Enjoying Spring

Spring came for a few days, so we took to a walking trail by the river to enjoy a little bit of sun. We dressed Van in his cute little jacket outfit & put him in a front-pack. He loved looking around & feeling the wind, but the sun was a bit bright for his eyes & he ended up falling asleep about halfway through.
He was still conked out when we got home & slept on the couch like this (still wrapped in the straps from the front-pack) for a few hours. Poor little guy must have been beat from such an exciting first walk- pretty funny!

What I See

This is what I see every single day. I really love being pregnant, but sometimes it's hard to not feel like a cow! Tyler took these pictures the day before we went to the hospital, so this is me at my biggest! I can't tell you what a strange feeling it was, knowing that at this time the next day we would be parents & our lives would be changed forever. I've spent a lot of time in the babies room the past few weeks, just thinking and waiting in the quite.

Our new addition

Meet the baby: Vander Allen Stucki he was born at 3:48 am on Saturday March 22nd, weighing 7 Lbs. 4 Oz. What an incredible miracle!

A Room for Baby

One of the best parts about waiting for the baby to come is decorating his room! I couldn't find a set in the stores that I liked enough to spend the money on, so I bought some fabrics that I loved & my mom sewed everything for the bedroom. She made the crib bumper & dust ruffle, a changing table cover, curtains & a diaper hanger. Tyler's parents got us all the furniture for Christmas- the crib, changing table & glider with an ottoman. (We are so blessed to have such loving and generous families.) Tyler & Nate Coffin have been working very hard to get the basement finished in time for the baby to come home. . . even though it was supposed to be done by "mid-January at the latest"! We spent the whole day Saturday assembling & rearranging furniture, hanging clothes, filling bookshelves and talking about the baby. It was a blast!

I am a crappy wife. I have had three shots in the last month to show my husband how much I love and appreciate him, and I missed all of them. Our 2 year anniversary was on January 13th, his birthday was on February 11th and Valentines Day came right after that. We have made agreements not to do the whole cheesy V-Day thing, but I probably owed it to him after missing my other 2 chances. (Even my mom didn't let it pass without decorating our bathroom mirror with little gel hearts and leaving us each a bag of pink & red Kissables... my favorite!)
I think he knows he is the center of my world, but it still feels unfair that I blew off every easy, no-excuses opportunity to tell him again.
My husband is wonderful: he takes such great care of me and the baby-to-be and does everything I ask him to help me with, without complaining. He is so proud of me carrying this child and tells me all the time what a super job I'm doing and how beautiful I am. (So what if he lies- he still gets kudos for it!) He works as much as I do, goes to school full-time and still has homework to do when he gets home. He is also helping build my parent's basement- which is hard, dirty work. Yet somehow, he makes absolutely sure that he gives me the time & attention I need, helps with dinner & chores and still pull off Dean's list and A's every semester! He is a big dreamer and a hard worker, and I am so proud of him. He is a worthy Priesthood holder, and that is something wonderful all in itself. I cherish and respect that about him, above all else. He makes me laugh all the time and he doesn't take me too seriously, even when I'm over-reacting just a bit. That's where his great patience comes out too.