Home from California

We just got back this afternoon from a 3.5 day trip to the sunny California. We flew out of Austin Wednesday night and home early this Sunday morning. Why the quick trip? Michael's lovely sister, Joanna, got married. When she told us last November that they planned on a mid April wedding, I informed her that I'd most likely not be able to go with the baby due just a few weeks later. I did not want her to feel she had to change the date for us, but I guess 2 others in the family had a difficulty with the time, too. So, she moved it up a few weeks, so I figured 7 weeks before my due date was plenty of time to travel safely!

I wish we could have stayed longer, but with my "condition" it wasn't the best plan, besides...we have to save up days for Michael to take off when the baby does arrive. In the week before I kept thinking..."please, baby, just wait until after California, I really want to go." After all, my last 2 babies were 3 weeks early and 8 pounds, so it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility to have a baby 7 weeks early. I had an ultrasound the day we left and the sonographer said it looks like the baby (she still said its a girl) weighs approximately 4 pounds, 9 ounces. She also said the babies' head was really low (she wasn't too sensitive to the pain as she pushed hard on and around my bone "down there"). I am carrying really high, as I have with all my babies, and a lady at the store says I don't look much past 5 months along. So I was glad to see the baby weighed a good amount, especially since I've thus far gained 47 pounds. Yep, thats right. But thats pretty consistant with my other pregnancies, too.

I just emptied all of my camera cards to the tune of 556 images from that 3.5 days. I couldn't pass up the chance to photograph such a lovely bride and her groom on the beautiful Oakland California Temple grounds, even though I was a big 'ole pregnant lady. Besides wedding day images, I also did a photo shoot with Michael's youngest sister, and she truly knows how to work it for the camera! Julie is starting her photography business, and I'm so excited to see where her path leads her with that. She graduates from BYU in a few weeks, so this was a more "mature" Senior Portrait Session! Then we have cousins playing pics, Golden Gate bridge pics, meeting up with an old (and very pregnant) college friend, and a very toned down Bachelorette party. Julie and another sister of Michael's, Karen (also a budding photog) took some maternity pics of me in a field of yellow flowers....so exciting images to come for this blog...if only I had space in picasa--and now I have to wait to post on flickr, too. I am quite annoyed and not sure if I want to pay $20 a year for more storage space for my images, but I think I will end up doing that. Boo hoo, I like free.

I'm also kinda bored with my blog recently...maybe because I feel I am just purging pictures to get the journal keeping done....maybe because of the pictures...maybe because I feel that out of my 100 invited on my blog...only a few are listening. Thank you to those who let me know you are listening:) My little camera is having problems and I'm annoyed with the images those give, but I'm just too lazy to lug around my "big camera" to all of our adventures. So I'm less than happy with the image quality of the pics on the blog.

I've got BIG plans for "nesting" in the next couple of weeks. Getting our home ready for baby. So excited for labor (weird, huh?) and to hold that little one. I smelled something last week that totally reminded me of the hospital smell and I got all excited. My kids are also very excited, and Alyssa keeps talking about things that will happen "when she is a big sister" in May. There is always a twinge of longing when the family dynamics change. I remember just before Alyssa was born, looking at my boys and thinking....it will all be different. A good different, but yet different. I've thought the same thing recently. Everything is so wonderful with our family of 5. Things will be different. But I am very excited for that. Sooo excited to have a sweet little baby in our home--even if that means I may get more cranky with my older kids when they are loud and the baby is sleeping. It will happen. I know it will. It may be my last baby, and I want to remember it all.