Nearing the end...

That's right I go in on Monday the 9Th and don't expect to come out without my baby boy!!! Time has been interesting, it has gone fast but has also gone by SO SLOW!!! This last week is killing me! Pregnancy sure is interesting I'll tell you what! How much a women's body can change and do things that it never has. But Tanner and I are both excited for it to be the end and to meet our little man! here are some belly shots I took in time.

Me at 15 weeks. I started showing RIGHT away, everyone kept asking if I was having more then one :-( and the funny thing is I wasn't gaining any weight either.

My sister Nikki and I. I'm 18 weeks and she's only 17. she looks bigger but it's because she's shorter. boy my hair was short in this.

6 months and I'm only half the size...

6 months still, but where are my feet?

6 1/2 months and still growing...

7 months a.k.a 34 weeks. now I guess I'm off on these. I guess this is technically my 8Th month, since we're pregnant for "10 months" but I just say I'm pregnant for 9 months.

7 1/2 months. when you think you can't get any bigger you for sure can!!!

And this one was just taken a week ago at exactly 28 weeks... any boy oh boy I am STILL growing! I'll have to take a picture on the way to the hospital. I've dropped SO much I can actually feel his head hit my pelvic bone! But giving life is SO amazing! But I'm for sure waiting again to have another one! I'm still throwing up everyday. I was one of the not so lucky ones to get morning sickness the whole pregnancy. I also feel like a water balloon. everything is swollen, feet, hands, face, and arms. I miss not wearing my wedding ring, and I don't like the way people will look at me BUT I know I did this the correct way and that's all that matters! I'm ready for this little man to show himself! 6 days still seems so FAR away! but I'll make it, I just have too!!!

In other news, we are STILL waiting on a house, it seems our luck didn't come in hoping we'd have one by the time we had Joseph, but oh well... We have heard progress and they are hoping to get us in by the middle or end of Nov. but we'll see. I do just want a house already! note to self short sales take forever and are very stressful! but in the end we'll be saving a ton of money and we'll have a house of our own and not have to deal with landlords :-) well I love you all and next time I write on here will mostly likely be about our new son Joseph... (unless we were fooled this whole time and he comes out as a she... haha)

nesting...

So you always hear about it and read about when a pregnant lady is nearing the end of her pregnancy she starts a nesting stage. I never really thought I would go through it, but I find myself anxious about getting everything done and ready RIGHT NOW!!! we are still waiting on a house so still living with my parents so our room we're trying to make space for a baby for now and its no easy job. Tanner works all day and has school all night and homework I can't have his help all the time and I feel so helpless since I can only lift and do so much. It gets intense that I actually start shaking because I want to do something and I can't. Oh another joy of pregnancy! ha ha... only 4 weeks left of being pregnant and then i'll have a son who will rely on me 100 percent. I'm a bit scared I won't be good enough but I'm also so so so excited to being a mommy!

Please help out Tanner on his paper for school, feed back would be appreciated.

Dear Family and Friends, For my English class at Boise State University I am writing a research paper on the 1844 presidential candidacy of Joseph Smith Jr. I have written to you and several others of my friends and family seeking some comment concerning Joseph Smith’s politics and platform. My purpose is primarily to discover what is known about his campaign and political positions and how they stand up as they encounter modern political strategies and ideologies. I would appreciate it so very much if you would consider responding with a statement. Please feel free to be as concise or exhaustive as you please. I have enclosed my proposal essay which indicates the foreseen nature of my final analysis and the plan by which I intend to pursue this discussion. With much love, Tanner Barker P. S. The following articles have been helpful to me in my preliminary research: WOOD, TIMOTHY L. “The Prophet and the Presidency: Mormonism and Politics in Joseph Smith's 1844 Presidential Campaign”;. 200. September 1 2009. ;" target=_blank rel=nofollow>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3945/is_200007/ai_n8922399/?tag=content;col1>. TAPPER, JAKE. “The First Mormon Presidential Candidate”;. 2007. September 1 2009. ;" target=_blank rel=nofollow>http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3963656>. Joseph Smith’s platform is published in full in History of the Church Volume 6 pages 197-209 SMITH JR., JOSEPH. History of the Church. History of the Church. Ed. B. H. ROBERTS. Second ed. 7 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978. I also sent out a letter to politicians asking of them the same thing I am asking of you. If you are interested in a more exhaustive response I will provide here a list of ideas that would be helpful which I provided for the politicians: 1. Your favorite of the planks in his platform 2. Your least favorite of said 3. Your opinion as to the likelihood of his being elected 4. The value of his campaign strategy 5. Your opinion as to his motivation for ascending to the presidency 6. Your opinion as to whether or not he would continue to seek the presidency if he lost the 1844 election 7. Any comment at all you wish to make The Political Joseph Smith In 1844 Joseph Smith Jr., then President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ran for President of the United States of America. This is not well known. His career as a statesman I think is an important part of our nation’s history, yet there are very few books of history that mention Joseph Smith except to call him a scoundrel or a prophet. Colossal as a presidential campaign is, it was not nearly the most important or controversial event that surrounded him. Given his portentous religious claims, one might wonder if his political activities matter at all (LDS Edition of the Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith – History 1). While I agree that his politics matter least of all the facts surrounding him, I yet submit that Joseph Smith’s politics do matter. America is an as yet successful experiment. Here, in this time and place, we have freedom as has never been had on earth. The politics of America are the answers we attempt to give to the vexed questions inherent in democracy. I maintain that there is rarely a “right” answer where politics are concerned, but there are so very many wrong answers. In my lifetime I am hard pressed to find any answers that politicians have given to America’s important questions that have not been wrong. So I will appeal to Joseph Smith, a man that I respect, to seek some answers I can trust. Whether or not his answers can be trusted by my reader will be left to the reader’s decision. Barker 2 Joseph Smith has always sparked controversy and passion. Today this is truer than ever. He is being scrutinized by scholars who are more impassioned, better trained, and who have more material at their disposal than ever before. One would think that we would be approaching a final analysis of that man. We are not. As Richard Lyman Bushman, Gouverneur Morris Professor of History, Emeritus, at Columbia University (a practicing Mormon) laments, “One never gets an ‘open look’ at Joseph Smith” (Bushman, Historian’s Perspective). This basketball analogy is effective to indicate the difficulty of getting at Joseph Smith through the agenda driven material surrounding him. Bushman says this is because “the sources are passionate” (Bushman, Historian’s Perspective). Also, the scholars tend to be passionate, whether in sympathy or antipathy. I agree that this is regrettable to the academic, but I submit that Joseph Smith deals with issues that require our passionate response. While these most important issues may not submit well to dispassionate scrutiny, perhaps the issue of his politics might. My intention is to find out. Politics, too, elicit passionate responses. Since Joseph Smith is, and was, not a popular or unpopular, but a largely unknown, political figure and was not a member of any political party, we might approach a more scientific analysis of politics, at least of his politics, by using him as a case study. Joseph Smith was neither a Whig nor Democrat (the two major parties of that era), nor would he conform to the ideologies of modern Democrats or Republicans. He was a third party, independent, candidate who created his own party. Ross Perot did the same in the 1992 election. Joseph Smith’s party was “The Reformed Jeffersonian Democracy, Free Trade and Sailor’s Rights” party, sometimes reduced to simply the “Reform” party (Roberts, 2:207-208). Barker 3 The materials available for research on this topic are tremendous. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has published a seven-volume History of the Church, which is a collection of documents relative to the early history of that church. It is edited by Brigham H. Roberts and Joseph Smith himself is the principal author. The Church also commissioned Brigham H. Roberts, an Apostle in the Church, to compose his A Comprehensive History of the Church, which is a semi-apologetic work of historiography in 6 volumes, the first two volumes of which speak of Joseph Smith’s life and teachings. It does this by interpreting the documentary history. These works alone leave us without a paucity of sources to consult. Yet these two works barely scratch the surface of the scholarship that has been applied to Joseph Smith’s life and his presidential candidacy. My task will not be to search for sources, but to carefully sift through and find the most useful ones. My research, I intend, will focus on these books that I have found helpful: Joseph Smith: Presidential Candidate by Arnold K. Garr, Joseph Smith Rough Stone Rolling: A Cultural Biography of Mormonism’s Founder by Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith by Robert V. Remini, and Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet by Dan Vogel. Of course most of my primary sources will be from History of the Church and A Comprehensive History of the Church. Another interesting source will come from a non-traditional tact that I intend to take. I intend to conduct some informal surveys in different areas of our community to ask the public to comment on Joseph Smith’s political career. I will also be sending a letter to several of my friends and family which asks for a statement on Joseph Smith’s politics. This discussion matters. Joseph Smith is a character in history that begs to be accounted for. Until one has sufficiently researched and satisfactorily answered the questions Barker 4 that his life and teachings foment one has not sufficiently or satisfactorily resolved the major issues of religion and American culture. This paper will speak to the American principally, but one cannot speak of one minute in Joseph Smith’s life without speaking of the religion that so hotly set him ablaze.

a little irked!!! just need to vent

why are people insensitive??? I'm sorry but I'm sick of hearing about how people aren't fans of those that complain everyday for 9 months. usually its men or girls that haven't been pregnant, or those that haven't had a hard pregnancy. Pregnancy is not easy at all! I wish men could be pregnant to see what its like. I don't mind giving up my body to give life, sure stretch marks aren't pretty but its something I've decided to go through. What really makes me mad is how can someone judge a pregnant lady complaining about being sick? you try throwing up 9 times a day, or smells make you sick, you try dealing with swollen feet and a achy back 24/7. tons of girls do it and tons are more stronger then others yes. But just think for once can you go 9 months and throw up every single day and not complain about it? I'm sorry I just needed to vent. There are some jerks out there that need to be more considerate of those that can give life and they have to experience at all. venting done.

Things NOT to say or do to a pregnant lady!!

Why you ask did I do this? Well my sister and I are both pregnant almost 7 months along, and Both of us have heard most of this (I have received some from other ladies and the internet) and yes half of the stuff had made us cry and NO NOT BECAUSE WE'RE HORMONAL. its hard giving up your body for 9 months to create life, but we do it because we WANT the baby!


I WILL KEEP ADDING ON IF I THINK OF MORE IF ANYONE ELSE AS ANY IDEAS

-"No matter what shirt you wear you'll still look big"
-"Are you sure there's ONLY one in there?"
-"You look like your ready to pop"
-"Oh! How cute your waddling"
-"you are HUGE!"
-"Wow your finished eating already?"
-"OH! you gained how much?"
-"You should really watch your wait or you'll never be able to lose it"
-"How are you feeling?" (How do you think we feel? We gain tons of weight, have cankles, a double chin, morning sickness and constipation! But hey thanks for asking!)
-"It only gets worse"
-"Wow you really are eating for two!"
-"When you throw up please be quieter!" (LORI AND SAMANTHA!!!)
-"Your spier veins are SO GROSS!"
-"Awe your face is getting rounder!"
-"You look 11 months pregnant!"
-"Are you sure you want to eat that? You've already eaten quite a bit" or "You're still hungry?"
-When the woman is close to her due date don't say, "You haven't had the baby yet?"
-When the woman voices a concern about her weight gain don't say, "Maybe you should work out."
-"You're only (blank) months along! Wow! You're pretty big!"
-No pregnant woman wants to hear about how hard your labor and delivery was. I'm sorry it was difficult for you but it's not the best idea to share your scary story with a woman about to give birth.-If you have easy pregnancies, it's probably not the kindest thing to do to rub that fact into the face of someone who is going through a horrible one.
-When your five or six months pregnant don't say "oh, I didn't realize you were pregnant! You can hardly tell!" (Yeah, I am not normally so freakin' fat! And all in one place!)
-"did you swalow a watermelon for lunch?"
-"is this your first?" (What kind of question is that? When it IS your first they goo over you, but every kid after that it's like, "oh, I see." What the heck?)
-Camielle-"wow your getting big"
-"you haven't had the baby yet?" (OBVIOUSLY NOT!!!)
-"Should you really be eating/drinking that?"
-"Was it planned?"
-"Are you going to have anymore babies?" (Hello let us get through this one first!)
-"I only gained ___ pounds when I was pregnant."
-"Is your back hurting you already? That's not good."
- "You're only ten weeks pregnant?" [points to my stomach] "Oh, so all that is yours."
-"You're quitting work already? Why?"
-"Are you going to keep it?" (hello personal)
-"Are you sure you can afford a baby?"
-"I"ve never had morning sickness" (well lucky you!)
-"How much weight have you gained?" (yes because we like sharing that!)
-"You should really try not to eat so much while pregnant"
-"If you go into labor being nervous its just going to be worse" (I'm sorry weather your pregnant or not I still don't think ANYONE should say this.)
-"Oh i'm so glad you told me you were pregnant, I was afraid to ask..."
-"Right now the baby is only 3lbs, so you if you feel uncomfortable just wait..."
-"I'm not poking you I'm poking the baby" (HELLO!!! the baby is in MY body)


HUSBANDS WHAT NOT TO SAY TO YOUR WIFE!!!- I got this off line haha
1. "I think cankles are sexy. "Insulting and sarcastic, this one will cost you. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term cankles, it is when a person's ankles are as wide as their calves.Calves + ankles = cankles.
2. "Those stretch marks will go away, right?"Women loath stretch marks and are sensitive about them. You'll probably never see her naked again.
3. "I'm not going to buy you new clothes if you keep outgrowing them."Her credit card will probably start smoking soon from overuse during a spite-inspired shopping spree.
4. "Wow, that woman looks great for having two kids."You don't say that to a woman who isn't pregnant.
5. "Why are you so tired?"She is going to tell you why. In great and graphic detail. She may use one of the pregnancy terms I mentioned before. “Well, maybe because my uterus is stretching to over 1,000 times its normal size!”
6. "What is wrong with you?"Have you spoken to a woman before? Do you never learn?
7. "Will you get me something from the frigde?"Unless she's within relative proximity to the refrigerator, any item she retrieves from there will be delivered at high speed and aimed at your head.
8. "You're starting to move like a [anything]. "Brace yourself, she will both hit you and cry, but not necessarily in that order.
9. "You're not as much fun as you used to be."This will go one of two ways, either silence or verbal tirade from her. Either way, don't expect to talk to her for at least another ten minutes. If it does go the way of the tirade, expect some more pregnancy vocab words.
10. "Are you really going to eat that whole sundae / sandwich / pizza ?"Don't make a fat joke. Don't make a fat joke. Don't make a fat joke. Just make sure you're not making her feel self conscious about eating and that she does get proper nutrition
11."Y'know, looking at her, you'd never guess that Pamela Lee had a baby."
12. "I sure hope your thighs aren't gonna stay that flabby forever."
13. "I finished the Oreos."
14. "Darned if you aren't about five pounds away from a surprise visit from that Richard Simmons fella."
15. "Fred at the office passed a stone the size of a pea. Boy, that's gotta hurt."
16. "Not to imply anything, but I don't think the kid weighs 40 pounds."
17. "I'm jealous. Why can't men experience the joy of childbirth?"
18. "Are your ankles supposed to look like that?"
19. "Get your own ice cream."
20. "Geez, you're awfully puffy-looking today."
21. "Got milk?"
22. "Maybe we should name the baby after my secretary, Tawny."
23. "Man! That rose tattoo on your hip is the size of Madagascar!"
24. "Retaining water? Yeah, like the Hoover Dam retains water."
25. "You don't have the guts to pull that trigger."


THINGS NOT TO DO TO A PREGNANT WOMEN!!!

-Don't touch, poke, or rub us, weather your family, friends or strangers! If you want to feel the baby kick let us then tell you its okay to touch us. Why do people feel that since we are giving life its okay to touch us? how about I touch you as much as I want?! thats what i thought.
-Men shouldn't .complain about any physical pain when they are around a pregnant woman. Period. Especially if it's only a headache
-Don't "try to wake baby" its not comfortable, its hard enough carrying life inside of you, if baby is sleeping LET IT SLEEP we'd rather not be kicked as much as possible! AND it's not funny if they kick something thats uncomfortable for us

Just an Update on the Barker family

Since its been awhile since I've blogged I guess I should update people. Lets see, currently Tanner and I are living with my parents trying to buy a house (which by the way is a major pain in the butt!!!) We had an offer in and was supposed to have the house close end of July, well it expired and so we would have to sign another contract, and so we decided to look at other houses to make sure that was the house we wanted well every house we loved that wasn't short sale would already be in contract and blah blah blah well our last offer on a house that wasn't a short sale ended up having more then one offer and we offered full price on the house but someone else offered more then the asking price. So now we have 3 houses that are short sales that we are waiting on 2 offers have been accepted by the owners not the banks so we'll just see how that turns out. Wish us luck because I'm really hoping we will have a house and be moved in before baby Joseph joins our little family.
Well these last few months have been crazy, my older sister Nikki got married so Tanner and I got to go to Denver which had its ups and downs, I for sure didn't get a lot of sleep and with all the work and walking we did I had NO ankles!!! But the wedding went great and Tanner got to see stuff from his mission. Unfortunately while we were there Tanner's Grandma passed away and so we had to figure out away how to get him off work while still in Denver and figure out how we were going to rearrange going from Denver straight to Utah since that's where the funeral was, it was a hassle but since we had a layover in SLC from Denver we just got off then and had the airport have our luggage off then. It all worked out we just stayed in Utah longer then needed and of course I had only packed long enough for like 4 days so I was always doing laundry, from the lack of sleep from Denver and the lack of sleep in Utah I ended up getting super sick so asking the in laws to be quiet Tanner and I went to sleep at like 7pm and I slept in until like 10 so the sleep was MUCH needed. Anyway besides the fact that we were in Utah for a funeral we did have a good time with family. The funeral was beautiful and well put together. Well we finally got home Sunday after being out of town for almost 2 weeks I was relieved but once home I got horribly sick again (morning sickness) and once I started throwing up blood my ob FINALLY gave me morning sickness pills! They help so much. Well we did have plans to go back to Utah the next weekend for Tanners brother and sister in law to see them get sealed :-) but since Tanner had to take off so much work that wasn't planned he wasn't able to get it off and so we stayed.
That weekend however was our Anniversary on August 9Th! We have been married for 1 year! We stayed Saturday night at the Grove hotel. We went and saw Ice age 3 and then went to our hotel. We took a nap and once again morning sickness killed me and so instead of going down to the restaurant we did room serves which I had never done so it was exciting, and they had GREAT food. Well Sunday being our anniversary we just went back to my parents house (since we didn't want to break the Sabbath too bad) we read and rested and just spent time being us. Well Monday guess what? I started going into premature labor! I swear I thought at first something was exploding in my stomach but calling my OB they thought I may of pulled a ligament or something but after hours of it lasting I called again telling them no better they told me to go to the Labor and birthing floor in the hospital and they called them to let them know I was on my way. After 3 hours of frequent contractions 2 shots and a pill they sent me home since I was dilating at all and told me if it got worst to go back. I was up until about 3am with them but they finally stopped and I was able to sleep. I was pretty sore the next few days but I'm fine now and the baby is 100% okay! That's all that matters.
Well now we're here at my parents waiting for a house and waiting for the baby and I'm NOT patient. Tanner starts school full time next week as well as working full time so his days go to work and his nights go to school. So my weekdays will eventually just be me and Joseph. It makes me sad, I'm going to miss Tanner SO much, and I worry about him burning out, but he thinks he'll be okay so I'll try my best to make sure to make life at home as simple as can be with a baby. Well I'm not going to bother with pictures this time but here's our life from now and hopefully we'll have more updates about a house SOON!

It's a BOY!!!

Well after the longest month of mine and Tanner's life we just found out yesterday that we're having a boy! (sorry Aubrey for taking your birthday fame!) But we are excited. I had seriously thought i was having a girl but I'm very happy about our little boy! Little Joseph Paul Barker!

This is called the "diaper shot" haha can you see how you can tell where the boy is? ;-D and my sister thinking she was having a boy found out she's having a girl! there we go, looks like we were both wrong, but we are still VERY excited!