Maternity Pictures

As much as I didn't want to fall into this trend, I did want some last pictures of the two of us. I asked a friend in our ward, and I thought they turned out very well! She even asked me questions to get a feel for our relationship, which I think she nailed in the pictures. Especially since I told her we are awkward in pictures and just giggle the whole time.

Thanks Kendra we love them!!

WICKED

So, how this came about was a funny story.

I saw that Wicked was coming to Miami in March, but I wasn't sure how to get Brandon on board with spending the money to go.

Brandon knows that I like drinking soda, but that I know it isn't good for me. Like any adult. Anyway, out of the blue he came up to me about 2 months ago and said, "Ok, let's make a deal. If you don't drink soda for a month, I'll do the dishes for a month." I thought that was kind of lame, because since he's so busy I don't want to make him do the dishes on top of that. So I countered with my own idea. "If I don't drink soda for TWO months, we go see Wicked." He thought about it and it was a deal.

Yes, that might make me sound like a 6 year old, but it worked just fine! Brandon was just trying to see if he could help. And I did it. It really wasn't even that bad. Especially once I bought the tickets, I just knew I couldn't drink any soda so it wasn't really even an issue for me.

Wicked was SO good! We did get seats right  near the top, but the tickets even the next section down were twice the price. When we sat down, Brandon said, "You know, I would have been fine with getting closer seats." Grrrr.

While we were looking over the Playbill, we realized that Fiyero (the main male character) was played by Ashley Parker Angel, a singer from a boy band we knew growing up, O-Town. It was hilarious! He did a pretty decent job... he's also been Link on Hairspray so clearly he's good enough to get hired back.

I wasn't sure how much Brandon was going to like it, because other than Newsies he hasn't shown much of an interest in musicals around me. Luckily, he loved it. He said he never wants to show our kids "the Wizard of Oz", because he doesn't want them thinking that Elphaba is wicked when she's really just misunderstood. My tender hearted husband.

(See that?? That's my almost 34 week belly which now resembles a basketball sticking out in front of my body. It's always startling to see.)

We did get an aisle seat, because I knew that if I was going to make it through the show I needed a quick way to get out of my seat and to the bathroom if I needed to. Luckily no emergencies were needed.

During the scene where Elphaba sings "Defying Gravity", it was SO good I was on the edge of my chair coming pretty close to tearing up. I was just amazed at how great she did. And Glinda was hilarious, such a spaz and made everyone laugh for a lot of the time.

Brandon was miffed that I didn't give away the biggest plot twist at the end of the play, but I don't think he would have gotten as into the play as he did if he knew how everything turned out in the end.

So, I have converted Brandon to the ways of Wicked. Maybe he'll even suggest seeing it another time. But it was a great last show to go to without a babysitter.

(Side note, but this happened today as well: We passed two police cars that had pulled a car over. As I passed them, I saw this sign on the back of one of the cars and had to get a picture. "No whining zone"... fortunately nobody was back there.)

Random February Happenings

So, not much goes on in the day to day, but I thought I'd share a little bit.

The Young Women's program had a fundraiser one night, with a dessert auction and raffle. They had some delicious food prepared, and I baked a white chocolate pie for it.

It won $8 for their Girl's Camp! Overall they made a good amount of money.

The funniest part was that they had a raffle for different baskets at the end. Brandon bought a few tickets just because, and we ended up winning the biggest prize- a date night basket. I think it would have gone better to any of the other families who actually have kids, but oh well!

I haven't been crazy emotional with this pregnancy, but when I tear up I do a LOT. This was confirmed to me when I was cutting onions one night and couldn't stop tearing up. I went into the bathroom to wash my face and found this:

OH MY GOSH.

One of the best parts of our ward are all the grad students wives who are about my age. We're the last ones to have our first in our ward, so they're all nice and give us advice and are willing to share with us. I went to a baby shower for a girl who is in the adjacent ward. She and I are due a day apart and are going to the same doctor. There were 5 girls there who are due within March and April, so we lined up according to due date. The one in the back already had her baby!

Every week, the girls in our ward get together to have a playgroup. They're nice enough to invite me, even though I don't have a child to contribute. I got this funny picture from the Valentine's party. Poor neglected babies.

This was a funny one. Ezra woke up from a nap while we were eating Sunday dinner, and Tanner said his heart was racing. So of course Brandon went to pull out his stethoscope and listen to his heart.

He likes Brandon so he let him.

I also bought myself roses on Valentine's Day. I didn't blame Brandon, poor guy had 4 tests that week. I just wanted flowers, so I got them at Trader Joe's after I dropped him off to go to Orlando. He DID get me a manicure and pedicure at a local spa, so it was all good.

Finally, Brandon and I had the chance to help some of the new members in our ward go do temple baptisms. It was a good learning experience for both of us, since Brandon organized it. We know better what to do for next time, and it was so nice to help the new members with their temple covenants.

Brandon is working hard at his calling, which I'm pretty sure is helping him with his studies in school. He is not as stressed as many of his classmates, even though he has more on his plate. So I try to help him whenever I can to show I'm a nice wife.

Valentine's Day 2015

A few weeks into Brandon's new semester, he called me and told me about a PA conference in Orlando. I thought that would be great! Then he said, "Yeah, it's February 14". I thought he was kidding. Then I realized it was President's Day weekend so I said, "Hey, let's make it a fun weekend up there!" But he didn't have school off on Monday. So, I decided that it wouldn't be worth it to go.
I forgot how boring it is to not have Brandon around. It reminded me of when he would work night shifts, and I would crochet or go to the gym or watch TV or whatever just to keep my mind entertained. I would hang out with friends as well, but it's not like I could do that on Valentine's Day this year,
So, I didn't do too much. I read "Inferno", went on a walk, and decided that I should definitely go to the temple. So I scheduled my name for the last session of the day to make sure that I went and didn't read through it.

(Starting to feel large at almost 30 weeks!)
The session was beautiful. Little Tiny was NOT as reverent as she had been the last time I went, but that's to be expected I guess.
I really wanted to go to counter the nastiness that was taking over the theaters this weekend. It is so sad that the most popular movie of the weekend is one about domestic violence and abuse. That's not a love story, that's a horror film. Valentine's Day is about love, and we have love in our family. Love for each other, and for this little 3 pound lovebug.

I know all ultrasounds look the same to others, but to me she looks so cute. She was doing something with her mouth during this ultrasound and it was hilarious to watch.

Embracing my changing body.

I am finally to the point where I really like being pregnant. Baby Giullian is so active, even on her lazy days. See example here:

I have more energy, which is good because I'm trying to get my life in order before she comes. If I had been feeling like this my entire pregnancy I can see why people love it so much. As it is, I'm grateful for the chance to actually like it and I know it's going to be worth it in the end.

So I remember when I hit 14 weeks and started the second trimester I told Brandon, "Look I'm starting to show!" and had him take a picture of me for Instagram. Here's my belly:

For the record, that is more of a belly than I've had, but now I realize that was just a bunch of bloating from being so sick (and some nachos, I remember). I just wanted so badly to have a little baby bump so that people would see I wasn't faking being sick for no reason.

Compare that to my third trimester picture (taken 3 weeks ago):

I know I'm not huge by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes when I get a look at myself in the mirror I think "I have THAT sticking out in front of me?!"

I know I look visibly pregnant now. Which is good since I'll be 30 weeks on Tuesday. I know that because everyone stops me to ask about the baby and if I know what I'm having and what we're going to name her. (By the way, we're naming her "Neveah", or "Heaven" spelled backwards. OR you'll find out when she's born...) Does the grocery store clerk need to know those things? No, but it's nice when people congratulate you on it.

I couldn't put my finger down on why it bothered me so much though. I had a talk with myself about why it might bother me. And after a period of self reflection, I think it's this: 1) I know better than to ask someone if they're pregnant. Ever. 2) What if they were wrong? That's going to make me feel really good if in 6 months someone asks me when I'm due. "Umm, about 3 1/2 months ago."

I've never struggled with my weight. Which I know doesn't warrant a ton of sympathy. But it hasn't been something that I've struggled with. From 20 weeks on, I've put on more weight than I care to admit. I've never bought into the mentality of "Eat for 2!" or "You can eat whatever you want, it's fine!" Because I know that you inevitably have to pay for that sooner or later. So I've been going on walks a few times a week (down by the beach), and I've been eating better than I had for the past 2 trimesters. My diet has basically broken down into this: 1st trimester=staying alive long enough to beat morning sickness, 2nd trimester=learning to eat a balanced diet again as I begin reintroducing foods into my system, and 3rd trimester= actually watching what I eat. So why do I keep packing on the pounds?! I'm not sure, but I know that I'm doing the best I can to make sure it's at least healthy weight. Even if I do gain 70 pounds, I know I did everything to stop it.

But I know it's messing with my head, and every time I eat something that basically isn't a fruit or vegetable I feel like I'm just adding on another pound to my weight gain. I had a dream last night that I gained 120 pounds in between my appointments, which was terrifying at the time (and yes, amusing now). I remember crying in my dream "But I don't even LOOK that fat!" So... yeah. I'm learning to embrace my body. I'm grateful that baby Giullian is still growing healthy, and I get my final ultrasound on Monday and get to see her again!

Girls' Trip to Dallas!

So around Christmastime, Brandon said I should go to Dallas to visit Alyse. He knew I was homesick, and while I would have loved to see my whole family it was more than enough fun to plan to go out to Dallas.

So I planned to come out while Tommy was in Denmark for his brother's wedding, and then my mom decided to come out too! So it was a girl party, just with Dane and without Bethany. We knew Dane would have rather it been a "boy weekend", with Brandon and Papa and Tommy, but he was a good boy to all of us. We actually think it helped improve his relationship with Grandma (apparently he wasn't that nice the last time around).

On my flight out, I got the second row aisle seat and it was great. I love getting off an airplane as quickly as possible. We flew over the Mississippi Delta, and I got as good of a picture as I could.

 Dane wasted no time in showing off his tricks, including "I'm doing pushups".

 One morning I woke up to two hands on my belly and a face near mine saying, "Hey Camille". Then he started jumping from air mattress to air mattress.

 See? Dane liked Grandma. He even let her sit on his bench... I had to sit on the other one.

My one request while we were in Dallas was to get In-N-Out. Ever since I have been able to eat red meat again, I've just wanted it. It was so worth it.

 Double Double. Mmmmm.

While we were in Dallas, we helped Alyse with a lot of the settling in jobs she hadn't been able to do on her own in their new house. The one that I documented was painting an accent wall on Dane's toy room.

We decided that if we were going to do it, we were going to do it right. We watched Youtube videos on how to paint a wall, and went to Lowe's to get the materials. We even found some paint that doesn't have the harmful fumes that are dangerous for pregnant women (although that was by accident). We wanted to make sure we did it right, since we have some boys in our family who would have judged us (cough cough).

(I did wear the mask when I was painting up high, because I didn't want to risk anything happening.)

And after the first coat, this is what it looked like!

 Dane woke up from his nap before we could put on a second coat, so I played with him while  my mom and Alyse worked on it. We gave it the night to dry off and get the smell out, then the next day we moved Dane's furniture into his new room. He wanted to be in a cage like the animals.

And this is an angle of the final product!

It's kind of a steel blue color, I like it a lot. That's an ABC's poster over his bed, and he likes it but apparently he's scared of alligators now.

One of the nights we were out we went to a gourmet popcorn place. It had some GREAT flavors. We got dill pickle (which I had at BYUI but not since) and some fantastic dessert flavors. Kind of pricey for the good stuff, but worth a try.

 Dane was climbing by the counter and kept saying "Look Mom, I'm so high!"

He LOVED all the candy.

He was a tiny bit scared of UF's mascot on the wall, saying it was a scary alligator.

We went to church on Sunday, but just knew we had to get a belly picture at least once on this trip. I'm almost 28 weeks here, and Alyse had just passed the 30 week mark! Those babies are coming so soon!

And Dane wanted to get in on it, but we had to try and convince him to look at the camera.

After church we went to Lantana to see Nathan and Kristin. They told us they were having another GIRL! Woohoooooo more girls! We did get a picture of the 3 bellies. Kristin keeps saying she's so big but she isn't... and it's #7.

We had a great time in Dallas! The only thing we didn't do that I had wanted to was go to the temple. We had a chance, but both pregnant girls' backs were hurting so we decided not to. We HAD just moved Dane's room.
Some other funny things that happened were:

 Dane was watching the video of the Good Samaritan (Or the "bad guys" story, as he calls it), and he was very concerned.

We played "Cars" with Lightning McQueen and tractor tippin' a lot. The blocks are the tractors, and I had Lightning. Frank the Combine was played by a school bus, and I just had to make sure that Lightning did get away from Frank.
We went on a lot of walks, and Dane wanted to talk to Grandma more than he wanted to sit facing the right way.

Whenever anyone would go into the bathroom, Dane would sit outside and say "Hey Camille!" One time he kept saying "Can you see me?" so I got down on the floor and could see a little eye looking back at me. What a hilarious person.

I was sad to leave, but happy that on both of my flights home my view was like this:

Second row aisle baby! If it weren't for the man who sounded like he was dying sitting next to me I would have been perfectly happy. Ugh. I'm getting so paranoid, especially since on my next flight I'll have an infant (!!!!! My own!!!)
And of course, I missed the beach. I will confess though, about 3 minutes after I took this picture I stumbled into the entrance of the nude beach... I am afraid to ever walk south again.