Spitting Frogs at the Arboretum

Aunt Suzy watched Toni's kids while they were in Peru and since we're right around the corner, she invited us to go with them to the Arboretum. It's absolutely beautiful there with all the flowers and trees and cute cottages to look at! The best part of all was the fountain area with these huge bronze frogs that spit water out and the kids could play in it. We had 4 boys under the age of 4 there and I'm definitely starting to show now so people were giving me some really weird looks. Suzy even had a lady come up to her and ask her if all these kids were mine and when I was due! Haha! I'm sure people thought I was some kind of baby factory or something. Anyway...E totally loved the whole arboretum. He loved playing in the water, going on walks, eating snacks, playing in the cottages, looking at squirrels, playing in more water...every child's dream. A fun day isn't complete without a McDonald's cheeseburger so we took them through the drive through to eat. All of the kids fell asleep on the car ride home, except E of course. Too much fun for him, but he did take a nap when we got home.

As I was watching Ethan play, I just couldn't believe how big he's gotten! He's a little boy now and not my little baby anymore! He especially surprised me when I started looking at the pictures from that day, he totally cheesed it up for the camera. Each day I'm finding that I have a few moments where I'm totally cherishing the one-on-one time with him. I'm taking in the time that I only have 1 because I know this time is fleeting and I will never have as much time to spend with him like I do now. It makes me kind of sad, but part of me knows that he needs to grow up and learn that brothers and sisters add so much to our lives and that we can't always have Mom's undivided attention all the time. I just love that E is my little buddy and we do everything together (partially because he's 2 and has to do everything with me anyway), but I mean he's like my little partner in crime. We're always out trying to find something fun to experience. It's really hard to have a husband that travels a lot or is busy with church callings, but I always have my little buddy to do things with. Now sometimes that is a "double-edged sword" since my little buddy can be quite draining sometimes, but for the most part he keeps me great company and always is good for a laugh. I just love my little E and hope that having 2 little buddies will be twice as fun!

Welcome Home Uncle Randall!!!

My brother just got off his mission from Tempe, AZ on Wednesday!! It was such a fun day! E and I drove down early to my parents to begin our homecoming preparations like making signs and picking up balloons (that's a whole other blog story). Randall got in at 5:30 so Ry and my dad met us at the airport from work. E could feel the energy in the air so he was quite excited and was pinging off the walls. I had to get a picture of him with the DO NOT ENTER because that is totally him. Anyway...Randall's home and we're all so happy! He had a great mission and some awesome experiences. He's home for the summer and then headed back out to BYU in the Fall. It's so nice to have him home! E is absoluetly in love with him and follows him everywhere saying, "Uncle Randall come play with me." It is so cute! This will be a really fun summer!

Gas Leak!!!

This happened awhile back, actually the day after Standards Night, but I never had time to blog about it until now. So the day after Standards Night I had a doctor's appointment so I took E down to my mom's while I went. When I got back I put E down for a nap at her house and then my mom and I were hanging out in the office talking. Well, there was a construction crew digging Verizon Fios cable lines and this guy came to our door and told us that they had accidentally cut the gas line. As I walked into the kitchen, I could totally smell the gas and it was bad! My mom called the gas company and immdeiately the fire department showed up and they told us to evacuate quickly. By the time I got up to Ethan's room the smell of gas was so bad that it started making me sick so I woke E up and carried him down with all his blankets and then grabbed our bags and ran. We were told not to start any cars, turn any lights on or off, and just get out. I was just so happy that E's diaper bag was packed full for an outing so we coudl just grab and go! It was a big ordeal with the fire department, the gas company, and a construction crew. We were evacuated for about 3-4 hours until they got to the gas line and fixed everything and the gas readings went down inside the house. The fire men were so nice to E and let him check out the stuff on the truck and even gave him a special badge sticker. He was in heaven! They ended up having to dig a huge hole in my parents front yard, but it all got taken care of. Just as the tractor was being loaded up onto the trailer, the tornado sirens started going off and the storms came in. It was getting really late so we ended up having to stay the night. I guess this whole day was a lesson in "emergency preparedness." I know all these pictures look happy and everything, but the situation was actually pretty serious. There was some houses in the area that actually exploded a few weeks ago because of a gas leak. Very scary!

Girlie Gown

I won a really fun delivery giveaway from TOP. I won a Girlie Gown! It's a really cute gown to wear while you're at the hospital instead of the nasty "standard issue" that you get at the hospital. And goodness knows that I know where those have been, yuck! I picked the "modern mom" print and it just came in the mail a few days ago. It's really nice because it zips in the back for easy access for your epidural and then it ties in the front to give great coverage, but also easy to get to for the L&D monitoring. I'll be excited for the day that I can wear it! I'm sure you'll see plenty of pictures when the day arrives.

My First Lesson and Big Homecoming this Week!

So I taught my first adult gospel doctrine lesson yesterday and I think it went really well. My feelings beforehand were kind of funny. It reminded me of those days back at BYU before I would take a test in the testing center. I knew all the information front and back and I was definitely prepared, but what was going to be on the test? Same feeling yesterday, I knew the information as best as I could, but what were going to be some of the questions or what would they like to focus on? I only had about 40 minutes for my lesson and I didn't get through everything, but I think it flowed pretty well and everyone had some great insights. So I did it, I taught my first lesson, hooray!

Also on the news front, my brother gets home from his mission on Wednesday! I can't even believe it! I'm so glad that my parents live down here now so I can be apart of all the festivities! When my brother left on his mission my parents were living in Ohio and about to move down to Texas so Texas will be a whole new thing for my brother. New house, new ward, new everything...kind of hard for someone "coming home" but not really to a place they know. So anyway...I'm really really excited for him to get home. He's my one and only brother, one and only sibling for that matter and he's finally coming home!

There are a lot of festivities in the works for the next little while. My brother comes home on Wednesday, it's my dad's 50th birthday on Thursday, my grandma comes into town on Saturday, and my brother reports on Sunday. Then we're enjoying all the family around and then we're headed out to Florida on a big family vacation! Fun fun fun!

A Name and A Giveaway

Okay, I really need your help everyone! I can't figure out what to name my child! When I was pregnant with my first I had my favorite boy and favorite girl name all picked out and ready to go. So when I found out that it was a boy then he immediately became Ethan. Now I still have my favorite girl name available, but no girl to go with it so I'm in a desperate search for a great boys name. I will tell you the two names that I've been kind of "throwing around" for awhile, but I'm just not feeling it yet....I had a dream a few weeks ago (before I found out it was a boy) that I was holding a little baby and his name was Maxwell. I had never even thought of that name before ever and go figure why that name was in my head, but there it is. So Maxwell is one possibility (for a first or middle) and then other one is Andersen, but I'm just not sure. I need some other names to choose from. So here's the deal... Give me some great boy names and if I actually use your name then I will send you the most wonderful prize. I'm not quite sure what the prize will be yet, but just know that it will be good. Your naming my child for crying out loud! So help me out and give me some good ones!

Old School Girl's Camp

My friend Laura just posted a couple of old Girl's Camp pictures from back in the day. They totally take me back to those days, haha! Funny thing is...she's not in any of them!!! Not fair! Let's see if you can find me in each of the pictures (I'm 2nd from the left in the first two and sitting in the middle of the canoe doing nothing in the last one, surprise, surprise). With Girl's Camp fast approaching it just made me laugh.

A New Calling

Well, I've had a few weeks of interesting events happen to our family. It's amazing how your life can change with the change of a calling. I have been serving in Young Womens as the secretary and then the 1st counselor since July and Ryan has been serving as the ward mission leader. So my Wednesday nights have been filled with activities, my Sundays are filled with lessons, my weeks have been filled with tons of work and planning. As you can tell from my blogging, I have been else where in the world of Young Womens. Young Womens is a TON of work! Well, Ryan got called to be the new Young Mens President and along with that call, I had to be released since we both couldn't be serving at the same time with Ethan and a baby on the way. Can you guess what calling I got? Adult Gospel Doctrine Instructor!!! Now I'll take a break while you laugh.......still laughing....okay, you can stop now. I never ever thought in a million years that I would ever be called to gospel doctrine. Ever! I'm a 25 year old young mom, I've never served a mission, I'm 6 months pregnant, and I haven't been able to go to gospel doctrine class for just about my whole married life because of other callings. Can you tell I'm freaking out just a little? So now I'm free on my Wednesday nights and that will be nice, but I will be doing A LOT of studying to make up for that I'm sure. We'll see how it goes and if you have any advice or good study materials, let me know!

I'm Paining!

That's what some of our patients would say back when I worked in Labor and Delivery and I always thought it sounded really funny, but now I feel like screaming that at the top of my lungs! I'm seriously having the worst back pain I have ever had in my life! The sad thing is I'm only 21 weeks, I've just started showing, I'm not even that big, and I'm in pain! What the heck?! Plus it's not even in the usual "pregnancy" areas that hurt. I'm hurting on my right side where your "floating ribs" are (the ribs that aren't attached to your rib cage). Nothing makes it feel better, nothing makes it feel worse, it's just constant pain and I never have relief. It's just weird because I have full range of motion and I can totally move around because nothing tweaks it weird, it's just there. It's just hard to describe. Tylenol does nothing and I've tried warm baths and heating pads, but I'm still hurting. I went to the chiropractor today and he thinks that my intercostal nerve is irritated or pinched so he did a few adjustments, but since I'm pregnant he had to work around the area or else he'd hurt the baby. I felt a little better after the chiropractor, but as the day has gone on, the pain has returned. It's to the point that it hurts so bad that I'm nauseous and I can't think straight. I've never really had back pain ever before so this is all new to me. I had a small amount of sciatica when I was pregnant with Ethan but our friend Mike who was in chiropractic school totally adjusted me and I was fine the rest of my pregnancy. I'm sorry I'm complaining, I know complaining gets old so I try to not do it very often. So wish me luck and say a prayer for me that this feels better!

1/2 Way There!

I reached the "half way" mark for my pregnancy yesterday and I was left feeling a little overwhelmed. I really have a ton to do before I have this baby and it feels like I will be constantly "nesting" for the next 20 weeks! I obviously need to do the usual stuff that comes before you have a baby like getting baby stuff, preparing the nursery, and making freezer meals. That just comes with the territory. But I have some big projects that have to be done before this baby comes. My first project that must be done before October is renewing my nursing license. I have to complete a home study nursing course that I'll have to study a ton for and then take the corresponding test and then send in my application. I have to do at least a 20 hour course plus I have to do the mandatory "bio terrorism" 2 hour course as well. Plus, if I want to renew my California license then I need to complete an extra 10 hours for their requirements. My application has to be in by my birthday in October so it's got to be done. My second big project is finishing up my second blog book. I do a blog book every year in September so I've really gotta get cracking on that. And last but not least I have get Ethan potty trained before D-day. I'm planning on starting when we get back from Florida so I'm going to be studying up on the best potty training strategies while we're on vacation so I'm ready to roll when we get back. So with all my fun little projects and baby prep, this will be a really busy summer! I've already started introducing some potty training things the past couple weeks and I have some funny stories to tell already. More to come.

Drumroll Please.....

Okay, are you guys ready to hear what we're having? I was kind of nervous going to the ultrasound because you're always worried if the baby is okay and that they may find something on the ultrasound. I was also nervous because I will be finding out if I would be stepping into new parenting boundaries if we have a girl or if Ethan will have a "partner in crime." So here's the news....

We have a very healthy and very very active little BOY! That's right, the Elmer boy gene continues on again. The only ultrasound picture that they gave me to take home was only his special boy parts so I'm not going to post that for his sake. I feel terrible because I left my cellphone in my scripture case because I needed to keep time for my lesson yesterday so I don't have it down here at my Mom's house. So I'm sorry if I haven't personally called you and you're finding out through my blog. I just don't have your number with me.

So anyway, the ultrasound went really well and the baby was moving around a lot. The doctor says we have a really active baby and I told him that I wasn't surprised. So I think I will be trading in my running shoes for roller blades to keep up with these 2 little guys. I can just imagine the wonderful things that Ethan will teach "baby" to get into. Despite the extra mischief, I am so happy that Ethan will have a little brother and I know he will be so good to him. We are so excited for our little baby boy!

Stay Tuned...

I leave in less than an hour to go for my ultrasound and I'm just super excited! Will it be a boy or a girl? We'll soon find out!

Scared to Blog

Okay, awhile back we had a guest speaker come and talk to the Young Women of our church about the dangers of the internet and I left that meeting slightly distubed. Our guest speaker is also a member of our church and he is a member of the Dallas Swat team and he specializes in internet criminals and predators. He basically told the girls about how dangerous it can be on the internet with Myspace and Facebook and blogs with random people being able to view your pages. In the end he told us, if you feel comfortable putting your information and pictures up in a busy truck stop bathroom then it's probably safe to post. He said it really didn't matter if you password protect stuff or "go private" if it's on the web, it's on the web and anyone can gain access to it in some way or another and you have no control over what people do with the information. I love how blogs can keep people connected and I can stay in contact with friends and family all over the place. I also love that my family members can keep up with what's going on with us. I love how I can do my sweet blog books of our lives and how my blog is basically our family journal. Now everytime I post I'm always thinking about our family's pictures being in the middle of a truck stop bathroom and random freaks looking at them! So, I'm contemplating a lot of options right now. Do I totally take down my blog and stop blogging? Do I just post stories and no pictures? Do I go private (even though it's kind of pointless)?, Do I just keep going and not worry about it? I don't know what to do. What do you guys think?

Ahhh...Watermelon....

Yes, that's me dreaming about watermelon. I just can't ever get enough of it! I have been having crazy cravings for watermelon these past few weeks and I mean crazy! I have been going to my mom's local gourmet produce place every week for the past few weeks just to get a perfect watermelon. That's the thing, I'm also a watermelon snob...so it has to be perfect. I need just the right crunch, not too mushy, nice and sweet, bright pink, and cold. So I'll go into the store and ask the nice produce person to pick out the best watermelon they have for a crazy pregnant woman and they haven't let me down yet. I have eaten a whole watermelon a week all by myself!!! I eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! What is wrong with me?! Ryan doesn't eat watermelon and Ethan eats a little bit sometimes, but it's mostly just me and my watermelon bowl chowing down. I guess I much rather have that craving over french fries or something super fattening so I'll keep this craving around as much as possible!

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.

12 Weeks and E's First Movie

On Thursday I had my 12 week appointment and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time! Very fun and exciting! I can't believe I have a little heartbeat inside me right now. I've gotten over the sick phase, I'm not showing at all, and I feel just about normal (except for being tired and frequent bathroom trips) so it's kind of surreal to think that I'm having a baby. So the Dr.'s visit went well and I will be finding out what we're having in about 6 weeks (beginning of May) so I am counting down the days. I can't wait to find out!

After the Dr.'s appointment my mom and I took E to see Horton Hears A Who. Ethan has never been to the movie theater before so I was really interested to see how he'd do. My mom and I were prepared to leave if E got wiggly, but we wanted to at least give it a shot. So we took him in and sat him in the booster seat just as the previews were starting. I handed him his snack and he just sat there, totally frozen. I think he was kind of scared of the previews since it was dark and really loud, but once the movie got started he wasn't so scared. He just sat there, holding his unopened snack, motionless for seriously 45 minutes. He didn't sit back in his chair, he didn't ask to open his snack, he just sat there. Eventually he came back to reality, but he was so good to sit in his chair or sit in my lap and watch. I think my mom and I had more fun watching him and laughing! Now he asks me all the time to watch "Elephant" so we may have to go again sometime.

Above and Beyond

The other day I got an e-mail from the PR rep for Karen Neuburger, the company that I won the Mouse PJ's from. She had read my blog post about how E thought the PJ's were for him and he was really sad when he found out they were for Mom. Well, she offered to send a pair of matching PJ's just for E! I couldn't believe it! Well, the package came the other day during E's nap so I let him open his package when he woke up. He was so thrilled to have his own pair of "mouse jamas"!!! Well, when I pulled everything out of the package, there was an extra set of really small PJ's that were in there. When I read the card, she said that she wanted to send E a pair, but also one for our "upcoming arrival"!!! I was totally overcome with her kindness and I was amazed that they would want to do something so fun for our little family. It totally made my day! I LOVE the pair that I won and I wear them all the time. They are so comfy and cute and they've helped keep me comfortable during my sick weeks of pregnancy. I just wanted to thank Daisy so much for thinking of us and for making our day! I am so excited for all of us to be able to wear our matching PJ's together! Thanks Daisy!!!!

A Week of Weather Extremes

Texas weather is certainly unpredictable and we've gotten a couple bouts of crazy weather lately. Back on the 13th we got a crazy snowstorm that tore through the area. In the end we ended up getting about 7 inches of snow and all the schools were dismissed early and traffic was crazy. It is a pretty rare thing to get a large accumulation of snow here so this was all over the news all evening long.
This is a view from our front door. And this is a view of our backyard and my poor garden. My Rosemary and Parsley stayed strong and stuck it through the snow. E and I went out and played in it after his nap and he helped me make a huge snowman. We came in and had "chocolate soup" aka hot chocolate and enjoyed being cozy in our nice, warm house.

Well, just this past week we've been enjoying 70-90 degree weather! We go from 7 inches of snow to 90 degrees! What in the world! On Saturday, E and I headed out to the "tool store" (Lowe's) to pick up all the gardening items that I needed to plant my garden. This year I dug out 1 of my Rosemary plants and 1 of my Parsley plants since they are both huge and taking up way too much room. We got 2 strawberry plants, 2 Roma tomato plants, 2 basil plants, and then a package of cucumber seeds and green onion seeds. So I planted all that on Saturday so we'll see how my garden goes this year. I still want to get a couple of Cilantro plants since I used that a ton last year.


Now today we're expecting 3+ inches of rain and tornado watches throughout the day and for tonight. Gotta love Texas!

Family Home Evening

I know I've been a terrible blogger! My dad warned me the other day that I'm going to lose my readers if I don't post anything (I hope he doesn't mean him). So I'm going to try to do better. Things have just been kind of hectic with me barely functioning and still having a big load with Young Womens to carry. I have been totally spoiled with my hubby not traveling. Can I just tell you how nice it is??!! Starting back in June all the way to December my husband traveled at least 3 days a week, if not more and it was just me and E all the time. Now he's home and it is soooooo nice! I knew it was hard when he traveled and when you're in the moment you just deal with it, but now I realize how hard it was. I know he'll eventually have to travel again, but with me being so sick I just need him right now! So anyway...enough rambling. For Family Home Evening, Ry constructed "The Armor of God" for E out of a diaper box and E just loved it! Here are some pictures of him putting it to the test.

It's Snowing!!!

This is a very weird and rare event here in Texas, but it snowed tonight! Crazy! The weather has been so weird in the past 24 hours! Last night it was around 72 before we went to bed and we had a severe thunderstorm watch and tornado watch throughout the night. The storms came it and it was raining so bad last night, I didn't sleep much. It gradually got cooler and cooler throughout the day and then on my way to the grocery store tonight it was 33 degrees and snowing! What the heck! By the time I got home our whole lawn was covered so E and Ry came out and made a mini snowman. I almost felt like I was back home in Ohio...almost. At least here in Texas it will melt and be done within a few hours and we won't have to snow blow 10 inches off our driveway and have -15 degree weather. Just look at Ethan's face full of anticipation to go play in the snow! He was so excited!


The "Mini Snowman"

The Proud "Mini Snowman" Makers...aren't they so cute?!

North Town YMCA 50th

Friday night Ry and I had my mom come up and watch E for us while we headed downtown for a great celebration. Ryan's grandfather ("Papa" as we like to call him) started the North Town branch of the YMCA 50 years ago by simply setting up a trampoline in a Baptist church parking lot. With a lot of work, organization, and great families it has become one of the largest branches of the YMCA in the area. So the YMCA held a big event at the flight museum to celebrate the past 50 years and the 4 directors that have gotten them this far. It was so much fun! All of Ry's family and extended family were there, tons of great food, great entertainment and dancing, and of course to see how all of Papa's hard work has made the Y a great place for families. I had to get a picture with the Austin Powers guy, he was so funny! Back in high school everyone thought I looked like the girl from Austin Powers 2, Heather Graham so I had to get a picture.
This my sister-in-law, Amy and me enjoying some great chips and salsa...surprise, surprise.
Papa and GrandmaK, they are so cute and so fun! Congratulations Papa!!!
Papa with some of his grandkids/spouses

I was feeling really good that night so I was able to eat and dance, but I think I used up every ounce of energy that I had! I just crashed on Saturday and now I think I have a sinus infection or the flu, I can't tell. I just feel so crappy! Everytime I cough, I feel like I want to throw up since my gag reflex is so sensitive. I can't take anything for it since I'm pregnant so I'm left here to suffer and try to take care of my 2 year old. Yeah, it's been pretty rough, but I think it would be worse if I had a newborn and a 2 year old and be sick. I'll count my blessings. Although it would be nice to not have morning sickness and the flu at the same time. Anyway...I'm 10 weeks this week so I'm getting closer and closer to ending the morning sickness.
P.S. My sister in law Molly is having a giveaway-a-day for the next 2 weeks and I'm hearing that she has some great baby stuff up for grabs. I'm in!

Feeling Better

Well, E's mysterious illness left as quick as it came. He was feeling better by about 9 o'clock that morning. I could tell when he tried to snatch the lotion bottle off the bathroom counter. The minute he's in mischief, he's fine. So he had Kix, chex, pretzels, and Popsicles all day and never threw up. He woke up this morning happy as a clam and of course started the day running around. We made cookies this morning for Ry's home teaching families and played "smell the spices" game. He loves to try all the different smells in my spice cupboard. They are way too strong for me these days, but it keeps him occupied pretty well. I'll post a picture later.

Yucky!

Amanda, I'm feeling your pain from your sick days with P! Ethan woke up this morning really cranky and upset. He just wanted to lay by me in the bed (which never happens). Ry had me come check his bed since there were a couple wet spots so I looked at it and it looked like he had coughed up a bunch of mucus and it was all over his bed. Gross! So I stripped his bed and started washing it. I got back into my bed and Ry left for work. Then as I was getting comfy, E threw up all over my bed! Gross! Ethan has only thrown up once in his life and that was back when we went to Orlando so this is something kind of new for us. So I stripped him and stuck him in the tub and then stripped my bed and stuck it the the laundry room since I was already washing his bed. He's thrown up about 4 times now and he has a fever of 101.5 and the whole time I am gagging and dry heaving. Doesn't my day sound like so much fun! I'm finally on my last load in the dryer so I can make up my bed and fold his clothes. I think he's starting to feel a little better after I gave him some Motrin. He ate 2 Popsicles and a cup of Kix and that has stayed down so far. Wish me luck! I still have to get my activity together for Young Womens tonight. Happy 9 weeks to me!

And Baby Makes 3...

...but one more makes 4!!!! That's right, we've got a little one on the way! We're very excited! I had a little "hiccup" (I guess you could say) on Thursday evening so things were a little scary, but after a couple days of blood work and some progesterone supplements, everything is okay. I had my first prenatal visit today and got to see our little one and see his/her little heart beating away. What a relief! We're measuring right on for a due date of October 2nd. It will be the week of birthdays in our little family since Ry's birthday is October 7th and mine is October 8th. Party city! I'm 8 weeks today and I'm feeling okay. I've had a couple of rough days, but when you've got such great family and friends to help out it doesn't seem so bad. I have been super tired and my nausea isn't too bad as long as I take my Vitamin B6 supplements (a little L&D trick for the morning sickness)and as long as I don't smell any crazy smells like the inside of the milk refrigerator at the grocery store, blah! Ry has stepped in a lot to help me out in the evenings since I'm pretty much spent by about 6 o'clock. I've already had some funny cravings like mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh fruit, and Thai food. It's funny how you'll be so sick and nothing sounds good and then all of a sudden you have to have potatoes. Maybe I'm just weird. So anyway...I'm just super excited for #2 and that everything is okay. I hope I'll be posting more often than I have, but don't count on it for another few weeks.

Happy Valentine's Day

Yesterday E and I made Valentine sugar cookies for the Young Women. E had a lot of fun and kept sneaking cookies and candy right from under my nose. Sneaky boy! Last night we had our Mia Maid class activity and we had a lot of fun. We did a night all about "LOVE" since it was Valentine's Day the very next day and we wanted to get into the Valentine's spirit. We found out about what our Love Language is, made loving Valentines for each girl, and had a Valentine's exchange like "back in the day." I think the girls had a lot of fun. I just love laughing with them, they can be so funny.

My Buddy and Me

Do you remember that commercial from the 80's? Well, E has a "buddy" of his own at my mom's house. It's a 3 feet tall Pink Panther! One of the lovely extras for working at Owens Corning(my dad worked there before they moved to Texas). E just loves the Pink Panther whenever we go to "Nanny's" house. He'll set up a chair for him to sit it, he'll wrestle him, pretend to be the mailman and send him letters, and he loves for me to chase him with it. He loves that it's a life size toy just for him. It's really funny to see him interact with the Pink Panther and what he does. He does some of the funniest things. His imagination is getting to be really fun these days so here are some pics of E and his "buddy."

"Monsners"

That is what E calls monsters these days. It seems like monsters are everywhere these days in his little world. They are in his closet, in the dark bathroom, under his bed, outside, everywhere. He constantly wants me to go everywhere to check out the monsters and get rid of them before he can play. We even got him an inflatable sword at Peter Piper one afternoon so he could ward off his little monsters. Here is a picture of E cowering in the corner with all his blankets and his inflatable sword.

Really Fun PJs

I won a pair of Karen Neuburger the other day over at Classy Mommy. They gave away 2 pairs of PJs every week for 7 weeks and I was one of the lucky winners! It's so sad when the UPS man comes by and knocks on our door and Ethan automatically thinks it's a fun toy that I won for him so he runs through the house saying, "Open it, Open it!" He thought the PJs were for him and he was kind of confused when I had them on that night. He kept wanting to put them on. Sorry, bud. Anyway...they are so comfy and I just think they're so fun. Well, I think I'm going to take a little break from the blog contesting for awhile. It's really fun to do and really fun to win, but it's getting to be a little much these days. So I think I'll check out my sites and only enter the contests that I really really want. I used to enter just about anything and everything and it was kind of time consuming (who doesn't love free stuff if all it takes is a little comment here or there). Now I find myself checking my e-mail a couple times a day just to see if I won something and it's driving me crazy. I don't want this to turn into a bad habit so I'm limiting myself and taking a break. I'm sure I'll go on a dry spell for awhile, but that's okay. So good luck to all of you in the contesting world, I'll probably be back eventually.

Cute Baby Shower Gift

My friend Chesney had her baby shower today so my friend Kaitlyn and I were hard at work this week making Chesney the best diaper cake around! I think it turned out really cute and it ended up being pretty easy to make. What do you think?

The Ark

I can't believe I forgot to write about this one! I guess I don't remember to download my purse camera very often so things get left in the vortex of the purse. Last week my mom got VIP tickets to go see The Ark at the Artisan Theater. The Ark is a Broadway musical that was written by Michael Mclean and it's a fabulous play to watch! My mom and dad had both seen it before, but when the tickets came up they found out that Michael Mclean was actually going to be there so how can you pass that up?!!! My mom offered to watch E for me since Ry was out of town and my dad and I went to see it. It was great! I even got to meet Michael Mclean and get a little autograph on my CD so that was super exciting. Basically the play is about Noah and the Ark and the members so the audience are the animals watching what's going on in the ark. There's tons of great music and the actors were fun to watch, I was totally cracking up. So all in all it was a very fun and entertaining night!