Happy Holidays

We hope everyone will enjoy their holiday seasons, whether at home or at the grandparents. Drive safely, it seems there is more than enough snow to go around this time. A few days back, we were driving on the freeway, in a snowstorm, in morning traffic. A slightly tense situation. The girls wanted to listen to their "kid songs," and one came up about calling 911 in case of an emergency. We weren't really listening to the song, just watching cars drive too fast and fishtail, and all the sudden we hear sirens and engines honking and were trying to figure out where it was coming from. Well, it was from the chorus of the song. Ben found it less than amusing, although I was laughing. We went to the next track to avoid bad karma.

I apologize for the lack of pictures lately. We didn't even get a family picture taken this fall, I think we're an every-other-year family. Hopefully the turning of the year will result in the end of the blogging blahs!

Merry Christmas!

Best of 2008

I've been blogged out as of late, and busy, but I finally had inspiration for a post. These are my nominations for the best of 2008 in our house:

1. Fabric shaver. If you don't know what this is (I've known about them for awhile but had no idea how valuable they were), it's a small, hand-held shaver that will suck in and cut off the pills on sweaters, fleece, blankets, or anything else that develops linty little balls. I've saved about 5 pieces of clothing thus far, not counting all the clothes Ben has taken the shaver to. Truly amazing. It's like wearing new fleece pants and sweaters. Love it.

2. Mary Kay eye make-up remover. The only one that doesn't burn my eyeballs out.

3. Jilly's transformation from baby shrimp to an average-sized toddler.

4. Evelyn's names for her parents. It went from 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' to 'Mudder' and my full name. Ben is labeled 'Fadder' and 'hon,' short for "honey." Such a formal child.

5. The Honda mini-van. We love it, and so do our kids.

6. Gas prices. The great evil earlier this year, but now make our holiday travels much more affordable. If you had asked me in July, I really thought gas would be tipping $5/gallon by this point. To be paying the prices now I paid in high school for gas is unbelievable.

7. Pilates. I originally discovered this exercise after I had Evelyn, and was faithful up until last Christmas in doing it a couple times a week. I got burned out or lazy. I'm not sure which. But after I started getting back aches at 4 months along, I decided I needed to do something or I was going to be miserable come April. Back to the mat I went (with pregnancy pilates), and I can button up my jeans again where I wasn't able to a month ago. And no back aches, popping hips, or stiff muscles. I love Pilates.

8. Being out on the farm last spring. It's nice to do some physical labor, get dirty once in a while, and not live in the city.

9. The sleep bible. Otherwise titled, "Healthy sleep habits, happy child." I'm dead serious, this has saved my sanity with Jillian.

10. Starfall.com. Evelyn's new best friend. Her computer operation skills have grown exponentially. A good thing now, but something I may curse later.

11. Reading. I was feeling 'dumb' earlier this year, so I started to pick up and plow through books again. I recently started to re-read my college textbooks, and I'm actually enjoying it this time around. I've forgotten a lot of the valuable stuff I learned, and it's been really fun re-discovering why I got a Bachelor's degree.

12. Watching my children's excitement for holidays build. I don't think they quite got Thanksgiving, except that it had something to do with turkeys and we visited my grandparents a few hours north of here, but they're still talking about Halloween. How "creeeeepy" it is, and how ghosts live in the dark, and that they got to dress up in their animal suits. As of a few days ago, "Baby brudder" is going to wear the monkey suit next year according to the girls.

13. Ben's completion of coursework for his Master's degree. He won't have to take classes next semester, which means he won't have homework, which means he gets to see us more! It also means he won't be in the middle of writing a term paper when I go into labor, a very good thing for me. Now all he needs to do is write his thesis.

Pregnancy Brain.

And boy, do I have it. Maybe it's because I'm having a boy. He's killing off my brain cells now so I won't notice him getting away with murder when he's older. In the last few days I have:

Lost my debit card in Costco, apparently just dropping it on the floor after I went through the cashier line. Thankfully, someone took it to the Membership desk so I could get it back.

Broke my large Pyrex mixing bowl by watching it fall onto the floor out of the fridge (major delayed reaction time). I didn't know those things could shatter into that many pieces.

Made some delicious cookies, that weren't quite done when the timer went off. So I meant to leave them in the oven for 2 more minutes. Wait, make that 15 minutes. Buttery, melt-in-your mouth cookies turned into burned, crispy critter cookies.

85 - the number of times I have knocked over, dropped, spilled, or run into my children (my burgeoning belly is now a blind spot). When pregnancy books talk about a loss of grace, none of this was mentioned as far as I can remember. But isn't that the point? I'm not remembering. Haha.

And my children seem to be finding more ways into mischief. Today they scribbled on library books, the computer screen, washed Jilly's hair at the sink with handsoap (which consequently dribbled in her eyes, making her scream, making her wet her pants, etc.), among other minor disasters. Maybe my hearing is temporarily going. I can no longer sense when trouble is brewing, or have that natural timer of "my children have been quiet for longer than 3 minutes, I'd better make sure they're not destroying something."

Other than this, the pregnancy is great. This kid is going to be bigger than my girls. My belly is as big now as I was at 28 weeks with the girls. And I'm only 22 weeks. Watch out girls, the blind spot is only going to get bigger.

Jilly's Birthday

Jill had her second birthday earlier this month, and had a good time as far as I could tell. We did do a little party for her, which seemed like a big party in our little apartment. Thanks to all the friends who stopped by!

I decided to be crafty and make this banner for Jill. There is a major flaw to it (enlarge to see if you can make it out), but I didn't throw it away because it took too long to make. We both laughed (after I said "Gosh dang it!" a couple times) a lot the next day over this.
Ev convincing Jill that the best thing for her to do before breakfast is open presents Mom and Dad said she couldn't open until party-time.
Dad and Mom giving in and letting Jill open Grandma's presents after breakfast.
My kids love cupcakes, and I was too lazy to frost them. I found that canned whipped cream is a very fun alternative, with sprinkles added. Both girls love the stuff.
This little party was my first experience with a lot of little kids running around. It was fun watching them get as, if not more excited about Jill's stuff than she was. I'm seeing the future of grade-school parties.
Yeah, I think she had a good time. This year kind of makes up for last year's not-so-spectacular birthday due to being sick. I'm glad I had the energy for it this time around!
At two, she is really coming into her own. She has just started having temper-tantrums this week, but is finally sleeping through the night on a regular basis. (Today we moved Ev into Jilly's room to see how they sleep in the same room. I'll let you know how it goes). She is incredibly sweet most of the time, so snuggly, and talking so much. Most of the time in full sentences. It's strange to have two little girls around, instead of an older one and a baby like it's been for quite a while now. Jill really complements Evelyn's easy-going style, and their relationship reminds me very much of Nicole's and mine as kids. Happy Birthday Baby Jill!

I'm going to have to stop saying that soon.

I need a breath....

This month has totally gotten away from me. I'm beginning to understand the holiday stress people come under. And it's not necessarily associated with the holidays, it just seems that everything has decided to crash-land in the last 12 weeks of this year. The girls are taking it in stride (mostly), and driving has become fun again with our graduation to the mini-van tribe. We went with the Honda Odyssey, due to the fact that Ben said it's "less nerdy" and more reliable than other models. And nerdiness is a huge factor for a man driving around in a mini-van. We like it, and the girls LOVE it. They have named it the "river-van-car." I've got absolutely no idea where that name came from.

End of semester crunch-time for Ben has arrived, and that's adding to the overall stress around the place. He has the luxury of spending Thanksgiving break at my Grandma's holed up in the basement formulating his term paper. I'm bringing lots of stuff to keep my kids entertained so Daddy can accomplish something while we're there. Because he's been gone more, the girls are missing him, and today I caught some distinctly "I'm trying to be like Daddy" moments...

Making "compooders" or lap-tops from puzzle pieces.
Playing trumpet...Ben has three mouthpieces, and because my children have already mastered the art of spitting, they actually 'play' really well.
When the trumpet gig was no longer fun, Ev pulled out the xbox controllers, asked for Star Wars, and proceeded to play the best a 3 year old girl can. She knows how to jump and shoot really well. Walking in the right direction (instead of into walls or corners) needs some work.

There are my cute children. And the Super bowl event of the week....Ultrasound!....is tomorrow afternoon. Last week this kid's heart rate was in the 130's...much lower than either of the girls. So that added to our boy hopes. Although studies say that heart rate is no indication of gender. We shall see. If you ask the girls if they want a baby brother, 90% of the time they will say no. They want a "baby sista."

My Dad and post-mission brother stopped in for a few days last week, and I've found out that Jilly's quite the 'Grandpa's girl.' She's loved being around both Grandpa's in the last few weeks. It's nice to see her becoming more friendly around people she doesn't see too often, instead of pasted to my side like she was for so long. Both girls were wary of their long-lost uncle, especially Jill. She had just gotten up the morning after they arrived, was walking toward the kitchen, when Bryson made an appearance in the hallway. She promptly turned around, walked/ran back down the hall to the master bedroom, and the protection of Mom.

This is where my life stands at the moment. Once I get through packing for Christmas vacation, I'll get my breath back. I hope.

It's cold outside.

I really don't know what to title this, it's been a crazy week full of meetings and appointments.

Evelyn absolutely loved dressing up in her chicken suit. My neighbor dubbed her "Chicken Little" on our jaunt around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Jilly was wary of the monkey suit at first, but got over it enough to wear it everyday for the next week after she tried it on. We went to a ward carnival, the library story time, and trick-or-treating. It felt like a real Halloween.Enjoying their spoils. This is the first time I've ever let them have a lot of candy at one time, and I was unprepared for the sugar high they were both on for the next 2 1/2 hours. They got used to it pretty quickly because the next day there was no problem with the sugar.

Jilly did this the other night right before family prayer. She sang a song, which I cannot remember right now, while her head was in the box. She reminded me of a curious puppy.

Evelyn started saying prayers on her own this week, ("Mommy, don't help me!"). She is thankful for her chicken suit, Jill's monkey suit, food, all family members, and for Jilly peeing her pants at the park the other day. I guess I'm grateful her bladder functions properly.

This morning while I did dishes the girls played "church." It involved four or more prayers, interspersed by 15 second song bites. They sang "I am a child of God", "As I Have Loved You", and "Teach me to walk in the Light." I'm not sure what pulling out the couch cushions has to do with church, maybe it makes the seat more uncomfortable like the chapel benches.

The baby is fine, maybe it'll be a boy because it's such an active little thing. I've felt it moving around since 15 weeks, and yesterday it was pummeling me for 4 hours. We make an ultrasound appointment next week.