Pregnancy Woes

So, I thought it was supposed to be easier the second time around. It has been much harder. I can't seem to keep ANYTHING down...particularly anything containing a lot of liquid. The medication just doesn't seem to help so much this time. Last time, it helped. This time, it helps on occasion. Therefore, my doctor has taken drastic measures with me and I'm finally feeling a bit better.

I got something called a PICC line put in me yesterday so that I can get IV fluids at home daily. Since I was so dehydrated and I have small veins anyway, the simple procedure was not so simple for me. But, it's done. I'm super bruised and am functioning oddly, but I am doing better. My lips aren't bleeding with every smile, my vomiting has decreased and I seem to have more energy. So, this picture shows the way I hang out for a couple hours in the morning and evening.

Thanks to Jason for picking up SO MUCH slack and being the best nurse a girl could ask for. Thanks to my parents for taking Laura and helping me at the hospital. Thanks to everyone (Jen and kids, Karyn, etc.) that has helped with Laura. And, thanks to my girlfriends for checking up on me constantly. I am one lucky girl!

Laura Games

Oh, how I love the imagination of my 3 year old. Her current favorite games are Mail and Night Night. Mail started when she decided to "mail" (or drop off on the doorstep) a letter to Grandma. Naturally since Mom is like the coolest Grandma ever, Laura had mail waiting for her the next day on her doorstep. Now, everything can be turned into mail and the garbage can is the favorite "mailbox". Fortunately, the letters are stuck between the lid and lip, not all the way down in the can. (She is a super ham in this picture, and it was the best of three...goofy girl)
Laura's other favorite game is Night Night. She get all her dolls, and me perfectly arranged to fall asleep. She turns off all the lights, reads a story, tucks us in and we all sleep for about 15 seconds before she comes and rips off the blankets declaring that it is "morning time". Then you start all over again. Here she is showing off her dolls all ready to be covered.

Christmas Party

We had Jason's big extended family Christmas party last weekend. Since I had gotten an IV at the ER the night before and I took a mega anti-nausea pill, we all had a good time. Laura, of course, had the most fun of all. The highlight for her was when Santa came. Here she is with Daddy looking at Santa and waiting for her gift to be pulled out of the bag.
Laura also enjoyed singing with the kids. Yes, she is a "big girl" and had to go up and join the "big kids." I think she will do well in Primary in only a few weeks! I think the best part for both Jason and I was the marvelous tributes everyone gave to Grandma Jo (Jason's Grandma from his mom's side). She is one of the those ordinary heroes in the world; the people that do extraordinary things for the people close to them. Here she is looking over at Laura with Santa at the party.

Spot of Sunshine

Little Laura has been super sick today. I think she has blown her nose at least once every fifteen minutes since she awoke this morning. Her only bright spots today seemed to involve Christmas.

After cleaning up the remains of breakfast, I found her all arranged under the Christmas tree. She stared up at the lights for ages. And I got to join in on the empty pillow.She also LOVES the advent calendar. It is one of her favorite parts of the day to get her kiss and pick out an ornament.My darling friend Karyn also delivered the makings for another advent calendar today. Laura and I had a blast putting it all together. It is super fun!

It's Beginning to Look...

A lot like Christmas! Oh, and it is so much more fun with a kid who appreciates Christmas! I don't think I've had this much fun with Christmas since I was a kid. Laura is super excited about all aspects involving Christmas this year.

She adores our outside lights. (Jason did his usual amazing job with them.) And she really loved helping to decorate the tree. She'll show anyone who comes over her own special ornaments. Yes, even the cable guy got to see her ornaments.We also went to see Santa. She was wonderful about going to sit on his lap and telling him that she wanted a cash register. It was adorable. We went with our friends Ryan and Julie and their daughter Morgan as we did last year. Yay for new traditions. Aren't the girls just cute?!

Thanks for Friends

Laura's best part of Thanksgiving was being able to play with friends. Here is a picture of her a few days before Thanksgiving with her cousin Kiki.
We spent Thanksgiving with J's family this year and had a great time with them. (I ate mashed potatoes only, but at least I won't gain much weight this holiday season.) Laura particularly enjoyed hanging with her cousin Emily.

New Addition

Addition to our family, not our house. We figured since pretty much everyone knows anyway, we might as well announce that we'll be having a new little spirit join our family. (I'm already showing and the regular jogs to the bathroom are enough to make anyone question) The doctor said that everything looks great, so we feel comfortable that all should go smoothly. The baby is due officially on July 5th, but the doctor said that he'll schedule my C-section at least a week before that. So, sometime in the end of June, Jason and I will be playing man on man with our kids. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to raise another of Heavenly Father's spirits.

Not surprisingly, I have been spending a lot of time in the bathroom. It is not nearly as bad as last time, but Laura asks me every day how many times I've thrown up. I'm hoping the major nausea I've felt the past two weeks is partially due to the "para-flu" that I have as well. If I could just get over it, I supposed I'd know. But, now you all know the reason for my lack of posting lately.

Here is a blobby ultrasound picture of our little one.

Ho Jo

I recognize this is ancient news, but I've been ill this past week, so it is coming now. We went to the Howard Jones concert last Saturday. It was tons of fun. We went with our friends Brian and Steph and it was great to catch up with them. We are super excited they are building a home nearby us and we can see them more often.
The concert was exceptionally entertaining. Howard played all his old classics (which sound very modern when played acoustic) and threw in some awesome new stuff. I guess we'll have to purchase the next CD when it comes out. And, as Steph said, he'd make a great dinner guest. He was very witty and interesting.

Something that we noticed is that there were all ages at his concert. We sat next to seniors and in front of high school students. Gotta love it when music reaches that great a variety of people!

Girls Night

Last night we had our bimonthly girls night. Oh my goodness do we ever have fun! Thank you to Jason for being supportive and hibernating upstairs with the Jazz game. (Which the Jazz won! Hooray! That makes us 8-1 on the season! But I digress.)

We played a game and ate food. But mostly we just talked and laughed. (Only until 2:00 am this time.) It is good for my soul to talk and laugh with such intelligent, spiritual and fun women. I am so blessed to have all of them in my life.
Clockwise from bottom: Emily, Kate, Julie, Heather, Deborah, Christy, Melanie, Me, Becky, Andrea B., Andrea M., and Karyn

Joy School

Today was Laura's first day of Joy School. She packed her pencil box with care, collected her "Show and Tell" item and ran straight into school at Melanie's. I was thrilled that there were no tears and no anxiety. She really is growing up.I just feel like the luckiest woman in the world that my neighborhood friends were so happy to include Laura and I in their already running Joy School. I felt super loved on Sunday when I got home from dinner at my parents to 3 messages on my machine about it. Yep, we are lucky to be surrounded by such neat women and their kids. Thanks ladies!

Princess Playing

Laura and I have had so much fun the past couple of days that we have been home together. We've gotten into a lovely routine and are super comfy. In the morning we have breakfast, get ready and pick up the house. Then we do an art project until it's time for lunch. After lunch we have quiet time for about an hour and a half. (Yes, Laura has given up her nap and we've moved to "quiet time".) Following quiet time we play like crazy until it's time to get dinner ready. On Monday we spent hours outside running, swinging and sliding. We had an absolute blast, despite the cold weather.
Yesterday, Laura called her best friend Lily to come over and play princesses. They both got dressed up and were adorable. They danced and sang to one of those princess karaoke/dance along movies and then they just played together. I just couldn't stop staring at them all dressed up and imagining. Oh, how I love my girly girl. And, I had a marvelous time chatting and laughing with one of my best friends, Karyn, while our daughters were playing.

Bad Cold

Laura has had a hideous cold since Friday. Yep, the cold made us miss out on our friday night plans. So, we spend most of our Saturday and today watching movies. She has taken to watching them (particularly her current favorite; Dumbo) with her umbrella. Whenever it rains in the movie, or a character cries, she puts up the umbrella. It's totally darling. But, make sure to watch your eyes if she's doing this while sitting on your lap.Jason got the doors re-hung (with some help from Dad) and all the new hardware on. It looks so good. It's wonderful to have the house all updated.

Out Doors

Jason stayed home yesterday so we could get one of our most annoying things about our house fixed. Some of the doors in our house were new and still just primed (in the laundry/mud room) and not really white and others were just filthy despite repeated attacks with a Magic Eraser.So, we painted them ALL. Yes, we painted all the doors in our house. Jason became a whiz with the paint sprayer and they look gorgeous. It's nice to know that every bit of our house has now been painted by us. It feels much cleaner. Now all we have to do is get the rest of them hung with the new hardware.Dad and Mom came over to help b/c Dad has done this process before. And Mom watched the Boo while I picked bugs that had become stuck in the wet paint off the doors. Thanks again, guys!

Activity Ideas

I typed up the list of brainstormed ideas our girls came up with for youth night. Since I am sure some of you out there are in charge of either YW Activities or activities for Activity Day girls, I thought I would share the pretty great list. I have also found some amazing ideas in this book.

1. Date Night
2. Sledding
3. Daddy/Daughter Dodgeball
4. Ice Cream Sculpting
5. Mothers Day Gift
6. Fathers Day Gift
7. Family Heritage Dress-up
8. Scripture Theater on Video
9. Life Sized Battleship
10. Human Fooseball
11. Veterans Dinner
12. Choir Concert
13. Caroling
14. Tacky Night
15. Mystery Dinner
16. $5 Dinner
17. Make Scarves/Hats
18. Frilly Flip Flops
19. Scriptionary with Pudding
20. Trek Craft – Bloomers/Bonnet
21. Practical Skills Relay
22. “Fries With That” Cars
23. Video: For The Strength of Youth Man
24. Modesty Fashion Show
25. Time Capsule
26. Visit Art Gallery
27. Attend Show/Play
28. Bigger/Better Scavenger Hunt
29. MTC Experience
30. Mini-Missions
31. Board Games
32. Babysitting Kit
33. Quality Night/Individual Worth
34. YW-opoly
35. Fear Factor
36. 72 hr kit
37. Car Maintenance
38. Popcorn for Ward Christmas Party
39. Book of Mormon Read-a-thon
40. Parent Modeling
41. Pajama Party
42. Rest Home
43. Service Auction
44. Car Wash
45. LDS Motion Picture Studio Tour
46. Book of Mormon Testimonies to Missionaries
47. Spring Yard Cleanup
48. New Baby Gifts
49. Cleaning Door to Door
50. Amazing Race
51. Meteor Shower in Canyon
52. White Elephant
53. Junk Swap
54. Beauty Night
55. Project Runway – Duct Tape or Paper
56. Duct Tape Wallets
57. Home-Made Purses
58. Sound Scavenger Hunt
59. Voice Lesson (bring in a pro)
    
60. Patriarchal Blessing Instruction from Stake Patriarch
61. Make Your Own Beauty Products
62. FHE Packet
63. Game Night
64. Movie Night
65. Recipe Swap/Meal Planning
    
66. Carve Pumpkins and Deliver
67. Sport Night at Local Rec Center
    
68. Unbirthday Party
69. Scrapbook Night
70. Make Jewelry
71. Night Games
72. Secret Sister
73. Get to Know You Games
74. Scripture Puppet Show
75. Unity Challenge
76. International Night
77. Standards Night -- Spiritual $ vs Material $
    

Mommy

My job title has changed. It is now back to the best job title in the whole wide world "Mommy!"

In a previous post I talked about how excited I am to stay home with my girl. However, I was still frustrated and hurt by how things happened and I said some things I probably shouldn't have. I'm sorry that I initially did not take the high road.

But, I am still absolutely thrilled to look at this little face every day, all day long. Wouldn't you be?

Bishops "Snorehouse"

Last night at dinner I was explaining to Laura that the mutual activity I was going to was at the Bishops Storehouse. She checked out the map I was looking at in order to help me find it. She immediately pointed out the location of the "Snorehouse" to me. And then asked me why I had to go to the "Bishops Snorehouse" instead of playing with her. Needless to say, Jason and I had a great time laughing about the place Bishops go to be trained on how to sleep on the stand: the "Bishops Snorehouse."Unfortunately, the activity really was a snore. Somehow things didn't get coordinated correctly (please note that the Young Men were in charge of this activity) and we never did anything at the Storehouse except wait. After waiting over an hour, filling the time with laughter and riddles, we went to Macey's and got ice cream. It was good to have time to chat with the girls.

Friends and Fun

Laura has been having piles of fun playing with friends lately. She got to spend an entire morning with one of her favorite friends, Lily. They watched movies, took care of dollies and played with stickers. Aren’t they darling?!

We also just dropped by another friend’s house to play. Okay, so maybe I wanted to talk to Emily and it was just convenient that her daughter Ellie and Laura are friends also. But they had a grand time playing with Polly Pockets, riding on the horsey and making faces. What silly girls!She also has gotten to play with both sets of grandparents lately. They are definitely some of her favorite friends. Jason’s parents watched her while we were at the Jazz game and my parents played with her last night when we invited them over for dinner.

Finally, she has played a lot with Mommy and Daddy. Here she is after making a trek with us to Burger King for lunch last Friday. She LOVED the crown and being a princess.

4 Years and a Great Game

Our Jazz are 4 - 0! Isn't that awesome?! We had an amazing time at the game last night. We screamed our lungs out and enjoyed watching the Jazz work hard. It was a great and close game, and we had great seats. Therefore, we had a blast. It sure is wonderful to have Derek Fisher on the team and to have a healthy team. Here are some pictures of us after the game enjoying the new statues of Karl Malone and John Stockton (*sigh*). Those are Jason's feet (a size 11) next to Karl's footprint, my hand next to John's, and us in front of the Stockton statue.
Finally, I just have to say what a wonderful husband I have in Jason. Thank you for the last 4 years, baby! I can't wait to see what the next 50+ bring!

How 'Bout Them Jazz!

One of our favorite times of year is basketball season when we get to watch our Utah Jazz. We even upgrade to the "sports" package on dish so we can watch all the games.

The last few seasons have been fun to watch, but it's been hard to not even make it to the playoffs. But not this year! Our Jazz are looking great. I know it's an early season, but they have started off 3-0 and that's against Houston and Phoenix.

We have had an absolute blast hooting and hollering at the TV for these last 3 games and are ecstatic to be able to see them play Detroit tonight in person for our anniversary. That's right, my wife wanted to go to dinner and a Jazz game for our anniversary. What can I say? I'm the luckiest man alive!

Go Jazz!!

Let There be Light

The ceiling fan we had been lusting after for ages went on sale. We couldn't help ourselves, so we bought it for the family room. Naturally, we figured while all in stock ceiling fans were on sale, we might as well replace the hideous one in our Master Bedroom as well with this one. So, after a long battle, Jason got them installed. Thank you, honey. Here he is showing off some of his handiwork.I have spent a great deal of time getting ready for Evening of Excellence and focusing on our theme "Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations." D&C 115:5. (Yep I'm tying these two things together with that weak of a link). I made a video with all the pictures we've taken at activities, camp, etc. throughout the year. And, after stalking some girls houses, I was able to get an individual picture of each of our girls for it. It was a HUGE project and thank you to everyone (Karyn, Andrea and Jason) who helped me with it. At least I was able to count it for one of my 10 hour projects. We leaders are doing Personal Progress along with the girls in the new Presidency.

Anyway, Evening of Excellence went really well. Karyn gave a great talk. The video was well received. The treats were yummy. And, the girls were darling. I just wish we could've gotten more of them out.

It felt weird to take pictures of this rather spiritual event. So, instead I'll make you all laugh with a hilarious song I found about Testimony Meetings. Note: this will probably only be funny to you if you are LDS or have attended an LDS fast and testimony meeting lately. To hear it, click HERE.

Halloween

There is so much to write about last night with Laura. She had so much fun she didn't want it to stop. She wore her Cinderella dress ALL day and we still had a hard time getting it off her so she could go to bed. She really was a princess for the day.
The night started with the annual ward "Trunk-or-Treat". Laura had a ball going from car to car, getting candy, and checking out all of the scary costumes. Her favorite part was getting the fresh popcorn!

Then it was off to each of the grandma's houses for a fun visit. She was a doll and shared her popcorn with Great-Grandma Jo and dined on grapes. Yep, she wanted grapes, not candy. Laura had a ball handing out the candy at Grandma Linda's house. I think she almost enjoyed it as much as trick-or-treating!
(Click here or the picture above for the movie)

(Click here or the picture above for the movie)
Then she was off to Grandma Garna's house where she went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, handed out even more candy, and played "Cinderella" with all of us for hours! Her favorite game being getting dressed by her fairy godmother (Melinda) and riding in the carriage (me) and dancing with the prince (Grandpa).

Happy Halloween!!

Laura and I got all dressed up for Halloween this morning. Laura was very patient while getting her princess hairdo! She also helped me find pointy shoes for my witch garb. She took us all getting dressed up very seriously.

When Laura realized that Daddy was not getting dressed up, she took matters into her own hands. She picked out an orange shirt for him to wear. Then, while we were enjoying our morning chocolate drink, she decided to "turn Daddy into a pumpkin." So, we did. Jason was a good sport.

Halloween Prep

Laura has been doing daily preparations for Halloween. We eat breakfast each morning in our witches hats. She bought the hats with her Daddy last week and insisted on having these two matching hats for us. Sometimes we are nice witches and sometimes we are mean witches. But we always are witches over warm chocolate.

She also practiced Trick-or-Treating at Grandma and Grandpa F's house on Sunday. She loved eating the Kit Kats and handing them out to anyone who would ring the doorbell. Aren't Grandmas and Grandpas the coolest?!

Friday Night Entertainment

So, instead of spending tonight looking at this,
or looking at this

we will probably be looking at this.

Poor little Laura has been super sick since Tuesday evening. She's had a massive fever and been throwing up almost constantly. Finally, today after our second trip to the doctor she seems to have turned a corner.

The Guster concert we had planned on attending tonight got cancelled because a member of the band had pneumonia. (At least Laura isn't THAT sick.) And we had rescheduled with our friends Andrea and Mike to go to a movie and dinner instead. Fortunately, they have kids and understand the need to stay home with the barfing boo. So, we will spend our Friday night enjoying the thrilling entertainment of The Land Before Time movie.