Love

Love is an incredible phenomenon.
When I was born, I was instantly being shown what it is to love. My parents and my siblings were showing me every day. I was bonded to them and I was loving them back at full capacity.
As I grew and made friends and started to find my place in my family that love grew, and once again I was loving as much as I possibly could, or knew how to. I was also being loved as much as I possibly could at the time.
As you grow older that love grows with you. It's amazing that you can do something to the absolute max and somehow it's always able to grow.
When I got married my ability to love and be loved grew. It often surprised me to think of how much I loved this new person in my life, and in such a different way than I had ever loved before. I loved my family and friends as much as I could but now I loved someone more and in a different way.
When we found out we were having a baby, miraculously, that love grew even more. There was this little thing in me that I didn't know, could barely imagine, but I loved it. I loved it more than I had ever loved anything before.
When I started to feel her move, you guessed it, love. Deep love. We found out it was a girl and she started to become someone to us and again...
We are less than 6 weeks away from our due date and I am so overwhelmed by this little human inside me. I know the love I feel for her now will pale in comparison to how I feel in a few weeks and the following years.

The humbling thing is, I was taught how to love first by my parents. I was taught VERY well. I have had people in my life that have loved me for my entire life. I am very aware of how lucky I am to have been surrounded by the people that I have been surrounded by.
It is now my turn to teach someone how to love. To show someone what it means to love. Matt and I will be her very first example of this amazing gift. Our ability to love her will be how she learns to love others.

"The greatest gift you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return"

33 week update

I wanted to wait and post until after I had showers and what not and so here we are.

Right now I am 33 weeks and 2 days along. Baby girl is 4.5 pounds and about 19 inches long. Now when she is awake she really lets me know it. She moves so much and is so strong that it actually makes me either gasp or groan. If she is active when I lay down to go to bed, I know I won't be sleeping any time soon.

First weekend in August Matt and I drove to Utah for our first baby shower. My mom, sister and Aunt Pam threw such a FUN shower for Baby Girl and me. It was a "Ready to Pop" theme and all day Saturday my sister was making different kinds of pop corn. We had, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, lemon head, muddy buddy and one other that I can't think of. They were all so yummy.

My aunt hosted and had a delicious mexican feast all set up for us. So many friends and family came. It was so fun to see so many people I don't get to see that often anymore. We played some fun games and of course opened presents. This little lady of mine was spoiled. We got a lot of clothes, diapers, butt cream and baby wash/lotion. I feel like we'll never need to buy any more of that stuff, but I'm sure we'll run out in no time. In addition to all those goods, my sister sent us home with two giant bags filled with clothes from Leila. Those two bags only cover up to 6 months. We definitely don't need to shop for her, that's for sure.

 Leila wanted to help me open the presents :) I was happy to let her.

 

 The prizes for the game winners

The popcorn!

It was so fun to be home with my family. I always love to go home with Matt and get some quality Sanders time in. Friday night we all (adults) went to Asian Star for dinner (a defnite fave) that night we played some games with Jennie, Brock and my parents, since we were all staying at Jennie's house.

Sunday we all got together again for family dinner with all the littles as well. It was so nice to be home. It's so crazy to think that the next time I see my family I will have a little baby with me. It's so exciting.

The one thing people kept asking me all weekend was, "Are you so ready to be done being pregnant?" I would say, "NO! I've been fine. I am totally confident in my ability to take care of this child while she is inside me" I was also not too uncomfortable or anything either, so that weekend, I was fine still being preggo. Amazing what can change in 2 weeks.

The next weekend was the Halls family shower.
I wish I would have gotten more pictures. They really went all out for us. This little lady is so lucky to be born into these families.
I have to say, I have a very talented family. I have a niece painting us a picture for the baby's room, she also drew a little "thumb print tree" for everyone to stamp their thumb prints on. I have a sister in law who made us a beautiful quilt that will adorn the crib. Another sister-in-law made us this cute pennant banner spelling out baby girl's name and ANOTHER sister in law (I still am unsure if she made it) brought us a sign that says, "She leaves a little Sparkle everywhere she goes"

Once again, we had delicious food, fun games and amazing gifts. All the Halls ladies went in on a CRIB, sheets, diaper bag and other goodies for us, and we are SO GRATEFUL!

One of my favorite things that we got are the "late night diapers".
Everyone wrote messages on the diapers so that when I go in for those late night changes I can have a little chuckle. Such a cute idea.

 Late Nigh Diapers

 

This Friday I have one more baby shower that my work is hosting for me. I am such a lucky girl to have so many wonderful people in my life.

We only have a few more items we NEED before baby comes (car seat... diaper changing station...) and the more ready we are to bring her home, the more ready I am to be done being pregnant.
I have definitely entered the uncomfortable stage of pregnancy and I know it will get worse before it gets better. It doesn't help that we are hitting record breaking temps (117 last friday). My sleep is increasingly more uncomfortable and my belly is just plain increasing. I'm ready to be active again and to not waddle when I walk.

Yesterday we put the crib together and I finally went through the 0-3 month bag of clothes Jennie gave us. I can't believe this is all for our daughter and that we will have her in less than 2 months.

Keep cooking, Little One, we are sure getting excited to meet you!

EEEEEP! Little peep toes!