"Age is of no importance unless you are a cheese" -- Billie Burke--

So as I mentioned last time, this weekend was Mark's b-day! He turned 26 on Sunday and has been feeling slightly old...I told him not to worry about it, 26 isn't old! :) Anyway, Sunday morning I made him some cinnamon rolls, and after church I gave him his presents. He kinda already knew what he was getting but it's still fun to open them! I got him a pull-up bar so he could do some more work outs at home and then I got him Wolverine on DVD, good movie right there. :) He was pretty excited about it and watched it right away.

(Hmmm....what could these be?)

(yes! Wolverine!)

(ooo...exercising...how exciting :)

Later on that day we had some friends over (Whit and Rich and Chelsea and Jon) and had a delicious homemade Italian dinner. I made homemade meatballs and spaghetti sauce and then Whit brought a salad and some delicious homemade french bread which we made garlic bread with. It was SOOOO good!!!! We had a great time eating and talking with our friends. They are so fun and I wish we all had more time to hang out!

(mmm....raw meatballs.... :)

(The simmering sauce)

(The sauce and meatballs...although you can't really see the meatballs...)

(Whit's yummy french bread!)

(The finished product! It was seriously so good!)

After dinner we made some fried bread, per the birthday boy's request. He had it at my parents house Christmas morning and has been wanting more ever since...funny boy. I have to admit they are extremely yummy, although having them and cinnamon rolls in one day probably wasn't the best idea...but it's what he wanted so how could I refuse! :) Anyway, thanks Whit/Rich and Chelsea/Jon for a wonderful evening!

(Mark making fried bread)

(The "gang" :)

One last thing, I did forget one birthday from last week, my nephew Joe turned 8 on the 15th and on Saturday he got baptized so it was a pretty big week for him! Happy birthday again Joe and congrats on getting baptized! :)

"Life is tough enough without having someone kick you from the inside." --Rita Rudner --

Ok so it's actually been two weeks since my baby shower so this is a little behind the times but oh well! :) Whit "threw" it for me and it turned out pretty dang good! We had it at my house (so much easier for me to transport gifts :) and had quite a few people show up. I had some friends from my freshmen year of college (Whit, Emma, Heidi, and Natalie), some friends from my second year of college from the Glenwood (Chelsea, Randi, Amanda, and Jenny), and then some friends/family from random places since I've been here in Utah (Reni, Amy, Sis. Alder, and Davilynn). We all spent most of the time just eating and chatting/catching up (I haven't seem some of these girls forever!) and we played a couple of decently un-lame games, opened presents and chatted some more. It was so great! I think I was more excited just to see people for once :) Anyway, it was a wonderful shower. Thanks again Whit for putting it on for me!

The week after the shower Mark and I did quite a bit of shopping for baby stuff (they were having some nice sales for Labor day :) which was pretty fun for me, but Mark wasn't as excited...boys...He's not very baby savvy and doesn't really understand/know what all a baby needs but he'll learn quick enough! (so will I for that matter...) We've pretty much got just about everything for the essentials though, just waiting for the baby now! And that's a bit off yet, although sooooooo close at the same time!

Other than "getting ready for baby" we've just been working and Mark's been busy with school. Last Saturday was Mark's last day at Sear's though which was very, very exciting! He's very glad he doesn't have to work there anymore, although glad he got to work and learn so much about cars, very useful! But now he can focus more time on classes and be home more! yay for me! Today was my last scheduled day "official" day at my work although I might pick up a few hours next week since I pretty much have nothing else to do...just waiting for this baby now. I have a feeling the next couple of weeks are going to be a bit long...although it'll be so worth the wait!

This week has been busy birthday-wise for the Erwin family, starting off on Wednesday with JoAnn's, today's with Jessica's, and tomorrow's with Mark's! Along with that my aunt Kim's birthday was yesterday and my grandpa's is tomorrow...crazy stuff right there. :) I'm kinda glad my due date changed cuz there's enough b-day's this week anyway! We started Mark's b-day celebration on Tuesday by going to Tucano's (the Brazilian restaurant we went to for my b-day, they give out coupons for your b-day month where you get a free meal, which is pretty much the only way you can go there cuz it's expensive!!! but SOOO good!). We had a delightful dinner there, pretty much couldn't move after we were done. So yummy... Tomorrow we'll do the real celebrating since it's his actual b-day so I'll write more on that after.

The last thing I have for today is some pictures! I had Whit take some pics of me and Mark and my big belly so we could have a couple "nice" ones to commemorate the pregnancy :) I'm not such a huge fan of seeing myself in pics like this but I'm only pregnant for the first time once, right? :) So here's some of those for you to enjoy...pardon my goofy husband, I don't know what to do with him sometimes... :)

(This is the spot where Mark proposed :)


(Umm...I don't know what exactly he's scolding her for...I just he's just "practicing"...although I don't think he's going to be able to be very tough on our kids, he's gonna be so wrapped up by them!)

(Practicing peek-a-boo!)



(Here's my usual prego pic, 37 weeks, although all the above are 37 weeks too)

(So this isn't a prego pic but this is just to show that fall is on its way! I looked at the mountains the other day and all of a sudden there were fall colors on it that weren't there the day before...goodness gracious, it is pretty though!)

"Be happy for this moment; this moment is your life."

So I haven't blogged in awhile but nothing too terribly exciting has been going on. Mark ended his summer term with A's in both his classes, then he spent the next two weeks working full time before starting fall semester this past Monday...fun stuff right there! He's not terribly excited for this semester but it IS his very last one so I think he's going to make it just fine. Pretty much all I've been doing is working and starting to get ready for the baby. We've been trying to get as much stuff done as we can and so far our list is dwindling nicely!

We'll be getting even more done next week after the baby shower so we know what we'll need to get...that should be a fun shopping trip. Mark's not too terribly into shopping. He can make it pretty entertatining though. We have gotten some baby stuff already, mostly clothes from relatives and boy do we have a lot of them! (well clothes that is, although I do have a LOT of relatives too :)

Anyway, my grandma's niece and my aunt in CA both have girls so I've been getting lots of stuff from them. The other day we got these two nice huge boxes from my grandma full of all this stuff...we also got another big box from her before this as well as a suitcase full of stuff from my sister. AND that's not all...my grandma is sending even more clothes later...this kid is going to have more clothes than Mark and I put together! I told her that I could probably put a different outfit on the baby everyday and never repeat :) So yeah, I am excited for the baby shower (it's on Saturday), especially cuz I get to see some friends I haven't seen in a long time!



Speaking of friends, one of my best friends Emma got married two weeks ago. Unfortunately the wedding was in Oregon so I didn't get to go but her brother just put pics up on facebook and she looked so gorgeous! She married a guy named Gary who was in our freshman ward here at BYU (that's where I met Emma). They kinda dated, then both went on missions, came back, dated for real, and now they're married! They are the CUTEST couple ever too, so perfect for each other! Here's some pics of them.



Onto other best friends... the end of August was Whit's b-day so a couple days before we all went out to dinner at Goodwood and then went bowling. It was pretty fun, we don't really hang out with other couples or other people much so it was really nice to hang out with them.

Let's see...before school started Mark and I did go up the canyon again, this time to a different spot, and had a fire and did tin foil dinners. This new spot is so nice and peaceful and pretty! There weren't many people there at all so it was nice and quiet and we really had a nice time up there. We're planning on going on Monday with Amy so that will be fun.





So I think that's pretty much all that's been going on lately. Just working, school, and enjoying some time together before the baby comes! Trying to take advantage of any relaxing/quiet time that I can cuz I know it's going to be gone before too soon!

(I think this is about 33/34 weeks along...?)

(oh and this is a pic of my niece Kady when she and Monie were out here...she was such a hoot! funny little girl)