End of April 2011

Pregnancy pic-May 2, 2011-38 weeks

I went to my OB doctor on April 22. He said everything looks good, and he will see me on May 5, because he is going on vacation for the week in between. I'm supposed to be seeing him weekly at this point.

This yellow tulip is from our yard. It was huge! The dark purple tulip is the size of a normal tulip. The yellow was about the size of a teacup. I love tulips.


I turned 32 this year. My parent's took me out to lunch, and my in-laws took me out to dinner. Ryan took me to dinner. I think I ate out for most of the week of my birthday, which was great. Ryan bought me the 5th book of Fablehaven. It is a series that we are reading together, and that is the next book! I'm excited to read it.

When Ryan took the girls shopping for my birthday, I guess he was asking them what they should get. Ryan says this is how the conversation went:
Ryan- What should we give Mom?
Katie-her cooking thing is broken (my mixer)
Ryan-no, too expensive
Katie-a new sewing machine? (I had said I wanted a new one around Christmas, then changed my mind)
Ryan-No...
Katie-I know! A piggy bank. So she can keep her money and special stuff in it!

So when they got home from shopping, Ryan texted me to go into the bedroom. Then I came out, and they were hiding from me in the stairway. They yelled, "Surprise! Happy Birthday!" Then Katie asked, in a loud whisper, "Can I tell her about the donuts?" Ryan said no. Then later, again in a loud whisper, "Can we give her the book now?" Ryan said "no" again. I had to pretend both times that I hadn't heard her. She is so cute. Katie and Elayna were both so excited it was my "happy birthday" and that Ryan put candles in the donuts and they got to sing Happy Birthday to me. Birthdays are a lot more fun when kids are involved.
My parents also gave me some money, which I used to partly pay for my quilt to be machine quilted. I will post pictures of the quilt later.  I'm really happy with how it turned out. I need to bind the edges together, and then it will completely finished.

For my birthday, Irma, Jerry, and Clarissa got me a gift certificate to a nail salon. I got my nails done in a French manicure:

And my toes got a cute little flower. It was really nice and relaxing. Surprising how something as simple as nail polish can make you feel pampered and special. :)



Elayna has cream that we put on her when she gets really dry or irritated skin. One night, Ryan came into her room (we thought she was asleep) and Elayna just held up her hands and said, "lotion" in a kind of depressed, worried sort of way. We had to get a picture, then we told her she was in trouble. It took quite a bit of paper towels and warm washcloths to get it mostly off.
You can see she got it all over her face, hands, arms, and legs.

Elayna, trying on her Daddy's shoes. She was so proud of herself.

Katie and Elayna wanted to play out in the rain. It was raining pretty hard.


A beautiful rainbow:



Irma had Katie and Elayna come stay the night at her house on April 22, in preparation for when the baby comes. The girls love it. In fact, they were both upset that they had to come home.  Ryan and I were both ready for them to come home. We were sitting in the front room, waiting for them. We both kept looking out the window, and looking at the clock, and wondering where they were. When they finally came, we went outside and helped get them out of the car, and gave them really big hugs. I think they were excited to see us, after Grandma and Grandpa went home.

GG had an Easter party at her house on April 23. There were treats, ice cream, cookies, etc. Then the kids went on an Easter egg hunt and got some candy. Then they broke open a pinata, with more candy inside. Lots of sugar, but lots of fun too. 





Easter dresses: (they actually got the dresses for Christmas, but they haven't worn them until now)

 The Easter bunny didn't come to our house this year. We figured the girls had enough candy to last them for a while, and Ryan and I don't need any more candy. This is probably the last year we will be able to just cancel the holiday like that. Katie will figure it out by next year.

The wind was blowing so hard that it knocked over one of my chairs. The chair hit my table, and shattered half of it. :(    Now we will have to use a board for the table top.

First half of April 2011

Bubbles are a big hit in the tub. Katie likes to put them on her face and pose. I asked Elayna why she didn't have a "beard" also, and they both said, "She does, it's pink and really long." Silly girls.

I registered Katie for Kindergarten on April 1st. She had to get some immunization shots the day before, and that was traumatic. She only cried a little though. On the way home, she said something like, "I don't know why I have to get shots. They hurt." I felt so bad. I tried to explain what diseases are, and why we do immunizations, but I'm not sure she understood. At least she knows there is a reason, and not that I just want her to hurt.

Katie isn't taking naps hardly at all anymore. (she hasn't taken many naps since last fall, when preschool started) She is learning "sight words" on flashcards that she can memorize what they look like, then recognize them upon sight, instead of sounding them out each time. At first, we both really struggled with it. I wanted her to sound it out each time, and she just didn't understand the concept. After crying to my mom about it one day, ("Katie will never learn, she hates it, I hate it, I don't know how to help her, will she ever figure it out?" etc...) Mom explained that "is" (the word I started to teach her) doesn't mean anything to Katie. It is just 2 random letters together, and even sounding it out each time doesn't help. Mom suggested teaching some other words first, and having Katie write them down, or draw pictures with them.

Now, Katie will trace each flashcard onto her paper, write the word in the box on her paper, and write the letters of each word below itself on the actual flashcard. She is obviously a person that learns by writing it down. When I flash through the cards, she will look at her paper to see what the word it. It is very interesting. Mom also suggested having Katie read the words in a sentence, and that has helped a lot also. So now, it is not an awful chore that we both hate. It is a fun learning experience, and Katie looks forward to it each day. (We work on them right after Elayna goes down for her nap.)

Katie is growing fast also. When she got her well child checkup before Kindergarten Registration, the doctor said she was in the 75% for her height and weight. She could do all the requested activities the doctor asked about.-- Jump with both feet, balance on one leg, how high can you count, do you know your colors, does she do imaginary play, etc.--
She also passed with flying colors the assessment the school did. Lynette DeGraffenried is my aunt, and she is the one that interviewed Katie. Lynette asked her about colors, what each letter and number was, what shapes were on the paper, what sounds each letter made, and Katie did really great. It seems a little crazy that she will be in Kindergarten in the fall, but she is ready.


After eating some chocolate, and their fingers were all dirty:


This is how my cute Elayna reads books, 90% of the time. Book on the couch, legs crossed as she casually leans against the couch. I think it is adorable:
Elayna loves Princesses at the moment. Especially Snow White. I think I read the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at least 3-4 times a day. She loves being outside, and coloring. She hasn't worn diapers at all for about a month, if not more. She still has accidents, but she can stay dry most days, and she will now go by herself if she decides she needs to. Ryan and I take turns waking her up at night (okay, mostly Ryan does it, but I help sometimes too, since I'm up going to the bathroom also) so she sleeps in underwear also. She is doing really well with potty training.

Elayna talks really well, and a lot. She loves being around Katie so much. She copies most of what Katie does, and they play so well together. Most mornings they will be awake, playing in their bedroom, before I realize they are awake. Sometimes I'll come out and say, "Let's eat breakfast" and they will ask if they can play more before we eat. Of course, they fight about stuff, but most of the time they really love being around each other.


Here I am at 35 weeks:
Everything is going well. The due date, as I've calculated it, should be about the 9th of May. My doctor says it will be closer to the 13th. I'm sure she will come when she wants, and we will both be wrong. :)

Not much going on. Basically just waiting for the baby to come. I haven't really started nesting yet, but I'm trying to get stuff done. Most of the time just having a meal ready when Ryan comes home from work can seem like a big accomplishment. I feel really tired, and don't want to move much. Katie and Elayna play with friends (mostly Abby and Gracie) most of the time, and I do stuff around the house. I really don't just lay around all day. I've got some of my roses trimmed, and my quilt is almost finished. I need to put a border around it, and find someone that will machine quilt it for me, then I'll post pictures of it. I'm pretty proud of it.

Ryan is sleeping better. He seems more rested. He will get his thyroid levels checked at the end of the month, and the doctor will adjust the medication if necessary.

March 2011

My belly at 30 weeks:

Everything is going well with the pregnancy. I've had some Braxton Hicks (fake) contractions, and some back pain, but they are usually worse when I have over extended myself. So I'm trying to slow down, and take breaks in between chores and such. It is a good reminder to slow down and take time with the girls also. On my good days, I set the timer. 20 minutes for me to work, 10 minutes to read/play with the girls. It seems to work well.

On March 12, we were at my parent's house, and the kids were playing outside. The adults were downstairs talking. We saw Katie coming toward the door with her hand over her forehead. When she came in and moved her hand, there was a huge goosebump with a really white spot in the middle of it. It was right over her right eye. I got scared, especially when Dad said I might need to take her to the doctor to have the blood taken out of the bump. We ran upstairs, and saw Mom in the kitchen. I told her what Dad had said, so she said she would watch Elayna, and we should call her.
Well, long story short, Ryan and I called my brother Mike, and he said that we probably didn't need to go to the emergency room to have it checked. (I guess there was some confusion between Dad and Mom about whether it needed to be looked at by a doctor, or not) We stopped at McDonald's and got a cup of ice. (yeah, we should have had ice on it from the beginning, but we didn't. We'll know better for next time.)
This is a side view of her head about 2 hours after Abby and her hit their heads together on the trampoline. (It was an accident of course, and Abby only had a red mark. Strange.)
The picture doesn't show that the bump is about the size of a silver dollar. It looked so huge! Thankfully, the swelling went down significantly after we put ice on it, and in the morning, there was a slight red mark there. Throughout the week, it turned green, and she had a green bruise on her eyebrow also. I'm just grateful she is okay.


The girls were playing in the front on March 9th. They were having so much fun dancing on the driveway:
Plus, they are so adorable with their sunglasses and happy smiles!


Ryan had a date with Katie this month. They ate at a Chinese restaurant, then went downstairs and played chess. I guess Katie wanted to learn, since Ryan has been teaching and playing chess with Katie's older cousins. Ryan says she understood and remembered how most of the pieces moved, and they had fun.

Elayna and I had our date also. We went and ordered some pizza, and wandered around Walmart while it was cooking. Then we got the pizza and took it home to eat. We played one board game, then it was time for Elayna to go to sleep.

Oh, and the weather was awful, again. It was snowing, and windy, and cold. Hopefully next month we will have better luck with the weather. We are really enjoying having this one on one time with the girls. It will be more complicated when the baby gets here. I'm not sure how we will work that out....

Ryan has had some problems with his Thyroid. We decided at the end of last year to have his thyroid ablated (killed) because it was over reacting. It is easier to treat hypOthyroidism, rather than hypERthyroidism, I guess. (Hyper is over reacting. Hypo is under reacting) So now he will be on thyroid medicine the rest of his life. The hyperthyroid was dangerous to his health, and we feel that this was a good decision.
The strangest part of it all, to me, is that Ryan is cold all the time now. And since I'm pregnant, I'm always warm. That is so completely backwards from most of our marriage! It is just odd to see Ryan with long sleeves on, and huddled under blankets, while I feel it is too warm.
Thankfully, the medicine should get his metabolism all straightened out, and we should be back at the same temperature within the next couple of months.

Ryan is also on a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine. This makes it so he doesn't snore at night. Actually, the main reason is so he will keep breathing while he sleeps. Apparently his brain forgets to remind him to breathe, and his tongue can fall into his airway while he sleeps, so it is good to have the air constantly flowing into him. It is strange, because he has to wear a mask at night, but I sleep lots better (the machine doesn't make any noise, and his snoring used to be really loud). I also don't have to worry about whether he is breathing or not, which is nice.

Just being cute, holding each other on the couch:

Katie and Elayna got their dentist checkups. They both held really still, and did just what the hygienist and dentist asked them. Katie and Elayna's teeth looked really good, and neither one had any cavities. Yay!

Feb 2011

I did the girls hair the same the other day. Actually, Katie usually wants me to do them the same. But I thought this hair style was really cute:


The girls are even cuter:


At the beginning of February, Ryan and I decided we wanted to have "dates" with our girls. So, I took Katie, and Ryan took Elayna. We went the first Monday night in February. We decided to meet at Walmart and get Elayna a booster seat, since she was big enough, and it would be easier to trade her car seat around, for situations like this.

I wanted to take Katie to see "Tangled" at the movie theater in Payson. So we met Ryan in Payson, at the Walmart parking lot. Turns out, the power was out. At Ryan's work, at both places we planned on eating, at the movie theater, at Walmart, etc. It completely disrupted our plans. And it was raining pretty hard. Not the best way to start this activity.

Ryan took Elayna, and they drove to Smith's and bought some fingernail polish, then got some food at Santaqueen. I guess they ate, then painted their nails. Yes, both of them. Ryan bought some black polish for his nails, and Elayna used some purple and blue. Ryan's fingernails looked very weird black. And he kept them that way for about a week. It was strange, but he thought it looked neat, I guess. Thankfully, he conceded to take the polish off before Sunday.

Katie and I started driving more into Payson, to find somewhere to eat. We ended up at The Wildeflower Grille, over by the hospital. We ate, then headed back to the movie theater, spending the whole time talking about whether the power would be out at the theater, and what we would do if it was. It wasn't out, so we got tickets, and started watching the movie. THEN. the power went out, after we had been watching for about 20 minutes. AGH!! We were informed that if the power didn't come back on within 10 minutes, they would refund our tickets, and we could go home. That wasn't the preferable option! So we sat in the dark, with about 15 kids and 6 adults, until it finally came back on. Yay! We got to watch the rest of the movie without interruption. Then we went to McDonald's (Katie kept calling it Old McDonald's) and got ice cream. We also stopped at Walmart and got some groceries. She didn't get home and in bed until close to 10, but we had lots of fun. We are going to do this the first Monday of each month, trading girls each month.

One day, Katie wanted to play outside instead of taking a nap. I looked out and saw her playing in this mud:


Then I noticed the table, with the hand prints on it:


Then Katie showed me her hands. I don't know that I've seen her hands this dirty before:


Valentine's Day was nice. Ryan and I got books for each other, so I thought we were done. But then Ryan brought home some pink tulips and a big heart full of kisses for me. He's so thoughtful! Katie got her first taste of Valentine's Day-School-Style. She took some valentine cards for her class, but when she came home, I realized she hadn't given them to the teacher, for some reason. Anyways, her cards would have been the only cards (besides one other) that didn't have candy attached. So, she got 20 pieces of candy. She was loving it!

This looks really weird, but it is actually just some gum that got stuck in Elayna's hair. We were outside, and she asked me where her gum was.
Me-I don't know. It must have fallen out of your mouth.
Then, much later, after naps, I was trying to get her hair out of her face, and noticed the side of her neck was sticky, and this clump in her hair. Thank goodness it didn't get stuck closer to her scalp. I just had to cut a very small piece, in the back, close to the end of her hair:



I am having fun in Young Women's. Right now our biggest stress is planning New Beginnings at the end of the month. We had made assignments for one girl to make a large "temple" out of butcher paper that we could hang on the wall. She volunteered to do this about a month before hand. Then, 4 days before the actual event, she casually mentions she won't be able to do it after all. Sorry. Panic! Heidi and I had to go to the church and plan it all out and then Heidi went home and painted some windows on it. It looked really good, but it caused lots of stress. We had a couple of things like that. Stuff the girls had volunteered to do, but then fell through on at the last minute. But, it all went well, and the decorations (which she didn't forget to do!) looked amazing. I think it turned into a great event to introduce the new Beehives into the program.

I'm finally in my third trimester! Hurray! I hit 29 weeks at the end of the month. I have some projects I want to finish before the baby comes. Of course, none of them are important, or even related to the baby. Just stuff I want to finish.

I finally got my office all moved into the kitchen. I'm trying to finish my block quilt. I'm trying to transcribe my Granny's journal. I want to have Katie and Elayna's baby books finished. I want to make 2009-2010 into a Blog book. Stuff like that.

We are trying to decide if we want a Suburban or a minivan. We decided we would wait to buy a larger vehicle until August (so I can do carpooling when Katie starts Kindergarten), mostly because Mom and Dad were buying GG's car, and offered to sell Dad's car to us. The price was good, and it is so much nicer than my car. So now I drive a gold Buick, and Ryan drives the green Camry. Hopefully we will sell the blue Camry sometime in the next month or two.

Katie wanted to paint. I looked over, and noticed that she had clipped two papers together with clothespins, then hung it over the edge like this so it looked like she was painting on canvas or something. She's very inventive.

Jan 2011

Such cute girls:



Katie-"Sometimes kid's bodies don't like what Mom's cook for dinner."--1-11-11.

Katie is being so responsible and helpful lately. She can get toast or cereal for her and Elayna's breakfast in the morning. (I sleep in way too much, obviously). One morning she put all the dishes from the dishwasher away in the cupboards. Unfortunately, they were all dirty, but it was very thoughtful of her. She also helps a lot with Elayna-getting things for her when I'm not near, making sure she is happy, "reading" books to her.
Katie isn't taking naps every day anymore. Every once in a while she will, but not very often. She is doing great during quiet time. She will read books to herself, or play downstairs, or just watch quietly while I sew or type.

The girls love to "Cook" with Grandma Irma. She will help them make pancakes, hamburgers, tacos, etc. They can spend lots of time with the "play dough":


Oh, Katie also changed Elayna's diaper one day. It was on backwards, but still. They both had powder all over their faces. Then she wanted to put the dishes away and the laundry away, but she had to go to school. When she came home from school, she said, "Oh, thank you for not putting the dishes away. I wanted to do that." Funny girl.

Elayna is mostly potty trained. Well, most days. Some days she wants to wear a diaper during the day, and underwear at night, which doesn't work out so well. She keeps dry during her naps, but all night long is hard, even though Ryan and I take turns going in and taking her to the bathroom throughout the night. Elayna whines a lot lately, but if I ask her to be happy, she will smile, and be happy.

Elayna's cute smile:


My pregnancy is going okay. I've had aches and pains, but nothing serious. I'm glad I seem to be getting a little more energy. I haven't cooked real food for my family for about 3 months, so it is about time I started back into that, I suppose. It just takes so much work!! :)

Me at 23 weeks:


Mom helped me re-hang the pictures in my front room. I also purchased a beautiful desk and hutch to go on top. I've moved the dining table into the living room, and my office into the kitchen, so we can have a room for the baby, when she finally gets here. Right now it is being used as a storage/project room. I'm trying to finish some projects before the baby comes.

Here is my new "office". I'm really happy with it. I love that it is where I see it all the time, so I keep it relatively neat, and I can put the laptop on the pull-out keyboard tray when I'm not using it, so I have desk space. I think it looks nice, and it is very functional.



Alisha came and visited at the end of January, beginning of February. We had so much fun with her and her boys.
This is Elayna holding Nicholas. She held him for about 20 seconds, then said. "Heavy for me."

Katie liked holding Nicholas also.

We love seeing Alisha's family whenever we can. We spend as much time with them as possible. We went to the Bean Museum at BYU one day also, with Mom, Alisha, Amanda, Naomi, and me. So, 5 adults with 8 kids. It wasn't too bad. We had fun.