Lil St. Nick

But we actually call him "Cole"

He's the most amazing Christmas present we could have ever gotten :)

Nicholas Stephen

Born December 20th, 2010 at 4:54 pm

7 lbs 10 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long

This little guy also goes by:

Munchkin Man

The Man Cub

Little Monkey

The Colester

Lil St. Nick

Little King Cole

and

The RockStar

WOW! That's a lot of names :)

Yum! Frosty!

Here we are the night we got home from the hospital. This frequently happens where Steve feeds me while I feed the little guy. We're a pretty cute family, hu? ;)

I wonder how much bigger I can get in 3 weeks...

It might even be 4 weeks... I guess we'll see! Here I am at 37 weeks. I went to the doctor 2 weeks ago, and they told me that our little baby was 6 lbs at that point. yikes. I'm not sure how much he weighs now but obviously it's bigger than 6 lbs. Anything over 7 sounds huge to me. At the doctor today I asked him if he thought my baby was getting too big and if he thought I'd be able to actually squeeze him out. But he thinks everything will be fine. So that's nice to know. The doctor also found that the baby has "dropped" and his head is engaged. This is good news :) He's in the right position for birth. But it also means the waddling has started.

I've reached the size where I get double takes all day long when I'm in public. I almost don't want to go outside anymore because it's just uncomfortable! I feel like I need to have Steve by my side at all times so that when people see my big tummy, they'll then look at him and think.."oh, I see." I'm not just fat, strangers! I'm pregnant!!

I went through my closet the other day and realized that I have way more clothes than I would ever need...it was fun though. I started to dream and fantasize about all the cute outfits I'll finally be able to wear again once this little one comes out. (hopefully anyway). It'll be like Christmas!!! Right now there are like 3 shirts that I have to rotate through. This makes getting dressed in the morning not exciting at all.
And just so everyone knows, Steve and I are having second thoughts about what we're actually going to name the little guy. It was going to be Parker for a long time and it might still be but we're thinking of others right now too. Just so no one's shocked if we decide to name him something different once he's actually born. :)
But we're getting very excited for him to come!!!! I think it just hit Steve like, yesterday that he's going to be a DAD! But especially after seeing Emma and Jake's sweet baby girl that was born last Friday! Annabelle is just the sweetest newborn :) I'm so happy for them. My cousin Jillian also had her baby boy only 2 days ago and he seems sweet as ever too :) It just makes me sad that I can't be with Emma right now! I want to help out and I also want to see that little infant! Suddenly the distance seems unbearable and I'm finally starting to seriously think of ways to make money so that I can buy a ticket and go see her...in a few months anyway. Any suggestions, people? How can I make money at home when I have an infant of my own??

Annabelle Sue

She's here!!!! Emma and Jake's precious little baby girl decided to arrive 2 weeks early. Look how absolutely beautiful she is. I can't wait to HOLD HER!!

Congrats Emma and Jake! We're so happy and excited for you ;)

The birds and the bees

What we dressed up as for the ward Halloween party::

Since I'm pregnant I thought we'd go as "the birds and the bees." Get it?? haha.

I wrapped yellow masking tape around my legs and my belly, made homemade wings with paper and tape and taped cut-out paper feathers to Steve's behind. Paper and tape pretty much was our costumes last year. Oh yeah, paper antennas too. I thought they were cute :)

Carved Pumpkins

I wonder how many families out there carved pumpkins for FHE this past Monday. Well, we were one of them and here are our creations:

We recruited our friends Brittney and Greg to join in on the fun

Here they are:

Steve's, Mine, Brittney's, Greg's

a little goblin. Steve was so proud of his because the whole time he was carving it, it looked like nothing. So, we were pleasantly surprised with how it turned out :)

rainbows and unicorns and sparkles and flowers :) I couldn't help it, I had to do a unicorn 

GO RANGERS!! Brittney is a Rangers fan :)

This is a haunted house on a hill under a moonlit sky. Nice work, Greg!

And then yesterday I cut up my pumpkin because I was determined to make homemade pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin. It turned out to be quite the ordeal. It took the whole day just to make the pumpkin moosh. And Steve wouldn't let me cut up his. He was too proud of it. So now our house smells like pumpkins. And I'm kind of getting sick of it.

Our days

The days of Steve and Lauren have consisted of Steve leaving for school every day at about 6:30 am! yikes, very early. He's been doing pretty well but I think he'd tell anyone that school is a lot harder than he thought it would be.

I've been in charge of pretty much all of his meals. If I didn't make sure he ate breakfast, lunch and dinner he would never eat! So I've been cooking a lot! I feel like the ultimate house wife. I mean, I even make our own bread!! But that's only because we just don't like any of the bread they have to offer here in Texas.

On top of that, I've been babysitting like crazy. There's a lady here from the Congo who recently joined the church. When the Relief Society president asked people to volunteer to watch her kids so she could take an English class Monday through Thursday, I signed up because I thought, hey, I have a lot of free time. I mentioned that I speak "a little French" (that's exactly how I phrased it because I do know a LITTLE) and I thought my little bit of French would help when babysitting these kids. Turns out the little girl knows English pretty much fluently already and doesn't need to be spoken to in French. And the other one is 5 months old so she doesn't talk yet anyway.
Well, when the Relief Society found out that I speak "a little French" she continued to ask me what I majored in at BYU. I said, Linguistics and TESOL. And people seem to have a misconception that Linguistics means you know a million languages fluently, which some really do but not necessarily. Anyway, they made me her visiting teacher along with another girl who really does speak French fluently, thank goodness!! So, this past month or so I've gotten a feel for what it's like to be on a foreign speaking mission! I prepare little visiting teaching messages in French and my companion will nudge me when it's my turn to talk :) I'm like the little junior companion. I even bore my testimony on the spot in French this week! I never thought I could do that! Although a little bit stressful, it's been kind of fun to relearn some French. I definitely read it and write it better than I speak it, but I guess who doesn't right? Speaking skills is kind of the most important when it comes to knowing another language. So this is good for me.

So I've been babysitting and speaking French. We've made some friends in the ward who are all about dinner dates so we've been doing a lot of that too which is way fun :) Last week was game night at our place. We played "Scene It." Steve and I LOST  because we have by far seen the fewest movies out of these guys. Especially Steve. He likes like ZERO movies. Last night was fondue night at our friends house and we watched the new Robin Hood (one that Steve actually does like..) We're just trying to enjoy these little evenings while we still can because they're pretty much over once the baby comes. And no one will invite us to stuff anymore anyway once the baby comes.

I'm still reading my baby and pregnancy books like crazy! Right now I'm reading "Childbirth Without Fear" by Grantly Dick-Read. It was written way back in the 40s and he's all about natural childbirth which wasn't so hot back then but it makes the book really interesting. I'm so curious as to what childbirth is like, I just want him to come already!! Exactly 2 months to go.

Well, Steve passed out at 9 pm tonight. Time for me to go to bed!

A pointy tummy

29 weeks!

Well, it seems the baby and I have had a growth spurt! Look how pointy my tummy is now! It seems it can't get any bigger but we have 2 1/2 more months to go and that's when the baby grows the most. :S

Ok everyone. Tell me what you think. Steve and I both like the name Parker for our baby boy but Parker is also the name of the school Steve goes to right now: Parker College of Chiropractic. Does it matter? The whole ward refers to all the students that go to this college as "Parker students." And the school itself is always referred to as "Parker." So, the name Parker is in our vocabulary quite a bit right now.

We'll probably still name him Parker no matter what because it's not like there's a runner up or anything. But I want to hear what people think. So please let me know!

Oh, and ps, the hospital where this little guy will be delivered at is on Parker Rd. HAHA.

Family Foto-shoot

I know some of you have already seen all of these on my sister's blog but I wanted to post them on mine too!

Marie-Photographie is so good at what she does! Look at these beautiful family pictures she took of Steve's family:

Thank you Marie! We love them :)

Coeur d'Alene

While in Spokane we got to go to Coeur d'Alene a couple times which is only 30 minutes from Spokane. We got our picture taken to compare with this:

This was the day after our wedding. We came here and walked around and then the next day we flew out to San Diego

Here we are a year later! Not sure why our camera turns everything blue now...

The whole family came out for a family picnic, volleyball and swimming:

super fun :)

And on our last day in Spokane I got my haircut:

I knew it needed a cut (because I hadn't even gotten a trim since my wedding!!) but I was sad to do it because I've always wanted looong hair. But I'm happy with the cut :) It's a lot bouncier now and definitely a lot healthier. Thanks to my mother in law for doing it :)

And then Amachi took us all to dinner:

Thanks Amachi!!

We had a wonderful stay and miss everyone already!

Half way to 50

August 30th was Steve's 25th birthday. We "surprised" him which included the whole family piling into the Yukon and Steve and I driving Aunt Kay's car back to Montana. She lives about 2 hours away. Steve said he wanted to do something adventurous while we were on vacation and so this was about as adventurous as it got:

My Aunt Kay lives right on the river and she pulled out her kayaks and let the older boys kayak down the river

And they're off!

The rest of us gave the boys a head start and then we drove down to the place where we could meet up with them and swim around in the river. Even though it was still August, it was barely 70 degrees that day. So yeah, it was COLD! I don't think I would have normally gotten in the water, but after spending the summer in hot HOT Texas, I'd been craving any kind of cold and so I thought I would try to get my fill of it before having to come back. 

Not the best quality pic but yes, I'm making that face because it's FREEZING! Aunt Kay just jumped right in and so I started walking in and then as it I got deeper and deeper and it got colder and colder I wondered out loud "Is this ok for my baby??" I don't want him freezing to death. But Aunt Kay assured me it was fine :)

The boys met up with us and Steve refused to get in the water and swim with me! Too cold for him. So the three of them skipped rocks for seriously an hour! They loved it :)

Look at these guys! What a cute family :)

We came home and Aunt Kay made us hot chocolate to warm us up before dinner. yum! Everyone had chills from the cold water.

At the dinner table. We made Steve's favorite: lasagne! Aunt Kay made bread and a salad.

She also made Steve's bday cake: lemon meringue pie, which is also his favorite and a chocolate cake:

Happy birthday!

Us being silly!

And then afterwards we came out and skipped rocks..again!

Then we had to say goodbye :( Thanks Aunt Kay for making Steve's bday a special one!

Getting BIGGER!

The little guy is growing bigger and bigger and just kicking away and at the same time making me bigger and BIGGER.

Besides giving me heart burn pretty bad at nights, this second trimester was pretty much a breeze compared to the first. But today marks the beginning of the third trimester. All the pregnancy books describe this trimester as "uncomfortable" and "back pain." So I'm a little nervous about it. Plus, it is also the last trimester which is exciting and nerve racking all at the same time! Because in 3 months I will have a little baby!

Wearing a baggier shirt to accommodate THE BELLY

This is about 27 weeks

Getting ready for the little guy has been pretty fun though. This past weekend we went out and bought the baby furniture (crib, car seat, stroller, bouncer..). And a couple weeks ago we went to some yard sales to see if we could find any good deals. All I found was this:

This cute picture frame was only a dollar and the colors match perfect for the nursery that we're decorating blue and red. And plus the teddy bears are adorable. So, as long as I can help it, that will be the theme for the baby room: teddy bears :)

A baby shower of my own

While in Spokane, one of the many things that my mother in law, Yvonne did for me while I was there was throw me a baby shower!! It was so sweet of her and everything turned out so nice!

I don't think most pregnant people have a baby shower this early in pregnancy but this is just how it turned out because we're not coming back to Spokane again before the Parkster arrives.

Here everyone is hurrying about setting things up with balloons and yummy food which Marie, Alyse and Yvonne made!

Beautiful Marie with her precious baby :)

All the nice people who came:

Seriously, everyone was so sweet!

Alyse was in charge of the games. For one of the games we had about 5 minutes to combine the letters in my name and in Steve's name to come up with a new name for baby boy. Seriously, I came up with ONE name: Lars, which, no, we will not use. But Marie quickly whipped out like 15. haha. I blame me being completely brain dead sometimes on pregnancy of course;)

Look at all those presents for little Parker :)

This is one of the only pictures I have of me opening presents but this one is a quilt my friend Deborah made me and then had it shipped to Spokane so I could open in there. She MADE this quilt! I love it and we've decided to decorate the nursery these colors. Beautiful.

Here are some other hand made gifts that I just love:

My mother in law made this beautiful blessing blanket! I love it so much and can't wait to use it. I love the blue ribbon, so pretty :) Thank you:)

And Marie made these adorable hats!! I can just picture Parker in them. Look at those teddy bear ears..so cute!

And Marie also got him this cute little outfit. Steve has a sweater just like it so they can match!

There's something so fun about opening gifts for your little baby. It was so much fun for me and makes me so excited for the little guy to arrive. :) Thanks to everyone who has been so generous and sent us gifts! I'm so grateful to everyone!