Sunday Bag in the Making

I've decided to put together a special Sunday Bag to bring the Church to keep the kids occupied and quiet during Sacrament Meeting. Usually we toss a book or two and some snacks into the diaper bag and hope that works - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. So I decided to get crafty and put together a special bag with special Sunday quiet things for the kids to play with.

After a very fun (and a little more pricey than I would have liked) shopping trip in the craft section and office section at Wal-Mart, I was ready to get started. The first craft I worked on was one that I started many months ago at a Relief Society enrichment activity back when we lived in Idaho - the Gospel ABC Book. Basically, there's a page for each letter, and each letter goes with a gospel topic or word, and a picture (that I drew myself) and phrase based on a scripture or a Primary song. I got all the pages put together at the activity, but had yet to laminate them and turn them into an actual book. So today I used those self-adhesive laminating sheets and some book rings and finished the book. Here's the title page and a few example pages:





The next project I started working on was a Crayon Pouch. Wal-Mart had those Crayola 24-packs of crayons for 25 cents each, and I grabbed one to use for the Sunday bag. I like brand new crayons! :-) But it's inconvenient and frustrating to pull them out and push them back in those little boxes. So I made a roll-up pouch for them, with individual slots for each crayon. Yeah, that took a while...



But holy cow! Didn't that turn out so cute? Now it'll be much easier to pull out individual crayons for coloring. I'll pack coloring books in the Sunday bag to go with the crayons.

I'm also in the planning stages of making a cloth Quiet Book, but haven't really started on it yet. I'm excited about it though - I've already bought the fabric and felt for it, and have a list of pages that I'll be making for it. I also have plenty of yellow flowery fabric left after making the crayon pouch that I can use for the Quiet Book cover.

Other things in the Sunday bag will include small toys, a couple regular books, and of course, a snack! I may or may not make an actual bag to put all this stuff in. If I have one that will work already I'll probably just use that. But I think it would be fun to make a nice big bag for all of this stuff, and sew the words "Sunday Fun" on it or something. Haven't decided yet. Whether I make a bag or not, I'm really excited about this fun new project to work on!

Somebody's Sleepy...

I was hanging out on the computer while Zaylee finished up her pancake from lunch. I planned on maybe watching a Disney movie with her when she was done, since Jeff and Thomas are both napping and it would be just the two of us girls. However, I suddenly noticed she was being really quiet and looked over to see what she was up to. Here's what I saw:


I guess the boys aren't the only ones who are sleepy this afternoon! Awwww, she's so cute... :-)

I Love Our Ward!

More specifically, I love the chair of the activities committee, Sister B. She always plans the neatest ward functions, and they always include food. Then, she gives away the stuff that didn't get used/eaten. For instance, today she approached me and said that there was still some pancake mix and syrup left from our recent ward breakfast, and would we like it? I said of course, and she gave us a bag full of two boxes of pancake mix and several specialty pancake syrups. I'm really excited - we have regular pancake syrup, two containers of roasted pecan syrup, some whole blueberry syrup, whole blackberry syrup, and maple praline syrup. Yummm.....

Yeah. Sister B. is awesome. :-)

Growing Up

Well, Zaylee has passed an initiation rite into the realms of big-girl-hood. Tonight she got her first bloody nose, poor thing. She was running around the corner to her room just as Thomas was running around the corner coming out of the room, and they collided. He came out perfectly fine, but she immediately grabbed her face and started crying. I tried to make it seem really cool and grown-up, so she wouldn't freak out - "Hey, look at that, your first bloody nose! Wow, you're being such a big girl!" I was cheerful and encouraging as we went into the bathroom and pressed tissue to her nose. It worked, she calmed down quickly, and was more curious about seeing the blood on the tissue than she was upset about the pain.

Ah, growing up. She just keeps doing it! Like earlier this evening, she was at the table and I was busy at the computer. When she wanted more water, instead of making me get up and get it for her she took things into her own hands. She carefully poured water from the pitcher into my larger glass, then poured it from my glass into her little cup. She did this a little at a time until her cup was as full as she wanted. Wow, she really is getting to be a big girl.

Outside My Window...

There are two fire engines parked outside our apartment, and fully-geared fire fighters keep going in and out of the building, with hoses and axes and all the trimmings. I'm really not sure what's going on, but assume that if there were something dangerously wrong they would go through all the apartments and get everyone out...

...Okay, as I've been typing it looks like they're packing up now. Wonder what that was all about? I dunno, maybe there was a cooking fire or something. Gosh, this whole thing has me a bit weirded out.

Freezer Meal Progress

I've been making lots of progress on my freezer meals project. So far I've made chili, curry, frozen burritos (out of homemade refried beans), and bean soup. That's approximately 14 or 15 meals (depending on how many burritos we eat at each meal). I've got more beans on the stove now to make baked beans with hot dogs, which will add about three more meals. My freezer is getting so full!

This has been such a fun project to tackle, and I like knowing that those meals are there, ready to be used. They sure beat those piddly little Banquet entrees Jeff and I used to buy all the time (my excuse is that we were students and they were convenient for eating on campus). I've got a few more meals planned, but am not entirely sure how to make them fit in the freezer... I really wish I had room for a chest freezer! Anyway, just thought I'd do a little update on my progress, because I'm sure having fun with it.


As for pregnancy news, I've been feeling strong kicks and wiggles several times daily for a while now. They're strong enough for Jeff to feel now too, which he's excited about. My midwife has me keeping a headache diary for two weeks. I get migraines two or more times per week, and we're trying to figure out some of my dietary triggers so that I can do more to prevent them. I know most of my other triggers (bad weather, stress, heat, exertion, TV/computer, etc) but never paid attention to how the foods I eat affect my migraines. Apparently there are several foods that are common migraine triggers. Cheddar, chocolate, MSG, peanut butter - all the good stuff! Upsetting, but if I learn my personal triggers and avoid them, I can have much fewer migraines. Sigh, I guess I knew all that chocolate, cheese, and peanut butter wasn't doing me any favors. :-(

Happy Birthday to Thomas!

Thomas turned 2 years old today. We had a low-key party, just the four of us with some cake and ice cream after naptime. Thomas has been enjoying his birthday - first we opened gifts from Grandma and Grandpa B.

Ooh fun, it's a colorful puppy book!




And some really cute clothes! Grandma has great taste.


Mommy made a really fun cake with alligators on it. The alligators are made out of green chocolate.


But they won't let me eat the cake or the alligators until after they sing! Phooey!


Mmmm, this was worth waiting for! See the cars that Mommy and Daddy got me? I've been playing with them all evening!



I wish we had better lighting in this apartment. Half the pictures I took of Thomas' special day turned out really weird because I couldn't get the camera to cooperate with what little light we had. Yucky. And please, don't notice/judge the mess in the background of some of these pictures. Please.

Happy birthday to my favorite little 2 year old!

Me Time?

Today there's a Primary activity, and there's also a Relief Society Enrichment activity. Jeff is taking the kids to the Primary activity at the Church History Museum, while I wait around the apartment for Enrichment. They just left, which means that I get some precious "ME TIME" all to myself - two whole hours just for me!

Now, what on earth am I supposed to do with it?

It's a ....

We had our ultrasound this morning. First the tech took care of all the important and boring stuff (measuring the head and abdomen, looking at the heart, checking the spine), and we got to see a bit of our baby's attitude (wouldn't cooperate and actually flipped us the finger, yikes!), then we finally got to see the gender:


It's a girl! Here you can see the arms and hands curled up by her face, then the gender shot. Sorry the pics are blurry, we don't have it on CD and the sheet of pictures they gave us wasn't the best quality. You can click to enlarge the pics. The next pictures are her face and then her left arm/hand:


Then her little foot and curled up little legs:


She weighs about 13 oz. and the tech said that everything looked normal and healthy. :-)

My Hands Are Cold

My hands are cold, because I just went through our highly disorganized freezer and wrote down everything inside it. I pulled everything out, wrote down what we had and how much of it there was, and put it all back in. Funny, when you stack everything nicely, it makes it seem like there's more room in there somehow. Nice. :-)


The reason I did all that strenuous work is because I want to put together some freezer meals. I want to be able to just pull something out of the freezer to thaw in the morning, heat it in the evening, and have a delicious meal without having to do all the work of putting it together every day. Plus, it will be good to have some experience with freezer meals under my belt for when I'm further along in pregnancy and preparing for when the baby's born.

But before I can start putting together freezer meals, I have to clear out some room in the freezer, which means figuring out what's in there and how I'm going to use it! That's the next step - deciding what I'm going to use and how. For instance, I have four baggies of pureed squash. Gotta figure out something to do with that! What should I do with my 3 quarts of broth? What about that loaf of bread dough? I'm sure lots of the chicken and ground beef will go into my freezer meals, so that's taken care of. But what about the brown bananas and shredded zucchini?

Anyway, I'm just excited about having completed the first phase of my freezer meal experience. Next, I've got some planning to do!


Completely off-topic here - Baby is hiccuping! This is the first time I've been able to feel hiccups with this baby, so fun!

Another New Toy, hehehe

Since we're going to be adding to our family later this year, we decided to make a nice big purchase that is necessary but exciting - a minivan!


Our entire afternoon has been dedicated to the purchase of this big, shiny, new toy. We looked up places and prices online (we've actually been looking casually for quite a while), then headed over to the Ken Garff in West Valley after lunch. We wandered around the show room for a while, waiting for our sales rep Rhett, then it was off to look at vans! We test drove two separate vans, one a silver Kia Sedona, and the other a silver/blue Dodge Grand Caravan. The Sedona was fun, it had lots of little nooks, crannies, and cubbies in the front, and handled well. But we ended up preferring the Grand Caravan, with its bench seats and plentiful trunk space.

So we went to the little office space, armed with little water bottles and a package of crackers to occupy the kids (thanks Rhett for the snacks), and signed a bunch of papers. The kids took the opportunity to wander around and climb all over the 4-wheelers on display in that area of the building. Wish I had brought the camera - it was so cute! Then we went back to the show room and waited for a nice long time, while Rhett and the accounting person took care of a bunch of stuff. He provided us with cold water and lukewarm pizza (again, thanks!) while we waited. Then finally we went in another office and signed a whole bunch of other papers. Then waited a bit longer, took Zaylee to the bathroom, an elderly gentleman gave the kids some nice big helium balloons, and the van was ready and we were off!

The kids really love balloons! I think that for them, the balloons made the whole trip worthwhile, and they haven't let them out of their sight since. :-)


All in all, I feel like it's been a productive, enjoyable afternoon.

Hooray!!!!

We've been storing some food storage for Aunt Annette for a couple weeks. Esther came and picked it up today. Yay for our space back, though the kids will miss being able to climb on the buckets. Plus, Esther and Nathan brought a super special surprise for us...


An ice cream maker!!! Jeff and I are so excited, we've wanted one for a while. I'm excited to be able to make all sorts of frozen desserts with our new toy. :-)

Our Fourth of July Festivities - Lots of Pictures

Figured it was time for a good long picture post, and our fun day yesterday was the perfect excuse.

We headed over to Joy and Jim's house late morning to spend the day with them. First we went to the parade in Magna - Magna is a fairly small town with a cute little parade. The floats were simple, mostly cars with signs, but they all threw lots of candy and the parade wasn't overwhelmingly long. Lots of fun for everyone.

Here we are waiting for the parade to start - Zaylee sitting beside cousin Jaime, and Jeff and Thomas hanging out together.



Zaylee wasn't exactly an assertive candy-grabber, so Aunt Joy helped her. Zaylee was more interested in the eating part.



There were a couple more creative floats that I wanted to share. First was the local theater company, who were advertising their production of "Once Upon a Mattress." That got me excited because my school did that show when I was in the 8th grade. It was my first time being in a school play, and led to my lifelong love of the theater. This float brought back memories!


Then there was this amusing float advertising a business called Forever Roses. Click to enlarge so you can read it. I thought it was kinda funny.


The weather cooperated pretty well for the parade. It was mostly cloudy, with spurts of sunshine. Just as the parade began to wrap up, it started raining. I thought this scene was fun, this was a group of people sitting in front of me, all with their different colored umbrellas, watching the end of the parade.


After the parade, the rain let up almost immediately as we walked back to the cars, which was nice. Then it was nice and sunny/partly cloudy for the rest of the day. We spent the next several hours at Joy and Jim's house, just hanging out and having a good time.

We went outside for a while, where the kids had lots of fun. Zaylee and Marilee played with this little shopping cart and doll, while Thomas enjoyed scooting around on this bike thing that he absolutely loved! We'll have to get him something like that when we actually have room for it, because he was playing on it practically all day Friday and Saturday.



Jim hooked up the guitar and amp outside and was rocking out, hoping that Thomas would do his crazy funny dance again like last night. He didn't really dance the same, but he had a great time running around excitedly! I think he was just too excited about being outside. That, and this time it wasn't 10:00 at night... Anyway, this is the closest he got to dancing like last night. I still think it's cute because it shows his adorable running - I love how his arms flail when he runs!

Later, back inside, Joy broke out karaoke mike and hooked it up to their CD player. Zaylee had a great time singing along to Ozzy Osbourne, rocking an awesome hairdo (if it hasn't been made clear, this is a family that really enjoys their rock music).


In the evening, we went with Joy and Jim over to Joy's friend's parents house for a barbecue. Joy's friend Marlise invited us to come along last night when she and her girls came over, even though we'd pretty much only just met. Friendly folk! So we went and, despite not knowing anyone there, had a great time! We were welcomed as part of the family.

Thomas, having already had a long day, fell asleep on the way there and stayed conked out for quite a while.


He later woke up and found a great deal of enjoyment on the kiddie swing. Look at that face!


Zaylee found the bounce house immediately, and spent much of the evening there.


Marlise's mother brought over a box of corn husks for the kids to feed the horses, and Zaylee had a blast with that! Unfortunately, she was only wearing socks at the time, having just come from the no-shoes-allowed bounce house. All the weeds and stickers that stuck in her socks rendered them unwearable for the rest of the evening.


Dinner was absolutely delicious! They had grilled steak, grilled chicken, corn on the cob, lots of fruits and vegetables, chips, potato salad, rolls. Yum!



Unfortunately, I ate waaaaayyyy too much and ended up getting sick in the middle of the night, and feeling slightly ill and super sluggish all day today. But boy howdy, it was some delicious food!

Of course, a highlight of the evening was setting off fireworks. Some of the older kids took responsibility (with adult supervision) for lighting the fireworks. There were some really fun ones!



Thomas and Zaylee were enthralled - they didn't get even a little bit scared. During some of the bigger, louder ones, Thomas even got so excited he was clapping his hands and laughing. So cute!

So there you have it - our Fourth of July festivities. We had a great day!

Last Night

We had a fun time last night. Jeff's sister Joy and her husband Jim (lots of 'J' alliteration there) were going to the temple with some friends, and asked us to watch their girls for them. We gladly agreed, eager to get the kids out of the house and let them play with their cousins. So the kids had a great time playing with Jaime and Marilee (I don't recall Jaime's exact age, she's going into the fifth grade, but Marilee is Zaylee's age). I forgot my camera so don't have any pictures, but it was fun. After Joy and Jim got home, we stayed and hung out for a while. Joy's friend brought her two girls over for a little while, so there were six hyped-up kids running around the house having a great time! Then Jim and Jeff and several of the kids went down to the basement, where there's an electric guitar all set up. Jim started rocking out and boy did Thomas love that! I really wish I had brought the camera because I could have gotten some hilarious video. Thomas was shaking and boogying and dancing up a storm! He was grabbing chairs and shaking them around, running around with a gleeful look on his face, trying to jump up and down, it was absolutely hilarious! We're going back there again today to hang out for the Fourth, and I'm definitely bringing my camera. Jim said he'd play again so I could catch Thomas on camera rocking out again.


You know, I think my blog posts are boring. I really just don't have the talent of making our days seem interesting. I just write what happened in the driest possible way. Reading back over my post, even though I lived it and we really did have an entertaining evening, just bores me to tears. Does anyone have any suggestions for making my little online journal here more readable and fun? I don't like that I can't even stand to read it.

My latest project

I made some super cute maternity shorts! I had a pair of pants that I planned to cut off because of some enormous holes in the knees. Then I got pregnant and the pants were forgotten, since they no longer fit anyway. But I realized yesterday that they were good candidates for adding a maternity belly, since they fit everywhere except the belly. Some cutting and sewing and a panel of cute fabric later, and they are now maternity shorts. I love having a sewing machine!

A New Arrival

Jeff's work gave all the employees a bonus in honor of its 25 year anniversary. We have been wanting a printer for a while, so although most of it went into savings, we used part of the bonus to buy ourselves a printer! Here it is, in all its newly installed glory:


It's one of those multipurpose printer/copier/scanner things. Technically, it's a photo printer, but it also does regular stuff like documents, and it was one of the most inexpensive printers at Wal-Mart, so we went with it.

The packaging included a little paper that talked about this great website done by Canon, called Creative Park, where you can print out all sorts of free neat stuff - gift cards, paper crafts, calendars, scrapbook stuff, etc. Most of the stuff uses a ton of ink (gosh, it's like they want you to have to go out and buy more or something...) but there's some fun stuff! So far I've resisted the temptation to print lots of stuff, choosing only to print a small origami box. You know, just to make sure the printer works okay and stuff. ;-)

Anyway, that's the exciting news of the day. We haven't had a printer the whole time we've had a computer (well, except one my dad gave us, but it never ended up working), so we're excited to finally have one. I'll probably mostly use it for printing recipes from the internet, up to now I've just been jotting them down on whatever scrap paper I can find, but this will be so much easier.

The rest of the trip

I figured I should post and say we got home okay on Monday evening. I'm so glad that we got to spend a week with my family, it was really great. Let's see, on my last post I left off with Friday evening, so I'll hop on with Saturday. We went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the second half of the reunion. I ate way too much again, heehee, but this time it was lighter fare like fruit for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch, so I didn't feel as full and kinda sick as I did from overeating on Friday. I haven't weighed myself yet, but I'm sure that I've more than made up for having only gained 1 1/2 pounds in the three months previous to this little visit...

We had a big FHE on Saturday night to finish off the reunion. The activity after the lesson was Family Bingo - my aunt and cousin had put together cards with pictures of all the family members. Then my aunt read off the names of family members one at a time, and we marked them on our cards with elbow macaroni noodles (I think that's the most creative Bingo marker I've ever used). The prizes were these really cute painted wooden magnets, in the shape of butterflies, palm trees, school buses, little kids, all sorts of cute random things. Since there weren't enough cards for everyone, we were put in groups. I was partnered with Owen, and he graciously let me choose and keep a magnet as prize when we got a bingo - I picked a butterfly. When Jeff and Thomas' team got a bingo, Thomas chose a school bus, which Jeff gave to Zaylee to play with; she is fascinated with school buses and had a blast playing with that little magnet!

Sunday was Owen's homecoming talk in church. Janelle and Marie had decided to sing a song together and asked me a couple weeks ago if I would accompany them. When Owen got home, he asked if he could participate too. So the three of them sang while I played. I'm glad that we practiced the song several times before performing it in church - I got all the tears out during practice and didn't end up sobbing while playing in the middle of church! The first time we practiced when Owen started singing his verse we had to stop altogether, because I started crying, then we all started laughing because we were crying - it was so emotional and spiritual to hear him singing about doing the Father's will. So anyway, yay for practicing because all of us made it through the song without getting too misty-eyed.

After church we had a big family get-together at Mom and Dad's house and had barbecue beef sandwiches. Several family members who were in town for the reunion were able to come to hear Owen speak, and stuck around to be fed and to hang out with all of us afterward. Lots of people running around, but it was fun.

Monday morning we got all packed up and hit the road, after lots of hugs and goodbyes. Then it was six hours of sitting in the car wishing that I wasn't going home - after a week in that large, clean house it was hard to come back to a tiny, messy, cluttered apartment. But I was motivated to clean up the kids' room on Monday evening. The room they slept in at Mom's house was empty except for the pack-n-play and the mattress for Zaylee, then the suitcase and whatnot in the corner. It was so clear and nice! So I dug in and cleaned up all the piles of junk all over the kids' floor. Now all the clothes, books, toys, blankets, and random bits of everything are all put away and the room looks great! And I've actually been able to help the kids keep it that way all day! Now I just need to force that cleaning motivation to stay just long enough to fix up the living room... and the kitchen... and our bedroom... and the bathroom... and oh dear, I think I feel the motivation slipping away as I think about all the other messes that have to be cleaned up to get the apartment looking and feeling half as nice as Mom's house. Phooey.

I mentioned in my last post that I bought a vintage maternity pattern at the thrift store, and was excited to make a dress. Well, today when we went shopping I bought some fabric and I spent the afternoon and evening making this dress. Then I went to try it on and realized that I had made a cross between a hospital gown and a tent. Sigh. I guess it really is true that maternity clothes have come a long way since this pattern was made. Now they're made to hug and accentuate the feminine curves of the pregnant body, instead of completely hiding them in billows of extra fabric. Well, at least I can use it as a nightgown or something. And maybe by the time I'm nine months pregnant I'll actually wear it outside of the house - by that time I might not care so much what it looks like as long as it's comfortable.

I still haven't uploaded any pics from my camera. But as soon as I do I'll do a picture post with all the pictures from last week. I'll also make sure to post a picture of my new "dress" for everyone to laugh at. Seriously, it really does look exactly like a hospital gown.

A Quick Post From Idaho

Having a great time with my family! We left on Tuesday morning and after driving for a really long time we arrived. Had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa D. Tuesday evening, and got to see Owen for the first time in two years. It was great! Dinner was simple: hot dogs, baked beans, chips, salads. The visiting was what was most fun - hearing some of Owen's mission stories, catching up with parents, siblings, grandparents.

We spent the next couple of days just hanging out and enjoying being with family! That's what I like about my family, we don't have to be constantly out and doing things when we're together. It's enough to sit around at home and just be together. Takes a lot of pressure out of visiting, in my opinion. :-)

Anyway, this weekend is the family reunion on my mom's side. Our family was responsible for lunch today. Mom and I did all the shopping for it yesterday, and apparently shopping and cooking for approximately 80 people of varying ages and appetites is no small matter! The shopping took all day long. We visited the different stores to collect price information for everything we needed, which took a couple hours. Then we took a break and wandered around a couple thrift stores to get our energy back up. :-) I bought a really cute vintage maternity pattern, and am looking forward to getting fabric to make a dress. I also found newborn diapers for a good price (at a thrift store! how cool is that?) and some new Church shoes for Zaylee.

Then it was back to business; we went back to all the stores we had previously visited and actually bought all the food, getting each item at the place wherever it was cheapest. We completely filled the van with all the stuff we ended up buying!

Today was the first day of the reunion. Again, in our family there isn't much in the way of super planned activities and such. There were a few things - decorating T-shirts, sewing children's clothes for a humanitarian service project, little things like that, but mostly just visiting. I had brought my sewing machine, and enjoyed sewing together little pants and shirts. Grandma L. has an antique treadle sewing machine that still works - it's the machine she used when she was growing up. She graciously let me take pictures of her using it, then suggested I give it a try as well. So I got to use the treadle machine and it was lots of fun! It definitely runs more slowly than an electric, and takes a bit of practice to get your rhythm going, but I got pretty good at it and made a cute pair of pants with it.

Zaylee and Thomas have been great today. Grandma and Grandpa L. have a play area in their living room that has been popular with the kids ever since my mom was a kid there. Zaylee and Thomas spent a lot of time there today, playing with toys that have been in that old toybox ever since my mom and her siblings were young. There's even a little toy tractor that has my mom's name etched into it! So neat. Anyway, the kids had a great time playing with the other little cousins and getting to know all this family they never knew they had. :-)

I have of course been taking a few pictures, though not nearly as many as I should have! I don't think I'll bother with uploading them from the camera for now though, too much work. That will be a later post I suppose.

Hmm, I really did mean for this to be just a short, quick post to let everyone just know that I'm alive. Well, I guess it turned out a bit longer. That's okay though, right? :-) I'll do more later, but for now I'm pretty tired, and I need to put my feet up - they're swelling like crazy! I don't remember them swelling this early with my other pregnancies...

That's Better!

The sun is shining, and Owen gets home from his mission today!!!! Yippee!!!!

I did have a really hard time yesterday. At one point I just sat on the couch and cried, while the kids climbed all over me trying to make me feel better. Thomas was such a sweetie, he kept giving me kisses and patting me on the head, over and over again. It was so sweet it made me cry even harder.

But I really am feeling quite a bit better this morning. I'm officially 15 weeks pregnant, we leave for Idaho in four days (yikes, that means I have only four days to clean the apartment, do some laundry, and pack for the trip - sounds easy but if you saw the apartment you'd know it really won't be), Owen is getting home!!!!, and the sun really is shining. The grass is green and the sidewalks are almost dry. I don't know how long the sunshine will last, but I'm sure enjoying looking out the window at it while it's here! Maybe we'll walk to the library later today (Zaylee and Jeff are still in bed or I'd go right now) if it stays nice. There aren't even any clouds in the sky! Yay!

Rain Rain, Go Away!

The weather is really getting me down. Really. It's been so wet and dreary and rainy for about a week already, and according to the weather forecast, we've got at least another week of bummer weather ahead of us. Zaylee keeps running to the window and exclaiming, "It's raining again!" It's really cute, but it hardly makes up for how dreary it all is. Not ever seeing the sun is really getting me depressed. Not to mention that the air pressure changes that accompany rain storms are a major trigger for my migraines. I've had a migraine nearly every day for a long time now, and it's getting so old!

Well, maybe the weather will be nicer in Idaho, where we'll be next week. Crossing my fingers!

Well, on the positive side, the baby has been fairly active today. I haven't felt it for several days, so it was nice to be feeling little kicks and wiggles today.

Sewing Again

I haven't been sewing much lately, in the first trimester it just felt like too much work. But yesterday I finally pulled out the sewing machine and got working on projects again. First I finished the mei tai I was making for Michelle. It looks pretty much the same as the one I made for myself. I had to get it done because we'll be up in the area in about a week and a half, and I wanted to be able to give it to her then. So Michelle, your mei tai is finally finished, and I'll get it to you when we come up to visit!

After my successful sewing venture yesterday, today I decided to take on another project I've been putting off. A few months ago we found a moses basket at D.I. for very cheap, so I bought it. It was "naked" though, no lining and no sheets for the pad. Well, today I finally made the lining. I cut up an old pale green sheet and sewed it up. Considering that I'd never made anything like it, and didn't use any kind of pattern at all, I think it turned out pretty cute.


Later I'll get around to making a couple sheets too. I don't have the elastic I'll need to make them, but once I buy some I'll just use fabric I have lying around the apartment to make some cute sheets.

It's fun to be sewing and making useful things again! Next I need to pick up the hooks and start crocheting again - I need to make a blanket for the baby.

Excited!

I'm getting so excited! I don't think I've mentioned on here yet, but my brother Owen will be getting back from his 2-year LDS mission on the 12th, and we're going up to Idaho to visit the next week! Yippee!!! I'm excited to see him because he's been in Alabama for two whole years, he hasn't seen Zaylee since she was just a little thing, and hasn't seen Thomas at all. And from his e-mails it's obvious that he's done an incredible amount of emotional and spiritual maturing in those two years, and it will be wonderful to be able to see that first hand.

I've been thinking this morning of all the things I need to remember to bring when we visit - all the stylish ties he used to pad the box of Christmas presents he sent, the deep fryer that Mom gave to us because they never used it (Owen had written an e-mail a while back that he was excited to use the deep fryer to show us some good southern cooking. I had to reply that it we had it here in Utah. He replied back that we better bring it when we visit!), super cute maternity outfits to show how awesomely pregnant I am with my little belly bump. The belly showing-off isn't just for Owen, of course, I want to show my bump to the whole family!

Plus, the weekend that we'll be there will be a family reunion, with my mom's side of the family. This also has me really excited, the timing worked out perfectly. More family to show the bump to!!! Oh yeah, and to visit and hang out with and catch up with and eat wonderful food with and stuff like that.

Here's that belly bump I keep going on about. Isn't it cute?


The shirt is one that I just got at D.I. yesterday for just $4. I love thrift stores!

A Nice Updatey Kind of Post

Sorry I've left that icky-sicky post up for so long. After Saturday, I have been feeling much better. Sunday I was weak, but not throwing up anymore. I stayed home from church and rested, and by that evening was feeling better. Yesterday I was pretty much back to normal. I'm glad it went away so quickly this time, but I'm definitely considering asking my midwife for a Zofran prescription that I can have on hand in case this kind of thing happens again - it's pretty miserable to go through!

I realized that I haven't been posting updates on the kids lately. All the little day to day things that they are learning and doing, I just sort of forget to record for posterity. But here's some of what they've been up to:

Thomas has become more vocal, though nothing he says sounds like it's supposed to. "Ahhh, shee!" means "please!" And "Zhezhe" is how he says "Zaylee." He also signs the word "more" by tapping his fingertips together when he wants more to drink or eat, though we usually have to remind him.

Zaylee is completely potty trained. She runs to the bathroom all by herself when she needs to pee or poop (yay, no more poopy undies!!!!!). Very rarely she gets there too late and wets herself a bit, but for the most part she does wonderfully, and I'm so proud of her! Now if I could get her to stop playing in the toilet water when she's done...

Thomas is the nursery jewel! He is always very well behaved and plays so nicely (I'm going off what his nursery teachers tell us). He's also the cleaner-upper after snack time: After all the other kids leave the table to go on to the next activity, he finishes up their snacks for them. He's definitely a voracious eater!

Zaylee has been doing better and better in Primary. At first she was a bit wild and would run away from class, pull other kids' hair, the normal brand-new Sunbeam stuff. But she has been much improving, and sits still in her chair and usually keeps her hands to herself. I got to observe her firsthand a couple weeks ago as I was subbing for the Primary pianist. She was so excited I was there she kept calling out, "That's my mommy!!!" She has been assigned to give a scripture next week, which means that I get to choose a scripture for her and help her learn it. How do you help a three-year-old learn a scripture, I wonder?

As for me, aside from the sick episode on Saturday, I've been doing well and enjoying the pregnancy (mostly). I feel the baby move occasionally, and it always brings a smile to my face! I've been super tired though, and usually drop into bed as soon as I put the kids down. I never thought I would be giving myself an 8:30 bedtime after I graduated elementary school! But by the time the kids are in bed, I'm so tired that I just can't stay up later. Plus it saves on the power bill - no lights are on and I'm not using the TV or computer! :-)

Jeff continues to enjoy his work. His schedule is sometimes hard on him and us, but we survive okay. Apparently Jeff is really good at what he does. He says his gels and interpretations are some of the best. Nice and humble, he is. ;-)

In other news, we have been scoping out houses in the area. No way will three kids fit in our tiny two-bedroom apartment, so we're looking to buy a home. We saw one yesterday that we're really enthusiastic about. It's a slightly older home (1984), and needs a bit of work, but it's within our price range and we both really like it! It has new wood floors in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. There's 5 bedrooms and 1 3/4 bathrooms (the 3/4 is a bathroom with toilet and shower, just no tub). One of the biggest pluses of this place is the lot size of 0.34 acre - in the back yard there's enough room for a sizeable garden, swingset, clothes line, fire pit, grill, picnic tables, gazebo, play house, and anything else we would want to put in there! Seriously, it's an enormous yard.

The house is a bit of a fixer-upper. Not a gut-the-entire-place-and-start-from-scratch kind of fixer-upper, but the kind where it just needs some TLC and a bit of work. The kitchen cabinetry will need to be repaired, some lighting needs fixed, the deck/porch in the back will need to be repaired or replaced. Then there's the basic stuff like redoing the carpets and painting. Plus maybe replacing the toilets. You know, just basic stuff. :-) With some work, this place will be gorgeous. The cool thing is that with Jeff's schedule, he has every other week completely off, and that gives plenty of time to work on a house. We could take on one project or phase at a time and finish it before he has to go back to work again.

Anyway, even if we don't get this particular house, it's fun to be looking, and forming ideas as to what we're looking for exactly - what features we definitely want (like a dining area - the first house we looked at didn't have one), and what things are optional (dishwasher would be nice but it's not a deal breaker), and what kind of work we're willing to put in if we buy a house that needs work.

Oh No, Not Again!

I shouldn't be at the computer typing; I should by lying on the couch resting. Maybe trying to get in some fluid.

Several weeks ago I had a couple days where I couldn't keep down anything, not crackers or water or anything. I even had to go to the ER because I was dehydrated from not being able to keep down any liquids.

Sigh, it's happening again. It started this morning when I lost my oatmeal. I tried again with apple juice and a bread roll. No dice. My lunch of leftover rice pilaf didn't last more than ten minutes. Water has been coming back up all afternoon and evening. I just ate about six green beans for dinner. We'll see how long I'm able to keep that down.

I wish the morning sickness would just go away and stay away! I'll be just fine for days at a time, but every time I think it's finally gone it comes back. This is the worst it's been since my ER episode, and I'm hoping that I won't have to go to the ER again.

Dinner tonight was especially interesting. I knew that I had to come up with something to feed the kids, but couldn't think of anything! I couldn't even do leftovers - we had done that for lunch. We didn't even have bread for sandwiches, just one lone bread roll. No way was I going to cook something, even something as simple as pasta and tomato sauce. Finally I remembered that there were two hot dogs in the fridge and tossed them in the microwave. I also microwaved some green beans and split the roll between the two kids. They're totally satisfied. I threw up from handling that much food.

There is a silver lining to this dark and dense cloud of nausea. All the unrest and excitement in my body is apparently stimulating for the baby - after one bout of throwing up I laid back down on the couch and was immediately greeted by encouraging little bumps and squirms in my belly. It was as if the baby were trying to tell me, "It's okay, Mom. I'm still fine, and you're going to get through this." That brought a smile to my face, in spite of all the throwing up.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this post, I guess that's just what happens when you've had a day like I have. :-/

Super Quick...

I know I need to post more regularly here, and I will get around to doing an update sometime.

I just wanted to post really quick that I just felt the baby move! Little swishy flutterings right in my lower abdomen! It actually made my eyes tear up a bit, I'm so excited. :-)

Funny how these little things can get us so excited and emotional. I think I'll be in a better mood this evening than I've been for days.

Such an Awesome Deal!

We did our grocery shopping on Tuesday, and I had noticed in the Smith's sales flyer that the Kroger salad dressings were on sale for 88 cents each. That was such an incredible price that we couldn't resist! I planned on getting some ranch, some Italian, just the basics. That was until we got to the salad dressing aisle and saw the varieties that were available. We might have gotten a little over-excited...

We came home with seven bottles of fancy-schmancy dressing, for only $6.16! Check out this lineup:


Our awesome dressing varieties are: Avocado Ranch, California Honey French, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Russian, Chunky Bleu Cheese, Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette with Parmesan, and Greek. We love fancy dressings, but don't often get them because they tend to be pricier. So this was such an awesome buy for us!

Prenatal Appointment

I had my second prenatal appointment today. It wasn't super eventful - the nurse took my weight (I've only gained a pound) and blood pressure (it was excellent). Then I waited for a very long time to see the midwife. Seriously, I made it through an entire Family Fun magazine before she came in! She was with another patient - maybe they double booked and we both showed up? Anyway, I guess it was cool, because I never actually make it through an entire magazine while waiting, usually I get interrupted mid-article.

We talked briefly about symptoms, then came the fun part - listening for the baby's heart beat on the doppler. Apparently the baby was curled up right behind my aorta - it took forever for the midwife to find the heartbeat. She kept moving the doppler wand around in various positions, trying higher and then lower, the left and the right, for several minutes but all we heard was the large, slow swooshing of my own heart beat. Finally the silly little baby cooperated and moved a little away from the aorta and we heard the tiny, fast swoosh, swoosh, swoosh of its heart beat. Welcome sound! Heart rate was about 160, perfectly normal range for how far along I am.

I'm really glad that I'm not one of those women who get scared and panic at every little thing (okay, so I was scared when I was spotting earlier in the pregnancy, but that's different). Going that long with the doppler without getting the heartbeat could have been nervewracking, but I was very calm and confident through the whole thing. I knew my baby was in there and doing fine, it was just hiding.

Anyway, got to hear the heart beat and even got to feel my uterus - the midwife pointed out where it was and showed me where to press so I could feel it too. Despite the long wait (both to be seen by the midwife and to hear the heartbeat) it was a nice appointment, and everything is going well. Next one in four weeks!

Bad News For Jeff?

After a very difficult night, we took Jeff to the health clinic this morning. We have noticed that he gets a very bad reaction every time he eats things like bacon and sausage. It started last year, when he got diarrhea and a stomachache eating turkey sausage. It's gotten progressively worse, until last night. He had bacon yesterday, and was up vomiting and diarrhea-ing all night long. This time he even got a rash on his neck and arms. So they're going to do some allergy testing on him to find out why. We'll go back in about a week to see what they found.

This really is bad news for Jeff - sausage and bacon are two of his favorite foods in the whole world! We have half a package of bacon in the fridge right now, and he can't have any of it (though, this might not be bad news for me, because that just means more for me...). It's just kind of a sad situation - I imagine it would be something like me finding out I was allergic to chocolate or something!

Anyway, I'll update when we find out more. Keep poor Jeff in your thoughts. Can't eat bacon, what a terrible thing!

Kissy Kissy!

This is Thomas' fun new thing - he loves to give kisses! It started with he and I exchanging kissing noises back and forth, and now he has discovered how fun it is to plant a smacker right on Mommy or Daddy's lips. It's so cute! Well, except for when his face is coated in ketchup... :-)


Zaylee's new and exciting news is her new shoes. When she was less than a year old, I found a pair of shoes at a yard sale that were only a dollar, so I bought them. But they were so big! I thought she'd never actually grow into them. Well now, two years later, she's finally growing out of those shoes I bought so long ago (why do children have to grow so fast), so we took her on a special trip down the shoe aisle the other day. As I let her try on various pairs of shoes, she was so excited that she kept saying, "This is so magical! So magical!" It was just darling. Anyway, we found a pair that she just loved, and it was on clearance for $6 (I love clearance!). So here are her new, sparkly, bright purple shoes.


She's super excited about the sparklies on the front, and also about the fact that she can put them on all by herself. Her other shoes were getting so small that she always needed help to squeeze her feet into them. But these are still a bit on the big size (growing room), and are meant to slip on easily. Works out great for all of us - Jeff and I don't have to stop what we're doing to help her put her shoes on, and Zaylee gets to feel like a big girl!

Missed Church and a Frustrating Craving

After several days of not throwing up (that Zofran has been a life-saver!) I got sick yesterday, enough to have to stay home from church. It was kind of a bummer - it wasn't morning sickness related, the nausea was different and it came with stomach cramps and diarrhea. But it's over now, as quickly as it started. The real bummer was having to miss church and choir. We were out of town at my parents' house last week, so this makes two weeks of me missing our home ward. The choir just started working on the Mother's Day song, and are singing it next Sunday, and I haven't even heard it yet! I don't think I'll be able to participate with the choir next week, which makes me kind of sad. But I'll get over it.

Last night after Jeff got home from work, we lay in bed talking for a while. This doesn't happen very often, or at all actually, because he gets home around 2 in the morning and we both just sleep. But I had just gotten up to use the bathroom, and was partially awake already, and we just ended up talking. It was cool, we haven't really talked like that for a while. One of our conversation topics was the difference between Top Ramen packets and the real ramen you buy in ramen shops in Japan. Top Ramen is rubbery noodles in a sodium-laden broth-like substance. I really like it, but it pales in comparison to real ramen. There was this ramen shop in Tokyo that I went to once. The bowls were enormous - several inches deep and twice as wide. The fresh noodles are all pooled at the bottom, topped with real broth. Floating in the broth above the noodles are all the delicious extras that the Japanese serve with their ramen - several kinds of mushrooms, a variety of tender-crisp vegetable strips, tenderly cooked greens, sometimes some small pieces of meat, sliced boiled egg, and a little pink fish paste cut in the shape of a flower. That's real ramen, and eating it is an incredible experience.

And ever since that conversation, I have had the most annoying craving - for real ramen prepared in a ramen shop in Tokyo. How frustrating is that! It's not like we can just jump on a plane and head to Tokyo so I can get my ramen fix! Grrr. I just need to tell myself to stop talking or thinking about food, because every time I do I either find that I can't stand the thought of that particular food, or I suddenly want it so bad I feel like crying because I can't have it.

Sigh. Ramen. Real ramen.

ER Excitement

Having been unable to keep anything down for well over 24 hours, I finally called the midwife this morning, who recommended I go in to the ER to get rehydrated and get some anti-nausea medication. Thus began my five-hour sojourn in the ER. I got two liters of fluid through IV, as well as some Zofran for the nausea. It took a long time before I actually began to feel human again, instead of just a vomit machine. But after several hours I finally felt well enough to have some pudding and jello (green of course, this is Salt Lake after all). Once we were sure that was going to stay down, they pulled out the IV and discharged me, sending me on my way with a nice friendly Zofran prescription. I'm glad that ordeal is over. Not as glad as Jeff though - he had the kids with him in the waiting room the whole time. Neither of us realized that it would take so long, or he would have brought the kids back home for a while. As it was, though the kids enjoyed the little play area in the lobby, they were definitely quite antsy by the time I was discharged.

Anyway, it's been a really long and kind of difficult day. But on the plus side, there's only about three hours left until the kids' bedtime, and I actually feel like I might be able to get them some dinner (peanut butter sandwiches) without throwing up halfway through!

Also, almost forgot to mention this. But they did an ultrasound to rule out any problems (make sure the pregnancy wasn't ectopic, etc). I got to see the little baby, safe and snug in my uterus. There was cardiac activity, and fetal movement, which translates to mean that the heart was beating and the baby was moving. It was exciting to get to see my little one! I'm not one of those moms who don't feel like the pregnancy is real until they see the baby on the ultrasound. But it made the pregnancy feel closer and more special when I got to see my cute little Slug (that's what it looked like) on the screen. Ultrasounds are awesome.

Morning Sickness...

Barely escaping from the bathroom long enough to say that I'm sick and miserable! I haven't been able to keep anything down all day, and the only reason I'm not throwing up right now is because there's nothing left to come up.

Later, I'll post about our weekend at Mom and Dad's house, and Janelle's funny frosting mistake, and what not. But for right now, I'm going to go back to focusing on my attempt to keep down a glass of water.

Ugh.....

1st Appointment

Baby and I had our first appointment yesterday at the clinic. Well, mostly it was me. Jeff and the kids came too, because I didn't think I could drive there and find it by myself. The kids got antsy after a while, because first prenatal appointments do take quite a lot of time, with all the questions to answer and paperwork to fill out. So Jeff took them out running through the halls while we finished up my exam. Everything is going well - my uterus is measuring just under eight weeks, which is right where it should be considering that I'm about 7 1/2 weeks along.

I saw two midwives - one certified and one a student. The clinic is located in the University of Utah Hospital, so there's students and studies galore. I'm alright with that - as long as they treat me nice I don't mind students getting valuable experience on me. Both the midwife and the student midwife were very nice, they listened to what I had to say, heard and answered my questions, and treated me like a person and not just a patient. When I said I want a natural birth, they let me know that the midwives in the practice believe birth is a natural process and are willing to support the mother's desires to let it be as natural as she wants. I was glad to hear that - I don't want a lot of routine, unnecessary interventions.

It was too early to hear a heartbeat, and they didn't do an early ultrasound. That's okay - it would have been cool to see the little bean with its little heartbeat on the ultrasound, but not really necessary. And if it's not necessary I don't know if our insurance would cover it, so I don't mind not having it. This will be my first pregnancy not on Medicaid, so I'll try to avoid anything that we might have to pay extra for. :-)

Anyway, in all it was a pleasant prenatal appointment. I'm pleased with the providers, and the pregnancy seems to be progressing as it should. Plus, I got a prescription for a pregnancy-safe migraine medicine, which will definitely come in handy.

And because of all the construction going on down at the hospital, they recommended we use the free valet parking. So we got to use valet parking for the first time. It made me feel ritzy. :-)

Bump!

Already feeling quite a bit of tightness in my clothes, I decided to go without a waist band for church today, choosing an attractive black dress that just glides over my curves instead of trying to squish them in. When I looked in the mirror, I saw just why I'm feeling so much tightness in my waist bands lately!



Holy cow, where did that belly come from? Wow! I'm only seven weeks along, but already I'm sporting a 3- or 4-month belly bump. Well, I compare it to a pair of jeans. Fresh out of the wash, they're nice and snug, and hold everything in. But once you've worn them a few times, they relax and let everything hang out. This is my third pregnancy, so those muscles are all stretched out and just don't hold anything in anymore! :-)

It is kinda fun, I guess. When I was pregnant with Zaylee I had to wait a long time before I was showing enough for anyone to notice. This time I don't have to be patient for that exciting time at all! It's already here!

Dreading the Turkey

We bought another big turkey on Monday, because it was about 48 cents per pound or something like that. We decided that we want it done around lunch tomorrow, so using my mom's cooking method (but without the brine) it cooks for fifteen hours at 200 degrees, and I need to start it right about now. When Jeff and I discussed me starting the turkey, earlier today, it seemed like a good idea, very rational. But now it's time to actually pull the turkey out of the fridge. And take it out of the wrapping. And reach in and pull out the giblets. And have my hands all over that gooey, cold, raw bird. And my nausea is just bubbling up in anticipation. Or is it dread...

Sigh, I guess I'd better get it over with. I really wish Jeff just didn't have to work - he could take care of it. But when I brought that up with him, he reminded me that if he didn't work, we'd get no money, and get evicted for not paying rent, and end up living in the gutter, etc. So he went to work anyway. And left me to deal with that huge raw turkey despite the fact that my morning sickness is at its daily worst right now. Sigh. Here I go, wish me luck.


***Update: I did it. And it was gross. But I survived, and my nausea did not get the better of me. That's going to be one tender, tasty turkey when it's done.***

Life Without Power

I just spent two hours reminding myself that we need new batteries for all our flashlights. And realizing that I'm a bit too hooked on TV and the Internet. You see, the power went out this evening, for just over two hours, right when it was starting to get dark.

At first, I was a bit irritated. I was watching an episode of House online, and wanted to see how it ended. What was I supposed to do with my time until the power came back?! The kids started getting a bit restless - their Sesame Street movie had been interrupted as well. We were just a bunch of screen addicts that had gone on sudden involuntary withdrawal. Much longer and we would have started chewing on each others' legs and fingers!

But after the dust settled, I realized that this would be a good opportunity to do something I don't think I do often enough (especially since the morning sickness kicked in) - play with the kids. We just got a beach ball (though where we'll find a beach to use it at I don't know) and the kids and I started tossing it around and having a great time. Zaylee has been working on catching balls, and had a lot of fun trying to catch the large, bouncy ball. Thomas thought it was a hoot when she would throw the ball at his head and it just bounced off without hurting (mental note: make sure Zaylee knows that she is not allowed to do that with any other balls). And with the kids chasing the ball around the living room, I was able to play with them without getting up from my relaxed position on the couch.

After we exhausted our ball-playing energy, we read a few books. It was still mostly bright outside, so it wasn't a problem. Then it was bedtime for the little ones and I was left alone (Jeff works this evening). At this point I remembered again that there was nothing to entertain me. I tried reading next to the window for a while, but we only get so much light from the street lamps. By the way, it was really frustrating for me to look out the window and see functioning street lamps, and houses across the street with working lights, but to not have any power in our apartment building. I lit a candle and tried to read by candlelight, but quickly decided that my candle must not be the reading type, and put the book away before I ruined my eyes more than they already are.

Around this time there was a large bang outside, and I hurried to the window to see an accident in the intersection by our apartment. I would have called 911, but the phone wasn't working of course, and there were other people there to call. Having nothing better to do, I stayed by the window and watched people and police cars gathering around for a while. Then a police car pulled up and parked right in my way, blocking my view of the accident. So that venue for entertainment was closed off. By the way, I do not find car accidents to be amusing or fun in any way. I was just so bored because there was absolutely nothing else to look at.

Anyway, I lit my candle again so I could find my way around the house. At about that time, the power suddenly came on again, so the candle was superfluous. Overjoyed, I turned on the computer and here I am blogging about the adventure! Oh, and as I write, it appears that they're in the process of towing away the car that has been stuck in the middle of the intersection for the past hour or so. I hope nobody was hurt badly.

So now I have a renewed sense of priority - we need flashlight batteries! Lots of them! Flashlights all over the house! I don't want to be stuck in the dark again. Has anyone ever tried to go to the bathroom by candlelight? Quite the unique experience.

I can't stand it!!!

I was going to wait. I really was. Jeff will have to forgive me. But after reading Melinda's several blog posts about their new coming attraction, I just can't wait anymore!!!





























Due December 4, 2009.

I have a secret blog that only Michelle and my parents know about. I've been keeping it since the end of March. Check out My Preggo Blog.

Escape Artist

Thomas has discovered that he can climb out of his toddler bed. For the first few days he stayed in it whether he was awake or asleep, unaware that there was any other option. But today he discovered that he can crawl out.

Now how am I supposed to get him to take a nap when he won't stay in his bed? Arrrgh, this is not fun. I am tired and want a nap, but I can't sleep through him playing with his toys and throwing books all over the floor. I've already gone in and put him back to bed three or four times, all to no avail. I know eventually he'll get used to staying in bed and taking nice naps again, but the transition times are always kinda difficult.

Too Pretty?

Jeff caught Zaylee pushing Thomas, so he sent her to time-out. He told her to sit on her bed, and she tried to refuse on the grounds that "I'm too pretty to sit!!!"

Adorable excuse, but he put her in time-out anyway. :-)

Thomas' New Bed

Today I finally bit the bullet and took Thomas' crib apart. He's been shaking it like crazy and I feel like if he used it anymore he'd probably break it apart. :-) And Zaylee climbing in and shaking the sides with him every morning doesn't help. I've been putting off taking it apart because, with our tiny apartment, I wasn't sure we'd be able to find a place to put the crib pieces. But I finally buckled down and disassembled it, and we found places for all the parts. We put the head and foot pieces behind the couch, and Jeff stuffed the other parts into the kids' already-stuffed closet. And I put the toddler bed together.


Thomas was pretty excited to see his new bed. Going down for a nap in it, however, was an entirely different matter. He immediately started crying and trying to climb out. So I held and cuddled him for several minutes to calm him down, and he was ready to sleep after that. He ended up napping quite nicely, thank goodness.

It seems like Thomas is such a big boy now, sleeping in a toddler bed instead of a crib. Sigh, he's not my little baby anymore. At least he still lets me cuddle him sometimes.