Pregnancy Update

I usually don't go a week and a half without blogging... I've been meaning to update but honestly there's nothing going on! Grace and I have literally been at home watching movies, playing (as in I watch her play by herself), or laying around AAAAALLLLL day, everyday for a couple weeks now. But I figured I might as well record a little about my experience so far with this pregnancy (nearly 8 weeks).

Sickness:

I am happy to report that I haven't thrown up yet! This is a very good thing considering how sick I was last time with Grace. I was sick from 5 1/2 weeks until about 15 weeks - and literally throwing up multiple times a day. Sorry for that yucky detail. But this time I'm hoping I'm not jinxing myself by saying that I haven't gone THERE yet. I have come very close many times, but have been able to control myself with shear will power and avoiding the kitchen and grocery stores. The times of day when I'm the sickest changes all the time, so there's no rhyme or reason to it. But I am definitely counting my blessings that it's just a constant feeling of yuckiness and weakness instead of making trips to the bathroom! I'm hoping that stays the case the whole time and I never have to relive those horrible days with my first pregnancy. I admit part of me is so scared of being THAT sick again that I've done a lot less than I made myself do last time, and been more "lazy", if you want to call it that. Oh and I should mention that I've been taking Zofran (anti-nausea pill) every morning for a couple weeks now. The other day I thought I'd hold off and see if I really did need it. By 10:30 am I was so sick that I could hardly convince myself to swallow it down. So I'll definitely stick with the pill for awhile longer.

Food:

From about week 4 to week 6 ish I was craving glasses of milk. I usually never like straight milk like that - and never drink my milk from my cereal bowl. So I took that as a sign that my body was needing some extra calcium at that point. Now that I've felt pretty yucky, the cravings change... sometimes it's cottage cheese & crackers, sometimes it's Arby's roast beef sandwich, and sometimes it's lots and lots of cold, juicy fruit (cantaloupe, grapes, bananas, pineapple, etc). Ryan has been wonderful and run to the store or a restaurant for me to get what I asked several times. :) Right now, ya know what sounds really good? Life cereal (plain) with ice cold milk. haha Too bad I don't have any Life cereal in my house!

Stresses:

With Ryan getting ready for his OBGYN test on thursday, and his huge-deal Step 2 Board Exam in 2 weeks, he has been very overwhelmed. My constant need of help in the kitchen, feeding Grace, cleaning up dishes, and sometimes being so sick that I can't bare to get myself something to eat (which makes me more sick if I'm hungry - a vicious cycle)... he's had to do all of that when he's home on breaks. I feel very guilty as the one who's adding all of that to his plate, but we knew this was coming when we decided to get pregnant again. We've had wonderful help from friends and visiting teachers offering to bring a meal here and there which makes his dinner breaks at home SO MUCH less stressful for him. Thank you so much to my wonderful girlfriends. I know I'm not in a horrible situation and things could be much worse - but it's still a trial for me to be stuck laying down most days feeling so sick and trying to avoid the things that make me more sick. So we've appreciated our friends so much these last couple weeks!!

Sleep:

I've been getting lots of sleep, almost 9 hours every night and 1-2 hour nap everyday. Even though I can sleep on my stomach, since I don't have a big baby in the way yet, I don't usually get to because it makes me feel more sick. I am a stomach sleeper otherwise, so I'm surprised I've been sleeping so well without that option. Naps are great for my exhaustion during the day, but I tend to wake up from them feeling even more sick. Afternoons before dinner time seem to be a bad time of day for me, which is why I can't bare the thought of making dinner most days.

Things I Look Forward To:

I can hardly wait until we can finally go to the doctor in 2 weeks. I want to hear that sweet heartbeat so badly. I've had several freak out moments where I've spent too much time thinking about all the horrible things that could go wrong before then. Ryan reminds me to chill and that everything will be fine. It also helps to remember the blessing he gave me recently. We were promised special things in that blessing and I am grateful that Ryan is able to give me a blessing whenever I feel I need that extra peace and comfort from Heaven.

A Reason to Celebrate

Happy Father's Day to the wonderful daddy in our home! I'm grateful to him for ALL he does for Grace and I...

... And I know he'll be a great daddy to baby #2 as well, who will join our family in February 2012!! :)

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(just for the record - we're announcing it quite early because I'm already feeling really yucky and people around us were starting to figure it out. It's hard to hide it when I am trying not to throw-up half the time! We're also super excited and are happy to share it with our loved ones right now.)

Spotlighting Grace

This was taken exactly one year ago tomorrow. Oh, I miss that bright eyed little baby! But I like the crazy, energetic toddler too, of course. :)

I wanted to record some of the funny and cute things Grace is doing lately. She just makes me laugh so hard sometimes! Of course she also makes me want to pull my hair out or lock her in her room, but we can't have it all, right?

-Grace gives me so many hugs and kisses throughout the day. She is so affectionate, and will often give her friends (and her friends' parents) lots of hugs too. I'm so grateful that she is that way. Her hugs make me feel so loved and appreciated.

-Grace loves having her teeth brushed. It's still a new thing for us, but she gets super excited and runs to the bathroom when I mention it's time to brush teeth. We sing "ABCs" while I brush them so she understands that she can't stop me in the middle of the song. We have to sing the whole thing. :)

-She absolutely LOVES playing at the pool. We even went today by ourselves and she giggled and laughed and played and swam with me for an hour and had a blast. She's getting the hang of her new floaty she wears and loves it.

-The couch is still too tall for her. She hasn't figured out how to climb up on it, or on our kitchen chairs either (which I'm totally ok with!). We've shown her several times the best ways, but the only thing she can do for now is move a bucket over to the couch and use it to give her a step up. I guess she's just a shorty, or our couch is too tall. I don't know which.

-Grace enjoys coloring with crayons, sidewalk chalk, or whatever we let her use, but she seems to get bored of that after a couple minutes. She usually prefers to just play with, carry around, and inspect the writing utensil instead of using them to draw with.

-Grace is obsessed with carrying things around in buckets. She has 2 or 3 little sand-castle buckets and especially loves to find all the little balls she owns and carry those in the buckets. Sometimes she'll have all three on her arms, full of balls, and walks around the house perfectly content.

-She was enjoying nursery for the first few weeks, but yesterday she cried here and there throughout the last hour. When I got there at the end, one of the leaders was carrying her around and Grace had a super sad face with tears down her cheeks. :( I REEEEALLY hope she gets the hang of it soon. I'm still playing piano every other sunday and Ryan is teaching sometimes, so we can't have her with us most the time. Thank goodness our nursery leaders do such a good job though and do what they can to make her happy.

-I love it when Grace feels a gust of wind or a fan blowing on her. She puts her arms straight up in the air and goes "Whoa!" which is her "sign", I guess, for "windy".

-Grace loves movies and TV cartoons. She calls movies "boo-dees" and asks for them often, although she doesn't get to watch them as often as she asks, of course.

-Grace loves playing with friends, but I think her favorite little friend is Anderson Redd. I would say he's her best friend. She plays better with him than anyone else these days, and they're so hilarious to watch. They literally run back and forth and chase each other around, giggling so hard... for hours. Anything he does she thinks is so cool, and they generally have a great time together.

-Grace thinks that horses say "Yeehaw". It's bad, I know - I'm trying to teach her the correct way, but it is just so cute. She actually says "yeehaw" about a lot things... like when she's in the grocery cart and we're veering around a corner, or in a stroller and the sidewalk is bumpy. She also grabs her sea horse bath toy and tells me that it says "yeehaw" as well. haha Oh boy.

-We've resorted to pinning her binkie to her pajamas at night so that she doesn't bother us by crying when it's dark and she lost it in her bed. It's probably not the best way... but give us a few months and she won't have it at all, so for now we're at least all sleeping through the night. And that makes a mommy happy.

-Grace says "ow" ALL the time and grabs some part of her body that got hurt, supposedly. Maybe she gets it from me because I'm a clutz and she hears me say "ow" too. I don't know, but she says it many times a day.

-She likes to keep her milk in her mouth for awhile before swallowing. It's gross. I have to remind her to swallow usually.

Every single day I'm grateful to be her mama.

Making Progress

For the past 5 years of marriage, Ryan and I have had a hard time seeing eye-to-eye on "trips" vs. "vacations" and spending any amount of money (even small amounts) on fun family outings. Even if I've planned and saved and ask Ryan he's interested, he usually isn't. He's simply a home-body and an avid studier. If he does happen to have time off of studying or working, then he would rather be home relaxing... which I do understand... to a point. ;) He's a really hard worker, and it shows in his grades! But there just HAS to be some fun too. Luckily, after the last 18 months with Grace around, and as we've both wanted to make sure we do fun things as a family, we've been able to agree on going on quick weekend trips (Anniversary trip in May, and SLC trip in April). It's been WONDERFUL to have positive experiences with planning family trips these days ... without turning the discussions into fights. haha :) I'm so happy that we're making progress. It may sound silly of me but it's the truth.

Last friday, Ryan found out he had work off on the coming monday. After we talked for a few minutes about going to the beach for a day or two (I may have begged once or twice), I let him think about it for the afternoon and he let me know a few hours later that he thought it was a great idea. :) Yay! So after talking to his Aunt Verna in San Diego and asking if we could come crash at their place saturday and sunday night, they said they'd be glad to have us. We were SO incredibly grateful to them for letting us come so last minute and let our crazy toddler run around their house and terrorize their dog. ;)

On saturday we packed up, drove the 5 hours, and pulled in around 7 pm. Grace was pretty good in the car - sleeping the first 2 hours. She was so excited when she saw Eddie, Uncle Dan and Aunt Verna's little dog. I can't say the same for him though. After all, who was this loud, stomping, laughing toddler chasing him around his domain, screaming "Goggee, Goggee!"? But he warmed up to her. We had wonderful hosts and were so grateful for a comfortable place to stay.

On sunday and monday we spent lots of time at La Jolla beach and Del Mar beach, ate at Smashburger and Chili's, drove past the beautiful San Diego temple, and spent time relaxing and getting to know Dan and Verna much better. We don't get to see them very often and were very happy to have a chance to sit and chat with them. Grace had SUCH A BLAST on the beach, playing in the sand, and splashing in the "wah-wah". When we first got there, Grace was so involved in her sand toys and sitting in it, getting dirty without a complaint from Mom, that she didn't even notice or care about the ocean until I finally dragged her over to it.

It was 20 or 30 yards from where our little "camp" was so I walked her over there and she was so excited to have the water wash over her toes and legs! She didn't mind that it was cold and especially loved to carry water back in her bucket to where Daddy was helping her build sandcastles. Of course she usually lost all the water by the time she got back to him, but it didn't matter!

Ryan buried Grace's legs and she thought that was oh, so funny. When I finally asked her where her toes were, she lifted them up and was quite surprised when they appeared out of the sand!

We had snacks, then later had sandwiches, string cheese, and crackers for lunch from our cooler. It was a little chilly with the wind and the temp a high of 69 ish, but totally worth it.

Grace fell asleep wrapped up in a towel on my lap, so we just laid back in our chairs and let her sleep for an hour. It was so relaxing and perfect!!

By 2pm I was ready to feel totally warm again and we were all feeling drained from the sun, so we packed up and headed back to the house to shower and relax.

The next day, we packed up and headed to Del Mar beach just to walk around and put our toes in the water this time. Since Ryan and I were both a little sunburned, we didn't want to wear our swimsuits. Once again, Grace had such a good time finding rocks and shells, stomping in the water, looking for birds, and running around. There was hardly anyone around and it was beautiful.

Not a great family picture - but a nice lady offered to take it for us.

I couldn't stop smiling, I just felt so happy playing on the beach with Grace! I love my little family and that we were able to have such a pleasant little vacation together! I'm grateful that we live this close to the coast (only 5 hours), making it possibly to do this last-minute get-away.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Uncle Dan and Aunt Verna!! We are so grateful to you for having us. I'm so bummed we didn't remember to get a picture until after Dan had left for work early on monday morning. :( Whoops. But we had a wonderful time with you and are grateful for such wonderful extended family.

Memorial Day Weekend

On saturday morning of Memorial Day Weekend, we met up with our friends the Dekkers at the "Best Dam Barbeque" cook-off in Boulder City. For all those who aren't familiar with Boulder City it's the city nearest Hoover Dam (hence the name of the barbeque). We got there early enough to walk through the classic cars that were on display and get some lunch before heading home for naps. The cars were by far the best part. There were so many to see!! And luckily for us they were all parked in rows on the grass, under the big trees. It was a pretty warm day (95 degrees) so it was nice to be in the shade for that part of it. The kids didn't care much for them, but the adults had a good time.

Since the kids were getting restless in their strollers, we stopped at the park and let them run around.

By 11:30 we were all hungry and decided to check out all of the barbeque booths and food stands to see what looked good. There were several BBQ teams who travel around the country and were there specifically to compete in the "Best Dam BBQ" competition, and then there were a few that were selling to the public. We went to one of them that promised me a yummy pulled pork sandwich, and promised Ryan a great combo of pork and tri-tip. After standing in line (in the sun, and right NEXT TO the huge barbeque) for 30 minutes or more we FINALLY got our plates of food. Unfortunately they weren't all that great. Ryan said his was pretty good but then all night and the next day he was really sick to his stomach and had to skip church. Yuck.

So... the food part of the outing really WASN'T the "Best Darn Barbeque" in my opinion. haha. But it was a fun way to spend our saturday morning with our good friends and enjoy some local festivities! Thanks for inviting us, Josh and Casie & Brig and Jaren!

As I said, Ryan was sick on sunday ... feeling nauseated and yucky all morning. Grace had been coughing a lot and had a nasty runny nose, so we decided to keep her home with Ryan instead of taking her to nursery while I played piano in primary. It was actually a funny experience in sacrament meeting when I got there and sat down alone. Two of my good friends were there alone as well (without their husbands at least) so we sat together. I wondered if our ward members looked at us and thought, "There are those lonely, 4th year widows". haha just kidding. In the evening, Ryan and I watched the National Memorial Day Concert on PBS, being broadcast from Washington DC. It made me so emotional hearing the stories of some of our veterans and their families. The music was wonderful too and we were both very touched. I'm grateful for all the veterans who have given up SO MUCH to protect us and preserve our wonderful, blessed, free country. I'm especially grateful for many of our friends who serve in different military organizations currently. They may not have served in any wars, but we know the sacrifices they make to be enlisted and the wonderful examples they are to all of us.

On monday, Ryan studied all day - and I can't remember what Grace and I did. In the evening, we had a great time BBQing with some of our friends at a local park (Amador). There is a splash pad there, plus some great playgrounds and swings. The kids had such a fun time, especially in the water...

Unfortunately I completely spaced the fact that Grace would want her swimsuit for the splash pad. She ended up getting completely soaked in her JEANS and t-shirt. Silly mommy. (Just for the record, we were both wearing jeans because it was slightly "cooler" that day and I was convinced it would be the last time I could wear mine all year) Ryan cooked us some awesome steaks and there was plenty of other yummy food we all shared with each other. Thanks for inviting us, Bishops! We had such a great time!

Cute girls!! Amanda Lackey, Whitney Bishop, Amanda Hadfield

Grace, Amelia, Chad, and Honor

(I just realized that all the moms and their kids are sitting in the same order in these two photos)

I'm so grateful for our friends who made our weekend so much fun! Thank you for including us. We love you guys!