He is Here....Pictures of Dallin

I have so enjoyed having our little guy here finally! He was born on March 5th, 2009 at 2:51 pm. He weighted 7 lbs. 2 oz. and he has been such a joy to have. He hardly cries, except for when he is hungry or getting his diaper changed. You would think he would love that part....but he hates it:) He is so cute and so cuddly, we love him soooo much already. It always amazes me how much you can love someone so automatically and so quickly. We are so blessed to have him.

We love you Dallin Carter Hansen!!!!

He is gonna be BIG!

SO I just got back from my 37 week check up today. The doctor informed me that I am going to have a rather large baby. Well, I could have told you that, I mean, I am 5'10" and Joe is 6' 1", but she says he is going to be a 9 lb baby for sure. We are at 37 weeks and she measures him to be already close to 8 lbs. I still have 3 weeks to go. Wow! Dallin is going to be so chubby and cute, I can just feel it. She says it is a good thing because bigger babies eat better, sleep better and are healthier. I guess those are 3 really great things to be happy about. On the other hand, this mother-to-be has to bring that 9 lb. baby into this world and that is not going to be fun....but we will just have to wait and see.

He seems pretty content to stay in there. He hasn't dropped at all and there doesn't seem to be any signs that he plans on doing that any time soon. He is head down and has been that way for quite some time, but no dropping and no contractions for a little while now. I hear labor can just start out of no where, and that will have to be the case with me, because it sure isn't starting on me yet, not even the slightest hint of it.

Here is a picture of me at 8 months. This was taken about a week and a half ago, but my belly has already grown since this picture.

If a baby is supposed to put on a pound every week, that last 4 weeks, I am doomed. That means that by next week, he will be 9 lbs, and by the time I deliver he could be 11 lbs.!!!! I really hope that he gains weight slowly this next 3 weeks. I don't think I want to deliver an 11 lb. baby, or that my body could handle it. But, the body does accomplish some pretty amazing feats all the time. I just don't know that I want to try :)

So everything is good, he is healthier than ever and just growing like crazy. We can hardly wait to see what he will look like. Joe is betting that he will have dark hair. I sure hope he does. I think it would be so cute if he got Joe's dark hair, my curly hair and my blue eyes. What a knock out he would be.

I am just getting over being sick. I am still in the recovering stage, but I am hoping I will be tip top and feeling great by this Saturday. I have two baby showers being thrown for me, all on the same day. I am super excited to see some friends I haven't seen in a while. I just hope I will be better by then. I have had a nasty cold along with a nasty ear infection. I woke up Monday morning feeling like my ear was on fire. It only got worse and worse, so Joe finally took me to urgent care around 9 am. I had to wait til 12pm to get any drugs to help with the pain. I thought I was going to go crazy. I was seriously contemplating smashing my ear drum to bits. It hurt worse than anything I have ever experienced. So bad.... Ear infections are not cool.

I thought it would be fun to show how I have grown over the past 2 months. Dallin sure is growing fast....The progression is 5 months, to 6 months, to 7 months today. It is so crazy how fast he is growing, but at the same time it feels like I have been pregnant forever! We feel so blessed to be able to be parents soon and can hardly wait for Dallin to come. We are going to start to get some stuff for the nursery next week, so we can finally start pulling it together. There is so much I want to do for him and I feel like time is just ticking away. I am finally realizing the great responsibility that it is to become a parent. It still feels surreal, but as I was looking at some little baby clothes that my sister gave to me to use, I was imagining Dallin wearing and it finally hit me! I am going to be raising another human being! He will be relying on me for everything, for food, shelter, education, love, etc... What a big responsibility, but one that I am so excited to fulfil. We are so excited for him to come!

Business is Booming

Wow, things are getting pretty hectic around here. I am getting so busy with the business, but I am loving it nonetheless. We are in the midst of the busiest time to the year and we are doing really good. Jamie, one of my business partners, and I are busy designing the new prints for our new aprons that will be coming out in 2009. I think design is one of the things I love best about being able to have our own business. I can create whatever I feel like and test it out. Often times, I have to redesign the print 10 or 11 times before I get what I really want. Jamie and I are working on some really cool prints and designs for our new lines and I am so excited to see what they will look like. Want a sneak peak??? Here is a picture of the print I just finished yesterday. It is not to scale, but it gives you an idea of what it could look like....

It is so much fun learning how to use Illustrator. I love working with it.

Joe and I have been getting sick like crazy. I have been in the nursery for just a few months now and it seems like every Sunday I get sick that night. I am really getting frustrated with the whole situation. Kids come to nursery sick every Sunday with runny noses and coughs. The parents are not supposed to bring them to nursery sick, but they do anyways. I have said something one time and it just blew up in my face. The parent basically said he was teething and that is why his nose was running. She wouldn't take him out of nursery. I am not a bio-chemist or a doctor, but I know a cold when I see one and when your snot is green, it is mean bacteria going on in there, not just "teething". I think I have taken all that I can. It is affecting my day to day functions, especially my ability to function completely in our business. It is not fun to have to run errands, do inventory at the cart, make sure they have everything they need, ship out product, update the website and design new aprons, when you feel like you are ready to die. Well, not literally:) I am being a little over dramatic, but I am pregnant so I feel the urge to be dramatic today...:) Things will look up as soon as I get released, but I just don't know when that will be. I would like the calling otherwise, but right now being pregnant and getting sick all the time, makes it really difficult to be even mediocre. We will just have to see what happens I guess.

On a happier note, Dallin Carter is growing like crazy and he is sure active. He is always kicking me and moving around. The other day I was lying in bed and he just started kicking me like he was practicing karate or something. I mean, his legs were kicking one kick per second for like an entire minute. I am not exaggerating. I had never felt him kick so much or so quickly my entire pregnancy. It was pretty cool, but also pretty uncomfortable after a few seconds. I am really starting to feel him stretch now. He tends to stretch right on my bladder and into my lungs. I swear that is what it feels like. I get short of breath all the sudden and feel the intense need to pee all that the same time. Pregnancy sure is full of the unexpected. It is not boring to say the least:)

We can hardly wait for him to come though. I want so badly for him to arrive. We have yet to buy anything at all for him, but I am sure after Christmas we will start buying some things we need. It is just a like too surreal still, but I am sure it will only get worse. I am a lot more relaxed about the whole thing knowing that if he came today, he would be able to survive most likely. That makes it easier to get excited and not worry that something bad could happen to him and that it would all be for nothing. I am sure every soon to be mother worries about this, and I am glad that it is being relieved slightly as it gets closer to him coming and he is growing more and gaining strength each day.

I get really excited for Dallin to come when I see my new nephew Calvin. Calvin is just a couple months old, and he is so adorable. I love to hold him and see him smile. It must be so much fun for Crystal to watch him grow each day. She is a great mother to him.

Well, things are crazy, but I am so excited for Christmas to come. Mom and Dad Hansen are coming out after Christmas and I am super excited to see them. They are so much fun to be around and we have a blast every time we see them. I feel so blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. I know that the family I make with Joe will always be close to them and that brings me a lot of joy. I think that thing I love most about Christmas besides the wonderful season, is how much it brings families together. I love to see those that I haven't been able to see in a little while and the feeling in the air is just so magical. Yes, I can barely wait for Christmas. I am so excited.

And the belly grows...

Hey Everyone! So my belly continues to grow everyday. I am sure popping out. I ran into one of my dad's co-workers at the movies and he told my dad that I looked like I was ready to pop already!! Haha, he said I was huge! I don't think I am huge yet, I still have 3 months to go and I am sure I will only get bigger and bigger. This picture is my belly today, at 6 months. I guess I am getting pretty big. I sometimes forget I have a belly and then I knock something over with it and to my surprise I look down and realize there is a human in there. So crazy.
We can hardly wait for Dallin to come. We are so excited. We just moved the office furniture out of the second bedroom to make room for the baby. We have so much stuff! I don't know where we are going to put the rest of the business stuff when the time comes to really put the nursery together, but I am sure we will find a way to make it work. We still have a lot to get for him. We haven't purchase a single thing yet. I am sure the last two months just sneak up and right on by you before you know it, so I am trying to figure out when I should start putting things together. I don't want to do it too soon, but not too late either. I think after Christmas will be a good time to start:)
Anyways, it looks like my belly will get rather large, regardless of my tall height. Everyone was telling me that I might now show that much because I am tall. Well, there goes that theory:) It's okay though, I still feel very able to move around and exercise still. I wonder when you start to waddle....???? ;)

Halloween

Joe and I had a Halloween party this year. It was a lot of fun. We had planned to do a big murder mystery dinner. We invited 5 other couples, but only 2 ended up coming. Yikes!!! Our plans had to change a little. It was great though, we still did the dinner and we just improvised. It was fun to see some of our friends and to catch up with a couple we hadn't seen in a while. Here is a picture of Joe and I. He was superman and I was a fairy. Everyone kept saying I looked like an angel... what can I say, I guess I am one ;).

Well, it looks like Grandma and Grandpa are reading this blog now! Hurray!!!! I will show you guys some more little pictures of Dallin that we just got on Thursday. We had our 5 month, or 20 week checkup this week. They measured all his organs and made sure that everything was as it should be. So we have a few more pictures to share of Dallin Carter.

The ultrasound technician said his kidney's are a little fuller than they should be, so I have to get one more ultrasound in 4 weeks to make sure that everything is okay there. She said it was nothing to worry about, but hello!!! I worry about everything...haha. Joe says, that I am a worry wart, and it is true, I am, but I am trying to get over it. Worrying doesn't help anything :)

We are so excited for him to come. I was out shopping with my sister yesterday, and I saw so many cute little baby boy clothes that I never really noticed before. It is funny that being pregnant opens your eyes to all things motherhood. I also was able to find some new shirts for my growing tummy. Most of my shirts are starting to ride up the belly, as it grows and grows. Let's face it, no one wants to see me in a belly shirt, 7 months pregnant...uh uh. So the shirts I got will help with that problem, no belly shirts!!! I got some pretty cute ones actually. I was surprised that I was actually enjoying myself yesterday. It helps so much to wear maternity shirts, it is just so much more comfortable. I am not huge yet, but I imagine I will be soon, and the shirts are definitely a plus in that category.

Here is a picture of me at 5 months, taken yesterday the 23rd of October.

I had to pull my shirt tight to my sides so that you could actually see my belly, otherwise the shirt does a pretty good job at covering it up. Joe said I didn't even look pregnant in the shirt, now where is the fun in that? So I pulled it nice and tight, so that you could see little Dallin too. After all, in all his ultrasounds he has been very willing to get his picture taken, not shy at all. I think he will love to get his pictures taken Grandma!!!

Also this week, we had the tree in the back of our yard taken out. It was a whopping 100 feet tall and it was diseased. Every day it would drop dead limbs on our yard, not fun to pick up. And when it would storm we would have even more to pick up. I liked the game "pick up sticks" when I was little, but now that I am older, this game was getting old. So Joe and I found a tree removal service that would remove the tree for $850 bucks. Sweet deal. But when the guy came to take it out for good, he tried to change his quote and said that the tree was bigger than he remembered. But no luck for him, Joe stuck to his guns and showed the guy the quote that he himself had written out and given to us. The guy couldn't back out now. So here are some before and during and after shots of the tree....I am so glad that it is gone....

Tree just before we took it out.

Half way through.

Mostly done... just a little ways to go!!!

And done, our carport had to be removed to get it out. They couldn't cut it down to the ground because the big brick wall was in the way... oh well... it is much better than having that huge tree dropping things on me...haha.

So the tree is gone and we are so excited to landscape back there next spring. We have so many ideas of what we could do. It will be so fun.

That is it for now. Ta ta.