Catch Up

I know it's been a while, so I'm just going to do a quick post about everything that's been happening.

BABY SHOWER

Some awesome friends from my ward threw me a great shower a couple weeks ago and I got lots of diapers, wipes, bathing essentials, a few receiving blankets (which, if you can believe, I never had any with Brayden), and some of the fun stuff like clothes and a cute stuffed animal. Here's the picture I managed after most people already left.

The fabulous diaper cake Marquesas made

FASHION SHOW

I'm now in charge of one Young Women's activity every other month for personal progress. For July, we had a modesty fashion show and it was really fun! I think I needed to have a lot more people for the actual modeling part and cut down on the talking portion, but overall I can't complain about how it turned out. Here's a group shot of the lovely models we got! Next I think we'll do something about patriarchal blessings. We'll see.

BRAYDEN

Brayden won't be an only child for long. He's getting so grown up! He's really trying to say more and more words. He'll actually repeat things when I ask him to and I'm tuning my ear to his language. He can ask for juice (which basically means any kind of drink), answer yes or no questions with either a yes or shaking the head, he recognizes several letters of the alphabet and can make their sound. It's so cute when he sees an "M" because he'll point at it or pick it up and say "Mmmm" and then often times end with saying "Mum mum," which of course is his name for me and what "M" stands for. So cute. He still loves his songs with actions (favorites - wheels on the bus, if you're happy and you know it, the wise man and the foolish man, head shoulders knees and toes, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, and popcorn popping). 

We go to the park every Wednesday to play with some other families and a couple weeks ago it started raining while we were there. Of course, there's nothing better than splashing in fresh rain puddles, so all the kids got soaked, but it was fun :) I snapped a few pictures, so I thought I'd put them up.

Kicking in the puddle

Playing ring around the rosie

Cute picture with Brayden and Anna both looking! Really, they're getting ready to play ring around the rosie again and wondering where Ava went. But, I just like that they're standing there holding hands ;)

And before I post about Little Brother, I just have to add that tonight we're doing our "baby prep" Family Home Evening and after having a short message we're going to take Brayden to the toy store and let him pick out a baby doll that will be his baby and we'll bring him home and let him practice whatever he wants. . . putting on a diaper, feeding it a bottle, rocking the bassinet, wrapping it up, etc. We'll see how it goes, but I'm excited.

ROOM MAKEOVER

We decided that we want to paint the boy's room. So, over the weekend we picked out some color samples and we got the pain today. We're going to paint it before FHE and then let it start drying while we're out. Hopefully it's all dry and put back together before the baby comes, but it's a fun little-ish project to get done! I'll post the before and after pictures later (when we actually have after pictures).

MOM IS HERE

Mumsy switched her plane ticket to come on Saturday instead of tomorrow, so she's here and helping out with our project. It worked out nicely because she flew in to Orlando and we were able to do one last temple trip before the baby comes. We were planning on being in Orlando anyway, but it's definitely cheaper, so it was nice for her too. It's still weird knowing that she's here to help me out with my newborn! Unfortunately she has to leave earlier than originally planned too, so we only have her for a couple weeks.

LITTLE BROTHER

One of the reasons Mumsy came out early is because I've been saying that I thought our babe would come the 2nd week of August (which has just begun) and at my appointment Friday they told me I'm dilated to a 2.5-3 and what they call "ripe and ready to go." The midwife told me that I may not need my appointment this week, but it's set up just in case. I've been having braxton hicks contractions since last Wednesday and I'm pulling for the boy to come Wednesday or Thursday. We think it would be awesome to have him born on the 11th because Brayden was born on the 9th of '09, so this one could be born the 11th of '11. But, really whenever will be great. I got a calendar at my shower that everyone put their guesses on for when the baby will come and what his stats will be.  We've added some family guesses to it too.  If you want to guess, just leave it in a comment and I'll add it on there!

The baby bump from today - 38 weeks, 2 days

Lastly about this little brother is that we have unofficially decided that his name will be Zander Charles Brown. It's been a hard decision because it gets mixed reactions. Even from us when we first heard it. But, believe me, we've taken that all into account and made it a matter of prayer, pondering, and family discussion and we just feel like that's what fits this guy. Well, the Zander part at least. The middle name, Charles, is also Preston's middle name and we liked the mix. The other option (one of them) was Zander Graham Brown. Graham being my dad's name. But, it was a little to close to Alexander Graham Bell :)  Anyway, now you're all prepped to either be disappointed in the name or excited about it. Either way, we like it and think he'll like it too. Plus, with a lot of names out there right now, Zander won't seem too weird :) We do have our backup name (Conner) if we change our minds last minute.