34 Weeks

I've gone from this:

 (5 weeks)

To this:

(34 weeks)

Our baby girl is growing! And, consequently, so am I. I have reached the stage where my feet hurt every day and most mornings when I wake up my legs are achy and sometimes my hips too. What I thought before were simple movements now take a lot more effort. I struggle to reach the buckle on my sandals. I have to go to the bathroom more times than I thought possible within one hour. I even have to bend at the hips to see my weight on the scale because my stomach now blocks my view!

However, my Dr says that baby girl is doing well and so am I, so I'm really grateful for that. She's already head down so I'm hoping she's getting ready to come sooner rather than later once we get closer to her due date. Besides feeling big, achy and frustrated that I only fit into about 3 outfits, I still feel good. I had the nausea in the first trimester which got worse at the start of my 2nd trimester and had me worried that it wasn't going to get better, but after a few weeks that all ended (thank goodness!). 

I haven't had any weird food cravings like you always hear about with pregnant women. There have been a few times that I have seen or heard someone talk about a food, and I couldn't forget about that food until I had it, even if I tried waiting it out for weeks (a donut in a movie, eggos I saw in a commercial, Subway after hearing a coworker say it). I still eat more now than before I was pregnant, but my first trimester was really the only time I'd get the feeling that I was starving and couldn't eat enough. 

Smells don't bother me as much anymore, but I can still smell things that Sam can't. The worst smell throughout the pregnancy was this hand soap we had in our 2nd bathroom. As soon as Sam walked into the same room as me I could tell if he recently used that soap because my stomach would start turning. Got rid of that bottle quick! It was "waterfall" scented so I'm still puzzled as to why that made me so nauseous. A few other foods had me turning my nose, and there are a few restaurants I can't image going back to even though it's been months since I threw up that meal (specifically Cafe Rio - I used to love that place!).

We're so anxious to meet our little girl and she takes up about 99% of mine and Sam's conversations. We have her crib up and ready and I'm currently waiting on a load in the wash that is full of some of her outfits and blankets. 6 more weeks till my due date. Who knows exactly how long till she's actually here!

We're still figuring out the arrangement of the whole room, but I love looking at her crib and sitting in her closet :)

Taylor's Farewell

Sunday was Taylor's farewell, another big family day! Taylor did a great job speaking at church. The surprise of the morning was finding out that the stake had setup everything to have the meeting broadcasted to Resistencia, Argentina :) So, my parents got to watch his farewell live! I thought that was cool. After the meeting, friends and family were invited over to the house for a brunch and time with Taylor before he left for two years! He had quite the turn out. (And this is another thing that my sister had been working hard preparing for - and wonderful people helped out with).

The soon-to-be missionary and I:

 Sisterly-love. Can't you tell he thoroughly enjoys it?

It was fun to see so many people in one weekend:

 My parents were able to join the party vie Skype. I think they loved getting to say hi to so many family members and it was fun to watch people line-up to have their turn in front of the computer!

I'll miss Elder Heyman! Great pic, huh? haha

Before my grandparents left, my grandma Curtis asked Taylor to play a song on he piano for her. This is one of his favorites to play (*note around 3:30 there is a special appearance by Reed Heyman!)

Charlotte's Blessing

The same day as my baby shower the family got to gather again to celebrate another little one - my new niece Charlotte! I'm glad I was able to make it in town soon after her birth and see her as a newborn. She is so precious and looks a lot like her cute brother, Reed (at least I think so).

The proud parents:

Sweet Charlotte:

 The bro and I:

And, I just really like this picture I got of Kyle's "excited" face while on our way to the blessing...

Baby Girl's Baby Shower

In June I was able to make it home for a weekend packed full of family events. Saturday morning was my baby shower, Saturday evening was my little niece's baby blessing, Sunday morning was my brother's mission farewell and that afternoon we had a final brunch with family and friends for him. It was crazy and exhausting, but such a good time.

To start, my baby shower. My sister was amazing and decided that even though she was busy packing my little brother up for his mission and preparing for his big weekend, she wanted to throw a baby shower for me that weekend since everyone would be in town. So nice. The party setup was beautiful and little girl and I were spoiled by lots of friends and family. I was overwhelmed. My friend Monica was kind enough to be in charge of taking photos at the event...

The delicious food included different salads, my grandma's homemade rolls (they're the best), brownie bites, lemon bites, the most amazing banana cupcakes one could ever eat, cookie-dough cupcakes and a fruit pizza cookie bar. YUM.

 

The bump has grown even more since then.

I opened so many fun little treasures for my girl. I felt like it was Christmas day x10!

Some of the Curtis ladies in attendance (I missed some before they left!)

The Heyman ladies in attendance

 My sweet Grandma Curtis and Grandma Heyman

 My Nielsen sisters and mother-in-law (plus Gracie!) It was great to have them all there

 My wonderful sisters who all helped so much for the shower. As you can see, Jen is the only one who will be without a newborn this year

My favorite part of the set-up for the shower is what my sisters and I jokingly referred to as "the shrine". We put this picture up of my mom and I from when I was a baby. The night before I found some tea-lights in a cabinet and asked Jen if she thought it'd be going overboard if I lined them up and lit them in front of the photo :) It was perfect to have part of my mom at the shower. Although I didn't realize it would make all my aunts and grandmas cry when they saw it! Oops.

I know it was hard for my mom not to be at the shower. It was hard for me not to have her there, but I felt so much support from all the amazing woman who came to shower me with love. A little bit ago I attended a baby shower for a friend and when I got home, poor Sam thought something had gone wrong or I had found out some bad news. Nope, I was just having a little break down because the mother of the expecting mama was there and sharing in all of the excitement and I had some pity-me time on the drive home thinking about how my situation would be different. So, it felt wonderful to have a physical reminder of my mom's presence up. And don't worry, she and my dad got a full showing of every single gift via Skype :)

Thanks again for all the hard work and love, Jen! You rock.

Phone Dump

My sister-in-law recently did a "Summer Phone Dump" post of all the random photos on her phone from the summer and I thought the idea was brilliant. There have been multiple times I've thought "I should go sit down and do some blog posts", but the overwhelming thought of how much catch-up work I had to do frightened me away from the computer. So, I'm going to make this more of a "photo dump" post and hope it'll suffice as a recap of our lives for the past couple of months. Here we go...

At the end of April, Sambo and I decided we needed a vacation before baby Nielsen comes along. It was also a fitting time because Sam had just finished the hardest semester of his major (and if you looked at his class schedule and feel the same way I do - they are all incredibly tough), so we scheduled a trip out to California. We stayed with my cousin, Matt, and his wife, Brooke, and got to see more of the family while in town. Here's some fun from those days at Balboa Island and around Orange County:

One night we got to meet up with Sam's good friend, Thomas, in San Diego:

And other night we had the pleasure of dining with my dear Venea in Newport:

The week after we returned from California I had a doctor's appointment where we learned that Pat is a SHE. We sent these baby cut-outs (later referred to as martians/aliens/oompa-loompas) to our family members to announce the gender. Each had a white "diaper" on, but was a flap that revealed some pink panties beneath!

No, we do not have a name yet, still working on that. Of course we had to buy her "first" outfit right away:

Mother's Day came. (Shout out to Diane and Sallee - best mother's around!) Sammy pulled a complete surprise and gave me the diaper bag I wanted in honor of the big day. I shed a few tears when I opened the gift :) He's a good man!

My dear Maego was in town for a few days and was able to meet Sara and I for lunch one day. I hate when friends have to live across the country! (She's currently a resident of North Carolina). Maeg got to meet my little one for the first time:

Since my little brother moved up to Utah to attend BYU we've had a tradition of having him over for Sunday dinner (thanks Sammy for cooking about 99.9% of those meals). Well, that came to an end as the semester ended and he headed back to AZ for a few weeks until it was time for him to become a MISSIONARY. This was from the "last" Sunday:

I've still been working at OrangeSoda full-time. This September it will be THREE YEARS since I started there. Crazy. At the start of April I got a new position in the company that I love and am really happy with. It has been a blessing of a transition for many reasons. Last month OrangeSoda was purchased and there was a "celebration" afternoon. Naturally, Sara and I were thrilled about the Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes there. I must add here how much I love having a best friend at work. It is so wonderful. Sara and I visit each other's desks multiple times each day, can vent to each other, take lunch breaks together and it's always the best feeling to have someone who knows you and really cares for you there on your not-so-best-days. For those of your working full-time anywhere, I highly recommend getting a close friend to join you :)

We found out shortly before the scheduled week that the Nielsen fam was going to have a Lake Powell trip this summer. Needless to say, Sambo was excited and so anxious to go from the day it was announced. I failed big time at taking pictures. We stayed near Cookie Jar and below is the one photo I took. The family pic I stole from Brooke:

*Exciting news - this is the whole Nielsen crew, but by January there will be 3 additions! Vanessa and I are due in September and Maddie announced she and Lindsay will have a little one to join the family come January. We'll nearly be doubling the cousin count in just a few months!

When we were back in Utah I was scheduled for an interpreting assignment at the MTC. On my way out I decided to visit the hallway that has a case with pictures of all the current mission president couples around the world. I found my folks and, although it's just a picture - one I've seen before - it made me so happy to look at. Unfortunately, they're smack dab in the middle of the case so the glass does some overlapping, but I still had to snap a photo :)

Annnd throughout all of this my stomach was expanding as our little girl was growing. Here's how I looked at week 27:

That brings me to the start of June. I think that's enough catch-up for right now. I have goals in my head to finish up more by the end of the week. I can do it! :)

Catch-Up Attempt

Remember how I was going to be better at blogging now that I'm an expecting mother so I can have everything documented? Well, that hasn't happened. I think I've pulled out my actual camera for pics maybe twice in the last 5 months, thank goodness for iphones and instagram. Here's my attempt at a quick recap...

Sammy and I loved conference weekend. Sam was recently hired to be a Marshallese interpreter for the church, and interpreting part of the Saturday afternoon session of conference was his first gig. Sam's Australian mission companion was in town with his wife. We were able to meet up with them between the two Saturday sessions. It was great to meet the Elder Stone I read about in letters (he and Sammy served together for 6 months), and I loved listening to anything he and his wife had to say with their amazing accents!

Elder Nielsen and Elder Stone

Pat started to show a bit more than ever before:

Sam and I were adventurous one weekend and went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game. All of the fans are so spirited! We had a great time, RSL won, and of course it was a nice plus that the stadium is by Chipotle (since Utah valley is lame and doesn't have one, that's special treat).

Easter Sunday we were able to attend church and have fun with our little nursery kiddos. Later that day we had a fabulous Easter dinner at G's with some of Sam's extended fam. It was a beautiful day and a great time to reflect on our Savior's life and His resurrection. Easter Sunday wouldn't have been complete without a family pic in our Sunday best...

Sammy finished his junior year of college and the hardest semester in the chemical engineering major! WHOO-HOO!!!! I cannot explain how dedicated Sam has been this last semester and how hard I know he has worked to get through his toughest classes and maintain good grades. I am so proud of him and hope Pat inherits his brainy skills. On the day of the last final, Sam hosted a BBQ for all of his classmates. Sam spear headed the whole thing and had quite the turn out! My man loves throwing a good party with good food. I was able to sneak over during my lunch hour and saw Sammy in his element at the grill serving up hamburgers and brats left and right.

The day after Sam's last final we jetted off to California for a much deserved vacation! I think that will be a separate post...