Hello Baby Girl

We were so glad to see you today!

I feel so blessed to be able to write about how well our baby is doing. We got a pretty good look at her today and so the anticipation for her arrival heightens! She is measuring right on to the estimated due date and all vitals look and sound normal, if not great. They confirmed that she was a girl for me again and now I want to go buy something pink!

She wasn't cooperating to take a clear picture of her. She is head down and her face was snuggled right up to the side of the uterus so things are a bit spotty in the photos, but it was still amazing that we got a sneak peak. While we were watching her she even smiled for us once. The second photo catches just the end of it...Lovely girl we'll see you soon.

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Another 2 weeks in January

Right now I have two silly boys poking me in the back and laughing their heads off! Why it's so funny, I don't know. But it is really hard to focus!

There, now at least one is in bed. He's talking and yelling and giggling but now I can focus a bit more. I don't have a lot of news to write about. The past couple of weeks have been quite regular and uneventful. To be honest, I have really been enjoying it! It is relaxing to not be running around busy. The kids have been healthy and so my nights have been quiet, and my days are not totally full of whining. Plus, other than a brief 3-4 days of some back trouble I've been feeling well also. Such a nice blessing at this time of year.

Although I will admit daily how difficult it is to have little children I can't help but feel a little anxious about these kids growing up. I love the stages they are in. Sam is such a fast learner and he is really enjoying his joy school. He likes to play with me and do fun things like cook and do art projects. It seems to help him want to eat dinner if he helps me make it. It makes it less of a battle to get food in his mouth. We make cookies(not hard for me to get him to eat), and our favorite cookie to make is our chocolate, chocolate chip recipe. We made rolls this week and he made some rolls that looked like spiders, fish and rockets. I didn't take a photo of the rolls like I should have but here are a few pictures I took of my two helpers.:


Yes, that is flour on his face. His roll was molded a few times with his forehead.

Cleaning up.

Russell is as cute as he is crazy. He is into everything, over and over and over. I think I cleaned up the same bit of cereal 4 times the other morning. He is sneaky and I know if he's quiet I better go find out why! As you can see in the photos above he climbs everything, and starting a few days ago I realized it wasn't Sam opening doors for him, but that he had figured it out himself! Heaven help me! After the wet puppy(stuffed animal) incident the other night I know I need to go get some more door locks ASAP!
Russell is quite the cuddle bug and I try to enjoy every minute I get. My favorite thing he does right now has to do with his current food obsession-clementines! I have to keep them hidden in a high place or he'll get into them. We buy them by the bag full and he would eat them all in one setting if I let him. I was not aware that he's got some pretty awesome peeling skills until I came upon him sitting in the middle of an array of peelings enjoying a clementine without prior permission:) Now, I can give him a whole clementine and he works his own way in...

He even splits the segments in half, like I do for him. I don't know why I get such a kick out of these small actions that are so grown-up like but I think it is fascinating how much they can learn and do in such a short time.

As we draw closer to the birthday of our baby girl my anxiety grows. Having a baby changes everything, every time you do it! I am so grateful to already know I will have so much love and support. Both of my mothers will be coming out separately to help for a while and I can't tell you how comforting that is! So many changes can make things crazy and I am concerned for my boys and what the change will mean to them and how it will affect their lives. We have a sonogram this week and we are very excited! It is always fun to get a sneak peek at this baby in my belly. Which, by the way is quite large now. I don't have any pictures to show for it because I avoid cameras like the plague(lets be honest, I am not one of those cute little pregnant women) but I think I will try to get at least a few pictures taken just for reference sake. I would have loved to see photos of my mother while she was pregnant with me so I will try to take a few soon just as proof that I really was pregnant later down the road.

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Our Christmas Vacation...

We got back home from vacation about a week ago and I have just now been able to find some time to write about all of our adventures over the holidays. I taught pre-school this week so it has been a bit crazy around here, but that is a story for another time.

Our trip to visit family was everything I hoped for. It was so wonderful to see everyone and spend some quality time with the people I love.

The Day after we arrived in Utah Ryan and I took off to Oregon! Yes, we did. It was sort of the opposite of spending time with family I know, but the opportunity to check out a few dental opportunities there that we had been looking at was too much of a temptation to be missed. So, less than 24 hours after we arrived we left the kids with the worlds best babysitters(grandparents) and drove all the way to the Oregon coast. We spent 3 days total, meeting with people and checking out a couple areas of interest to us. I didn't love the driving but Oregon scenery does not disappoint and spending some time with Ryan without the kids was great. Without going into too much detail, we saw and checked out 2 Dental practices. One is located in Coos Bay, and the other in Grants Pass, Oregon. Both were great opportunities. The people, the business prospects, and the locations were both really ideal. The situations were different so it's really just a matter of deciding where is best for our family and what Ryan's business goals are. We really lucked into some great choices and we couldn't feel more blessed that we have a choice! Oregon, I hope you're ready 'cause here we come!

Anyway, after 3 days in the car we made it back to Utah and family. We spent the rest of our first week in Brigham City with Ryan's family(Except Christmas Eve). We got to see his Grandparents, who were visiting from Arizona and that was a special treat because we hadn't seen them for quite a while. Sometimes I feel like our visits are just one big quick "catch-up" with everyone and I really appreciated how far out of their way some people went to come and spend even a few hours with us.

Christmas Eve we rotate between my family and Ryan's and then visit the opposite family Christmas day. This year Christmas Eve was spent in Salt Lake with my family. We had a yummy dinner at home and then we kept up with our tradition of going to see the lights on Temple Square. It was freezing outside but we didn't let that stop us.

Sam with Uncle Zach who kindly carried Sam around for a while.

Sam and his cousin Audrey were fairly inseparable.

A quick family photo shot.



Russell wasn't so excited about the activity but I think he was plenty warm.

After seeing the lights the kids were pretty tuckered out.

So was Grandpa.

Then we went home and the kids opened one present that is by tradition always PJ's. We played for a little bit and then it was off to bed so Santa Claus could come. This was our first real Santa Claus experience and Christmas morning had that same sparkle I remember when I was little. Santa brought the boys a little airport with airplanes and of course put a few surprises in their stockings.





Christmas morning continued and it was so fun to watch everyone open their gifts. We were very spoiled and received many wonderful things.

New socks! Yes!

Hanging with Grandpa.

Reading new books.

Uncle Adam.

After the morning festivities we packed up and drove to Brigham City to spend Christmas day with Ryan's family. We had such a wonderful day, opening even more gifts,(Thanks everyone)and playing around.


Linus got an awesome 4-wheeler for Christmas and obligingly let the boys take a ride together. They loved it! It was hilarious watching Russell ride around behind Sam.

That night we had a delicious dinner of deep fried turkey thanks to Ryan's brother Matt and we spent the rest of our day chatting and relaxing with everyone.

The remainder of our trip was full of meeting with friends, and spending time with our families. My favorite highlights of the rest of our trip were:
-Meeting my new neice Sophie.
-Going to the Ballet with my mother and sisters at the Capitol Theater.
-Shopping with my mother and sisters:)
-Getting together with fellow Buckeyes to watch the bowl game!(It was so fun to see you!)
-Meeting with friends and catching up.
-Seeing Aunts and Grandparents.
-Dinner at Matt and Amanda's in Salt Lake.
-Spending a calm New Year's Eve in. (The kids were just exhausted by New Year's!)

Yay for grandparents!

The cousins playing with Sophie's toys.

Thanks everyone for making our holidays wonderful. We love you!

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To my other self-

I miss you. It's been awhile since I've seen you or had you around. I obviously don't feel quite like myself when you are not around but I'm making do. Oh, how I miss your energy. Some days I hardly keep up with our two boys. It's hard to believe you won't be back until we add a 3rd to the party. I never seem to appreciate you much until I can't see my toes or bend over properly. Plus I've needed you around to remember things I shouldn't forget!

Well, I only have about 10 more weeks but I just thought I would write and let you know that I think about you daily and dream of when we can wear our old clothes again. You are the best. Can't wait to see you again.

Myself

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