they played it every spare second they had! Steve and Mike got to enjoy golfing a couple times while I hung out with the kids and enjoyed some fun activities.

I think one of the highlights for the kids and myself was taking Weston to the dog park. Now that it's nice weather I really try to take him once or twice a month to interact with his other furry friends. He really enjoys it and it always wears him out. We have a bunch of dog park options here and I usually just take him to the closest one but this time since I had the kids with me I decided to take him to the fancy one a little further away. I wish I took pictures because it is truly an amazing park. It has a man made lake for the dogs to swim in and an area with an obstacle coarse for training. The kids had a total blast playing with all the dogs there and seeing the many different breeds and personalities. 

After we got home from the dog park Tanner and TayLynn kept BEGGING me to let them go swimming in the pool. They had actually been begging me for the last 3 days and I kept trying to tell them that the water was too cold but they didn't believe me. I finally gave in and let them find out for themselves. They didn't last too long:)

This is where they stood for about 20-30 minutes daring each other to be the first one to jump in... 

This is TayLynn realizing that I wasn't lying about how cold the water was. 

That is as far as anyone made it but it didn't stop them from trying again later that same day! The kids did have a grand time trying to conquer the cold water and I was happy they had fun.

The night before they all left we decided to go and see the Mesa temple Christmas lights. They looked amazing and it was so fun to get into the Christmas spirit and remember why we celebrate it each year. I LOVE Christmas time, I love everything about it and I am so excited to travel back to Utah and spend it with family again this year.

After the smaller part of the Murray clan left we attempted to do family Christmas pictures at home. They did NOT turn out good at all I am sad to say but I posted a few of them anyway because I really put a lot of time and thought into them and I didn't want them to be a complete waste.

I had this brilliant idea to take pictures of us in ugly Christmas sweaters, I even got the dog one but after showing them to Steve he informed me that they were not ugly enough. I disagree, I think they are hideous but Steve was worried people would think we were serious. Just for fun here are our reject Christmas pictures even though we ended up using one for our Christmas card:)

Ugly sweaters # 1

Giant over sized Christmas tree sweater.

Negative: Really bad lighting. We had serious camera issues.

Positive: At least Weston was looking at the camera in this one:)

Ugly sweaters # 2

Come on. How is what I am wearing not the ugliest thing on this planet???

Negative: Bad lighting again, dog interested in ANYTHING other that getting his photo taken. 

Positive: Nothing. Just nothing. 

Normal clothes # 1

This one will be part of our holiday card but due to the bad lighting I had to improvise a little bit. It was still the best option out of all of them so WINNER...

Normal clothes # 2

What does Weston keep looking at??? You would think a bright flashing light, a stuffed toy and mounds of treats stacked by the camera would attract his interest. I guess not:)

Happy December from the Murray's!

A visit from the Cook's

Last week my parents, sister and niece came to visit. It was pure awesomeness. We danced, we played, watched a movie and worked on nursery and house projects. Okay, I’ll be honest, everybody pretty much helped with the house projects but me. I pulled the pregnant card a lot. In my defense I couldn’t be around paint fumes or lift heavy objects which were most of the projects so it’s not all due to my laziness, just a little bit due to my laziness. Plus, I think I got enough of a work out playing just dance with Alli and Haddy, I was very sore for many days after.

One of the highlights of the long weekend was testing out our new camera on Haddy. We had a lot of fun dressing her up and posing her in various places around the yard. I am sure Alli will also post some of these pictures on her blog because they turned out so cute! I can’t wait to test out our camera on our own baby here soon. Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day.

The pooper

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make this flip. I give up.

Still a girl! We double checked:)

Last week while my family was in town visiting Steve and I had our 3^rd trimester check up and ultrasound. Since my mom and sister where in town they really wanted to come along and see our little fetus. It was a lot of fun to have them there! Our little girl is doing great! The first 3 ultrasounds she was measuring a few days behind but this last visit she was measuring 2 days ahead of schedule! She weighed approximately 2 lbs 6 oz and she is in the perfect position for delivery (head down face foreword) which I was glad about. I know she can still move from that spot but I’m hoping she doesn’t. It’s so weird how proud of her I already am. She is the perfect little baby in my eyes.

She is still moving a lot! It becomes more and more frequent everyday and a lot stronger.  We have yet to decide on any name in particular yet but the top 3 in the running currently are: 

1.) Isla
2.) Claire
3.) Aspen

My favorite is Isla and Steve’s is Aspen. Claire is one we both mutually agree on but aren’t quite sold on yet. It may even turn out to be a completely different name in the end. Who knows???

Anyways…  Here are a few pictures below from our 3^rd trimester photo shoot. Our ultrasound tech turned it over to 3D for a few minutes and we got some great shots of her face, although her arm was covering up part of it. Also, look forward to some awesome 4D shots in about 3-4 weeks. Working at a doctors office has it's perks sometimes. A radiology rep is giving us a free 1 hour 4D ultrasound (whatever 4D means) session just for fun. We can't wait! In the meantime here are some of her latest model shots. Enjoy:)

Side profile... Look at that large noggin! She's going to be smart, but hopefully not a smarty pants:)

3D... It takes a second to see it sometimes but you can clearly see her side face and her little arm is held up by her left eye on the right. Looks kind of like she is rubbing her sleepy eyes. How adorable:)

I love her so much...

Another birthday!

Steve and I are lucky to have birthdays so close together. I really like it that way, I especially like that his birthday is first because I always stress about making it perfect for him and it’s nice to just sit back and relax once it’s over:)  This year on November 9^th we celebrated my 27^th birthday! Interesting fact… Baby turned 27 weeks on my 27^th birthday. Kind of cool I thought. For my birthday I wanted to get a rocker/glider for the baby’s room so that day we left work early and went glider shopping! This activity was the perfect birthday present! It combines all of my favorite activities into one.

1.) Shopping
2.) Shopping for baby stuff
3.) Shopping with Steve
4.) Talking about baby stuff

So basically I had a blast!

We spent a total of about 5 hours going from store to store looking at different glider/ rocking chair options. It turned out to be a little more difficult making a decision than I had anticipated! I had my “ideal” chair in my head and qualifications that it must have. My list was long in my head but what we ultimately ended up with was just practical. It is, however, the most comfortable practical chair my little bum has ever sat in! I’m sure to appreciate it all of my late nights up with the babe!

 We did manage to fit dinner and registering into our evening as well and my mom and dad sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers with an adorable teddy bear along with it for the baby. I’m so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life and I truly have no complaints! I am one happy camper:)

Steve's Birthday!

Steve turned the ripe old age of 32 last Friday (the 28th of October) and we celebrated in style. Steve woke up to a fabulous breakfast spread that morning and lots of really nice birthday wishes. Later that day he got to do his favorite thing ever... Golf! It was a gorgeous day and he said he had a great time. Later that evening we went out to dinner with a group of friends (14 of us to be exact) and then had cake and ice cream after at our house. I tried a new recipe this year and think it turned out great! It was a chocolate cake with like a whipped cream frosting served cold. Yum:) Below is a picture of Steve blowing out his invisible candles!

I was a bad wife this year:( Not only did I NOT take any pictures besides the one above but I also forgot candles. Minor detail's I guess but I especially regret not taking more pictures. All well. At least Steve had a great day and got to be surrounded by good company.

I am so grateful for Steve. Here are a few of the reasons why I love him so much and why he is such a great husband and man in general:)

He makes me relax! Let's face it... I can be an emotional wreck sometimes! Maybe it's just the pregnancy hormones, I don't know but he always knows how to get me to chill out!

He makes me laugh! He is always joking or being sarcastic and it's hard to stay mad at him for too long because he will turn a stupid fight into joke that always makes me laugh and forget about the reason we where arguing in the first place. (He calls it debating:)

Everybody loves him! I get compliments on my husband all the time! He is incredibly responsible and takes the pressure of supporting our little growing family very seriously. He is always encouraging me to save money and he doesn't just tell me to do something and then not do it himself. He is a great example to me and definitely inspires me to try and be better.

He is amazing at his calling! He is the Elders quorum president and has already been able to bless the lives of many by visiting and giving blessings to various members of the ward when they are in need. He really takes his role seriously and is an inspiration to others.

He's handsome! (Or as my beehives say "he's hot")! A little awkward??? Maybe, but still a compliment:)

He is friends with everybody.

He loves our dog as much as I do and obsesses over all his little quarks.

He is going to be an amazing father. I already know this, he is GREAT with children. Even a year later all of our old nursery kids will still come up to him and say "look mom (or dad) it's my best friend Steve!" Children adore him.

He is active in church, physical exercise  and most important my life. He helps me all the time whether it's bringing food to work so I can eat or taking out the trash at home (a job I despise) or entertaining the dog so he doesn't become too lazy or depressed.

I LOVE that he has so many interests. Golf, mountain biking, friends, movies, traveling, researching, decorating/designing, me, family and many other things.

What a blessing it is to have him in my life. I love him:)