36 Weeks on Easter

Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a great Sabbath and fun Easter. We had a great day at church and spent the day hanging out together. We are getting really good at making the most of the time we get together.

I haven't posted in a long time but there isn't too much to report. Soren has been working about 70 hours a week and I have been working about 12. :) He has been working really, really hard and being so dilligent. The poor guy has no personal time whatsoever and spends whatever he does have trying to keep me company. Its been a really rough busy season for everyone in his industry and they have been laying a LOT of people off. So far we have made the cut, but we find out on Friday if we still have a job. Some days we pray that we will keep this one, and some days I am so fed up with it all I just pray that the right thing happens and mention I wouldn't mind having Soren home more. If we lose this job he definitely will be home more. Not sure if thats exactly what I want though. The best thing is that this is the last week of busy season!!!! We have a party at Soren's work to end it all on Wednesday and then he gets Thursday off!!!!!
This also means no more working Saturdays! We do have 2 more sections of the CPA exam to gear up for, but we are looking on the bright sides of things. :)

I have been doing pretty well at keeping busy. I really like my job at Gap and it has been a good distraction. I can tell I am getting more and more pregnant daily and feel a lot more like it. This past week I started swimming and that has been a fun new exercise that feels pretty good.

We have been going to a baby class once a week for the last month and I was lucky to find one close to Soren's work so he could come. It has been great! I am so thrilled with everything we have been learning and practicing there. I think it will be really helpful for me and for Soren, especially during labor. (yikes)

I had my baby shower this last month too. Some friends from the ward threw it for me and it was really fun! Everyone who came was super generous and kind. Thanks to all who came and contributed!

So now we are just gearing up for baby. I think I have almost everything all ready aside from the hospital bags being packed and all the food shopping. My mom is coming in on the 12th of May which is the day after I am due. I hope we felt right about the dates we picked. She'll stay for a week to help out and get me started. Soren's mom and sisters are coming the week after and it will be really fun to share with them. We are definitely looking forward to our Utah/St. George/Vegas trip at the end of July. We come in around July 18th so everyone mark their calendars! :)

Here are pictures from my shower and me at 36 weeks.



Aren't these cute desserts and treats?! They did a great job correlating with the baby's room.

36 weeks...... Hopefully only 4 to go.

New Addition to the Family

No, I'm not talking about the baby yet, but I did get a new pet last week that I am very fond of. This is Pansy, the tiniest goldfish you ever saw. She is very low maintenance, although not the best pet to keep you company. Last week we went to a mid-busy season party for Soren's work and they had a white elephant gift exchange with the theme of office supplies. I'm not sure how Pansy fits that theme, but either way it got me a new fish. Ever since we have moved here I keep trying to get Soren to buy me small pets like a baby bunny, an Easter chick, etc...So now I have my pet. So far she has lived about 2 weeks under my care. We'll see how long that lasts. Goldfish and plants have a way of dying on me.

Anyways just thought you'd enjoy. Its definitely the little things that make me happy these days, especially since the move has been less than thrilling. (But its getting better!)

Speaking of little things....it meant so much to me when Soren showed up at work to surprise me yesterday. Apparently he actually ran out of work so he left his office at like 6 and surprised me at my work! It was a great treat considering that on Wednesday he didn't get home until midnight. :)

The Nursery!

Hello friends. So my latest projects have all revolved around getting the nursery ready. I think they call this 'nesting' and I'm definitely in the thick of it. I am really happy with how it is all turning out. Soren keeps trying to sleep in there; he likes this room better than ours. I'd sleep in the crib if I could....the bedding is SO soft. Anyways so after much debate we decided to go with a retro airplane theme. I found a blanket that I loved and have crafted the room around it.

So far I have painted the walls the sky blue you see. I refinished the crib, shelves and headboard with a new coat of paint. They were both either given to us or I found them for free on Craigs list.

I found the airplane images that are framed on the walls online and replicated them with my own color scheme. The airplanes hung above the crib I found super cheap at Wal-Mart and have turned them into our personlized mobile. I painted the clouds on the wall behind them.

Recently I have borrowed a sewing machine and have had tons of fun with it. I made the crib skirt that you see in green and then also made the window valence that matches it. They were really simple and a lot easier than I expected. This last week I attempted the basket liners that you see on the changing table. The baskets came with cream colored liners, but I wanted some that matched the bedroom better. They were also easy and I think they look super cute.

My next project is a diaper bag that I found a really cool pattern for. We'll see; its a lot more complicated than the other things I have done.

I want a new blanket/comforter for the spare bed but we'll see when that gets done. I also need to get a lot of containers for storage under the crib and the bed. That will help me feel better organized. So thats the new news. Hope you like.

30 Weeks

Here's a most recent picture. I think I look pretty big but apparently I'll continue to grow over the next 10 weeks. Its definitely getting harder and harder to feel cute. Yesterday at before church I found out that I no longer have ankle bones. Looks like I am on my way to some pregnancy cankles.

ps. i really hated that last picture. This one I can live with. I am more like 30.66 weeks in this shot though. :)

Recent Projects

Well for starters, I started work today!!! It feels ridiculous, but I have never been more happy to start a minimum wage paying job. I think it will be really fun though. It will feel good to have a paycheck again and a consistant schedule. Today was just two hours of training and paperwork, but I got paid for it. :)

Other news is all of the projects I have been working on around the house in all my spare time. I have found I really enjoy interior decorating and especially being creative on a tiny budget. Below is the painting I did above our sink in the kitchen. It matches the tablecloth and runner I bought.
For Valentine's Day one of the things I got Soren was new sheets for our bed. He LOVES high thread count sheets and I really wanted white sheets. Unfortunately those are the sheets that never go on sale so when I found some 1000 thread counts on sale, I was really excited. I bought them and hid them for a few weeks until Valentine's Day. On Thursday I bought paint for our room and surprised Soren by painting the whole room and putting on new sheets in one day. It was a LOT of work, especially on my prego back. But I am super happy with how it turned out. Soren helped me put up curtains on Saturday.

Don't mind the exercise machine. Its basically a bike for your arms that we got for free. Its like the perfect machine for Soren's damaged shoulders. It's an eyesore, but we have no where else to put it. :)

Below are the flowers I recently put up in our living room. They are fake, but actually look pretty real.

Those are all my projects. The baby's room is next so I'll keep you posted.

Speaking of baby, I started my third trimester yesterday and what is insane is that I definitely feel like it. My back has started to bug me a lot in just the last few days. Its bearable, but a far cry from feeling totally normal. 12 weeks to go. :)

I Got a JOB!!!

As the regular subscribers to my blog know, I have been on the job hunt since October. It has been a long, tedious, and incredibly frustrating experience. But it has finally ended today. I got a call from GAP Kids and was offered a position! I start next Tuesday and it will be a great job. The hours, discount, and location all just couldn't be better.

I should note though that there are currently thousands of people on the job market and I feel incredibly blessed to find a job. I have also been super grateful that Soren has a great job and we can still make ends meet with just his salary. I feel a little selfish seeing as I just wanted the job so I can stay busy. I know there are lots of people out there who need jobs just to feed themselves. So.....I am super grateful and excited about this offer. Thanks to all those who have listened to my complaints over the last few months. :) I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Sundays

So Sundays are definitely the new favorite day at our house. Now that Soren works Monday-Saturday, Sundays are our only real time to be together, unless he has meetings at church all day. (There have been a lot of meetings lately.) This week was like the first day we could spend the whole day together in weeks. It was a lot of fun to go to stake conference and sit next to eachother. We got to go home and eat french toast together.

Here are some pics of us in our Sunday best. (Soren always complains about the pictures I post of him, but he took this one, so hopefully he'll approve. Note the new work/Sunday attire I recently outfitted him in. )

Me at 26 weeks.

We then drove out to Mt. Pilchuck to explore nature on a mini-hike. It was really beautiful and we got a lot of talking time in. Soren brought his stove and we made hot chocolate next to this really cool waterfall. The weather was really clear and cool and we had a great time. Washington is definitely really pretty out in the wild.

None of my play clothes fit me so Soren put me in his. Yes I know they are slimming and attractive. :)