me - the perma-pregnant woman

This picture was taken just shy of 34 weeks.

I’ve been crunching a lot of numbers in my head during this pregnancy. For instance, it took us 34 months to finally get pregnant with Harper. And since getting pregnant with Harper, I’ve been pregnant for 26 out of 38 months. That means out of 3 years and 2 months, I’ve only NOT been pregnant for 1 year of that total. Holy Moly Batman! The good thing is I really do LOVE being pregnant. Watching my body change and feeling the baby…it’s all just so miraculous.

I’m now 35 weeks. I’m almost to the “any time is go time” stage. Now that freaks me out a little. Not because I’m afraid of labor. I really do love that part as well. Mostly because I’m wondering how in my sleep deprived state I’m going to simultaneously manage a constantly nursing newborn and a curious/mischievous 1 year old {along with all of the other responsibilities I have}. I’m not overly worried about Harper. She’s so independent and a great helper. But I keep going back to faith and trusting that the Lord will help me.

I really am excited to have my 3 little munchkins to snuggle and love and raise. My children are my pride and joy. Although we have moments of craziness around here {weird, right?}, they are always a shining example and reminder to me of the things that matter most with their sweet innocence. And thankfully I have an amazingly helpful supportive husband.

I’m just hoping my incessant desire to be pregnant again isn’t quite so strong after this baby. It MIGHT be time for a short break for this old body of mine…

Ray’s 1st Birthday

On Sunday, we celebrated Ray’s birthday with all of our nearby family. It was the first time officially having people over at our new house so it was super fun…and exhausting :).  It’s so hard to believe that Ray is already 1. Time really goes way too quickly these days.

Our menu for the bday party consisted of bbq beef sandwiches with a variety of Sweet Baby Ray’s bbq sauce {of course!}, coleslaw, chips, fruit with fruit dip, and chocolate sheet cake with ice cream. I’m not going to lie, it was all very tasty. We’ve been thoroughly enjoying the leftovers this week!

Ray was stone face and wasn’t quite sure about us singing Happy Birthday to him.

But after sticking a burning candle in his face for a minute…he became very interested in sticking his hand in the fire. Harper tried to help him blow it out; however, I think I ended up being the successful one :).

It really didn’t take him long to make a ginormous mess with his cake. He must’ve liked it…

Harper was our big helper when it came time for gifts. Ray really wasn’t all that interested so it was mostly Harper and I opening them. Boys!

Grandma took some time to read the kids Ray’s new book. I just love this picture.

And I especially love this picture…

And these, of course…

Happy Birthday Ray Ray!

Duke

Do you remember this post from almost 2 years ago?

Well check this out…

That, my friends, is the same horse. He has come a long way and Ryan has done a great job with him.

I’m not going to lie…I was a little bit nervous when Ry brought Duke home the other day to let Harper ride him. I kept having flashbacks of him bucking and charging through the corral. But he did great! Harper and Daddy are the only ones who have ridden Duke. I’d say that’s pretty special :).

General Conference Weekend

We tried to make General Conference a fun weekend for the kiddos. I want to make it a tradition of doing fun things so it’s something they look forward to twice a year. I was a little slow in the preparations however, so we slapped this together really fast and saved the fun for Sunday {although we did listen to the Saturday sessions}. 

Sunday morning we had a yummy breakfast of omelets and cinnamon rolls while listening to The Spoken Word. Harper and Daddy also made a fort which they hung out in most of the day. Harper thought it was great. Ray wasn’t so sure about it however. I also put together a little word recognition activity. Every time Harper heard ‘scriptures’, ‘family’ or ‘temple’ she got a corresponding treat. She enjoyed listening to the Prophet and recognizing him on TV. I mostly enjoyed going to church in my pj’s…not gonna lie :)

Honestly though I love conference. It’s such a rejuvenating weekend for me. I love hearing of the growth of the church and listening to the inspired messages from our church leaders.