The week before Ben

I know this is late, but I've had this  half-finished post sitting here for 2 weeks.

The last full week before Ben was born was a hard one. I was having tons of Braxton Hicks and Hannah was a pain in the butt and I was so ready to be done being pregnant. The weekend before he came was nice though. Friday night we went to a free concert in a park downtown. The performer was Cherrie Call. She's a folksy LDS artist. I've loved her since high school and looking forward to this concert was the only thing that kept me hoping the baby wouldn't come early.

Hannah and Dad weren't as into it as I was so Devan got to take a little nap and Hannah and I improvised some entertainment.

July 24th is Pioneer Day, which is a state holiday when we celebrate the first pioneers entering the valley in 1847. It's basically a second Fourth of July around here. So, finally Sunday morning my procrastination caught up with me and I threw together this skirt for Hannah. I've had the fabric lying around since May and I waited until the morning of the very last patriotic holiday of the summer to do anything with it.

My last pregnancy picture!

Devan made some amazing rolls before church and I brought a jar of whipping cream to nursery and we shook it into butter and ate bread and butter for our snack. It went completely over the babies' heads, but I thought it was really fun and pioneer-ish and they seemed to enjoy the rolls.

After church we went outside and did some sparklers.

Aunt Nicole came over on her motorcycle. She has a really cool helmet.

Monday was a nice, nice day. I woke up and wasn’t having any contractions and was able to get a lot of work done around the house. The pile of clean laundry was literally up to my shoulder, but I got it all folded and put away. I got the kids’ room more organized and Hannah was great the entire time. She followed me around and played with toys and we had a great morning. In the afternoon we went swimming. At one point I was holding her in the water and spinning in circles and she put her head on my shoulder and we just spun and spun. It was such a nice moment. I remember thinking that I wasn't going to be able to have very many moments like that where she was all I had to take care of. I was so glad I got to have that nice day with her because early the next morning I went into labor.