In Utero - Month 9: February 19 - March 10

I think I am finished with baby showers... Does that mean it's time for the baby? Acually, I just had an ultrasound (haven't scanned pictures in yet) and learned that the babe is currently about 7 pounds 3 ounces. Two and a half weeks to go... he's gonna be chunky.

On the 20th the Girls Night Out ladies were sweet enough to throw me a shower. We decorated onesies, and they turned out adorable.

Katie's bow tie

Lora's turtles

Emmy's neck tie

My rockin' guitar

Emily's little feet




Then, this Thursday, the 25th, the young women in our ward threw me a special surprise shower and invited the rest of the ward. It was really fun. Just so you know, one of the shower games was that we each got a safety pin which we could only keep until someone else in the room caught us crossing our legs or feet. This is why a lot of us are sitting like truckers at a rest stop in every picture!


Sis. Belchik, Sis. Rowley, Fernanda, Catharine, Amanda

the Sisters Dale, Caitlyn, Adrien, Sis. Rust


Sis. Oringdulph, Sis. Bell, Leah

Sis. Meyers, Sis. Fisher, Sis. Belchik, Rachel

Here we are playing a cotton ball game - in the second picture I am being told for like the third time that I cheated. Geez guys, lighten up! Ha ha.







Little Sis. Dubyk

Adrien

Danya

Olivia


Ok, now to organize my house to get it ready for Wolflaser!!

Dave, Mel, Zanna, and James came to visit us in Winchester this weekend. It was a party!

Mel (who is due in May) and I took this great belly shot today:




Honestly, I don't even recognize myself anymore. I look at pictures like the one above and ask myself "Where am I?!! I must be somewhere hidden beneath that swollen face and giant pregnant body!!!" One day I hope to be back to the Manda that we would recognize on the street.

Yesterday we went swimming and played a lot of Wii. Check out any or all of these awesome videos documenting our participation in Just Dance. I'm not sure what it says about Dave that he's in every video...

Zanna and James had fun playing bowling, kung fu, bowling and boxing on the Wii. Too bad we didn't get any videos of that.

Last week was our last childbirth class. We came away from the whole experience thoroughly traumatized and freaked out. The instructor, "Missy", really came to hate us because we couldn't pull off acting like grown ups during her relaxation exercises and soft-voiced but graphic explanations of things we'd really rather not have explained to us. We did, however, come away with these special name tags.

And I made these hats for Wolflaser this week. Can't wait to meet him.

The cool thing about this picture is that I am in it twice. Once as a fetus and once as a giant pregnant woman. Next to my mom's stomach, mine doesn't look quite so huge.



Just so you all remember that my mom no longer has that awesome belly and haircut (and color?), fast forward 27 years, and here is a picture of her - back in her normal shape and size. Isn't she cute?!

In Utero - Month 8: January 19 - February 19

So, you've probably heard about the record-breaking snowstorm rolling through our neck of the woods this weekend. It's pretty awesome. Last night we decided to see if we could get our car out of the parking lot to drive around town and see what was still open. Gas stations, fast food restaurants, and pretty much everything else were closed. Everything that is... but Walmart and Ihop.

It has now been snowing for more than 24 hours straight. I don't think we could get our car out without A LOT of work -- but that's fine. Our Saturdays are usually pretty lazy anyway. Here are some pictures of our street. When I feel less lazy in a few hours we'll probably go outside to play in the snow and measure how much there really is.


In the next picture, you can see the white truck across the street, but can you see the sedan parked in front of it?



This is like our one and only tradition (except our tradition to never eat at T.G.I.Fridays). On Saturday mornings we get up and make a big, tasty breakfast for each other. Cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon, oj, fruit. It's the best time of the whole week. No snow storm can stop us from ingesting 2,000 calories in a single sitting!!!


Update: It finally stopped snowing this afternoon, so we decided to brave the cold, white world to see what had become of it.



















The Walking Mall:





















Seemed like an opportune time for a belly shot:


We just heard that church has been canceled for the second week in a row! I'm feeling pretty inactive...

Here is what I have been up to lately:

I got excited about some cool 3D-looking flower pillows. They turned out pretty cool. Tutorial is here for anyone that's interested.

Mike made me a "haven". In my haven I get to lay around all day and watch Netflix. You can see the projector and XBox set-up in the above picture. Below, you can see how nice my life is. Who doesn't want to see The Ghost and Mr. Chicken when they're feeling low, right?



Today I finished this awesome hat for our little dude. I've made lots of these hats, but never one so small. It looks too small for a human head - even a baby's, right? Well, in a month we'll see if my head circumference charts and crochet calculations let me down.







A special thanks to our downstairs neighbors who gave us the stuffed leopard when they found out we were expecting. They have a ten-month old little dude, who apparently is too cool for leopards.

This is Baby Wolflaser's first friend, Wolflaser. You might think that it would be confusing to have two buddies with the same name, but since one is a baby and the other is a robot -- I think we'll be able to keep them straight.

In Utero - Month 7: December 19 - January 19

December 18, 2009 Mom, Dad, and Wolflaser arrived in SLC, UT ready to hang out with all of their long lost loved ones.










We had to leave home at 530 a.m. the next morning to catch our flight home. First of all, we got in trouble at security for trying to take our chimes in our carry-on bags. So, I had to call my parents to turn around and come back to the airport to pick up said chimes to be mailed to me at a later date. After that, it seemed like things were running smoothly. We had breakfast in the airport and boarded our plane. About 30 minutes into our flight, our left engine failed... and it was smoking... and there was a fuel leak... so we had to turn around and have an emergency landing back in SLC. The captain told us that there would be fire trucks lining the runway because we were in a dangerous situation. "Not to worry though, we've done this landing hundreds of times on a simulator," he told us. On a simulator??? Yikes. I was terrified. It turned out okay, just a little nerve-racking. They did give us $42 on food vouchers at the airport for the trouble. We decided to stay in SLC for a day and a half before trying that flight again, but we did take them up on the food vouchers!










Eventually, we did make it back to VA, safe and sound. Since then we've been hanging out and being lazy until Mike's rotations started. Now I'm home alone all day, getting fatter and fatter and fatter...
































Next there was a Francis family shower. I'm super sad that we didn't get any pictures -- but, trust me, it was a good time! We did get some cool family pictures taken (by my mom!)








Finally we had the much anticipated Jenson and friends shower:













Did you see that awesome "Wolflaser" blanket, made by my grandma? So cool!