no baby yet

Today is one of my two official due dates. The other being tomorrow. And just to let anyone who checks here know..there is no baby yet, not even any signs. :( Keep checking back for hopefully some new information.

and yet another doctor's visit...

So, as some may know and others may not, going to the ob/gyn while pregnant is pretty much the same story...pee sample, blood pressure, step on the scale, wait for the doctor, doctor looks at the chart, checks the heart beat, and you're done. Sometimes I wonder why I go. Anyways, being about 2 days shy of my due date, things were a little different. I guess you could say it threw me off. All the normal stuff before the doctor happened and then while waiting for him I had to strip to be examined. I knew that he was going to see how far dilated I was, etc. so I was all prepared for some discomfort. As he checked he says quickly, "so do you want me to strip your membranes?" I hesitated not knowing this question was coming and not really knowing how they strip membranes (I only knew it was to help speed up labor). Eventually I said, "uh....I don't know". Great answer eh? He could tell I was a little confused and said he could wait another week or he could do it now if I wanted. He also said that it would be a little painful. My instinct took over after hearing the word pain and I said "I'll wait". Great job Cortney, you want this baby out and you're too wimpy to say yes. So, after setting up yet another doctor's appointment along with a non-stress test at the hospital, I went out to the car and have since regretted not getting my membranes stripped :( We'll see what the future holds. I'll keep you all updated on my boring and ever increasingly uncomfortable life.

Another project down and...no baby yet :(

I've been looking at blessing dresses on and off recently and haven't seemed to find anything that I like that isn't as expensive as my wedding dress. I really wanted something simple and not really frilly frumpy (I think sometimes babies look like they're suffocating in those dresses). So, I decided to be brave and take on the incredible challenge of making my own. I also thought this would give me more to do while I sit around waiting for this baby to come out. I'm getting really anxious if you haven't noticed :) I went to Joanns and got the pattern fabric and everything else that I would need. I spent yesterday and some of today working on the dress. It's actually the first project that I've really, truley sewn (sticking to the pattern, directions, etc). It definitely was a challenge and I learned a lot from it such as, how to sew a button hole (my sewing machine is really cool), casing, and last but not least how to interpret the sewing directions. I think most of my time was spent looking confused at the directions asking myself, "what does that mean" or "what in the world is that picture supposed to be?". It was an adventure and I am happy it's done. It's always so nice to finish and see the end result. I think it turned out pretty good, not perfect by any means, but good enough. I hope it fits, I kind of had to guess seeing as I don't really know when she will be blessed and a one month difference for a newborn really is big.

Happy 1st Anniversary!

This last Sunday was our first anniversary! We ate our wedding cake and it was surprisingly moist and yummy. It was also my sisters birthday so we celebrated that as well. We ended up going out Monday for the real celebration. I can't believe it's been a year! Being married is wonderful.

This was our beautiful cake at the reception. Sister Fletcher from my home ward made it and did it exactly how I wanted it. It was so pretty.

This is our sad cake last Sunday. The trip from California to UT wasn't very nice to it, but I still think it's pretty. Below are a couple of my favorite pictures from our wedding. I thought a lot about that wonderful day and how special it was....(sigh) :)

My belly at 37 weeks

I debated whether to put this picture up...can you tell why? Well, if you didn't notice my slip is hanging out the bottom of my dress...embarassing. This was taken after church before I changed so I'm hoping that it wasn't this way AT church...great first impression eh? I remember on Sunday I was extra careful about making sure it didn't fall down because I knew that it was likely with my belly so large now. We'll just pretend my efforts were successful :)

My New Haircut

So lately I've been having the hair blues...ya know when you are just sick and tired of the same hairstyle every single day? I'm sure all you girls have had this experience. Well, my plan was to grow my hair out until after the baby, but as time went on I got mroe and more anxious to get a nice cut (when you find yourself picking your split ends in church you know it's time for a cut :) Anyways, about two weeks ago I just decided that it was the day. I don't really have a salon or stylist that I go to here in UT, but my mother in law and a few other family members go to a place in Orem called Stylin. I called them up, printed out a picture of the hair that I wanted, and went in. I didn't realize it but the girl ended cutting 6 whole inches off! That is a lot for someone that doesn't really have long hair. So, after a couple of weeks I have finally gotten the hang of doing it and I LOVE it. It's so good to have healthy hair that actually turns out after you spend time on it. Before, no matter how much time I would spend, it did not turn out :( Thank goodness for haircuts! Below is a before and after picture.

Before
After, sorry it's blurry. It's the best i have.

Our new chair

The past few days have been pretty busy and fun-filled for us. While waiting for the baby to come, it's good to keep myself busy otherwise it just seems like it's taking forever. Anyways, to start this blog I will share one of my "wishes" for when baby comes. I have been looking around lately for a used rocker that I will be able to use for my nursing chair to have in our bedroom. I just figured that would be nice to have for middle of the night feedings. As much as I wanted this wish to come true I didn't think I would find a decent enough one that fit our budget and eventually stopped looking. So last Thursday night, I went to enrichment night and returned home to find new furniture! Not really...Andrew had gotten some used furniture for free. One of the pieces was a really ugly worn, vinyl, overstuffed rocker/recliner (you will see in pictures below). Andrew said he almost didn't get it because he didn't think it was worth anything but figured we could just get rid of it. So, this is where the adventure began. I for one, have a thing with worn and dirty fabric especially when I don't know what it's been through; it kind of grosses me out and I just don't like sitting on dirty, old material. Not trying to be stuck up; it's just a thing. So, being all optimistic as usual :) we saw the great potential in this little old grandma of a chair. We decided to give it a chance and try and fix her up; afterall she was really comfortable and still worked perfectly fine. The next night we took a trip to Joann's where all the home decor fabric was and still is 50% off. We looked through all of it and realized that the best normal priced "couch" fabric that we could see was 20 bucks a yard...a little pricey for what we were looking for. Then as we were browsing Andrew found a soft, cream colored fabric for just 9.99 full price (so, 5$ half off). I figured it would be some cheep material since it was priced so low, but when I looked I found out it was chenille. Chenille is the type of fabric I LOVE on couches and is known for lasting a really long time. Our minds were made up. We ended up getting about 6 yards and used every bit of it. Recovering the chair was a big project but actually quite fun. Andrew and I worked on it a couple hours Friday night, all day Saturday, and just finished it off today. Needless to say, we are very proud of our work. It was fun to spend time with Andrew doing a project together. I used my sewing machine to sew a few of the parts and Andrew did the stapling with my help. It really wasn't as hard as we thought and turned out to be really nice. To me, it's just as good as a brand new recliner, only cost a fraction of the price (itty bitty small fraction). Moral of the story, I got my wish :) It is sitting in the corner of our bedroom just waiting for our little one to arrive. Everytime I walk in I have to sit down; it's really comfortable.

Ewww, the vinyl was just too gross, especially looking back on it.

I sewed that amazing cushion along the back thank you very much :)

The finished prodect!

Me in the finished product :) Not the best picture

(my belly looks shiny) and I hadn't showered for the day.

Elder Olsen comes home

This past week our nephew Steven came home from his mission to Kentucky. I had never officially met him before so it was nice to finally meet the legend.

This is Andrew holding Timmy (another nephew) with Steve. It's fun to have Steve's great missionary spirit around.