So I promised pictures of our fun weekend in Denver over Valentine's Day/President's Day Weekend. Thanks mom and dad, Mel and Suzie for making the trip! It was so good to spend some time with you!

I realized as I was going through the pictures that pretty much the only time we took pictures over the weekend was at the zoo. Saturday, the zoo was FREE! so we thought, why not? Denver has an awesome zoo and even though the plants were dead and most of the animals were inside, it was fun to see them (especially the monkeys!)

This was right after we got there - still looking chipper and...not exhausted. Let's be honest - that didn't last the whole time. It was a LOT of walking.
I LOVED this sign. Duh! :)

Monkey! There was one group of little tiny monkeys that had a little TINY baby monkey on the momma's back - I don't think any of us with cameras got a good picture of it, but it was SO cute! I told Nate I'm going to carry our little girl like that. :)

I don't see much of a difference between Mel and the Komodo Dragon - you? :)

If you know Nate, you know he's a HUGE fan of getting his picture taken (HA). The only way I could convince him to be in this picture was to tell him something about how he was as manly as this man lion...maybe that explains the face...he's MUCH more manly, after all.

See the exhaustion setting in? This is also a nice display of my tummy (as well as my water-retaining face - awesome).

Can you tell how much FUN we were having? We actually were having a good time, but the sun was a little bright and mom kinda caught us off guard. I'm really not angry or something...
And since mom was usually behind the camera and Nate & Dad are excellent at avoiding the camera, I had to throw in a couple of them, just to prove they were there!

Mom and Nate, looking at a map of Denver, so mom could orient herself with where we were in that big city (there's a little more to Denver than Bismarck :)

Here's one of the papa, outside the captial building in Downtown Denver. He loves getting his picture taken as much as Nate. :D

We went to Downtown Denver on Monday and shopped at the 16th Street Mall. The mall is all outside and you just walk along 16th Street into all the shops. It was a beautiful day (we saw a girl in daisy dukes and flip flops - in February!), so it was a good day to be walking outside. We went into The Children's Place to look at baby clothes and I found the CUTEST onesie that said "My Dad is a Superhero." but it was like $7, so I didn't buy it. :) But it's true!

Anyway, it was a fun weekend that made me even more excited to move to Denver next year! (pending everything working out for us to move there)...

We'll call this post "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"

The Good:

I feel the need to complain a little about pregnancy, but while I was thinking about complaining, I realized "I am so blessed to be pregnant and there are so many things I'm thankful for." So I figured if I'm going to post the "bad" I'd better post the good too! And first!

1. I am very lucky to be pregnant. I know of so many people who have tried for so long and any time I start to complain, I just remind myself that there are plenty of women who would give ANYTHING to "deal" with pregnancy.

2. I have had a VERY uneventful pregnancy. I didn't get awful sick - just a little queasy, I've had minimal amounts of pain (just the "normal" pain), and anything that HAS happened has been talked about in pregnancy books or my sisters knew, so it was easy to deal with.

3. I have an awesome husband who has been super supportive - letting me vent when I get emotional, laughing when I get irrational, and giving lots of feet and back rubs! Plus, it helps to see how excited he is for his little girl to come.

4. I'm surrounded by people who are always concerned about me. I know it kind of comes with pregnancy, but it's so nice to have that concern from so many. Even a lady in the airport told me not to lift my suitcase!

5. That little girl in there is a reason all her own. I say it all the time, but I LOVE feeling her move! I love knowing there's a little child of God in there that He's going to let me take care of! I love it.

The Bad:

1. This first "bad" thing is the reason I wanted to do this post in the first place: Heartburn. I have Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (kinda like Acid Reflux), so I've experienced heartburn before, but NOTHING like this. Last night, I was scared to lay down because I thought fiery acid was going to pour from my esophagus into my mouth. It hurts. And I'm buying Tums tonight.

2. Sciatic nerve = I can't feel my legs when I lay on my back. This has just started to affect me in the last few days, but I must say I'm not a fan. I really miss laying on my stomach, but dealt with it because I could still lay on my back. Now I ALWAYS have to lay on my side. That bugs.

3. I used to be able to lay down and fall asleep instantly. For about 3 weeks, I haven't been able to fall asleep for AT LEAST 20 minutes after I lay down. Luckily, most of the time I can sleep through the night without really waking up, but occasionally (like 2 nights ago) I'll wake up OVER and OVER. Preparing me for the years ahead I suppose....

4. I'm not a big fan of those occasional moments of panic: "I'm not ready for this!" "I need to go buy EVERYTHING I need for the baby!" "What if...?" Luckily, the rational part of my brain is still there enough to remind me that I'm just being...well...irrational! :)

The Ugly:

1. My pants don't fit anymore! I was really hoping I'd be one of those lucky women who got to wear her normal pants her whole pregnancy with just a belly band on to keep the top unbuttoned. Nope. Even my "loose" pants are getting snug now. At least I was able to wear my normal pants until I had just over 3 months left, right? Oh yeah, thinkin' positive now...

I was reading a post on CJane's Blog this morning and she talked about an article that came out, all about the Mormon blogging world. She talked about how many Mormon bloggers there are and why we all blog.

And it got me thinking.

I got started in the blogging world because a friend from North Dakota started a blog for all of us LDS North Dakotan friends to keep in touch. From there, we all kind of started our own blogs.

For the most part, I've only used my blog as a way to update family and friends on important events in our family and occasionally, my thoughts on certain issues - my Men/Women post and political opinions, for example. And I feel like I'm not blogging properly if I don't have a picture.

But lately, I've run into a couple of blogs that I've never seen a picture on and others that pictures are just the background to what is being written. I used to LOVE to write creatively and feel like I don't do it like I used to (maybe that one Dream post...)

So I'm going to start.

I'm sure I'll never read the level of wittiness or creativity CJane and Normal Mormon Husband have attained, but why not write what I'm thinking/feeling/etc/etc?

Now, this is a GOAL. Kind of like writing in my journal more often is a goal. Which means it just may not happen. And I have a feeling my perspective/priorities will change in about 77 days, which could throw this goal to the wind.

After all, "We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and in retrospection."

Right?

I used to harass my sisters for not posting pictures of their preggo bellies.

I will never do that again.

I promised, before I got pregnant (something I will never do again either - make a promise about what I will or won't do while pregnant) that I would be one of those people who posts pictures of her pregnancy, so friends and family who live far away could see the progression.

And I don't like to break promises, no matter how painful it is to me.

So there's my preface to my preggo picture, of which I am NOT a fan.
Oh - did I mention I took these myself?

The good news is, that little munchkin making me look like this, is AWESOME! I just can't get enough of her moving around and trying to figure out what body part is poking me at any given time.

Speaking of her, remind me never again to try to presume I know what my baby is before I get an ultrasound. I think I was SO convinced early on that I was having a boy, that my subconscious brain won't let go of the idea. Sure, before I knew what I was having I had a couple of dreams that I was having a boy.

You'd think that now that I KNOW it's a girl, I'd have dreams about a little girl.

Nope.

In the last 3 weeks, I've had 3 dreams that I was having a boy. THREE! Granted, in one of the dreams, the little boy turned into a girl midway through the dream (maybe my brain is finally processing the truth), but still...

So anyway, I have a whole buncha pictures from my fun weekend in Denver with Nate and my parents/little sisters, but they're all on Nate's computer to which I don't have access at the moment. As soon as I do, I promise I will post them. I know, you're just dying of anticipation. :)

100 DAYS TO GO!

I have been waiting for this very day for about 184 days (that's when I first made my little Lilypie countdown). See, for some reason 100 days doesn't sound too long. I'm sure in a couple of months when I can barely move, I'll regret saying that, but for now...

100 DAYS!