31 December 2009

Happy New Year!

2009 was good to us. It was full of hard work & fun. Some of our highlights include a trip to NYC, losing weight, TEA parties & Health care debates, getting pregnant again(!), camping in South Dakota, finding out we're having a boy, all turning one year older (including me hitting the big 3-0) and Sariah learning how to successfully use the potty!

We're totally excited about 2010 & expect to be filled with new adventures right from the beginning. We're looking forward to both our moms visiting in Jan & finally becoming a family of 4!

Hope everyone has an equally wonderful new year!

25 December 2009

Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas & all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even Sariah...The stockings were hung on the book case with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there...
Okay, enough of that... :) Merry Christmas! Just a couple of pictures of Christmas cheer here at our house as way of thanks for the wonderful gifts everyone got us.

First, Santa got Sariah a bunch of dress up clothes that she's currently enjoying.
Who says I need to go to the doctor? I have my own in house physician!
A pretty ballerina! Thanks Aunt Jenny!
We're really excited to give our new baby a bath. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!
and thanks to Aunt Susan for bringing music into our house. By music, I mean the sound of the same recorder note over & over. Now come teach her how to use it! The only song I remember is hot cross buns...


Big thanks to all our other family's very thoughtful gifts. We're having a wonderful Christmas. We hope you are too, and also have a Happy New Year!

24 December 2009

A Christmas Meme

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate?
Eggnog... I love the stuff. I get so excited when I see it in the stores. Although most years I have to limit my servings, its rich stuff! (I prefer my hot chocolate in the Summer, yes that is backwards.)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Usually Santa wraps presents (except the really big ones), even the ones in stockings, but this year he's being extra lazy so I doubt anything will get wrapped.

3. Colored lights on the tree/house or white?
I prefer white on my tree & colored on the house, but since most of our ornaments are from my childhood, I acquiesced to Doug's wishes & we use colored on our tree. Our outside lights are candy cane ropes.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No.

5. When do you put your Christmas decorations up?
Traditionally the day after Thanksgiving, which did happen this year. In previous years, sickness/tiredness has made us wait a couple of days.

6. Favorite holiday dish?
Mashed potatoes & pumpkin pie at both Thanksgiving & Christmas. But you gotta love cookies at Christmas. I esp. like to make "bump on a log" cookies at Christmas.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?
The Christmas Eve program was sometimes created by me. Several Christmas Eve programs were designed and performed by me with my brothers in tow. There were often printed programs, songs preformed on the piano & those pipe bells (I wish I still had those), stories, the nativity done by dolls, one year we even had a "performance" by Alvin & the Chipmunks (which I do still have the puppets I drew & colored.)

8. When did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don't really remember at what age I was, but I remember being in a grocery store with my mom when I confronted her about it. I remember my mom confirming my suspicions but asking me to keep it quiet for the brothers.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Usually no, although I remember doing it once or twice in my life.

10. How do you decorate a tree?
I make Doug put the lights on, add our Snowman Star on top, then let Sariah & Doug place their ornaments on the tree where ever they want. Then I fill in the gaps with my ornaments & finish with blue candy canes.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?
pretty to look at, awful to drive in

12. Can you ice skate?
When I was a teen to could do turns & skate backwards, now days I think ice skating would hurt my ankles

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Doug

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you?
Teaching my kids about Jesus Christ. I love spending time together as our little family & sharing our testimonies.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Singing Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht on (and only on) Christmas Eve

17. What tops your tree?
A Snowman in the shape of a star, I love snowman Christmas decorations!

18. Which do you prefer-Giving or Receiving?
I love giving, esp. when I home make stuff.

19. Favorite Christmas song?
There's no way to name just one or two (or twenty...)

20. Candy Canes-Yuck or Yum?
not a big fan unless you crush them into something else, or melt them into chocolate. I had some awesome dark chocolate peppermint ice cream at Cold Stone on Monday... yum!

21. Favorite Christmas show?
I must watch White Christmas ever year, even if its not that Christmasey. We've also enjoyed Holiday Inn, Rudolph, Charlie Brown, Elf, Santa Clause 1 & 2 so far this year.

22. Saddest Christmas song?
Christmas in Wisconsin (because frankly, its not where I want to be...)

Merry Christmas! Feel free to share your answers!

23 December 2009

36 Weeks

One of our pregnancy traditions is to take a picture of Doug and I together that's placed in the baby's room. We took Sariah's picture at 32 weeks in Sept. 2006. It was a warm, sunny day & we took a neat picture near a small lake by our apartment. Fast forward to this pregnancy. I couldn't wait until 32 weeks so we could take another picture. 32 weeks was the day before Thanksgiving, so we decided that we'd take the picture on Thanksgiving. The best laid plans...

The night before Thanksgiving, I caught a nasty stomach bug & spent the entire night vomiting. In fact, I vomited so hard I gave myself a bloody nose and broke half the blood vessels in my face. It looked like a pretty nasty rash. Needless to say, Thanksgiving had to be postponed and so did our picture. In fact we had to wait 2 or 3 weeks for my face to heal, so we put it off and put it off, but today, at 36 weeks, I give you our couple's picture...
Its a little harder to take an outside picture in Dec. esp when we've already had more than a foot & a half of snow, but ultimately we decided just to go for it because the indoor pictures we tried were kind of bland. I think they turned out pretty good, though. :)

So here we are at 36 weeks! I know I haven't posted many pregnancy updates, mostly because it really has been an uneventful pregnancy. Totally different than my first one. I remember with Sariah at 36 weeks I was so ready for it all to be over, in fact I distinctly remember begging Doug to forget this whole "baby thing" and just go get a cat instead. (In my defense, the humane society was having free cat adoptions at the time, and it sounded very appealing.)

This time I haven't gained as much weight, and I've been sleeping with a pregnancy pillow, so I'm feeling pretty good. My hips are hurting a little, but nothing some warm rice packs don't solve. I've been have some Braxton Hicks contractions, but nothing to terrible. Sometimes it hurts to walk or stand, but if I slow down & drink some water I'm great.

Baby is also doing well. He's more active in the afternoon & esp. evenings until I fall asleep. Here's my uneducated guess, but I don't think the little stinker is head down at all. The kicks are low & in odd places. He also didn't get any hiccups until 32 weeks, and when he does get them, they're not felt on top of my belly but against my hip, mostly the left, but sometime the right. We'll know for certain between my next two appointments, since we'll be having another ultrasound then.

Sariah's so excited for the baby to come. She's already started bossing him around. Just yesterday she told me she had to talk to brother & then she said, "Bryson, don't kick Mommy!"

Last night we took her on the sibling tour at the hospital so she could see the room where babies are delivered & where she'll get to meet her little brother for the first time. They also got to meet a 2 day old baby. She was this beautiful little thing with lots of dark hair. Very cute. Sariah got very sad when they took the baby back to her mommy.

Being back in the L&D rooms brought back lots of memories & a bit of anxiety. I can't believe how fast we're coming up on this little guy's due date! We're really excited thought. Its going to be great to be a family of 4. We're also really excited for first Doug's mom & then my mom to come visit. Right now though, were going to enjoy our quite Christmas & New Years. We hope yours is fantastic as well!

16 December 2009

Meeting Santa... Take 2

(I guess this is actually take 3, since we saw Santa at the Ward Party, but we didn't have a camera then...)


The Library always has the best Santa. Plus they have the added benefit of the evening story time. So we came early, met Santa, played for awhile then attended story time full of Christmas stories, Jingle Bells, a puppet show & Sariah's favorite: a short movie, which is usually an adaptation of a book, this time The Night Before Christmas. She loves saying the magic word (abracadabra) and seeing the screen for the projector come down. It was a packed house, but a lot of fun!

15 December 2009

Potty Perfect


One of the things I've actually dreaded as a parent was potty training. We've been working on it (sort of) for months, mostly in the hypothetical (reading books about it, some times wearing panties, sitting on the potty just because, etc.) It hasn't been until the last couple of days ago though that its really clicked for Sariah. At her 3 yr. check up, our Dr. suggested we let her sit on the potty at her bedtime diaper change, just for practice. So we came up with the potty chart. When she sat on the potty but didn't use it, she got high fives & positive encouragement. If she actually used the potty, she got 1 sticker for pee & 2 for poop. Just Monday, I think it all clicked for her. She wore panties all day, stayed dry & earned at least 8 stickers. Today she earned her last 3 so we gave her a special prize, another My Little Pony.

Would I say she's potty trained? Probably not. She's got the peeing thing down. We even went out to lunch today and she stayed dry. But she had a poop accident this morning (thankfully while I was at the doctors, so poor Doug had to clean it up.) Are we making progress? Most definitely. I see light at the end of the tunnel, and just when I had resigned myself to having 2 in diapers, now I think she's going to be just fine. :) Yay Sariah!

28 November 2009

Meeting Santa, take 1


We had some errands to run at Walmart today & it just so happened Santa was there giving out free pictures! Luckily Sariah's been really into wearing her "Christmas hat" so she was ready. You can see though, she wasn't really sure if she likes the big guy. She did enjoy the 2 little candy canes he gave her. We'll try again when we see Santa at the Library later next month...

19 November 2009

3 Year Portraits








Sariah did so well at her photo shoot today! These are the photos I got prints of, Grandparents should let me know which ones you'd like me to send you... :)

17 November 2009

Goodbye 2... Hello 3 Years Old!

Isn't it amazing how fast kids grow? Years seem to fly by. Since this is Sariah's last birthday as a "only child," we wanted to spend some extra time with her. Doug took Monday & Tuesday off of work so we could have some family time.

First we celebrated Sariah's last day being 2. Mondays we have story time in the morning anyway, so we got up and went over to Pancake Cafe for breakfast. Sariah enjoyed the whip cream, powder sugar & strawberries off her Micky Cake, but she only had a couple of bites of actual pancake. Daddy attended story time with her while Mommy spent some time talking with the other moms. They made these cool owl masks.
After lunch, we went over to the cheap theatre to see Pixar's Up. It was the first time Sariah's been in a movie theatre (not counting the time Doug and I took her with us to see a movie when she was a baby, & she slept through it.) She did really good! She was, admittedly, more interested in the projector than the movie, but she watched most of it. We shared a huge bucket of popcorn.
I didn't have high expectations for the movie, since I didn't really know much about it, but I loved it! I seriously laughed & cried several times, and I think it'll rank as one of my more favorite Pixar movies. I've already bought it for Sariah's Christmas stocking.
We were all exhausted by Monday evening, so Sariah helped me bake her cake, we had a short FHE & headed to bed.

Tuesday my baby turned 3! As soon as she got up, she was asking for cake for breakfast. She had been anticipating birthday cake for weeks. I'm pretty sure it was the most exciting part for her. I did get her to eat a bowl of chex & milk instead of cake, only because we hadn't decorated it. After breakfast we did just that. I kind of get stressed out when I'm decorating a cake, and it was awkward having an audience, but I think it turned out okay.

After the cake was decorated, we headed out to the Children's Museum. Doug and I had never been to a Children's Museum before, so I'm not sure what we expected. Sariah had a great time, though! Best off, admission was free that day, so we didn't have to pay the $15 I though we would (I did make a donation though.) We kind of followed Sariah's lead through the museum & let her do her thing. We took at least 100 pictures, and they're all posted on my facebook if you want to see them. (If we're not facebook friends & you'd like to be, let me know, my security settings are super high, so I'd probably have to find you.)
Doug insisted on dressing Sariah up at almost every station. She enjoyed it, so it was okay.
She actually built this brick "arch" thing by herself, I was pretty impressed.

This "boat" was called the dream machine & I think it was Sariah's favorite spot, we spent a lot of time here.
The kids could "fish" off the side. She got pretty good at it!
Look, its Doug the dinosaur!
Here you could pretend to milk cows, I think Sariah would make a pretty cute cow milker.

It was well worth the trip, even if the museum is downtown, & I hate downtown! After the museum, we headed home, had lunch (Sariah finally got a small bit of cake with her lunch.) Then we opened presents. Sariah got a pretty good haul again this year.
A book from Grandma Diana & Poppee James.
Sariah loved this outfit from Grandpa Steve & Jackie.
She also played her Candy Land game from Doug's parents afterwards, but I hear from Daddy that she cheated a little. She really loves the My Little Pony that Grandma bought her, too. She used the money that her Great-Grandparents gave her to buy 2 more today. She likes to brush their hair. Ponies also travel well to scary places like the doctor's office.
Later that evening we went out to Outback Steakhouse for birthday dinner since we had a coupon for a free Awesome Blossom. Sariah enjoyed some birthday Mac & Cheese. Then we headed home after a long day. Here she is in her new Curious George pajamas that I made her. The pajamas are huge on her, but she can grow into them.
We were exhausted after several days of family fun, but it was totally worth it. I love having a 3 year old! She's been so much fun & so good today at both my & her doctor's appointment. In case you're wondering, she 30 lbs & 35 inches. She's perfect & healthy in every way. We are looking forward to her portraits tomorrow! Happy Birthday big girl!

08 November 2009

Big Stinkin' Update

Gah! Why does it take so much effort to get motivated to blog lately? Oh yes, the pregnancy thing. ;) Third trimester is apparently sucking my energy out of my body. Thus it makes it hard to do things, like think. But, I digress... let me update you on things going on in our household.

When H1N1 Attacks: About the 15th of October, I came down with a funny cough. I call it a funny cough, because if you know me, when I get sick, it ALWAYS starts in my throat. I have enlarged, scarred tonsils, and I like to joke that they'd swab me for strep if I went in with a broken leg. So it was very unusual to have a cough & no sore throat. This progressed to what I though was just a semi-nasty cold. By that Saturday, Doug was sick, too. We skipped church on Sunday, and by then Sariah was just starting to cough. We didn't think much about it until Doug spiked a 104 degree temperature. So we called our clinic. By the time they called us back, Doug's fever had gone down with tylenol, but they prescribed me Tamiflu since I'm in a high risk category. We also scheduled an appointment for Sariah and she was also given the Tamiflu. By Monday, I felt like a million dollars, so I went to de-germing our entire house. Sariah also felt fine, her worst symptom ended up being a mild temperature. Poor Doug was still down for the count. By Monday night, he was having a hard time breathing. When I woke up Tuesday, it was so bad, he could barely catch his breath, so it was off to urgent care for him.

Long story short, Doug missed a whole week of work, had an X-ray of his lungs, was prescribed some inhaler meds & a cough suppressant, followed by an antibiotic & a steroid on Friday for bloodied mucus in his nose. We also ended up buying a humidifier & a neti pot, which was oh so fun. Poor Doug! He's feeling much better now & can say he survived the "epidemic." And I'll just add that I hope none of you come down with H1N1, but if you do, I hope you can get the Tamiflu, because that stuff rocks!

Halloween: Oh how thankful that the sickness drama was the week before all our Halloween festivities. We had at least 5 parties to attend that week, making Sariah's costume totally worth the time & effort I put into it. And here she is!
Just in case you were wondering, yes, I made the dress myself. I found all the materials at Walmart, and I even let Sariah choose the fabric & lace. We found her hat at Walmart, too, just in the toy section, not the Halloween stuff. The horse was a find at Target & her boots came from Target.com.

Monday we went to a party hosted by one of our friends from the Library. This is year 3 of having all the kids from our former baby story time get together at Halloween. I wish I hadn't forgotten my camera! There were tons of fun crafts for the kids to do. Sariah enjoyed stringing beads onto piper cleaners & making bracelets the best.

Wednesday we headed to our ward playgroup. Thursday at dance class the girls got to wear their costumes.

They learned a fun dance to the Purple People Eater song. I got a video, so we'll see if it ever gets onto the internet, it depends on how agreeable the dying laptop will be.

Friday morning was the annual library costume pageant. Several of our friends were there, and we had fun singing songs & eating treats. Friday night was our ward Trunk or Treat. We enjoyed the yummy soups & bread.
This year was the first year that we took Sariah out to the trunk or treat part of the evening. Doug took her out & unfortunately, there aren't any good pictures. It was very dark, very cold & very windy! Doug tells me that Sariah seemed very confused, but I know she enjoyed the candy we let her eat afterward.

Saturday night we did our first official Trick or Treating. We didn't go very many places, just to some of our neighbor houses & then over to Richard & Chrissie's house.
There's a nice older couple across the street that we went to first, who weren't planning on handing out candy, but had bought a big box of M&Ms just for Sariah. After that, she wouldn't really hold her pumpkin herself, in the hopes more big boxes of candy would be given that don't fit in her little pumpkin. No such luck, though. She did enjoy visiting Richard & Chrissie because they gave her several pieces of candy & pumpkin seed (which she surprisingly loved!) We had to dash home early because we had Stake Conference that night, but I'd say our first foray into Halloween was a success!

First salon visit: The Monday after Halloween we decided we'd go get Sariah's hair cut. It was flipping out funny in the back, getting long enough to start getting really tangled again, and we're doing 3 year portraits on the 19th, so I wanted her to have a good cut. Here's the finished product.
She did such a good job in the chair! She sat very still in the chair & held her head exactly like the lady asked her to. I was very proud. (I can't believe she'll be 3 in just over a week!)

Other tidbits: I survived my first Sunday as Primary Chorister. We're working on singing songs off my "fall singing tree" right now. Two weeks ago, Sariah helped me collect pretty fall colored leaves. Then I laminated them, wrote songs on the back & attached them to a poster of a tree I colored. I'm doing my best to learn the kids names & attitudes, but I'll admit to being still very nervous.

Sariah loves swim lessons. She's doing so good, too. Saturday they gave the kids all diving rings and had them blowing bubbles through them. Sariah loved this. Its the first time I've really seen her blow bubbles. Soon she'll be old enough to move up to the kids only classes & while she's definitely ready skill wise, she'll have to be potty trained first. We've marked Thanksgiving weekend for the next big potty push. Wish us luck!

Speaking of kids only classes. Tomorrow is Sariah's very first Pre-school story time. Its the first time she'll go into story time without me. I think she's excited, there's at least 4 or 5 of her friends in the same class. Mommy is understandably upset that her baby has grown up & doesn't need her anymore, but she's blaming it on pregnancy hormones... ;)

Finally, speaking of pregnancy, its still going well. All doctor's appointments are looking good. We're finally in the phase where we go to the doctor every 2 weeks. That, combined with the sisters-in-law that will be having babies soon has got me excited for the end of this pregnancy, even though we have a ways to go still. My hips are still holding out (thanks to my body pillow,) but I'm still sore in other places & I'm moving slower. I've had to stop picking Sariah up, because carrying her 31 lbs. disagrees with my uterus. Sariah is understandably upset by this development. She is excited about having a brother. She loves to go in "brother's room" and point out that baby brother is in my tummy. She tells me she's going to be very nice to brother & very helpful for mommy. We're all very excited.

So there it is, our lives caught up to date. Don't be surprised if I don't get another post out until Sariah's birthday, I've got such a mushy brain! :)