11 more days... (hopefully less!)

I am still pregnant... And it's starting to drive me (and poor Derrick) CRAZY!  I was hopeful of coming early as I have been having contractions (and STRONG ones!!) since week 27, and I never had these with Aaron (who came two days early).  But last week I lost hope.  I've been dilated to a 2 since week 36 and NO PROGRESSION whatsoever since.  Even when one week I had HORRIBLE contractions pretty consistently for over 3 days (not the every five minutes for an hour consistently, but close).  So my contractions have been worthless and it has been sad to accept (because they HURT and also don't allow me to sleep!). My doc said I will make it (and she says she could be wrong, but not likely) to my appointment to be induced... two days after my due date.  Ugh!  But at least I know I won't go beyond February 3 no matter what!  That definitely helps more than not knowing how long I could go over.

And it wasn't so bad until the "nesting" hit.  Oh my goodness I can't explain how bad I needed to do SOMETHING to get ready at every moment.  I am completely anxious and start randomly freaking out because I feel stuck at not having a baby yet.  Derrick tries his best to calm me down, but poor kid doesn't know what to do.  And if only it wasn't so cold outside, I could just run (or walk I guess) and burn energy that way, but alas I feel stuck inside my apartment.  So now I just gotta keep myself busy.

And so I have been productive! :)  Everything is pretty much unpacked and organized except for our room.  I have washed many things including a car seat, car seat base (which was pretty disgusting with how much Aaron spit up), my rocking chair, the baby swing, clothes, couches, blankets, my boppy pillow and cover, bassinet, and soon to be bottles (waiting for my mom's dishwasher on that one). Sadly I still need to pack a hospital bag.  I guess I have just been putting that off as then I am officially "ready" and will even more just feel like I am waiting around for this baby.

Ok, enough about that.  Good news is I found my camera charger!  Yeah!!  So my poor husband got to be my  photographer on Sunday so that I could have something to remember this by.  (I just couldn't come to spend what it costs for a photographer on maternity pictures... and I am now really glad I didn't.)  And so now I have something to do while I just wait around for this baby!  I've been playing with pictures :)  So here are all of my favorites!

Tried to get Aaron to "kiss" Trae... Got lots of kisses, but never a decent one on camera.  So we settled for a hug :)

I am two days from 39 weeks.. SO tempted to put that up instead cuz one week is a BIG deal at this point lol

This one is not my favorite cute wise, but I think it makes me look HUGE and makes me giggle :)

And then here are some collages I did while I waited for laundry to finish cycling through before I went to bed.

I decided to do a compare with the one picture I have pregnant with Aaron... and surprisingly I look bigger with Aaron when I feel SO MUCH bigger with this one.  ( I have gained nearly 15 more pounds on this pregnancy than with Aaron and outgrown my clothes which I didn't before.)  I have decided to find that red shirt and take a more profile shot and then really see if that makes a difference.  I am assuming that it in fact will. :)

Anywho, hopefully my next post will be all about a new little addition in the family.  :)  Wish me luck!  And cross your fingers it's sooner than later! ha ha

Aaron's Hair Buzz

So... I was looking at Aaron's hair and mentioned we should probably cut his hair.  I meant a trim with scissors, but before I knew it I heard the buzzer going in the bathroom.  I ran in there to find Derrick buzzing Aaron's hair!  And it was already known that the buzzer was set too short :(  But by that point, hair was gone and you just gotta keep going.  It was hard for me not to cry while I watched the hair come off (don't worry, I cried when it was all said and done) and Derrick more just laughed at me.  Well I didn't get any before pictures as I didn't even know Derrick was doing this, and when I went to get pictures of after, my camera is dead and we haven't found our charger since we moved.  Aargh!  So here is a video as that works and some pics using our video camera, which is not the best picture quality.  But its the best I had!  I included the last video of Aaron I took to show a "before."

Here is a "before"

Here is the during

Here is the after... hard to see in the bath but it was 10pm and this kid needed to go to bed asap instead of his mom running around him taking pics and videos

Here is an after at breakfast this morning... his hair is GONE :(

A Very Busy Christmas

So it's been a bit, so this post may be long... again.  But it's mostly about Christmas, so I will try to stick to that. :)

First off, I have to say WAHOO for the semester being over!!!  I got an A in my math class (which my professor would have had a problem with me if I didn't.... a 4 and a half hour final with answers consisting of 12 was just ridiculous) and Derrick passed student teaching.  So we are both officially DONE with our BACHELORS and DONE with the SCHOOL phase of LIFE!!! YEAH!!!

Derrick was looking for jobs like crazy before he was done (mostly out of state) and nothing was really happening.  All of a sudden a mother of one of his students emailed him stating there was a job opening in Davis county that wasn't public yet but he should apply.  And then this woman (who teaches in that district) really worked hard to get him a job.  We were really being pushed in the direction of staying here.  After he had a preliminary interview to get into the "pool" of applicants, he got three more interviews at three other schools.  Two days later (Dec 19), he was offered a job at Syracuse Elementary the day he was interviewed.  He accepted and we began apartment hunting.  We fell in love with a place in Roy, just 6 miles from Derrick's work.  They were replacing carpet, so we were waiting to hear when they were done.  But life started moving really fast.

That night we went and saw the Willard lights on a sleigh ride and had hot chocolate and scones.  It was cold, but really fun.  Aaron LOVED the lights and just kept pointing and talking.  He also liked the horses when we went up to them to pet them.  After the lights, we found out Santa Clause was there so Aaron had his first experience with Santa Clause.  He did better than we expected!  He didn't cry at all, although I stayed right by him the whole time.  He still didn't exactly enjoy it though... he gave Santa attitude and kept threatening to hit him by making his grunt letting you know he's about to swing.  It was pretty funny.

Aaron and Derrick at the lights

Petting the horses

Aaron and me... Aaron was very intrigued by his gloves

A family pic next to the horses

Aaron with Santa Clause

Thursday (Dec 22) we went to Lehi to start our Christmas with my family.  My parents rented a hotel with a pool and decided to do our Christmas and Christmas Eve a day before.  Everyone went laser tagging (I stayed back with a napping baby) where Derrick beat everyone in the group.  (Go Honey!)  We played some fun games with my uncle's family, went swimming, made a gingerbread house (I more watched and ate the candy), and stayed up way too late.  We ended up opening all of our presents that night after midnight as my brothers were getting up early to go motorbiking the next day, and the rest of us complained about having to get up early enough to do Christmas before they left.  It was fun.

Aaron LOVED the pool (even when he was shivering, he refused to get out)

 

Aaron also loved the ball in the pool

The next morning only Aaron had presents to open, which made it fun to concentrate on him.  He LOVED Christmas this year.  He actually knew what was going on and it made it so fun.  Every present he opened, he wanted to play with right away and wouldn't touch another present.  We would let him play for a little, then hide it for him to try another present.  I started feeling bad when he was trying so hard to find where I put them so we didn't make him open all of them.  He actually only just finished opening all of his presents from us yesterday. :)

My parents got him a little four wheeler and he LOVES it!  He had so much fun driving it up and down the halls of the hotel.  He now has it down to where he will actually HOLD the button to go.  The first day, he would push it and let go as soon as it started moving.  So he would go-stop-go-stop-go-stop and be really jerky.  It was funny.

Sorry his eyes are red... it's midnight and I am just wanting to be done with this post so I didn't edit lol

We packed everything up, went to Kneaders for lunch, and then headed to Derrick's aunt's house for their Christmas Eve party.  There we had an awesome dinner, played games, and were thoroughly entertained by a little program his family prepared.  Aaron opened more presents and at bedtime we headed to pick up my dear friend Brooke who came over from New York.  (I didn't get a SINGLE picture with her!!  LAME)

We then headed to Derrick's parents where we played more games and spent the night.  We waited for his siblings to come over that night for Christmas, so we just woke up and went to church Christmas morning.  After that we went to Derrick's grnadma's for her Christmas breakfast.  We ate and hung out for a bit until it was time for Jared (Derrick's bro on a mission) to call.  We chatted with him and then opened presents after dinner at Derrick's parent's house.

Aaron "helping" Derrick set up his train track

Aaron LOVED the hammer at his new workbench... us, not as much

We ended up having so much fun with everyone that night, we stayed a second night there.  Monday we were all pretty dead and got home after lunch.  Derrick got a call from the apartment saying it was ready, and he announced we were moving the following day.  So we were packing that night and the next day was pretty crazy.  My parents came and helped in the morning, Derrick's parents helped that afternoon.  And we are still trying to get everything over to our new place.  Derrick starts work in 2 weeks, so I am hoping we are all moved in this week so he can start focusing on preparing what the heck he is doing with a bunch of fourth graders. lol

Aaron "helping" me unpack.  He was placing plates all over the kitchen.

And in the middle of all that craziness, my brother got his mission call, my friend Ashli got married, and my grandma got married!  My brother Taylor is going to West Virginia the end of March.  We are super excited for him!  And congrats to Ashli and my grandma!  Ashli's wedding was actually my first ever at the Salt Lake temple... funny for how many people get married there that it was only my first.

Derrick looking at the map... it includes Ohio! (Where Derrick served)

Waiting for Ashli to come out of the temple

The last picture we got before the camera died

Sorry this post is super long, but as you can see we have been pretty busy.  Hopefully our computer will be hooked up soon and I won't be so long between posts. :)

Aussie's & Thanksgiving

This will be multiple posts in one, as our computer crashed and it's been difficult getting online. We are VERY grateful for Derrick's brother's laptop (he went on a mission and let us use it) as it is our only computer currently. Thank goodness Derrick is good at fixing electronics. Since the two years we have been married, here is a list of the things that have broken (and most Derrick fixed!): television, my laptop (twice), Derrick's laptop (twice), xbox (probably 6 times), & our desk top (twice including this time now). The hard drive crashed so we are just waiting for the new one to come in. And hopefully I can still get all of our pictures off of the previous hard drive.... I am trying to brace myself for bad news of all my baby's pictures being gone, but am still trying to be positive. We shall see how that goes.

With that being said, I have been reluctant to load my pictures off of my camera onto any computer! I am definitely going to start loading them online so no matter what happens to my computer, I will have them. (As I said before, my laptop has broken more than once and I lost a bunch of pictures that way... you'd think that I would've already learned that computers aren't reliable...)

But much has happened! So here is my attempt to catch up on our lives.

I have switched Aaron's crib to a toddler bed! And I so should have not done this by myself. Or at least read the instructions BEFORE I started. I moved the bed part to the lowest level, which is very difficult by yourself trying to balance all four corners right to get the screws in with a big belly in your way. After I got it lowered, I read the instructions and the bed was suppose to be at the level it already was at! So I had to undo everything and put it back to where it was. It was frustrating, but Aaron LOVED watching and "helping" me. Whenever I put the screwdriver down, he would grab it and pretend to screw whatever screw I just finished. It was really cute. Then he'd give me the screwdriver when I needed it, and he would take it back whenever I was done. It was fun.

Having Aaron sleep in a "big" bed has not been what I thought it would be... He has always been a cautious kid, and he is too scared to get out of his bed. He loved getting into it when we were finished and playing, but he continues even today to refuse to try and get out. So nice for me, I can still corral him in his bed.

What I didn't expect was him falling out of it... every night... sometimes more than once! He likes to fall asleep perpendicular to how you should, with his head almost hanging off. I always check on him before I go to bed (just a mother habit I guess) and I move him to where he is more safe (behind the bumper). But he still falls out! Then other times his blanket would fall out but he was too scared to get out of bed, so I am up again putting him back to sleep. It was really rough sleep as I am already not sleeping much at this point of the pregnancy. I have lots of hard contractions that wake me up all throughout the night, as well as just plain can't get comfortable (all you moms out there can relate I am sure). Well, my mum from Australia said to put chairs in the way so he doesn't fall out. I thought genius until we buy a lower bed (We are on a "no buying furniture" mode as we don't know when or where to we will move. We don't want to buy furniture to move in a few weeks if we can help it.) as it's rough on Aaron too. So now, I slide my rocking chair to the half of the bed that doesn't have the bumper after Aaron is asleep, and Aaron has slept through the night ever since. Yeah for good advice! Makes me feel like an idiot for not thinking of something like that sooner. My mum is so smart. :)

So my family from Australia came and visited me!! Their son, James, got married in Canada, and they figured if they were already coming across the globe, so why not pop in to see Salt Lake? And so my two worlds collided... They were able to meet Derrick and Aaron for the first time, as well as some of my family. It was weird to see them in my house talking to my family. But it was SO MUCH FUN to see them. :)

Derrick, Aaron, and I met them in Salt Lake and took them to Tucanos. Funny that they come to Utah and we take them to a Brazilian restaurant, but I guess that's the American way. They LOVED the food and it was fun to chat and catch up on everything. We then separated as they had plans to see other people, but they stopped by my parents house later that night. We all chatted for a few hours and then they were off again. They found out Aaron was learning sign language, and taught him "poop".... which if you know me, I CRINGE at this word (which they know and thought it hilarious to teach my poor, innocent child). Sadly, Aaron caught on fast and still does this sign and laughs so hard every time even though I haven't signed it once to him. Thanks for your help mum!

Thanksgiving was right after that, where Derrick and I went to my grandparents in Cedar City. I can count on one hand how many times I've done Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family, so we definitely had to go when they said they were hosting one. The night before Thanksgiving, Aaron REFUSED to go to bed. He just cried, and screamed, and cried, and screamed... And we decided that maybe he was teething. Finally after 2am, we put Aaron in bed with us so all of us could get some sleep. And let me say, sleeping with your one year old is not pleasant. He slept perpendicular to Derrick and I, kicking Derrick all night long and trying to use me as a pillow. I didn't sleep much. We were all pretty dead on Thanksgiving. I went down for a nap around 11 with Aaron in his play-pen, but I don't think he ever slept. Derrick came and got him around one and I conked out. My aunt came and woke me up for Thanksgiving dinner, which through confusion she left me and I had no ride to dinner. Derrick came and picked me up just as everyone was dishing out food. Aaron refused to eat, had a major runny nose, started running a fever, and loved to chew enthusiastically on his blanket (which is rare). That confirmed our previous thought of him teething. So we asked my aunt for some tylenol, gave him that, and he started feeling/acting better.

That night, we put him down at about 10, to have him wake up screaming at 11. Nothing I did could console him (including tylenol), so Derrick was off to Wal-Mart at 11:30 pm to see if he could buy some orajel. Thank goodness, there were no lines at the pharmacy or check stands yet, so he snuck in right before the mad rush of Black Friday. (I have definitely learned my lesson to ALWAYS pack medicine even if my child seems perfectly healthy and normal when we leave!) Aaron was out on our bed before he was back, and not wanting to move him we put blankets and pillows all around him and slept in the other room. He slept the rest of the night. :)

The next day, we all went boating and motor-biking near St. George. Weird to do this so late in the season, but it was fun. Derrick and I only boated as I cannot ride being 7 months pregnant and Derrick stayed with me. We both were able to drive the boat (a very first for me) and Aaron loved it. Although his absolute favorite of the day was probably throwing rocks into the water off of the dock. He laughed pretty hard at that.

Derrick then found out he worked Saturday morning when he thought he had it off, so we were off early Saturday to come home. We are all a little sleep deprived, but overall the vacation went well. Too bad Derrick got off of his grave SUPER sick... he's been puking or in bed all day. He started running a fever this evening as well. Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow. And thank goodness Aaron is miraculously already done teething so I only have one boy to take care of! (Aaron's teething was a one day thing instead of his usual week long episode. Yeah!)

Just a little update

So I have tried posting a video of Aaron's words for DAYS!! Tried probably 20 times to upload, including leaving it overnight. Finally, I decided to make a new video and this one uploaded in about 20 seconds! Yeah! :) But this is our progress of talking in just one week. I LOVE signing and the fact Aaron can communicate what he wants without grunting and pointing. I wish I would have done this so much sooner. We are still working on "mama" (he learned that this means "I want something" and not specifically me... close though) and the correct use for it.

I am very happy to report that my Personal Progress is DONE!!! It has been a much bigger project than I anticipated, but definitely well worth it. Young Women in Excellence is in just a few weeks and I was asked to be the main speaker. So I definitely have some stuff to say about this program as my testimony of it has grown so much by going through it as a wife and a mother.

My storage closet is cleaned and organized!! This wasn't as big of a project as I thought it would be. But I have gone through every box, and now have quite the decent box for the D.I. I still need to get Derrick to decide on keeping/chucking some of his stuff, but that's for when he has some free time (which may not be until December). Now I am moving onto the bedrooms... definitely lots of stuff in those closets I can get rid of.

As for the pregnancy, I am getting rid of this rash. The doc didn't tell me anything to do but what I was already doing, and it just wasn't good enough for me. So I figured, my dad is a specialist in allergies. I should go see him. So I did. And can I just say how grateful and lucky I am to have him for my dad? I always sleep SO GOOD (which everyone who's been pregnant knows how hard this is to come by) the night after I get an adjustment. And on top of that, my dad found out my rash is an allergic reaction to my fabric softener that I have recently switched. So I was treated for that yesterday, and it's already almost gone. Yeah! Why didn't I think of him first?!

I've also been having many contractions the last month, and some have been quite strong. Stops me right in my tracks wherever I am. One time I decided to time them (just out of curiosity) and I was having 6 or more an hour (sometimes that many in just 20 min). I had a doctor's appointment on Monday and she said since I had a full term baby, and this is my second pregnancy, there is no big concern about it. But I am suppose to lay down and drink water whenever I start having "episodes" of contractions. If they don't stop/slow down when I am laying down, then I have a problem. So now I am taking it more easy. Leaves my apartment a disaster of toys and laundry, but gives me an excuse to play sudoku in bed during naptime instead of cleaning. :) Hopefully everything will just stay normal and healthy. Less than three months to go... I can do it, right?

The Day.. so far...

We've had quite a day already! And sadly, it's only one! But at least it's nap time where I can relax a little. But thought I've give a quick little update while I was online. :)

Last night, I wanted to go out (I usually baby-sit, but I didn't so Derrick and I actually both had the night off!) but Derrick didn't want to have another night without Aaron (he's had more nights than usual this week of getting home after Aaron has gone to bed), so we compromised on dinner with Aaron being our chaperon.

We decided on Chilis, and to our mistake it was a LONG wait. I didn't ask how long the wait was as I saw a friend that I student taught with so she and I got talking. When she was seated, I asked Derrick about the wait and it was at least 30 minutes! And we got there after 7:30pm! But there was no reason in leaving at that point, so I was VERY hungry by the time we were seated.

And we had an interesting evening. They switched our table since we had a baby, and I think forgot to tell our waitress. We sat for quite a while before anyone came to us. The table behind us sat after us, got drinks, gave their order, and almost got their food before we were greeted with a waitress with news of there were no clean cups and she couldn't get us drinks yet. She seemed pretty stressed and I felt bad. But we got a free appetizer for the delay! Which Aaron choked on, and therefore vomited all over. It was quite the fun night. :) We got out of there at like 9:30. But I managed to remember and get Derrick to take a belly shot. So here I am officially at 27 weeks!

Last night before bed, my belly started getting really itchy. And of course, I think of PUPS as I had this with Aaron. It took a month to correctly diagnose and NOTHING relieved the INSANE itching until I got a steroid cream. Benadryl just knocked me out completely for like two days (I don't even remember much from those days) and I still itched like crazy and the bumps continued to climb over my entire body, including chest, arms, and legs. As I am worried about getting them again, I had Derrick check my belly closer than I could to see if I had bumps. He didn't see any, so I dismissed the itching as just my skin stretching and put on lotion to relieve the itching. Well, this morning I woke up at 5:30 am to this.

It's not a very good picture, but definitely now covered in little red bumps all over my belly. I am just grateful that I already have steroid cream from my last pregnancy (it's expired, so I'm not going to use it unless it gets too unbearable), already know what it is that I have, and have an appointment on Monday to get a new prescription for the cream. This rash won't even know what hit it before it gets too bad lol

But besides trying to not itch all day, I am having lots of contractions. They are just Braxton Hicks, but some are pretty strong. I started timing them just out of curiosity, and I had 6 within an hour, 4 of them within 15 min until I sat down for the rest of the hour. For this, I am also grateful for my appointment on Monday. I highly doubt it's anything more than just contractions (as I had MANY with Aaron but never progressed past a fingertip dilation) but still always good to double check.

And now, as I am trying to rest more today (which doesn't come easy with entertaining 4 kids), Aaron disappeared for a bit and was giggling. It was adorable to listen to. And of course, I wanted to see what was making him laugh so cute. I came to find him like this...

I only got two pictures before my camera died, and they aren't very good ones, but the toilet paper trailed out the door and down the hall. He was so excited about it! It was pretty funny. I am surprised that he wasn't shredding it, so it made quick and easy clean up. And since this incident, the bathroom door has been shut lol

But now it is nap time for the two babies and the older two quietly watching a movie (where the four year old is conked out too I am pretty sure). I am excited to fully rest for the next hour or two. I am hoping for two lol

Trick-or-Treat!

Happy Halloween! We had so much fun this year! On Sunday, we spent the evening at a "Murder Mystery" party that Derrick's mom threw. I was so enthralled by the party that I never took out my camera and took pictures! But dinner was AMAZING that included mummy-wrapped hot dogs, jello worms, spider web cheese cake, caramel apples, and so much more. We then had a murder mystery event where we each were characters in a story and had limited information and needed to find out the murderer. I died in the first two minutes. But then I came back as another character. :) It was lots of fun.

And since Sunday was my mother's birthday and we had the murder mystery party to go to, we combined her birthday with Halloween! We did some tick-or-treating around my old neighborhood and I got to see people I haven't seen in YEARS. It was fun. Here are just a few of the pictures I got (I took a TON).

This is the ONE picture I have with me and Aaron... Aaron only wanted Daddy to help him, and so right after this picture he ran back to Derrick. But at least I have proof I was there, right?

If he EVER had the choice to pick what candy, it was ALWAYS a sucker.

Here's my pumpkin with his grandma, Madam Hooch!

Aaron caught on really fast that he was just being given candy. He kept signing "food" to eat more candy. As soon as we rang the doorbell on each door, he would stomp his feet and giggle. He was SO excited. It took like 3 or 4 doors before we got someone to answer (we were a little early) and I felt so bad that he got so excited each time for us to have to leave!

Sadly, this is the best family picture we got. It's kinda blurry, but we were all smiling.

This one makes me laugh. It's clear, but I am trying to explain to my sister how to use my camera while still kinda smiling and Aaron is signing "food" for more candy lol I love his face... to me it says "Hey mom... I'm signing like you want me to. Give me more candy!" lol

I took a belly shot with Derrick, but with how big the farmer shirt is, you can hardly see my belly! And it makes me look way thicker than I am, so I decided not to post it. I am really bad at taking belly shots (only did it once with Aaron and now twice with this one) but hopefully I will be better the rest of the pregnancy. We shall see.

Here is Aaron trick-or-treating at my mom's house.