'Tis The Season

This is the Bennett Family Christmas card of 2011... complete with pictures of our little man on the back! I can't wait til next year when he will be the star of our card.

Apparently this winter is also the season of extreme cold, but very little snow. Evidence? Last Sunday all of Provo frosted over and the frost stayed all day. That's right, it was cold enough that the frost delicately frosted every single tree branch for almost the entire day. I guess if we aren't getting any snow, I can live with the beautiful frost...

I love the holiday season!

Holiday Family Festivities

What's Christmas without spending time with your family? The last couple of days we've gotten to spend some time with Chad's mom and sisters in a few holiday events. Sunday night we headed up to Salt Lake to enjoy the Christmas lights on Temple Square. They were beautiful and by the end of the night it started snowing which added a particularly Christmas feeling to the whole evening.

Gotta love the reluctant-to-be-photographed Miss Kenzie Shae... just her glaring eyes poking out.

For family night, we all got together to exchange gifts due to everyone having highly inconvenient work schedules/plans. Kaitlin was leaving on Wednesday to spend Christmas with her husband's family and I work Christmas Eve & Christmas night. Christmas is way more fun with kids, I think we spent more time laughing at her antics than anything.

Chad holding our new grill basket...

She fell in love with Kimber's new scarf and insisted on prancing about & reapplying lip gloss every 30 seconds. Apparently she felt like it was a princess scarf.

Hooray for spending Christmas with the people we love!

31 Weeks

Only 9 weeks to go and I can hardly believe it! Here are some of the updates at the 31 week mark:

• I've started to get used to almost a constant back ache, I'll be excited when I can actually sit for extended periods of time without feeling incredibly sore and uncomfortable.
  
• Gestational Diabetes- continuing to monitor my blood sugar about 5 times a day to make sure that it always stays within a normal range. So far, my attempts at self-management have been highly successful. However, this success comes at the cost of cutting out most dessert/candy and limiting my intake of carbs... most specifically bread! My daily diet consists of a regimen of carb intake being limited and spread out throughout the day so as to maintain a more stable level. It's actually not been too bad, I mean it's really not going to kill me to limit my intake of unnecessary desserts & things.
• Baby boy is extremely active, I feel him move multiple times throughout the day including when he has hiccups, one of my favorite things. Even Chad can feel him when he's moving around and sometimes when he's feeling particularly joyful, we can watch my belly move around. It's kind of crazy.
• I'm beginning to become acquainted with the inside of my belly button, it's starting to make its appearance to the outside world.
• We still haven't totally settled on a name and apparently subconsciously I'm starting to be concerned about it- the last couple of nights I've had a few nightmares about not being able to choose a name.
• Last week we bought sour cream at the grocery store that expires the day after little man's due date. By the time our dairy expires, he should be here (hopefully)!
  
• Sometimes I feel like a whale, especially when trying to get up after laying down. I may or may not have to kind of roll out of bed in order to make myself get up.
• We've finally decided on the BOB for our stroller of choice and now we just need to order it. We will also be purchasing a Chicco car seat in the next week or two. Two items down on the list of things I would like to have all figured out before little man gets here.
  
• Everyday that goes by, the reality of this little man gets closer and closer. It's still hard to believe that we will actually be able to hold him and call him ours in just 2 months!
  

Side thought: I have the best husband in the whole world. I absolutely hate mopping the floors, it's one of my least favorite household chores. I have never mopped the floor in the 3 1/2 years we've been married, Chad always does it. So here he is, mopping the floors next to our wonderful Christmas tree. I just love him for it. Plus, he's done such a good job taking care of me when my back aches or I start to feel anxious about the baby actually coming... he's a keeper.

Christmas came early...

After months of research, planning, and contemplation, we finally pulled the trigger yesterday and bought ourselves a new car! Welcome the newest member of our family... the baby before the baby... its a 2011 Subaru Outback!
As we both had Thursday off, we had planned to go to the Subaru dealership and test drive a few of these beauties as well as a Subaru Forrester, and a Kia Sorrento. In the end, there really was no question... we were all for the Outback, all the way.

Chaddy with his new car, I think he may be in love...

So we brought our new car home and then initiated it into the family by driving it up to Salt Lake for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert. This beauty drives like a dream! Here are a few more pics...

Apparently we have a thing for gray cars...

I still can't believe Christmas came 10 days early at the Bennett house! When I walked out the door this morning, I was almost surprised that our little Outback was sitting in our carport and it was actually ours.

... I'm just excited that I won't have to worry about getting Chad anything else for Christmas this year. Santa has already been here.

28 Weeks: Gestational Diabetes

This week marks 28 weeks of pregnancy, which also happens to be the week that I went to the doctor's office and was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Kind of a bummer, although not too much of a surprise after 2 failed glucose tests and a mother who had gestational diabetes during a pregnancy (uh hello, Kenna was born a whopping 10 lbs 6 oz!). Apparently my healthy eating habits and active lifestyle were not enough to get me out of it!

I'll admit, I kind of freaked out for a second and cried on the way home- apparently these hormones of mine are all out of whack and making me completely irrational. Gestational diabetes is definitely something to take seriously, but is a completely manageable condition. Many of the complications associated with gestational diabetes can be avoided by diligent control of blood sugars. This Thursday I will go to Utah Valley's Diabetes Clinic and meet with a dietician & a nurse for approximately 2 hours to make a game plan on how we're going to manage the remainder of my pregnancy. This will probably mean strict management of blood sugars, cutting out any extra sugars, and continuing to maintain an active lifestyle.

Other updates at 28 weeks:

• Currently measuring at 31 weeks... apparently he's getting plenty of glucose in there.
• Still exercising 6 days a week and loving the way that it makes me feel semi-normal in this totally abnormal body.
• Gestational diabetes- updates on that after my diabetes consult on Thursday.
• I officially have 2 pairs of maternity pants- a pair of jeans and a recently purchased pair of charcoal cords. I love them. The jeans actually make me feel kind of cute when I wear them. How's that for awesome!?
• Have started wearing compression socks to work and yes, they sometimes make me feel like an old lady. However, being on my feet for 12 hours tends to make my feet feel a little bit swollen.
• I think we've finally decided to bite the bullet and get a Chicco carseat and a BOB stroller. It's not for sure yet, but I'm leaning more and more towards it the more that I research and shop for strollers.
• Chad is in love with this little man of ours. He's even decided that it's about time we buy a new car and used the argument, "It's for the baby". He knows I'm a sucker for anything baby-related.
• I have now bought 5 packages of diapers in assorted brands through my couponing endeavors. It just makes everything feel so real to walk into our extra room and see actual packages of diapers in a neat little stack!
• We are both obsessed with this little boy of ours, it's kind of crazy how even though he won't be here til February, he consumes so much of our time and thoughts. All of our future plans and decisions have him completely at the center.

In other news, we had an awesome Sunday night, just spent the entire evening together. We made some yummy dinner of grilled chicken, homemade bread, and a big salad with Galeo's miso dressing (my absolute favorite!). Chad even busted out his Bobby Flay "Grill It" cookbook and made the most delicious chicken on the BBQ. Dinner was followed by a cuddle sesh on the couch to watch Happy Feet with a roaring fire and then a Christmas extravaganza. We pulled out our Christmas decorations, whipped up some hot chocolate, and listened to Christmas music while we put them up. I love the holiday season.

Thanksgiving in Provo

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays: what's not to like about getting together in big groups of friends and family, cooking delicious food, spending the day just relaxing and enjoying each other's company, and eating until you fall over. What's not to like? This year our Thanksgiving feast was a Bennett-Myer fusion- Chad's mom, sister, & niece joined us at Grandpa Myer's house for quite the shindig.

My Grandpa Peter is one of my favorite people in the whole world. He loves everyone and is more quirky than anyone I know. Who else insists (before carving the turkey) on gathering assorted family members and recreating a Norman Rockwell classic in your very own living room? That would be Grandpa Peter.

Chad's practicing to be a daddy... he tried to get Kenzie to eat her food, but she wasn't having it.

Studying the Black Friday ads after dinner. We all look so serious!

I'm so very grateful for all of our family and friends and getting to spend a whole day with people that I love. Now if we could just get this little man here soon, he could join in on all the fun! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!