"Watch your step"

Last night the wind blew like crazy ALL NIGHT LONG. Gracie woke up once scared and I can't tell you how surprised she was when I told her the sound was the wind. It was so cute to see how quickly she closed her eyes and went back to sleep once she could identify the sounds she was hearing. It was less cute when she woke up again before 6am and wanted to come into our bed. The wind had turned the power off momentarily which also shut off her heater and night light. I opened the door and started to help Gracie toward my room in the dark when I heard her say, "Watch your step, Mommy". It melted my heart. I thought it was really sweet. I'm sure we've been saying things like that to her more often with the snow and ice (most of which has melted here). It is always entertaining and rewarding to hear her tell Justin not to touch things like the hot oven or not to eat things like cookies that I've been baking. She's really good at listening when she gets to help enforce the rules.

I went to the doctor today and it was pretty uneventful. Right now I am still glad to be a boring patient and will return again next week. I will admit that I got really jealous on Sunday when I heard that my friend (due 2 weeks before me) had her baby Sunday morning. She went into the hospital about Noon with labor pains and the baby was born by 12:45 (It was her 4th child). So, here is my question : Would you rather have a super short labor (like that) and have to skip the meds completely OR labor a little longer with drugs? I'd appreciate your input so that I can know what to pray for... right now, I'm thinking drugs but may be able to be convinced otherwise.

38 Weeks

I've been getting some picture requests and thought I would finally post a belly shot. Here I am at 38 weeks. I go back to the doctor on Tuesday and will let you know what the doctor says. I'm predicting that the baby will come around the 6th of January but am secretly hoping to have the first baby of the new year and get a year's supply of diapers. Fat chance, but worth hoping for.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays.

Christmas

We have had wonderful holidays so far. They've been a little bit quiet, but certainly relaxing and enjoyable. We've enjoyed being able to hang out without homework looming. Here are some pictures of Christmas at our house.

The poppyseed cake I made for our Christmas dessert (a little mouse A.K.A. Gracie had a little taste test before dinner).
The new Jammies that my mom made for Gracie to open on Christmas eveOur nativity. I told Gracie she was Mary and she introduced herself as Mary Christmas. I was a shepherd.
This is Christmas morning. Gracie got a new pink puffer coat. She opened it up, said "night night" and laid down to suck her thumb. I guess it looked comfortable.
Playing with toys.
Playing with more toys. Gracie loved stopping to play with all of her neat toys and presents. It was a lot of fun.

The latest and greatest

Well, we are just about ready for Christmas and Justin is finally done with school for the semester. HOORAY! We've enjoyed getting Christmas cards from friends and family and only feel a tiny bit guilty that we haven't sent out anything (I think we'll kill two birds with one stone and do something when our baby boy makes his debut).
I went to the doctor again today. Nothing too exciting (but I will say I'm relieved because I'll be able to enjoy Christmas without the looming fear of going into labor on Christmas eve/ Christmas day). I know I need to post pictures at some point. I haven't forgotten. I just keep waiting to see if I get any cuter but it hasn't happened yet. I'll snap a few pictures and get them up though.
Yesterday was the ward Christmas program and I sang with the choir. It was fun to sing and I always love the music of Christmas and the special way it touches my heart. As Christmas gets closer, we're getting more and more tempted to just jump in the car and head to Utah for Christmas. We will really miss our families but are excited for the experience of having Christmas with just our little family. I'd love any suggestions from the rest of you if you've had Christmas "alone" of how you made it feel more like Christmas. I actually had 2 Christmases away from home on my mission (One in the MTC, a week after I left, and one in Germany). They were very special Christmases that I will remember forever, so I shouldn't be scared to try it again with the greatest companion ever and a two year old (that should be all of the entertainment and Christmas joy we need).
We love you all and wish you good luck making all of the rest of your Christmas preparations.

A cold belly

I was talking to Justin the other day about the saying, "I've got cold feet". I told him that for pregnant women getting close to delivery they should say, "I've got a cold belly". It really isn't that funny of a joke, but lately it has been true as I've tried to make sure that my belly and under belly are covered so I don't feel a draft. I'll take a belly picture one of these days, but for now I thought I'd just give an update. WARNING: If you don't like labor talk, skip to your next favorite blog.

I went to the doctor yesterday for my 36 week appointment. It was the first time for me to be "checked for progress" so it is fun for me to feel like I have a little more to report than just the heartbeat and my blood pressure (because I surely won't be reporting my weight :). The Dr. said that the baby looks like he is about 6.5 lbs (I hope he was wrong because I still technically have 4 weeks left and the baby is supposed to gain 1/2lb. per week- YIKES!). The doctor also said that I'm dilated to a 2 and 60% effaced. Last time around I would have been dancing around bragging about how soon I thought I would go into labor, but this time I am really planning on the baby coming on time or at most a week early. Gracie was born on her due date, so I'm not expecting anything too early on. It does wonders for my patience to have a busy Christmas in the way and a lot of projects that I'd like to get done before our baby boy arrives. Anyway, they said everything else looks good.

I went to a baby shower of a friend last night and found some facts for her:
-the highest official number of children born to one mother is 69. It was in Russia in the 1700's and in 27 pregnancies she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. 67 survived infancy.
- Joseph and Mary walked 130 miles to Bethlehem while Mary was great with child (It made me wonder if she went full term)
-The longest human pregnancy was 17 months and 9 days (I might need to do more research on this one...sounds sketchy to me).
-The earliest surviving preemie was born at 22 weeks and weighed 10 ounces
-The oldest mother to give birth was 67 years old (in the last few years)- Not counting bible stories.
-The shortest interval between two children in seperate confinements is 208 days. The mother had a son on September 3, 1999 and a daughter on March 30, 2000.

Who's the boss?

It has become increasingly apparent around here that Gracie is starting to feel like the boss at our house. Most of the time it's just really funny, other times I feel overwhelmed. Either way, I am kind of looking forward to her taking on the roll of a big sister. I will say that even though she likes to be in charge, I've really appreciated the way that she just wants to take care of everyone and everything. Here are some of the things I've noticed Gracie doing lately.
* Counting when I don't do what she wants me to (One...two...one)
* Repeating scoldings that other parents give their children ("Get out of the road")
* Getting after her baby for doing naughty things ("NO, no, baby")
* Telling me not to fall when I climb on a stool to get something
*asking friends if they need naps when they are crying.
* Telling me when she needs a nap (on some days)
*asking her mini barbies and dolls if they want to pray with us and then telling them to fold their arms.
*asking her horse if he is hungry and getting food for him.
*When Gracie does something naughty and I ask her not to she turns to me and asks, "not nice?". It's cute, but I get the feeling that she knows before she chucks stuff across the room that it isn't very nice.
* Complaining that her dolls have stinky diapers and changing them (undressing and using a wipe). She also has been trying to let her dolls use the potty but I told her that her dolls are still too little to use the potty (not big girls like her, right?)

Anyway, we love Gracie and it is fun to watch her become so grown up.

Once there was a snowman

Yesterday was a really nice day. Justin and Gracie went to play in the snow that dumped here all last week. They made a cute little snowman. I wish I would have taken a picture of what the snowman looked like just a few hours later- leaning far to one side with the eyes and nose eaten by birds (carrots and raisins). Gracie also made her first snow angel.

The Lord seeth not as man seeth

I just read a friend's blog and was tempted to copy and paste her entire post because I thought it was so great. Click here to read her thoughts about an article addressing the subject of body image. Or Click to read the article she was commenting about.
If you just have time for one, I'd read the actual article.

Being pregnant, I really don't beat myself up about weight I've gained. I understand that weight gain is a very important and essential part of having a healthy baby. I actually find it almost a relief that I can relax just a little and stop comparing myself to others so much.

I think that the danger comes afterward when you all of a sudden feel like you should be able to look awesome if you eat right and exercise. I loved the article because it talked about celebrities getting their awesome pre-baby bodies back in a matter of months or weeks. If we're speaking truthfully, I've never had Faith Hill's bikini body (even before I was a mother). I guess my hope in referencing this blog is that all of the beautiful women I know will be able to love themselves even if they don't look like a supermodel. I hope that we will love our bodies and take care of them by exercising and eating right, even if we do it knowing that we may never look like the media thinks we should all look. I love the dove commercial (also on my friend's blog) and the efforts they are making to give young girls more self confidence and to help girls feel beautiful in spite of their differences.

In the end, if you're a mother and do look like
Faith Hill or Kelly Ripa,
I'm happy for you, I'm proud of you, and I might even pray to look that great when I'm resurrected, (or after baby #2). But for those of us who don't, (or until we all do) I hope we don't feel like failures. I love the scripture in 1 Samuel 16:6 that says, "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

What better gift can we give to those who love us than to better our hearts and be as conscious of our inward appearances as we are of our outward appearances.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Yesterday was a beautiful day! The weather was in the high 60's and we didn't really need our jackets. Gracie and I went to the park to enjoy the weather a little bit before we are forced to stay inside all winter :) We had a great time. Then, I watched the news and found out that today would be 30-40 degrees colder. This morning we woke up to snow outside. The sight of snow in the morning reminded me of my childhood and the joy that always came with the first snow. In any case, I'm excited that Christmas is quickly approaching. Now I just need to make my home look a little more like Christmas. Wish me luck!

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family in SLC. It was so fun to see my siblings and their cute little families. Gracie had tons of fun playing with lots of cousins and drinking unlimited chocolate milk. The food and company were great. We got on the freeway to come home yesterday and had been driving about 2 minutes. Gracie said, "Mom, I want to go back to Nanny's house." Today she started asking if she could go back to St. George. We really love Colorado but have sure missed our families and especially little cousins for Gracie to play with.
Thanks again for all the fun!
Family Picture

Squinting in the sun- and sticking out a lizard tongue.

Hanging out with Cares and Tillie before dinner.

Soon to be Mommies. (Carrie is due in March)
The new face Gracie learned to make (Tillie must have taught her :)

Utah

Well, we just got back from Utah, and in all of our travels we felt like we saw the entire state. We traveled over on I-70 from Colorado and then dropped down I -15 into St. George. We stayed there about 5 days and then headed North up I-15 to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving and the rest of the weekend. We then traveled home on I-80. We loved seeing our families and had a lot of fun. Here are some new pictures!

Justin and Me before an ice cream party at blue bunny.
Gracie was mesmerized by the Christmas lights that Justin's mom pulled out. She even stood still while she was being "decorated".

Gracie in a cute little Christmas outfit. (It's from last year- that's why her tummy is peeking through).

Grateful

At church there is an older lady (probably in her 80's) who walks with the help of a walker. Every Sunday she comes prepared with dum dums to hand out to little children. Gracie loves her and looks for her every Sunday after nursery. A few weeks ago she stood and bore her testimony and said something like, "When you get to be my age you just appreciate everything so much and thank God for every day and every moment that you have." As she said that I thought, "NO. That's not just an automatic thing that happens when you turn a certain age, it is a decision and something that you can decide to start at any time in life."

That said, here is what I am most thankful for (in no particular order):
1)Justin
2) Gracie
3) Baby #2
4) The gospel
5)My family
6) Justin's family
7) A great ward
8) A nice place to live
9)Good health
10) An education
11)Great friends
12) Utah

I could obviously go on, but these are the main things that I've been thinking about. Keep your eyes open for more posts about our Thanksgiving weekend.

Subcutaneous

Yesterday, we were lucky to have Justin around most of the day while he studied for a test. I'm proud to say that I was even pretty good about actually letting him study and not trying to get him to stop and play or making him pay attention to me :). Gracie did a pretty good job too, but did like climbing up onto Justin's lap. It was cute to hear her study Immunology with Justin:
J: Can you say subcutaneous?
G: Subcutaneous
J: Red Blood Cells
G: Wed bud sows

I guess I need to brush up on my immunology because I can't remember any of the other words he asked her to repeat. There is something totally sweet and unnatural about hearing a two year old say words that they should not know yet (don't worry, we've been holding off on the swear words). Anyway, we love Justin and try to soak up the moments that he is at home.

My love hate relationship

What is it with, you ask? SURPRISES!!!
Every year that I can remember, my nanny (paternal grandmother) would call my sister Mary and me into her room and show us what she was going to give us for Christmas. Christmas was always a long ways away, but I think she just had a really hard time keeping all of those surprises to herself. I remember always loving the gifts- usually awesome things like bracelet watches from the home shopping channel, jewelry, or other amazing little treasures. Anyway, I've found that I suffer from the same problem (not the home shopping channel problem). I can hardly stand waiting until Christmas to give away the treasures I have found or have been making.

On the other hand, I really like being surprised and think it is sometimes sad when you already know everything that is coming to you for Christmas. So... I've decided to stay strong. No posting pictures on my craft blog, no hints, and for sure...no sneak peaks. But just out of curiosity- who is really good at surprising people? Does the suspense overwhelm you, like it does me? Christmas is over a month away and I can't believe I'm already having this conversation (is it a conversation if it's a blog post?).

P.S. I do want to clarify though, that I'm really only bad at keeping my own surprises a surprise (please don't take me off the invitation list to all surprise parties).

Leaf it to Gracie

Gracie and I raked up some leaves on Friday. We had about a million leaves in our yard, so we didn't really see a ton of progress but we did have a ton of fun.
Gracie kept insisting that it was her turn to rake. Here she is doing her thing.

I thought it would be fun to throw her in some leaves until she totally disappeared- oops. This picture was after she had worked her way out a little bit.

This is our little cutie. She kept posing for a glamour shot in the leaves. I guess she knew she was irresistable.

Not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach

***I was serious in my title. Just a warning before you read this.***
HAVE YOU EVER FOUND SOMETHING GROSS IN YOUR FOOD?

THIS IS WHAT WE FOUND IN CHIP'S WATER THIS MORNING. YUCK.
I wish I had something in the picture that would help convey the size- a HUGE dead squirrel. Lucky for me, Justin found it first and dumped out all the water and got the squirrel out. Poor Chip. Poor Squirrel.

For those interested

***IN CASE ANY OF YOU ARE NEEDING A NEW DRESS FOR THE HOLIDAYS OR JUST BECAUSE***


Shabby Apple Dress Party! Come enjoy a fabulous morning of dress shopping! Fun, flirty, sophisticated and sassy styles to choose from (with baby dresses and accessories to boot)!

We promise to have yummy food, great music and a hallway of those mirrors that make you look skinny in anything you're wearing.

Can't make it? Enjoy a free shipping code: LeBaronNeedsDress
Date:
November 8th, 2008, 10am - 2pm
Location:
LeBaron Home
Address:
2991 Juliet Way
SLC, UT 84121 (map)

Don't Forget

I hope that everyone reading this has either already voted or is planning on going to the polls today. I also hope that I'll be able to sleep at night if Obama gets elected. But... no matter who you are voting for, I think it is important for us to exercise the gift of choosing our leaders and having a say in important matters. There was an amendment to the Colorado state constitution that I just voted for last Thursday. They are trying to write into the state constitution that someone is considered a person from the moment of fertilization. If this passes, they may be able to stop abortions in the state of Colorado. I was happy to see this legislation and it made me think of all of the important issues out there for us to vote on.

Tonight will be a real nail biter as we wait for the election results. I think I might let Justin and Gracie vote on what we should eat for dessert. I also might let them vote on what leftovers they want :)

Rise and Shout!

On Saturday, Justin took Jeff, Camille, and Kim to the Walker Mower Plant on the other side of town.

We went to the BYU vs. CSU game. It was a close game in the end, so we were glad that BYU pulled through in the end. Gracie was so good and kept asking to sit with Jeff.

Family picture. GO COUGARS!!!

More cougar fans.

Aunt Kim got Gracie this super cute shirt for her birthday. They made cute twinners. I have the same matching shirt as Kim so I'm looking forward to being Gracie's twin when I don't have a pregnant belly.

Halloween Love

Here is Gracie's costume before we left to a downtown Halloween party (we went trick or treating to stores downtown and then to a little dance party with hot chocolate and cookies).


This is Gracie and Justin at the trunk or treat. Justin was told by a friend that his costume was really scary (he was actually dressed to go to the BYU football team fireside at our stake center). Gracie caught on to the trick or treating thing really fast.

Jeff, Kim, and Camille got into town after the trunk or treat and the party continued. This is probably the best pic I have of my halloween costume. I was prego sauce.
This is Gracie the princess turned into a rodeo princess with Camille and Jeff.

And here we are eating at five guys burger and fries. We had a really fun time.

You've got to start young...

** I promise I didn't stage these pictures. She really just laid down and wanted to "read".

My birthday

I got this cute sign from Justin's mom when she was here. I love it.
Sorry about the lack of other birthday pictures- we were busy busy.


My birthday was last Wednesday and was a fabulous day. Highlights included...
1)sleeping in (at least a little bit)
2) Justin bringing me lunch from my favorite sandwich place
3)My parents coming into town and taking me shopping
4) Phone calls/ texts/birthday cards/ from people I love
5)Just feeling special and loved all day long ( I've committed that I am going to do a better job at making others feel special on their birthdays, mostly because I felt overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of others).


My mom reading to Gracie.
Cinderella A.K.A. Gracie
My sister in law, Luci, sent this beautiful Cinderella dress for Gracie's birthday. Isn't it gorgeous? My mom added a few accessories and I'm pretty sure that Gracie would live in this princess dress if I would let her. For those of you who are far away, I'm sure I'll post more pictures later, but this is a sneak peek of what Gracie will look like on Halloween (I might just make her freeze because it looks too beautiful to cover up:).

Our Birthday Girl

Many more pictures are to come today of Gracie's happy birthday, but I first wanted to post about her 2 year old well-child/baby check-up. I wanted to post about it earlier but have had a super busy and fun week with my birthday, Gracie's birthday, a visit from my parents, and weekend crammed with fun too.
Gracie weighs a whopping 21.8 pounds (below the charts) and was 32 inches high (10th percentile). We were excited that it would be her last time to get shots, but when we got there, we found out that she had completed all of her shots in Utah and didn't even need a single shot. The doctor said that everything looks great and that she seems to be on track, with the exception of her weight. Because she is below the first percentile on weight, the doctor recommended keeping her on whole milk for another year. The doctor kept telling me ways to add fat to her diet (put tons of extra butter on her noodles, let her put peanut butter on anything she'll eat it on, lots of butter on any veggies), so... since Gracie and I usually eat together, don't be surprised if the next time you see me I'm 20 lbs. heavier.
The last funny thing about the Dr. appointment was when the Dr. had Gracie run across the room. She paused when she saw Gracie's knock-kneed run and said, "As she gets older, her run will probably straighten out a little too." It made me laugh, because I'm a little knock kneed myself and in spite of all my marathon training and running, I still don't think my run has really straightened out :) Ahhh, the power of genetics. Makes me laugh.
***The picture was one I snapped the other day when Gracie didn't know I was there.

Shoes

I finally got my act together and made some of those little felt baby shoes (link to directions on my Profi Frau blog). Anyway, if I do say so myself, they turned out pretty cute. Too bad embellishing is way more exciting and precious for girl shoes. For anyone that is bored at home and poor (these shoes cost about 50 cents to make because I used craft felt 25 cents per page, ribbon I had on hand, and then just the thread to sew them together). They were also a pretty quick little project once I got going.

Apple Crisp for two

I love GOOGLE. Last night I was craving apple crisp but didn't think it would be a good idea to make a whole pan- especially because it would just be the two of us. So I just googled "apple crisp for two" and got a recipe. I thought I would share because I know a lot of you are in the same boat as far as not wanting a whole pan of goodness around to tempt you. The crisp turned out great (I think next time I might try one T. less of butter because I felt like it had just a little more than it needed).FYI- I used the pictures from the website too, as they documented it well and I was feeling a little lazy to take pics of the same thing.

For the ingredient you will need:

• 1/3 cup of flour
• 1/3 cup of sugar (I used brown)
  
• A pinch of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• A pinch of nutmeg
• 3 Tablespoons of butter
• 2 apples

*I would bake it at 375 and 30 minutes was perfect.

The topping should end up looking like the photo below.

Sprinkle the topping on the apples. (Yes, I do like lots of topping!)

Many recipes add oatmeal to the topping which gives it a wonderful texture.

Be sure to place the Apple Crisps on a baking sheet before putting it into the oven. Just in case it bubbles over!

It will only take about 30 minutes for the apples to become tender and juicy.

Serve the Apple Crisp right in the individual baking dishes as is or with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.