Catching up on September!

2 “Everything” Parties
Dave will be missing his 30th birthday this year!!! Awhile back I was planning on throwing him a party. Turning 30 is a big deal! So, we decided to throw an early birthday party/early promotion/farewell party. (Dave will be a 1st Lieutenant in June of 2010.) We did 2 parties. We did one party for Air Force friends, and one for our church friends. Dave was sweet to let me do it. He wanted it to be low key and mostly for just an excuse to get together with everyone before he left. We had the parties at the end of Sept., since it would only get crazier with having a new baby and preparing for his training and deployment. It made me feel a lot better to get to do this for Dave. We had a blast!

Double Baby Shower
Me and one of my friends in our ward were both pregnant at the same time! Our due dates were about a week apart. A mutual friend of ours and my sister-in-law ended up throwing us a joint baby shower. It was so fun and they did a great job! Ruth did games and everyone had a blast. The food was great, and Amy was sweet to offer her house. I felt really spoiled! I love baby showers! It’s so fun to just celebrate babies and everything cute!
And here is a picture of me and my friend Anna. Man my belly is big!

One of our friends made fantastic diaper cakes for both of us! I’ve never made one before, she did a great job! Isn’t it cute?

Apple & Pumpkin Picking
In early Sept. we went to a place called the Happy Apple Farm. We had to do some pre-admission paperwork for the hospital at Fort Carson. The farm is just a little bit further down the highway, so we thought we would continue on down and have some fun. Kayla’s class was doing a segment on apples. They were learning about picking apples and fall, and read about making apple pie, so this trip was great to go along with learning at school.

We picked some golden delicious apples. They had a tractor bed that drove us to the picking spots. We also picked some blackberries. They were mostly gone, but it was a fun treasure hunt. We also picked a pumpkin. And then we stayed for lunch. It was a blast!!!

When we got home we made a homemade apple pie with our apples. Kayla was asking forever if we could make one, so she was so excited to do the whole process. We made it all together and Kayla was a great little helper!

Scarecrow Day
Fall is so fun! Kayla’s class did a segment on scarecrows and had a day they could all dress up as one. Kayla was so excited! We got the overalls from the thrift store for .99 cents! We just had to get the hat. She was so darling, and super excited to dress up for school.

Dave as Captain Moroni
Our primary had an activity and Dave was asked to help out. The activity was on building an eternal family and all the kids went to different stations. One was making rice crispy treats to signify “sticking” together as a family. Another was a treasure hunt with picture clues on what we can do as families to be stronger. They also played a relay race, and each child played a role in a family and they had to use team work to get to the end of the relay. The primary did a great job!
Dave’s station was him role playing as Captain Moroni. He told the kids the story of the Title of Liberty in the Book of Mormon and that just like then, we now have to protect our families, countries, our beliefs and freedoms. He had his own rent cloth, to write the Title of Liberty on, and then they had the kids write their own Title on a cloth about how to make our families stronger with the help of Heavenly Father and what they can do in their own families. It was fun. Dave did a really great job! He was resistant about the pictures. He wouldn’t hold still! So I had to sneak them!

Labor Day & Balloon Festival
Every year on Labor Day there is a balloon festival here. My family usually went, and then afterward we would go out to breakfast. We thought we would go this year. We all woke up, before dawn, and secured a spot on the lawn as we watched all the balloons around us fill up with hot air and take off. There were a ton of people! Kayla had a blast! We all did, though we were a little tired. Afterward we decided we would go home and make breakfast.

Later we went on a picnic. And Kayla enjoyed rolling down the side of the hill over and over and over again……=)

Sky Sox Game
The Sky Sox offered free tickets for military appreciation. We thought this would be fun to do, but sadly Dave wasn’t able to get tickets in time and they ran out. BUT, one of Dave’s co-workers found out and offered three extra tickets he had! Yay!!! This co-worker just got back from Afghanistan. We sat with him and his wife and their friends. Bless the heart of his wife, whom I sat by, because I kept asking her question after question and getting her advice and experience about her husband’s deployment throughout the night. She is wonderful! We had a lot of fun! We let Kayla get some cotton candy and she was so sweet! She would share it with us and either feed it to us, or have us feed each other! It was a beautiful night and we had a fun time watching the game and being together as a family.

Prego Pic and summary

Those who know me well know that I really don’t like pictures of myself. I avoid them at all costs if I can. But then sometimes I look back and get curious about what I looked like. I don’t have a lot of pictured of me pregnant with Kayla, on purpose. But I often wondered how I looked in comparison being pregnant with Kayla and then Makenna. So, Dave took a picture of me. I am 8 months pregnant here I think. And I got a lot bigger than this! I often got the comment that it looked like I stuffed a basketball up my shirt. I carry really high and all out front. And after awhile, going out in public was annoying because people’s eyes would bulge and they would audibly gasp. I felt huge. Oh well. I didn’t write much in our blog along the way about how I felt and how the pregnancy was going because I was afraid I would complain way too much. But now that I’m not pregnant, hopefully it won’t be so bad, I am briefly going to summarize how I felt, for the record. =) In the very beginning I felt pretty good, but felt really really tired and got pretty sick in the second month. All day sickness. I spent a lot of time on the couch. I remember nothing sounded good, especially sweet things. I couldn’t eat them at all! I drank lots of water and most of what I could manage to eat was potatoes, cashews, broccoli, and wheat thins, oh and spoonfuls of peanut butter. It got better around 5 months, but didn’t really go way until 7 months. Some friends of mine, who were recently pregnant were very sweet and often brought over meals. They had all been sick with pregnancy and it was fresh in their minds, so they told me they were sympathetic, and, well, they are all just sweet anyways! I won’t forget how kind they were during that time. Something I don’t necessarily want to remember is that time during pregnancy, but I hope I do remember how hard it was and how cooking and eating were so difficult so I can in turn help those around me who are sick with pregnancy.
At 4 months my sciatic nerve caused a lot of pain in my lower back, which lasted the whole time. And near the last few months, Makenna’s activity increased as she kicked me. I definitely felt her moving and kicking! And it seemed to be more at night. And often she kept me up and it got pretty painful! I did think it funny to watch people’s reactions as my belly would noticeable contort, or go lopsided. An ultrasound technician told me once that a huge protruding lopsided bump was the baby’s bum. Haha. During pregnancy I often got really lightheaded. I had to make sure I drank water right when I woke up. Water was vital before I got in the shower or went to the store. I only passed out once, at our ward campout. That story I put on our blog. Haha. I had quite a few close calls at Wal-Mart. I would start to black out and then try to find a place to sit down. I wonder what the security people thought when they would see me sitting randomly in the little boys section, or whatever deserted aisle I was near. Kayla was pretty understanding. Later on I noticed they put benches throughout the store, and I can’t help but wonder if I helped that happen, even just a little. =) Then at around 8 months I was having sporadic contractions. These contractions were painful and hard. It became painful and hard to even walk around because of the pressure of Makenna’s head and my huge belly on my pelvis, back, and legs. Labor naturally was hard, one of the hardest things I have done, but I think it wasn’t so bad because my body had definitely been prepping me for awhile and it didn’t come as a shock, I was a little use to it. Which, I am grateful for…now. =)

Okay, saying all of that I am so grateful we got a beautiful baby girl out of the deal! It was all hard, but so worth it! The experiences I had helped me to grow in a lot of ways, and love our baby even more. What a wonderful miracle how everything works to bring a baby into this world. There are so many things involved. It is just another testament to me that there is a God, and that He has planned and prepared things for us so perfectly.