five months.

Ms. Charlotte Rose Nelson is now 5 months.
I'm not trying to brag or anything but my daughter is awesome. Pretty sure I won the baby lottery because she is SO fun, full of personality and pretty interactive already. I'm making it a point to soak up every moment with my tiny girl because she certainly isn't staying tiny forever. Today she proved that when she rolled the entire length of our living room. Granted, our living room is pretty small... but I was impressed!

By the way, Mikey has taken it upon himself to nickname her Char Char Binks (Star Wars joke, I guess?) so if you hear him say that, please do me a favor and do NOT encourage it. Thanks.

Don'tcha wanna squeeze those cheeks?

our little easter.

The morning started with an epic pancake fail. How does one screw up pancakes? Easily. They tasted disgusting... so I'll just stick to green smoothies and cereal for breakfast. Then we all took a glorious late morning nap. Bless our sweet Charlotte for sleeping well that morning! Church was fantastic. She spent nearly all of it with her Grampa Gary. He's kind of a Charlotte time-hoarder, especially now that we're leaving for Arizona in a month. After church we had family egg hunt with the cousins, a delicious dinner (I love any dinner that includes honey ham and green bean casserole) and ended with a walk along Bountiful Blvd just in time to see the sunset. 

 I feel humbled by the love of our Savior. He lived, suffered and died because he knows that I'm not perfect. He never blames me for my wrongs. He knows that I needed someone to atone for all of my mistakes, imperfections & sins so that I might live with my Heavenly Father, Him & my little family forever. How do you adequately express gratitude for that kind of love? I'm not sure. The thought alone continues to bring an abundance of emotion. 

Definitely a perfect Easter Sunday.

not quite there yet.

If I told you that feeding Charlotte solids was the funniest thing to date, would you believe me?
Probably not. And honestly, there are funnier things in life than seeing a baby have food forced upon them.... but seriously, we about died laughing at her reaction.
She HATES solids. And yes, we've tried a number of things. We started with spinach and banana blended and she was terrified. It didn't get any better with mashed avocado or rice cereal. This girl just isn't ready to take plunge.

 Personal favorite.

 Letting Grampa and Nana in on the action.

Fine Charlotte, you don't have to excel at everything.

starting up again.

My poor little blog has been neglected.
I know exactly why. The convenience that Instagram and Facebook offer keep me rather in the loop and so I hardly bother with blogs anymore. I rarely read them. I more rarely update mine. Just yesterday I was thinking how sad it is that I haven't taken the time to document the details.
I take pictures of daily life like it's my job. Like it's my full-time, baby-lovin' job. SO I just need to take it one step further and blog it.
I'm going to start doing that now in hopes that I don't seem quite so pathetic when I am blogging like a madwoman when we move to Arizona. (I'll say it's not due to boredom and unpopularity... but it will be.)

Anyway,
I won't attempt to let catch up on all the things that I've missed since December but here are the highlights, perchance you only read my blog or haven't looked at Facebook/Instagram in ages.

-- We're moving to Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ in two months. Mike was offered a job transfer with his company so we are taking the plunge. By our own choice, it may be temporary (a year or so) or it could turn into something more permanent. We'll see...

-- Umm... pretty much all the Holidays -Christmas/New Years/Valentines Day- came and went. We spent two weeks around Christmas with my family in Pittsburgh. It was fantastic. And a much needed break for Mike. Charlotte finally met her Grampa and Uncle Zach, we went to Kirtland and enjoyed many church history sites, Cleveland and the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame and lots of local dives. Gosh dang it... vacations are the best.

-- Charlotte is growing fast. Sounds obvious to most but I really wasn't prepared for her changes to happen so rapidly. I swear she learns something new EVERY SINGLE DAY. Before we know it, she'll be borrowing the family car and dating guys that we don't like.
This week we had her 4 month check up and shots. She handled it like a champ. We found out she's 13 lbs 4 oz (40th%) and 25 inches (80th%). Where is she getting this long, lean body?! Not from us. My guess is that she'll be fattening up soon because we're starting on solids this month! Oh, the excitement. Messy food-all-over-the-face pictures to come soon, I'm sure.

Cute, huh?

my new life.

It's safe to say that Charlotte IS my life now.

Just a couple months ago, I was working a full time job, going on dinner dates with Mikey, eating whatever I wanted and sleeping as much as a severely pregnant woman can. Life was good...

Now, life is great!... but I'm not doing a single thing I just mentioned. Baby Charlotte makes things a little difficult in that regard. These past 40 days have been full of so much emotion. I've learned to sleep in 1-3 hour increments, consider cereal to be dinner often, try to get out of the house every other day (for my own sanity) and do laundry every single day or we will run out of burp cloths. Above all, I have more love than I can put into words. I'm on a love high. 

Since her birth on November 1st, there have been so many baby "milestones" (if you can call them that?) that we've already experienced with C. At the top of the list? Her smiles. In the morning, she smiles like it's going out of style. 

It makes my heart melt. 

I'll try getting around to posting her birth story later this week, but for now... here are some pictures so you can fall a little in love too.

 Day one.

C's first outing. Headed to the pediatrician at 4 days old. 

 One week old. I know... could she have any more shades of pink?

Girl is throwin' gang signs. 

About a week ago,  Charlotte had soaked through her 4th outfit of the day. 

It was decided... Naked does less damage.

1 and 70%

... that's where I'm at right now, according to my doctor.
At 38 weeks, I was hoping to be a little further along but at least that's some progress. Quite honestly, as great as it would be to go into labor tomorrow (because that means we'd be holding our little girl early), I can't imagine having her right now. My mom gets into town on the 30th and there's something about having her around that will comfort me... and Mike too. He needs her to be there. :)

Preparing for Charlotte's arrival has been so fun! We've had AMAZING baby showers (thrown by friends, coworkers and family) that have really helped things come together.  Mike painted a vintage 1950's dresser and put together her pack 'n play and crib. I've organized all her clothes, ordered a ridiculous number of diapers online and thoroughly deep cleaned our apartment.

My due date is Election Day. If I were smart, I would've registered for early voting... but I'm not. So on November 6th, regardless of baby status I'm hauling my bum to the local junior high and voting. I'm planning to get lots of looks as I stand in line and I'll try my hardest to ignore them. Those looks are the reason I stopped going to our local gym. Everyone who passed by me would give a sympathetic smile that said, "Good for you, coming here" or "Very impressive". I knew they were thinking Stay home from the gym because you're nearly the size of a whale . So I do now.

Here are some random pictures over the past few weeks.
If you have ANY pictures of me while pregnant or of a baby shower... please send them to me. I've been really bad about documenting this pregnancy.

 sisters at the Pat Benetar and Journey concert. Almost 7 months along.

 Kels and Vanessa threw me a fantastic family shower.

 Hannah and Candace came to my friend shower.... so fun!

 Mike and I on our "babymoon" to Vegas. Sat front row at Cirque's Mystere.

Baby clothes in the closet. I love opening up the closet and just staring at these clothes!

 With Mike's birthday in two days and still a few small things to get done, I know these next two weeks will fly by. And then, life really changes. The unknown is exciting, thrilling and scary. Eeek!

Humbling myself.

My morning began by throwing up. Seven times. Yes, seven times I hung my head over the toilet, thought it was over and then my body rejected more. I came out of the bathroom wanting nothing more than to burst into tears. My struggle with a severe case of pregnancy induced carpal tunnel, daily back pain, past worries of medical problems and my nausea returning had culminated into despair. I was completely selfish thinking I can't handle much more of this. I'm so sick of feeling this way. I was consumed in how awful my body felt and wanted to simply breakdown on my living room floor. For a few minutes, I stood silently bracing myself with the couch. I let all my negative feelings run wild.

I realize how pathetic this sounds but I feel like need to share moments like these on the blog so I can always remember.

Somehow, something just clicked and the thought came: I have things easy. Yes, this pregnancy has been harder than I expected but not nearly as hard other women have it. I can do this, despite what my mind is telling me. My body was meant to handle all of this sickness and weakness... and more. Oh, I have so much more ahead of me. If I buck up now, it'll be an easier 3 months to go.

I have a couple of friends in particular who are going through harder trials right now than my pregnancy. Our problems are not remotely the same. My pain and discomfort will likely be gone in about 12 weeks.... I have it so easy. I have a doctor that I trust and a wonderful husband by my side.... I have it so easy.

This week I had the opportunity of working as a clinician at a summer stuttering workshop. These kids varied in maturity, age and severity but they all shared the common desire to be heard and be seen as no different than those who don't stutter. "I want to finish my sentences without other people finishing them for me." -- "I want other kids to look at me and not just see a stutterer." -- "I want people to treat me like I'm normal when we talk." These comments got to the core of me because, although I have never struggled socially, I've always felt so connected with those who have.
It's interesting how easily I can talk myself right up to a ledge with how hard things are for me and how quick God is to remind me that my life is a great one, an easy one by comparison.
I am so grateful for these humbling experiences.