36.5 weeks

In a few short days I will have a fully cooked baby inside of me!!

I feel like there is so much I still need to get ready and do before she comes. But I cant think of what. Sooo to make myself feel better I make a ridiculous amount of headbands. Super helpful for sustaining life.

This summer has been consumed by 1- Baby and 2- Dental school applications. Last week Matt got interview invites to not 1, but 2 schools!! We are super duper excited. They are both great schools that Matt would love to go to. One is in Ohio and the other is in Florida... I wouldn't be mad if we lived in Florida for 4 years.
Bad news is... one of these said interviews is Aug 12th. Remember my due date? Its Aug 17th. 5 days people!! The likelihood that I will be in labour while hubs is in freaking Ohio is not low. I seriously pray every day that she will come any day but that day. He is flying out late on the 11th and coming back right after his interview on the 12th.  We are livin' on the edge folks.

I still feel pretty darn good... minus the pills I have to take because of the root canal I just had. Those a little bit make me feel like a bus ran over my stomach.

On the way home from Cold Lake on Monday we decided we were finally going to name this babe. We didn't... but we came up with a solid list of 7 "finalist" names. We keep hearing that sometimes you need to see them before you really pick a name... true? Im not sure how it could be, but thats what we are counting on. Middle names are still up in the air. We haven't even decided how many lil homegirl will have, let alone what they/it will be.

On Tuesday we got to talk to Nicole while she was at the airport waiting to go to Reno. And yesterday we got 3 letters from her. Apparently the mail man decided to keep all her MTC letters until then. And her Mission President emailed mom and dad and attached a letter from her. She is doing so good... its kind of amazing how good. She has endless stories of pranks she has pulled on the elders and her MTC roommates. And she is full of so many little nuggets of great advice and such a good perspective on life.

34 Weeks

2 posts in 1 day? Dang, self.

It seems that we are ACTUALLY having a baby people. Its all getting real, and quick, and I now understand the term nesting.

In the last 24 hours I have gone through all of her clothes for the 2nd time, washed them, found them a spot in the closet, sewed 3 headbands, 1 skirt, bought a few binkies, and spent a few too many hours  researching diaper bags, rearranged out bedroom, and scrubbed the entire bathroom.

I have only really had one craving, vanilla soft serve ice cream. And I have it often. Is that a craving or just a fatty quality? I dont know. But I cant get enough of the stuff. Matt doesn't complain. He might when his wife has gained 50 lbs... but as of right now he likes it.

My doctors appointments have been up-ed to once a week. I remember at my first appointment when they told me that would happen... and it seemed forever away. Here we are. And from what I hear the appointments are about to get a little more "exciting".

Homegirl is a dang ninja in there. Its the weirdest thing in the world to see your watermelon belly move out of the corner of your eye. Or to have the book your reading jump because it gets smacked by some little body part. She only seems to get the hiccups when its time to sleep. And for the last few days she likes to ram little body parts into my left hip. Im not sure if thats possible, but its sure what it feels like.

Overall, I have felt really good. The nausea/back ache that were the first semester havent returned (knock on wood) and I can still flush public toilets with my foot so I really have nothing to complain about..... except.... for the HEAT. I am seriously cooking from the inside out.

We do have one problem however... naming the babe. Its getting more stressful as the days go on. Matt is 100% sold on one name...which makes all of my suggestions useless. We are taking suggestions. Seriously. Good, not overly-used, not overly-weird, spellable, cute suggestions :)

In our prenatal class the instructor asked "where is the worse place for a woman to be in stage 1 labour?" the answer she got?.... "The States" And its kind of true. Tomorrow we are going to Babb MT, which I have been told by some insurance companies is "very risky". But there is huckleberry ice cream there sooooo its worth the risk. Mom wants to go on a walk around a lake "without any elevation" (I have heard THAT one before). Pops thinks I shouldn't be doing that "in my condition". I will try to convince them to let me take one for the team and sit on my butt and wait for them at the ice cream shop.

Sister Smith

Nicole came back from her Spring Semester a few weeks ago and it has been a whirlwind since! I laugh more with that girl than is tolerable to most around us. We started every morning she was here with a "breakfast party"and came up with some delish foods. One of the days the whole fam headed to Cardston for some "mission pictures".

Our trusty helper

After pictures we had a fire on Smith owned land. Which is rare. As in it had never happened. Pops is particular about his land and only Nicole suggesting it a week before leaving on her mission could convince him to dig up a chunk of it and start a big ol bonfire. A direct quote from dad to Nicole "You can get away with just about anything until you leave". In my opinion she should have taken advantage of that more than she did.

Grandma, Bud, Aunt Judy, and Aunt Tonya came up for Nicoles farewell. There was a lot of things to get ready so we spend a lot of time setting up chairs (by "we" I guess I mean "they"... I was less than helpful) and cutting buns. But we had lots of fun with them in the short time they were here. We went to some horse races, a baseball game, and had a insane game of pictionary.

For some reason kissy pose seemed like their best option 

                                      

The next week we expanded our meal "parties" to lunch and dinner. Nicole said their was something wrong with mom and dads scale because it told her she had gained 10 lbs since she left BYU. Im not sure that was the case. Sister sympathy prego weight? 

Last weekend we went to West Castle for our last family trip for a year and a half. We couldn't go too far because of my "condition" as my family calls it. My mom kept talking about how the group is only as strong as the weakest link.... I obviously being the weakest link. Ouch my heart. Not really. We got to stay in a really nice cabin, which is my kind of camping. We bobbed around in some unbelievably cold water, had a good bonfire, and played an insane amount of games- and dad hates games- back to the "get away with anything" theory.

This last week was mostly spend packing and getting the child ready to live out of a suitcase for a year and half. She was way past her 8 outfit limit..... but really, how hard would that be?!? Monday night we went to Despicable Me 2... twice, because the first time it was sold out. That was really the only thing she really wanted to do before she left... and shoot a gopher.

That night there was a bit of a baby scare and mother and I hung out at the hospital until 3 am. All is well and it seems I am just a bit on the nervous side, but it resulted in Nicoles last day here being a pretty groggy one. This is a crazy summer for the Smiths I tell you.

Nicole hates goodbyes more than anything, and decided she would rather fly out of Lethbridge rather than have us drive down to the MTC. She flew out at 5:30 am yesterday morning. I have been dreading that since the moment she told me she wanted to go on a mission almost a year ago. But it wasn't nearly as devastating as I thought it was going to be. There were no ugly cry snorts or year long hugs. She looked more excited than nervous and as far as I could tell her tears were gone by the time she got through security. 

Breakfast this morning was less than a party... and I have gone to text the kid about 10 times today... but I know that what she is doing is so important and right and that there is no place better for her to be for the next 18 months than teaching the people in Nevada.

And dont worry, Mom and I have both a package and a postcard that we are sending off to her tomorrow. No sense in wasting any time right?