Easter and Such

I hope everyone had a very nice Easter/General Conference weekend! It was wonderful to listen to the Prophet and church leaders, the messages were so uplifting and beautiful! Its too funny that as a kid its all you can do to not fall asleep, and as an adult you look forward to it! I'm about a week and half from my due date, so to say I'm uncomfortable is an understatement! :) My "nesting" stage I think is over, I don't have much of a desire to do anything! But I finally feel like I'm pretty much ready for this baby to get here (I mean, physically I'm totally ready; but now that the crib's together and all that, I'm ready every other way too), I'm excited to see what he looks like and what we might actually name him! Still don't know. Crazy I know! I've been having a lot of pain on my right side, it feels like its one of my ribs, so I talked to the doctor last week and we did some different tests to make sure it wasn't a bladder infection or gallstones. None of the tests came back positive, so thats good. And the pain isn't as bad as it was before, so also good. To test for the gallstones they had to do an ultrasound, so the technician was nice enough to do another baby ultrasound after she checked for the stones. I'm excited because she said this baby has a lot of hair! I would roll over and die if this baby came out with a bunch of dark hair, that would be so awesome! The kids had a lot of fun decorating eggs, and doing Easter egg hunts and eating LOTS and LOTS of candy! Here are some pictures from Easter yesterday:












Talked to David yesterday, he's doing really well and has lost somewhere between 15 and 20 lbs, maybe a little more? He plans to get really skinny by the end of summer! :) Today they started their last big training exercise, "Victory Forge" where they'll be out in the field for four days. After that they'll mostly just be cleaning up and getting ready for graduation (on the 16th). If everything goes well at Victory Forge, he's supposed to get his phone back on Friday, which would be AWESOME! I'm so proud of him, he's really done a great job and accomplished some really hard and NOT fun things! I miss him more than I could think of words for, but I can't deny that this has taught us a lot! A few more pictures of Dave at basic:

(He's the third guy back, if you needed help!) :)

(third guy back again)

(Far right)

I love that whenever Sam see's pictures of guys in camo, he immediately yells, "DADDY!!"

We look forward to the next two weeks, big things happening for us!

Aches and Pains

So since last week one of the ribs on my right side all the way through my back has been hurting me seriously badly. I had a dr.'s appointment on Friday where I was going to ask him what was going on and if there was anything I could do about it, but I guess he was in a hurry that day because he didn't give me a chance to ask not one question. So I decided to wait it out through the weekend to see if it eased up at all. Well, no it didn't. By Sunday night, I was constantly in pain and all night long too, so I hardly could sleep or find a comfortable position. So I looked up some information online to see if anybody else had the same problem and what helped them, and started seeing that a lot of my symptoms sounded like gallstones. Then I was a little bit nervous/worried and so I called the doctor Monday morning and they had me come in. The doctor thought I might have a bladder infection, so he had me do a urine test to see. That came back negative. My mom was getting pretty concerned, so she made me call back and ask them about gallstones. So they made an appointment for an ultrasound today to see. Did that this afternoon. No gallstones.

I'm frustrated.

The ultrasound lady thought I had probably pulled a muscle really bad, or something had detached or something like that. I'm not allowed to pick up anything over 20 pounds (i.e. SAM). And I'm kind of back at square one, still in a lot of pain, but not knowing why. (At least I don't have gallstones--what a relief!) (Although now I feel like I just sound like a baby, the pain sounded a lot more legitimate when it could be gallstones! haha)

I've been trying really hard to take it easy and not "over strain" myself. But hello?! I'm a single parent right now, how the heck do I take it easy?! Its not like my husband can come home at night and I can rest for awhile, sheesh! (Besides the fact that I REALLY REALLY want to get stuff done, and be busy to pass the time. Its not really that great just sitting around huge and pregnant waiting for a baby to come, when you have a crib that needs painting, and shelves that need hanging, and decorating that needs doing...)

Well, sorry for the whining; hopefully soon I will feel better (yeah, in like two weeks when this baby's out right?!) and pray for me that this pain will go away fast! (Maybe I should just take the Vicadin the doctor prescribed huh?)

Updates and Goings Ons

I didn't take any pictures (which would've made this post a lot more fun) but it was my birthday this last week (on wednesday). I am officially 27 now! I honestly can't wait to turn 30, because I know a lot is going to change for us in three years, and I think (hope, pray) it will be good stuff! :) Anyway, I didn't do a whole lot for my birthday, Kristie came over and so did Brenda, so it was fun to hang out with my sisters. We did a little baby shopping too. I went to Mama Stortini's with my parents for dinner, just me and them and that was fun to just sit and talk and not worry about kids or anything.

And thats about it. :)

I didn't get myself anything...yet. I don't know if I will or not, I can't decide if there's really anything I want or need. Its hard when you're so pregnant to think of anything else besides just being done! :)

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday as well, nothing new. I'm measuring where I should be, I'm not dialated yet and I'll see him again next week. Whoo. (And apparently I look huge, because everyone seems to mention how uncomfortable I look! haha)

Dave's doing good, he has his last physical training test on Monday, if he passes that he graduates on time. (He should pass no problem.) And then he does "Victory Forge" a four day out in the field course, its their last big thing before graduation. When they get back from that, they'll just be doing a lot of cleaning and stuff. He graduates basic training on April 16th, and the next Monday he starts his individual training, I'm excited for that because then we'll get to talk a LOT more! Yay! He said in a letter the other day that they got their beret's and they probably all look dumb but they all felt really cool in them and they get to throw grenades soon and he's excited about that! haha His attitude continues to surprise me, he's been so positive! A lot of the training they do he says is fun and he hasn't complained at all, even when he's been sick or whatever.

The kids are doing good, one of Bethany's front teeth needs to come out its so loose! She looks like Nanny McPhee, and I can barely talk to her without laughing; its hard to take her seriously with her tooth hanging out of her mouth! Hopefully we can get it out soon!

Leila and Ben Patterns GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

So I've been on a big craft kick lately, wanting to do lots of stuff to keep me busy and I love it. Of course, I've been having to slow down since I'm getting a little too big and my back has been killing me. But I wish I wasn't.

Anyway, I love this website to death! Its so creative and fun and I get lots of ideas from there, I hardly ever enter giveaway's but I would love to learn to sew more, and me and Kristie could share the patterns! :D Anyway, she's having a giveaway and I would love to win this! Check out the link to see her site, she's great!

Leila and Ben Patterns GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Lots of Pictures

So I had a little extra bread that had gotten stale and the kids kept begging to go feed the ducks, so finally we went to Wapato Park last night and played in the park and fed the ducks. The ducks there must get a lot of food or something because they weren't that into it. Or maybe the big geese are bullies and scared the ducks away, who knows?

It got so pretty when the sun started setting (I don't know about you, but I love that its lighter out later now, so nice!)

Here's Isabel and Maddie, I love Maddie's face I could just eat her up (except for today when she's acting like a complete whiney brat. Grrr!).

Bethany doing the monkey bars, she's a pro you know.

Taking Sam down the slide, he loved it of course!

Maddie doing something her tiny muscles probably can't handle. :)

Sam loved the swing, he just kept going and going and going, he did NOT want to get off!

Feeding the ducks...sort of.

Could also be called "throwing lots of bread into dirty water."

But they were happy doing it!

See, ecstatic! :)

These geese came up and were squawking at us, scared Bethany enough to make her drop her bread and scream in terror. (eye rolling here)

See, even dirty polluted lakes can be pretty! :)

There's a Facebook page Dave told me about in one of his letters that puts up pictures and videos and updates of his Company, so I found a couple pictures on there of him. His Company got the best scores for their shooting test, so they gave them a pizza party. They each got a medium pizza, a soda and a candy bar. Dave said they were so stoked, and then stuffed themselves and then proceeded to head to the bathroom. He's had a cold and then pulled a muscle in his chest, so he hasn't been able to do as much of the physical stuff as he wants, but hopefully he'll feel better really soon. I think he's lost about 15 lbs so far. He's really doing a great job, I'm so proud of him! He was just assigned as assistant platoon sergeant, although he said he wasn't very excited about it, its mostly just telling people to be quiet! haha He graduates basic training April 16th and then will start his individual training the next Monday until sometime in June. (I'm due April 14th, so darn, no going to graduation for me! :( But his parents get to go, so fun for him to have someone there, I'm excited for him.)

Showers of Gifts!

Alright, alright, I'm finally getting around to posting again!

This last weekend my sister threw me a baby shower, she's so fun and did a great job on it! She did a "Milk & Cookies" theme, and the decorations were so cute! She made a ton of different kinds of cookies and had different kinds of milk, plus we had lots of other stuff to eat, so gotta love that! Everyone was so generous and I'm so grateful for the gifts we got, now I just need my dryer fixed and Sam to get better (stomach flu, blech!) and I can really get some good stuff done and finish getting ready for this baby's arrival!

Thank you, thank you Kristie!! (Isn't that Liam a sweet thing?!)

And yes, still no name. I'm really working on it, but it doesn't help I have to wait four days or so just to hear what Dave thinks. Ah well, we'll figure one out soon I'm sure!

And for all my Utah friends, I miss you I miss you I MISS YOU!! Wish we could've had a party together this weekend!

Goings On's

Finally got around to getting some of the pictures off my camera! I thought it would be a little too late to add pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I'm adding pictures from the last couple weeks. This is one of the parties we had for Bethany's birthday, they got to frost some cupcakes and looooved it!



(You can always count on Maddie to get caught with a funny face! haha)





These next pictures happened just after Bethany's birthday, when she lost her first tooth! She really wanted that tooth out, so we asked my dad to pull it. He got a good tug on it and almost had it out, but it surprised her a little and she started to cry (especially because there was teeny bit of blood), so we stopped trying. But that same night, she just kept fiddling and fiddling until she pulled it out all by herself! She was SO excited!


Look how tiny that thing is!


When I was a kid, we always put sugar on a plate so you could see the tooth fairy's footprints after she left the money, kind of fun! (And yes, she only got 50 cents, because seriously she has three other loose teeth and the kid has no concept of money, 50 cents was thrilling!)




These last two pictures I took today of Sam. I wasn't paying attention, but should have known something bad was happening because Sam was being very quiet, when Maddie said "Mooooom, look at Sam!" when I turned around, he had taken the bag balm and smeared it all over his face and head and all over his hands! He's crying because I said "SAM! Why did you do that?!" and I was still upset even while I walked over to get the camera and take pictures of him! His hair is so greasy, but hey, his skin should be super silky soft tomorrow!

Woops! Sorry!

Wow, it has been forever since I updated this blog! Yikes! Well let's see, where to start...?

We moved into a townhome right after Christmas and are getting pretty settled. Still haven't hung pictures and stuff like that, but most all boxes are unpacked so thats good! David didn't work all of January, so he was a big help in getting stuff done. Dave was scheduled to leave for basic training on the 25th of January, he had to go up to SeaTac on Sunday and get all checked in. After he checked in he came back to go to a Priesthood Conference so he could see my dad get set apart as a member of the Stake Presidency! Crazy huh?! Then he went back up to SeaTac, and got ready to ship out. I got to spend some time with him on Monday before he left but it wasn't nearly long enough (of course, it would never be long enough)! It was heartbreaking and very sad to say goodbye, especially not really knowing how things would be for him, when we'd get to talk again, all that. Hard. So he's been gone for a little over a week and its been kind of a roller coaster. The first week was really terrible, wanted to cry all the time (doesn't help that I'm pregnant and want to cry all the time anyway!), and all that but by the end of the week I got to talk to him a couple times and that helped a LOT! He's doing alright, he got stuck in hold-over to wait for a stupid waiver, and his boots are killing him (big huge blisters and lots of pinching) so hopefully he can get boots that fit him better and he'll start basic this next Monday. Which will be great, except I don't know when I'll talk to him next which is hard. We still don't have a name picked out for this baby either! I'm going to put a poll in the sidebar of some of the names we like, if you want to vote, I'd appreciate it! The pregnancy's going well, gotten tons of shots, blood work taken, glucose and rhogam. I feel beat up every time I go to the dr.!

It was Bethany's birthday this last Saturday too, and I now have a 7 year old!! Can you believe it?! We had a couple different family get together's to celebrate and she got lots of fun stuff, she got to have a sleepover at her Grandma and Grandpa's and they went and saw "The Tooth Fairy" and she LOVED doing that! She has two big teeth coming up in the bottom front of her mouth and two of those baby teeth are loose, we just need them to get loose enough to grab (those things are teeny!), she wants to pull them out so bad! Its amazing to think of how fast the time has gone, seems like yesterday she was just a baby! :(

The kids all miss Dave a ton and talk about him all the time! Sam talks about daddy every second of the day, points at some shoes "Daddy's shoes!" see's a car "Daddy's car!" goes outside "Daddy's chair!" (the neighbor's have a chair sitting outside the front porch), "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Sort of breaks my heart a little bit. Maddie simply says every once in awhile "I miss Daddy." and Bethany tells me "I wish Daddy would come home and never leave again for forever." I hope the time will fly by, I think it will especially when it starts getting nicer outside. We got a little postcard from Dave the other day and Bethany was so excited, she kept reading it over and over.

Well, I think thats about it for updating everything. Thats about where we're caught up to! We miss all our friends from Utah, the kids talk about their friends pretty much every day, and we hope you know we love you!

Oh, Kids...

Kids are so funny and if you just take a minute to stop and listen to what they're saying, you could probably be laughing most the day (except for the moments when they're being snotty, whiny or throwing fits: so NOT funny!). Anyway, just had this conversation with Maddie:

Maddie: Mom, my bum hurts.

Me: I'm sorry what do you want me to do?

Maddie: Hmmmm, we can't put band-aids on our bums...

Me: How come?

Maddie: Because then we can't go poops!


Hehehehehe, thats the kind of bathroom humor I get!

And It's a.......

I wish I had a scanner to post the ultrasound pictures, I'll see if I can figure something out and add them later, but the point is we had our ultrasound today! It was a lot of fun, the technician was awesome and very thorough and up beat and excited, she made it a lot of fun. We had to wait forever to get the ultrasound, because after we moved up here we didn't have insurance and when it finally kicked in, the ultrasound technician was on vacation for two weeks, so I'm about 26 weeks now (usually you get your ultrasound more around 20 weeks) so it was a little different because the baby's bigger and their face looks a little more filled out, kind of fun! So she printed off tons of pictures and asked us lots of questions about ourselves, it was really nice. Everything looks perfect and great and healthy, which is always what you want to hear, but the real exciting thing is finding out what you're having! Okay, okay, I've dragged this out long enough, we are officially 100% sure we are having a........... boy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pretty exciting huh?! We don't have like any names we're really set on, so feel free to leave ideas! I'm sure I'll put a poll up on the side sometime soon. David was really thinking we were having a girl and so it was a big surprise to hear boy, he's been grinning ever since we found out (what a man). We're very excited, just as we would be if we were having a girl, babies are so special!

2009 You're Sublime!

So I've hijacked my sister's laptop in an attempt to give 2009 a final nod (we get internet on Monday; hallelujah!!) and I hope you guys really appreciate this because its taken me forever to do! :) So here you are, some of my top highlights of 2009 and a big hello to 2010!

Favorite Song:
#1: Halo by Beyonce

runners up: Tonights Gonna Be a Good Night/Black Eyed Peas and pretty much anything by Lady Gaga :)

Favorite Movie:

I haven't seen Avatar yet or I'm sure I'd say that one, so I guess I'll go with either Harry Potter or The Princess and the Frog. I didn't get out to a lot of movies this year, darn.

Favorite TV Show:
America's Next Top Model: PETITE season
(I SWEAR I missed my chance in life, next season won't be for short girls AND I'll be too old--so soooo sad!) ;)


Favorite Book:

Fablehaven series, I know these books aren't brand new, but there's a new one coming up soon! But I ate this series up and just adored it, his writing gets better and better each book!

Favorite Vacation:

Well, since pretty much the only vacation we took was up to Washington, I'll choose that one. :)


Favorite Outfit:

Orange cardigan, I wore this sweater a LOT. Writing this right now sucks because I'm fat and pregnant and I don't like anything I have, so coming up with a favorite outfit was rough!


Favorite Person:

I think normally this section would be like your favorite movie star of 2009, but I don't know any famous people. And since we've moved and I miss a lot of friends, I have to give a little shout out to my friend Shanna who I really just got to know this past year and I adore her. (I have lots of amazing friends that I miss terribly, just focusing on someone from this year ya know?) So anyway, I want Shanna to know that I truly admire her as a person, she's taught me a lot, been a great friend and listened to me go on about whatever for hours, she's so awesome!


Most Drastic Change:

Moving to Washington, and joining the Army Guard. And getting pregnant.

Highlights:

*kids birthdays & fun holidays

*trip to Vegas

*painting Isabel's room



*photography


*playing with cousins


*a very fun summer


*Niki's wedding

*finding out we're expecting again (could possibly go under the next category depending on how you look at things) :)

*new nephew Liam!


*youth activities



Lowlights:


*Sam really sick :(

*Grandpa Larry's passing


*Sam swallowing the needle = awful

*packing up everything in 2 weeks

*missing friends & family from Utah like my heart would be ripped out


I'm sure I can think of lots more highlights and even some lowlights, but I'm tired now and I ate WAAAAAY too much for dinner and I feel stretched. Hope you enjoyed this little look back on this last year, hopefully we'll take what we learned and make next year even better!

Oh Christmas Time

Man oh man! I haven't posted in forever and haven't really given any kind of information AND haven't been reading any blogs! Whats HAPPENING?! So unlike me. :(

(Side story real quick, I was just talking on the phone, Sam's sitting in my lap sleeping and when I said goodbye, Sam mumbled "byyye..." in his sleep! Too funny!)

So anyway, Christmas this year has felt REALLY different, not just because I'm not in my own place, putting up my own decorations and all that; but it also doesn't feel like visiting family at Christmas because we're living with family. Its just weird. Its been hard to get into the Christmas spirit and I can't believe its only a week away! Jinglebells, I need to get moving! (That was my effort to get into the Christmas spirit, by the way.)

So I finally got to go into my first dr.'s appt. since we moved! I was really excited until I got there and had to wait, and wait and wait and WAIT. Two hours after my appointment was scheduled did I finally get to leave, and its not like I did anything excited, except give a ton of blood. Mostly just waiting, and filling out paperwork that I'd already filled out before. Poo. So I did get to finally schedule an ultrasound, but the lady who does them is gone for two weeks for Christmas, so its not until January 7th! By then, I will let you all know what kind of baby we're having (as in boy or girl, not naughty or nice) (oh look! More Christmas references! Yay!).

I think time is weird. You can have so much to do, and in between be so bored. Its like fast and slow, but never normal. Atleast thats how it feels right now for me. I really miss all of you down in Utah SO MUCH! I honestly thought when we moved that it would be a piece of cake, that I would have family and friends up here to keep my mind off of missing anyone, but thats just not true. I hope everyone knows how much I love them and am wishing I could fly down there today to hug you and tell you in person how awesome you are!

Oh, and real quick, we went down to Bethany's school this morning for an assembly because Bethany won a "Terrific Kid" award! You know the ones, where you see on someone's bumper "My Child is a Terrific Kid!" Yup, we have one now! haha I'm glad she's terrific at school, wish she didn't use it all up before she got home though! :)

Alright, well, I suppose I have other things to do! Merry Christmas everybody!

Woah!

Month of December:

Fri. 4th: Festival of the Nativity
Sat. 5th: Christmas Party
Mon. 7th: Gingerbread Houses
Mon. 14th: Candy Trains
Fri. 18th: Polar Express Party
18th-20th: Dave's Guard Duty
Mon. 21st: Game Night
Thurs. 24th: Christmas Eve Party
Fri. 25th: CHRISTMAS!


And those are just the things set I can remember, there's still shopping and wrapping and watching Christmas movies and, and, and!! I only wish it would snow just once! Gotta love the holidays!

Just More of This and That

I don't have tons to tell you today, just two big things:

Number One--David found out when he leaves for basic, and that is January 25th. He'll be there for about 9 1/2 weeks and then start his individual training for another 9 weeks or so. Oh, and its in South Carolina, he's never been past I think Montana, so big change for him! Hopefully they're going to give him a couple days to come home when the baby's born (I hope, I hope, I hope!!), but other than that, after January we won't see Dave until the end of June-ish. Crazy crazy crazy...I can't think about it anymore or I'LL be going crazy! Oh and also, he didn't get to do Military Intelligence like he wanted, but he'll be doing like HR work, so he'll be like an office guy sort of thing. So there you go with all that.

Number Two--it was Maddie's birthday Sunday, she turned FOUR YEARS OLD!! I can't believe how fast the time goes and how old my kids are getting! I wish I could add the pictures from the party but I can't take the pictures off my camera onto this computer so that part sucks. :( Since her birthday was on Sunday we just had a little party at my mom's house with cousins and aunts and uncles and such, and it was a good old time! I decided on Saturday that I was going to bake her a fun cake, and let her choose one from a book I had. She chose a castle sort of cake, so I said okey dokey! Except it didn't really want to cooperate with me, the cake broke when I tried to take it out of the pan, so I had to sort of operate on it, then I burned my finger pretty bad (good enough to get one of those burn blisters--ouch!) and things were falling over and I was getting messy and bah! Oh well, it got done and she liked it so thats all that matters! She loved her presents and loved Aunt Bev story telling to them, it was great fun had by all! (Well, hopefully everyone had fun, atleast all the kids really did! haha)

So anyway, those are the big things that have been going on this past week and I'm excited for all the fun Christmas stuff coming up, it will be great! (Not that I can post pictures to show you or anything...heh heh)