On your mark...

All throughout this pregnancy I thought to myself, "This is it!  I'm really going to have a baby!!"  As the time drew nearer I sensed the great changes that would be coming and felt more anxious/excited to get her here.  That anxious excitement seemed to slow time down. I felt like I was pregnant FOR-EV-ER!  We had a busy summer, which was a lot of fun and helped time pass quickly (ish) as we prepared for our little lady to arrive. This post is a smattering of things that filled our summer as we got "on our mark" in preparation.  With each event (a family reunion, family visiting Utah, and baby showers) we felt closer to the finish line. 

We were in charge of the Cornish family reunion in Georgia which we planned and prepared for during May.  I'm not much of an event planner, but I have learned that if I have a theme to work with then it is much easier.  As a family we decided to focus on the Army of Helaman and what we could learn from them.  We had a good time both preparing and participating in the reunion.  I do hope to get a post up about the reunion.  It was a highlight of the summer.  We left for Georgia two days after school got out.  We flew out of Provo, which worked out AWESOME!

The reunion was held at a cabin at a state park.  There are two lakes right next to the cabin.  One lake has a beach and the other was directly behind the cabin and was perfect for canoeing.  The family had arranged with a family friend to borrow several canoes.  It was a lot of fun for all to be out on the lake.

Shortly after returning from Georgia Matt's parents, brother, and sister's family (the Kotters) all joined us in Utah for vacation and for cousin Benjamin's sealing to Cheryl.  We had a great time with everyone here.  I was worried about being able to keep everyone fed, the house clean, laundry moving through, and being social.  But bless these dear family members.  They were wonderful and extremely easy to host.  They basically took care of themselves, even went shopping and prepared many a meal.  They also enjoyed  Pioneer Village, BYU, toured the Conference Center, went to the church history museum, and many other activities.  They were wonderful!  Here are David, Maria, and Amy at one of Tyler's baseball games (bless them for sticking it out through the Utah summer heat!).

Once all the family was gone we had about 3 weeks before the baby's due date so we got busy on preparing for the baby's arrival.  We knew she would be in our room for the first little while, but we wanted to have the nursery painted and ready before she came.  I didn't get a picture of the room before (Darn!  I love before and after pictures).  But I did get this not-to-far-into-the-process-picture.

We had talked about different ideas before settling on painting the top half blue, the bottom half green, and putting a picket fence around the edge.  It turned out darling (you'll have to wait for a future post for the final reveal).  Matt worked on it for hours.  I sure like him!

Something else that kept me busy were baby showers.  It was so very fun to celebrate our little lady with family and friends.  Makes me teary even now to think of all those who celebrated with us.  

Erin, Karen, and Betsy had a shower for friends and family.  It was so so fun!  It was one of the "signs" that this baby was really on her way.  I could have sat with each person there and talked for hours.

I am in the presidency of the Young Women.  Out of the four of us, three were pregnant and due within 2 weeks of each other.  The forth member of our presidency, Beckie, who has become a good friend, organized a baby shower for the three of us.  I thought we'd probably have some cute pink and blue cupcakes and that the girls had probably made us a little quilt or something.  Oh no!  Beckie had had the girls over multiple times and they had spent hours making burp clothes, receiving blankets, hats, and more.  It was overwhelming to see all that they had done.  I meant to take pictures, but got distracted chatting. 

Our ward also through me a baby shower.  Again, I couldn't believe how many women came and shared their sincere joy for our coming baby.  I meant to take pictures at this shower, too.  But alas, the chatting was too fun.  I did get this picture of the refreshments table.  Darling and delish!!

I was surprised when women at Matt's office wanted to throw me a shower.  His office manager is the sweetest lady.  Her name is Kali and her parents were neighbors and good friends with my parents.  She organized the whole thing.  It was a lot of fun.  Matt's sister, Lisa, was in town for this shower so she attended with her two daughters, Rebecca and Maria.  It worked out great.  So this is the only shower where I actually got some pictures.  One of my favorite things to do was put some of the newborn clothes on my tummy and try to imagine our little lady being that size.

This outfit came from a receptionist at Matt's office, Karla, whose family actually lived in Samoa for three years and knew and loved Brett.  She got two outfits that had a very island feel to them in honor of Samoa.  Darling!

Matt's sister was taking the pictures.  At the end she mentioned that some of the pictures were kind of funny because they were taken while I was telling a story or talking.  She wasn't kidding.  In fact, it was hard to find a photo where I didn't have a goofy facial expression.  So... I decided to make a collage of the funny pictures and embrace my non-photogenic-ness.  Enjoy.

(I really do wonder what I was doing/saying for many of those photos...)

Anyway, these last few weeks before delivery where full of good people and fun activities.  I felt so very thankful to have family and friends that we could share this time with.  I felt pretty exhausted and uncomfortable in every way, and yet I couldn't have been happier.