Baby Ryan's First Polar Bear

Sometimes my mom hits the nail right on the head. Our desire to have a polar bear themed nursery had to be modified because in my months and months of searching for bedding, fabric, etc., I found nothing. So we went with light blue and dark blue bedding, and figured we'd just find cute polar bear stuff to use as accents. Well my mom found this rocking polar bear and it is seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen! Bryan and I decided to name him Franklin.

Something to Think About

This morning I was looking for quotes online for a project at work and I came across this:

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody. --Herbert B. Swope

This is something I absolutely needed to hear today...

Our Memorial Day Project

So it's no secret that I can't handle when things are in disarray. Organization is my friend. That's why I have been going nuts for the past year or so every time I go into our garage. A few months after we got married Bryan and I went out and got things in relative order, but since then we have bought camping equipment galore, a 16 foot trailer, a quad, and gotten our year's supply of food storage. The trailer became a catch-all for everything under the sun, and we never really created a place for everything to go. So of course chaos ensued.

Today we spent six hours completely reorganizing the garage. We had to clean out the trailer because Bryan is taking it up to Girl's Camp this week with all of my wards stuff, and we ended up buying new shelving, tons of Rubbermaid containers and all of the like. We ended up taking away two loads of trash and items for Goodwill, and now everything we own has a home, the trailer is empty except for some items people have already brought by for camp, and I am the happiest wife on the planet. I only wish I would have taken 'before' photos. It was seriously a nightmare...

Ryan's First Pictures

At our last doctor's appointment Ryan was finally facing the right direction to get some 3-D photos. He looks a little squashed, but I was still amazed by the detail. He gets his nose from my side of the family, and he definitely has the Colby forehead. I can't wait until we get to see him in person!

The Joy of Having Talented Friends

As most people know, I am obsessed with pictures, so I definitely wanted to have some pregnancy photos taken. What I didn't count on was that my friend Sharla, an amazing amateur photographer in the making, would be able to take these fabulous photos during one of her trips out to Arizona.

These pictures were taken when I was 28 weeks and 6 days pregnant.

Thanks, Shar, for capturing these priceless memories!

Ask and Ye Shall Recieve

So tonight I had to run by the Dollar Store to get some stuff for Young Women's camp. As I was leaving I asked Bryan if he wanted me to bring him anything back. I was thinking he might want a Sonic or something. His response? "Yeah, bring me back a cane." "A candy cane?" I ask. "No, a walking cane." He always jokes that he's getting old and needs a cane. So anyway, I'm wandering around the Dollar Store, and I come across the lovely cane in this photo. (Click on the picture to enlarge it and enjoy all of the details of its horrendous ugliness). I am totally cracking up in the store so I had to buy it. For $1.00 it provided a few good laughs...

One Project Down (finally!!)

Well one of our big projects is finally done! We (meaning mostly Bryan, of course!) changed the area that used to house our TV into an office space. We still need to handle the wire situation on the countertop and we're waiting for a smaller printer that will go into one of the cabinets, but other than that, it's done. YAY!

I learned a lot from this little home improvement project, namely that nothing is as easy as it looks, and it's definitely not as easy as they make it seem on all of those HGTV shows!

Before

Bryan patching the holes where the speakers used to be and installing new electrical outlets

Waiting for the countertop so we can finish up

Voila!

More Thoughts on Pregnancy

I know, I know, all I ever post about these days is pregnancy-related. But what can I say--it's the ruling force in my life right now.

This week, for the first time, I am really, really excited for Ryan to get here. I have been so consumed with other feelings--nausea, worry, anxiety, fear (mostly of the pain of labor), etc. that I just haven't been super excited. There have been moments, like every time I get to hear his heartbeat or see him moving around during an ultrasound, but it hasn't been an overwhelming excitement like it is now.

I think a lot of it is that I'm realizing that I have more control over the changes coming in my life than I previously thought. No, I won't be able to determine his disposition, but my attitude will definitely influence that. I might not be able to have the house perfectly cleaned, the laundry done and dinner on the table at 6:00 p.m. every single day, but that's OK. I think there is so much societal pressure to be a "good Mom" (whatever that is) and if you focus on that, you'll miss a lot. I don't want to wake up one day with a grown up son wondering where the time went and regretting all the time I spent scrubbing floors instead of playing with him at the park or reading him books or whatever.

I guess I'm starting to become a little more realistic about the things that are coming my way. And in all reality, I wouldn't change a thing. I realize that in this day and age a lot of people can't stay home with their kids. I feel so blessed that I can.