Photos from my phone

I know I'm not the only one who randomly will go through all of the photos  in their camera roll on their phone and reminisce about all the good times had over the past year. 

I was scrolling through these last night and was just laughing out loud at some of them, and thought it would be fun to share them with you all. I'm sure you've probably seen most of these at some point or another on my blog, but hey if I didn't remember the pictures, surely you guys won't remember some of them too. That's my hope anyways...

Calving shed from last March...love all the icicles!

Helping my hubby load grain. That was probably the first and last day I'll go with him for the entire day...he said I asked too many questions :)

A weekend trip to Billings for an FFA state officer 10 year reunion and the PBR rodeo. In the grand scheme of things, Baby Hackley was about 3 weeks old at the time :)

My handsome boys after their annual spring haircut!

My backyard fire pit...my favorite place to spend time in the summer...

Branding...

Ohhhh and the dancing cows!! How could we forget that?! I literally crack up laughing every time I see these pictures!

Miranda Lambert concert...only my 3rd time seeing her :)

My MIL's birthday present...patriotic pallet flag that I made!

My friend Chay and I at the Wolf Point Stampede rodeo.

Good friends wedding....don't mind the giant goblet of booze my friend Emily is holding...it's a sorority tradition :)

My garden!!

Back when I had a teeny tiny baby bump, and looked more bloated than pregnant. Pretty sure that shirt would fit about halfway down my stomach right now, ha ha.

So I just realized there are way too many pictures to share with you for one blog post! This is the first half of the year, so I'll save the second half for another day!

Happy Wednesday friends! I'm working from the comfort of my living room in sweatpants :) roads were crappy and my boss didn't want me driving on them, oh darn :)

Maternity Pics

I got them back and it's official...I love them!!! Our friend was so sweet to offer this as a baby gift to us and we couldn't thank her enough! I'll let the pictures do the talking...

 I mean, maybe it's just me...but helloooooo tall, dark and handsome cowboy! I may be biased :)

While I was taking pictures, Patrick was listening to the Packers game on Sirius XM. (Side note, he didn't even complain ONCE about missing the game to take these pictures! What a guy!) This was his reaction when they scored, and our friend happened to capture it! We were laughing so hard at him! 

I am in LOVE with the job that she did! I wasn't going to do maternity pictures at all, but when she offered I thought what the heck?! I'm SO SO SO glad I did! And now I can't wait to have one of them printed to hang on the wall. 

I hope you all take a break from blogging tomorrow and spend the day stuffing your face with all of the good food that will be inevitable eaten! We'll be spending it with Patrick's family and we'll be taking naps, watching football, and I will continue reading the Divergent series.

I thank God for the wonderful life He has created for me, for my amazing family and friends, and the future plans that He has for us. We are so blessed :)

Baby Update

I haven't really dedicated a whole lot of posts to Baby H yet, and I know some people do weekly postings while they're pregnant. I wanted to give you guys an update on how baby is doing...

Here is a picture from our 4D ultrasound in week 32. He wasn't in a great position, so it was hard to get a good picture. This was my favorite from the pictures we got, because you can see his little hand in front of his face while he sleeps :)

Tomorrow I will be 33 weeks...7 weeks to go! Due date is December 19th.

Size of baby: 4.5 lbs as of 10/24/13. 

Weight gain: 8 lbs (I've packed on about 1 lb per week the last 8 weeks). Obviously over half of that is baby, and the other half is just normal fluid and the increase in my blood. You'll hate me for saying this, but I can still wear all of my normal pants, and even get them buttoned. I don't have any stretch marks either at this point...I rub lotion on my belly and hips twice a day, and have since about week 12. I don't have any cravings at all. If I crave something, I'll eat it and then it goes away. I am wanting more sweets than normal, but nothing in particular. I eat like I regularly do and nothing overboard.

Emotions: I have good and bad days. One day I started crying when Payton Manning came back to play in Indianapolis for the first time since he left their team. Some days I just start crying over nothing really, and then I usually laugh and cry at the same time. Those days are few and far between though. Other than that, it has been pretty normal. I've found that my mouth has no filter when it comes to saying things that maybe I shouldn't say...it all just come out and I don't seem to care. 

Health: I am definitely waddling. For those who haven't been pregnant, let's just say that it feels better when you waddle! I started changing the way I walked way back around week 20, because I could feel my hips shifting. They were really sore for a couple of days, and still get sore if I lay on one side too long at night. My left hip still pops every time I take a step. It doesn't hurt and I don't really notice it anymore. I had my gestational diabetes test and was negative for that, so that's a good sign. They were afraid I would get it because as the doctor stated, "I started my pregnancy overweight" and when I look at my ultrasound paperwork, it still says high risk pregnancy due to obesity. Lame.

My body: WOW....some things that have changed, I have never heard people talk about. I had a random mole show up near my collarbone. There was nothing there before, and now it's there. Doctor says it should go away when I'm not pregnant, but if it doesn't we'll get it removed. My nails grow super fast, and unfortunately I have sprouted some black hairs on my neck. Weird, I know. I wake up maybe 1-2 times a night to use the bathroom. I sleep just ok, but the last 2 weeks or so I'll wake up and be awake for about a half an hour at night a couple nights a week and just lay there and think about stuff. Since I started my 3rd trimester, I've been more tired lately than in the 2nd trimester, which is normal. My feet and hands aren't swollen at all, but if I'm walking around a lot, at the end of the day my ankles will get a little swollen.

Pampering: Patrick has been great about giving me foot rubs. I've  had 2 massages since being pregnant. Unfortunately, my masseuse says she can't put as much pressure on my knots because I'm pregnant. It still feels great, just doesn't get rid of the knots as well as it usually does. Last week Patrick treated me to a mani/pedi, so that was amazing. I plan on having my hair done once more before baby comes.

Our House: A lot of people have asked about our nursery and baby's room...we're going a little unconventional for this one. I've talked in the past about how much company we have during the spring and summer months, whether it be family or people we hire to come and help us out on the farm. We made the decision to keep our guest room, and the baby is going to share the office. So it's a bedroom that's half office, half crib and changing table. The closet is full of Patrick's clothes, and the baby's clothes for now are in a dresser in our guest room. All of our closets are teeny tiny, so we fit stuff in where we can. I'm not too worried about the arrangement we have now, and we'll just see how things go once he's here. He'll never know the difference if he has a room or not while he's a baby. And we really don't use the office a whole lot either. I'm not worried. 

Are we ready? YES! I am so happy that I am blessed with the ability to be pregnant, I really am. I had a miscarriage over a year ago, and it was devastating. More on that another day. But pregnancy is a whole beast in itself. I don't hate it, but I wouldn't say I love every second of it either. But I know the longer baby is in there, the better off he'll be. So cook away in my belly little one...just don't take too much longer after your due date! Patrick is beyond ready...he wanted kids right after we got married, but it was me who wanted to hold off longer. As for everything we need...we don't have all of it yet, but if he were to be born tomorrow, we'd be just fine. 

Ok, I know that was SUPER long, so thanks for hanging in there until the end! 

Do you have any questions about my pregnancy?

Baby Shower #2

How lucky am I that the people in my life love me enough to throw me 2 baby showers? One in Western Montana with my sisters, mom and some college friends, the other in Eastern Montana where I live with my coworkers, in-laws, family and other friends. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

Last Sunday my boss and co-worker threw me a baby shower, and just like my first one, it did NOT disappoint! First and foremost...the food. I mean, it's not a shower/party without a picture of the food spread. Am I right?!

We had 2 different kinds of homemade cheese balls with crackers, 2 different kinds of quiche-one with a pie crust and sausage, the other with croissant crust and bacon. There was also fruit kabobs with 2 different kinds of dip, chocolate covered strawberries, and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. It was all SO good and I got to take a lot of the leftovers home :)

All of the gifts for Baby H! You see the little monkey with the hat? One of my MIL's friends' daughters made that. The wheels are made out of diapers, the mud flaps are bibs, the seat and handle bars are wash cloths, and the headlight is a bottle. How creative is that?!

My friend Chay (in the pink) and her little boy Lyndon came over for the weekend to hang out too since Patrick was gone, and Lyndon helped me open the gifts. He was pretty excited about them too! To the right of me is my MIL, and the lady on the far right is our Aunt Carol. 

Here was a monkey blanket from my MIL's best friend, who will be another adoptive grandma for baby.

My coworkers-Kayla (on the left) is one of the shower hosts, and Melissa also works with us. She has 4 boys :)

You can't tell by my face, but it was hilarious watching Lyndon dance! You put on any country song and he starts jamming out. He even moves his mouth like he's singing the words. It is SO funny!

 And just another cute little outfit for baby :)

Overall it was a great time!

This weekend, Chay, my brother and I also got a lot of stuff done around our house. I couldn't have done everything without them! I bought 2 area rugs a couple weeks ago and they moved all of my furniture out of the rooms, cleaned the floors, put the rugs down and moved all the furniture back. They both helped me clean out my flower beds and put the flower pots away for the winter, then my brother put the changing table together, and Chay helped me put the stroller and carseat all together. It was a really productive weekend!

I am so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life that care about me so much. I don't generally like being the center of attention, so this kind of stuff is hard for me. I'd much rather be in the background taking care of the food or hosting the party. I appreciate every person that came to the shower to help us celebrate Baby H. Less than 2 months until he gets here! I go on Thursday for another ultrasound, so you guys will get to see him again SOON :)

Baby Shower #1

I told you guys I'd eventually get the baby shower pics up!

My sister finally put the pics on FB, so I was able to steal a couple for you to look at. 

Two weeks ago when Patrick and I traveled to see my family, my mom and sisters threw me a baby shower...what these tricksters also failed to mention was that my best friend from Texas flew up for the occasion too! So that was a fun surprise.

We'll start out with the most important thing...the food :)

Here is my gorgeous Noah's Ark-themed cake. One of my sister's friends taught herself how to

make fancy cakes, so they ordered this one for me. The inside was chocolate with a peanut

butter fillings. It was REALLY good! And the little animals were made of fondant too!

 The little bags in the back were cups filled with popcorn. On the outside it had a little sticker that said "About the pop!" Such a cute idea. The rest of the menu included a cream cheese block with raspberry chipotle sauce on top with crackers, cheese tray with crackers, ham/pickled asparagus/cream cheese rolls, candies, peanuts, and jalapeno popper dip. Soooo, basically a lot of cheese :)

Next we played the obligatory silly baby shower games. This one was where you had to put a paper plate on your head, and draw a baby without looking at the picture. There were some pretty good ones, and pretty interesting ones! The two girls on the left are girls I went to high school and some college with, and the two on the left are my best friends Stef (from TX) and Chay. The prizes my sisters handed out for the games were little gift bags that had Bath and Body Works fall-scented candles and lotion.

Needless to say, Baby H was spoiled! He got a lot of clothes, blankets, diapers, toys and bathroom stuff. I appreciate all of these gifts so much, knowing that a lot of them were hand-made, or a mom's favorite products for their kids, and such time, love and thought were put into these gifts. 

My sweet Kendall helping auntie open the gifts.

I'm not gonna lie, this was the one gift I was really excited to open. It is from my Aunt Lisa, who can knit/crochet ANYTHING, so  I knew it was gonna be gorgeous! She actually made 2 baby blankets-this one and one that's plain blue. I love both of them and they're absolutely beautiful. And the best part is, we have 2 sets of bedding, and each blanket matches one set of bedding!

For any of my friends and family who read this blog, THANK YOU from both Patrick and I for all of your love, support, and gifts for Baby H. We truly do appreciate it!

My next shower, which is being thrown by my boss and coworker will be in about a week and a half on October 20th. So we'll do baby shower round 2 after that!

Happy Hump Day!

YEP, I'm Making THAT Announcement

Well friends, put on your excited faces...

Patrick and I are excited to announce that we are expecting a little baby boy, due December 19th!!!

Here is my 12 week picture...just a little peanut then :)

And again last week at my 20 week appointment. And yes, we did find out what it is, obviously! You can see in this pic, it's a profile of the left side of his head. He's holding his right arm up by his face, and you can see his little eyes, nose and mouth :)
 

 So I'm almost 21 weeks right now, and feeling ok...the beginning was ok, but right around week 8 it got bad...lots of nausea, lots of vomiting, no appetite and I felt like a big ol' blob. I did a whole lot of nothing almost every evening and weekend, and it was a miracle I was able to get any work done. I am still sick about once a week or every 2 weeks, and have to take anti-nausea meds about 3 days a week still.

Some things I've learned about pregnancy...morning sickness is not just limited to the mornings! Mine was worst in the evenings, getting really bad around 4 p.m. I actually had to carry a barf bucket in my vehicle with me, since I have a 25 minute drive home. I didn't ever have to use it though, thank goodness. I lost about 6 pounds in the first trimester, and have only gained 3 lbs back...so technically I'm still down 3 lbs. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty freaking excited that being halfway done, I still haven't gained any weight! I can even still button my regular pants, but have to unbutton them when I sit down because it gets too tight.

What helps with that I suppose, is that I feel like so far I have the opposite problem as a lot of pregnant women do...no food sounds good. I haven't had any cravings really...but sometimes only tangy foods sound good-like stuff with A1 sauce, ketchup, or salsa. I think that's because in the beginning all I ate for 2 months solid was bland food like crackers and toast. Yuck yuck yuck. Most of the time though, my tummy is pretty particular about what it does and does not want. Which has led to me still eating a normal amount of calories, therefore not gaining a ton of weight. Doctor said our weight gain goal was anywhere from 11-20 lbs. I'm definitely ok with that.

As far as it being a boy...Patrick said from the beginning that he wanted a little boy. What man doesn't!?! I thought for SURE I was going to be having a girl because well, I have 2 sisters, my mom has 2 sisters, my sister has a little girl, and well, there's just lots of girls in my family. But we beat the odds I guess! haha! I was ok either way, and so was Patrick. We just want a healthy baby, and so far, all of the tests have come back normal and we're looking good!

As far as names go...we're going to be THOSE people, and not announce the name until the little man is born :) His last name will be Hackley...that's about all you'll get :) But no, we don't have it picked out yet..just a couple of front-runners so far.

So, YAY! There it is!!!