Catching Up With The Girls

A few Saturdays ago, March 7th, I went to a baby shower for Kathy, my good friend from our freshman year at BYU. This is Kathy's first baby, which is in and of itself exciting, but I'm extra excited because she and I are both having boys and she is due just 12 days before me! I love being pregnant at the same time as friends! Our other good friend from freshman year, Catherine, also came to the shower, and the fun fact is that she is pregnant too, and due really close to us in Mid-May! She is waiting for a surprise on the gender though, so we'll have to wait and see if she will be having another little boy to pal around with me and Kathy's boys, or a girl that me and Kathy's boys will fight over for a date someday....ha! Another fun twist...this is Catherine's second baby, and she and I were actually pregnant at the same time the first time around as well, and had boys together...her cute little Samuel was born just a couple of months after Thomas. So...if Catherine's surprise gender baby is in fact a boy, there will be 5 little boys between the three of us when we get together! THAT would be a party!

I always become really nostalgic when Kathy, Catherine and I get together, thinking of all the memories from our freshman year (2000-2001). It was a fabulous time and one of the best, most memorable years of my life! I made many friends that year, but Kathy and Catherine were my closest friends. We were together so much that we got dubbed "the triplets," and we also called ourselves "Neopolitan"...because Catherine is blonde, I'm red-haired, and Kathy is brunette! None of us were roommates freshman year, but we all lived within just a few rooms of each other on the same floor of our dorm at BYU, good ole' V-Hall, in Deseret Towers (which has now been torn down...so sad!). There's a lot of history with us three! Kathy and I were with Catherine the night she met her husband James, and they have known my husband Ryan pretty much just as long as I have. The three of us spent lots of nights staying up late together, acting crazy, putting off studying and writing papers until the absolute last minute...those were good times!

Despite the fact that over the years Kathy and Catherine and I have never moved further away from each other than 1 or 2 hours, we're not always good at keeping in touch or seeing each other...the times we all usually see each other is at our bridal or baby showers! So I always get excited when there's a gathering that will bring the three of us together again. Even though we all lead busy lives and go long stretches of time between seeing each other, I always feel like we catch up fast and that our friendship is the same as its always been. Its crazy to think its coming up on 10 years that we've been friends! That makes me feel old!

Missing at the shower was our other good friend and my roommate from freshman year, Brooke. She lives closeby in Salt Lake City but couldn't make it that day...we missed you Brookie!

And even though she lives in Cali, I was also thinking about our other friend, Catherine's freshman-year roommate Afton...move back to Utah girl! =)

Catherine and I hung out with Kathy long after her shower ended, just visiting and talking about mommy and baby stuff. Before Catherine and I left to head home from Kathy's we got a photo of the three of us side-by-side with our baby bellies. It is so crazy to see how we've gone from this...

to this!!!

Name Game

Today I was thinking about baby names and I asked Thomas, "Should we name your baby brother *Name*?" At first he said "Yeah!" and then I said, "Say *Name*!" and the way he said it was so cute! The name I asked him about has a common nickname, so I said to him, "Can you say *Nickname*? Sometimes you can say *Nickname* instead of *Name*, just like we say Tommy instead of Thomas!" And then Thomas said, "No, wanna name him Tommy & Jerry!" I laughed because I knew where that came from...he's been watching Tom & Jerry cartoons lately. (Hooray for old school cartoons...most of the modern ones drive me up the wall!) Even though Jerry is not a name I would actually consider, I thought his suggestion was so cute!

And yes, as you can tell, I'm hesitant to share the names we're considering. Its not that they're weird or anything...I just remember when I was pregnant with Thomas I was pretty careful not to share our names with people, but a few times I let my guard down and would tell someone what we were considering, and they said something critical or mean! So now I'm even more gun-shy to tell anybody this time around. Its already hard enough to pick a name for a child...something so important that they will carry with them their entire life...without someone bashing the one or two good ideas you manage to come up with!