Another Year Older

This past weekend was nothing short of fantastic. For starters, I would like to announce, with a sigh of relief, that Judah and I will NOT be sharing our birthdays. I know that might sound like a cruel statement, but I want my son to have his very own special day. I think everyone deserves their own special day, and while there are several people who will share his date of birth, none of those people will be close enough to detract from future birthday celebrations. With that being said, I would like to take the time to thank everyone (you know who your are) who helped make this year's birthday extra special. I have been truly blessed with amazing family and friends, and I love you all so much; my life would not be the same without you!

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND RECAP:

Friday- My day started at 6:30 AM when I took Richard to work in Layton. Then I went to Walmart, Kohls, K-Mart, Ross, Target, Michael's, Motherhood Maternity, and the bank. It made for quite the day of errands, and I was quite exhausted by time I had to pick Richard up from work, but I think we finally have everything ready for our baby boy. :)

After picking up the hubs, we made our way over to Layton Christian Academy to support our Eagles - one in particular. Most of our God's Place youth attend LCA, and while we love to watch and support all of them, this particular game was extra special for #63, our cousin, Isaiah Murillo. He has always had a desire to play football, but due to his 8 year battle (and victory over) against brain cancer, team sports never seemed to be something he would have an opportunity to pursue. This year; however, he has been working hard with the LCA football team, and the coach said that for this homecoming game, he would put him in the game for a play or two. Well, this was something we couldn't miss - to see such an amazing young man get to fulfill a dream, and I must say that he did an excellent job. We were all so very proud of him, and he not only got to run one play, but four! Also, Jaquelin Murillo made her debut as an LCA middle school cheerleader, and she did a fabulous job on her dance routine - complete with hair-flipping attitude! To top it off, our Eagles won 64 to 14!! Yes, it was a proud cousin moment for sure!! :)

Following the game, we doubled with my sister-in-law, Jessica, and her guy, Mike, at The Pizza Place (YUMMM). Pizza was a great share for us: since I don't eat pork, and Jessica's a vegetarian, we were able to share while Mike and Richard enjoyed their pepperoni (which, being married to me, is something Richard rarely gets to have)! :) We then ended the night with The Karate Kid (the new one with Mr. Haun and not Mr. Miyagy) back at the house.

Saturday [AKA: my B-DAY]- Even though my hubby had to work (insert sad face here), my birthday was quite enjoyable. Aside from the awesome gifts I received (thank you all VERY much), I was able to spend the entire day (well, most of the day) surrounded by people whom I love and who love me back. :) My in-laws drove up from Salt Lake, and we went to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Sizzler, and OH MY, it was delicious!! What can I say, I love my beef, AND they have the best salad bar of anyone I know. We then went to church for Vertical Worship followed by some partying at Burch Creek Mercantile (even though it should just be called Farr's since their "Farr's" ice cream sign is bigger than their Burch Creek Mercantile sign) with some good old fashion hand-scooped ice cream!! We ended the night watching RED at Jorge & Martha's (and yes, I know it's not out yet [shhh])! It was a great movie to end a great day.

Sunday- When I was at Michael's in Layton on Friday, I saw the perfect lion decal for Judah's wall, but it was $17.99 - OUCH, I was not about to spend that much on a wall decal. SO, I did not purchase it. Then on Saturday, I noticed that they were having a huge clearance sell in Ogden, so I stopped in to find that their decals were going for $8.00 - the only problem was that the Ogden store did not have the lion I wanted. What?!? I was pretty frustrated, but I figured that if the Ogden location was having a big Saturday & Sunday sell, perhaps the Layton one would too.

Since Michael's opens at 11:00 AM on Sundays, and since we had worship team practice at 2:00 PM, we decided to go to 1st service so that we could head to Layton & check it out (okay, so I decided, and Richard humored me -thanks, honey). I am EXTREMELY happy that we went. My assumption was correct on the sell, AND we were able to buy the last lion one they had. Now Judah's room will look complete, and I am more than excited about it (I will most definitely be posting pictures soon)! We then made our way back home to relax for a bit before heading to the church for practice.

After practice, our good friends, Martha and Jorge took some awesome pregnancy pictures for us. We went to the Union Station, and we had a ton of fun with them. I was very pleased with how they turned out!

When we finished taking the pictures, we went back to our place where Jorge grilled some chicken, Martha cooked some rice, and Richie made some yummy cinnamon cupcakes - I got to sit and watch. It was a very nice treat, and the food was delicious! Thank you all SO very much!!

Just Some Catching Up

It's hard to believe that in only a few short weeks, I will be a 24 year old, married, mother of one. Seriously, where does the time go?? I feel like so many exciting things are happening so fast. It's an incredible journey, and I'm very grateful to be on it.

SO, here's some catching up:

Firstly, I was thrown 4 amazingly wonderful baby showers, by some even more amazingly wonderful people, and was overwhelmingly blessed at each one...

My Logan cousins threw my first shower.
It was a coed shower which was really nice just to have my hubby there - after all, it's his baby too!! ;) My sister made pumpkin rolls which were amazingly delicious, we played some men vs. women trivia type games, and we opened all of our extremely thoughtful gifts. It was so much fun, and it was great to celebrate our little Judah's coming with the Cache Valley Crew.

My sister-in-law and good friends, Amy & Nicole, threw my second shower for/from the woman at God's Place. This one was supposed to be a surprise shower, but that didn't exactly work out to be the case. I love my church family SO very much, and when I realized that I wasn't going to be able to have them at any of my other showers, I was trying to figure out some way to have one with them in Ogden. Finally, Richard couldn't take my sad face anymore, and he told me not to worry about it - that I was going to have an Ogden shower. He wouldn't, however, tell me how, by whom, nor when. A few days later, my mother-in-law called me and said that we would just plan a shower after my Salt Lake one, and unaware of the surprise shower already in the works, I assumed that this fake shower was the one in which Richard was referring.

The week before the real shower, all the men made plans for a guys night out, and since Richard wouldn't be home, I decided to make some plans with some of my friends from Weber State. Thankfully, Richard knew about the shower, and he called his sister informing her that I had made plans. I then received a text message inviting me to a girls night, but not knowing that it was really my baby shower, I declined on the fact that I had already arranged plans elsewhere. Finally, the surprise was tossed out the window, and she responded to inform me that I was a having a baby shower that night. I changed my plans, and when that Friday rolled around, I went to my baby shower where Lydia had made me an adorable (and delicious) chocolate cake, Judah was given the most encouraging prophetic blanket (that I need to get a frame for), and I was blessed so much by my amazing family. I love those women so much, and I had an exceptional time!!

My mother-in-law hosted my third shower. That was at Grandma Lillian's house (richie's g-ma), and I had an absolutely wonderful time. Four of my old friends from Jr. High, my aunt on my mom's side, and her daughter (my cousin), all whom I have not seen in quite some time, came to this shower, and it was SO nice to catch up with all of them! Then, of course, being with Richard's side of the family is always a delight. I am immeasurably blessed by Richard's family; I love them all so very much, and I am still amazed as to how I ended up with such an incredible man with such an incredibly welcoming, loving, generous, caring, God-fearing family. I am most definitely proud to call myself a Rivera!! Oh, and Grandma Lillian made her super yummy sugar cookies which she cut in the shapes of little baby feet and frosted in baby blue icing <3

Finally, was "Baby X3!" Two of my dancer friends from Weber are also pregnant. Jenny is due November 3rd, and Christina is due November 29th; so the three of us are all right there together. A few of our friends decided to throw us a triple shower, and it was really one of the cutest things I've ever seen. They made the invitations to look and read like show announcements staring Jenny Devlin, Brittnie Rivera, and Christina Taylor. They made it a donation event at the "Nicholl's Theater," and when we got there, it was a lot of fun just to visit with everyone. Not to mention that we had the most amazing brownies on the planet!! Jarren (sorry if it's spelled wrong) made these chocolate-caramel brownies that were seriously gone in like ten minutes - oh they were SO amazing!!

Thanks to everyone from our showers, we now have just about everything we need for baby Judah's arrival. There are still a few odds and ends that I would like to get, but for the most part, we're pretty set; so thank you all again SO SO very much!! I still need to get your thank-you cards mailed out, which I promise to do soon!!

Anyway, the nursery has literally become my favorite room in the house. It is SO cute and I just love being in there. We still need to get some white paint and touch up a few small areas, and I need to find another animal (preferably a lion) for the middle square above Judah's crib, but all-in-all, it's looking fantastic! Our travel system was delivered last week, and after Richard set it up, I spent about 15 minutes perfecting my stroller-folding/unfolding skills; I think I've finally got the hang of it. Our baby swing and diaper bag should be here any day now, and my in-laws are hoping that our glider and ottoman will be in by this weekend. I also bought Judah a baby book, and I've since been trying to fill out what I can. It is such a cute book, and there's a place for Richard and I to each write him a letter before he comes. I'm really looking forward to that; I just want him to always know how much he was/is loved and wanted even since before his birth. Yup, everything is just coming together quite nicely!! =D

I had my weekly doctor appointment yesterday. They did a Strep B test, and she checked my cervix. I am currently 1 cm. dilated, and Judah is very much head down and firmly planted into the birth canal. That is all VERY good news - no breech baby scares! AND while my doctor did inform me that women can remain dilated at even the 3s-4s for weeks, I really feel that the Judah's God-appointed arrival date and time is near; I'm thinking we've got maybe 3 weeks at most (which is when I'm due anyway)! I am so excited, and I cannot wait to hold my little baby boy in my arms!! =D

Also, my birthday is on Saturday - YEAH!! I'm one of those weird people who actually likes their birthdays. In fact, I pretty much LOVE my birthday!! :) It always makes me very excited. Richard's taking me out to Sizzler (which is one of my all-time favorite restaurants), and I fully intend on ordering the Teryiaki Sirloin burnt (just the way I like it - no mooing cows for me, no sir), complete with a baked potato and salad bar, YUMMMM, YUMMMMM!!! Then after Vertical Worship, a bunch of us are going to go to Burch Creek Mercantile for some Farr Better Ice Cream!! I am seriously so excited, I can hardly contain myself!!