How bout a lil piece of news...

Well, I think that the hype of blogging is slipping away. I think we've known that for sometime, as we've mourned the days when we'd get 18 comments on a post. Now we blog more for ourselves, which really is probably even more important.

However, for those few readers I have left, I thought I'd share in our fun news. I don't usually announce this early, but I NEED ADVICE!!

Yay! I'm pregnant!! We prayed long and hard about whether to take this on right now, but in the end we felt like someone was missing and that everything would work out.

I am 8 weeks along, as of Sunday Sept. 16th.  I started feeling nauseated at FIVE WEEKS. FIVE WEEKS!!! Not fair! That is the earliest I have ever felt sick. Some well-meaning person said, "That means you'll be over it sooner!" And I almost laugh/slapped her because YEAH RIGHT. What it means is that I get two extra weeks of misery.

Now I am doing everything in my power to not throw up, because once I throw up, I won't be able to stop. Last pregnancy with Ella, it lasted until 14 weeks. So lets just PRAY it doesn't go past then.

The last 3 weeks since I got the positive test have been three of the LONGEST weeks I can remember. I feel like I NEVER want to do this again, although I know it will pass. This all-day nausea SUCKS.

For those kind souls who want to tell me that I am sicker because I am having a boy, I don't think we can say that at all. I had 6 weeks of sickness with Kalia, 3 weeks (only 3???) with Annie, 8 weeks with Ella, and now probably 10 with this one. Chances are, it's another girl, and comments about it being a boy kind of make me feel bad already, because it's probably not, and we are just fine with that, so everyone else should be too.

Now, if you have ANY advice of ANY KIND on what helped you not throw up as much, or what helped your nausea lessen, I am willing to try anything. So far, this is what is helping me:
1.  Unisom and B6 all throughout the day
2. A priesthood blessing
3.  Ginger tea
4. Soda
5. White bread/toast
6. A full stomach- hard to achieve because I REALLY REALLY DON'T WANT TO EAT.
7. Not drinking when I eat (hard for me, and now I'm a bit dehydrated.)
8. Laying down/not moving around (you should see how my poor house reflects this)
9. Seabands (motion sickness bands on the wrist)
10.  Taking my prenatal at night

Thanks to those 10 things, my all-day nausea is still under control. It is making my life MISERABLE, but I am not puking yet. I'm absolutely dreading the puking that I know is coming.

The thought of any meat or dairy just sickens me. But some people have recommended protein shakes. I don't know if I could swallow it, but I'm trying to get down greek yogurt.

I have a prescription for phenegran which I will fill if I can't keep food down...but Zofran is not an option for me, my insurance won't pay for it, so that's one suggestion I can't take, unless you want to mail me your leftover pills. :)  Anyway, that's our good news, my due date is April 28th. I got to see the baby and hear the heartbeat last week, and it just warmed my heart so much.

Now give me your advice!!!!  PLEEEEEEAAAASSSSE! K thanks.

School Days

Here I am fussing over Kalia before her "first day of school picture."

 Well, we ended our lazy summer days, it seemed to come so early, but sure enough, on Aug 6th, Kalia became a kindergartner. She was not worried at all, in fact, she has been looking forward to this for months. (We went to an open house night back in April and she's been super excited ever since.)

For her first day, she wanted to wear her sparkly skirt, her princess shirt, and she wanted her hair straightened with a flat iron. She is already one of the tallest kids in her class, but she wanted to wear these shoes that give her an extra inch.
SHE LOOKS SO TALL. AND SO GROWN UP. So strange!

 We drove the half mile to the school, luckily even Daddy got to be with us for the drop-off, although he waited in the car with Ella because it was so crowded and there was nowhere to park.

 We went into the classroom, and she found her desk,

 and immediately sat down and started coloring.

 I told Annie to go over and say good-bye (I love this picture.)

 And also, you can see Kalia's teacher in the picture above, she is in the yellow and brown striped shirt. She looks super young. I think this is her first year teaching (ever.)

 No glancing back from her! We left and it was really a simple process. Whew! She does have one friend from the neighborhood in her class and at her table, the other girl at the table, Mia Chamberlain. That's been great!

 This is the bulletin board outside her classroom. Her name is under the "i". She was happy to find that.

So meanwhile at home, Annie and Ella decided they like each other. This was a really cute thing to watch, and it was interesting how it just naturally happened once Kalia was gone.

 The next day, Annie decided she needed to wear Kalia's "first day outfit."

Kalia wore this outfit, and came home with a hole in the knee. And they didn't even have outdoor recess. (Still too hot for the kids to be outside, darn it.)  She is coming home FULL of energy. Full day kindergarten is NOT enough to tire her out, in fact, it bottles up her energy, and we have to find ways for her to get it all out when she gets home.

The next day,  Kalia got to be dropped off at school on the Motorcycle.

Here's a day later in the week, it was "rainbow" day at school, so she finally wore this dress that she never, ever would wear before.

 Annie has since taken over the role of "older sister." I was taking picture of Ella eating an Oreo when Annie saw the need for a hand wipe, and started cleaning Ella's hands for me.

 I really love this computer picture, because this is almost exactly what Kalia and Annie used to do. Now Annie runs all the controls and plays the games while Ella watches.

 Two weeks after Kalia started kindergarten, Annie started Joy School.

 She loves it! It's probably most suited to her personality than any of my other girls, so I'm glad we got invited to do this.

 And here's Kalia with a bandaid on her face....sad, sad, story...

I was trying to get Kalia to school extra fast, so I just put her in the bike trailer, and started pulling her (really fast) to school. On the second corner that I had to turn, the bike hitch broke and the momentum sent the trailer flying, it roller over itself once, and threw her out. She landed on her face. We were in the middle of the road, so I am really thankful there were no cars coming. I felt so bad. Her face looked pretty awful for about a week. Here I had to bring her home, change her shirt, bandage her up, and drive her to school half an hour late. That's why she's in this picture with Annie.

My friends assure me that we will laugh about this someday. I'm not quite there yet. :)

Anyway, it sure is nice to only have 1 kid, twice a week, for almost 3 hours!
School is awesome!

Kalia is doing great and comes home with so much work completed. I love that we don't have to do it at home, because she tries much harder to impress her teacher than she would ever try for me. She also has time for music, art, library time, PE and other things that wouldn't be possible with half-day, so I am glad that she ended up going full-day, although initially I was pretty worried about it.

Anyway, back to Annie, here's the other kids in her Joy School. The tall one in the back is (apparently) a special friend or a crush, because I was informed that they held hands the entire time, even during rest time.

GREAT.

Beautiful Sedona

 Our family took a late-summer mini-vacation to Sedona. I had never been there before, and my mother-in-law gifted us with a 2-night stay at the cutest little place. We all slept in a studio...we put Ella in the bathroom in her pack and play, Kalia and Annie slept on the pull-out couch, and Samuel and I of course had the nice bed. The only hiccups were from #1 anyone having to pee in the middle of the night had to squeeze into the bathroom and try not to wake up Ella, OR pee in the sink. (GROSS. Kalia told me the next morning how Daddy helped her pee in the sink. I was appalled at the thought. Boys...)  Also, Samuel was 3 days into a course of antibiotics and went off without them.  So we spent most of one day trying to get a new prescription. A HUGE thank you to our Dr friend who came through for us when our own Dr wouldn't call us back.

We hiked a fun trail called "Cow Pies", tried to feel the spiritual energy of Sedona (a.k.a. "Vortex") that we kept hearing about, and admired the variety of churches on every corner. And one up on a rock.

So here's the rest of our trip in pictures. The ones at the bottom are Slide Rock State Park. SO much fun. Although my kids were definitely the youngest ones there. It's a little better for older kids. The water was icy cold but so refreshing on a 100 degree day. :)