Kirsten and Mark

In the next three months I expect time to contradict itself…moving quickly at times as we race to get everything ready for Britt’s arrival, and agonizingly slowly as we wait for him to finally get here!

We’re going to pick up his crib tonight, so that’ll be exciting. We still need to paint the room though, pending approval from our landlord. The walls now are an off-white color, I think we’ll just paint one entire “accent” wall a pale blue. I found the bedding and decorations that fit my “vision” really well. It’s modern and cute without being too cutesy, and I can incorporate the turtle picture too. We’ll take a picture of it when his room is done.

So, we leave tomorrow for our cross-country flight. I’m kind of looking forward to this flight, since we’ve been anticipating it for 5 months now. We’ll definitely post reviews when we get back.  It’ll also be fun to see friends and family we haven’t seen in a really long time!

At Christmas time, I really love listening to ‘The Forgotten Carols.’ Since participating in a production during college the music just inspires me to get into the spirit of the season more than traditional carols. So, this year when I opened the case I was severely upset that it was missing! I have no idea where it could be. We looked through all the cases near it, and we’re pretty sure it didn’t get put in one of Mark’s binders either. But, with the sheer number of cds and cd cases in this house, there is no way we could go through them all. So, we went to Seagull Book and they had sold out of them the day before. Fortunately, they had the book (which I’d wanted anyway) and then we bought the album from iTunes. Crisis averted! We’ve been reading a chapter a night and it’s really fun to have time each night to focus on Christ.

Now, for the news you’ve all been waiting for–What’s up with Britt this week. Well, he’s great! I’ve noticed him moving a lot recently. I’ll be sitting at work and he just goes to town. I like looking down and seeing my stomach move. And, then sometimes he’ll push hard and I’ll feel an arm or leg.

At our prenatal appointment yesterday the doctor said I hadn’t grown as much as she would like, so she sent us to have an ultrasound. I wasn’t really worried, since I’d been feeling him all the time and I had gained 4 pounds! The Tech was really nice and she got a great profile shot.–see below– We haven’t had one of those yet, so that was nice to have. She said he’s perfectly developed and is in about the 30-35 percentile in size for his age. There’s nothing wrong with that given my size–I really don’t want him to be too big! So, below is an actual picture of Britt at 27 weeks! Yes, that is his head in profile. We think he’s pretty cute and can hardly wait to meet him. And yes, it’s confirmed once again that it is a boy…whew! We don’t have to return all the things he’s gotten =)

Merry Christmas everyone!

I can hardly believe how quickly it’s come, but only one more week until:

1. I’m in my 3rd trimester!
2. Christmas vacation.

Now, I know we just had Thanksgiving vacation, so it’s not like we’re in dire need of one, but I love it because I am usually busy on vacation and there is something to do all day. Not so much at work–I get tired of searching for something new and interesting to read during the 7 hours I’m at work and my bosses have nothing for me to do.

It’s been great preparing for the holidays with shopping and taking care of things like that because it fills the time. And, searching for things for Britt is fun too. Right now we’re trying to decide on a diaper bag. Get 2–one for me and one for Mark, or just one that’s masculine enough for Dad to carry around too? We’ve found a couple that we really like, so we’re going to check them out at a couple of local stores that carry them.

Britt has been moving a lot this week. It’s fun to watch my stomach move. There aren’t any really hard jabs, but a lot of little pops that are visible on the outside. Last night Mark was tickling my stomach to see if he’d move…but I think it just made me laugh and squirm. Britt was probably wondering why his home was convulsing and closing in on him. (Yes, we think his brain is so sophisticated that he has thoughts like that.)

I do hate it when people are dishonest and mess with good things and ruin it for the rest of us. For my birthday, a local radio station that I have an “A-List” account with sent me a coupon for a free Cold Stone for my birthday. We went to redeem it last night, and they don’t accept them anymore because people were bringing in fake ones, and more than one and getting them for all their friends. But, the guy felt bad, so he gave us a discount on it. We got pumpkin ice cream with caramel, cinnamon and graham cracker crust–delicious!

Britt’s eyes are opening now, and he’ll start to blink. The lungs are continuing to develop and produce the “surfactant” that keeps them from sticking together and helps them expand. And, he’s better at hearing sounds from the outside. Looks like we need to step up the story time and good music!

The past week has been really busy for us. There was my birthday, then the Napster Holiday Party, Christmas shopping, Setting up our tree and other decorations…crazy.

For my birthday Mark and I went to Benihana, because I’d been kind of craving it for a while and a special occasion was a great excuse. Our chef wasn’t the most exciting I’ve seen, but the food was great!

We had a great time on Friday with some friends…Mark even made my whole cake by himself! Everyone was impressed. We rented a Wii game that was really fun because it makes you do funny things, like shake the remote or “concentrate” in silly games.

Mark’s work party was really fun. We got all “glammed up” and had a great time. It was at Eleven, a new club in West Hollywood. I was happy to find a nice enough dress–well, my mom found it–that I could actually wear. These are from the photo booth they set up.

Britt is doing really well. I’m definitely getting bigger, and he’s started to move around more–or, I can just feel it. The other night we actually saw him poking me on the outside, so that was fun. I try to catch him all the time, but he stops whenever I look down. Maybe this is like the sitting down thing too…babies always know.

We’re rapidly approaching Christmas vacation too. I can’t believe we fly out in two weeks! It’s come so quickly. I’ve heard from someone I actually know that flew on Virgin America that it’s really nice, so I’m excited for that too.

I know, I’m about 2 weeks over due, SORRY!

But, this post will mostly be pictures from my great baby shower in Utah thrown by my aunt Teri and cousin Cassie. It was great having so many friends and family members there.

Survey of the crowd:

Britt is going to be stylin’ and I’m going to be well equipped to take care of him…

And, here are a few of the people who came…sorry I didn’t put a photo of everyone, there were just too many! But, I loved having you there and really appreciate you.