Weekend with Erika and Tyler

So as much as I love living out in Denver, one thing that I wish the most was that I had family- any family!- that lived close. Sometimes it's really hard living away from my family, especially now that we're having more kids. So I was so excited that my sister Erika and her husband Tyler were going to be driving through Denver for the weekend. Of course it would have been more fun if they were actually moving here but they're actually moving to Maryland for awhile so that Tyler can go to school and Erika can look for a job now that she just graduated from ISU with her masters in psychology. It was so fun having them here even if it was just for a few days and I couldn't help but think how fun it would be if I could see them all the time! But I'll take what I can get and I enjoyed the time that they were here!

Tyler and Erika drove from Pocatello, ID and got into Denver late last Thursday night. So on Friday Luke still had to work, but the rest of us decided to go downtown too and just walk around 16th Street Mall. It actually turned out to be a beautiful day! So we did a little shopping and walked over to Luke's office. He was too busy to come down but they had a hotdog stand outside so we ate those outside, and it was a lot of fun!
That night we got some pizza and then went bowling. And yea, it's not easy to go bowling when you feel like you have a bowling ball in your belly!
Erika loves her little nephew and it was so nice to have them both around to help with him, and Jacob really warmed up to Tyler and Erika too.
Even though he wasn't up for many pictures, Jacob was actually behaving really well while we all bowled- usually he's running around and just trying to play the arcade games. But he watched and clapped for all of us and liked being in charge of the balls as they rolled in haha.

I was bowling horribly so I finally decided I may as well let Jacob take over my game. So we got the ramp out for him and he loved it! On his second turn he even got a strike too!

He didn't really know what was going on but I was glad that he was able to play with us and we all had a good time :)
On Saturday I had an activity for Activity Days and so while I was out in the morning Luke worked on the yard and smoked some ribs for lunch. We filled up on those and were so full for the rest of the day none of us even wanted dinner! I even liked them, they were very good ribs!
That afternoon we stopped by our friends graduation party, ate more food, and then later we took Jacob to the park. He had a blast running around on his own for awhile, and then Tyler and Erika took him on the swings too.


We talked Erika and Tyler into staying one extra day through Sunday, and we mostly just went to church and hung around the house and played a few games but it was fun to have some extra time to visit with them before they left early Monday morning.
I'm also now 36 weeks, so finally starting my 9th month- even though it somehow feels like I'm farther along. I look like I'm ready to pop!

And even though we couldn't quite capture a picture, Jacob loves to rub my belly and talk about his baby brother and give him kisses.
This picture would be so much cuter if Jacob wasn't being grumpy about having to take a picture!

Jacob really misses Erika and Tyler and keeps talking about them and the fun weekend that we had. We're glad that they have now made it to Maryland safely and that they were able to dodge all the huge storms and tornadoes along the midwest, they got lucky they didn't have any car trouble this trip, unlike at Christmas.
Anyway, now we're looking forward to when my mom comes out in 3 1/2 weeks- I love having family around to visit and help out! I wish I could see more of my family sooner but I'm so happy to have my mom come out and help with this new baby that should be coming very soon!

Utah Weekend

This past weekend we decided to go to Utah to visit Luke's family since we hadn't seen them in awhile and wanted Jacob to spend some time with his cousins. I was a little worried about the drive, not so much about keeping Jacob entertained for 8 hours, but for me too since I was 8.5 months pregnant. But luckily everything went very smoothly and we had a fun weekend.

Luke got off work a little earlier on Thursday and we took off around 3:30 and made it into Rifle by 7. Jacob did great on the drive and kept himself occupied with toys.

It was nice to split up the drive there in two days, it gave us some time to relax. After we got dinner, we went to our hotel and took Jacob swimming- he loved it! I'm pretty sure it was the highlight of his weekend and is still asking us when he can go swimming again.
The next morning Luke worked out at the gym, took Jacob swimming one last time, and then we had breakfast at the hotel. The hotel felt pretty empty too since we were the only ones at the pool and at breakfast, but that was actually kind of nice. While I finished packing our bags Luke took Jacob to the playground outside and then we were back on the road by 10.

We got to Luke's sister's house Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning. Luke's parents flew in Friday night and we were able to visit with Luke's other sister who lives out there as well, so it was nice to see everyone even though it was a quick weekend. We mostly just hung around Luke's sister's house so I didn't take many pictures, but I got a couple of Jacob with his cousins.
Owen, Andrew, Christian, and Jacob
Jacob loved playing with their toys and cars, and watching Cars- even on vacation he couldn't miss a day of watching his favorite movie!
Jacob did really great on the drive back too - sleeping, watching his movie, and playing quietly- until the last 30 minutes, but that's practically to be expected. Actually, Jacob always does much better than I expect at things like this- sleeping away from home was another one of those things that I worried about since Jacob is in a bed now, but again he impressed me and did great. It's weird thinking that when we make the trip out again in a few months we'll have another baby with us- hopefully everything will go as smoothly then too!

Mother's Day

The whole weekend was just beautiful! It was in the 80's each day, so on Friday I took Jacob to the zoo. I figured it would be the last time we'd go together before the baby was born.

Jacob did a really good job and we saw all his favorite spots and saw some new things too- this was the first time we wandered over to the little aquarium and Jacob loved seeing all the cool fish!

By the end though we were both worn out!
Also, just on a sidenote- Jacob's latest obsession is the movie Cars. I found him some Cars pajamas the other day and as soon as he put them on he insisted that he needed to watch the movie. So I set up his little DVD player, and look how excited he gets! It's probably bad though that he now literally watches this movie every day! Luke's looking forward to taking Jacob to his first movie in the theater in June- Cars 2!

Anyway, on Saturday Luke and I got a babysitter and went on a real date- movie and dinner! And Luke and I basically never go to the movies so it was a fun for us! It felt good to get a nice date in before the baby comes though. We went downtown and saw Water for Elephants and then went to Maggiano's for dinner, and again it was just a beautiful evening to be walking around outside.
Luke got me some pretty Mother's Day roses and on Sunday he made a pancake breakfast, dinner, and cleaned up too- thank you!
And here's Jacob waking up from his nap on Mother's Day- of course he woke up as soon as I was trying to take a picture of him sleeping, haha. One week after he started sleeping in his bed at night, he transitioned to taking naps in his bed too. He's done a great job and stays in bed the whole time, but he's back to only taking 1 1/2 hour naps, which is still good, but overall he's getting less sleep since he typically wakes up at 7:15am now. I'm getting used to that small change though and Jacob is completely transitioned and doing great- yay Jacob!
And here's my sweet boy on Mother's Day. And he made me a cute Mother's Day necklace in nursery too :)

Me and Jacob on Mother's Day And what says Mother's Day more than a big pregnany lady? Me at 34 weeks!

I'm getting more and more anxious for this baby to come, mostly just because I'm done being pregnant haha. At the same time though my biggest worry though is that this baby will come early, so I guess I still have mixed feelings. And I don't feel very mentally prepared yet to have another baby in the house, and we are still no closer to deciding on a name either. But I am very excited to meet this little boy and be the mommy of two! I feel very very lucky to be a stay at home mom and I recognize that I'm very blessed. So this Mother's Day was nice to feel even extra spoiled and appreciated, and I wouldn't trade being a mom for anything!