Waiting...and 38 weeks!

So, I am now waiting on my password for my U of A account to be reset. Once that happens, I am going to be in full homework mode for atleast 2 days! Not kidding. So while I am at it, I better go ahead and post that we will hit our 38 week mark tomorrow!!!

Here is what Brycen is up to this week!

How your baby's growing:Your baby has really plumped up. He weighs about 6.8 pounds and he's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). He has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold his hand for the first time! His organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.



I am definitely feeling all of that almost 7 pound baby. This week I feel like he has tripled in size! I still can't breathe and Robert has to make his lovely comments about it... especially when I am eating. No, honey... I cannot stop breathing while I chew; I am sorry this annoys you! Get over it!!! :)

Do you think I am to that point yet?? I think I am getting there. ha!

Thompson is sitting in his room watching his Nemo movie and I just love hearing him laugh at different parts of the movie. I can't believe how big he has gotten and how much he understands!

I think that that is one thing I am definitely going to try and do more with Brycen-- cherish all of those little moments. With Thompson, as a new mom, I often felt so overwhelmed. I have so many memories with him, but I really want to just focus on them while they are happening. I know that it will be so hectic with two boys, but I really want to just spend that time with him. I want him to have that special bond like Thompson and I have. They grow up so fast and before you know it, they are 2!

Most of my days right now are spent wondering what Brycen will look like. I want my boys to resemble each other (mainly because I thought Thompson was about the cutest baby ever!) and I often look at Thompson's baby pictures to remind myself of how precious he was.

This was the day he was born

He was about 3 days old here

And about 3 weeks old here

So beautiful! I can't wait to meet his little brother!

Weekend wrap up

Well today is Sunday. Usually I spend the day finishing homework that is due, watching tv, and trying to catch up on some housework. Well, I guess my day will be filled with all of those except the homework part. Thanks to the good ol' U of A, I am locked out of EVERYTHING!!! Apparently if you don't change your password in time, they will do this. So on Monday I need to call up there to plead with them to change it. (You are supposed to go there in person, but seeing how I am 1500+ miles away... that isn't going to be happening!) So after a mini meltdown yesterday, all is as well as can be.

We stayed home yesterday and watched football. I don't mind college ball-- love it better than NFL. Well last night we watched the Hogs/LSU game. Pitiful. Simply pitiful. I love the Hogs don't get me wrong, but did we not learn ANYTHING from the Florida game?? Huh? Is it that hard to see that our kicker cannot do his job?? He has ONE job!!! ARGH!!! Luckily, he is a senior and we won't have to worry about him next year. Ok, rant over. But it really was pitiful...

I am up and the boys are still sleeping. I joked that to my mom earlier that the kids were still asleep. Ha! Robert stayed up entirely WAY too late last night so I know that he won't be worth anything today. Is that bad to say? Oh well if it is. He knows it, I know it. Moving on...

Not much new on the baby news. I have a dr's appt on Thursday and like I have said before, there is a full moon on the 2nd. I don't know if I am ready for a baby then, but it will be neat to see if there is any connection. I have always said somewhere around the 9th of December. And when I was pregnant with Thompson, I always said the 29th of Sept-- he was born on the 30th. Well yesterday my mom informed me that my dad is predicting the 10th. So... if my prediction goes the same as last time, Brycen would be born on the 10th! I love the guessing game of this whole thing, but with my personality I definitely am a planner and would love to know! I have been having some more BH contractions, which is great! My doctor said that I need to have more to prepare my body for the real thing. I don't remember any with Thompson, so it is different.

Well, I am off to make my weekend favorite-- biscuits and chocolate gravy!!! Good thing too, I hear a certain little boy stirring in his room!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I love it! Christmas is one of my absolute favorite times of year. I know I have talked about this before, but there really is not a feeling comparable to the ones you feel around the holidays. I think of Christmas trees, lights, hot apple cider, and of course Christmas music and I am instantly in the perfect mood.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. A few of Robert's single buddies came over and had dinner with us. You could tell that it had been a while since they had a home-cooked meal. While I was giving out leftovers, I asked one of the boys how much food he wanted. His reply, "As much as you will give me." Ha! It really warmed my heart to be able to give something so simple as food and just make their day. It definitely made mine!

Today I ventured out into the great unknown, otherwise known as Black Friday. Duh duh dun. Really wasn't all that bad, surprisingly. I went to Wal-Mart in Yucca Valley and was there at 4:30am! I was prepared to wait outside in the 35* weather but apparently they had been open all night! You couldn't get the door busters til 5, but it was nice to be able to go ahead and get a head start. I racked up on a microwave, printer, HDMI cable cord, crock pot, rubbermaid storage, picture frames, 4 pairs of pjs for Thompson, and Christmas lights! I was proud! I then headed back to hit the sales at the PX (Military dept. store) and was surprised that it was practically empty! I did get some $.69 Hallmark wrapping paper and a cute sweatshirt. I was home by 7 and hit the bed! I slept til noon! So did Robert and Thompson. We were up late last night-- Robert playing video games with a friend and I...

Putting up our Christmas tree! It is our first ever and I am so proud. I am not quite finished. I need a topper and some pretty ribbon to put on the tree. But so far, it looks good in my opinion.

Thompson loving the tree!

Like the gate? Robert said that I had to get one if I wanted to put the tree up! I don't blame him. It would definitely get really old telling Thompson to leave the tree alone 5 million times a day! :)

37 Weeks-- FULL TERM!!!

Yes, that is correct! As of yesterday, we are full term! Brycen is just growing and growing and will be joining us soon! It is so exciting to think about.

Here is what the little guy is up to this week:

Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Don't you just love the depicted picture of what a pregnancy body looks like??? Because I can guarantee that my body looks NOTHING like that! lol.

I can't believe that he will be here any day now. There is a full moon around the 2nd (I believe) and I am always anxious to see if that really works. I have my next appt on the 3rd, so we will see how everything goes!

As much as I am ready to have the baby, I am also just enjoying the time. I know that as soon as he gets here my life will be crazy!! Chances are, this will be my last pregnancy (according to the husband) so I am also a little bit sad for that as well.

Today, I am putting up my Christmas tree as well as cooking for Thanksgiving. It looks like it will be just the 3 of us, which is perfect! We will really get to celebrate together, as a family, and really just enjoy our last holiday as a family of three.

We went to Oceanside on Saturday to be there for Jeremy's homecoming. Haili, his daughter, was definitely glad to see her daddy! Here she is with her sign she made for him.

Thompson was sure proud to see his Uncle Jeremy as well!

While we were there, we went and ate at Red Lobster. Our waitress let the kids touch one of the lobsters from their tank. It was too funny. Both of them were scared to death! And for the rest of the day Thompson kept saying "No, no fishy! No, No!" He was so afraid it would bite him.

One of the best parts of the trip... Sonic. They just opened one down the road in Vista and it was perfect. We went twice! :) Thompson got his "Chocolate Shake". And he would repeat that over and over til it came. Then Thompson would say "It's good!"

Robert enjoying his shake!

And I enjoyed a nice, big Cherry Vanilla Coke! I probably broke through the caffeine levels on that one! Oops! :)

Yesterday, we stopped by Target on our way home and finished some Christmas shopping. Thompson definitely racked up and Robert and I didn't do too shabby as well. We got some new video games for our Wii and PS3. Speaking of Wii, mine will be here on Saturday! So excited to try it out. We played Mario Kart this weekend and Robert and I had a blast! We will definitely be getting that one.

Oh, and just because I am odd-- I always find things like this neat! Robert rolled over 22,222 on his truck and I just had to get a picture!

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving! We will be here stuffing ourselves silly! :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

So, it's not my birthday. That passed about a month ago. BUT, I am just finally getting around to ordering my birthday present from my bday money I received. Whoo Hoo! You know what I got???

Oh, yeah! I have wanted one for over a year now and I finally ordered it!! Wait, it gets even better!

With the Black Friday sales going on and such... Amazon.com (love, love, love!) decided to do the "Sale of the Century" (my words not theirs) and do an incredible bundle. You get the Wii Console with controller and Wii Sports game

***Plus***

Wii Fit with balance board

***Plus***

A $50 Amazon Gift Card!



All for the amazing price of $289.98!!! Not kidding. And with my gift card I am purchasing this for $49.49!


If I were (which I was planning to) go to Sam's Club and purchase all of this, I would end up paying around $330 plus tax and shipping. So that my friends is called a saving of atleast $70.

Thank you, thank you.

If you are planning on purchasing a Wii this holiday season, definitely check out this deal. I believe it ends on Nov. 22nd, so you just have a few days left!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! We are travelling to Pendleton tomorrow for my husband's brother's homecoming from Afghanistan! We do have our bags semi packed so that if anything were to happen then we are prepared. :)

Things I am proud of!

At 24, I know I am young. I married at 20 and had a baby right before I turned 22. Whenever I hear of people getting married at that age I just gasp and think "but they are sooooo young!!". To be honest, many thought that I was crazy when I told them I wanted to get married and move all the way from Arkansas to California to be with my Marine. I had nothing. I literally loaded up as much as I could into my car and made the trip and started from there. I will say what I did have. I had parents who loved me and trusted me (and Robert) to know that somehow we would be okay. I have talked about it before, but I think that the day I left AR was one of the worst days of my life. I was scared to death. But I knew that I could do it. And with my family's support, I have.

It is so weird to look back three and half years ago and think about that day. I think of how much I have grown as a person. Most of it happened when we found out we were pregnant with Thompson, Robert left for Iraq 3 days later, and I HAD to be strong and make it on my own.

I will always be proud of myself and what I have done. It definitely made me a stronger person all around and I know that no matter what, things will be okay and I will somehow make it.

Which leads me to my next "proud" moment. I am married to a wonderful man. He is not perfect, but he is perfect for me. Yes, we argue. Yes, we pick on each other. But more than anything we love each other. And we know that no matter what, at the end of the day there is no one else that we would rather be with. He is a very selfless person. He has had to leave his family twice and go overseas because that was his job. And honestly, he never complained. He knows that he missed out on a lot with Thompson-- his first words, his first tooth, his first steps, his first birthday. I am so excited for him to get to experience all of that with Brycen. He deserves it.

I am proud of my husband. I am proud of what we have accomplished together. Yesterday, when we received our bonus, the first thing we did was pay off the rest of his truck. We bought this truck during his first deployment in 2007. We saved and saved his deployment money and I was so proud that he was getting a brand new truck when he came home. He has worked so hard for it. And it makes me so happy to know that in 2 years we bought (from scratch) and paid off a truck! Wow! I know to some this isn't a huge deal, but to us, two kids who started off with basically a blow up mattress, it is everything!

What are you proud of today???

36 Weeks, dr's appt, and TAXES!

Today, we hit 36 weeks!

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered his body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected his skin during his nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of his first bowel movement.

He is definitely growing, I can tell that! Here in the past couple of days I have noticed that I haven't been able to breathe as well. It scared me at first because I know that he has dropped, but I was afraid that he decided that he was just going to stay in there forever! ha! Well today at the dr's appt I mentioned it to my doctor and she felt around and assured me that his head was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down there but thanks to my good genes, he is stretching all the way to the top. She didn't know if he was going to be a big baby, but definitely long. Wonderful. So just to the point where I thought I would get some lung capacity back, he decides to just stretch on back out! :P Oh well. As long as he is still doing great, then that is all that matters.

As for the technical part of the appt., I am right on track. I am dialating accordingly (1cm) and about 50% effaced. Sounds good to me! :) I go back in 2 weeks for my 38 week appointment and maybe we will have made some more progress by then!






Now... something that loathes me...

TAXES!!!

We finally got our HUGE (I say that sarcastically) re-enlistment bonus. Whoo hoo, right? Well, yes and no. Yes that we even got somewhat of a bonus, but no that the IRS took 32%. 32%!!!! I about died. Yes, we should get some of it back when we file our income taxes, but still. Gosh. So, I am a little bummed about that, but oh well. That's life, right?