Getting Ready for Baby

The countdown has begun. I officially have 6 weeks left, but I automatically take off one week because he WILL come at least a week early. So that leaves me 5 weeks to check off all of the things on my mental to do list. I have had this list floating around my head for many months, but I always tell myself that I have plenty of time. I still do have ample time, the problem is, it takes me twice as much time and energy to do things these days.

The past couple of weeks I have decided that I had better work on his birth announcements. I know with the internet it is so much easier just to send everyone an e-mail or post pictures on my blog, but for me that isn't quite tangible enough. I definitely will do those things, but I also like the process of creating something with my hands that I can mail out to everyone. It makes the whole upcoming birth a bit more real. Plus, I have sent out announcements with my other three, so I can't drop the ball now!

Last week I went to Archivers with some announcement ideas in hand. All I needed to do was to pick out some paper and accessories. This turned out to be more of an ordeal than I thought it would be. One of the things that has disappeared along with my waistline this pregnancy is my ability to make decisions. After looking at every piece of paper in the store at least three times I was frozen with indecision. The paper that I thought was darling a minute ago suddenly was not so cute anymore. I was completely overwhelmed and disgusted with myself that I couldn't make such a simple choice. After I was there for over an hour, having changed my mind about a dozen times I forced myself to make a decision. The good news is that I have almost finished them (minus the important facts that will be filled in after he arrives) and I am quite pleased with the result. Very slowly but surely I will continue to mark stuff off my list.

what are the chances?

It has been almost a year to the day since Scott and I had the nerve-wracking opportunity to give talks in our sacrament meeting with Elder Eyring sitting on the stand behind us. Considering that he only comes to our Ward 5-6 times a year, we thought we would be safe that Sunday. We were not and I can honestly say I have not had that level of anxiety in a long time!

Fast forward one year. Scott was asked last week to speak in sacrament meeting on Sunday. I was lucky enough not to be asked. Perhaps they didn't want to deal with an emotional, blabbering pregnant lady. That's o.k. by me. As Scott was writing his talk I told him that at least he didn't have to worry about President Eyring being there this time. Since Elder Eyring turned into President Eyring we have only seen him once and that was two weeks ago. So the chances that he would be in sacrament meeting again were really slim to none. The cards were stacked against Scott however, and as we walked into church yesterday, there was President Eyring sitting on the stand. Poor, poor Scott. He did fantastic though and I was so proud of him!

a fertility spell perhaps?

Funny story about Taylor. As I was sitting next to the campfire this past weekend, I overheard Taylor talking to Bennett. "Bennett do you know what ovulate means?" That of course, piqued my interest because recently we gave Taylor "the talk" and though I don't remember specifically telling him that word, he does know how babies are made. I thought perhaps he was sharing some of his new knowledge with Bennett. I turn around and say to Taylor "Hey Taylor, why don't you let Mom and Dad tell Bennett what that means." Taylor gives me this blank "what are you talking about" look. Now we are both confused. I heard "ovulate" and he doesn't understand why he can't tell Bennett what "ovulate" means.

After a few more sentences we figured out that he was actually trying to say "obliviate". He was thinking of a spell in the Harry Potter books and couldn't quite remember how to say it. Ahhh now it is making a lot more sense. Once we got that sorted out he still decided that was the spell he wanted to use, so both Taylor and Bennett ran around the campsite yelling "obliviate" over and over and over. Unfortunately, coming out of their mouths it still continued to sound like "ovulate." I'm sure our neighbors were wondering what in the world was going on next door. After they had screamed it over and over for several hours I suggested that perhaps they use another spell. Luckily, they decided that the ovulate spell wasn't getting them anywhere, so they switched to aquamenti instead. Maybe that one would work better.

evidence of owen

How can you tell where Owen is? Simple. Just follow his trail of destruction.


Owen loves to take pictures of himself with my camera. He has somehow figured out how it all works. I will often find beautiful pictures of him like this.


Owen prides himself on how high he can stack, rearrange and mess up my tupperware.


Pens and pencils are used for writing. He cannot think of a better place to write than on my walls and on my carpet. The highlight of his writing career so far has been a Sharpie on my carpet. I am waiting to see how he can top that.


Toothpaste is not for brushing - again it is wall decoration.




This is how he likes to spend his time when he is suppose to be napping. He can find fun things to do with vaseline, desitin and lotion. Let me tell you, these things are extremely difficult to get out of carpet and fabric. Ripping all of the wipes out of the container is another favorite past time. And he somehow does it all without a single peep coming from his room.


What can be more fun than scooping dishwasher soap? He must have been feeling sorry for me as this is one of his cleaner messes.


Owen regularly pulls my purse off the counter and rifles through it looking for toys, treats and gum. This time around he was after his lego guy.

I tell myself that he isn't more naughty than my other two, I just don't have enough eyes to watch him as carefully. Whether that is true or not, I do not know.

Mother's Day gifts

and speaking of Heaven on earth

Do you know what's more Heavenly than chocolate cake donuts from Banbury Cross? A one hour head to toe massage lying on my stomach at 7 months pregnant. Now that beats a donut hands down. It has been 2 years since my last massage and 16 long weeks since baby #4 decided stomach sleeping was a no no. Thanks Kari - I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present!

So So True!

From the sarcastic journalist I love this lady! She is speaking directly to me.

Pregnant? Nah I'm just big boned.

It always seemed like my pregnancy weight snuck up on me. One minute, I’m sitting there, wondering if I’ll ever start to show and the next I’m on the phone, screaming “13 pounds? How the heck did I gain 13 pounds?”

Pregnancy, for me, means a constant struggle between wanting to pig out and wanting to keep my weight gain to a minimum. The way I look at it is when else are you going to get the “green light” to eat?

It just happened that my green light headed me straight towards the local bakery. Well, the local bakery, the Taco Bell and the ice cream shop.

We all know calcium is very important for pregnant women.

We’ve all heard the stories of women who gained 100 pounds during their pregnancies after eating only cheese for nine months. (Really, what’s wrong with cheese? I happen to like cheese very much.)

“That won’t happen to me!” you say, while munching on a bag of Fritos. “I will keep it under control... only healthy weight gain for me!”

And then, you get hormonal. Since you are pregnant, drinking, smoking and riding roller coasters are out of the question. So, you eat. The bon bons. Macaroni and cheese. Taco Bell. Hamburgers. Oreos.

One month later, when you step on the scale to find out just how much you’ve gained, you almost faint. I have a feeling that most pregnant women, when they see the large number for the first time, actually hope there’s more than one in there.

Love it! Love it! Although I pretty much just crave chocolate non-stop. Chocolate cake donuts with chocolate icing from Banbury Cross - Heaven on earth right there. Now that I'm thinking about it the cinnamon sugar ones are not bad either.....

boys will be boys

I am always amazed at my boy's creativity. Anyone who has boys will know exactly what this is a picture of. A gun. Very simply made, a chopstick and a clothespin. But it does what it is suppose to do - shoot anything and anyone. Somehow just about everything they play with ends up this way.

It started out with Taylor coming home from school with some chopsticks. They were learning how to use them for Chinese Day at school. Since Taylor is quite absorbed in the Harry Potter books right now, this chopstick turned into a wand. Up until this point Taylor had been using unsharpened pencils for wands. And for some reason the eraser did not belong on a wand so I would find unsharpened pencils with the erasers missing all over the house.

Anyone who has several boys also knows that the oldest boy's interests filter down through the rest of them. All of a sudden Bennett and Owen needed chopsticks for wands. They dug some out of my kitchen drawer that I had bought last fall for myself to practice for my trip to China. Now all of them had wands and were running around the house yelling various curses at each other from Harry Potter. And they would all react correctly to the curse that was thrown at them. Taylor is a very good curse teacher. Even Owen got in on the act. And to top it off they all wanted a scar drawn on their forehead, which I happily helped them with.

Then within a few days, one of them discovered a few clothespins in my drawer and all of a sudden the wand was now a gun. And there you have it - the life cycle of a boy's toy.