Baby Bean Update (Final One?)

36 Weeks!!! Baby Boy is almost here and we are so excited! Both to see the little guy and to be able to move around and sleep again. ;) Haha Our little guy is a little above the average in size and weight right now, his head is down, he is super active and looks very healthy. I am also doing well and am actually already dilated to 2 centimeters! The doctor says this is no promise of an early birth. I could walk around at 2 centimeters for a couple week, or I could progress quickly. We'll just have to wait and see. :) I am hoping he doesn't come too early, as I would like to have my Mum here when he comes, but again, we'll just have to wait and see. Below is my 36 week picture for ya'all.

While we haven't decided 100% on a name, we are leaning towards Lincoln West Bean. However, we may hear another name on our way to the hospital and decide to name him that instead. :) We are SO excited for this little guy to join out family and hope to visit all of you soon so that he can meet all of the amazing people in our lives. We sure have been (and are) blessed by all of our family and friends!

I hope you all have a very happy New Year!!!

Oodles of Fun!

Hmmmm where to begin? How about with the best Christmas gift ever. . .  a new car door!

CAR DOOR
For over a month now our driver side door has been broken (remember the previous post of us trying to glue it back together?) and we have had to climb over the passenger seat to get to the drivers side. Now normally I wouldn't mind this so much, but with an ever incressing belly, it has been getting more and more difficult and painful to climb over those seats. Those days are now gone! Thanks to my amazing husband,and his amazing dad, we were able to find a new car door and Jeff took off the old one and put on the new. A feat that he is very proud of. :)

Our new car door!

 

However, this new door came with a price as well, that of my big toe nail. :( On my way to pick Divinia up from school, Jeff called me and asked if I could come to the junk yard and help him put on the door. So Divinia and I headed over, not taking the time to go home and put on some proper shoes. Well as I was helping Jeff lift the car door up and into place, due to some miscommunication, we dropped the door on my foot. I cannot remember the last time something hurt so bad! Jeff says he is amazed at how well I handled it, but I think I acted very poorly and it was everything I could do not to cry like a baby. Seeing Divinia freaking out and knowing that if I did too would make things worse, helped me keep my cool a bit.

 

 I know I am going to loose my toe nail, but I am happy to say that I don't think my toe it broken. I can't tell for certain yet, as I am unable to put pressure on it, but I'm pretty sure it's just badly bruised. :) The cut was deep though and is still gushing out stuff two days later. I am lucky that it hit my toenail, thus helping to soften the blow and prevent it getting cut even deeper.

My toe earlier today.

 

I can honestly say that loosing my first toe nail was well worth getting a new door! I feel as if Christmas came early! :D

 

BABY SHOWER

On a happier note, our Chem. E. friends through me a baby shower! It was a mixed gender shower (original I know) because all of the Chem. E. students love to get together and the guys wanted to join in on the shower as well. I was so touched that they wanted to do this for Jeff and I! They are such a fun and inviting group of people! Jeff and I really love getting together with them. :) There are only 4 married Chem. E students in Jeff's year and I am the only one pregnant or even close to having a child, so the girls were just thrilled at the chance to buy baby items. :) The guys I think were more there for the food and company. Haha

We got a tone of REALLY cute and fun things! (They really spoiled us) We were really excited to get some Longhorn socks and shirt for our little guy. Gotta represent!

 

Yes I know these aren't the greatest pictures, but I wanted you to see his adorable longhorn clothes. :)

 

 After we played some baby shower games, at some food and opened presents, the guys didn't waste much time in pulling out the super Mario Wii games. Haha

 

 CHRISTMAM FUN

Jeff and I have also been to some fun Christmas parties and received some pretty interesting white elephant gifts. Our favorites however are. . . 

 





The Longhorn snuggie! We couldn't believe no one tried to take this from us! Guess everyone here has plenty of Longhorn items; just how in Utah county you can find an abundance of BYU items in many homes. :) We were more than happy to keep this one!

 



This is our other favorite W.E. gift. We gave two friends in the ward we love photography and one of our friends photo shopped the others' faces into this photo. Needless to say no one stole this from me, although we all got a good laugh passing it around! Definitely the funniest W.E. gift I have ever received!

We went to the Trail of Lights! While it was fun to go see, Jeff and I didn't think it was as good as The Festival of Lights or Temple Square. They were playing pop music (not Christmas) and while the tress had lights on them, all the cardboard figures didn't have anything Christmas about them. They were fun images of many TV and Movie characters, but nothing with a Christmas theme or even a Santa hat on their head. However, it was still fun to go and see with some of our friends. :)

 

 

We are just having oodles of fun here in Texas this year! Christmas is such a fun time of the year and we are truly blessed to have made some great friends to spend it with. It doesn't feel the same without our families and no snow, but we are still making some fun memories. :) Hopefully we won't have too many Christmas's away from our families. We love and miss all of you very much and hope you are having a FABULOUS holiday season! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

 



Baby Boy Update and Christmas Fun

Baby Boy Update!

I know I have fallen behind in my Baby Boy updates, and I hope you'll forgive me. Life has been a little crazy lately and I kept putting it off. So here is my 33 week update. :)

Baby Boy is very healthy and super active! I don't get much sleep because he likes to dance around and practice guitar playing on my ribs while I am trying to sleep. :P I just love feeling him all the time though! It is such a reassurance to my worrisome mind! (Even if it is uncomfortable) I am also healthy and my measurements, size and everything else, is on track for his due date, January 24th. Jeff and I are just getting more and more excited to have the little guy hear! We still haven;t completely settled on a name, but are leaning towards Lincoln West Bean. (West after my Grandpa Swensen) However, some other names we like are James, Calvin, Carter and Henry. So we will see. :)

Christmas Fun!

So Jeff has never shown any interest or care about decorations, holiday or everyday ones, (other than he likes to tease me and say he likes the opposite of the one I like :) ) but this Christmas was different.
Since we will be celebrating Christmas without our family this year, we decided to buy our first Christmas tree! Last year we just got a little one for the table since we would be spending Christmas with my family in St. George, but this year we wanted a normal sized one. Now I grew up with white lights on our Christmas tree, Jeff grew up with colored lights. However, since he has never cared about decorations before, I didn't think he would care if we got a tree with white lights. I was wrong. Upon finding out that I wanted a tree with white lights, Jeff was very upset and adamant that we HAD to have colored lights. "It is not Christmas without colored lights." "White lights are so plain and unexciting." And so on. :) Well I have never been in love with colored lights, but decided that since this mattered SO much to Jeff, we would get a tree with colored lights. And believe it or not, but it is really growing on me! I can honestly say that I find a Christmas tree with colored lights very inviting and Christmasy. :)
So Jeff, Divinia and I went to Walmart and got our little 40 dollar tree. Divinia was VERY excited as she and her mom have never had a Christmas tree. Divinia insisted on helping Jeff carry the tree to the care and then help him set it up in the house.

 We were home for maybe... 5 seconds before Divinia was handing me the scissors and begging me to open the box.

 

 Divinia wanted to carry all the pieces and put them on. However, she did accept some help from Jeff when she realized she wasn't quite tall enough. :)

 

 Yeah for Christmas trees!

 

 Divinia even helped me straighten out the branches. (My least favorite part)

 

She loves her tree!

 



I promised Divinia I wouldn't decorate the tree over the weekend, but would wait until the next week to buy ornaments and decorate. So the next week Jeff, Divinia and I went and got some silver ornaments and some craft supplies to make our own more colorful ones. :)

Divinia and I putting the hooks on the ornaments.

She is a goof ball. :)

 



Making Ornaments with glitter glue.

 



Since we are poor college students with a baby on the way and Divinia REALLY wanted a star on top of the tree, Jeff made a giant yellow one. :) 

 



Jeff's big yellow star!

Crafts, cookies and ornaments! I love Christmas time!

The final product! :D

 

I just LOVE Christmas and am so excited to be spending it with my best friend! I cannot wait for Jeff and I to make our own Christmas traditions and carry on a few of our families'. Since we will have so much free time this season, (Jeff has his school break and Divinia is going to spend the break with her father) we are wanting to do a lot of volunteer work. For while we both love the legend of Santa Claus, getting presents, eating delicious holiday food and going to themed parties, we really want to keep in our mind and hearts what this season is really celebrating; the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no greater celebration! I am so grateful to be a member of the LDS church and to have this time every year to focus on and remember the birth of my savior. Jeff and I have been blessed with so much and I hope to give back and show my love and gratitude to our Savior!

 

Hope you are all having a wonderful December and enjoying this holiday season!



 

Thanksgiving and Christmas (Yes Christmas) in Utah

We got to go to Utah and see our families!
While Jeff and I are loving our new home here in Austin, Texas, we miss our family and friends very much! This past Monday we were able to fly to Utah and spend the week with my family in St. George and Jeff's family was able to join us for the weekend. Needless to say, it was a very fun week! We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday and then celebrated Christmas with them on Friday. We did this double holiday celebration because all of us girls and our husbands will not be with the Swensen side of the family this year (Jeff and I won't be with either side as I am unable to travel at that time) and we wanted to enjoy the experience of giving gifts and seeing the reaction on our family's faces. :) We will be video chatting Jeff's family on Christmas and will open our presents with them then. :) I am SO grateful for our amazing families! I heard so many horrible in-law stories before marrying Jeff and was worried that I would not get along with my own in-laws. I am happy to say that that is not the case at all! I love my in-laws so much and cannot imagine a better or more loving family to have married into! While Jeff's and my family differ in many ways, they are also very similar. I love them both for their differences and the joy they bring into our lives! I cannot wait to incorporate different attributes of each of our families into our own family. Hopefully our little boy, and other children, will feel the love and strength Jeff and I both felt growing up! It is hard to be away from our families, but I am truly grateful for the time we had with them this past week and the technology that enables us to stay in contact with them no matter how far away we are!

Below are some pictures of our fun packed week in Utah!

 I took a lot of pictures of Nicolas and Dad (way too many for my blog), because they were so funny together! You can tell Dad sure loves his grandson and Nick sure loves his Pops!

 Nick also loves his Nana and she him! They were rarely away from one another and Nick loved "playing" the piano with her. :)  

Our family is too big for the dinner table, so we converted the pool/ping pong table into a table for our Thanksgiving feast. :) 

 Daddy relaxing after the Thanksgiving feast. 

When Dad heard someone playing the guitar in the house, he thought it was TC and wouldn't believe Katie when she said it was her. So she had to bring it out and prove she knew how to play. Haha 

 Every time the family gets together Katie spends all day cutting and/or dying everyone's hair. Walker thought he looked pretty manly with the cut head hair on his chest. ;)

The boys sure love their board games!

 Jeff helping to decorate the house for Christmas by putting up the reef.

Such a handsome man! :)

Katie decorating the Christmas tree. Every year Katie and I would crank up the Christmas music and decorate the house the day after Thanksgiving. The Christmas tree was always her favorite. It was fun having all the siblings pitch in with the tree this year though. :)

While we all got many wonderful and fun presents, Nick was definately most thrilled with the box Abbie's sewing machine came in! Haha He loved being tipped back and forth in side of it. :)

( I had to post this picture, I love it so much!)
Dad can tickle and make anyone laugh! He sure had Nick giggling away!

 Jeff and I taught his family how to play pickleball! None of them had ever played before and all really liked it! I don't know why this sport isn't more well know, because it is a lot of fun. :)

 We also went shooting with Jeff's family! All of the boys were really good shots and hit the majority of the clay pigeons.

 Kevin (my father in-law) was also a really good shot! I guess all of those years in scouts and at the turkey hunts will do that. :)

This was Annette's (my mother in-law) first time shooting a gun! While she wasn't a fan of the 12 gage and it's kick, she did enjoy shooting the 22. :)

I love this time of year and all of the holidays, decorations, sweet treats, and traditions that come with it! Most importantly though, I love the meanings of the holidays. While New Years, Valentines Day, Halloween and all the others are fun, the reasons we celebrate Thanksgiving, and most of all, Christmas, bring such joy into my life! I know I need to take more time throughout the year to remember all of my blessing and to take more time to give selflessly and share with others more, but I am truly grateful for this time of year that reminds me of all that and helps to renew in me a desire to focus on others, rather than my own life and troubles and to focus on the Savior and all that he did and is still doing for me! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and will have an equally wonderful (or better) Christmas! 

Tis the season to be jolly! :D

Daily Life

This week's post is simply about a few goings on in Jeff's and my life. :)

Let us begin by the story of our broken car door. Jeff and I knew that the hinge on the drivers side door (which looked to have been previously welded back on) wasn't going to last much longer, as it had been slowly breaking for the last month or so. Well the other day it finally broke. :(

The break.

 

Jeff and I took the car into a body shop to see if they could weld the hinge back together, only to find out that it had never been welded back on, but had in fact been glued back together by an epoxy. The mechanic told us that he could take the door off and weld the hinge together for 200 dollars, but that we might as well get a new door, as 200 dollars was around the price one would cost. However, Jeff, being the do it yourself and save money man that he is, decided that he wanted to glue the door back together again himself. Haha So our little experiement began. :)

 

We went to Home Depo, bought some epoxy and scrap metal, and headed back home to see what we could do for our car.



 



 Jeff trying to figure out how to properly bring the hinge together.

 

 Cutting off some loose metal.

We stacked some books under the car door to hold the door in place while the epoxy hardened. (Don't worry Mom and Abbie, they were 1 dollar politic books Jeff has bought at a used book store and decided he didn't like. :) )

 

I am sad to say that our little experiement did not work, this time. We thought 6 hours was long enough for the epoxy to harden, but when we went out to shut the door and go to our friends place, the epoxy fell apart and the gel like substance went all over. However, Jeff has not given up, but has some stronger epoxy and plans to leave the car door open and the epoxy drying all night. :) Haha I will definately update you as to the sucess or failure of our next attempt. For now we simply keep the driver side door shut and locked and climb over the passenger seat to get to the driver's side. :)

 

On a happier note, Jeff signed up for a dodgeball team with his Chem. E buddies and has been really enjoying it!

The picture is a little blurry, but I thought it was a good shot. :)

 

 On a sadder note, he has hurt his arm really bad the last two times he has played. The second time he hurt it was much worse than the first.We had to drug him up on ibprophen and alternate hot and cold presses to his arm inorder to help the pain go away. Of course it didn't help that after he hurt his arm at the begining of the game he continued to play hard for the next half hour, even the pain kept getting worse. That man can be very stubborn when it comes to sports. :P

 

The other day I dropped Jeff off at a park to play football with some friends and then went to the gym. When I got back I found him playing soccer with a group of strangers. His friends had stopped playing football and heft a half an hour before I got there and he joined this soccer game going on.



I know this may seem like a silly thing to post about, but this is a part of our lives and one of the many things I love about Jeff. He loves sports anf being active and is so friendly with those around us. Rather than sit back and read his book until I got there, he chatted with and joined a soccer team of strangers. :)

 

 

Well that's it for today! Not a very exciting post, but I promised to keep ya'all updated on our lives and our little adventures. :)

 

P.S. We can't wait to see some of you in only 9 more days! Woo Hoo!!! :D Hope you're all having a wonderful November! 

 

 

Baby Boy Update

I am now 28 weeks along and getting bigger by the day! Baby Boy has been moving around a lot this week and keeping his mum up at nights, but I don't mind the lost sleep because it means he is healthy and active. :) Lately while I have been laying down and reading, Baby Boy will start to kick and roll around so much that I'll put down my book and watch my stomach dance for 10 minutes or more. I love watching and feeling the little guy wiggle around!

I also passed the diabetes and anemic tests! Woo hoo! While I am still measuring smaller than normal, Baby Boy and I are healthy and where we should be for our due date in January. :) Only 10 more weeks! Below is a picture of my 28 week belly. 

A few weeks ago my mum sent me a packet of burp clothes to crochet and I love it! The clothes she sent are so adorable! Below are some pictures. 

 Some of the completed products; done by my mum and I. (She sent a couple she had already completed.) 

The one I am currently working on.

The ones that I still have to do. Cute huh?! :D 

I am so grateful to be pregnant and so excited to meet our little boy! Jeff is going to be such an amazing father and is equally excited! While we still haven't settled on a name, Jeff really loves Lincoln West Bean. It's starting to grow on me, so we'll see what happens. :) 

Well that's it for this month's baby update! It's crazy to think that in a little more than 2 weeks we'll be back in Utah with our family enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday! We're SO excited and can't wait to see ya'all!