July

I figure I better record that this month existed before this baby gets here and life is never the same. July has been a very fun month so far, and hopefully will end with a bang! (Here's crossing my fingers.)

My good friend Alissa and I are due the same week, so our good friends had a "Tea Party" in honor of our soon-to-arrive little girls. It was beautifully put together and so much fun.


This was the table full of dainty and delicious treats. It was all amazing - blueberry scones, lemon curd, fruit preserves, cake balls, cupcakes, pink lemonade, strawberries, and all varieties of pink!In true tea party fashion, we had a "princess" competition, which included a fashion section. This was the lovely gown my team designed for me. Below is a picture of Alissa and I showing off our teams' creations. These are the cute outfits my sister-in-law Aubrey got for our little girls. I can't wait to dress her in it!Logan and I decided we'd better celebrate our anniversary early if we wanted to celebrate it at all, so we got away for part of a weekend to a cute bed and breakfast not far from where we live. It was a really fun 19th century mansion that has been renovated and is absolutely beautiful, inside and out. Our room used to be the second story porch, so it was mostly windows and was designed to feel like you were sleeping in a tree (as you can probably see in the picture, which sadly looks like something you'd see in a creepy story on Dateline.) It was a nice chance to get away. It's hard to believe it's been 5 years! And what a wonderful 5 years it's been, with plenty of adventures and blessings. Can't imagine what our future holds, but judging by our past together, it only gets more wonderful every year! (Call me cheesy, but the cheese is the truth!) Luckily Carli has been keeping busy having fun with friends. I've tried to overcome my laziness and overwhelming desire to recline at home in the air conditioning and at least do something fun with her everyday. On this particular day it was her little friend's idea to have a tea party. I tried to get a good picture after they dressed themselves in ALL of their princess attire, but that all just got in the way and was not-so-carefully stripped away before they could truly enjoy their lemonade and cookies. Funny girls.

We've had a few fun outings to this splash park. What a cute girl she is!

We have also enjoyed the free petting zoo a couple of times this month (when it hasn't been too awfully hot). Carli has absolutely no fear when it comes to animals. It makes me a little nervous at times, especially when it comes to dogs and the biting pony at the petting zoo. (Why would you have a pony that bites at a petting zoo???) Anyway, she is convinced all the animals there love to eat sticks, so she insists on feeding them.
We've had a few other excursions, including the children's museum and plenty of shopping. She has been such a good girl lately. She is so sweet with her friends, shares and talks so nicely. She definitely still has her 2-year-old moments, but she seems to be on her way to 3 quicker than I thought. We (I) lost her glasses last week and have an eye appointment this week, so hopefully we can get that taken care of. My favorite things she's talked about lately:

*Aunt Aubrey was trying to help her get her hands washed before dinner, which she didn't want to do, so she turned to me and said, "Mom! I can't work under these conditions!"

* I brought home some long stem roses that came with our breakfast at the bed and breakfast and Carli knew just what to do with them. She smelled them and said how beautiful they were, then said, "Are we allowed to have fresh flowers in the house?" Apparently a story she'd just read about a clean-freak mom who doesn't allow fresh flowers in the house because they make such a mess had influenced her.

* Sunday night Logan told Carli he was going to a Young Men's fireside. Several times that night she informed me that "Dad's at a firetruck." I corrected her after a couple of times and after that she told me he was at a fire station instead.

* Carli and I were talking about how excited we are to have a new baby sister coming to our house so soon. She exclaimed, "She's going to sit on my lap and I'll read her stories!!" I'm excited to see my little bookworm share her love of books with her little sister.

My weeks have been full of gathering, washing, making and shopping for baby supplies. Carli took me off guard when she came and I felt almost completely unprepared, so I did not want that to happen this time. I think pretty much everything is ready for this little girl to join our family. I have to play the organ on Sunday and play for the choir, and my sister gets here next Wednesday, so hopefully little "Gus" can wait until then, but hopefully not much (or any) longer than that.

Well, next time you visit this blog, you will be hearing the exciting news of birthday, name and the entering the world story (don't worry, I'm not too much into sharing the gory details here)! We can't wait!

Not-so-up-to-date update

Though I'd like to, I can't claim that this will be thorough. I blame it on a lot of things, but especially the fact that our main computer caught a nasty virus and I haven't wanted to use our other incredibly slow one. So, a lot of pictures I wanted to put up are on the other computer. Maybe it's time to own up to the age of the computers that were gifts for high school graduation and returning home from a mission and admit we need to "invest" in some newer technology.

The last few months have been full and busy, but fun. We've had several visitors, including my parents and Logan's mom and sister (hopefully I'll save some of those pics from the grasp of the virus). We loved having them visit and are especially glad that Aubrey gets to stay for the summer. Carli absolutely adores her and we love having her here and are grateful for her willing help.

Carli's in a fun stage of life, as you can see by the following pictures. Very confident and independent. The other day she figured out what made the lifeguards at the pool blow their whistles (like climbing up the slide the wrong way) and stared at them while she tried each of those things to see if they'd blow their whistles at her. Yikes, what are we in for!?

This was a fun trip to the zoo with some of friends.

Christmas in June! Our local library system had a used book sale and we got 2 fairly big boxes of children's books (the classics, according to Logan) for $10! It was pretty much the most exciting day of the year for me and Carli. She has been stacking and re-stacking piles of these books all over the house, reading them and begging us to read them since we got them. It really has been almost like Christmas for her.

We got to go home for Memorial weekend and it was a wonderful impromptu family reunion. It was so fun to see everyone and hopefully I'll get some good pictures to post about that from my dad soon (hint, hint).


Carli's beautiful hair finally got to a bothersome length. If I ever left any of it down it would get stuck under her arms, and besides, it had never been cut. I realized it was time and after some serious studying (a few instructive Youtube videos), I sat her down in front of a movie and chopped it off (sort of). I still wanted to be able to put it up and hoped to be able to still braid it, but may have cut off too much. Here it is today:She is currently sitting on the couch just like this, a poor sickie baby. :( Don't judge the continued use of the binky, I don't feel strongly about getting rid of it anytime soon. She only uses it to fall asleep, except when she's sick, like today. I'm thinking it'll be just like with everything else she's done in this life - weaning, eating, using a big-girl bed, potty training, etc - she'll give it up all at once when she's ready, no sooner, no later.

Who knows how exciting the next couple of months will be. We spend all our time inside or in the pool since just walking outside makes my sunglasses fog over. I hadn't exactly anticipated living in a dishwasher/sauna for the remainder of my pregnancy, so those are my coping mechanisms. I try not to think about the fact that if this pregnancy is similar to Carli's, I have 6 more weeks. That would be such a happy occurance, I really don't want to be disappointed, so I'm trying to believe this baby will be here the middle of August instead so it will be a happy surprise if she's here early or even on time. Right now I'm just working on getting her round little head out of my ribs, so wish me luck with that. Hopefully we'll have a new computer soon so I can be better with pictures and updates. No guarantees though. :)

Conversation with Carli

Carli woke up from her nap to find me looking at a book that has pictures in it of the baby at each month of pregnancy.

Carli - You lookin' at Gus-Gus, Mama? She's coming to see us. She "lubs" us. I "lub" her too. She "lubs"Carli-Rick. She "lubs" you too, Mama. She's gonna knock on the door and come visit us. I'll say "Hi, Baby!" And I won't push her. We don't push babies. We say "Hi, Babies!"

I love the unprompted sincerity and simplicity of her thoughts!

Carli-isms

*At the aquarium Carli lost a shoe in the penguin area. (Luckily it was a croc that floats and it was while a lady was in there feeding the penguins and talking to the crowd, so it was easily retrievable.)
Carli: "Penguin? Can you please give me my shoe?"

* In this part of the country ants seem to be cohabitants in any home, clean or otherwise. Carli loves to see them (she's very into bugs lately, especially a certain picture of a millipede which she refers to as "Camillapede").
Carli, coming out of the bathroom: "I booped (squished) an ant."
Her word can also be used in this context: "Mom, boop (squish) my nose."

More about Carli

* Carli is now fully potty-trained (hooray!), but a couple of weeks ago when she was still learning she was sitting on the potty whining about having to sit there. I passed by the bathroom and said "What do we do if something is hard?" She immediately began a sweet, simple prayer asking Heavenly Father to help her go potty on the potty. I thought she was just going to ask for my help, but she already knows she has a much more capable Parent.

* I made a blanket on Saturday which Carli immediately claimed as "Carli's blankie!" I told her it was for Gus but that I'd made one for her before she was born. I got it out of her closet (I had put it away since she'd grown too big for it) and gave it to her. She looked at me with very serious eyes and said, "Thank you so bery, bery much Mom!" She insists on sleeping with it now and every time she sees it says, "It's sooo beautiful!"

* Yesterday Logan came up behind me, put his arms around me, rubbed my belly and kissed my cheek. Carli saw it and said to her doll, "He loves her" very matter-of-factly. She also tells me quite frequently that she loves Dad and that he loves her. What could be better than a little girl who knows her daddy loves his family and a man who truly does love nothing more?!

These are the sweet things that Carli does. I also noticed a couple other things this week that I want to remember.

* Her friends were removing shoes and socks on the slide at the park and thoroughly enjoying watching them slide down (or get thrown down). Carli stood at the bottom cheering, then she collected the clothes and organized them quite nicely. She stuffed L.'s socks in her shoes and B.'s socks in his shoes and returned them to each. When do you know your kid is OCD? She can't go to bed now without making sure her milk is in the fridge, her books are on her shelf, the doors in her kitchen are properly closed and her blankets are exactly as she likes them. I guess it can't be too bad, she got in trouble in nursery yesterday for knocking over everyone's block towers.

* Now that she feels in control of the whole potty thing she has discovered a couple of things. She won't go anywhere other than home. At church yesterday she told me she'd wait until she got home to "Carli's little potty". (And she did.) But, when we're home she goes as often as possible, since we'd been using a sticker chart and she got a computer game when she filled up a row. Last night we had friends over for dinner and she seriously went like 10 times just during dinner to show off her new skills. Funny how quickly these little ones figure us adults out and learn to manipulate us. How will I ever keep up?

March

March has always been one of my favorite months. I love how spring reminds me of so many things. I think of the lilac bush in front of my parents house, flying kites, the "nest" cupcakes and lemonade pie my mom made for my birthday, Easter, spring breaks, visiting Logan's family for the first time, and of course getting engaged. It seems that so many good things happen in spring.
Unfortunately I failed to take pictures this month and I'm really sad about it.
We flew kites for the first time as a family.

We went swimming (indoors, don't worry, it's not that warm yet) a few times, which of course Carli couldn't get enough of.

Carli has been steadily progressing in potty training (we're not there yet) and she has become so sweet with friends and helpful at home. In the picture above and below she was helping me make bread. (As you can see by the way she is wiping the flour all down her shirt. Nice.)

We went to the ward Easter Egg Hunt and I wish I could have taken a video. The Easter Bunny came - one of the Primary workers works part time at Build-a-Bear and dressed up in a bunny suit - and Carli was in heaven. She followed him around with her arms outstretched getting hugs on the minute. The poor other kids didn't even get a chance to get near him. (I would have stopped her except half of the other kids were scared of him.) Honestly, what could be better than a daddy-sized stuffed animal?!

This is a picture of my first attempt at French braiding Carli's hair. I know, some may ask how I could wait this long when the girl has hair like THAT! Let's just say I did my best work by sitting Carli down in the Bumbo chair in front of Elmo with her favorite snack, and it still only turned out like that.

Why start now? Well, I'll need good practice because I'm going to be doing yet another head of hair on . . .

this little GIRL!

Yes, Carli is getting a SISTER! We are thrilled and now everything has become even more real. It's hard to believe how quickly everything goes by. I'm sure the beginning of August will be here in no time, and just like with Carli, we'll still be unprepared in many ways, although at least this time we have plenty of little baby girl things.

We're excited for April to come this week. Grandma and Papa are coming to visit, we get to celebrate Easter and watch General Conference and that's just in the first weekend!

Memories of the Day

We took Carli swimming where she liked leaning her head back while Logan swished her around in the water. She sat back up with a confused look on her face, pointing to her ear and said, "I have bubbles in my head!"

I was confused when I saw Carli take one of her library books to the piano, set it up and start playing the piano. When I looked closer I realized she had discovered there was a song with music in the back of the book. She pointed to it and said to me, "Music stories." (That's what she calls musical notes and symbols.)

Record-keeping

Up until now, I have tried to just remember the cute, funny, smart things Carli has done. I've realized those things are harder to remember (thanks to pregnant-brain) and she is doing more of them. Since this is my "family journal", you all get to enjoy these things too.

* Carli is a button-pusher, not necessarily in the literal sense. She likes to see what others' reactions are to things she does. Lately she has especially been into pushing other little kids to see what they do. We had some issues with it over the weekend and talked with her more about it than usual. Sunday night prayers went like this, "Grateful for Daddy's job, grateful for Mommy's job, grateful for Carli's job, grateful for Strawberry Cortcake's (her doll) job. I pushed in nursery, but I said sorry and said hi instead." What a sweet girl to think to tell Heavenly Father about that! So, we've now encouraged her to ask for help with this problem in her prayers each day.

* Out of nowhere she started saying "Be quiet right now!" to anyone making noise in the grocery store. She also said it to Mariah Carey's "You'll Always Be a Part of Me" on the radio. Apparently she doesn't appreciate her range. I now know never to blame parents first for what comes out of their children's mouths. I can promise I have not used this phrase with her.

* This morning she opened up my scriptures and said, "I know that Heavenly Father loves me and I know it's true." Followed by, "He's my Heavenly Father and I'm His daughter." I can't take credit for this either, I'm pretty sure she learned it in nursery.

* When I ask her where Gus (what we call the baby) is, she lifts her own shirt and points to her belly.

For the Grandparents

Carli singing Primary songs. Sorry for the continual focusing of the camera, someday I'll figure out how to do it better. And just so you know, I'm really not that bossy as I seem on camera. She'd been going through the songs singing all on her own until I brought out the camera. I have to "remind" her to keep doing what she's doing when the camera is out, otherwise she'll just keep saying "Cheese!".

February

Well, February went by fairly uneventfully. Wintery weather meant we didn't go out much, so there aren't many exciting pictures to show. We did still go out a little, Logan has gotten back into disc golf, so we bundled up and played quite a bit the last few weeks. This is Carli on one of those excursions.Because of the weather, Logan's business trip was extended a few days, which Carli and I were especially unhappy about, but at least he was able to spend some fun time with family while he was there. Carli very somberly informed me every night before bed and every time she heard someone outside our door, "Daddy's coming back to see his Carli Rick." Needless to say, she was thrilled to finally have him back, as was I. She sure loves her Daddy and does so many things just like him.This picture is a pretty typical scene from the last few weeks in our house. Carli and I are working on potty training, which has good days and bad. She told Logan today at lunch, "I pooped on the floor, Daddy." To which he asked, "What do you think you should do next time?" The answer, "SIT on the potty," with a big nod and very serious eyes. "I get stickers when the poop goes IN the potty."

And, the bathroom is no different than anywhere else, piles of books left behind anywhere Carli has been. She takes a huge pile everywhere she goes, all the while chanting, "I'm strong!" I love how much she loves books, and especially enjoy her current rendition of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", which she reads at record-breaking speeds. She's also decided that Bumbos are not just for babies and work perfectly to perch yourself on the couch to daintily cross your ankles and read, while shunning your parents obvious obsession with the Olympics.

We've also been working on some home organization. With the new baby coming so soon, it seems, and in many ways already feeling like I did in the third trimester with Carli, I feel the need for speed in getting everything ready while I can still move for lengthy periods of time. Not to mention that once the warm/hot weather arrives I plan on spending most of the day with Carli in the pool, which leaves NO time for baby prep. We got a cubby shelf from IKEA for Carli's room, and as you can see, she decided the bins were for storing snapagusses, not toys.The next month should be pretty fun. There are birthdays to celebrate, spring cleaning to do, frisbees to be thrown, kites to be flown and a baby to plan names and colors for (we find out the gender in a few weeks). We'll definitely keep you updated!

Thankful Thursday, or whatever you call it

I looked over my last post and realized I had a bad attitude, which is now easy for me to say, seeing as I feel GOOD for the first time in two months. So, I'm going to make up for it with a grateful post. It's a list, but since it's too hard to decide on what should come first, it's not in any order.

1. I feel GOOD!!! Yes, not just better, I actually feel good and the feeling is definitely enhanced by the returned hope that "it won't be like this forever".
2. I just snuggled my beautiful, smart, spunky, happy (except for tantrums), friendly, sweet little girl back to sleep after a siren woke her up from her nap.
3. My hard-working, handsome, funny, adoring, just plain wonderful husband will be home from his business trip today.
a. Somehow I got a man who knows that as a youngest child (or whatever you want to blame it on) I need to be spoiled and have all of his attention. And he does it like he likes it, he doesn't even complain!
b. He's taught me what the Bible means by the phrase "well favored". Logan is liked by everyone he meets and it's no wonder. His personality is pure fun and you just love to be around him. He's a living example of "How to win friends and influence people".
4. I have WONDERFUL friends, including my family. Right now I'm especially grateful for my friends here who have brought me fully into their circle and are so good to me. To have someone help get me out of bed in the morning, help get Carli ready and offer so much help is really a blessing.
5. Snow! Yes, where I am now I'm grateful for it's beauty and refreshing cleanliness, probably because I know there's a possibility of weather in the 70s next week.
6. Music, especially it's soothing qualities for Carli. How easy does it make motherhood to sing a song and change the mood instantly? (Ok, not easy, but easier.)
7. My church that gives us so much in life, including a support system and purpose for life in every way, even the smallest.
8. Pregnancy and motherhood. If you're an atheist, you're not a mom. Everything about the process (and everyone's process is different) of becoming and being a mother is miraculous . Though many times it isn't pleasant, I'd be willing to go through the process over and over to experience that miracle.
9. Learning in all forms. If it weren't for that, I'd definitely go crazy.
10. Food! I went from wishing I didn't have to eat to sustain life one day to wanting to eat everything in sight the next, so now I'm grateful for delicious, fresh food, especially at this time of year. Man, I'm glad to live in the modern world!

There you go. I'm happy about life, and though I didn't need to prove it to anyone, I just wanted to share it. Hope you can find joy today too. And have a happy Valentine's Day!

Counting Down the Days

Yep, it's true. 14 weeks and counting down the days - but not necessarily 'til this new little one arrives, I'm starting small with finally being ok with getting up in the morning. So, I hope you'll excuse my absence from the blogging world over the last few months and probably the next little while.

Though that may sound a little negative, we really are thrilled about this and I'm sure my excitement will return in full-force over the next few weeks, in direct correlation with the return of my appetite.

Noel

Yes, this post has been a long time coming. I'm sure I should have tons of descriptions, but I don't feel too wordy, so here's pictures and I think you'll get the idea.

Carli in her Christmas jammies. I bought them on sale when she was tiny and have saved them this long because I thought they were darling.

Carli reading and snuggling with Uncle Wilbur.

This is what Christmas day looked like (along with the two days before it). Carli had a fever and did not feel well. Sad for Christmas!

I don't know what these two were watching, but I thought this picture was funny. They were pretty intrigued by whatever it was. Cute girls!

I know it looks like Carli was posing nicely for this photo, but I guarantee you it was a fluke. She sure is a pretty girl though.

The beautiful girls in their Christmas dresses.

Group hug!

I had to post this picture of my cute little niece.

Funny that Carli was born in such a wintery place, but never really got to enjoy the snow before we moved. So, this was her first experience making a snowman!

Aunt Aubrey and Uncle Kelby helped out too.

Yeah, he's a little goofy looking, but there's one in every family, right?

Anyone notice something different about Carli? Yep, her eye is straight! Last week Carli had strabismus surgery. It went extremely smoothly and amazingly enough you can hardly tell 5 days later except for a tiny bit of pink and a straight eye. So, the doctor said it went at least as well as they hoped for and should shorten the amount of time we have to patch. So, out of the three issues she has, two have been solved (at least for now). The glasses fixed the vision problem, the surgery fixed the strabismus (crossing) and we still have to patch for the amblyopia, but they believe that straightening the eye will help it become stronger faster. Here's hoping for that and that we won't have to do the surgery again!

Right now we are enjoying wonderful weather so I think I will go back out and continue to enjoy it!

Happy Birthday and Thanksgiving!

We have had a busy week here. Last week Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Kera came into town and we had a lot of fun. First, we celebrated Carli's birthday. I would say that I can't believe she's two, but after a few of her tantrums this week, it's pretty obvious. I can deal with the tantrums though because she is so sweet otherwise, not to mention beautiful and smart! We were going to go to the zoo to celebrate her birthday, but it was dollar day and really crowded, so we went to her favorite park (which she refers to as the purple slide) instead.


After the park we came home and had Raclette (which I forgot to get pictures of) and ate Carli's bumblebee cake.
Then we got to open Carli's presents. She was pretty excited about the princess wrapping paper.
These were two of her favorite gifts (a grocery cart and a stroller), but she really loved all the presents she got - clothes, books, puzzles, play food, music, etc. She was pretty happy to share with her cousins who came to visit on Thanksgiving.

This is my cute little nephew. You just can't resist that face!

Aunt Kera and my two nephews playing at the park.

After Thanksgiving and the over-consumption of so much food and pies, a few of us went to New Moon. (Yes, we're those kind of people.) It was pretty entertaining, but mostly good to go with family.
We tried to get a good picture at the Arboretum the day after Thanksgiving, but it didn't work, so I posted the worst one, mostly because I feel like it captures the moment the best.

We finally got a pretty good family picture (thanks, Dad!) there though.

Now we're missing family and looking forward to seeing them soon, hopefully. It was so nice to spend the week with my family mostly relaxing and spending time with each other. I love this time of year because of that. Now it's time to decorate for Christmas and turn up the carols!

Havin' a Good Ol' Time!

Well, life has been treating us well here. We've kept ourselves pretty busy lately and we're enjoying it.

Carli's little buddy J. came over to play one night and this is how it ended - watching Lady and the Tramp with matching pillows, blankets, drinks and snacks. Life was pretty calm.

Because it has been so warm out lately, we figure that means it's warm enough to go swimming. Well, it's not. Logan a.k.a. "The Polar Bear" thought he'd like to go for a dip...

He quickly changed his mind and moved over to the hot tub with this little lady.

The day ended in some sun-bathing from our teen-wanna-be. I have a feeling I'll be getting that facial expression from her for years to come.

We had some friends over last weekend and found a few surprises throughout the night, including the girls in the box,

and the combined efforts of all of the kids in Carli's room. Quite a masterpiece, huh?

We went to the zoo with friends on Friday and Carli had a ball. She especially liked hugging the "aminals".

Maybe we should have named her Bindy.

I almost had the best shot with Carli and J.'s bums and feet sticking out the back of the big pot. Unfortunately, you can hardly tell that he is in there with her. (Look for the little feet poking out.)

Our little hatchling.

And in keeping with tradition, we had to strike a pose in the turtle shell.

Carli's been talking all weekend about how she got to "pet the soft rabbit and the soft guinea pig."

For Logan's birthday I bought tickets to a rodeo and the Lady Antebellum concert. It was so much fun. We saw some awesome competitors, a bullfighter get thrown 12 feet in the air, Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey, and of course an excellent performance. Now we are looking forward to the family coming into town for Thanksgiving next week. I love this time of year when we get to see family. And especially for this month when we think about gratitude more often. I really am grateful for so many things and have been struck by how much we have that we don't think about often enough. Also, how sometimes the things we really don't feel grateful for (trials, hardships) turn into our greatest blessings. Be grateful!