Family

Another lovely day of conference. We received a late night invitation to attend breakfast and dinner at my mom's house today. Before I committed, I needed to know if it would be worth our while, so I made sure bacon would be served...for Ryan's benefit. And oh my, was bacon served. 4 pounds to be exact. That's what happens when my family, consisting of 6 grown men, shows up for breakfast. The first thing everyone goes for is the bacon. Ryan kept getting teased for how much bacon he was eating. I was just happy to see him enjoying it so much. I, however, can't eat bacon right now (big turn off), so I stuck to two small slices of French toast. I don't know what was wrong with me today, but I couldn't eat a whole lot, and I was super gaggy.

Conference was lovely. Because of breakfast, and some guests that aren't members and didn't want to watch, I missed President Uchtdorf's talk. I heard it was pretty good, so we're going to re-watch it later. Growing up, I was raised Catholic, so I never watched conference, but I did always notice that once in a while my mom would have it on. I didn't know what it was, but the frequency with which it appeared on our TV made it somewhat of a nostalgic thing to me. I could always hear it blasting from my mom's room, along with her tinkering around. She loved to listen to it while she Spring cleaned. I tried that today. I worked on organizing the nursery while I listened to conference. Listening actually became easier than it was when I would just lay in bed and get sidetracked by my thoughts....or sleep. I did get slightly distracted during one of the talks (mainly because Ryan came in to check on me and give me a kiss), but I focused back in on the talk right as the answer to one of my biggest stresses was mentioned. I can't recall who said it, but he said "no occupation is as important as raising a family." I wanted to cry out "THANK YOU!!" I have been struggling so much lately with that. Do I work after the baby or do I become a stay-at-home mom? Do I try and find a job until the baby, or take it easy? What do I do? To me, since I focused in on it literally RIGHT as he said that, I knew I was meant to hear it. I realized that it's true. No career can ever be as important as being a mother. Yes, when she's grown a bit more, I may decide to go back to work. Yes, I may find a good opportunity to help out financially in the near future, but I took what he said as "Natalie, you don't need to stress yourself out with worrying about finding a job now, or even later. Take care of you and your baby. That's what the Lord wants." It was like a burden was lifted from my shoulders and a prayer was answered right then and there. Is it just me, or did it feel like the majority of the talks were centered around the family? Or was I just picking up on that more since I'm about to become a mom? Either way, it got Ryan and I talking about our daughter and all of the things we're expecting of her and ourselves. Ryan made me laugh when he said that he hopes she's a brunette. I looked at him and said "really?! How on earth could you get a brunette out of two blonde hair, blue eyed parents?" haha! He seems to think our chances are good, so we'll see. I personally want her to look just like me. I am the spitting image of my mom, so I think it would be special if she were too.

Anyway, it was nice to change up our routine a little. I was going stir-crazy from sitting in the house all day, every day this week (hence my forgetting about a day). It was nice to see some of my family and catch up. I panicked just a tad when I realized that we only have about 4 more weekends until the baby is here. Better get going on all of that nursery stuff I've been putting off...does anyone want to come clean windows, iron curtains, and scrub out a mildewy bathroom for me? I'd really appreciate it. :D

Here are some pictures of me as a baby, just to back up my feeling like we will have a blonde hair, blue eyed baby.

I was such a rad baby. Rollin' in style!

I look just like my dad in this picture. I still have the outfit that I'm wearing in this picture.... I don't think I'm going to have a brunette baby though. Sorry, Ryan!

(Day 345)