"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).