Easter Surprise

Holidays are so dang fun with a little one!  Here are the pictures from our Easter Sunday :)

Aiden checking out his Easter basket.  We kept it simple because there was a big surprise waiting in the backyard ;)

Reese's peanut butter egg at 8 o'clock in the morning ;)

Showing Aiden his surprise :)

We won't normally do something this big for Easter, but we were thinking we should really get something since we have a backyard now. We had been thinking about getting one back in March, but we aren't ones to just "hand" things to Aiden, so when we thought about Easter coming up, we thought it was the perfect time to surprise him :)

And now you get a glimpse of our ugly backyard.  We moved in and the whole lawn was weeds.  Trent tried to revive the grass, but it seems to have all died off, so he'll be reseeding soon.  We're just happy to have a backyard, although it is pretty ugly..haha.

Traditional Easter family photo before Church.  37 1/2 weeks.

Aiden by our Easter display table :)

And tonight both of our families came by for Aiden's Easter egg hunt.

Grandma and Grandpa Knuckles got Aiden this little lawn mower. We saw one just like it that he loved at a birthday party and knew he had to have one ;)

I wish I'd gotten more pictures with the family :/

It was a wonderful Easter Sunday.  How grateful I am for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice for me.  I know He lives, and because He lives, we will all live again too.  Because of Him I will get to be with my sweet family forever!

Getting Close

I thought it would be nice to get a blog post in as my pregnancy is winding down.

How cute is he with his arms up like that?!

I got this picture of Aiden Sunday evening when I went in to check on him.  Every night when I check on him I leave thinking something like "my sweet boy" and this night I actually started to cry (just call me a hormonal pregnant lady!) and I'm teary while I write this post..haha. For the last month or so it's just really been hitting me that he won't be the only one anymore, and in some ways it makes me really sad.  Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled for the arrival of baby sister and I really can't wait to meet her.  But I'm also worried about how Aiden will feel. I don't want him to feel any less loved.  I know he will be puzzled when he walks into the hospital room and sees me holding baby sister, and it breaks my heart a little bit.  I do know, though, that the adjustment will be quick.  And I am excited for Aiden to come to the hospital and to finally be able to tell him, "THIS is baby sister!" and see him piece everything together.  Such mixed emotions!! We have really been trying to prepare him and talk about baby sister often.  And we've been trying to spend lots and lots of quality time doing everything he loves before she decides to make her arrival.  We are treasuring every moment with Aiden :)  

Enough of that, no more crying for me.  Now for the funny.  Aiden will randomly come up and just start patting my tummy and say, "Baby sister."  It's stinking cute!  But there was about a week a while back where he'd pat my boob instead..haha.  Don't feel embarrassed reading this, just laugh about it!  It was always when I was lying down, usually in the morning when he'd come wake me up, so my tummy was covered and all he could see was my top half.  When I was telling Trent I said, "Whoops, wrong bump!" :)

Anyway, it's been several weeks since I've posted about this pregnancy, in fact the last time was at 30 weeks after an ultrasound.

I got to have a final ultrasound about a week ago at 36 weeks.  Back at 30 weeks she was breech, but at this last one she was head down.  YAY!!  During the ultrasound the tech actually found that she was measuring more like 37 weeks and 3 days.  Of course no one knows the exact date of conception so the due date is just an estimate.  So it sounds like my due date is actually probably earlier than May 7th!  During the ultrasound it also looked like baby was weighing approximately 6 pounds 11 ounces!  What the heck?!  Aiden was 7 pounds 5 ounces (he was born at about 39 weeks) and we were surprised by that!  How do I have such big babies (for me at least!)?!  I guess the ultrasound always measures a bit high because they're mostly using the head as reference.  But apparently I really am "all baby" as everyone always tells me..haha.  I'm hoping she'll be about the same size as Aiden, but she may be a bit bigger!  The tech also printed off a few 3D sonograms for me, which I never got with Aiden, so that was kind of fun :)

This was also the appointment where I get to start having the dreaded pelvic exam where my OB checks my cervix.  And it actually wasn't as uncomfortable as I remember it being, thank goodness!  So last week I was 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  Leaving the appointment with all of this new information I was thinking, "Well dang, she could come any day now!"

Then Friday (the 11th) I lost my mucus plug.  With Aiden I lost my plug about a week before he was born, but I read that it could be anywhere from a few hours later to several weeks before anything happens, so I haven't been dwelling on it too much.

This last Wednesday was my 37 week appointment and I was dilated to a 3 1/2 and 80% effaced.  Pretty crazy because I was only dilated to a 3 when I went into labor with Aiden!

It's weird because I keep having these little signs that labor will be soon, but I haven't had any contractions or anything.  I am definitely ready to be done being pregnant, but I'm not necessarily anxious for her to come, if that makes sense.  I'm using all of the time I can to continue getting things done around the house, preparing for her arrival, and spending time with my boys :)  And now that it's Friday we'd almost like for her to just hold off until after Easter because we have some fun plans with Aiden for Sunday ;)  But of course, I have no say!  So when's the big day baby girl?! ;)

Just to close with a picture.  We took this Sunday before Church since we all had some navy going on :)  The camera was on a tripod and ended up a little crooked, whoops!  This was 36.5 weeks.

BYU/ASU Rugby

Yesterday, the 12th, was Kent's birthday.  We celebrated by going to see the BYU/ASU rugby game :)

Aiden was so happy on the ride up to Scottsdale :)

I realized after the game that I only really got pictures of Aiden and none of the game..haha.  But does that really surprise anyone?

Running away from Grandpa ;)

Sporting his sunnies :)

Watching the game :)

Playing with Grandpa :)

He is pure joy :)

Family pic after the game.  Too bad there are such bad shadows on Aiden's face :/  I am 36.5 weeks along here.

Aiden with Grandma and Grandpa.

Although it was like 90 degrees, there was a nice breeze and it was really nice to be outside :)  And BYU won!  Go Cougars!!

A Rainbow and a Shake

We aren't ones to really celebrate St. Patrick's Day, like I don't decorate for it or anything, but I do like to make sure we wear our green (I actually love to wear green b/c I have hazel eyes that change depending on what I'm wearing, and when I wear green my eyes look more green :)).  Today Aiden and I also made a rainbow craft, and this evening we made a St. Patty's Day shake, like we've done the last few years :)

Aiden's rainbow :)

I had pinned the craft on my Pinterest - here's the link.

It was fun to make!  Aiden really wanted to help me cut the strips of paper, which was a little tricky since you have to be pretty precise about making each color an inch shorter than the next.  Luckily he was content to help glue on the cotton balls :)

Shoving his rainbow into his bus ;)

I can't help it, he'll always be my beauty boy ;)

In our green :)  Mine almost looks light blue next to Aiden!

Angled a little more to show off baby sister.  I'll be 33 weeks on Wednesday!

Blowing bubbles when Daddy got home :)

Trent surprised me with these tulips when he got home!  We went on our first date 7 years ago today!

For our FHE treat we made our traditional St. Patty's Day shake, although this year we tried a new recipe (you can find it HERE). This one is supposed to be like the McDonald's shamrock shake.

We all enjoyed it ;)

I was trying to get a picture of my shake and Aiden kept jumping in..haha.

Hope you had all had a fun day!  Oh and here's my St. Patty's post from last year.  It's crazy to see how Aiden changes over a year!

Such Tourists in LA :)

January 18th

Saturday we spent the morning and early afternoon on Hollywood Boulevard doing some touristy things.  We walked along the Hollywood Walk of Fame and checked out the Chinese Theatre with the famous handprints, footprints, and signatures of many celebrities in the concrete.  Apparently there are almost 200 - it didn't seem like that many to me when we were there!  I only got pictures of a handful of them.

Gotta love Will Smith.

John Travolta.

Meryl Streep - had to get her since we'd just seen her on Ellen :)

Matt Damon.

Some of the Twilight cast.

Tom Hanks.

Jennifer Aniston - she was wearing heels :)

Adam Sandler.

There was a fun mall next door with a huge candy boutique that we checked out.  These steps were piano keys and would actually play as you walked up and down them :)

We got tickets to tour the Dolby Theatre, but had some time to use up, so we did a little shopping.

The Dolby Theatre is where the Academy Awards take place and Ellen actually hosted this year just the other week on March 2nd. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside during the tour.

Stairway up to the entrance of the Dolby Theatre.

It was interesting to see and hear how they get all set up for the Academy Awards because the theatre is literally inside a mall, so they were explaining how they cover all of the store fronts with curtains and roll out the red carpet.  We got to go up on the stage and they kept telling us that we were just kind of seeing the bones and framework and that it would look a lot nicer for the Awards..haha.

We got to see an Oscar and learned that celebrities are absolutely prohibited from giving away or selling an Oscar they've won.  If for some reason they don't want it, they can give it back to the Academy and they'll receive a dollar in return.  ONE dollar..haha.  Also, they're names aren't engraved on the Oscar until the after party.  So it really is a complete surprise for the announcers (and everyone else) as to who the winner is.

Picture after our tour.

It was fun to watch the Academy Awards the other week and see how they had dolled up the whole place since when we had seen it :)

Jimmy Kimmel airs across the street.

After that we headed to lunch at The Ivy.  Jordan got us reservations there.  It's kind of a celebrity hotspot so we were hoping to see someone, but no such luck.  Oh well, it was still fun to be there :)  We were a little surprised to find out that sharing is not allowed (it's a little pricey there), but we just kind of laughed and decided it was part of the experience ;)

Such a cute group, if I say so myself :) 

Just a shot of it from across the street.

There was lots of high end boutique shopping around there, so we did a little "window shopping."  I loved the ivy all over Stella McCartney's storefront.

The girls were excited to check out DASH, founded by the Kardashian sisters.  I actually didn't know anything about it because I don't watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians..ha.

Just a quick walk through :)

More ivy love - Diane von Furstenberg.

We headed back to the hotel for naps (haha) and later that evening we got a little more dressed up and headed to The Grove, an outdoor shopping mall.  It was a nice night and fun to just take it easy.

A nice backdrop for us sisters in Anthropologie..haha.

On this night baby girl was really active and the girls all got to feel her moving around :)  Amy was a little shocked that she "high kicked" her..haha.

We shopped and picked up some cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory, the best!

Not the best pictures, but we needed to document :)

We drove down Rodeo Drive and headed back to the hotel to get packed up.  The next day we flew home.  I was a little sad that all of the girls got to fly together.  And it stunk because their flight was like 5 hours before mine..ha.  I was so early they wouldn't even let me check in for like another hour!

Anyway, it was such a fun trip!  It freaked me out though, while giving hugs and saying goodbye, that the next time I'd be seeing them I'd have a new baby!!  Little did we know that I'd be seeing my sisters and Bryn just a few weeks later (with my Dad's accident and all).  I'm so glad to have my sisters and cousins as my very best friends :) Hopefully we can keep up the girl's trips!