Last Leg of the Race

I'm in the last month of this pregnancy with our little boy and I will say what every pregnant woman says around or even before this stage... I am sooooo ready to be done!! AAAHHHHH!!! The heartburn, the leg cramps, the shortness of breathe, the lack of energy, the constantly messy house that just never seems to get clean, the never ending pile of dishes that again, I have no energy for. At least I started the dishwasher so I could have a space for all those dirty dishes, the smell aversions have returned, some of the nausea also. Its just a 4 week wait of absolute torture pretty much. My only relief if maybe a nap or a good nights sleep, which seems to be far and few between with the return of the minor hip and sciatica discomfort.
But, enough of the pregnancy woes! just 4-5 more weeks and then we get to hold our little boy and then the 2 -3 months of more sleep deprivation and crying and feedings. Sophie likes to wake up and cry for us a couple times a night. Time to help her learn to self soothe! Oh the joys. But on a happier note, Sydney is potty trained! Well, during the day. Night time she still wears a diaper. We had tried about 4 or 5 times with getting her potty trained and then one day she was just ready on her own and it took about 2 days and she was accident free.
Occassionally she will chose to go on the floor just to get our attention I think though. Like she will literally stand next to the potty and just go on the bathroom floor and then announce, "I peed on the floor! Not in the potty!" Totally seeking attention. lol
Sydney has quite the imagination sometimes. She loves pretending and loves having conversations on her "phone" and "cooking" with the measuring cups and making cookies with her toys. She asked me for some ginger, flour, and baking soda the other day! Made me laugh.\
Sophie is the cutest little thing with her small blonde curls and bright blue eyes. She is soo tall and skinny, except her little chubby face. She loves to read books and her favorite right now I think is Brown Bear. We read that all the time and do the signs. Sophie says, what we think is: what's this? Hi, Mama, Star, Bath, Me More, Please, All Done, her version of Butterfly, Bubbles, and Bird. She can match shapes to their right spaces on puzzles, as well as animals. Which I understand is a 26/27 month skill. Way to go Sophie. She can string beads and does very well at turn taking with Sydney. She continues to surprise us with how smart she is! She even started singing her own little version of the "Clean Up" song the other day and it is just so stinkin' adorable!
She is the biggest snuggle bug you will ever meet. She LOVES to be held, which is why she also likes to cry until someone comes into the room at night. She always wants someone to come and hold her. But Mamma and Daddy need their sleep baby girl! Hopefully her blanky and pacifier will start to be her soothers before Baby Brother comes, cuz two babies waking up in the middle of the night might just drive this woman crazy, or to a different degree of crazy she is already at. Teething is the worst isn't it? All four molars breaking through at the same time has got to hurt. No wonder she wants her Mamma and Daddy at night. The last couple nights she has been yelling out, or rather shrieking out, for "Mamma". Cute, but then again, not so cute at 2 or 3 in the morning.
Gabe got to spend this past weekend up in Seattle, Washington for his little brother's wedding! Congrats to Nick and Rebecca! I have been telling the girls that Uncle Nick got married to Aunt Rebecca.
I braved church all on my own with the two girls, while being 8 months pregnant, and made it ALL 3 HOURS! I seriously AM patting myself on the back, thank you very much! Although I am preeeetty sure there was some unseen help with me, keeping the girls calm. I was praying I would at least make it through Sacramant meeting. Happy Mother's Day to me! Then that evening I hosted Mother's Day dinner for the family, although I didnt cook much. I said, "have it here, you guys bring the food so I don't have to pack up the girls and go anywhere." haha. I'm guessing everyone had a great time, cuz ya'll didn't leave until after 8! Needless to say the girls didn't get baths that night. Diner was delicious though, I didnt want to cook. I made dessert at least. I kind of forgot about the clean up though. Haha, oh well. I got it all clean before the night was over so Gabe wouldn't come home to a dirty house and kitchen. Although, I have to admit, I haven't done the dishes since that night. The weekend chaos hit me yesterday and I was pretty much useless for anything. Gabe was nice and made me what I was craving. Fettucinni Alfredo with broccoli. Mmm, thanks Gabe. Otherwise I think I would have gone to bed hungry. Nothing else sounded good.
Gabe said the wedding was great and that I would have loved the spinach dip. He could of just not told me about it, because I was super jealous. I LOVE spinach dip. Thanks a lot Gabe. ;)
I wish the girls and I could have gone. Nick and Rebecca, you guys looked lovely! Lovely, Lovely. (Think Miss Bates from the movie Emma.)
In other news, we still have not picked a name. I can't believe how hard it is to pick a boys name!! Argh! I've gone through geneology and family names, Tolkien literature names, old old old names, modern names, and just nuthin' stands out right now.

HELP!

Picture Log

Stake Conference

Enjoying some Daddy cuddle time

Looking cute as always

Splashin' in the pool

Too much fun

Mommy and Sophie

Cake I made for a 20s themed B-Day Party

34 weeks with Baby Brother

Not feeling very well... :(

Loving Nursery

35 weeks and wearing the my Mother's Day dress Gabe got for me.

Reading books in their room together...

No Sense of Time

These past several months have completely flown by. That's no excuse for not keeping up with the blog but it is unfortunately the only reason I have. I just can't keep track of time.

November came and went in a flash. Gabe had a week off for Thanksgiving and we enjoyed a lovely time at Kiel and Melissa's house with our family, minus the Browns in Utah, and with some of Melissa's side of the family. The food was delicious and we had a great time. But anyone else notice that the holidays just seem like soo much work now a days? I can't imagine all the planning and stress it was for you Melissa by hosting guests and hosting the dinner and everything, because I was stressed enough. It seems like you never get the time you'd like to just sit and chat with other adults like we used to when we were single or just married because once the kids come along, it a constant fight to make sure they are not getting into they shouldn't at another person's house or not breaking something. The conversations with other adults always get cut short with a, "hold on, I hear a child crying. Is that yours or mine?" or "Hold on, I need to go check and see if my kid is behaving herself." Seems like a lot of the time our time is now all the kids time with very little adult interaction at all. I can't even remember anything that was talked about over that particular holiday, except for the occasional drama from kids or family. That always seems to be remembered.
Christmas was nice and low key. We stayed here and did our own little Christmas Eve dinner which was delicious. Gabe made a great turkey! Christmas morning was fun and the girls loved their toys and treats. I wish I had taken some pictures. But I wasn't feeling the best as I was still having bad morning sickness then. We went to Kiel and Melissa's for a little Christmas dinner with them and had a fun quiet evening while the kids played.
Sophie turned 1 year old! My girls are soo big now. Sophie is still in the 95% for everything but weight. The little bean pole. Tall and skinny. She and Sydney just play all the time, laugh together all the time, and just have the greatest of times. Until of course one of them gets in the others way. Then its a nightmare. These girls have some big sets of lungs because the screaming at one another is glass shattering sometimes.

^ sorry if this makes someone uncomfortable. 

Its just anatomy 

We found out in January that we are having a BOY!! We couldn't be happier. We would have of course loved to have another girl but we also were secretly hoping for a boy! I found a bumper for the crib that is for a boy already and we have green and blue crib sheets so we are set for the crib. I also just got a used glider and ottoman off of this swap and sale home goods group on facebook for our area and the lady gave it to me for free! I can't wait to get started on cleaning it up and using it while I cuddle and hold my little kiddos. I love them soo much and I love how they just love to cuddle and read books and sing songs all day long. Most of the things like car seats and jumpers and pack n' play stuff we bought in nuetral colors in the very beginnning so we are good on those. Th only thing we dont have for the poor guy are clothes!! And diapers, and maybe a few cars and trains. I'm probably forgetting some other things too but I'm kind of getting worried about the clothes. Hopefully I can get a hold of my twin sisters clothes from when Logan was small and borrow some. (she already offered :) Thanks Brig)

We also found out that our due date has been moved up by 10 days. So the Due Date is now June 19th. I'm 23 1/2 weeks along now and feeling like I'm in the end stages already, haha. Hopefully I will be able to go with Gabe and Sydney to Gabe's brother Nick's wedding up in Washington in the beginning of May. But our Dr says that if things continue the way they are going, that we might end of having this baby first week or so of June! If so, then Sophie and I will have a nice weekend together, but miss Daddy and sister Sydney lots while they are up there. We'll know more at the 30 week ultrasound if I can go or not.

We are doing great and enjoying our new apartment/townhouse. We moved out of that smoke filled place at the end of December and we have loved being here. I wish we had found it earlier. Its a great location and easy walking distance to everything, which we take advantage often. 

We switched wards unknowingly when we moved. I was convinced we were still in CV3 but we figured that the Lord wanted us in CV2. We tried really hard to find a place within CV3 and moved thinking we were still in it, so there must be a reason we needed to switch wards. Gabe was released from being Ward Mission Leader but I got to keep my calling since it is with the youth and the youth are combined between the two wards anyway. Gabe now is the Sunday school teacher for the 15/16 year olds. I think he likes it. Teaching is something Gabe really enjoys and he is a great teacher. Plus it helps when you are constantly reading book. Good books, like he does. Books that make you think and reflect. I wish I could focus long enough to finish one of those books but I still seem to read young adult books. Easy reads. I'm working on it. :)

Anyway, I hope this year we can reach some of our goals and we hope you all do to! Keep working hard on them and enjoy it!

"It's Naptime. Stay There!"

Sophie is growing so stinkin' fast that I sometimes have her wear some of Sydney's clothes that I JUST put into storage bins. She has already worn several of Sydney's 2T dresses from last year and half the time I have her in the same size diaper as Sydney because...well she just needs the bigger size on some days.
She turned 10 months old the other day and is just the happiest little girl ever! I used to think Sydney was super mellow as an infant, but Sophie takes the cake. Sophie has been cruising along for over a month now like its the only thing she has ever done to get around and we are sure she will be walking by her first birthday. She just loves hanging out with her sister and giggling at wee hours of the morning when Sydney decides to turn on the light because its time to get up. They will usually sleep until 7 every morning so those days when I am up before 7 just seem like I woke up at 3 in the morning instead of the actual 6 or 6:30.
Sydney has been doing really well all around. She is about to transition to the older Nursery class for the 3 year olds and I think she hasn't liked the change when they take her into the new room. She is soo used to her teachers that she has had for over a year. There is one teacher who is just sooo wonderful with the nursery kids that I wish she could be Sydney's teacher forever.
Sydney got her first couple of knee scrapes. Pretty good ones I'll say, at Grandma's this past Sunday. That patio made of rocks in her backyard just cuts up her knees if she falls on it. So now she has two scraped knees and several bruises.
Sydney was sick last week. Monday she had an upset stomach all over the carpet and then developed a fever of 101. She kept having that fever off and on until Wednesday when she had another upset stomach. She is doing much better now. She fell asleep on the couch during the presidential debate and slept through the whole thing. I enjoyed that she wanted me to hold her alot. It seems she doesn't like to be held very much anymore unless she has been disciplined or if she has been crying for several minutes over something she can't have. She obviously gets a little jealous whenever I am holding Sophie or having Sophie next to me on the couch. THEN she wants to take Sophie's spot. But anyways, Sydney is all better. But my carpet still had a slight vomit smell to it and Febreeze just ain't cuttin' it. Sophie also decided that she needed to unload a whole ton all over the carpet also. She must have been holding that for over 48 hours because it was everywhere and I didn't notice it until I smelled something foul and saw her about to touch it. "Oooo! Something new to stick in my mouth!" which seems to be her logic in life right now.
Sophie has also been eating more solids. She can eat little bits of pasta and grated cheese and mushy veggies. I feel like I have caught up with her eating so that she can now eat small bits of whatever we eat. She is getting a third tooth on the bottom. No teeth on top yet, but I'm sure those will come in in the next couple months. At least by her 1st birthday, which is only 2 months away! Crazy!!
Sydney has been working on her counting more and she can count to 20 and count backwards from 10 now. She can spell Dad, Mom, Sydney, and Sophie. She also likes to spell out things she sees and I will tell her what it says. By the next time she sees it, she spells it out and says what it says on her own. I think she will be a good reader. :) She loves the garden outside and likes to "smell" it. I don't know where she got it from but maybe when I told Gabe to go smell the basil.
I probably have things growing out of season, but we have snap peas, green beans, basil, romaine, cilantro, broccoli, and tomatoes growing. The cilantro is ready to use, but nothing else yet. Although they are growing fast. I really want to find some winter squash before the season is too late.
We went on a hike the other day when it was dry and we actually found time to go. It was really nice outside and Sydney walked with Gabe and I while Gabe carried Sophie.

 Our ward's trunk or treat was this past Friday and it ended up being super fun. Although we were soo tired, we almost went home before the trick or treating. But when that finally started Sydney was all over it. She would actually say "Trick or Treat" all on her own. She will do anything for Candy, really. We are going trick or treating again tonight so I will get a good picture of her and Sophie, but here is a semi focused picture of Sophie and I at the ward activity.

 And here is just a cute little picture I found of Sydney when she was still so small. They grow too fast!

One last thing. A couple weeks ago Sydney took one of her dolls and set it down on her toy bucket. She said to it "Okay, its time for a nap. Stay here. I'll get you some milk." Then she walked toward the kitchen, turned around quickly and said a little forcefully to the doll, "Stay there!" and then she continued to walk into the kitchen. It was sooo cute.

Sophie 9 Months Old

I haven't been keeping track of Sophie's milestones as well as I did with Sydney. I think that is how it goes with most families. The first child gets a lot of the attention and pictures and the worry over whether they are developing on time in their social, language and motor skills. Whereas the second child turns 9 months old and you haven't worked on solids as well as you should have or not nearly as well as you did with the first. You haven't tried sippy cups or stopped swaddling them for naps and nightime and it all just sweeps by in a blur.
So, here are some much overdue pictures of Sophie since I haven't taken nearly as many of her as I did of Sydney at the same age.