My Birth Month.

I had a wonderful birth month. Mr. Reed has graciously allowed me to have an entire month. He hears things like "Will you rub my feet?... It's my BIRTH MONTH!" all month long... leading into my birth week, my birth weekend, and eventually my actual birthday. Yowzah. Sounds like a pretty big deal, right? It's not... haha I wouldn't say I'm super high maintenance about my birthday... I didn't even really ask for anything. I just like saying it's my birthday. This year I feel like it was especially laid back because I had someone else's birth month on my mind. My little boy's. I can't believe in only 8 weeks he will be here! So I've spent my birth month preparing his nursery and getting ready for my shower this weekend. But on my birthday, I was well taken care of. Karl was so sweet and took a couple hours off of work in the morning so he could take me to breakfast. He kissed my face and let me eat a blueberry pancake the size of my head. 

After breakfast, my mom accompanied me to a doctor's appointment. The doctor wanted to do an ultra sound on account of my 'poor maternal weight gain'. No one calls me a poor mother! I came back having gained a whopping 6lbs this month! Cha-ching! So as an update... I've now gained a total of 12 lbs. It was so fun be able to see him a little more grown now. That may have been my favorite present. The little one weighs about 4 pounds, and he has hair!

After the doctor, my mom decided it was time for me to get some actual maternity clothes. So I got my first pair of maternity pants and some great shirts. I'm a real woman now. And the day wouldn't have been complete with out a lunch date to P.F. Changs. Happy Birthday to me!

Later that night, my family all went for ice cream at Nielson's where I finally got my Happy Birthday song. It was a great day.

Now, usually my birthday is the last day of February. So once my birthday is over, as is my birth month. However, thanks to it being a leap year, I got one more day out of my special month. So it's only natural that we took that time to do something special..... May I present... SNL.

Puppy Love.

Mat and Kaelin got a dog! Her name is Gracie. And we love her. More specifically, Roscoe loves her. Roscoe has had girl friends in the past, but I think this one is different. He likes her. I mean he 'likes likes' her. I think it's her long legs. The other night we took them on a doggy date to a nearby park. Roscoe was her shadow all night long. 

(Roscoe is also now doing advertisements.)

It's so fun having Mat and Kaelin live so close, and now it's even more fun that Roscoe has a friend to keep him entertained. Otherwise... this is how he entertains himself. 

He chases his tail all the time, but he will with out fail chase it for like a half hour straight after I give him a bath. Way to air dry little pup.

I DID IT!

I bought this misunderstood little piece of furniture like a year ago. I had the best intentions to refinish her and give her a new life. Now besides spray painting THIS shelf black, I did not have much experience with this business. That is probably why it sat around looking sad for the past year. Well, since I will be a mother needing a fully functional nursery in a mere 10 weeks, I decided it was time to put this gem to good use. I knew it would make the perfect little table to put a lamp on and place next to my glider for all the late feedings and wonderful story reading that will happen. I was very nervous... but I'm completely thrilled (and super proud)with how it turned out! Even Karl likes it. Bonus!

$10.

After paint.

After glaze.

Finished!

And might I add, it was fun! It gave me something to do as a widow when Karl was camping with the scouts all weekend. I'm ready for another project.

And He Gets Stronger

I don't know if he's dancing or kick boxing in there... but sometimes he hits things he shouldn't... like my bladder. Or my ribs. I'm giving him 10 more weeks to defeat me.

Lovely.

In honor of Valentines Day, I thought I could talk about just a couple of things I am loving on lately.

I love my latest creation for Baby Boy's nursery. I find myself just staring into the room as I walk by. I can't wait until there is an actual babe in there.

I love movie previews. I seriously get upset if we are going to be late to a movie and miss the previews. In fact, for Valentines Day, I drove separate and met Karl at the theaters to go see The Vow since it was an earlier showing and he would be rushing straight from work. I felt a little lame asking for ONE ticket to go see a super romantic movie on V Day... but I was quite pleased as I got a prime seat and was able to see all the previews.

Of course, I love Mr. Reed. More specifically, I love to watch him wash the windshield. When Karl and I were dating, he would always clean the windshield when we stopped for gas. I don't just like it because it's ideal for checking him out as his large biceps have such control over that squeegee across the glass. Karl turns it into a whole show. He purposefully stares at me with his fierce sexy eyes through the glass (which are dangerously close to his creeper eyes) and wisps the squeegee around like he is a king. And it makes me laugh. Hard. Always has. I love that he still does it. Even though we are old and married now.

I hope everyone had a lovely love day.

We Went Northern.

This weekend, Karl and I got invited to go stay at an amazing 7 bedroom cabin up in Heber with a bunch of friends. Since I have complete placenta brain... every time we did something (including zip lining, chopping wood, making smores, playing games, going out to eat...) I forgot my camera. I am shame faced. But let it be known, we all had a great time! And we did manage to snag a few pics from Karl's phone. Now guys, Karl had it in his mind that he was going to go kayaking while we were there. Yes, in water. We drove everywhere trying to find a lake that was either open or not frozen over. No such luck.

About 10 seconds before we got stuck, we both said- "I'm really surprised they kept this road open." Woops.

The one lake we actually got to was completely frozen over. And so was I.

Walking on a frozen lake? Check.

So we headed home and Karl's little heart was so disappointed. So much so that he found a random river on an Indian reservation when we got back into town and decided he was going to make it happen. I sat in the truck and watched him live out his dream. I also cried from laughing so hard. After about 10 minutes he had had his fill and his life was complete.

Oh Keaton...

Today I am missing my little brother. My funny little brother. All it takes is a little root beer to get us going. I haven't seen that little face in nearly 18 months... Two years is just such a long time. I'll blame it on my overly emotional pregnant body... but I got a little teary eyed looking at this retarded picture today. Our family needs him back. I'm going to need this last little home stretch to go by much faster.

Keep on keepin on little Shake.