Don't you love it when kids fall asleep in their high chairs? I mean, well, not LOVE it, cause then they're not tired for bed, but it's so dang cute.

On a more serious note, I really love this quote by President Monson, and I know every parent out there knows the feeling he is talking about.

"Should a parent need added inspiration to commence his God-given teaching task, let him remember that the most powerful combination of emotions in the world is not called down by any grand cosmic event nor found in novels or history books-- but merely by a parent gazing down on a sleeping child." Ensign, May 1973

Seriously, what is it about them when they are asleep? Sometimes I am overcome with emotion so strong I don't know how I contain it without spontaneously combusting.

:)

Christmas Dresses

Oh how I love Kohls. They are always sending out coupons like $10 off $20 or, even better, $10 off $10...and then they have such great sales. Last year I got some Christmas dresses for the girls at the After-Christmas sale, and I was excited to find them in our storage unit...just in time! I was also glad that their old dresses still fit too, so we have had some variety for their December church outfits.

Did I mention our church is changing from 2-5 p.m.? I can't wait. (sarcasm.) On a slightly positive note, I might be able to sneak a nap in for Annie before we leave...anyone else ever had church in the late afternoon?

And why oh why is it so hard to get my girls to just smile a normal smile? Oh well. We got one smiley picture. That will have to do.

Mesa Temple Lights

We were able to go see the Mesa Temple lights (my first time ever) and I was blown away! St. George doesn't do anything close to this, and I even liked the Mesa lights better than Temple Square lights.

Kalia really wanted to hear "the singers" (a nightly choir or group performance from different people in the valley) so they just plopped themselves down on the front row. And yes, it was warm enough for Kalia to be running around without her jacket.

It was pretty much breathtaking! The girls loved it too. In fact, they thought Christmas lights and decorations on all the houses were so incredibly exciting this year, I took them driving through the neighborhood several times. This neighborhood we're in goes ALL OUT! I wish I would have gotten some pictures of some of the houses. It was amazing. I remember driving around as a family looking at Christmas lights, but I didn't remember how much fun it is when you're little. I get it now.... why parents go to so much work to make Christmas magical.

Annie rode for a little while in the backpack

Kalia loves going "inside the temple" to do the touch-screen movies and commercials, and asks to go in every time we are there. This was no exception.

The girls kept running around from site to site. It was so dang fun to see them so excited.

You can't tell from this shot (we couldn't get any closer) but these camels were LIFE SIZE! So cool!

And this is how you decorate palm trees with Christmas lights, in case you were wondering.

I just loved the sheer number of lights on everything.

ALMOST Two Thirds Done...

Lately I've been feeling a little regretful that I haven't been blogging more- the semi-boring stuff, like little things the girls are doing and saying, and the family activities we've been doing. I have completely stopped writing in any form of a journal, which means this is the only record I've got! My choices are: (hmm....I just took on my Mommy Voice.) #1 Write that stuff somewhere else, along with my deepest thoughts and feelings (Used to do that.) or #2 Blog more, whether or not it bores you.

You probably guessed what I'm choosing. Typing is just SO MUCH FASTER than writing!!! So prepare for some back to back updates...coming soon.

I have been keeping a better record (saving a draft actually) of the details of this pregnancy. I've learned that I forget most of the things I was sure I would remember about being pregnant. And I know I've asked my mom details such as, "How sick were you with your first pregnancy? Your second? Your third?" (all three girls). She just remembers being really sick with the third, and being sure it was a boy. Hmm, that's funny, sounds way too familiar.

So here's some more info about this third pregnancy, for me, and for my girls someday when they are pregnant themselves. (Kalia thinks she's pregnant already, and often puts my hand on her tummy and tells me when the baby has kicked.) Anyway...for the REAL pregnancies in the future. I will warn you, it's long and detailed. And I will never know if you just leave this post right now. Ok, ready? Go.

Samuel and I both felt like it was the right time to start trying, although I had no idea how long it would take me to get pregnant. I've never had an IUD before, but I heard that often you can get pregnant right away. But I'm also the only girl in my family (so far) who has avoided the miscarriage heartbreak, so I have always wondered if or when that would happen.

I had my IUD taken out on a Friday. I knew I was in the ballpark of ovulation time, but I wasn't exactly tracking it, so I didn't know for sure. Right before I got the IUD taken out, we started going through a LOT of trials, and the stress and contention in our home was pretty high. I got a very strong impression that the adversary was very unhappy about the baby that would be coming to our family, for what reason, I'm not sure, but it made me mad that he thought he could stop me from at least trying to conceive, and it made me all the more determined to not give in to the trials/stress/contention. And I guess as a reminder of Who is more powerful, I got pregnant the same weekend I had the IUD taken out.

I started taking pregnancy tests as early as possible...just for fun, and also because I had got them for .50 cents a piece on ebay. After two negatives, I waited another week and got a positive. I was really excited. But then at 5 weeks along I got hit with awful food poisoning. I've never had it before. It was misery at its finest. After I finally thought I was okay, I had a one day break and then it came back again. (FYI- When recovering from food poisoning, don't eat dairy or meat the day after, or your poor stomach freaks out and your symptoms often return. Learned that the hard way so now you don't have to.) I got so dehydrated that I couldn't walk around without getting dizzy, but refused to go to the ER because I wasn't covered by insurance at the time. Got a priesthood blessing and was able to recover, but I had lost 3 lbs (and wasn't complaining about it.)

A few days after the food poisoning, the nausea set in, and I felt sick all day for several weeks. I was overconfident and thought that since I've done this twice before, I would be a pro at managing it this time. I wore my sea-bands on my wrists, ate food every few hours even though nothing ever sounded good, and took Unisom and B6 at night. I ate a lot of Taco Bell during weeks 6-8, because it was one of the only things that I could think about without wanting to gag (strange, I know...now that I'm out of the first trimester, I never even think about going there.)

In my previous pregnancies, I would feel sick all day, throw up once a week or so, and it seemed to be at its worst at week 8 or 9, and then get better, and I'd feel pretty good by week 10. Pretty easy stuff right? So I told myself to just make it to week 8. That week was Samuel and Kalia's birthday party. The summer heat was killing me and making me feel even sicker, but we had a good time anyway. Unfortunately, I was sicker than ever by week 9, and started throwing up everything. After I threw something up once, I didn't want to eat that food again, so I was running out of options of things to eat. And I was dehydrating again, but couldn't keep water down. Sometimes I could keep soda or Gatorade down. Week 10 it got worse and I would lay in bed or on the couch for the entire day and only get up to feed the girls or change a diaper. Or throw up of course. The girls absolutely destroyed the house, but what could I do? Nothing. I threw up so many times I lost count. Sometimes Annie would go to the toiled and grab it and stick her head in and make gagging noises, just for fun, because that's about all she saw me do. I was miserable and swore this was my last pregnancy.

I was able to get great medical coverage (finally! a whole different story!) and I went to the doctor at 10.5 weeks and begged for a prescription. He gave me one because I wasn't gaining weight. He told me my insurance probably wouldn't cover the "good stuff" (Zofran) and so he wrote me a second prescription for a different kind, but had to be taken as a suppository. (UGGGGHHH!!) Sure enough, my insurance only covered the second one, and I had to figure out how to do the whole suppository thing. It wasn't fun. Let's leave it at that. But it helped a lot. The downside- the drug knocked me out and I was in and out of sleep all day. I tried to take it every 3rd day, and I finally stopped throwing up. The house remained a total disaster.

At 14 weeks, the nausea FINALLY vanished. It felt like FOREVER because I was expecting it to end at 8 weeks. I know it sounds really whiny of me to complain when I know some of you (EMMA!) are miserably sick for the whole 40 weeks. So I apologize for the complaining. But it was an awful summer, spent stuck in the basement for most of those awful 6 weeks.

Some other things that were really different for me in the first trimester is that:
1. My hair was falling out a lot- in my other two, I wouldn't lose much hair in the shower.

2. My leg hairs were growing so fast, I couldn't hardly keep up with the shaving. So annoying.

3. My boobs got bigger than they have ever gotten (and are still growing!) I can't lie. This is my favorite part of being pregnant so far. Every day for at least the first 20 weeks I would give them a good squeeze and marvel at how fun it is to have "big jugs." After 2 years of post-nursing deflated little things...these are in my top 3 "perks" of being pregnant. Even though they still are sensitive and sore...I guess from the growth. Gee I hope my brother isn't reading this post.

4. I haven't had a lot of mood swings or anger rage-episodes with this pregnancy.

5. I haven't had any dandruff, like I got with both previous pregnancies.

6. My belly stayed hidden really well until about 17 weeks along. I was expecting it to pop out really soon, but it didn't, probably because I finally started working out in April and got my abs back in shape. Just in time to get out of shape. However, that was no indicator of ANYTHING, as I am now as huge as always. I am measuring right on, but I somehow manage to look much bigger than every other pregnant girl in my ward.

So, especially after considering #1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, we decided that we were for sure having a boy. Samuel started talking about his little boy. I started calling it a he. I was SURE. How could I have THAT many things different from my other two pregnancies? I mean, sickness aside, my body was NOT doing it's normal "pregnant" routine.

I was feeling really anxious about having a boy. About all the clothes and shoes and blankets and "boy" toys that I would have to gather. About having to store all the new boxes of stuff after he grew out of it. About not knowing how to handle a freshly sliced...circumcision. About having a super hyper son-- my girls are already energetic enough. About whether my boys would love me as much as my girls do. Silly stuff, maybe, but part of me hoped for a girl because THAT'S my comfort zone.

I should have remembered that Kalia, back in our old house, use to climb into bed with us in the mornings, and on several different occasions, would point to this spot on the ceiling, and say, "Look, a baby!" At first I thought she was just making this up, but she only did it when she was in our bed-- never anywhere else in the house. After a few times, I started asking if it was a baby boy or a baby girl. And she always said, "Baby Girl." But that was over 9 months ago, and I'd forgotten all about it, until the day our ultrasound tech confirmed...GIRL!

Samuel looked like he was about to cry when he found out. It didn't help that I had basically already got him so excited by telling him I was pretty sure it was a boy. I was so shocked, I went completely speechless, and almost asked for another look. I just really thought I was "in tune" with my body, haha!! But I spent the rest of the day feeling quite...elated. And I told Samuel that I wasn't happy to NOT be having a boy, I just was so happy to have another little girl.

Now, I am 25.5 weeks along today. I have gained almost 20 lbs already, despite my earlier "success" with not gaining weight. And I'm trying not to be depressed about that, but just be grateful that my body seems to carry babies without much of a problem. I am having braxton hicks contractions several times a day (as I did with Annie) and I'm not worried about them, but they are worse when I pick up my kids or go up stairs...so despite my best intentions to work out and keep my weight gain down, I probably won't work out. The contractions are just too annoying-- the constant tightening of your gut that makes it a little hard to breathe sometimes.

I was really hoping to not gain as much weight with this pregnancy, and though I started out good, I don't know how it will turn out. I have been eating a LOT of Christmas treats and ice cream at night. At least this time I have recognized that I'm NOT "eating for two" It's more like I'm eating for like, 1.25, and so therefore I DON'T need 3000 calories a day. 2500 will be fine. (just kidding. I'm not counting, but I'm just trying not to be such a piggy.) But, having said that, I must add that I LOVE being in the second (now third) trimester during Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It makes it so much more fun to indulge in all the treats. I also love the cold weather, especially at night. We leave our window open a crack at night. Samuel freezes, but I am just right. Pregnant in the winter is the way to go! Let's hope I can be a bit better in my last few months...starting in January. :)

I am now officially in the THIRD TRIMESTER. Wow...that blissful second trimester went by way too fast. As a reminder though, I have started to have some pregnancy discomforts, mainly a burning pain at the very top of my ribs, right at the bottom of my sternum. It really acts up when I lay on my side...which is the only way I can lay these days, so it's a constant pain, and the worst in the mornings when I wake up. It feels like her little foot is wedged up there, but I know it's not...cause she's laying sideways. So I don't know why the rib is killing me, but I have had it with my other pregnancies, so I guess I'm not surprised. I am hitting that stage where it's hard to bend over and hard to be comfortable-- and still have 3.5 more months to endure so...we may be bringing out the Tylenol PM here soon.

Still no name for the little lady...Samuel wants it to be meaningful. I want it to sound good with the other 2 names. We liked Hannah, cause it's meaningful (the mother of the Prophet Samuel in the bible) but then it didn't work with "Annie and Hannah"...you know I would end up calling her Hannie all the time. So that's out. We'll keep thinking.

Only 1/3 left. It's flying by. I am hoping for an April Fool's baby! I'm not going to be induced this time, so we're hoping for another VBAC, this time WITHOUT PITOCIN. Don't get me started on all the evils of Pitocin.

25 weeks
Thanks to Jaesi for sending the skirt!!!

30

Well. The dreaded day arrived. I am 30 years old. I am 30. "How old are you?" "Oh, I'm 30."

It sounds awful.

A few wise people on facebook were able to remind me some good things about 30 (and thank you for that!) but...I am still feeling depressed. How lame.

I thought back to this year of 2010. It's probably fair to say that this year has been the hardest year of my life. I have never known so much heartache in one year. I guess you could say that I've learned a whole LOT of lessons about life- about myself- and not all of them are profound. But some of them are. Because I've also known deeper joy and happiness, and a closeness to my Savior, than I ever have before in my life. And that's what opposition is all about. So, in honor of being "one year older and wiser too"-- here's my list of 30 things that I've learned.

1. It really REALLY doesn't matter what other people think about you- because they never know all the details that God knows.

2. Most of the behaviors that we try so hard to change in our little kids...will eventually go away on their own.

3. Our husbands base most of their happiness on how happy they think we are (note I didn't say how happy we ARE, but how happy they THINK we are. Not the same thing.)

4. The day of miracles has not ceased.

5. There are unseen angels around us, helping us get through the trials of life. Many of them are our deceased relatives, and I believe that they are much more present than we realize.

6. We don't have to beat ourselves up over everything. It basically doesn't help us in any way.

7. Any effort, any offering to the Lord, is appreciated by Him.

8. I feel so much better when I spend the day praising my kids instead of reprimanding them.

9. It is hard to live in someone else's house/space. No matter your relationship with them.

10. Taylor Swift is amazing.

11. Biting your tongue can save you so much drama later on.

12. Parenting has no "easy" stages. It's always hard, always a juggling act, and you never feel like you have it all together.

13. So you might as well enjoy every day NOW, and stop waiting for it to get easier.

14. Sometimes things get a lot worse before they get better.

15. People can change. It's hard work. But we should never give up hope on them-- or ourselves.

16. I figured out what really renews me, and helps keep my batteries charged.

17. In no particular order, they are massages/pedicures/facials/manicures (etc), traveling, visiting my family, buying something at a store (shopping), and alone time, preferably reading a fabulous book.

18. Dwelling on the past won't change a thing.

19. But it's also much easier to forgive than to forget.

20. If you live long enough without having extra money, you will actually stop thinking of things you want (but don't really need).

21. Everything feels worse when you're tired. Get some sleep and think about it tomorrow (Scarlett O'Hara style of course.)

22. Clutter is one of my biggest downfalls. I hate clutter, but yet it still piles up.

23. Food storage is absolutely critical for the future. It's urgent. Get it now.

24. The internet takes up WAY too much of my time, and steals precious moments that I should be spending with my kids.

25. But it also blesses my life in so many ways that I have a hard time giving it up. I need to find a balance.

26. I need to "Eat a few more salads...and not stay up so late." (Tim McGraw said it so well.)

27. There is nothing quite like a clean house. (Even though it never lasts.)

28. Being a mother is so incredibly special-- there are no words to describe it.

30. Family is Everything.

Quickie Update

1. Got lots more blond highlights. Feeling much better about myself in the hair department. It still feels pretty dark to me, but everyone else seems to consider me a blond now (already?) I'm not complaining.P.S. Can you believe my cousin curled my hair like this with a flat iron? I'm going on day 5 without brushing it or touching it up. Probably time to wash it.2. Belly popped. And I mean POPPED. Last week someone asked if I was 6 or 7 months along. BOO. Those comments still sting, even the 3rd time around. Here I am at 22.5 weeks.3. Annie turned 2 a few weeks ago! Have slowly started potty training in a very relaxed, non-commital way. She has got the pooping thing down pretty well, but wets through her panties every time. I love that little bum in underwear though! Had a fun little party in St. George and she got to ride a horse for the first time at my grandparents corral.

4. She still can't digest gluten or dairy very well, but I let her have a little every day anyway, because she wants it so bad. She likes to get into everything that she can that tastes good. She polished off an 1/8th of a bottle of gummy vitamins recently, and ate a whole bunch of cupcake sprinkles too 5. Took away her bottles. She was drinking almond milk in a bottle before her nap and before bed. Won't touch it now that it's in a sippy cup, and only drinks juice or water. I'm ticked. Want to give the bottles back because she really needs the bit of calcium and Vitamin E in that milk. Arrrrgh.

6. Kalia's on a food strike lately too and doesn't want to eat anything except pasta or cheese. She never used to be like this. Feeling a little frustrated in the kitchen these days. 7. Samuel got accepted into a 3-year Bilingual Nursing Program through the community college network here. We're super excited about it. He doesn't have to be on any wait lists to get in to nursing school, thanks to this program. But he also has to wait til 2012 to start classes, because he already has his bachelors, and right now the rest of the people in the program are starting on some general ed classes. Oh well. At least we have a plan for the future. A pretty inexpensive option too.

I guess that wasn't very "quick" after all. That's what's going on with us lately though!
:)