Only 13 Days...

Technically I could find out what I'm having now, but based on my appointment schedule I won't be having my ultrasound until I'm 20 weeks. Only 13 days to go and it's driving me crazy! I just want to know what I'm having! According to the Elmer tradition that's been going on, just about all the Elmer boys are have only boys (there are a couple excpetions). So we'll see if the tradition is carried on or if it will be broken. What do you guys think? Boy or Girl?

A Little Change

I know it's the cardinal rule of pregnancy to not cut your hair, but that all went out the window on Monday. My friend that does my hair has been on bedrest for pre term for the past several weeks so the day she got the go ahead to get off, I was ready to get my hair cut. My hair has gotten so long and heavy, it just needed to go. It even got to the point where I could feel it on my arms when I wore a short sleeve shirt and that is just too long for me. I ended up cutting about 4-5 inches off and I feel so much better! Sorry the picture is lame, I took it myself in the mirror but that's all I could do at the moment. I also didn't got brunette after the whole "Stacey" hair craze. My Young Women were actually worried that I had dyed my hair that way permenately and when I told them it was just spray they were nicely relieved, kind of funny. So now I'm officially ready for Summer, bring on the heat!

I Am A Robot

The other day E was playing in the cupboards and the funniest thing happened. He found my strainer, put it on his head, and walked around the kitchen talking in a robot voice saying, "I am a robot." So I played along with it and asked my little robot if he'd help me with the laundry. In walks my robot saying, "I am a robot. Robot help with laundry." He did a wonderful robot job and I thanked my little robot for all his help and he said, "you're welcome, mama" (still in a robot voice). We still try to get him to act like a robot because it's absolutely hilarious and he loves to do it. I'll have to get it on video sometime.

Popcorn Popping

No, I'm not talking about E's favorite Primary song, I'm talking about one of my favorite childhood memories. If you know anything about my side of the family, my family loves popcorn. Bottom line. As a young child, I remember my dad firing up the air popper on Sunday evenings or for a special treat during the week. He always had a particular way that he made our popcorn. We had a specific popcorn bowl for us and a specific popcorn basket for my mom. Our bowl had butter and salt on it that my dad would mix up his special way with his butter knife and then my mom had a special way she did hers. She would spritz it with a little bit of water and sprinkle with Molly McButter (gag!) Then my dad would fill up his huge blue BYU cougar cup with ice water and we'd enjoy some Sunday Disney Special or our favorite TV show. We made popcorn like this for just about all my life until microwave popcorn became more readily available and the air popper got the boot.

So the other day my hubby was out of town and I was at the store with E and I made an impulse buy. Totally impulse, but totally worth it. I was remembering all of the fun times that I had making popcorn with my family and I wanted to start doing that with my son. So I purchased an air popper and some popcorn kernels and that night we made popcorn. E totally loved it! He loved to listen for the popping kernels and see it pop up all fluffy and shoot out into the bowl. He was all giggles! Then he loved helping me shake salt on top and helping mix it up. We sat down that night, watched a new movie from the library, and ate our popcorn together. It was so much fun and I know E just loved it because he always hands me the popcorn kernels throughout the day and asks to make popcorn. Tonight we made up some popcorn while Ry was watching the Mavs playoffs and when Ry saw E eating his popcorn, he looks over at me and says, "That is such a Terry thing!" I just started cracking up and realized, it's so true. I'm just passing it on to the next generation.

This Is Why I Haven't Been Blogging...

I have been planning and preparing for our youth Standards Night for the past 2 months and it pretty much has consumed my time, hence my absence on the blog. So Wednesday night was the big night and I am so happy things went well, but I'm especially happy that it's over!

Our theme for the night was about respect for yourself, others, and God. We had 3 different presentations to illustrate these points. My husband spoke for the first portion and he talked about how we should treat each other, how we should respect our leaders, a few key manners that needed to be addressed, etc. He did such a great job! Thanks, Ry! After he spoke we moved everyone into the other half of the gym for our big skit.

I've had this skit idea in my head for awhile so I was really excited to actually use it and see it come together. Basically, our Stake President came out with a letter about how we should dress for our certain activities. We want the youth to understand that the way they dress is very important because it says a lot about ourselves. It also is important that we show respect in the Lord's house by dressing appropriately. Anyway...I made a skit that was a spoof off of the show "What Not To Wear" from TLC. I was Sister Stacey and one of our Young Men's leaders was Brother Clinton. It was hilarious!

I got 2 cans of black hair spray and totally sprayed my hair to look like Stacey's, and it was so funny to see their faces when I walked in. We started off talking about the show and then we started showing the secret footage. A couple of weeks ago we had 2 of our seniors help us record some "secret footage" of themselves wearing all sorts of "inappropriate" clothing and hairstyles (a mullet wig) so we could show it during our skit. After we called them up and had them take a look in the 360 degree mirror and trashed all their terrible clothes. Then we had a bunch of our youth come out and model some appropriate outfits for Sunday, youth activities, and seminary. After that we went them to our hairstylist, Carmindy (played by Kaitlyn), and they went out on their shopping spree and came back for their big reveal. It was just a great and funny way to teach the youth about modesty and respect through our dress.

After the skit we went into the chapel so the bishop could talk about respect for the Lord. He did an awesome job and it just completed the night so well. The night ended with some homemade strawberry shortcake and homemade lemonade. It was perfect! What do you think of the black hair? So all the preparation and hard work payed off and the night went off great!
I just had my 16 week appointment yesterday and things are going well with the baby. I have started to have some "tighenings"/contractions lately so my doctor might put me on a shot to prevent pre term labor since I had pre term labor with E. We'll see what happens. I think we're going to find out what we're having in the middle of May and I can't wait!

What E Prays For

E has been saying his own prayers lately and it's kind of funny how our prayers work. Most kids start out with their parents telling them phrase-by-phrase what they should say, not E. He makes us repeat phrase-by-phrase what he says. I'm serious! He'll keep repeating it over and over until we say it back to him. Here are a few of funny and cute things that he prays for...

-all of his family members: Mom and Dad, baby, grandparents, Aunts and Uncles (especially Aaron and "Tina" (Teana) because he loves to talk to Aaron on the phone and whenever he talks to him he asks for "Tina", Cousins, you name it!
-for his friends
-kitty
-Papa's golf clubs
-football
-Scooby Doo not be scared of "Monsners"
-books
-slides and big castle (the playground)
-ice cream cones
The list keeps getting longer and longer everyday. He basically goes through every little thing he did that day and he blesses everything he did and every person he saw. It's so hard not to laugh, especially when I'm repeating what he says and blessing Scooby Doo. I'll have to keep a notepad next to his bed for any new ones!

A Date With E

When Ry left for Priesthood meeting on Saturday, E kept telling me he wanted to get in his car seat and "go drive!" I was having an ice cream craving so I figured why not. I drove him out to Dairy Queen and got him a dipped cone and thankfully Dairy Queen has these new take out cups that everything stays contained in the cup and you can transport your cone without spillage. Anyway...I told E I would take him to the park and we'd go eat our ice cream and go play. When we got there E was too excited to play that he bypassed the ice cream and headed straight for the tallest slide on the play place. He was wearing wind suit pants so when he started going down the slide he was going super fast. I swear it looked like it was straight out of Charlie Brown when Lucy pulls the football out away from Charlie Brown. He got to the bottom of the slide, flew a few feet, and landed flat on his back. The poor kid! He was so upset and covered in mulch! I had to contain my giggles since it was pretty funny to watch, but I composed myself and comforted him. He walked it off and never went on that slide again. Finally, he was a little bit interested in his ice cream cone and he just looked so cute eating it that I had to snag some pictures.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

I picked up a kite for E as one of his Easter gifts and it ended up being the kid's favorite thing! It was one of those cheap Buzz Light Year kites, but it ended up flying really well and E was totally into it. Ry took him out before Easter dinner to give it a spin and they had a blast.

A Blast From The Past

Okay, so I have no excuse at all for not blogging for 2 weeks. I don't think I have ever gone that long without blogging ever since I started 2 years ago! Go figure!

Anyway...this past Wednesday I did a presentation about Nursing, motherhood, infant care, etc for my cousin's Young Women's group. I put on my old pair of nursing scrubs and went prepared for the part. It didn't really occur to me how much I missed being a nurse until I had my whole "get up" back on again. I had such wonderful memories and such great experiences at that point in my life that I really missed that a lot. I don't miss going to work at 10:30 pm and waving to my husband as our cars crossed paths at the traffic light at 8:00 am when he was on his way to work and I was on my way home to bed. But I do miss the fun people that I worked with and feeling like I made a difference in people's lives through my career. It is nice to be able to share my experiences and knowledge to others, especially the Young Women, I think they really enjoyed it. So here are a few pictures that Ry took of me before I left. Just for an update...I'll be 15 weeks this week and I think we'll find out what we're having at the beginning of May.