Egin Lake, Pregnancy Update, and a cry for HELP!

After too many accidents with Jake erasing all my precious blog work, I have decided to compose my text in Word and then copy it over just before I publish my posts. This should save me a little time so I don’t have rewrite everything! :)

So, Jake is the second counselor of a bishopric in a single’s ward here at BYU-Idaho. We have had A TON of activities with them, but only recently have I realized that I STINK at getting pictures of the actual events that take place in our lives, so I’m trying to be better. This activity we went out to Egin Lakes, right by the sand dunes just outside of Rexburg. The kids set up a volleyball net and played Frisbee in the shallow water and we had hot dogs and other great food as well! This was a memorable occasion because it was on Hannah’s B-day and she got to wear her very first swimming suit (thanks Grandma Glendi!) and play in water other than her bath!! She LOVED it! And What a cutie she was! I only wish I knew there would be sand and lots of water and I would have dressed better for the occasion. (I guess I assumed there would only be a little hole of water on the side of some grassy embankment… It also would have been nice to have a chair… Someday I’ll figure out pregnancy!) We had a great time with the ward!
Here are the pictures from Egin Lake…

That night we were also invited to a Baby Shower BBQ that the husbands were invited to. It was SOO FUN! Jake and I won 2nd on the word scramble and that won us 2 Jamba Juice cards! Then Jake won a baby bottle contest where the husbands had to suck 2 oz. of rootbeer out of a baby bottle with a slow-flow nipple!! Jake literally WASTED the other boys and that won us a $25 gift card to Target!! We felt too bad winning all the contests, so we’re sure glad that someone else won the I-Pod Shuffle! Can you believe it!? What a baby shower! Jake was really nervous about it at first, but he loved it by the end! That night we went to IF and bought ourselves a nice wireless router! Who knew going to a babyshower would get us so much great stuff! (All you having babies, keep this idea in mind and BE SURE to INVITE US!! Of course, keeping all the same games will increase our chances of winning, so keep that in mind too! :)

Well, as for the pregnancy, I am officially 8 ½ months along today. It has gone by SOO FAST and I can’t believe that its almost over. Once the 7 week break comes I will be about 9 months/36 weeks. Full terms is 37 weeks and after that its pretty much a guessing game. I went to my appointment yesterday. The baby is no longer measuring small because I gained 5 POUNDS since my last appointment, which is an improvement from the usual 1 lb. My blood pressure was a little high though, so we’ll be watching for that at my next appointment. The semester ends next Thursday and we are thinking of leaving for Boise that day and spending the next week up there. That puts my next appointment next Wednesday, which is great that I can fit it in, but that also puts our plans on hold until we know what happens at my next appointment. If I had high blood pressure or any other concerns, we might have to stay after all. Poor Jake—he is really looking forward to his cabin/outdoor time, but I guess we’ll have to do what is best for the baby. I’ll keep you updated on my next checkups as they come.
This is what Baby Center has to say about the baby in week 34:

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

This is great news for me! I always worry about preterm issues, so I’m glad to know that we’re far enough along that things should go well just in case…

Ok, now I need some serious HELP!! I could probably figure this out myself, but I guess I’ll just cut some corners and ask for advice. I always have so many pictures I want to load, but you all know how much time that takes, so I’m wondering how you put a bunch of pictures on one little photo page to save time. Any other tips on how to be an efficient blogger would be appreciated as well!

Thanks for reading! :)