...Almost There...

Well, I wish I was posting to tell you that baby boy is already here, but he's being a little stubborn and hasn't made his appearance yet. That's ok, still four days til my due date. But we're ready for him to come! Especially because my mom's here and Brent has some tests he'd like to push back:) We're going on walks every day to try and coax him out. I read on some pregnancy forum that curb walking (one foot on the curb, one on the street) is supposed to encourage the baby to drop and therefore cause dilation. So far, all it's brought me is some REALLY sore calves. But hey, it's a good workout. And actually, I think the baby has dropped a little and yesterday I was having consistent Braxton Hicks contractions for about 5 1/2 hours. Hopefully something will happen soon. In the meantime, here I am at 39 weeks!

I feel like I finally look like a pregnant woman!

At the 37 week ultrasound, baby was measuring 6 lbs. 2 oz. so he probably weighs about 7.5 now. Last Thursday I was only dilated to 1.5cm but the doc stripped the membranes to hopefully get things going. We'll see what happens.

In other news, Brent just turned 25! At Brent's request, we had a delicious dinner of homemade roast beef/philly cheesesteak sandwiches dipped in au jus. Then we headed off to the Haunted Lagoon! It was our third time going this year, but the first time ever for my mama, so we stuck her on the edge of the canoe so all the lagoon creatures could scare her. It worked wonderfully; she was screaming nonstop and I was laughing til I cried. (Don't think I'm mean, she LOVES haunted things). 

My cute Brent had a wonderful birthday and I'm so grateful he was born 25 years ago! He is the most wonderful person in the world. I am one incredibly lucky gal.

And of course, Happy Halloween! Ready to see Brent's masterpiece for this year??

Here's 2009: Mario.

Here's 2010: Batman.

And 2011: Frank.

He's good, huh?!

One more thing. On Saturday, Brent's archery teacher (yes, Brent is taking an archery class = cool) invited the whole class to his house for lunch. I got to tag along. We walked up with another married couple and found the teacher grilling up some teri burgers and steaks for us. The other wife said, "We brought some cookies," and the teacher looked up and said, "Oh...ok...whateva...put them on the table." We just laughed, because it's so Hawaiian, not mean or ungrateful. This teacher is seriously the nicest guy ever. He let us eat guavas from his trees then chopped down and peeled a bunch of sugar cane stalks for everyone to try. 

Yum Yum!

Then he gave Brent a bunch of stalks to come home and plant in our plot at the ward farm. You can have some when you come visit:) 

And that was our October. If we're lucky, it'll end with a baby boy being born tonight -- but things aren't looking too promising in that department...

Baby Showers Galore

Before we moved to Hawaii, I was hoping we'd be lucky enough to have a baby here but I was sad about the fact that I wouldn't be home around friends and family to have a baby shower. But to my pleasant surprise, we find ourselves surrounded by friends and family that we love and they have been so amazingly generous as to throw us three baby showers in the past month!

Lydia and Michael Kinoshita threw us a baby shower and invited our other Kise cousins who live on the island (my grandma's extended family). It was so nice to be with everyone and realize how many loving aunties and uncles our little boy will have over here. 

We played cute games, ate delicious food, and they even had Brent's favorite haupia cake for dessert!

The next Saturday, I came home from work and rested for a couple hours then Brent told me he wanted to go eat dinner at Ted's Bakery. He got a call from my boss right before we left, asking him to stop in at the farm real quick to help them move some things around. Good thing we were headed that direction. When we pulled up to my work, I was surprised to see everyone I work with, along with the Kinoshitas and our closest friends there for a baby shower! They had a delicious dinner prepared, cute decorations around the cafe, and had worked so hard to make it a special night for us. 

Then on Wednesday, my sweet friend Alicia threw me a baby shower with all my friends from our ward. Alicia's an amazing party planner and the theme and decorations were so cute! She even hired a photographer to capture the scene, hence all the great pictures.

Here's cute Alicia and her husband Rick. We love hanging out with them every chance we get!

We are in awe of the kindness and generosity of our friends and family. They have helped us tremendously as we prepare for our little boy and they are such an example to us of selflessness, love, and giving. We feel so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people. 

Thank you!
 

And here's a 37 week shot; not sure it looks any different than the one a few weeks ago:)

34 Weeks

Time to post another baby bump picture: taken at 34 weeks and 2 days.

People are always telling me how small I am, which makes me feel pretty good:)

Everything's going perfectly well. Baby loves his daddy already. Sometimes I start freaking out because I feel like I haven't felt the baby move in a while, and as soon as Brent puts his hand on my tummy the baby will start to kick. He ALWAYS moves for Brent. I love it because baby always kicks wherever you apply pressure. So he's always kickboxing our hands. When Brent puts his head on my stomach to hear the baby's heartbeat, he always gets kicked in the head:) Makes me laugh every time. We're getting pretty anxious to meet our little guy, but at the same time we're hoping for at least another month so we can finish getting everything ready. I'm hoping baby comes on Brent's birthday, October 28th! My two boys could be birthday buddies!

Beach Time...aka Heaven

During Brent's week off from school, we finally had time to relax at a few beaches. One evening we headed over to Sunset beach on the North Shore. The big surfing waves are definitely starting to come in again. I relaxed on a comfy beach chair, but Brent quickly decided that he could build himself a lounge spot even better than a beach chair.

I thought he looked pretty cute; contently eating his pear and watching some of the surfers. Ah I love him.

The next day we packed a lunch and headed to the other side of the island to find a beach we'd only heard about: Lanikai Beach. People have rated it as the best beach on the island with sand as fine as flour. After some searching, this is what we found.

The sand was amazing and the beautiful teal water was warmer than a heated pool. We set up camp, turned on some Jack Johnson, and enjoyed Lanikai for the entire day.

Easily our favorite beach on the island, and it wasn't even overly crowded like Waikiki. Truly paradise.

And not to disrupt the calm feeling that the pictures of Lanikai have brought over you, but I killed this bug the other day BY MYSELF and was so proud that I needed to share.

It was humongous and loud and I felt really brave afterward. That's all.

The BabyMoon

When I first found out I was pregnant, I signed up for all these weekly pregnancy newsletters from websites like WhatToExpect and TheBump. And all those emails told me it was time to start planning the babymoon; the last getaway with your sweetheart before your two becomes three. One email even told me the popular babymoon spots around the world; one of which was, of course, Honolulu Hawaii and Waikiki Beach. I mentioned to Brent how lucky it was that we live a short drive away from one of the most beautiful and popular vacation spots in the world. From there on out, when I got emails about babymoons I just disregarded them as something that sounded nice but something we wouldn't be worrying about at this point in our lives.

But a couple weeks ago my sweet Brent surprised me with a trip into Honolulu where he had booked us a night at a four-star hotel with an ocean view and just a short walk away from Waikiki. We were going on a babymoon! I was so surprised and excited. We felt like fancy tourists for the night and we loved it. We stayed at the beautiful Hawaii Prince Hotel at Waikiki.

We were in heaven from the minute we checked in. We got to our room and changed into our complimentary white robes while we stared out the window at our beautiful view.

The pool was amazing too. We decided we'll have one just like it one day when we have money. We ate a delicious dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company and enjoyed walking around Honolulu.

The next day, we took time to enjoy some scenery on the island. We found a cool jungle drive and stopped at the Pali Lookout.

(Excuse my undone look, we played at the pool right up until checkout time:)

I loved my babymoon! I have the sweetest husband in the world and he gives me the best surprises! Now we're ready to have our little boy join us on our Hawaiian adventures.

This Thing Called Pregnancy

We are officially down to less than ten weeks before baby boy makes his appearance! It's crazy and a little scary, but I can't wait. This picture was taken at 30 weeks 2 days.

I feel like I look really big in that picture, but I don't feel too big. At my doctor's appointment this week, he decided to do an ultrasound to measure the baby because I guess I'm looking smaller than I should for 30 weeks pregnant. He called it "size less than date." So I was nervous for a few minutes, but it turns out that baby is actually measuring a week and a half to two weeks bigger than 30 weeks, so he's doing great! I guess I'm just keeping him tied up nice and tight in there:) He weighed about 3 lbs. 6 oz. on the ultrasound, so the doc said if baby gains a half a pound a week (as is expected) and I make it to 40 weeks, we're looking at an 8 pound baby! Being a 4 pound baby myself, that seems humongous, so I'm hoping I either don't make it to 40 weeks or that the weight prediction is over by a pound or two! But I'll take a healthy baby boy anyway I can get it.

I just want to take a minute to write down how much I love being pregnant. I know I've had an easier pregnancy so far than a lot of other women do, and I'm starting to feel the aches and pains in my tailbone and legs and feel little feet up in my rib cage, but I just love that I have a little buddy with me constantly. I love to feel him move around at different points in the day. I love to talk to him and pray for him. And I love it when Brent talks to him and tells him that he's loved. A couple weeks ago, we were able to see him move for the first time. As we watched, my tummy would just bulge out in random places or distort for a second or two when the baby moved. I loved it and immediately became convinced that my baby is the cutest little boy ever. While it's been harder than expected to watch my butt and legs get bigger, it's easy to remind myself that it's all worth it and it's all part of this amazing blessing that's about to change our lives forever.

After completing our hospital tours and starting our childbirth class, I'm getting kind of anxious to see what labor and delivery are all about. I'm not too nervous yet, but I'm sure that will come in the next two months. Brent's in the middle of finals right now and then he has two whole weeks off of school! (He hasn't had more than a weekend off since December, so he's definitely ready for a break and some beach time!) We'll be doing a bunch of baby shopping to get the necessities before the little one arrives and we'll rearrange our bedroom so we can start decorating and setting up "the nursery." I find myself fantasizing about how beautiful the nursery would be if we had the money and space to create a room for the baby like you see in the movies (or the ones I see on Pinterest). Haha, maybe by our last baby we'll be able to do something like that. In the meantime, we'll do the best with what we have. And baby boy will have a cute little area in our room with a wall decorated just for him:) 

Two months people!! We're on the homestretch.

A Night Out

On Saturday, we attended the First Term Ball at BYU-Hawaii which Brent has been working feverishly to put together. The theme was 1940's Swinging On A Star. It was a huge success with a live big band, chocolate fountains, beautiful decorations, dancing lessons, and a pretty good turnout. Everyone who came really enjoyed themselves. I had fun getting dressed up (although, as much as I wanted to dress for the theme, my choices were somewhat limited because I don't fit in most of my clothes anymore:(

But I have to say my favorite part of the dance was seeing these advertisements all around campus in the weeks leading up to it.

What a hottie!