Getting things ready!

Yesterday was family day. Miles and I started a little tradition last September to have family day every other Saturday. Basically every day is a family day, but every other Saturday is set aside and each member of our little family gets to pick an activity to do (even Nixon, although his is always go to the park). My activity for family day was painting the nursery. Miles did the whole thing while I offered him water and gatorade and kept Nixon engaged elsewhere. But I did buy myself a lovely face mask so that I could go in the room and just be with him in 10 minute intervals. We mixed the color all by ourselves! I have a set 6 color palette for every thing that goes in his room, so we mixed paint we found in the basement with a clearance $2 bucket of grey paint until we got the tan color we wanted. It looks fabulous! It is the best painted room in our house.

(gotta love that face mask! Just trying to keep baby boy healthy! And I know, I've allowed my bangs to grow out of control. Don't worry, I cut them minutes after seeing the above left picture.) 

 (Nixon was very intrigued by the mask, he wanted to lick it, and after a few minutes he really wanted me to take it off. I think it scared him a little.)

(This is the tan color on the walls in the nursery. We touched up the white trim too.)

I am 35 weeks pregnant and I only have 35 days until my due date! I feel absolutely ginormous. I can't wait for this little guy to "drop" so I can breath easier. Here are the 6 documented stages of my pregnancy. I wish I had been better about taking pictures. I can't believe the difference. I'm wearing the same dress in my 22 and 35 week picture. This boy is growing! He should be about 5.25lbs by now. I have a doctors appointment on Tuesday and will start going every week from here on out. I'm counting down the minutes until baby boy gets here, and not just because I'm becoming miserable (which I am. Is it too early to becoming miserably uncomfortable?) but because I can't wait to hold my little man in my arms for the first time. It's amazing that I can love someone so much that I've never really met. I can feel him moving around inside me and I get little glimpses of him when I have ultrasounds, but I can't really say I've met him. I can't wait to look in to his eyes and tell him I love him. It's going to be the greatest moment!

Coupon Lady?

So I got a coupon in the mail from Amazon.com for 20% off diapers. I'm in need of diapers pretty soon.. so I started doing my research. The sizes of diapers vary from brand to brand, and every child I've ever nannied/babysat that is a boy the mom raved about Pampers Swaddlers. Every child I nannied/babysat that was a girl the mom raved about Huggies Snug & Dry. Funny how different diapers work better for different genders. I'm talking across the board those are the reviews I received for boys and girls. So since I'm having a boy, I decided that I would do my research on Pampers Swaddlers. Every baby is different and grows at a different rate, so it can be hard to stock up. But since I only have 2 coupons I can only buy 2 sets of diapers so it made things a little easier, newborn and size 1. For some reason my brain can't quite wrap around the concept of how many diapers a baby would use and how many we would go through in each size (it still can't). But anyway, back to my couponing... I went to Amazon.com and found 216 size 1 diapers for $40. That's about standard price between Target and Walmart. But if you sign up for Amazon Mom (www.amazon.com/mom) you get 15% off and there are no fees for signing up! If you sign up for Amazon Subscribe and Save you get another 15% off (and again it doesn't charge you anything and you can cancel your subscriptions at any time, plus you get free shipping!) I found a manufacturers coupon for $1.50 off Pampers Swaddlers and had my 20% off from Amazon.com so I just purchased 216 diapers for $18. Yeah.. I'm feeling pretty good about that! If you're a mom/future mom and want to buy some diapers before Tuesday from Amazon here's the 20% off code: YTR7-BX4NKF-T5UXGL. It expires on 1/31/11 and I have another one that expires in February, you can ask me for that one too if you want, it's just not in front of me right now. You have to purchase the diapers that are sold by Amazon.com which seems more expensive at first, but with all the % off's it really is a lot cheaper! Now I'm off to find good deals on newborn diapers...

NYC & Boston

Over the Christmas break Miles and I took trips in to NYC and Boston. We brought our nephew Matthew along with us into the city. It was a nice little precursor to being real parents. I have to say maneuvering a stroller through crowded New York streets was rough, and being 8.5 months pregnant and fitting in to a jam packed subway was unpleasant, but we had a lot of fun! There was one point on the subway when it was so jam packed that there was no way you weren't touching at least 8 other bodies at the same time and it smelled horrible, and I was holding Matthew so we wouldn't lose him and I had this huge ole belly which made holding him even harder and this guy shoves me in the back and says "Um excuse me can you please move out of my way" but not in a pleasant tone, he was mean.  And my pregnancy hormones just snapped.. to the point where Miles was scared and the man backed off. Crazy Pregnant lady: 1 Horrible New Yorker: 0. We walked past Rockafeller Center to see the Christmas tree, went to St. Patricks Cathedral, took a walk passed BlackRock (a company Miles would love to work for someday), went to visit my friend Ryan from high school that is living in the city, and headed to FAO Schwartz because Matthew was such a trooper all day and he wanted to go to a "big toy store". It was a short but great trip. (Please excuse how ginorm my belly looks in the last picture, that jacket is not very flattering with a big ole belly)

For my dad's birthday Miles and I got him (and us) tickets to the Celtics game on January 3rd. We left when my dad got off of work, so unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot of time to get out of the car and allow Miles to take in a new city, but we did a drive-by tour and I promised him that we would make our way back for a weekend this summer. Ahhh I love the East Coast, every thing is just so nice and compact and close together. I can't wait to move back. Anyway, the Celtics were playing the Timberwolves so we assumed it would be a blow out, and I assumed I would be bored after the first quarter. But the game was tense to the very last second, literally. It was a lot of fun to watch!

A Bermudaful Christmas

On the 23rd of December we packed up our bags and headed to Bermuda with the whole Greer family! Or should I say, the Greer/Lake/Heidorn/White family. It's so fun having all of us married! Anyway, this was the perfect vacation. It was a bit windy and a tad on the chilly side (and by chilly I mean like 68 degrees) but we didn't let that stop us from having a blast. 

These pictures were taken in downtown Hamilton on Christmas Eve. We walked around the shops and had a nice lunch at a Irish pub. Just showing off my baby bump (which honestly looks a lot bigger in a dress and a bathing suit than regular clothes. I feel like the goodyear blimp in these pictures). 

Left: our whole family (plus one jokester) in Hamilton on Christmas Eve. Right: the day we arrived in Bermuda (23rd) we decided to check out the beach at our resort. Look how crystal clear and gorgeous that water is!

On Christmas day we decided to go snorkeling! What more could you ask for on Christmas? I hate that I'm standing next to my gorgeous skinny minny sisters in the picture on the right because I look HUGE!

We (and by we I really mean I) decided to take advantage of the warmer weather and took a few maternity pictures at 30 weeks. Look how big that baby belly is getting! 

Left: a few more maternity pictures, only 7 more weeks until that babe is in our arms! I can't wait. Right: some pictures of us snorkeling on Christmas day with our underwater camera.

More underwater camera shots. In the picture on the left I'm pointing at Caiden so that some day he knows that he went to Bermuda and went snorkeling!

Left: this is the cave at our resort that we went swimming in on our second to last day there (27th). We took some pictures with our underwater camera but it must have been too dark in the cave or something because they didn't turn out, which is a bummer! But it was a lot of fun swimming in there! Right: Miles and I swimming with the fishes at the aquarium in Bermuda.

Left: Matthew showing me how the fishies kiss at the aquarium, it was one of the only ways I could get him to look even remotely close to at the camera and I thought it was adorable. It's also the only way I can get my sweet little nephew to give me kisses. I show him how different animals kiss, gotta do what you gotta do to get the love! Right: the aquarium in Bermuda is also a zoo, and probably one of the coolest zoo's I've been to because they don't cage off some of the animals so you can literally walk right up to them. I walked right up to an orange little monkey and it was adorable! The more predatory animals are obviously caged, but it was so fun to get up so close! This picture was taken in front of a waterfall at the zoo.

We had such a blast in Bermuda. It was 5 days of pure bliss in paradise! Thanks again dad for treating us all to mom's birthday present! He planned the entire trip for us! Some other things we enjoyed while in Bermuda were unlimited delicious food, a glass bottom boat tour that my mom planned for my dad's birthday (the 26th) exploring the resort, game nights with the family, hot tubing (ok well I only enjoyed it from my hips down), and surviving the pink bus (I did not enjoy this actually... they are seriously crazy drivers in Bermuda and being pregnant and getting over the flu were just not great combinations for survival on those windy roads). 

Early Christmas

I'm going to have to post about our Christmas break in parts because we did a LOT including a trip to Boston and a Celtics game, a trip to NYC, a trip to Bermuda, my birthday, and an early Greer/Lake/Heidorn/White Christmas! That's where I'll begin!
This the first Christmas we've had with my entire family in five years. That's a long time! So for my mom's birthday (25 right mom?) my dad booked us flights and stay at a resort in Bermuda so that she could be together with all her kids for Christmas this year. Pretty nice birthday present huh? Yeah, I have the greatest dad in the world. So because we were going to be in Bermuda for Christmas we had an early Christmas at the Greer house to open stockings and to give the grandboys their Christmas presents instead of lugging everything to Bermuda.
I have to say, Christmas with little kids is so much more fun! That's not to say things didn't get chaotic, because it a house of 8 adults, 2.5 kids, and 3 dogs things get crazy. But it was so much fun to watch the look on Matthew's face when he opened something exciting, or something he "thought would be cool."

We originally tried to keep the doggies out of the room, but Nixon is quite the escape artist and figured out how to jump the gate. I love the picture of Miley on the right. So cute! That's Nixon's girlfriend.

Three crazy dogs, Nixon's looking a bit vicious in the picture on the left. Those three had a blast playing together every waking hour of the day for over 2 weeks. Nixon loved giving Matthew kisses, and Matthew loved receiving them. 

These are the wonderful and ginormous stockings my parents fill for us. On the right is my sister Nikki and her hubs Robby. Can you tell they're newlyweds with the cutesy kissing picture?

My mom and dad (we decided to fill their stockings for them this year as their Christmas gifts!) and my sister Jen and her husband Scott with their stockings!

Since this was the first Christmas where all the Greer girls were married I dubbed it the "Couples Christmas" and we all decided to swap couples names for Christmas gifts. Miles and I had Robby and Nikki this year. We bought them some games to play when they have couple friends over in their new and beautiful apartment, but as a joke we got Nikki a box full of lemons. As you can see she was pretty excited about it. She LOVES to eat lemons. We were at a wedding December and she had a plate full of empty lemon peels that she had eaten. She is seriously the only person I know that will slice up a lemon and just eat it. 

Thanks mom and dad, Jen, Scott and boys, and Nikki and Robby for a great early Christmas! We loved being home with every one. Next Christmas will be Caiden's first! He'll be 9.5 months old so he won't really understand Christmas, but I'm so excited to have a baby of our own to spoil and love on Christmas!

Check this Out

With the start of the New Year, Miles and I are looking for a fresh clean start. One way we're going about it is an internet yard sale! We're trying to clear out the clutter in anticipation of the arrival of baby boy! I made a little blog to show some of the things we're trying to sell. Check it out! If you're in the Rexburg area and you see something you like let us know! If you have family/friends in the area please refer them to the blog! We're trying to get things all ready for Caiden!

http://heidornyardsale.blogspot.com/

Perspective.

These last few weeks I have been blessed with a little perspective.. in the first picture I was wishing I could lose just 5lbs.. seriously? Right now I wish I looked that skinny! In the second picture I was 16 weeks pregnant and just wishing I would start showing.. seriously? Right now I wish I looked that skinny! The last picture is me at 30 weeks pregnant. Ugh. I'm feeling like the goodyear blimp. I'm never going to complain about my pre-pregnant body again! I've only gained 25lbs so far and I feel pretty good about that, but I still can't wait for that green light to start working out again and get back in my regular jeans and pencil skirts and looking cute in a bathing suit again! 

Oh and I got my hair cut and colored by the fabulous Ashley Tingey. What do you think?