Ordinary to extraordinary

I'm a MOM now. I feel weird even saying it. Doesn't seem real. But oh, am I glad it is real. I'm enjoying every ounce of this baby boy.

He came sooner than I thought he would. I had my pregnancy all planned out, or so I thought. I was told by Gray's pediatrician, whom I met before Grayson was born, that pregnancy, in a way, prepares you for motherhood-You can only plan so much, cause at times, it will take a route unexpected and you just have to follow and that's exactly what happened.

My goal was to get my Pilates certification before the baby came. I had my practical and written test scheduled to be taken and done with two weeks before the baby's due date. The two weeks after were going to be dedicated to the baby. Learning and preparing all I could for him. But, I took my practical on Thursday, Friday went in to have little baby turned around cause he was breach. The dr. Office was a series of events, and the final event was the conclusion that we couldn't turn the baby and scheduled a C-section for the very next morning. I was FREAKED out!! This was not part of my plan and I wasn't prepared to be a mom yet. Tears were shed and fear set in greatly. But, with some comforting calls from friends and family and a priesthood blessing from my wonderful husband, I began to let go of worry and grab on to extreme excitement.

It began to feel like Christmas for lance and I, but it exceeded any kind of Christmas I've ever had. The experience of having a little boy together was extraordinary. I'm ashamed to admit that sometimes I looked at motherhood as ordinary - everyone does it, specially if you live in Utah. BUT, it is by FAR the most extraordinary thing I have ever been involved in. And to share it with the person I love the most made it out of this world. I'm honored to be among those women called mom. It's my favorite title and most sacred responsibility. I'm grateful for every day I am able to experience it. It's the best gift this life has to offer.

showers, on showers, on showers

I had so much fun getting ready for this little mister.  I felt great gratitude as my friends and family prepared and planned the most wonderful showers.  I actually felt really spoiled!  We had just had Christmas, then my birthday, and now showers for the little boy, which pretty much is a shower for me-getting lots of cute stuff to dress my baby in, he won't care as much as I do.  As spoiled and funny as I felt, being the center of attention and inviting people to a party that they'll have to bring me a present to,  I really enjoyed it.  Seeing friends and family was the best part.  i sure do have some talented friends and family that know how to throw a good party. 

The first shower being with my family in Florida.  Man, they did a good job.  Very thought out and perfectly involved the entire family (even the boys and kids had to come).  The theme was BOOKS.  Each family member gave me their favorite kids book, then we even made a family book for the boy where each family member was assigned a page to draw a picture to the rhyme "one, two, buckle my shoe"  and then their picture will go on the bottom corner of the page, so this little boy will get to know his family from afar.  I loved every bit of this cute shower.  And the boy will be much smarter because of it.

MAD LIBS game.  The results were hilarious 

Next, a shower thrown by two of my favorite people, Becca and Merilee.  This was for my dance friends and of coarse the two would add a personal touch- bringing back the creepy naked babies in a bowl of pretzel m&m's, the exact way I told my dance friends this summer.  Aren't they the greatest?  The food was delicious and the decor sweet as a baby boy.  

"the lil mister" shower.  The Pendleton's know how to throw a party and won't settle for anything but the best.  I enjoyed the company of family and old and new friends.  So good to see everyone, specially the ones I hadn't seen for a long time.  The whole family helped out, with food, decor, the cute bow tie sugar cookies and chocolate mustaches, and even the little girls right at my side to help open presents and keep the garbage cleared away.  Am I spoiled or is the boy?  I like to think both of us.  With these kind of people around us in life, we're bound to have a good one.

pregnancy indulgence

This pregnancy is almost over and I'll admit that part of me is sad about it.  It's kind of fun having a big tummy that pops out for a purpose and not just because I ate too much dessert.  I've always imagined what it would be like to be pregnant, and now I've experienced it.  A major blessing.  I will always be grateful for being able to experience this, specially with a great husband on my side.  Just the bump alone brought in an entire knew realm of love and excitement in our marriage.  Can't imagine what will be added when the baby is finally here.  It's all so exciting, stressful and overwhelming.  

Before this bump goes away, I wanted to remember a few of my favorite indulgences during this time me and the boy shared this body of mine.  

ROBES!  I've been obsessed with robes.  mine is unfortunately not as cute as this, but i would almost be willing to pay the money for this pricey one.  I could stay in my robe all day if my schedule would let me.  But I am planning on buying a cute pair of pj's and maybe another robe to help me feel a little cuter at the hospital.  The dance sweats just aren't going to make the cut this year. 

A good healthy drink.  I've tried a little harder to make sure I've been eating right, specially cause this little mister is getting the results of my, either wise or poor, eating choices.  I can't say I've eaten that healthy, my mouth is just attracted to treats! And treats are attracted to my mouth! So some days, i figure I can indulge in a good healthy drink to get some good nutrients in this belly.  I've gulped up some strange ones, but they've been healthy so I'll do it.  But a mama chia drink is always like a treat to me, with some good omega 3s in it.  

My beauty indulgent has been this shae butter, hoping those stretch marks stay away.  I heard great things about this product and the lady selling it to me said it will actually take stretch marks away, so that had me sold, and i've been rubbing it on my belly (and the bigger bum of mine) ever since.  It's done the trick so far, just a few more weeks to keep going.

And there they are.  My pregnancy happiness.

Strength in those around me

I came home defeated yesterday. Having two reviews for my Pilates exam, which is coming up next week and very stressful. The reviews were on anatomy and postural analysis, the hardest parts of the test in my opinion. My brain was fried and my eyes were tired as I got home late afternoon on Saturday. I sat on the couch and when Lance walked in the door I let it all out, tears and frustration. There is SO much I need to do and there's a big time limit on it, that's a little unknown with this baby coming some time within these next three weeks. I doubted my ability to take or pass this exam and definitely doubted myself as a prepared mother to be.

As I said my prayers that night, I was grateful to be able to ask for God's help in all that I'm involved in right now. How comforting is it that God can not only help me with spiritual things, but physical, educational, and emotional things as well? I find prayer one of the most comforting tools we have in this life. After praying I promised to God and myself that as I got up this Sunday morning I would not let myself go straight back to studying Pilates, which I wanted to so bad, but that I would take time to be spiritually fed. I've been slacking in this area lately and it hasn't gone unnoticed. I can already feel a difference in this day and its only 9:30 am. I listened to a talk by Margorie Hinckley, and realized a few things:

Decide today what you will and will not do. I've needed to get rid of the unnecessary tasks I tend to spend too much time on. I always feel better about a day where the time is spent wisely-time spent on the most important.

Capitalize on the strength of those around you. I love this! I've always known that I've been blessed to be surrounded by great people, and having the knowledge of the greatest- our Heavenly Father, how wonderful is it that I can capitalize on His
strengths and all those he's surrounded me by. I'm extremely thankful for that.

God can strengthen my own abilities as well. After a fried brain on Saturday, I thought I'd never memorize the order of taking someone through a postural analysis and remembering all the correct anatomical words to address it all. Before going to bed, I wrote out a script, which took the very last of my endurance that night, and as a laid down to sleep, I decided to go through the order in my head, just for kicks, knowing I'd probably struggle through it and be frustrated I couldn't remember it all. To my magnificent surprise, I went through the entire thing with out hesitation and even at a speed that seemed quick enough to make me think I knew what I was talking about! There was definitely some help involved. My own personal miracle.

So my gratitude is with the all knowing God, the one I can call on for help and capitalize, not just on my own strengths, but His and those He has placed in my life.

Morning

Every once in a while I've been waking up real early. Not by choice, I think it's these pregnancy hormones taking over my sleeping habits. I really can't complain though. I'm still sleeping good and feeling comfortable, which I was scared of the uncomfortable part people always talked about, hate being uncomfortable, do I've been relieved that I have a little less than 4 weeks left and still feeling great. But the mornings I wake up, there's a lot of thoughts going on. The first thing I think is, "well, better get used to this!" And then I start to think of all the to do's. there are many right now. I have much to do to get ready for this baby. The baby room and all it's details sure do take up some time and research. It's gotta be just right for this little guy. But then there's all the non-baby stuff to really make sure I get done in a timely matter because there will be no time after this baby decides to come, and the one major thing to get done is my Pilates certification. The real big stress of my life right now, and it really should be the baby instead! I've been so focused on Pilates, who knew there would be so much to learn getting certified?! That I sometimes look down at my belly and go "oh ya, you're there!!" Which is horrible I know. I should be reading all the books I can to prepare, hopefully I'll get to it soon. If not, I've got a group of experienced women around me, and I'm not afraid to ask for advice. But that's not to say that I don't think about the baby. He's always on my mind. In fact, those are the exact thoughts that woke me up this morning. Not Pilates thoughts, baby thoughts. And I couldn't help but get out of bed and look online for the last little pieces of his bedroom. I should probably be studying for my Pilates exam, but this baby is so much more fun to spend time on.

Christmas {2012}

There's a new kind of magic about Christmas when you get older. As a kid, the excitement of knowing that man in the red suite that had watched me all year to see if I was good and new exactly what I wanted for Christmas was coming right into my house was almost unbearable. It was hard to even sleep, but you knew you had to sleep for him to come. And of coarse, I was always the first one up at our house, sometimes waking my family up at 4:30 am to go see the Santa gifts. ( I'm surprised they didn't send me back to bed!) It was really wonderful having something so magical to believe in.

As I got excited for Christmas this year, I realized a major part of it was to just be with family and carry out the traditions of Christmas and remember Christ, the light of this whole season. It seems to be the real kind of magic, one that brings the kind of peace Christ can only bring, the kind of magic that lasts. A magic that deserves celebrating, in my opinion. And celebrate we did! We had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by family and many reminders of our Savior.

And we'll fly away just you and me

We were given the advice to take some time to ourselves and vacation, just us, before this baby comes into this world. And great advice it was! It was about time for Lance and I to take a vacation together anyways. The past couple "vacations" had been him flying out to visit while I was away dancing, which you can't really call a vacation anyways. So it was a much needed vacation.

We started out with plans to go to the Dominican Republic, where lance served a mission for our church. We were both quite excited about this. It was a little last minute planning, making the arrangements about 2 weeks before departure. We scrambled to get all the shots needed and didn't realize till then that it was a little risky taking a pregnant lady to some parts of the country that I was hoping to go with Lance and see the places and people he had served while living there. But, we just decided that we would stay in the more touristy parts and Lance could go and visit some of the people he had contacted. We would be careful about the food I ate, and pack on the mosquito repellent to lessen the risks of getting malaria and dengue fever.

We were one night away from leaving when lance said, "you checked my passport right?" Ummm.... I was hesitant to answer cause I had checked mine, but not his. I went to our files and pulled out his passport, finding out it was expired. NO!!! What were we going to do?! We had one more full day to try and get a renewed passport here. We researched all night only to find the bad news that it would cost us around $350-$500 big ones to get it here. Definitely not worth it. So we canceled our flights. We were both pretty discouraged. I'll admit, I almost threw in the towel on the whole thing. But I'm so glad we didn't!

We rescheduled our flights to Puerto Rico, a place we both hadn't been and still seemed a bit foreign with out having to use our passports. It couldn't have been more enjoyable. The weather was warm and invited us right onto the sand to lay in the sun. The beaches might be my favorite beaches yet, mostly because of the warm water that didn't even make you hesitate to dive in. We were still careful about water and I stayed away from uncooked veggies and fruit, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the food. We toured the city, went to movies with the locals, ate some nice dinners, and enjoyed many hours at the beach. We even made a list of some boy names we liked. It was a successful trip indeed. So glad we took the advice to "baby moon"

Returning home, I was motivated to get rid of all the unnecessary "stuff" in our apt. So I first started with our files, clearing out all the papers we didn't need. As I came across some of Lance's files, I picked up a brand new passport of his, expiring in 2019..... Whoops!! I had looked at his mission passport and passed over this one. We both got a good laugh at it, it was a good thing we had a wonderful time else we would've been sad. And I wouldn't be surprised if God had a hand in switching our plans around. Maybe Dominican would've been too dangerous for me and this little one I carry. It'll just be another trip we'll have to take another time, a better time for us to go.