a lovely week

well, i'm approaching D-DAY.

everyday i keep thinking that unexpectedly i'm going to pee myself, when actually it's my water breaking.

i'm actually not as stressed anymore.  i am getting excited to meet my wittle one.  yet i am still nervous about becoming a mom.  i'm not stressed just nervous yet excited.  a concoction of feelings.

not knowing as to when my baby shall be arriving to this earth i wanted to go on a "last date with my hot husband before there's 3 of us and it could be awhile till we have alone time."  it was also going to be my birthday dinner celebration even though my birthday's actually next week.  again, this could be our last time just us. so we decided on a random wednesday night and went to chili's.

since we were also celebrating my birthday i like to splurge a little by getting the FULL rack of bbq ribs.  i believe i've been breeding a carnivore and my little dinosaur ALWAYS wants ribs.

and i (more like the little dinosaur fetus) slaughtered that.

after our little simple date all i wanted to do was rent a redbox movie.

i realized that there was no way i could sit through a movie in the theater since i can barely make it through church nowadays being so big and uncomfortable.

so cuddling up with brett in my sweats sounds GREAT.

other lovely recent happenins 

*earlier in the week we closed on our house!  it is OURS.  we decided to just buy it because it knocked off a couple hundred bucks from our rent, yes please.  we're so excited knowing that in the future we get to paint the rooms, add knobs onto our cabinets (i'm so tired of my nails chipping opening the doors,) etc, etc.

*we had our weekly baby appt and i'm dilated to a 2-3!  ehhhhh i'm slowly progressing so that's good to know.  as i laid on the table the doc just touched my stomach and said "hey you're having contractions!" really??  i have not felt a thing.  people ask me if i've had any labor signs and surprisingly i haven't, at least, none that i could feel.  i guess i've been having braxton hicks all along according to the doc.  THE END IS COMING!

*i was browsing through an old purse and found some old gift cards from our wedding 2 1/2 years ago and checked the balance online and saw that we have about $60 left!  WIN!

*i made strawberry freezer jam.  i love that it makes a ton of jam and the fact that i feel like a little homemaker saving money.

*i finally got a haircut.  this is as close to a mommy haircut as i'll get.

i love how my blow drying time has shortened dramatically but yet i miss my long hair already.  this'll be a good summer haircut though. 

another lovely happening was that we got another baby shower!  well it was more like a baby shower thrown by brett's co-workers FOR BRETT :)

blondies

remember when i made white chocolate cranberry blondies one year for a Christmas party?

well i found another kind of blondie that i'm head over heels for.

CAKE BATTER BLONDIES

click HERE for recipe

lately i've been craving anything cake batter flavored with rainbow sprinkles and i came upon this blog recipe that has just that.  not wanting another pregnancy craving meltdown i made sure to have the magical ingredients on hand.

and daaaaaaaannnnnnng these were so good and so lethal.

pretty sure i put my poor baby in another diabetic coma.

the recipe says that white chocolate chips are optional but i found them to be an absolute must.

the recipe is seriously so easy and didn't take long at all.

gooey, colorful, decadent, and just freakin delicious.

just exactly what this hungry hungry preggo needs.

birthday letter/list

dear brett,

it is my birthday soon, end of the month in fact and i'm sure you knew that of course.  and i know there's a chance i could give birth to your son before then even when his due date is beginning of may.  but ya know, ya never know when he'll come.  so here's a list i have compiled for you in case there isn't a chance to ask me what i want as you see me run to the bathroom to pee for the 7th time or as i shovel food in my face or i could even be in labor.  i am a busy girl.  so let's let goin.....

what i would LOVE for my birthday...

a blingin ring

for when the swelling has gone down in my phalanges

the complete X-men animated series, the old school version

i need to bond with my son and introduce him to a REAL cartoon.

some darling white flats

or some hot heels

preferably some louboutins.

that would be AWESOME

and of course you know of my addiction for some OPI.  

here are some colors that would tickle my fancy.

teenage dream

alpine snow

austin-tatious turquoise 

and i always require lots and lots of kisses for my birthday.

but don't just choose this one off the list cuz it's least expensive.

and lastly, a healthy baby boy,

which, that would mostly be on everton's part.

thanks very much and i look forward to celebrating my 23rd with you,

LOVE ALWAYS,

Alyssa

the fulness of joy

thanks so much for all the comforting words you all left me in my last post.  it feels really good to hear my friends who have been through the same thing telling me there's really no need to worry and how it's all worth it in the end and my friends who haven't had kids yet say that they would be freakin out as well if they were in my shoes.

i'm so grateful for my sweet friends.

thanks again!

so brett just got called to be the ward mission leader in our ward and we're pretty excited.  that means he'll be teaching the gospel principles class, which is a class mainly for new members and investigators that teaches them basic gospel lessons.  we attended the class for the first time to get acclimated and so brett could get the feel of the size of the class (which was tiny.)

but anyways the lesson was on our Heavenly Father and His Plan for us and why we're here on earth.  it seems very basic but i often like re-learning the basic stuff cuz that's what helps drill it into my head.  

and something that struck me was that we need to have a fulness of joy.  it's almost like, a taste of heaven.  the teacher (brett hasn't begun teaching yet) pointed to me and said, bringing a baby into this world is an example of just that.  and that comforted me SO MUCH.  as much as i'm quite scared of giving birth, it made me excited knowing that i, this silly little girl, will be bringing a sweet life into this world, experiencing one of the most beautiful steps in life.  i feel truly blessed knowing i'll be doing this, knowing there are many people out there who struggle with having children.  so i'm now not as freaked out as i was in my last post.  yeah we still need some baby things but there's always time to get those later.  as long as we have the basic stuff we'll be fine.  i trust completely in my Heavenly Father and i know my baby will come when he's meant to.  baby's coming whether we're ready or not. 

37 weeks.

bring it on baby everton.

i'm now officially the urinator, going so often it's getting quite annoying.  we need to get more TP!  and the baby has truly bruised my ribs.  and my back HURTS.

it's all worth it though right?!

fear of the unknown and anxiety

i am approaching my 37th week in my pregnancy and i am getting scared to death.

early on in my pregnancy i guess i heard too many horror stories from friends about their birthing experiences and took em as "just learning about different birth stories."  but now i feel like they're catching up to me.  one thing i'm scared of is what if my body rejects the epidural and i end up having to give birth naturally?  which is something i'm def not prepared to do...

 brett and i took a little birth class they offer for free here in tooele and turns out tooele has a high rate of teen pregnancies for utah and the class mostly consisted of just that, teen preggos.  the class was not in depth and the only thing i remember is the teacher showing us what forceps look like and my jaw dropping to the floor.

i pray it won't have to come to that.  but yeah i didn't feel very confident leaving that class.

at my dr's appt last week the doc said i could have the baby anytime now and since then i feel like i've been on edge.  i have that feeling like i had the night before my wedding.  

i was at my parents' house and i had stayed up till 3 in the morning crying because i was so nervous knowing that my life was going to change dramatically.  i definitely wasn't regretting my groom choice (which was the best freakin choice i ever made) it was just that i let my anxiety take over.

everyone says that your life turns upside down when you start having children and i believe that's what'll happen to us.  i mean, in just a few weeks, brett and i will be holding this baby that is the combination of both of us.  holy crap.

 the anxiety is starting to take over me now, not knowing when my baby will come.

i don't feel ready at all, i feel like we still need so much more stuff, even though we have so much already!

and honestly it's just the little things, and i think about ALL the little things we need ALL at once and i get overwhelmed and i FREAK out.  the nursery isn't ready and decorated yet and what if we don't have enough diapers?

and then, brett gives me lots of big hugs and kisses and tells me something like this, "you don't need to worry about all these little things.  when you give birth you'll be fine, the dr and nurses will all be there to help.  and as for the baby items, we'll get as much as we can and after the baby's born, i can go get what we need when we need it...YOU DON'T NEED TO STRESS."  then he gives me more hugs and kisses.

SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

that's why i married this boy.  he's my anchor back down to the real world.

it also makes me feel really good when he wears this.


i am ready to have my body back though, i feel as if the baby's starting to get crammed in there and his kicks to my ribs don't exactly tickle.  i can't wait to be able to bend down to pick something up without groaning and i seriously can't wait to sleep on my back.  oh how i miss it so.

it's not that i don't like change,

i'm just often scared of it.

back to da burg

well, we just got back from rexburg.

and pretty sure in a past post i said that the next time we go back to rexburg it'll be in 20 years droppin our kid off to school at byu-i.  (if they wanna go there)

but you know, we still have so many dear friends there and just being a few hours away from rexburg, why not visit now and then?

and my sweet and dear friend gwen threw me a baby shower up in rexburg, giving us a chance to see old friends again.

brett and i drove to rexburg late friday night and maaaaaan it was really weird going back.

and seeing the rexburg temple glowing at night as we got closer brought back so many memories.

i really don't miss rexburg, but i definitely miss our friends and living so close to the temple.

saturday, the next day, was the day of events.

here's what went down...

10a-12.45p=maternity photo shoot (i'm tagged in some of the pics on my facebook.)

1p-2.30p=we had lunch with brett's old boss and family at SAMMY's and had pie shakes.  yummmm

4p-5.30p=baby shower!

7.30p-9.30p=dinner with our sweet friends brad and mel.

it may not sound like a lot but to this 7 month pregnant woman it was exhausting yet so fun.

it was a day full of friends and freakin delicious food.

here are some pics of the swag i/everton got.

don't mind my goofy, big, and sweaty face.

everton got a tuxedo, holy cow, with the tails and everything.  for this baby boy i want a ton of suits!

this one looks like he'll be ready to conduct the tooele orchestra.

gwen made him a super soft car seat cover.

DIAPERS.  i'm scared as to how much we'll be needing.

as the baby shower wrapped up the men came over and here's brett hangin out with steve and gwen's sweet baby girl, sienna.

just watchin some basketball

some of the food at the party-cocoa bean cupcakes, my fav kind-LUSCIOUS LEMON BLUEBERRY

pretty sure i put everton in a diabetic coma with how many i've eaten.

and peeps, gwen knows me oh so well to have mah peeps at the partay

sienna!  such a cute cuddly baby.  i love her.

we got back sunday and we're glad to be home.  rexburg never really felt like home to us but being out of a college town and in real life, we feel like we're home now, even if it is in tooele, utah.

thanks so much to those who came to the baby shower and gave us some sweet presents.  we love our friends SOOOO much!

and thanks steve and gwen.

BFs forever!

and i thought i'd leave ya with a pic of what happens when this pregnant woman does NOT want to cook.

mm hmm.

sickness ping pong

so about 2 weeks ago i had a horrible cold.

now the virus is in brett's court.

seriously since february brett and i have been getting sick off and on and frankly it's getting really annoying.

on one weekend one of us wants to go out but can't cuz the other is sick.

it's just been so weird.

is this a usual thing?

does brett just have pregnancy sympathy pains?  getting sick right after i do?

i know when you live with someone colds tend to get passed along to one another, but for real, we've been getting sick about a week after the other for a while now.

i don't know if we're just doing something wrong.

we've been keeping a reasonably clean home and don't feel like we junk out too often.

i feel so bad when brett gets sick.  i honestly don't like seeing him so helpless instead of active wanting to go out and about.  lucky for him though, he gets to take any medication.  i hate the fact i'm so restricted as to what i could take.  i miss my sleeping cold meds.

and i'm really hoping this sickness cycle ends when we have the baby.

i'd like brett to at least be healthy while my body's recovering after giving birth.

soooo anyone know what we could do?

i don't want it to have to come to kicking brett out of the house for 2 weeks or something.

speaking of body health, my body (as in the baby growing inside me) is outta control!

on sunday brett and i had to give a talk and right before sacrament meeting started i ate some sour skittles to give me a "little courage" and maybe some energy.

BAD idea.

the baby had major hiccups and kept kicking me in the ribs during my talk.  making me more uncomfortable than i was already.  i get SOOO nervous giving talks so the baby wasn't really helping.

i feel like i'm getting so big, life is just so much more uncomfortable.

people say i'm still tiny and that may be true compared to others but shoo i feel ENORMOUS.

currently i'm 34 weeks.

and i'm FREAKING OUT!!!!!!

i'm gonna give birth soon! ehhhhhhhhhh

on another note, we finally have cable!  and we got it for free using this atrocious thing.

it's an antenna and it looks like a medieval torture device.

but nope, it get us tv!  and maybe a few cuts if you don't watch how you hold it.

the southams introduced us to this and matt southam helped brett make it.

thanks guys for relieving my boredom at home.