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!