Preparation for Danger

Only kidding. :)

Bry and I decided it was probably best to prepare for this little guy as early as we could. We've known forever what car seat brand and crib we wanted but we were waiting for some sales. And of course I had to think and rethink if these were exactly what I wanted. Before I got put on bed rest we found our crib at RC Willie; I love it because it's super sturdy and will match perfectly the changing table that Tami is giving us. I got even more excited when I found it on Baby Center's website for 30% off! So we ordered it and got it last weekend.
Here's a picture of our bedding that we get to inherit from Tami. It's the cute Pottery Barn Farm Yard Friends set! Instead of the yellow sheet we are going to do green. We also got our paint for the nursery. It's a light, but bright green color. We have a chair rail in the nursery so below we'll paint solid green and above we are going to do a darker green strip using polycrylic paint. We may add the blue color too as a third skinny strip since it's the accent color--aren't too sure about that yet. We are also repainting an old dresser that mom and dad Phipps gave us. We found cute blue knobs to put on it. It's coming together!!!

And lastly the beautiful car seat. I love polka dots so I was pretty excited when I saw this Peg!!! The nursery is getting pretty full and we still have to make another trip to Cali to get the rest of the furniture. I love going in the nursery and knowing that some day soonish it'll be our babies room!!


So there is the update. We buy baby furniture. Other than that I have been extremely busy bed resting it while Bry spends his days at the Law School.

Bed Rest It Is...

Apparently while I was at the doctors office for an emergency appointment my dear, sweet, loving husband was busy in his law school class NOT paying attention to his professor but trying to convince "America" that my poor innocent little baby's middle name should be Danger. Although the man is funny I have been put in quite the predicament. Bryan is not joking...not even a little. When I tell him no he gives me the sad puppy dog eyes and starts begging and telling me that I'm smashing his hopes and dreams. Bryan even went as far as emailing his father Paul, who I admit I do want to please, to get him to kindly persuade me to give into this middle name.

My response to him and the rest of "America" is as follows:

First of all, did Bryan fail to tell you the middle name that I want to bless our dear child with?!? Paul is the ideal family name because it represents my fathers middle name, my brothers middle name, my great grandfathers name, and did I mention that my father in laws name is none other than PAUL. Besides anyone who knows my father in law realizes that the name I chose instills the feeling of danger in people's hearts; it's basically the same name. Lastly, I didn't veto the name completely because I know Bry really, really likes it and I do agree it is all to perfect for Bry's off-spring. Although many may think me absolutely crazy I tried to compromise and said we could name the baby 'First Name' Paul Danger Phipps. So I don't know what Bryan is whining about. Maybe a more appropriate name for Bryan's off-spring would be Nancy which would refer to the saying I have to use on Bryan all the time: "Quit your crying Nancy." :)

In Bry's counterpoint he predicted what I invisioned when I thought of the middle name Danger. He wasn't completely off. But this should give you a peek into my fear of that name. This is what I think of solely because of the fact that Bryan is this baby's father:

A little Gremlin.A boy that I don't even know what to do with.The "I'm in trouble" face. Also please take note of the skinned up knees.

I'm pretty sure this innocent face came right after he and his cousins got stuck in some well at Disney Land. Not so innocent.

No words.

Cross dressing?!? Hello ladies. The middle name is Danger. I know you wanna go out with me.

This was probably after he and his brother got creative with:

a. Hang glidding their cat off their roof in a bucket

or

b. attaching sleds to the 4 wheeler and riding around the muddy yard.

***********
Anyway I'm sure as the due date gets closer there will be much more to say on this topic. On to the title of the post...I have been put on bed rest for the time being. I'm sure you are all extremely excited because this means I have nothing better to do than to blog. For about the last week I've been experiencing cramping, contraction like symptoms, along with lots of other labor signs--no need or desire to go into detail. So they've been getting progressively worse. I decided my panicking had gone on long enough and called the doctor who told me to come in. Basically at this point in my pregnancy (22 weeks) they can't do the testing they need to do to tell if it's really preterm labor or if my body just reacts this way to pregnancy. The doctor wants to get me to the point of viability (which also happens to be the point where they can do the labor tests) and the only option for that as of now is bed rest. I'm a little freaked out as you could guess, but hopeful that everything will be okay. So for now if anyone needs me they can find me in my townhouse on the first floor on my couch in a blanket surrounded by a laptop, pile of books, food, movie options, a remote, bottles of water, etc, probably staring bored off into space. But if it keeps my baby safe it is very worth it.

"OH BLESS!"

That is what Ashley says whenever another Counter Point is posted. Mosey on over if you're interested (and you should be . . . it's like watching a car accident . . . you just can't help yourself).

We Made it Half Way!

I think I look like such a goof in all these pictures because you stand to the side and smile and I do not have a good side profile--very awkward but I guess it's necessary to document the progress. :) So by request here is the growing belly.

About 16 weeks
About 17.5 weeks
20 weeks and 3 days!

On my 20 week "anniversary" Bryan and I happened to be going out to lunch on my work break. He runs ahead of me into the restruant and I open the door and he yells "surprise. I wanted to throw you half way there party with all the people that mean the most to you." He always keeps me laughing. :)
In California my amazing sister in law, Tami, gave us all her adorable boy clothes. When she said she'd give us her stuff I had no idea how much this meant. This girl knows how to shop and her little boy could have been a Gymboree or Janie and Jack model. Lucky for my little boy he can follow in his cousins footsteps. I have been feeling the need to "nest" as they say in Notes From the Underbelly so decided I wanted to organize the clothes. This is me half way through what she gave us. I filled our entire dresser with clothes only through 6 months. We feel incredibly lucky to be on the receiving end of this gift! Not to mention the clothes are dang cute! I'm so excited for our little boy!
I think the funniest thing she gave us were the pee-pee tee-pees. They keep him covered while you are changing his diaper.

Things are going great! I am finally feeling much better which I am so thankful for. As soon as I saw the ultrasound of our little boy my first thoughts were I could totally do this again. It is sooo worth it! I think I may have gotten signed up for a hyperactive child (which is no surprise between Bryan and I) because this little guy kicks like you wouldn't believe. I love being able to feel him at all times of the day and know he is okay. Bryan was able to feel him for the first time on New Years Eve and he thought it was the neatest thing. I'm sure 15 weeks down the road I may be singing a different tune but for now I'm enjoying it! And I promise I will get the ultrasound pictures up--sorry I'm slacking!

Happy New Years 2008

For New Years Eve we had a Fondue Party with the fam. Bry made this delicious spinach artichoke cheese dip, and then of course we did chocolate fondue. It was delicious!
Makayla, Tami, Weston, Ashley, and Josh enjoying the Chocolate Fondue!
We watched episodes of Psych and played card games most the night. Tami and Megan were Bryan and I's rivals. It got pretty intense. :) Not all of us were quite as lively as the rest. Being part of a mortuary owning family Josh had to drive a body (yeah yeah I know--sick) down to LA and back so he'd just spent the last night and day awake and driving. Poor guy was dead tired, but I give him a lot of credit because he was awake to drink Martinelli's with us at midnight. Bry was pretty excited about the Martinelli's. I'm surprised he only drank one bottle on his own to be completely honest.

"You're Too Silly for Grandma's House"

Here are some more pictures from our visit:

Bryan and Makayla were talking and Bryan started teasing her. She looks at him and says in a very serious tone, "You are too silly for Grandma's house." The rest of the trip she said that over and over. We decided it was our theme for this trip. :) The night before we left we woke Makayla up to say goodbye; Bryan told her he was going back to Utah because he was too silly for Grandmas house. She looks at him, shruggs, and says, "okay"...with the tone like...yeah that's probably best.

Bowling in Folsom with Megan, mom, and Makayla.

Makayla was constant laughs this trip. Everything that came out of her mouth was hysterical. While we were at the bowling alley she was taking everything in because it was her first time going. I was teaching her what strikes and gutter balls were. This one lady kept getting gutter balls so under my breath I said nice one gutter ball lady. Her very next turn she got another one and Makayla yells out "Way to go Gutter ball lady!" Then her husband got one and Makayla says "I think they are the gutter ball family."

One of funniest things Makayla said this trip was when Bumpa (that's what they call Grandpa) and Bryan were playing their own version of dodge ball with Makayla. If they hit her they got a point and is she ran away she got the point. Bry threw the ball and hit her hand. She told him that he missed and he jokingly said, "Makayla what would Jesus do?"

Her retort was "He would say YOU ARE A POOR SPORT BRYAN."

Eating at In and Out Burger with Tami, Megan, and Evan.

Grandma DeFriez has cross stitched these incredible quilts for all her great-grand babies. We got to pick our quilt out while we were there. Bryan served his mission in Texas so Grandma kind of did this one with him in mind and it is our absolute favorite. It's a picture of a little cowboy saying his prayers.

Christmas 2007

We spent another wonderful Christmas in California with the Phipps family. This year was supposed to be a more 'laid back' Christmas to focus more on the Savior and our family; however it still ran from 10 AM til 7 PM so I guess that goal wasn't accomplished...maybe next year, but I doubt it. :) We had our traditional opening of Santa presents in PJ's and then all showered to finish up the day. Santa was good to me this year--I got my JP Lizzy diaper bag that I am in love with. When I called home and my brother Logan found out thats what I got his reply was "oh, sorry". Clearly he didn't realize that its a beautiful brown bag with pink and green stripes and enough pockets to make any woman jump up and down for joy. I guess that's when you know you've grown up--you are elated about a diaper bag. Another big thing in Bry's fam is to watch previous home videos of Christmas--the one we watched this year was from the year Bry got home from his mission. The footage for 2004 consisted of Bryan and Jarom making snide remarks but you could only hear them because for some reason Santa put them behind the couch away from the rest of the family....hmmm can't imagine why they did that. I realized that things hadn't changed much for Bryan when we got put on the couch behind the doll house this year. :)
Bry's parents got us the most thoughtful gift this year. We opened the little box and they had pre-paid for us to get a second 2D ultrasound AND a 3D ultrasound!!!!!! Lets just say I'm extremely excited! We'll be able to see our baby's little features in about 8 weeks. And we get a 15 minute video of it all. It was such a great gift idea! My parents got us the cutest baby frame so we'll be able to put those pictures in it until he comes. :)
We were the only ones this year that didn't have massive "santa set up" to do the night before. Poor Weston spent his entire Christmas doing construction. He had to build a 4 1/2 foot (not exaggerating) doll house, a slide, a tricycle, this car, and some other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. I'm sure it was totally worth it when he saw little Evan throw a fit when he was ripped away from his car to take a nap. He was so fun to play with--and got us even more excited to have a little boy.
Bryan and I both felt so blessed as we reflected on this past year. Heavenly Father has poured so many incredible things into our lives we couldn't possibly list them all. We are eternally thankful for our Savior and the influence he is in our lives; We are so grateful for the wonderful families we have been placed in and equally as grateful for the blesssing we have to be parents to a beautiful baby boy. We love the area we are in and are so happy we choose to stay at BYU for Bry's law school. This past year we have been blessed with many opportunities to grow and are looking forward to all that is to come this next year. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!