Melinda Beth

Blog

This is a blogumentary of me and my family of 8. There's me, my husband, and our 6 kids. We plan to live together a long time (forever!) These are the ages of our kids: Emily (8 1/2), Bradley (7), Sarah (6), Wendy (4 1/2), Jason (3), Rachel (2).

Monday, February 08, 2010

Monday

Buddies.

My tomato seedlings under the grow lights. The peppers haven't sprouted yet.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Sunday

Bradley put a package of flour tortillas on the hot stovetop. If only he had centered it a little more. Thankfully with a little Goo Gone and a little elbow grease, it came off pretty easily.

Sarah's new dress that we gave her for her birthday. I bought it at the same time I got Emily's Christmas dress at Sears.com. I just couldn't resist it.

(Sarah is not very good at fake smiling.)

Her little sister is learning the art of fake smiling too. I held the camera up to her and she said, "CHEESE!"

Stuffed

Today my husband took the oldest three kids to church for a service project. It was an organized activity mostly involving yard work around the building. Afterward the ward celebrated with a pig roast and lots of food. Since tomorrow is Fast Sunday, my husband thought he should stuff himself silly. I don't know why he thinks he needs to do that because we all know we are more starving the day after Thanksgiving than any other normal morning. Anyway, my husband can't pass up good free food.

When he came home he complained of being too stuffed to do anything. He always likes to drink lots of water before a fast, but there just wasn't any space in his stomach to do so, so he had to delay beginning his fast. He went upstairs to do some work on his computer while leaving me downstairs with the kids watching Wow Wow Wubzi. After about 20 minutes I went upstairs to talk to him and he was in our bedroom laying on the bed reading a book. He saw my look of surprise and he quickly explained how uncomfortable he was and that he could hardly sit in his chair because his belly was so full.

My response?

"Now sit there feeling like that for three months!"

He quickly realized the silliness of his relatively temporary complaint and I think gained some true empathy for his pregnant wife. That made me happy and I was very forgiving of his complaint.

I've just recently reached the stage of the shortness of breath while in the sitting position. Rachel loves to sit on my lap and I've made her quite unhappy several times by not letting her. I feel like I'm suffocating when she's on my lap. I can see the local news headline:

"Pregnant mother of six suffocates to death from 2 year old sitting on lap."

How sad would that be?

Thursday, February 04, 2010

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Every morning I try to make a little progress upstairs before going downstairs for breakfast. This usually means we don't eat breakfast until 10AM, but I'm totally fine with that because none of us are anxious to hang out downstairs where the temperature is about 67 degrees in the morning.

This weekend in the bedrooms and office organization process, most of the excess junk and trash made it's way into the hallway. I've been slowly throwing things out, putting them in their places, and tidying up. This morning I decided to take care of the 8 six gallon buckets of food that were in the hallway. (And to all concerned family and friends, I did not lift them, but kind of rolled them into the closet.) I did lift a couple, but they didn't weigh any more than my 34 pound son that I pretty much carry up to bed every night.

Anyway, I was so proud of myself and satisfied that I accomplished something already that morning. I knew I was going to pay a price for it later in the day with some posterior pelvic pain, but I thought it would be worth it. I was soon to be proven wrong. At about noon my husband called me and asked me to do a favor for him on his computer. Now keep in mind that the food closet is the closet in the office that has my husband's computer. So since mother and children are like magnets, my children followed me to my husband's room. Bradley, Sarah, Wendy, and Jason were using the closet as their "clubhouse" and I let them go in there to hang out while I completed my assigned task. I assumed that there wasn't any danger in a closet of several buckets and was safer than around all the computer equipment. Well, I assumed wrong. I forgot to foresee that the wire shelving would be a temptation for small children. They must have been playing monkeys or something. I soon heard a huge CRASH, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, followed by some whimpers and crying. The 6 foot long wire shelving had torn out of the dry wall causing 2 kids to be buried by 23 #10 cans. We were fortunate that no major injuries occured, except for a minor goose egg on Sarah's head. She was reluctant to admit that she was one of the monkeys hanging on the shelf. She felt really bad. And unfortunately for my blog it wasn't a moment I felt like taking a picture of at the time. I wasn't angry at my kids because I understand that they couldn't predict that drywall isn't strong enough to hold all that weight. I was just angry at the situation. Bradley told me that he couldn't stop shaking when it happened because it scared him so much. Wendy told me that she thinks spiders are going to come out of the holes in the drywall.

So, all my progress was in vain because now I have 23 #10 cans and 6 large peanut butter jars in my hallway until I figure out a way to fix this shelf. ***SIGH*** I guess I can use it as a lesson on physics and the properties of drywall for school.

I look forward to a day when I can take two steps forward and only one step back.

At least this little boy helped me to put away the 4 boxes of Great Value saltines I bought at the grocery store on Saturday. Go Jason!

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Going Heirloom

For the past couple of years I have been wanting to grow some heirloom vegetable plants. An heirloom plant is basically a plant that you can collect the seeds to grow more plants in subsequent years. Most plants and seeds purchased at local nurseries or home improvement stores are hybrids which means that they are genetically altered to grow fruit that is high in quality and disease resistant and good for mass production. However, the seeds from hybrid plants are unreliable and if collected and sown will not likely produce a similar product the following year. Don't ask me why this is. I'm not a botanist, just a gardener. Anyway, I just thought it would be cool to have heirloom seeds so that 1) we can save money each year by not having to buy pepper and tomato plants, and 2) to take us one step closer in being self-sufficient in the whole gardening thing.

This year I finally remembered to order my seeds early so I could start some bell pepper and tomato seedlings indoors. I think I found a good supplier at http://www.territorialseed.com/. They have a good catalog you can order for free too, if you are interested in seeing what they have to offer. (I was up until about 2AM last night browsing through it.)

Bell peppers and tomatoes need to be started indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost date. They are not good plants to be directly sown in the ground in the Spring because they have a long growing period. So last night I started my peppers and tomatoes. I am hoping really hard that this will work. As soon as they sprout I am going to put them under some florescent lighting for about 16-18 hours per day. I haven't had the best of luck starting seeds indoors in past years. Natural sunlight seems to make the seedlings very leggy and weak. I am determined to do it right this time. I even gave my precious seeds a nice heating pad to warm their bottoms because they germinate best at temps of 70-85 degrees. I even put a thermometer in the soil to monitor their temp. So now the hoping begins. I also told my kids tonight that they are welcome to pray for Mommy's seeds.

Here is my setup:

I put the Jiffy Seed Starter Greenhouse in my husband's office because it is the warmest room in the house with several computers running. The heating pad is still necessary though. Unfortunately the heating pad has an automatic shut-off so I have to run up there several times a day to turn it back on if I want the soil temp to be just right. (I'm too cheap to invest in a real seed starting heating pad.) I also have an aluminum cake pan and lid with some more green peppers. As of now I have a hopeful 30 tomato plants and 44 green peppers. We aren't going to plant them all. There will be some lucky neighbors and friends if my experiment is a success.

But this whole seed starting thing leads me to wonder if the early pioneers ever ate tomatoes and peppers? Starting seeds indoors is kind difficult even in this modern world. I'm not sure that the pioneers would've had sufficient light and heat inside their cabins to get high quality seedlings. If anyone has the answer to this I would greatly appreciate the insight. From what I read online, tomatoes and peppers don't seem to be mentioned as part of a pioneer diet. It seems they stuck to corn, potatoes, beans, squash, and greens. I suppose that also means that the pioneers didn't eat BLT's. How sad. Maybe they were satisfied with just BL's.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

A Post for Women

As I've mentioned before, pregnancy is not my favorite thing. I'm in my sixth month and the relaxin horomone is kicking in and making my pelvis feel like jelly. It causes pain and discomfort, mostly at the end of the day.

I will say and admit that one of the benefits of pregnancy is the pregnancy boobs. I don't recall ever enjoying my boobs so much. I don't know if it is a boy baby thing, the supplemental progesterone I took the first 12 weeks, or if it's just where all my extra fat is going right now, but it's fun to be able to fill out my bra. The other day Rachel was sitting on my lap facing me. I was wearing a V-neck shirt and she could see my cleavage. Normally "cleavage" is not a vocabulary word I use when describing my physical appearance. She pointed to the crevice and looked at me with confusion. Then she said, "Butt." My two year old daughter thinks I'm growing a butt on my chest. Unfortuately, my second butt will probably be gone by the end of the summer. But hopefully my primary butt will be back to a more normal size. For now, I'm going to enjoy all my butts and feed them well....

A belly picture will be coming soon....(for you, Lori.)

Monday, February 01, 2010

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

I was going to keep with the rainbow theme this year, but I forgot to buy regular M&M's this weekend. I didn't think Skittles would go too well with the chocolate frosting, so I used some Christmas green ones and stenciled a "6" with chocolate sprinkles.

She loved the pretty ballerina dress that my parents sent.

Jason was jealous of Rachel's head injury and he thought he needed one too. He fell backwards and banged his head on the kids' table. He recovered quickly. When he gets older and goes bald, he will have a nice scar to show.

Sarah had a great birthday!!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Spinning Sarah

Last weekend my husband took the kids out and I stayed home to make some progress on house organization. He took the kids to a church Primary activity, to the library, to the park, and finally to Walmart. I have to say that my husband is a lot braver than I am. He took this video while at the park. It really makes one wonder why they even install an apparatus such as this one. It's a little crazy.

Other than that, not much else in the news. It was a cold and rainy day here so we worked on more home organization. My husband rearranged and cleaned out his office while I cleaned the kids' room closet and sorted more clothes. It was a very productive day, but we still didn't quite finish. Home organization is a continual pursuit.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

1000th Post

So a friend of mine posted her 100th post today, which made me look to see what number I was on, and low and behold today is my 1000th! How cool is that? A while ago I had meant to remember and celebrate and I'm so glad for the reminder because I totally would've forgotten!

So what better topic to post about for a 1000th post than to post about organization. I've been on an organization spree the past week. I think it might be a pre-nesting thing, or maybe just the fact that my house has been in absolute disarray going from 2 months of morning sickness, to Thanksgiving, to Christmas.

My husband finally kindly requested for me to get his office in order because that is where all the junk ended up over the holidays. His "office" happens to be the old boys' bedroom until we moved all the kids into the large master bedroom last January. So the closet in the office is, or actually was, full of bins of boys clothing. Now that I know we are having a boy, it's makes the whole organizing kid clothing thing easier. Basically I emptied out the office closet and moved it all to the current kids' bedroom closet. The office closet will now be a food storage closet full of 6 gallon buckets and #10 cans and I'm quite excited about it. Pictures will come soon.

Anyway, sorting the boys clothing was quite exhausting today. Sizing can get so confusing. There are:
1-3 months
3-6 months
6-9 months
12 months
18 months
24 months
2T
3T
4T
5T
Size 4
Size 4/5
Size 5
Size 5/6
Size 6
Size 6/7
Size 7S
Size 7X

I just don't always know how to group them together because the sizing can all be so different. I wish there was more standardized labeling amongst the brands. Because, seriously, you would think that size 4T and size 4 would be the same, but they are not. Size 4 is really about the same as 5T. And then Gymboree loves to label their infant stuff 6-12 month and 12-18 month and it always seems to run huge. Oh the dilemma of which bin to put it in!! Anyway, enough of the rambling.....

Two days ago I took care of the major sock issue we were facing. Children's socks were EVERYWHERE in our house. I bought a nice over the door shoe organizer at Walmart. Each child gets their own pocket for their socks. There are also pockets for the different sized tights, slips, ruffle socks and brand new packages of Target clearance socks. My husband laughed at me when he saw my solution. He didn't have faith that it would work because he thought Jason would likely get into it and there would be socks scattered around the bedroom in the morning. So far so good. I told my husband I have to at least attempt a solution. So here is a picture to prove what a genius I am:

Slips, tanks, ruffle socks, and knee socks.

Tights

A pocket of socks for each kid, including the new baby and the 8th pocket is for more ruffly socks. Poor Sarah only has 3 pairs of socks. I have no idea what happened to all of them.

Packages of brand new Target clearance socks.

Yay for organization!! And yes, a 1000th post could've been so much more interesting, but this is my life.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Be careful or you'll crack your head open

Tonight as I was washing the dishes after dinner the lights were flickering on and off. It had nothing to do with the power or storms, but rather some little hands. I turned my head and saw Jason by one of the kitchen light switches. I warned him to not play with the lights or he would be in big trouble. Again the lights began to flicker. I turned around and stearnly told him he was in big trouble. He blamed it on Rachel. I thought he was lying because he looked guilty. I failed to see that Rachel was at the other switch across the room flickering the lights as well.

As I finished washing the dishes, Jason took matters into his own hands to solve the problem and decided to remove Rachel from the source that was causing him to get in trouble. He moved the chair that Rachel was standing on to get her away from the switch, causing Rachel to tumble to the floor. I didn't see it happen because I was washing the dishes, but when the crying seemed serious enough I decided to take a look. I rescued Rachel from her supine position and as I lifted her, blood dripped from her head. Emily gasped. I gasped. It freaked me out because I don't like to see blood dripping from my child's head, but I examined the wound it was only about a quarter inch gash caused by hitting the corner of the baseboard (I think). I'm sure she will be fine without stitches. Her hair should cover the scar. Plus I didn't want to miss my night out at a church meeting to learn how to be a coupon wiz.

We put the guilty suspect in charge of janitorial cleanup:

I returned home a coupon whiz. But before I went home I stopped by the grocery store to use my rain check for Buy One Get One Hefty trash bags, which also had a $0.55 coupon attached to each box. I saved $15.14. I really needed those bags too. We were on our last one! Yay for BOGO and coupons!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Watching The Bachelor....

Friday, January 22, 2010

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Ouch

I spent half the day bent over my bathroom sink trying to get stains out of clothing. Now my back is killing me!! Looks like I'll just have to watch TV or read a book tonight. Darn!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Walmart

We went to Walmart tonight and got McDonald's ice cream cones. We also bought a new scale. Woo hoo! Now I get to track how much weight I gain.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

It's a...

BOY!!

We're excited! We need another one of those.

Monday, January 18, 2010

One More Wayback

Sunday, January 17, 2010

More Wayback

From age two, Jason has been a chocolate scout. If it's there, he will find it, especially chocolate chips.

2009

Hmmm. Apparently he may have inherited it....

1978

Today Jason made it through the entire church wearing underwear with no accidents. I had confidence in him and didn't even bring a spare. Well, I was planning to bring a spare, but we were already running five minutes later than usual and when I realized I forgot them as we were driving down our street, I made the executive decision not to go back and get them.

Jason is having a difficult time adjusting to being a Sunbeam in the big Primary. For 2 out of 3 weeks he's fallen asleep during sharing time. Today one of the teachers came to tell me and thought I might want to get him. I walked into the Primary room where the leader was teaching a lesson and he was sitting in his miniature plastic chair sleeping as his head bobbed and rolled all over. I went over to him and whispered, "WAKE UP!!" Then I took him to the potty. I think that helped to wake him up. But seriously, from a 3 year old's perspective, what's the point in staying awake when there are no toys and most of what you hear is, "Wa wa wa wa wa wa wa . Wa wa wa wa wa wa." Let's hope next week is a good underwear and no accidents Sunday too. (However, I will bring a spare next week.)

Also Jason wore pants all day long without wetting them. He did poop in them later in the evening, but no wetting. Yay! Anyway, his reward for going potty while wearing underwear and pants is a toddler handful of chocolate chips. This afternoon when he was rewarded, he went into the family room to brag to his siblings. He said, "Hey guys! I went pee on the potty. I got choca chips." When there was no response, he said louder, "Choca chips!....Choca chips!!..... Choca chips!!!.....CHOCA CHIPS!" I think he was a little disappointed that nobody was jealous.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Productivity

I'm whooped because we had a productive day today. My husband got the oil changed in his car. I planted some spinach, carrots, and lettuce. I hope it grows. It's worth a try at least until April when we plan our usual crops. I found some heirloom seeds to buy online. I want to try heirloom tomatoes and peppers this year. I grocery shopped. Now I'm about to clean my kitchen up, except my back is very weak and tired, so I took a break to sit down and blog. Apparently on Facebook this week it's "Wayback Week", which means it's encouraged to post some old pics of yourself. I had my parents send me some of when I was a baby and toddler. Here is one:

1977

Look familiar?

2009

If only I had a Cheerio on my head.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Tum Tum Tum Tum

All I can say tonight is:

INDIGESTION! Bring on the Tagamet because Tums just don't cut it. Yes, I'm getting fat. My abdomen is pushing into my esophogeal sphincter and my lungs. I guess it will be 4 more months of uncomfortableness. People at church are always surprised when I go back to church so soon after having a baby. But the truth is that I feel 100 times better the week after I have a baby than I do the four months before I have a baby, so why wouldn't I go? I am able to bend over and grab crayons and sippy cups off the floor while sitting on the pew. I can breathe and sing hymns easily. And I can walk without waddling. So, no, I am not one of those women who declares, "I LOVE being pregnant!" It has it's perks though. Like the fact that I can go eat a big fat piece of cheesecake right now and wash it down with a glass of milk and a Tagamet capsule and not feel bad about it. I also like that I get to decide what restaurant to go to when dining out. However, we don't dine out quite as often as we did when we had 1, 2, or 3 kids.

Today I had some insurance issues to deal with. Seriously, insurance issues can take all day sometimes. I was trying to figure out how to deal with primary and secondary insurance. Anyway, while I was on the phone and computer, the kids were playing "bus station". My husband found a bus ticket in the kitchen this evening. On the front it said:

Stops:

Poopland

Anusland

Nice. Apparently I spent too much time on a particular planet in our Solar System lesson yesterday and my son got fixated on a particular body part. But you have to admit that "Uranus" is a hilarious name for a planet. The book we were reading was telling us that "Although the weather on Uranus cannot be seen by the naked eye, it is highly active." Uranus also "contains a thick layer of methane in it's upper clouds." It was an entertaining lesson.

I think I really needs some more adult time. Sorry.

Now to leave you with a short educational Animaniacs clip that teaches us about the planets:

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Random Rambling

Mondays might be a slow blog post day for me for the next several weeks because the Bachelor is on. I have my priorities.

Not much new is going on right now. I'm having a difficult time getting back into the swing of things. We have a more relaxed homeschool schedule during the holidays and I took an extra week off after the company left to kind of wind down. So now the kids are having a hard time kicking into full blown school mode. All Sarah wants to do it play. I don't blame her. I crashed this afternoon at 4 PM on my bed while the kids watched TV. I didn't even hear the phone ring when my husband called. He said it worries him when I don't answer because he thinks I must be rushing a kid to the hospital.

Now I have a kitchen to finish cleaning, ornaments to take off the tree, and some more TV to watch. I'm also trying to balance my reality TV shows with some literary excellence. I've chosen to read Emma by Jane Austen. PBS is broadcasting a 3 part miniseries beginning January 24th, and I thought it might be fun to watch, as well as the movies with Gwenyth Paltrow, and Kate Beckinsdale. I've never been much of a novel reader, probably because I have ADD or something. I have a difficult time finishing anything including books and projects. I'm more of a short story and magazine article kind of person. Or better yet, just give me a good quote. I'm also a fan of Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals.

So that's all for now, folks. Not even a picture.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Youth

Today at church we were introduced to a new missionary that is serving in our ward. My first thought when I saw him was, "Wow. I didn't know that they let the the Young Men go on missions." In other words, he looked very young, in the 10-14 years old range. Anyway, I don't feel bad about mocking his youthful appearance because I've experienced people thinking I'm younger than I am. Unfortunately my voice doesn't help any in making me sound more mature. Now that I'm in my thirties, looking and sounding young doesn't bother me. But in my teens and twenties I failed to realize that it might eventually be flattering. It's weird though because when I study myself in the mirror, I see exactly a 33 year old in physical appearance, which makes me believe that I must just simply exude immaturity. I'm ok with that. I will always think fart sounds are funny.

My husband reminded me at lunch today about a time after we first got married. I was 24 years old. We were both serving in the Youth program at church and were chaperoning a youth dance. I was standing around chaperoning and a boy came and asked me to dance. I danced with him. He was about the same height as me, probably about 15 or 16 years old. I think I asked him if he was having a good time. Then he asked me what school I went to. It wasn't until that point that I realized he actually thought I was a teenager. I thought he was just a nice kid trying to be nice to a youth leader by asking her to dance. My brain immediately raced to find the appropriate response in order not to embarrass him or myself. I didn't find it and I just simply said, "I don't go to school. I'm a leader." I don't remember his response because it was at that point that I tucked the experience into the back of my memory. I felt so bad for him because I could tell he was embarrassed. Thankfully the song ended and I quickly went back to my fellow youth leaders and laughed off the embarassment with them. I'm glad I didn't tell the kid I was pregnant. It still cracks me up to think about it. I'm sure if the lights weren't dim, he would've seen that I was nearly 10 years older than him and that the ring on my left hand was not a CTR ring.

So yay, for youthful looks. I guess. I see the crow's feet, sagging lines around the mouth, and fading collagen. So I'm thinking maybe it's my youthful chest that can still fit into a pre-teen training bra that gives me a younger appearance? I don't know. I just hope to live to be a ripe old age and that my voice will deepen as I grow older.

Now here's a picture depicting the delicious part of youth:

And a here is a gift from my older sister this past Christmas:

Seriously, what's the point in growing up? Maturity is so boring.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Happy New Year

My sister took these pictures on New Years Eve:

That evening we brought in the New Year with:

Fox News

Fake snow from Big Bear, CA.

Mini weiners and other snacks.

Chocolate covered marshmallows.

Pie and Sparkling non-alcoholic white grape juice.

Whip Cream

Lots of it.

Happy New Year!

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The Homemade Gifts

So tradition has it in our family the kids draw names and they make that person a gift. Of course they are young and require help and brainstorming assistance, but it's a lot of fun. Emily told me this year that it's her favorite part of Christmas.

So this is what we came up with this year. I apologize for some not-so-good photos. I actually broke out the camcorder this year and put my sister and dad in charge of taking the photos. And it's not that they aren't good photographers, it's just that they are not blogger photographers. They aren't thinking, "I need a good photo for the blog." Also, someone set my camera to the Kids and Pets setting, which of course makes sense, but for some reason my camera doesn't take good pictures on that setting. But here they are:

To: Wendy

From: Bradley

Yarn Dolls

There is a Dad, Mom, little girl and little boy. Wendy is holding the little girl. One of these days I will have to get a family photo before they get destroyed. I got the idea from here.

To: Sarah

From: Wendy

Ring Toss Game

This is Jason holding one of the ring toss poles and pretending it's an umbrella. Credit goes to my dad for making the ring poles.

But it never occured to me that we didn't even need poles. We could've just used Rachel's head. (The counting bears have nothing to do with the gift.)

To: Jason

From: Emily

Super J Cape

Emily designed it. I sewed it. I am ashamed to say it's already falling apart. I need to do some mending.

To: Rachel

From: Jason

Jacob's Ladder

Wendy is holding the ladder. It's basically 6 pieces of square wood that I Modge Podged some polka dot print paper to and then my dad helped me to carefully nail strips of ribbon to make a nifty toy. The ribbon nailing was a little more intense that I had thought it was going to be and I was thankful I had my dad with his patience and help. (Notice my polka dot socks too.)

To: Emily

From: Rachel

Trick Wallet

This was fun and easy to make. I saw a video tutorial online that I modified. It's pretty much cereal box cardboard, fabric, and elastic put together with some masking tape and a hot glue gun. The outside has a matching floral print. Emily thought it was pretty cool.

To: Bradley

From: Sarah

Stilts

These are pretty cool. My dad gets full credit for making these fully functional. There are holes to adust them higher. Bradley hasn't tried them outside yet because the ground was so soppy and now it's just too cold. But hopefully soon.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

What did Santa bring?

New pillows!

Santa's elves must have seen how gross the old ones were.

A Rubik's cube, race cars and punch balloons.

A Zero Gravity Laser for Bradley.

A Fisher Price schoolhouse for Rachel.

A car carrying case for Jason. (Looks like Santa is a little biased toward Target.)

A Magic set for Emily.

Rapunzel Barbie for Wendy. (However, Wendy's favorite gift, that she asked Santa for, was a necklace that was in her stocking. I failed to get a picture of it.)

Barbie Clean Up Pup for Sarah.

Santa also brought some games - Hungry Hungry Hippo, Guess Who, Apples to Apples Junior, Let's Go Fishing, and Hyper Blast. Apples to Apples Junior was a total hit.

And he left some movies - Up, Fairytopia, and Tinkerbell Lost Treasure.

Good Job, Santa! He must have thought those kids had been good this year.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a day of festivities. The weather was rainy and humid. I actually needed to turn on my air conditioning to only find out that it didn't work! I just spent $225 earlier that week to fix the heater upstairs! I set aside the frustration and decided not to worry about it until it gets warm again. Right now on January 4th as I write this, it's 27 degrees outside. The last thing I need is AC. Here are some pics to describe December 24th:

The snack spread. We had cheese and crackers, vegetables and dip, beefstick, pretzels and cream cheese, Goldfish crackers, rye bread dip, and 7 layer bean dip with tortilla chips.

After snacks we opened some presents from Aunt Chera and Grammy and Papa Dave (David's parents and sister.) Rachel got a cute little bunny from Chera that came from London. The kids also got some magazine subscriptions to kid magazines from David's parents and some toys.

We took a dinner break. It was ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potato casserole, rolls, and Jello. The kids pretty much ate Jello, applesauce, and Goldfish.

After dinner we opened more presents. Mommy and Daddy gave the kids Target clearance clothes and each a toy. Jason got a T-shirt that says, "Be Green. It's Cool." (His favorite color is green.)

Emily got a Knifty Knitter. It's pretty cool. I've been having fun with it. I think next year everyone will be getting scarves from Emily.

The kids gave Daddy a pickle jar of 60 Reasons Why They Love Him. I got the idea from Family Fun Magazine. We originally tried to gather 365 reasons, but 60 is all we could come up with, for now at least. We'll have to add more later. My favorite is: "He's good at shooting bugs with rubber bands." -Bradley

David got me a WD TV Live. David was extremely disappointed that I didn't' get more excited about it. I thought I was getting an iPod with a speaker system, so I had to shift modes and try to understand what a WD TV Live even is. Basically it's a technological device that allows you to hook it up to your computer network and watch things you have downloaded to a hard drive on your TV. I'm still trying to learn it. But it is pretty cool. The kids already know how to work it. It's cool because we can watch our camera videos on the TV now. Supposedly there's a way to watch Hulu and other Internet stuff on TV, but we need to get a new compatible router and some software. I'm such not a tech geek. It takes me a while to learn this stuff.

The traditional Christmas PJ pose. My parents found these cool pajamas at Gymboree this year. It's amazing they could find them all in the right sizes. Too bad they didn't have adult sizes. Normally it would be a picture of just the kids, but Jason was being stubborn and needed to sit on a lap.

To be continued...

Sunday, January 03, 2010

All is Well

I'm alive. I'm alive. I told my husband that I hadn't posted for nearly two weeks. He said I better or he was going to log into my account and post that I was dead. Now that would be cruel because you all love me. Right? So here I am attempting some catch up. I am a horrible Blogger when company is in town. I kind of feel like I should be spending my time with them instead of on my computer and I think I made the right decision the past two weeks because we had a great time.

Here are some pics to show the festivities. I may have to do this in batches over the next week. I'm not looking forward to getting back into the swing of things, so reliving the Christmas magic might be nice:

Baking cookies. And lots of them. It was a sugary and delicious mess.

Waiting in line for Santa.

Not everyone was that excited to see Santa.

The best picture we got.

I love cotton candy. I totally don't understand why my kids won't eat it. It was even Wendy's favorite color purple. I guess they don't like the texture.

Riding the train. Sarah got to ride with David's sister.

I got to ride with Rachel.

Jason rode with Papa.

Roasting marshmallows. Jason is interested in Rachel's shoe.

Guilty suspects found the cookies.

To be continued....

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christmas is almost here!

Wow! It's been a whole week since I've posted! Christmastime just gets so busy and exciting. Also, both my parents and sister and my husband's parents and sister are visiting. We've been baking, grocery shopping, wrapping, making presents, watching Christmas movies. I'm still alive. Here are some pics to prove it:

The Kids' Table:

Grocery shopping:

An air matteress with a leak. The three kids sunk to the middle. It was only a matter of time before Clifford joined them:

Family Home Evening Photo with 14 people:

More to come....

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Church Christmas Party

Tonight we went to our Ward's annual Christmas party. This year the activities committee went all out and transformed the cultural hall and even the chapel into Bethlehem. It was requested that we dress in period clothing and bring our taxes (a canned food item) to Bethlehem. The indoor street was lined with booths. There was a toy booth, sandal booth, bakery, pita shop, water, and cheese. After the families ate their light meal, there was a short nativity pageant. It was well done and pretty cool. Except now I smell like frankincense and it's giving me a small headache.

I totally did not want to dress up because it's like doing Halloween all over again, but Emily really wanted to, so we threw some costumes together last minute. I draped white thermal baby blankets over the girls' heads and tied with ribbon, and my husband threw a dish towel over Bradley's head with a boy scout belt. David and I dressed up too. We threw blue baby blankets over our heads, but the pictures are hideous. I will spare you.

Monday, December 14, 2009

The Case of the Missing Cranberry Juice

On Saturday I bought my husband some cranberry juice. Last night before he went to bed, he went to pour himself a glass. The cranberry juice container was not in the fridge. My intuition told me that Jason might have something to do with its disappearance. I went upstairs and Jason was still awake. I asked him where he put the cranberry juice. He immediately looked down and got scared. I told him he wasn't in trouble and to show me where he put it. He started getting out of bed and then stopped because I think he was afraid I would be mad. Jason had guilt written all over his face. I knew he knew where it was because usually if I ask, "Who did this?" (usually referring to a mess or something broken) he will fully admit and yell, "Mommy, me did it!" However, last night he just kept quiet and didn't even say, "I no know." We went to bed never finding the juice and hoping there wasn't a puddle of it anywhere on any carpet.

This morning at about 11AM Jason called me over to the refrigerator and said, "Mommy, look! There it is!" Sure enough there was the cranberry juice right there on the shelf. And no, it was not there the entire time. I know he got it from wherever he had hidden it and put it back while I wasn't looking. That sneaky devil! I'm still hoping there's not a puddle of it anywhere.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Cleaning

We've all been a little sick in the house so I let the kids crawl in bed with me this morning at about 8 AM and watch PBS until 9:30. It was very cozy snuggling up next to a feverish Rachel, although I had to worry about getting her snot in my hair. I guess I fell back asleep because the teacher on Sid the Science kid was in my dream. I totally count PBS as homeschool. My favorite show is Martha Speaks. It teaches good vocabulary even to the older ones.

I finally decided to get up and clean the upstairs and start some laundry. Sarah was sitting next to her sister, Wendy, in the hall and she wanted me to take a picture of her because I guess she thought she looked cute. I told her that I didn't have my camera handy. She told me that she would hold a roll of wrapping paper so that we would know it was Christmastime when we look at the pictures. (Sarah must think I only take Christmasy pictures at this time of year.) I never took the picture. But here is where you imagine a picture of Sarah and Wendy sitting against the wall in outfits they picked out themselves, holding a roll of Christmas wrapping paper:

My upstairs hallway is very clean. I cleared the junk, vacuumed, and even vacuumed the baseboards and where the carpet meets the baseboards. Let's hope it stays clean for another 8 days until the guests arrive. Now onto the downstairs tomorrow.

We had French Toast for dinner. It was yummy. I'm feeling better.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

More Christmas Prep

Monday, December 7

Monday was not my favorite day this week. It started with this in the morning before breakfast:

I thought I had thrown that chocolate frosting out or at least put it in a good hiding place. Jason somehow sniffed it out and decided to eat it as a breakfast appetizer. He's totally proud of it too.

My main goal was to get the kitchen floors clean on Monday. I put the chairs on the table in the morning so it would force me to clean them before lunch. Well, they didn't get cleaned before lunch, so the kids asked me where they should eat their macaroni and cheese. I said, "I don't know. Just find a place." This is where and how they chose to eat it:

Jason got mad about something at lunch. I never did figure it out. I think it was because I wouldn't let him eat his macaroni and cheese standing up on a chair that was on the table. This caused him to throw his macaroni on the floor. It made a mess and I asked him to clean it up. Of course he didn't. He's three. About a half hour later I cleaned it up and he got mad that I cleaned it. I think he was planning to eat it off the floor later. It was a nasty tantrum. Later he cracked open a Sprite. I gave him some to try to mend things and he was upset that I didn't pour enough into his cup. He wanted it an 1/8 inch from the top and not a 1/4 inch. So he dumped it in the sink and proceeded to go to the fridge to get another one. I parked a kitchen chair in front of the fridge door and sat there so he couldn't open it. That made him MAD! He finally go over it.

Later that night we had Family Home Evening. You can tell my smile is pretty fake. It was a rough, long day. And you can see that Jason is throwing a fit about something. I think this time it was because we had him put a pink blanket over his naked bottom half so we didn't have any penis in the picture. Little boys!!!

Tuesday, December 8

On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment. The baby had a heartbeat. 154 beats per minute. The doctor said he could feel that my uterus is starting to come out more. I have a retroverted uterus which means that the it flops backwards and likes to put pressure on my spine and cause lower back pain. I never knew I had a retroverted uterus until this pregnancy. From what I've read it can become retroverted after pregnancies. Just imagine blowing up a balloon as big as it can get six times. Well, that's my uterus. Nice and stretched and floppy. My lower back pain is starting to go away thank goodness.

Also on Tuesday morning Wendy woke up with a funky swollen eye. For those of you who know Wendy, she is much prettier than this:

Later in the day she developed hives on her legs, thighs, stomach and back. She's had a cold for the past few days, but no fever. I did some reading and learned that viruses can causes hives like that. I never knew that. Her other eye was swollen this morning, but the hives went away. I was so afraid that she was allergic to our Christmas tree. I don't think she is. Let's hope not at least.

Last night we began our tradition of making Christmas gifts. It was Emily's turn to make hers for her secret sibling. I can't say what it is, but it involved sewing, and it's not a bird or a plane.

Wednesday, December 9

I printed my Christmas card letter today. After 2 letters printed, my fairly new printer told me that the printer toner was gone. I knew it wasn't gone because there was nothing to indicate on the printed pages that it was even low. But the printer pretty much locks up and you can't print anything until you buy a new one. So I went online and tried to find a good deal. It was about $50 at Amazon. I didn't really want to spend that much or wait several days to receive it. To get one locally would cost me about $70. As I was reading the reviews on Amazon procrastinating and trying to decide what to do, I read a tip that said to put some masking tape over the clear round sensor on the toner cartridge and it will still work. Apparently Brother has these cartridges to send out a LED light through this sensor after so long that tells the printer to stop printing, making the customer think that they have to go buy a new one before the toner is actually even out. How awful is that? Anyway, the masking tape trick worked and I was able to print my letters. Yay! Now I just have to print my address labels. And help Bradley with his gift tonight......

It's the most wonderful time of the year! And I don't mean that sarcastically. It really it is. Three year olds can just make it a little more difficult to believe it.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Catch Up

I'm a total lame-butt blogger, but it's that time of year when the blogging gets put on the back burner and the cookie baking and wassail brewing gets priority. I'll try to catch you up to date:

Thursday, December 3

I made popsicle stick Christmas trees with the kids. It was a craft in Family Fun magazine. This one is Emily's. Some of her ornaments fell off because the tacky glue wasn't so tacky. I made one too. It was prettier, but I can't find it to take a picture of it.

Friday, December 3

Rachel concentrates on coloring a dot-to-dot.

Saturday, December 5
David and I had some training at church. I cleaned the house some. Pretty much an uneventful day. David took Emily and Bradley to Barnes and Noble with him to buy our traditional bargain books that we give each other each year while I stayed home with the young ones and watched The Year Without a Santa Claus. It was educator discount day so we got 25% off books we bought, instead of the regular 20% with our educator discount card. Unfortunatley the bargain books don't seem to be quite the bargain they've been in years past.

Sunday, December 6

Tonight was the the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. We made our traditional chocolate chip cookies. I forgot to buy the Tollhouse cookie dough this weekend, but thankfully I had the ingredients to make them from scratch and willing bakers to help.

I forgot that a baked potato had exploded in the oven on Thursday, so when I preheated the oven it started to smell pretty bad. I was able to clean out the debris without burning myself. However, while I was cleaning the oven this happened:

Someone tried to dip a finger into the creamed sugar and butter and knocked one of my favorite red bowls onto the floor. Thankfully the cookie dough was able to be salvaged and we transferred it to a new bowl and we continued to add flour. I'm going to miss that bowl. It was such a perfect bowl to eat popcorn out of, expecially at Christmastime. :(

Do you think that certain someone may have been this kid? I think a kid who can't even put an apron on correctly could very well be capable of knocking bowl onto the floor. We still love him. His nursery leader commented on how much they love Jason. I told her that if she had him for a full 24 hours that she might think differently.

Once the cookies were baked, we poured some milk and watched the devotional The opening hymn was The First Noel.

Wendy was kind of sick today. But not too sick to enjoy a cookie (or four of them).

The kids thought it was pretty cool that Sarah and Wendy were wearing the same dresses as last year when we watched the devotional. Does that mean my kids haven't grown over the past year?

Now onto week two of Christmas preparations...

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Paper Chains, Ornaments, and Popcorn

Today was tree decorating day. But I had to get a few things done before the ornaments came out, so to keep the kids busy I had them make some Christmas countdown paper chains. It was a first for all of them. They loved doing it and they are hanging from their curtain rod in their bedroom (the chains are, not the kids), so that they can rip a link off first thing in the morning.

I know the colors look like we are counting down to Cinco de Mayo, but I let the kids pick them out.

Jason pulled this ornament out and said, "Tomato!" Mmm. I love tomatoes with ric rac and sequins.

During the decorating we chowed on 5 bags of microwave popcorn. I kind of combined the snack with lunch which is why we ate so much.

The kids did great job decorating. I pretty much sat and watched and fixed a couple of branches that had multiple ornaments. I also moved some breakable ones up higher. Amazingly we had no breakage. Yet....

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

The Smell of Pine

I'm a real Christmas tree kind of person. Growing up we had a very ugly artificial tree from the 60's I think. I never knew "real" until I was about 10 and we decided the ugly tree wouldn't look good in the new house, so my parents bought a real one. I remember going from lot to lot looking for the "perfect" tree with the whole family.

The new tradition was a lot of fun. However, we managed to wreck the beautiful live tree by draping icicles on it. It looked pretty at night when the lights sparkled on them, but in the daytime it looked like someone puked tinsel on the tree. I think we only did that one year. In later years our family started putting up two trees, a real one in the cozy family room with colored lights and an artificial one in the living room with white lights. I think my parents probably got the artificial one on sale or something after Christmas. This artificial one was much prettier than the old one. The only problem was that it was before the days of prelit trees and my Dad would spend hours putting about 1000 lights on it perfectly up and down each branch. It was tall, very bright and beautiful, and worth my Dad's effort.

Anyway, enough about my history. I've decided to keep the real tree tradition. I just love the smell of pine and the activity of going to get the tree. Thankfully we live in an area where they sell Frasier Firs that look beautiful no matter what shape and size they are. There is no need to jump from lot to lot to find the perfect tree. They also last about 6 weeks. They're awesome and worth the money. I budgeted $80 for a tree this year. It seems like a lot of money, but I consider it as my Christmas gift. I'm home all day long every day. I certainly get full enjoyment out of the beauty, smell, and tradition. The Christmas tree becomes a member of the family for at least 4 weeks.

This year the prices seemed more reasonable than years past. We found a beautiful 8 foot tree for $60. Plus we received $5 off because we are regular customers. Because we saved some money, we decided to invest in a new Christmas tree stand since last year's mishap bent our old one out of shape and it's all rusted and nasty.

While at the lot I snapped some pictures:

Nothing says Christmas like a mini candy cane.

The guy working there offered to take a family photo. He works there every year and recognizes us every year.

Cutting the netting off.

Filling the stand with water.

Rocking around the Christmas tree.

The kids watched me while I put the light on the tree. Emily really wanted to help, but I wouldn't let her. I told her that when I was little, Papa put the lights on the tree while Nana sat on the couch and directed. Emily took it to heart and was very quick to tell me where my gaps and clusters of lights were.

We explained to the kids not to touch the Christmas tree lights because they contain lead. Sarah wondered why it was bad to touch lead. Emily explained that if you touch it and put your fingers in your mouth you get dumb. Later Wendy warned, "If you touch the Christmas lights and put your fingers in your mouth, you look weird." I don't know exactly what my husband has told them, but it's been effective.

This is so fun!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving all alone this year. Not that a Thankgiving with a family of 8 is all that lonely. But here is our holiday in pictures:

Wendy was my gravy stirrer while I took pictures. I attempted to make my own gravy this year instead of using Heniz. I've always heard stories how gravy is so difficult to make. Mine worked with no lumps. I felt very successful.

My beautiful Sweet Potato Casserole. My favorite.

My beautiful turkey cooker and carver.

My beautiful homemade rolls I decided to make last minute. I didn't think they were going to work because the dough didn't seem to be rising. But they did and were delicious.

Me. We have our Thanksgiving buffet style. There's just not enough room on the table for all those dishes. I also read online this year a nifty trick to keep the mashed potatoes warm is to put them in a crock pot. It totally worked and saved some stress of getting the potatoes done last minute to make sure they were hot.

The family feast. We get out the special glasses for the holiday and the kids think they are pretty special to be able to drink out of fancy glasses.

My plate. Clockwise: Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potates (with skins), turkey, Stove Top Turkey Stuffing ( I learned this year that the Turkey Stuffing does not have MSG, but the Chicken one does.), Green Bean Casserole, Roll, and Jellied Cranberry (center).

And yes, I did eat it all, but a couple of bites of my sweet potatoes. I was stuffed to the max. A few years ago I bought some extra large plates on clearance at Target. I love using them for Thanksgiving.

A drumstick eater.

A wing eater.

After dinner we played pin the pilgrim hat on the turkey. It was difficult to decide who the winner was.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Bad Blogger

I know, I'm a bad blogger. I'm not even feeling all that bad, just got a little busy with holiday preparations and I was in a little bit of mourning for the loss of $860.31 to fix the car.

Today at lunch I took a brief moment to go upstairs to complete a task while my soup heated in the microwave. Bradley was curious as to what would happen if he shook a jar of hot chocolate powder with the lid slightly loose. He concluded that it goes everywhere and that he needs to clean it up quickly before Mommy comes downstairs. He failed to completely clean it up. After some coaxing, I asked him what happened and he told me. I said, "Why didn't you use your brain when you tried that?"

He replied, "I don't know. I didn't know that would happen."

Wendy said in defense of his brother, "Mommy, our brains are smaller."

Sarah said in defense of all kids, "But they are bigger than a dinosuar's"

Later that day Wendy found a plastic clip. She asked me where it came from and I replied, "I don't know."

She said, "But I thought you knew everything."

Wow! Such high expectations. I'm working on it, Wendy. It will take me a while to know everything.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Yesterday

Ok. I'm feeling better. It seems like just when I finish with the morning sickness (which happens to be evening sickness for me), I get a nasty cold that goes from sinus to chest to throat. I think I'm on the mend.

Ok, so about the car. On Wednesday I took my husband to work and then went to the stranded car to call AAA and get it towed. When it arrived at the repair shop, I told the guy what I thought was wrong and then while it was there I had them check out a couple of other things that I knew needed to be checked. We've always had a problem with our engine coolant light coming on and in the summertime, on super hot days, the car overheats. Also, the brake light never seemed to go off when we released the parking break. I thought they would be minor fixes, but it turns out that something was wrong with the breaks, the coolant sensor was broken, and, I happened to be right, and the shifter cable was broken. So all three repairs together is costing me $860.31. Lovely. But I like to think that by the car actually breaking and causing us to have to take it in to the shop, resulted in money and possibly lives saved should the brakes have failed on my husband or me one day. So it's all good. I'm not complaining. Cars are miserable. It's just a fact of life. I think it is still better than dealing with horse and buggies.

Last night I took Emily to her Achievement Days at church which is the 8-11 year old girls that get together twice a month to do fun and spiritual stuff. Last night the leader just had an improvised plan and brought some games for the girls to play. I asked her if she needed help and she invited me to come and play. We played Uno, Twister, and Da Vinci's Challenge. When we were leaving Emily was kind of quiet. I asked her if it was weird for her for me to be there. She nodded her head, but I could tell she didn't want to hurt my feelings. I guess she likes that time to go hang out and be silly with her friends without her mother around. I totally understand. I just hope I don't get called to be the Achievement Day Leader ever. She would be so disappointed!

I guess that's all for now. Today was uneventful. We attempted some more cleaning. Hopefully the car will be ready tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Car Problems

This is going to be a lousy post, but I just have to vent a little....

My husband's car is broken :(

I absolutely hate dealing with car trouble.

My husband was helping a guy out with his computer and when my husband went to leave, the car wouldn't come out of park and the gear shift is all floppy. From my research, it sounds like the shifter cable is broken and it's not a difficult fix, but of course it still costs money. Not exactly what I wanted to spend the money from our first paycheck on. My biggest fear is that the repair shop will try to take advantage of me and charge me more than necessary. Anyway, I'm armored with my knowledge of gear shifts and shifter cables and hopefully will be able to recognize if they are trying to pull a fast one on me. The car is still at this person's house which means I get to go take my husband to work tomorrow at 7 AM, and then go to the broken car and wait for AAA to come and tow it while sitting in our van with all the kids.

The good news is that it got me to renew my AAA membership. It's been expired for 6 months. I have to wait until tomorrow to get it towed to avoid having to pay an extra $40 for the tow. Thankfully it's not a problem to keep it at this person's house until tomorrow.

Why do these things always happen right before Christmas? I was all ready to do some Christmas shopping. Ug.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Home Sick

I stayed home from church today with snotty, coughy kids. Emily was the only totally healthy person in the family, so my husband stayed with her during Sacrament meeting and then left her there and then Primary president brought her home after church. (The Primary president lives in our neighborhood.) This morning in bed I realized that we totally forgot to attend the Primary activity on Friday night. It was supposed to be a good one too. Emily cried because we forgot. She was so looking forward to it. I told her it was her job to remember these things. I seem to be very forgetful lately.

I have a sore throat and aching body. However, the aching body is not from being sick. I did yard work yesterday and my body is paying the price for it. My body hasn't experienced that much exertion in a long time. The yard looks dang good though! We derednecked it a bit. Took the toys out of the yard, pulled some weeds, pulled the dead tomato plants, mowed the weeds in the grass, threw away the old newspapers on the walkway, and edged the sidewalks. I was looking forward to admiring it as we drove past it on our way to and from church today. It didn't happen. I admired it from my window instead.

I just finished watching a sappy Hallmark channel movie, The Flower Girl. I'm a sucker for Hallmark movies.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Catching Up

Sometimes life passes us by, especially in the heat of morning sickness, and things can get a little out of control:

The past couple of months I just simply haven't cared what my house looks like. Actually, I cared, but I didn't have the energy or will to clean it. Any perfectionism that was left in me in the midst of raising six kids completely vanished. Things didn't get put away. Floors remained unvacuumed. Dust collected. Sheets failed to get washed. Dirty dishes sat on the counter. Etc. Now that I'm feeling better and with the Christmas season around the corner, I decided I was going to clean the entire downstairs today before my husband got home from work. We made progress, but only completed the family room. I considered it a huge accomplishment. I cleared the counters, spot cleaned the carpet, vacuumed the couch and chair.... My kids helped. It looks good. I hope to make progress on the kitchen tomorrow.

While we cleaned, we took breaks. This was our hot chocolate break:

Sarah was a good sister and shared.

Rachel doesn't speak much, but she is good at letting others know what she wants. Her current vocabulary:

Uh oh.

Ga gone.

Mama.

Anghhh!!! (while pointing to something)

Ehhh!!

Ehhh?

Ohh.

Ooo.

Dee.

Da.

Da?

Mmmhh.

Mmmhh?

Ba bong.

Wee-a-wee-a-wee-a.

(And more grunting noises that I don't know how to phonetically type.)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Going Public

Ok, so it's time. I'm going public. I will be 13 weeks pregnant tomorrow. My due date is May 19th. I went to the doctor today and he couldn't find a heartbeat with his handy little Doppler instrument. I was freaking out! He did a quick ultrasound and there was a heartbeat beating at 164 beats per minute. The little sucker was facing the wrong way and the doctor couldn't get the Doppler to detect the heartbeat. Despite the brief panic, I was lucky to get this great picture of my thumb sucking little guy. (I think it's a boy. Doesn't it look like a boy?) I'm not convinced he isn't missing his left arm either. At least he has a handsome profile. Hopefully he will grow an arm in the next several months.

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