Thanksgiving in Modesto

Miles and I were very excited to escape Rexburg for a week and head to Modesto, CA to stay with his family for Thanksgiving. We had so much fun! We took a trip in to San Francisco, had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner (thanks Cindy!) went out to eat a few times with his family, got a new video camera on Black Friday in preparation for the arrival of baby boy Caiden, went to the mall with the fam (I bought my first pair of maternity jeans because they were so cheap.. I actually like them too!) I returned to the mall on Black Friday with Maddie and Halie (it was a mad house!) and we spent some time just relaxing. We attempted to take some maternity pictures in the orchards because I thought they were so beautiful. I'm really not showing enough to take good maternity pictures though, it was kind of disappointing. As soon as I would lay down my baby bump would disappear. We still managed to get a few. We found some cute little baby Vans at a consignment shop and I just had to head over to the skatepark to take a few pictures. Miles was happy to oblige and did a few runs. It really was the perfect week. Thank you so much Mike and Cindy for being our gracious hosts and for spoiling us (and Caiden). The week felt entirely too short and we were not excited to leave. We're so sad we missed Miles' mom and Todd during the holiday, but Sue was busy in Colorado helping to take care of the Schillers and our new beautiful niece, Bentley, so I guess that's a good excuse :) 

 Miles is modeling the most yummy delicious mini donuts in the world located at Pier 39. I crave them constantly. Every time we go in to SF we get the donuts, usually in the big embarrassing bucket. We limited our intake of these delicious babies due to the holidays and the fact that we had been eating treats non-stop. But oh they are heavenly. I wish I had some right now!

 I'm sorry, but how adorable are those baby vans? Moreover, how adorable is Caiden going to look sporting those bad boys? I've been watching baby Vans on eBay for a few weeks prior to this purchase but even on eBay they were pricey. We walk in to a consignment shop in Modesto and nabbed these for $5! I was thrilled.. I'm still on the search for some baby Van Authentics, in case any one wants to buy me a Christmas/birthday present.. those would be appreciated.

 See, basically no belly bump to be found in the above picture.. I was sad it disappeared because this picture was so much better in my head.. oh well!

My hub-a-lub is so handsome! I didn't even mean to take this great picture of him, I was setting up the self-timer for the above pictures of the two of us and needed a body to focus the camera on, but I guess when you're as good looking as he is, you can't really take a bad picture. And to the right is the Heidorn family. We love them dearly! 2.5 generations of Heidorn men in this picture. I can't wait to get one of Mike, Miles, and Caiden all together! I can't believe I'm already 25 weeks along! If every thing goes as planned baby boy should be here in 15 weeks. I can't wait to meet our little man. 

Happy but Complaining?

I miss my old body today. I keep finding the cutest tops for sale online.. but I can't really buy any thing because I have no idea if it's actually going to fit, and if it does, it isn't going to fit the way I want, the way I picture it in my head on my old, not pregnant body. I also miss my 6 months ago body because sleeping has become a chore. Bedtime used to be my favorite time of the day. Miles and I would cuddle and talk about our day, laugh, wrestle, give back rubs, and spend quality pillow time together and now when I lug my big ole body in to bed I cannot get comfortable. Every thing aches. I certainly can't wrestle, I have to sit up to get my back rub instead of laying on my tummy, cuddling gets hard because I can only get semi comfortable in one position to fall asleep and it just isn't cuddly. I love my little wiggle worm boy so much, but I constantly have to reprimand him for playing soccer with my bladder. It's the weirdest feeling that makes my body twinge and it makes me feel like I have to pee when I don't. It's his new thing.. he must love to do it because he does it all the time. But I keep telling myself be grateful you can feel him moving, even if it makes you uncomfortable because moving means living and growing. Speaking of growing.. I swear at 19 weeks my belly popped out and has not stopped growing since! My clothes are starting to shrink.. which I guess means shopping? Why am I not excited at the prospect of new clothes? I'm already becoming a mom.. I just want to spend the money on cute baby shoes and clothes. Baby clothes are so much cuter than maternity clothes, although I'm steering clear of maternity clothes like the flu for now. They're not so cute and they're kinda pricey. I've just been buying shirts a size bigger than normal and make sure they're longer shirts that I can continue to grow in to.

Enough complaining, because honestly I love this little baby and I'm happy to endure the sleepless nights, the tight clothes, the body aches, and three months more of no cuddling. Did I just say that? Happy to endure sleepless nights?

How cute are these little shoes? I just bought them for $0.99 on eBay for baby Caiden! Anything cute enough to fit in these little shoes has to be worth enduring sleepless nights.

PS. Baby Bentley was born this morning! She's beautiful and perfect. I can't wait to hug her tight. Samantha Schiller is my hero!

i heart family day.

Last week we had family day! We spent the entire day doing one thing that each member of our family wanted to do. For Nixon we went to the skatepark (which Miles also enjoyed). Nixon loves skateboards. Every time he hears someone on a skateboard he wants to go play. He'll chase them and follow them. Nixon followed Miles around the skatepark for like 20 minutes, he even dropped in to the bowls. I started jogging around the skatepark and got Nixon to run up the transition. He had a lot of fun. Afterwards we were tired and hungry! We went to Great Harvest for lunch. Afterwards it was my turn. I wanted to craft. So Miles and I made some "little shirts" (Miles says "onesie" is too girly so he will only refer to them as little shirts). It was a lot of fun to craft with my hubs. I made the first two, the jungle animals and the giraffe skateboarding. Miles made baby boy the Habitat shirt and the LRG shirt. Miles was surprised at how much fun he had, and how simple they were to make. He wants to buy a few plain white shirts and make some for himself. After we were done crafting it was Miles turn to choose an activity. We went to Fat Cats for their Thursday deal where you can bowl and see a movie for $6 each.  That's a dang good deal. No pictures of videos.. forgot to grab the camera! We bowled with our friends and then saw Easy A. It was hilarious, a bit dirty, but hilarious. We rounded out the night with some root beer floats at home. It was a really fun family day and something that we plan to continue to do. Of course it might take a while for baby boy to take his pick anything other than nap time, but hey, naps are nice! 

Oh and PS we think we picked a name for sweet baby boy.. Caiden August Heidorn. Thoughts?

 

ABC's and Skateboards.

I've been feeling the need to "nest" recently, but I don't really want to spend much money. So instead, I have focused my attention on artwork for baby boy's room. I've made a few illustrations that I'm going to get printed, matted, and framed. It's been free so far! I have nice, big frames and the mattes from my BFA show last winter that have been sitting in the basement waiting to be reused. Miles is going to spray paint them white for me! So all in all, baby boy's artwork shouldn't cost more than $10! I'm very excited and to top it off, it's my own artwork! The pictures are how they'll look matted if you can see the white border. The first two are pretty obvious, the alphabet and I am a Child of God. But the last one are from pictures I've taken of Miles at the skatepark that I turned in to silhouettes. The colors in the pictures are the 6 colors we're going to be using in baby boy's nursery, and it's skateboard themed. We're making wall shelves out of blank skateboard decks, I'm going to screen print pillows and lamp shades, and my sister Jen is designing a Vans/skateboard quilt for baby boy's crib! Speaking of Vans, I bought baby boy a pair of red authentics in infant size. ADORABLE. I love them. 

Baby Bumps

Being a photographer, and having the incessant need to document every moment of my life since age 14, you'd think I'd be better about documenting the progress of my baby growth. But I guess I love being behind the camera, not in front. So basically these are the only baby bump pictures I have. A lot of progress from 16 to 19 weeks huh? I swear I double in size every day! I am now 22 weeks and no longer just look fat, I'm starting to actually look pregnant! It's pretty exciting. I have exactly 3 Sunday dresses that fit me, none of my skirts fit. I still haven't broken down and purchased and maternity clothes though. I'm belly-band'ing it up and still wearing my own jeans. I'm hoping that will last a long time. I dread buying maternity jeans. Forever21 used to have a few pairs for like $13 but they have vanished from their website. I can't bring myself to spend a bunch of money on clothes that I will only wear for the next 3 months. So instead I've been buying long plain colored shirts to go under cardigans I already own. The longer the better because there's room to grow! And that way I can continue to wear them all after March. I have had to retire a few of my favorite button up shirts because they can't quite stay buttoned in the tummy region. 

I love this little boy so so much. Miles felt him kick for the first time. He wasn't really sure if he felt the baby or not, he said it felt like a gas bubble moving. I told him that was our little boy! He was so excited to finally be able to feel the baby. I've even started to see his kicks from the outside of my tummy. Not feel, actually see them. It's so crazy. Something funny I've noticed is that when Nixon sits on my lap and his elbow or face is on my tummy, baby boy moves to wear Nixon is sitting.. they're going to be good pals! Baby boy already loves Nixon. I just hope Nixon feels the same way! He's such a spoiled little puppy, it's going to take some adjusting! I can't believe I'm already 6 months pregnant. Our baby is almost 8 inches long, about the size of a papaya, and weights about 12.5 ounces! Only 125 more days! I can hardly wait to see him (did you hear that baby boy, hardly wait.. meaning keep on slow roasting in there so you'll be healthy!) They say that baby boy has settled in to a sleep pattern by now, which I'm crossing my fingers is true because he's active all day and let's me sleep all night! I hope that continues post delivery! Wouldn't that be nice? Still no names picked out for baby boy, we're taking suggestions! 

Babyfit.com keeping me fit!

My sister, Jen, told me about this website, babyfit.com, where you can go to log the foods you eat during the day to track what you're eating. When I was in a Fit for Life class we did the same thing, but this website is geared towards pregnant women! I only started using it a few days ago, but it's amazing, and it keeps me eating healthy, which is good for baby boy! It tells me how many calories I'm consuming, how much iron, folate (folic acid), calcium, and protein I'm getting from the foods I eat and what the goal range is. Every time I go to grab a snack I think, "oh man I have to plug this in" and I'll swap junk food for a fruit, yogurt, or vegetable instead. I'm sure baby boy is loving all the goodies he's getting in the form of healthy vitamins and minerals. All my pregnant friends: you definitely need to check it out! Go to the website I linked and sign up! I feel much more responsible about what I eat knowing I'm going to input it to the website. Because like the website says, "Healthy babies start with healthy moms!"