The Final countdown!

Ok I'll be honest...I have been on the final countdown for having this baby for over 2 weeks now. I have definitely hit my limit for being pregnant. Now if I could only find a way to let Mia know that! It's still crazy to believe my due date is tomorrow! Sadly, not much is happening to indicate she is coming anytime all that soon. I haven't had any contractions thus far and I'm only dilated to about 1cm. I'm seriously considering spending my evenings walking and doing stairs until something happens! So I apologize, but for now you're going to have to hear updates about mine and Eric's life and not see cute pictures of Mia.

All in all, these last couple of weeks have been very busy!. As I mentioned in my last post, three weekends ago we went down to St. George to be with my Grandma before she passed away that following Monday. Then the next weekend, I went down to Logandale for her funeral. Eric wasn't able to come this time because of a project he had so I traveled down with my brother and his wife. Once again it was really good to be with family at such a sad time. The funeral service was really beautiful and it was good to see all the people that came, especially those that live farther away.

Sorry the quality of the pictures aren't all the great. I had to steal them from other people because I'm so bad at taking my own pictures. Here are jut a few from the funeral.

Me and my Grandpa Bohn

Me and my parentsMy Mom and her family

This last week we both finished up classes and finals started our finals. I came down with a cold during the week which has been making things a little more difficult and me a LOT more uncomfortable. Somehow I have still been able to get through most of my finals with just 1 left and have done considerable well on them for only studying for a few hours. I can honestly say the Lord has really blessed me this semester in my schooling! I also have to give another good portion of the credit to Eric as well. What would I do without him! Once again the Lord really blessed me by giving such an amazing husband who is always doing things for me even with all the things he for his own schooling. You know your husband is a keeper when he can put up with your moments of venting when you're talking 1000 words a minutes, when they still sleep with you even when you freeze them out and move none-stop throughout the night, when you're so disfunctional you stop cleaning and preparing real meals, and when you start crying randomly for no reason at all!...Yep, he is definitely a keeper :)

Also. as this semester is coming to a close and I am looking forward to a spring and summer free of work and school, I am already making plans of all the projects and things I want to do, beside taking care of Mia. :) My sister, sister-in-law and I are planning on having a craft booth at Arts in the Park in Ely at the end of the summer so throughout the next couple of months we will be preparing for that. I hope it goes well. We all really love to craft and hope our crafts can be a big hit when it comes time to show everything off. I also decided that I want to revamp mine and Eric's bedroom this summer. To be honest, I've never really done anything with it since we've been married. I have focused more on our living room and lately, Mia's room. I even decided to get brave and try a refurnishing project, which have always really scared me. I bought a wingback type chair from DI and am planning on reupholstering it. After reading tutorials on reupholstering, it seems like quite the challenge so I'm interested in seeing how it goes. Providing it does go well, the end result should be a modern, chic chair for under $60! Pictures to come!

In Loving Memory of Grandma Bohn

"In every life, no matter how full or empty one's purse...there is tragedy. It is the one promise life always fulfills. Thus, happiness is a gift...and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes...and to add to other people's store of it. What happens if, too early we lose a parent...that party on whom we rely or only everything? What did these people do when their families shrank? They cried their tears, but then they did the vital thing; they build a new family, person by person. They came to see that family need not be defined merely as those with whom they share blood, but as those for whom they would give their blood."- Nicholas Nickleby

I just recently watched this movie and found the end quote very appropriate for this week. Last week we found out that my Grandma Bohn had cancer and produced a large mass in her chest. The plan was to surgically remove it last Friday, however, when they went in they found that the mass was a lot bigger than they anticipated and couldn't perform the surgery. Our family all gathered in St. George over the weekend to be with her as she spend her final days here on earth. She peacefully passed away early this morning.

To my Grandma Bohn, who I will always remember spending my summers with having tea parties, quilting, day trips to St. George and playing cards on Tuesdays with all her friends, I will also never forget all the things she taught me. She was the perfect example of living a selfless life...to love and to serve others and from a young age I watched her love and care for those around her and will always be grateful to her for letting me be a part of it. I am reminded of her in the quote above as she always lovingly took people in and made them a part of the family. Most of all I will never forget her beaming eyes and beautiful smile. You're my inspiration Grandma and you will be greatly missed. I love you!

Sadly, Mia will not be able to know my Grandma Bohn in this life, but in honor of my grandma and for Mia to alway remember her, Eric and I have decided name her, Mia Linda Caldwell. I hope Mia will know what a amazing woman she is named after and I feel blessed that she will have a grandma just like the one I had.

This is one of my favorite pictures with my grandma. This is Sara and I doing my grandma's hair when we were little.

Senior Pictures

10 signs I'm in the Final Stretch of being pregnant!

1. At least one of my meals each day consists of nothing but sweets. Last Sunday, I made Eric and I brownies with ice cream for dinner. (I dread seeing the number on the scale each appointment, but luckily it's been nice to me so far.)

2. My walk has turned into a very noticeable waddle.

3. I spend most of my time at work going to the bathroom.

4. My ankles and feet have swollen up to the point where ankle socks and moccasins are about the only things I can have on my feet.

5. I cried throughout the whole latest episode of "Biggest Loser". (Eric sat and laughed at me the whole time.)

6. I'm obsessed with buying cute clothes for Mia, which unfortunately she will only be able to wear for a couple of weeks or months at best.

7. All I ever want to do is sit down and relax or sleep. (This is not working out so great with my schooling.)

8. I can no longer remember what it feels like to not have something, or someone for that matter, jabbed up under my ribs.

9. My belly is getting so big that I thought I was going to be fairly free of stretch marks until I finally looked in the mirror and saw them all hiding on the lower half of my stomach which I couldn't see.

10. I'm getting so sick of my maternity clothes! There's about 4 shirts and 3 pair of pants that I switch between.

Anyway it's official...I have one month left before my due date!!! The sad news is that Mia could still not be here by then considering that most first babies come late. Things, however, are still going great. The doctor says everything is on schedule and we're both at a healthy weight.
These last couple of weeks my sister and sister-in-law threw my two fun baby showers with the cutest decorations and I've also starting putting together Mia's room. I just have a few finally touches left to make and then I promise to post pictures! Eric and I are both getting anxious to meet this little girl who is constantly moving around inside me and are so very thankful for everyone's help and support so far.

Now for some general updates about our lives. Eric is anxiously waiting to see what internship he gets this summer. His top choice for an internship is with Adobe in Orem. He has a really good inside connection and is hoping to get the spot. On the other hand, I am anxiously awaiting school to be over and have nothing besides staying home with my daughter for four months! Oh and we found out last week that we were eligable for medicaid, which means all expenses are paid for, which is a huge relief to us! It pays to be poor sometimes! We also go our taxes back which made me happy because it helped reach my goal for what I wanted in our savings account and Eric was sly enough to talk me into letting him buy a road bike. He's planning on doing a bike race in Ely and a mini-triathlon this summer. All in all, we couldn't be happier or feel more blessed at this point in our lives. The Lord is continuing showering blessing down on us that I feel we don't deserve sometimes, but are so very grateful for.

36 Week Pictures! Sorry they are not that great. My camera battery died and I was too lazy to get it out it to charge so I used the camera on my phone. Also, for some reason I look a lot smaller then I feel in these pictures too. Lol.I didn't get any pictures of the baby shower we had here in Provo sadly (I'm horrible at taking pictures!), but Annelise was kind enough to take some at the one we had in Ely along with capturing all the cute decorations and treats she and Sara made.

Date Night

So Eric and I were watching the movie "Date Night" and it's starts out portraying this boring couple for New Jersey who do the same thing every date night and have little romance left in their marriage and through out the beginning, I'm thinking to myself, "this is so true"...but wait, in the middle of my thinking this I become appalled that I'm even thinking this at all...not only the fact that Eric and I haven't even been married 2 years, but we don't even have any kids yet (however soon to change)!!! Could we really be stuck in this rut already?!

Ok, I'll have to admit that being as hormonal as I am right now only added to the drama of the situation, but I have felt with Eric being so busy with school and me keeping busy doing tons of different projects and things we really haven't had a lot of quality time to spend together and when we do we usually just do our usual thing, which is watching the latest TV show we've started.

Lo and behold, after thinking about this I came across this blog were all these women got together and started blogging about creative dates they came up with to keep their marriages alive and fun. Granted, I've never been one for themed dates or cheesy tag lines, but the idea of trying to be more creative in dating your spouse to spruce things up beats the regular dinner and a movie.

So right in time for Valentine's Day I decided that each month I was going to try to put a little more thought into "date night" and do something creative and fun for both of us. Since Eric was extremely busy last week with a project that he was doing for school and wasn't home much, I decided to start out with something simple and relaxing...yet different from the "usual". While Eric was gone during the nights doing his project, I made little "love" notes telling him some things I especially loved about him. On Sunday morning, I got up before him and put the notes up around the apartment in places he would see them (by his toothbrush, on the door, on the TV, etc) then I made him breakfast in bed...stuffed french toast! All in all if was a success and good to spend some time relaxing together in bed and eating yummy food. Hopefully Eric doesn't mind that I'm sharing some of these :) And sorry...no pictures of us. I've become quite the roller at night since I've been pregnant, my hair can get a little crazy. lol

In conclusion, I so admire those couples that can do whatever and keep things fun and bonding, but for those of us who have spouses with hardly anything in common (interest wise) we have to work a little harder...then again, whoever said marriage was easy? :)

Much love to my amazing husband....even though we have our differences...I picked a KEEPER!

Keeping busy with craft projects!

Over this past year Eric has been kept really busy with school, group projects, and intramural sports so I've had a LOT of time by myself. After watching every good movie on the netflix's instant que (and for those of you who don't have netflixs, there is a limited selection of "good" movies on the instant que) I had to find something that kept me busy when I didn't have school work to do. This is how I found my love for crafting. Of course, I have always admired those with the "crafting" ability and homemade items, but never really attempted to do much myself because 1st, my creativity level is well below average and 2nd; whenever I did try some kind of craft it turned out less than perfect. Anyway, I decided to give it a try after finding some truly inspirational craft blogs (hence, giving me the craft ideas...and instructions included!) and now it has become a craze of mine, especially while trying to pass the time alone.

One of mine and Eric's goals for the new year is to stick to a budget as we try to save everything we can before we have a to fork over an arm and a leg to deliver Mia (which will be a "well worth it" investment, but a pricey investment none the less!) So to stick to our budget I have been searching for cheap crafts that can be done for less than $5.

The first craft I found were these temple blocks from Lil' Luna blog. She had her husband antique a ton of different temple pictures people would send her and posted them back up in high resolution for others to use. I made one for my sister-in-law for her birthday. I printed the picture (8x10) at costco and went to Home Depot to get scrap wood (they cut 7 11x9 inch blocks for me for free and I got all of them for $2!) This would be a great and easy gift for newlyweds also!
The next project I did was for a friend who just had a baby boy and said she was having trouble finding a church outfit for him. I have always wanted to try the tie applique onesie so this was the perfect chance to try one. While looking for ideas online I also got the idea to add a corduroy vest over the tie as well. It turned out super cute and was really easy and cheap to make! I found a tutorial for the tie applique on the blog Crap I've Made. Also, as since my classes haven't really picked up yet, I decided to deep clean and organize a room in our apartment each week in preparation for Mia and needing some extra space to store all the stuff for Mia. Last weekend I did our bedroom, which was neglected since we moved in. I reorganized our closets , rearranged the bed and dressers (with Eric's help of course) and finally hung up a shelf and pictures I bought for our bedroom almost a year ago. The final product looks great and who doesn't like falling asleep in a clean, organized room! The next room on my list is our guest room which will be Mia's room.

A new year...a fresh start!

So, I'm a little late welcoming in the new year not only on my blog, but in my mind as well. It's taken me about a week after the new year to come up with my resolutions and to get my mind set with "a new year, a fresh start and I'm going to do better!"

In looking back, 2010 was a great year! Eric and I celebrated our first year of marriage, moved into a new apartment, went to Germany, started our family and are expecting a baby girl, became an aunt and uncle to the adorable Sophia, now 6 months and getting cuter by the day, and we've been able to spend lots of time with friends and family which we are so blessed to have.

We ended the year (Christmas vacation) in Ely with my family. We both got to have some relaxation time, which I'm sure Eric was a lot more grateful for, considering he was really busy last semester in his first year in the Information Systems major. I got to watch my fair share of sappy Christmas movies that I had my mom tape for me over the month of December since we don't have TV and had a list of projects that I was able to get done with Eric's gracious help! We also got our fill of Christmas goodies and homemade dinners...at least I did anyway with my generous 7 lbs of weight gain over the break. :) (The downside of being pregnant during the holidays.)

We spent Christmas Eve in the traditional Robertson way of going up to my Grandparent's house for dinner and singing all of the Christmas hymns before reading the account on Christ's birth in Luke. My little brother Seth, in his tactic for being able to fall asleep that night, woke up really early that morning and planned on staying up late, so we all watched a movie to help him. It made me excited for that future time when our kids will be big enough to get excited for Christmas. That will be a lot of fun!

Anyway, at promptly 7am (which it the earliest my parents allowed us children to wake them up Christmas morning) Seth came running to get us all up to open presents. All in all it was great Christmas and it was nice to have most of the family there. We missed having Tyler, Annelise and Sophia there though, but luckily we got to see them, along with some extended family, for New Years at my grandparents house in Logandale to celebrate my grandpa's 80th birthday.

Eric and I have now started into the winter semester at school and have both continued working. This first week went really well for me, considering I went into it with a less than excited attitude; however, I have come to get a little more excited about it (I don't know if that's the right word). Now that I'm getting closer to being down I get to take a lot more classes in my major and I'm reminded of how much I love Family Studies. I hope that I can take what I learn in my classes and not only apply them into my own family, but be able to help other families in the community, especially those struggling.

Eric is still plugging along in his major and for the most part loving it. He is also getting ready to take the GMAT and apply for internships this summer. Mia is also doing great! (P.S. Over the break I decided that we would settle on a name for our baby girl since I was getting really tired of the "name" conversation...hence Mia Caldwell.) She is starting to kick a lot more now and I've been loving the task of getting her room ready! I'm getting some really cute ideas from craft blogs that I keep up on. We are both excited for her to come and to see what she'll look like and eventually she what her personality will be like.

The long awaited pregnancy pictures at 26 weeks.

Below are some of the projects I did over the Christmas break!

The top is a baby quilt blanket I started for Mia's room. I backing in with minky material which I love because it is so soft. I just need to have it quilted and then finish off the ends. Below is the window frame I made for her room also, with the decorative knobs to hang things.

Below is mine and Eric's Christmas present to each other...a new LED TV which we found for 55% off! Talk about a great deal. With the help of my Grandpa I also made the frame shelves above the TV. They turned out great and were free!