Great news!

This news has been out for a while, but not on our blog, so here it is: I'm pregnant! The baby is due August 16th (Or August 14th, according to my doctor, not that it matters!).

Elise is hoping for a boy. Lydia was originally hoping for a baby sister, until Elise converted her with this logic: If we have 2 little brothers, then we can play princesses and have a prince for each of us! Poor Tyler and his hypothetical brother! Except that I'm pretty sure Ty would LOVE to have a brother, and probably wouldn't mind the princely role either. I'm very wishy-washy about what I would prefer, and I haven't felt any intuition either way. Mike is sure this one's a girl. Want to know how I know? The other day he started a sentence like this: "When we find out what she is..."

I am feeling pretty good lately. For the first couple of months of the pregnancy I felt yucky - stomach churning pretty much all day. That has gone away, and now I am just extra tired. Sometimes I nap in the afternoon, but more often I sit and stare listlessly at blogs and Facebook in lieu of a nap. Stupid!

An awesome side effect of pregnancy: healthy things are SO appealing. Fruit, vegetables, water, regular Cheerios instead of sugar cereal! I eat fresh pineapple until my mouth hurts. Today I ate 3 bowls of pureed butternut squash soup*.

Even weirder: suddenly I have the ability to eat sweets in moderation. Where did that come from? Usually I can't help but eat all the candy and baked goods in sight, and you would think pregnancy would only make it worse, but get this: I had Valentine candy (chocolate!) still sitting on my counter when February ended. I don't think that has ever happened to me.

*How to make Butternut Squash Soup (Andrea, correct me if I'm making it wrong, and thanks for the idea)
Cube up a butternut squash**, and put it in a pot. Add enough chicken broth (or water/bouillon) to cover the squash. Boil until the squash is soft. Pour the contents of the pot into a blender, and puree. Return to the pot, add a little dash of cayenne, and maybe some black pepper. Garnish with Parmesan cheese if desired (I didn't have any and it was still so yummy).

**Out of curiosity I looked up the nutritional information for butternut squash. I found out that a cup of cubed butternut squash has 457% of the recommended daily value of Vitamin A. I probably ate 3x that. Then I found out that excessive Vitamin A causes birth defects. I freaked out. Then I found out that the "Vitamin A" in vegetables is actually beta carotene, which does NOT cause birth defects. I calmed down. The end.

Choo Choo!

Tyler is very into trains lately.  He loves to get out this set and help me "make a circle".  And the best part is that he is so good about putting it away when he's done.

Valentine's Day "Tea" Party

Elise and Lydia invited a few friends over for a fancy "tea" party for Valentine's Day. I took a tip from my sister-in-law Krista and ordered fancy tinted bread to make pink and purple tea sandwiches.

Here is Lydia with Kylie, Eden, and Natalie.

And here is Elise with Abbie and Sydney.

Happy Birthday Mike!

That's right, woodchuck-chuckers, it's GROUNDHOG DAY!

This day never fails to remind me of the scariest thing that ever happened to me. It wasn't Groundhog Day, but one chilly day I was leaving work, and my car wouldn't start. I went back inside and borrowed a portable jump-starter, and went back outside all alone to see if it would help.

The next few seconds are fixed in my memory forever. I opened the hood, and an enormous rodent (R.O.U.S.) jumped out toward me. I screamed and shut the hood before it could get me, and ran inside screaming and shaking. My co-workers and my dad (it's a family business) finally calmed me down and got the story: "There's... something... under... my... hood!!"

My dad and some others came out to see what I was freaking out about. When they opened the hood, I stayed well back, expecting the same jack-in-the-box action, but the thing was just huddled down where they could hardly see it. Nothing they did could get it to leave on its own, so they devised a plan and, um, dispatched it. (I didn't watch that part).

Anyway, some image searches helped me figure out that it was probably a groundhog/woodchuck. At work I got teased for days about being so afraid of a furry little animal. My sister even made up some fake "LOST" fliers about a kindergarten class who was missing their pet ferret, haha!

A long time later, I walked into a room at the Museum of Natural History. In the middle of the room was a glass case holding a taxidermied animal just like the one that had jumped out at me. Just seeing it sent my heart racing, and my stomach churning. Emotionally, I was right back in that scary moment. A totally unreasonable reaction to a stuffed groundhog!

I still get a little bit of that feeling just seeing pictures on the news and television on Groundhog Day. I hope I never ever meet another groundhog in person, even if it is predicting an early spring!

Cruising the California Coast

For Christmas last year, my parents decided to simplify and do one big present for their kids.  They took us on a 4-day cruise in January, sans kids, and it was SO fun.  We missed Dave and Krista, but luckily everyone else was able to come.  We left out of Los Angeles, and stopped in Catalina and Ensenada.

Some of my memories of the cruise:

• Packing a little too lightly (we carried on all our luggage to save time at the airport).  The weather was actually quite nice compared to Utah in January, but I probably should have brought more long pants and an actual coat.
• Playing lots of funny rounds of Telestrations on the no-kids-allowed "Serenity" deck - we were probably not the most serene crowd, haha!  My favorite round: George Washington -> Shirley Temple -> sparkling cider.
• Free sushi every night at 5:00 p.m.
• Renting crappy bikes to explore Catalina.  Looking back it was fun, but my chain came unhooked every time I tried to switch gears, so I had to do the whole thing in the lowest gear, and I was in pretty wimpy shape!  Mike would have gladly traded bikes with me, except we couldn't get the seat on his bike to adjust lower.
• Shaunda sneakily putting cute signs on our stateroom doors.
• Ordering FREE room service!
• Every night at dinner I struggled with "morning" sickness, but the pregnancy was still a secret at that point, so I couldn't admit it.  Luckily seasickness was a good cover.  Our waiter was so nice to offer to bring me bland things like baked potatoes if my entree didn't agree with me.  
• Finding folded towel animals in our stateroom.
• We went to see a Newlywed-type game in the ship's theater, and my parents got picked to come up on stage as the longest-married couple in the room.  It was hilarious (and slightly embarrassing) to hear my parents answer some of those questions!  Before they started, the host took my dad aside and told him that some of his answers would be changed for the sake of comedy.  The very last question was something like "You haven't seen ugly until you've seen my wife's _________" and the host read out my dad's answer as "I haven't stayed married for 35 years by being stupid!"
• Conga line in the dining room.
• The BEST do-it-yourself excursion we could have hoped for in Ensenada.  The excursions offered through the ship were overpriced and didn't sound very cool.  Shaunda found out about a campground with a network of ziplines, Las Cañadas, several miles from the port, and we decided to try getting there and back ourselves.  I was worried about not making it back to the ship, or being taken advantage of by a shuttle driver, or finding the zip-lines to be rickety and dangerous, but everything turned out wonderful.  Our prayers were answered.  We found Manuel, a shuttle bus driver willing to drive us all there and back for a reasonable price.  He was so friendly and ended up spending the day joining us in our zip-line activity.  The zip lines were SO fun and thrilling, but I felt completely safe and in good hands with the instructors.
• Eating authentic fish tacos in Ensenada, and dragging Mike up and down the streets looking for the perfect souvenirs at a bargain price I could live with.  He should thank me for all the great opportunities I give him to work on patience. ;)

It was such a fun time, and we made great memories!  Thanks Mom & Dad!

Merry Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas. The kids' presents were a hit, and we got to spend a lazy morning playing before heading out to visit family. Unfortunately this Christmas will go down in my memory as the year I ruined Christmas morning by crying over the present Mike got me.

It was a smart phone.

He thought I would really like one like his, and I would, but it costs an extra $30 a month to have internet service on it, and I had said it wasn't worth it to me. He researched and found a refurbished phone with cool features like his, but I could use just as a phone without the expensive data plan. It was a thoughtful idea, and he kept it a secret really well. But I didn't give Mike the reaction he was hoping for, after all his thoughtfulness.

I didn't want it.

If it was free I would have, but I knew it must have cost a lot, and I still had a perfectly good regular cell phone. And if it didn't have internet service, there was no reason to change over to an expensive new phone just so I could play Angry Birds. I finally had to tell him how I felt, which made me cry and feel terrible.

Thankfully it was returnable. I sure love Mike for tolerating my over-emotional moments. I really lucked out when I married him!

Christmas Eve 2010

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional dinner at my parents' house, and then had a special visitor, like always.

Lydia asked Santa for a Unicorn Pillow Pet.

Elise changed her mind several times in the weeks leading up to Christmas. For months she planned on asking for a "changing color iPod" (She wanted a music player and just couldn't decide what color, and surely Santa could make one that would change colors according to her whim). Then she wanted a real cell phone. Then at school she wrote a letter asking Santa for a Disney Princess boombox with a microphone (I'm justified in being upset that the Toys R Us catalog was distributed in class for a school assignment, right?). She finally settled on just a microphone.

Tyler asked for a train. No surprise there!

Happy Birthday Tyler

Tyler loves anything with wheels, so for his birthday party I made car invitations.


I had all of these great ideas for decorations, but December is busy, so I stuck with lots of streamers, and a pair of rear-view-mirror dice hanging from the chandelier.

We invited our extended family, and I was surprised that almost everyone could come on a December evening! We served dinner, all Tyler-friendly foods. He especially loves chicken fingers and carrots. Lots of our family offered to bring side dishes, which was really helpful.


Tyler had so much fun opening gifts. This is a good age, because he could mostly do it himself. Of course, his cousins and sisters were more than happy to help if he was going too slowly. He received LOTS of cars, and was in heaven. "Cars" is one of his best words, and he had many chances to exclaim it!


The cake was also a car. We had to re-light the candles to actually give him a chance to blow them out. Elise got a little excited the first time around and beat him to it. :)


Tyler is such a fun 2 year old. He learns new words every day. He will walk around naming things that he sees, and is interested in everything. He is very good at answering yes or no, and letting us know what he wants.
Tyler is a champ at going to nursery or staying with a babysitter. Babysitters always report that he was a perfect angel, especially at bedtime. For us, though, it's hit-or-miss whether he will lay down nicely in his crib. When he does, he wants all 4 of his blankets, plus his doggy, and definitely notices if you try to leave one out!
He loves to play with cars and trains, markers and crayons, and everybody's shoes. He also loves lotion, hand sanitizer, and washing his hands in the sink. He gives great kisses and makes a cute grunting sound when he hugs. Tyler is such a sweet boy, and we are lucky to have him in our family.

Halloween 2010

Let me tell you about our Halloween costumes!

Last spring, Elise memorized the "Queen of Hearts" nursery rhyme to recite in front of her Kindergarten class.

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts
All on a summer's day.
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts
and took them clean away.

The King of Hearts called for the tarts
and beat the knave full sore.
The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts
and vowed he'd steal no more.

The students were allowed to bring a prop or wear a costume, and Elise chose this poem because she wanted to dress like a queen. I agreed to make her a dress, but only if she would wear it for Halloween! So this is the costume that sparked the whole theme. I made the dress in the wee hours of the morning before the program (when else?), but I didn't have time for all the details I wanted to add. It was inspired by the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie.


For Halloween I added the crown, the beading, and figured out the hair using red hairspray. Elise LOVED being a really red redhead! Her hair does have a little bit of natural red, especially in the sun, and she always mixes red and brown crayon/marker in her self portraits. She thinks red hair is so much more exciting than plain old brown!


I made Lydia's blue dress, but the pinafore was from when I was little. When my parents moved to their new house a few years ago, I took home a bunch of my old dresses, slips, and pinafores. Thankfully this was among them. It had never even been worn! It's not exactly like the cartoon, but it has the right flavor, and looked really cute. Lydia's favorite part about this costume was the full twirl-able circle skirt.


Tyler was the cutest white rabbit I've ever seen. I looked at bunny costumes at several stores, but they were either very expensive, very girly, or all pink! I didn't want him to feel like this:
so I kept looking :). I thought I might have to sew a bunny from scratch (ugh!), but I finally found someone selling this one in the KSL classifieds. It had sewn-in feet like pajamas, so I had to modify it a little, and I added a yard-sale vest and bow tie, and a "pocket watch" that used to be a necklace. Hopefully I made the costume masculine enough to not be (too) embarrassing to him later!


So here they are all together! I think this shot turned out so cute!


It would have been really fun if I'd had time to make Mike and myself some Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat costumes, (or playing cards as my friend suggested too late!), but we had a (very awesome) pirate party to attend. We threw these together from stuff we had on hand, plus a vest from the DI. And I made Mike's hat with fake leather fabric. Mike did the stubble himself without any coaxing! He was trying to look more like a pirate and less like Paul Revere, ha! (Arr, the scurvy bilge-sucking Redcoats be comin'!)