Baby Shower

I really didn't think I would have a baby shower here in Vegas since we haven't lived here very long and don't know a ton of people very well. I was surprised when a couple friends in our ward here offered to throw one for our new little boy and very happy :)

It was a wonderful baby shower! The decorations were adorable and the food was amazing! I was so happy to be able to get to know some people in our ward better and make friends and also get to know some friends better. I think the best part was just sitting around and talking. It was so relaxing. We also played a couple games which were fun :)

  

 One of the games was an ABC game. They had three minutes to try to think of a baby item for each letter of the alphabet and it had to match a list I made before the shower. The most anybody matched with mine was five. The other game was a bingo game that they did while I opened my gifts.

We also decorated diapers :) I loved when this was done at my shower for Daniel. Its amazing how funny these can by at 3am!

We also got some very cute and very helpful presents for our little guy! I can't wait to see what he looks like and dress him in these cute things! Oh and snuggle him in the soft blankets...that's the best part!

Thank you so much to everyone who came and to everyone who helped put the baby shower together! It was wonderful to get to know people better and make new friends :) Its always nice to see how much our little boy is loved before he even gets here! I'm sure he will have a line of people to snuggle him.

37 Weeks

I can't believe I am 3 weeks away from my due date! In some ways its going by slow but in others its gone by really fast!

Right now I am feeling pretty good. We're definitely starting to get a little anxious for this little guy to arrive but also starting to get excited! The closer we get to being ready, the more excited I get :)

I've been having some contractions but they aren't consistent at all so I don't think I'm close but my body is definitely getting ready. I went to the doctor today and I was dilated 3cm and 70% effaced so my body is doing something :)

I'm still working out everyday which is great! I'm not working out for as long as I was but its been really nice to be able to stay active.

My biggest complaint right now is that I've had heartburn a lot. It used to just be if I ate too much but now its pretty much after everything I eat and I can't eat as much right now which sometimes makes me frustrated cause I feel hungry but I just can't do it. Otherwise, I'm just pretty tired but feeling great!

I'm also measuring small again so they are worried about growth restriction again. My doctor thinks its probably just genetic but we'll find out next week. Hopefully we won't have to induce but this baby needs to get head down before I go into labor anyway. He's been sideways for a few weeks now which is stressing me out a bit.

I still love feeling him moving around and I love how active he is! I'm getting super excited to see what he looks like too and for Daniel to meet him!

Maternity Photos: Baby Epperson #2

I loved doing maternity photos when I was pregnant with Dan so I was super excited to do them again this time around. We were very blessed to find a photographer here Valarie, who did a wonderful job. I love taking pictures and I love having my picture taken but its tricky when you're pregnant. Sometimes you just don't feel beautiful but I think Valerie Christiansen did a wonderful job making me look good and also helping me feel pretty during the photo shoot. I'm so happy we were able to include Daniel in some of the pictures and also have some of just Mike and I. I'm really happy with how they turned out...so happy that I can't choose my favorites!

I'll start with our pictures of Daniel and I :) He loves giving baby brother kisses and love. It's really sweet but of course he wouldn't kiss my belly during any of these pictures. We had ducks walking around us which were so much more interesting than mommy's belly. I can't wait to see how Dan is with baby brother though..I hope he still wants to give hugs and love. I don't think he really understands what is happening and I don't see how he could but he is usually such a sweet boy so I'm sure he'll love his brother :)

Valerie also got some great pictures of me :) I am so happy that I found this maxi dress! It was so perfect for this and so comfortable..I would wear it everyday for the rest of this pregnancy if I could! We took so many pictures! I just picked a few favorites :)

Maternity Photos (Pt. 2)

I love that our maternity photos also ended up being a great opportunity for us to take some family pictures. This is the last time we'll take pictures as a family of 3!

This experience wouldn't have been complete without pictures of Mike and I. Once we sent Daniel home, I felt like we were able to fully focus on our new little boy who will be joining our family in a few weeks. Its all starting to feel more real. We're excited to meet this little guy!

Thank you Valerie! We love our pictures and I'm so happy we did this!

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year. I really am spoiled even though I don't ask for much. On Saturday I spent the morning with my favorite boy, Daniel. We had a tradition that for Mother's Day we go out for breakfast together. This year we decided to go to Panera Bread. I love spending one on one time with my sweet boy. Its always the best when its just us and I know this one on one time is going to be less soon, even less than it already is.

He was an angel at the restaurant. We decided to get muffins. He got a chocolate chip one and devoured it! This kid doesn't mess around!

Later that afternoon everyone else went to the movies so we got to play at home and get more time together which was awesome!

Sunday was great! I got the day off and got to just relax. Mike got me flowers and made me coffee cake for breakfast which is my favorite breakfast! It was delicious! He even doubled the topping so it was extra sweet!

Church was really nice too. We had some great lessons and also got a full lunch in relief society which was delicious! After church I just got to relax and Mike and I went on a walk together. Then he made dinner for everyone, baked spaghetti! It was sooo good! Thank you sweetie for making this Mother's Day so special and relaxing! You're amazing and such a wonderful husband and daddy!

Oh and I also got a gift from Daniel :)

Fit for Mom

Their is a group in Las Vegas called Fit for Mom. It's an exercise group for women who are pregnant or who have kids. They have all sorts of workouts. Some are focused on getting back in shape after having a baby and some are good for when you're pregnant. I heard about this group because Mike got involved with them to be the preferred chiropractor for the group. That means they refer all of the members to him for any chiropractic needs and he can go give talks to the group.

So he told me that they were doing a special free Mother's Day event. It would be a stroller striders workout for moms and their kids. In addition to the workout they also had breakfast, face painting and balloon animals for the kids and a raffle with lots of prizes for the moms. It was raining on the way to the workout but thankfully it stopped and the sun came out.

The workout was great! We did power walking or jogging with our strollers and had stations where we would stop and do cardio exercises and core workouts. It was intense! I loved it though. Its so much more fun to workout when you can do it with a bunch of people who enjoy it as much as I do!

Before :)

After....still smiling :)

After our awesome workout, we got Daniel a balloon animal and his face painted. He was wearing a shirt with a dinosaur on it so he got a balloon t-rex and a dinosaur on his face.

It was a great way to kick off my Mother's Day weekend even if I was sore for a few days!!

Los Angeles

I am going to be having this baby boy in just a few weeks and I know Mike and I will have even less "us" time when that happens. So we planned a little 'babymoon' to Los Angeles for the day. We left super early in the morning, like 4am and got back around 1am but it was a great day! We planned it all out and amazingly everything went according to our plans and we got great California weather too! The only downside was the horrible traffic which we somewhat expected but its always frustrating when it takes 40 minutes to go 4 or 5 miles.

Our first stop was the USC campus. The campus has lots of museums on it. We went to the Natural History Museum because it was the first Tuesday of every month so it was free and we went to the California Science Center. The Natural History Museum was really nice but the Science Center was a bit of a disappointment so I'm glad it was free.

These purple trees were everywhere! I think they are really pretty!

We loved the Natural History Museum though! We love animals and history and we really love dinosaurs and they had a great dinosaur exhibit. Seeing all the dinosaurs made me think of Daniel but I was also kind of glad he wasn't there because he would've wanted to touch everything and the museum was crowded because it was free. The nice part of going to a museum on a free day was that we didn't feel like we had to stop and see everything or spend a certain amount of time to get our moneys worth so we just saw what we wanted and spent as much time as we wanted to be able to enjoy it.

The museum also had a T-Rex family. So we got to see a baby t-rex which I'd never seen before.

We also saw some big stuffed animals of course and I didn't feel like we needed pictures but Mike wanted one with the honey badger.

After the science museum we drove down to Hollywood Blvd. We had planned to walk the streets and find some stars on the walk of fame and visit the Chinese and Dolby Theaters before lunch.We had some interesting experiences walking around Hollywood. First of all, I never want to walk around here at night. Also, you can't use a bathroom in any of the stores or restaurants unless you are a customer, at least at the shops further from the theaters that aren't as nice. Now I am 35 weeks pregnant and sometimes I just have to go so thankfully Mike went in and explained that his pregnant wife needed the restroom and a lady in a pizza shop was kind enough to give me the key :) (Mike had to wait until later..sorry only perks for pregnant ladies). Also, apparently Mike and I look like we are from France. A couple asked us to take a picture of them and asked us if we were visiting from France???? I'm not sure if this is a compliment or why but it was funny. When we told them we were from Vegas they got excited because they thought we had lots of money so we could take a bus tour...um no. We did a lot of walking though so we got to see lots of stars.

The Chinese Theater was fun to see too. Last time we were here they were doing construction so this time we could actually see everything.

This is as close as we got to the Hollywood Sign

Then we went out for lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. It was pretty good! It was also really nice to sit and take a break from all the walking we'd been doing.