the End of Days aka 37.5 weeks

Disregard the frumpiness, it was super hot.We were out surveying the damage in the daylight...

Our neighborhood recently (and still is) under going some flooding. We were out Saturday and Sunday night helping out with bagging sand etc. It was actually kind of fun but I think we may have over done it, we're both feeling a little sick now. but here are some during and after pics of the park and the next street over:

33.5 weeks

fun pics from work and a sneak peek of the growing tummy!!

I bought some rechargable batteries for the camera knowing I'd need to bring it to work soon and discovered some really awesome older pictures (like 6 months ago, sealing, idaho trips etc.) Ill try and post them soon so know in advance theyre pretty old!

xoxo,

Imelda, B & baby

Appointment #3...... and its an interesting one!

So today I had my appointment and for the record, I'm just a day shy of 17 weeks!!! That being said I went in with the impression of an easy smeasy quick in and out appointment. And it was all of that AND more. Let me explain a little but more: I've been anxiously awaiting this appointment for the sole fact that I knew I'd be able to schedule my upcoming ultrasound so the official "countdown" could begin. It was a little different because this time the "midwife/doctor" was being shadowed by a BYU nursing student. The only reason I think this lady was an actual doctor was because she was one of those oldie type/ know everything, which isnt bad but she wasnt as happy go luck as the other midwives who I've met and been super happy with. So either way this Dr brought a different vibe and you could totally tell this was a teaching moment for the BYU girl. I said I was totally ok with it (which i was) and she reviewed everything from my old lab results to my weight gain (none in the last month, although I have been chowing down.) yadda yadda yadda.

Here comes the interesting part. So I lay down so she can feel my stomach and here's our quick little conversation:
"hmm... how far along are you again?"
"almost 17 weeks"
"how certain are you?"
"uh, dead positive"
"any history of twins in the family?"

YIKES!! haha No, Im 90% sure Im not pregnant with twins.

So she pulls out the little sonogram guy and tries to listen for a heartbeat (or two) which she automatically finds ONE. She keeps moving it around trying to find a second one which she DOESN'T and all the while she's explaining the following:

I guess my uterus is just way bigger than its supposed to be. So I know that doesnt mean much to alot of people so here it is in "Emi" terms, typically the top of it is supposed to be somewhere around the middle point from my pelvic bone up to my belly button. Mine was right there under my belly button. Its weird because if i poke myself in the stomach (which I find myself doing alot lately) I can actually feel that my organs have totally been rearranged. So she went on to say that typically the uterus doesnt reach that point until the 20 week mark. The usual reasons for something like this to happen is miscalculation of conception/or a mismeasurment as well. unsual reasons would be twins, in which case they would do an ultrasound. ummm pretty sure thats EXACTLY what she decided to do. She's like (speaking to both me and the BYU student) "ssh, lets just go peek and do a little unofficial ultrasound. Lets just go peek and we'll find out why its so big."

At this point my mind is TOTALLY racing, im freaked out/ excited, bummed that B isnt with me to see this, wondering if this is actually happening...

IT WAS SO COOL!!! We went to another room and dimmed the lights and voila! there he/she was! it was so cool to see it, it was a side profile really similar to the ones you see pictures of except I couldnt recognize any limbs. Anyways, she was pretty sure there was only one baby in there but we have another ultrasound scheduled for the 29th, its a high possibility that they will be moving up our due date by then as well. So the countdown is officially on! 2 weeks and we'll know if its a boy or a girl!!! I am soooo excited I cannot even tell you!!!

14 days to go!!

xoxo,

Imelda, B & baby

Ode to Brandon.....

so recently we celebrated my dear hubby's 27th birthday... Happy Belated Shoutout Sugar!! so this post is in honor of that very handsome man:

he has been very diligently working on his metal sculptures/art and has been a very busy boy. Here are his latest creations that I would like to brag about.
theyre bookends that he made out of steel and driftwood (from our trip to Oregon the beginning of this year) the detail on them is quite amazing and overall, im pretty impressed. the grain on the driftwood actually wasn't stained, he used an oxysetaline torch to burn and raise the grain... pretty amazing, pretty creative.

In other B news, his much larger piece was accepted into the Springville Art Museum and it has been there on display for the last month. So of course we had to take a trip to the SMOA to see it proudly displayed......
Liz and I had already dont a lap around the exhibit and has scoped out B's art in advance. This is his first time walking into the room, if you look closely you can see a side view of his hanging on the right hand side almost straight infront of him... He hadn't noticed it yet in the picture above..


As far as baby goes, he totally surprised me last night by doing probably the funniest but super sentimental/sweet thing ever. So he asked me to bring him home some headphones, not earbuds but the oldschool pancake headphones that were so major in the late 90's, early 00's... He quickly disassembled them as started sewing them into this cloth strip that was about 9 inches long and 1 inch wide. I seriously had no clie what he was doing. so he finishes up and askes me to guess what I think it is.... im still thinking headphones go by the ears, so maybe an eye mask with built in earphones?? nope, waaaay wrong. So he brought me into the living room to demonstrate by plugging in my ipod and i was already sitting down. He laughed at me again and said I had to be laying down for this.... He had made a little sling/wrap that drapes over my tummy so the baby can hear music better! I was SOOOO surprised! I was so happy and touched by his creativness and thought he had put into it. His only restriction? No lady gaga allowed for the baby which also made me bust out laughing again. He's now currently devising a plan so I can wear it during the day as I move at work when the baby will sleep the most.. What a funny man.

Thats my funny little baby story for the day, 1 month to go till we find out if its a girl or boy!! I can't wait..

XOXO,
Imelda & fam

Galactic Domination, the Golden year...

Happy Belated Birthday Liz! I have been really bad with posting and with pictures... Liz has spent the last few weekends with us and in an attempt to not be so boring for her, we busted out with Star Wars Risk.
Lets just say that B ALWAYS kick my butt and i was maybe a little sick of it so Liz and I made a pact to just take him down and then she could kill my hutts off. (Brandon was the Empire, Liz the rebel alliance and I was the Hutts as in Jabba the Hutt). Needless to say, Liz wiped the galaxy clean and Brandon was not a happy camper with our "strategy". Oops.... :( here are some pics from that silly fun and maybe not so fair night:


Elizabeth's Rebels are the yellow and Orange Men... like I said she cleared the board.

Yes that is a Hutt/booger shoved up my nose and I am wearing 3D glasses that we found 5 minutes before... random? YES.

best deal

i just had to throw this one up super quick. Mini version of the ugle doll. google it. I love them. any ways its a dog toy for Bobo complete with squeaker. Heres the best part: $0.97 at Walmart!! Love it!

XOXO,

Imelda

We're Having A Baby!!!

There, its official internet world, after weeks of only having family know, we are bringing a little one into the world! Today I had my first prenatal visit...and everything is great.Tomorrow we will be 11 weeks along, not too shabby considering we're a quarter of the way there. I was so sad that B could not be there for this but I was able to hear the little one's heartbeat!!! It was so cool and really surreal to be like "wow, thats coming from inside of me and its totally somebody else!!!" All in all being my first visit, it was pretty standard and just a lots of tests and questions etc. I did get vaccinated against the H1N1 though so Im pretty happy about that.

I know we haven't updated many since we first found out we were pregnant (which was back in the first days of October) but honestly there hasn't been that much to update about. I have had virtually no "morning sickness" except for this last Monday and let me tell you, it blew. I am so grateful I haven't been sick (knock on wood). I dont know if i could handle it, its way too draining. I have been sick with little colds which is aggrevating enough. I had one for a week almost right after we found out that we were expecting and I caught another on two days ago. But now that Im this far along the doctor has ok'd Sudafed which is a dream!!! yay for decongestants!! Now hopefully B and I can get some sleep, I keep him up at night with getting up to use the bathroom at all hours of the night and snoring (poor man, I guess I wasn't very pretty last night). Its almost like life is normal as ever.... except for being bloated all the time and having a mild for of heartburn 24/7. eh, such is life I guess. and I am NOT complaining!

I forgot to mention that we are doing all of this through a Midwife clinic. Its part of a gorgeous new hospital so everything is fabulous AND I get to spend alot more time during my visits asking questions and its so comfortable. I did originally want to look into seriously doing a water birth but they're not allowed in Utah hospitals, but with the midwives I still have a ton more options on how I want to go about things. Its funny I always imagined Midwives to have a Dr. Quinn type look to them etc. Nope. The gal I met with was so young and hip it was so NOT intimidating. Love it. Im pretty pumped I wont lie.

Some days I get freaked out thinking "Holy cow, Im going to be someone's mom soon" but Ill do my best for the baby so Im not too worried....yet. For those not seeing me on a daily/weekly basis, I dont believe Im showing yet... Liz thinks otherwise but I think Im always just gassy when I see her hahah. I'll try to keep everyone updated as other appointments come along but no big news other that the fact that we're prego!! Haha can you tell I can't get over it yet?

Ugh, I could keep gushing all day but I feel like Im so scatter brained on what Im talking about that no one will be able to read it and follow my train of thought. Ill save more for another day. Oh I almost forgot to post answers to the most common questions that people have been asking me:

1. No,I really don't have a preference as to what we have. I can only imagine a little girl because coming from a family of all girls (including the new niece) thats the only image my brain can compute. It doesnt have the creativity of imagining a boy because I've never been around a baby boy. I know it sounds strange but Ill be pumped either way!!

2. No we haven't seriously thought about names yet either, Feel free to email suggestions but dont be offended if we dont name he/she Grizzly Adams, or whatever you guys pick. We won't find out what we're having till mid-January to the first week in Feb.

3. Im due aprox June 25th. Seeing as my sisters baby came 2 weeks early but was 9 lbs and I myself was 10 days late (and also just as heavy) that gives us about a month to play with. So plan on sometime summer 2010. Hahah. I love it.

ok my wrist is getting irritated from resting on the edge of the laptop so Im going to cut myself off. Love you all and thanks for the support!

XOXO,

Imelda

Disclaimer: Full of excuses................... for NOT posting ; )

so it has been FOREVER since we've bothered to post anything at all. We decided to save some $ and go without internet for a while. I (emi) feeling cut off from the world, decided a world without the internet is pretty impossible and we gave in. So yes, that is an official excuse for not having posted. In other news, we've moved again and as a result had to give away our precious little Hugo who we loved sooo much :( at the time we were told that cats were not allowed under any circumstances at our new apartment.So we found him a good home with a co-worker from Lexus. Later we discovered that our "smoking man" neighbor is the equivalent to a cat lady and probably owns about 6... figures. Oh well. Among other HUGE highlights.. We were sealed in the Jordan River Temple in August!!! Finally! Pics to follow I promise! B's Grampy was awesome enough to come out and do that for us.
I will post more pics of that fab"vacation" ( I use quotation to not be sarcastic but it felt like a vacation except everyone came to us instead!) when i find them/have time to edit and upload them all.
Lets see what else is new? I left Lexus mid August to return to the notorious Charlotte Russe. This was strictly a financial decision that I hope will lighten the load for B with school etc. He is still at Lexus, running their roadside assistance program/ Delivery experience program. I do miss it there but the pay helps with not having to stress. I should mention that i returned as an assistant manager instead of the previous job as store manager but the stress is a night and day difference and we can't be greedy with needing the extra $ when being assistant pays you less stress and still a decent wage. I am totally NOT complaining!!
We love the ward we're in and B has a great calling as 2nd Councellor in the Elders Quorum. Its a mixed ward with lots of newly weds so its nice to have people our age that are going through similar trials like school, $ etc.

Ok, so thats going to be my disclaimer/hasty update post to bring everyone up to date.

XOXO,
Imelda

P.S. I wanted to share that B and I are an aunt and uncle! My sister had Mirene in early Novemember and we are sooo pumped to meet the little munchkin. She is adorable! (I didnt forget Yuka, I just wanted to have a separate little blurb for the little one!)

Waaaay overdue for a Vacay.....

So B and I have been in desparate need of a vacation.... we decided we were going to visit his mom who recently moved to Oregon (a place I had only driven thru for a few minutes). She is getting married this summer and we wanted to give our "stamp of approval". So we left for Oregon last friday with only a few speed bumps. It was quite the adventurous day I promise. So 14 hours and 3 States later we were in the greener than green state of Oregon and

I will not lie, I was in love!

Our Trip to Oregon, click here to see more photos!

So I've included lots of pictures of our fabulous but very wet trip (it rained almost everyday we were there and trust me they weren't spinkles either!). All in all it was a very fun trip, the road was very long and I was grateful to say I was (GASP!) happy to be back in SLC.

I never thought I would say that.

So to recap our little adventure:

1. Ken is a way nice guy, shy but nice. We're super happy for Sharon and hope everything will be as amazing and fun and we all dream it to be!

2. Grammy and Grampy are really fun. They are totally different in the comfort of their own home and I love it! I am so glad that I was able to get to know them better!

3. Oregon is a beautiful place, it kind of reminds me of home but I cannot live in a super rural place, UT has spoiled me too much. It'd have to be really close to a city, like 5 minutes close.

4. There's no place like home. Especially with my babies!! (even if that place is UT!)

Thanks for the love, shelter and friendships we enjoyed on our trip!

XOXO,

Imelda Grim