Reality sinks in

It was only about a week or two ago when it really started to hit home that:

Our little girl is arriving soon!! The due date is only 23 days away!!!

and

We're going to be home in the puget sound area for four months!!

We are beyond excited! The other day Evan said, "I think I'm more excited about this baby than anything else up to this point in my life." I'm mean, and of course I had to ask, "What about when we got engaged and got married?" I cornered him. But he's right!! There is something so mind boggingly incomparably exciting about this new person. Also we're finishing up our birthing classes and there's a lot of 'baby spirit' in the air - Jamie Patten and Jan Stout just had their babies! Jan's was born yesterday. To surprise me Evan took me to the hospital under the pretense of 'giving Emily and Joe a tour' of the hospital. By the time we reached the maternity ward and they were nowhere in sight I realized something fishy was going on. We walked into one of the resting rooms and lo and behold, there they were with the Stouts and their new baby!!! The shock was so great that I started crying. It was great. We hope that our little one comes soon enough before everyone leaves Rexburg for Christmas break so they can meet her.

And goodness gracious, what isn't exciting about being home for four months? We'll be around family for LONGER than the usual 5 day visit. Family and friends can get to know the baby. And it'll be long enough for me to get sick of the rain and want to come back to southeast idaho!! (maybe that's a stretch)

These realizations have jump-started my nesting and planning instincts. I've made a packing list of what we'll bring to Kenmore. I've reread it and edited it probably 10 times. In stake conference two Saturday nights ago when I should have been listening more to the speakers, I started jotting down things we look forward to doing at home, some things we can't do here in Rexburg. Here is the running list. Whether we do all or just a few things is irrelevant, we'll be there!!

{easter in Seattle, free third Thursdays at SAM , going downtown for the nutcracker ballet, greenlake, the falls where the MacDonald grandparents live, the Seattle temple, colonies shows and other shows, golfing, maltby cafe, kite flying,baby photo opps, shopping -- thrift, IKEA, H&M, science center Ethiopian exhibit, ethiopian restaurants, snowboarding , family home evenings and other family time, bubble tea, good music & record shops, beautiful hikes and parks like Point Defiance, skiffing on Lake WA, seeing Kaysi's cheerleading skills in person, finding old friends, ferries, REALLY good french bread at that place by christian's work, movie nights with family and friends, seattle Int'l Film Festival, sushi, bike/photography outings with Christian, trip to Vancouver and Victoria!!! , taking buses places, pagliacci pizza, whale watching, garlic chicken at Pen Thai in Bothell, the tulip festival and Deception Pass, chihuly museum, the market, the peninsula & and the Hoh rainforest}

Some pictures of the bump. As Brooke says, "HOLY COW you're huge!" haha I've gotten mixed responses. Some people say I'm not big at all. They might be referring to the fact that I am still a stick as I've always been, just now I have a large protruding abdomen.



Emily's due Dec 23rd! It's a race to the finish!


Good shadow effects.


A nice profile shot. Sometimes when I see Emily instead of high fiving we bump our bellies together. ha! is that weird?