Taken for Granted

I really cannot tell if I am carrying low or high being that I have a skewed angle of my abdomen. But everyday/everyminute things I see that I used to take for granted. Walking has become a new task, my right hip and joint where my leg connects has become very painful hard to move it at times. Which makes it very difficult when needing to get up from a sitting position with an 18 mo old that is sleeping. It is seeming hard to just move with the extra weight of my abdomen and the rest of my body, getting out of bed is a new task considering that I have to scoot my entire body to the end of the bed to reach the floor.
Breathing is something that is not as easy as it once was. At times I feel very short of breath or cannot say very many words at once without needing to pause and Breathe. And once again, I am not sleepy or able to sleep, but the tiredness that has come is very crippling especially when trying to be a mother to Alona and Abbi. I just cannot do things for them that I know I should.
And I still have three months left, boy am I in for a wild ride!!

Time with DAD

Paul came home early two days last week, from lack of work for him at U-haul. And he has been able to spend a little bit of time with the girls. When Alona was asked what she wanted to do, she said "play games"!, "Play Dinosaur Games"! What Dinosaur game, she was so convinced that we had one. Her and Paul ended up playing hungry hungry hippos on Thursday before Abbi woke up and they played the fishie game with Abbi . They were so cute. They put the poles right up to the fishes mouths and they wait for the fish to open the mouths and then stick the pole right into the mouth. An easy way of catching one. I commented that I was so glad that he was home and playing with them because I so did not have the energy to do all that he was. He is wonderful!
On Saturday while at Grandma Wood's Paul took them riding on the 4-wheeler. While out there taking a picture Abbi was saying "vroom...vroom!" I am pretty sure that they were having a great time with their dad.

Little Sister

What a great time. Christopher my youngest brother came to visit from about four thirty yesterday until about three today. Of course he hasn't changed much, still about as indecisive as when I lived with him when he was five, but he is much better at communicating. We had fun? Who knows if he did, but I tried to make it fun. The girls warmed right up to him. Alona was climbing and hanging all over him the moment that my great aunt and uncle left. And Abbi would go up and hit him and run away laughing and go back and do it again. By the end of the night she was much nicer, she walked right up to him and sat in his lap.
He took us out to dinner for mexican, we tried the mexican restaurant in Magna called Habanero's. Chris got a fajita that looked delicious. I had a number two, it had a Chile verde, a taco and a quesidilla, the sauce tasted a little much like tomatoes, but overall it was good. I ordered the girls tacos. Abbi just wanted the chips, she kept dipping the same chip over and over into the runny salsa, nope it wasn't hot at all. Alona wanted a soft taco, so that's what we got her. But it was touching the refried beans that were on her plate, so she was freaking out. Abbi started to throw a fit about half-way through eating and wanted to get down and run around. Chris was like, So we should probably go soon then. He was very understanding.
Alona ended up having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when we got home, and Abbi really enjoyed her peaches and crackers. We drove to Liberty Park, that is a fantastic park. They had a lot of geese and some ducks too. They weren't afraid of people at all. Even though we didn't have bread to feed them they still came right up to us. Then we went in search of the gully's. And we found them, a real shallow area where you can play in the water, wading for adults or practically swimming for a 2 1/2 foot little girl. We there at eight o'clock at night, So glad that we were not there at the heat oft he day. It felt really good just to get our legs wet. Alona's shorts got wet, it was 85 degrees and she was saying I'm cold, I'm cold. There was this rock that Alona enjoyed climbing on and Abbi attempted it to, I asked Alona are you king of the world. And then she said, I'm King of the rock!!
I kept trying to take pictures of me and Chris, so that I could have one and I wanted it to be good. So I took one and my eyes were partially shut, I took another and my eyes were open so wide, and then the third one looked okay. May not sound funny, but I was just crackin up and I got him laughing too! It was great. I am so horrible at pictures. On the way back to the house from somewhere, he commented that I was his little sister. I am still older, but yep I am the shortest out of all of my siblings. I am a little sister to my 16 year old brother.

The tracy aviary is there too. That would be fun to go there when it is open.
Alona woke up this morning and went to go to the bathroom, when she was going over to dry her hands she touched the curling iron that I had finished with just minutes before, a squeal none the likes that I heard come out of her before. Here is a picture of her with her hand on the ice pack. Chris enjoyed playing video games when he woke up then had to give up the television for the girls to watch a movie while their grandma watched them. I had a Doctor's appt. to go to. After lunch at wendy's he was able to have Paul play with him. I bet they both enjoyed that, Paul doesn't ever get to play especially not with anyone. And who knows with Chris, I just hope he had fun. I really enjoyed having him here.

Growing Together

Wow it has been five years today since me and Paul were married. It does but it doesn't seem like it. Each day seems to go by slow but then when I look back at it, I wonder where it has all gone. So we weren't able to celebrate today because Paul has work and school. But atleast I was able to see him, though while driving he went off about how stupid this driver was in front of us and my emotional who knows what kicked in and I just started bawling. Maybe because he was being negative, I don't know. He came home and Abbi was still awake, because I had been wrapping a present. I got him a tie rack. He said that he liked it when he opened it, I hope that he does. I know that he will have great use for it. Now his ties won't get wrinkled, they aren't doing so good. I'll have to iron them and put them up. We are hoping to go hiking on one of the trails in Ogden canyon on Saturday, having ice cream and either lunch or dinner, now the tough part ...finding a babysitter.
Our life:
We have been together for seven years. Since I was fifteen and he was a month away from eighteen. He was talking about marriage less than three months after being with me. I remember bugging Laura, she had told me that Paul had gotten me a surprise and was going to give it to me at the Harvest Dance. We went to a Harvest Dance and close to midnight he proposed, saying that he would wait as long as it would take. It took only about a year and nine months after that until we were married.
I kept asking people if he was there yet. I was an hour early to the church and he didn't show up until about five minutes before it started. I did have second thoughts...like I am only seventeen what am I doing??, I even asked Michael if we could turn around, he was silent. I am glad that I got married though.
We have made three beautiful children(I am hoping that the third one is, of course to his mother he will be right!?!) in our five years of marriage.
Our first kiss was in the alley at Vae View Elem. he was afraid to kiss me it was cute.
Our first "Date" was a movie "Big Daddy", I think, at the Layton Hills theatres. I remember that I had to wait for his mother to drop him off. We had a great time. He had a great laugh.
Our First vacation...Well if you consider a honeymoon a vacation, we went to Bear Lake. Ifeel like I ruined it. I wouldn't go out into the water with him. I was a scaredy cat, and no fun! I even made us come home a day earlier than we had planned.
If you don't consider a honeymoon a vacation then it would be Disneyworld. We may have been with more than twenty members of my extended family, but it was still fun and memorable. We were the only married couple that couldn't join everyone for a night on the town because I was too young. We went to many sites, Universal studios and the park right next to it and all of the Kingdoms. We missed going to Sea World because we didn't have an alarm clock and no one woke us up on time to go with them so they left without us.
The first time he said I love You...its weird I remember the first time that he said it but not when I did. He was walking me home not long after we were going out and he said it as he was leaving and I didn't say anything back.
How I think that I have changed: Well when we first got married I didn't cook a lot because I was at work half of the time at night during our first 8-9 mos of marriage. I definetly cook more, but he does not get to enjoy it being that he doesn't get to eat it until the next day and he doesn't eat left-overs very often.
I think that I am more aware of him, we got pregnant six months after being married, and I did not have a great sense of humor it was more of a put down I would say mean things to him when I was pregnant with our first. I was immature, I am so glad that I took it upon myself to change. Now I say things like..."Look your little boy is kicking me." I love him and he is a great father and husband!
Well definetly PHYSICALLY...I mean in my wedding dress I was a size three in juniors now I am a twelve in Juniors 4/5 in womans. Not just the being married part, its the having three kids part and eating a lot because the kids stres me out at times.
I know now that we are different, hard for either of us to get used to at first. When one of us would be upset we would want to comfort the other. But Paul likes to be touched, hugged, etc. When I am upset, I like to be reassured that I am loved and comforted with words first before someone comes up and hugs me.
What I enjoy about Paul:

• He has never put me down. No matter how ornery or mean that I am to him.
  
• He provides for me and the children. He has been a real strength with this. Even though I worry about when he doesn't go to work and him being late all the time. We never have to worry there is enough there for everything that we need. Not only financially, but whenever he can emotionally, spuritually and any other means of providing he is there for us.
• He loves unconditionally, I have done some things that I would consider horrible. But he just takes a breather and seems to not even look back at my mistakes.
• I am sure that there are many more, I am having memory lapses at the moment though.

Me and the girls were able to celebrate a little, with Roo's Sundaes. Alona got a Winnie the Pooh cookbook from Marta and Kelly and has been wanting to make the Sundaes. So we did..with vanilla ice cream, nuts, m&m's, hot fudge and bananas! They both didn't eat very much. Abbi went right for the candy. The picture of the window...well, um this is the window that Alona went through after we got home from Paul's work. The key that Paul gave us to get into the house fit alright into the hole but would not turn, lets just say that I am very lucky that I left the window open and very glad no one else used it to get in.

Birthday Ambitions

Alona went to our neighbor Ephanni's birthday today and had a great time. They had cake and ice cream. Abbi didn't eat much of any of it, wouldn't touch the ice cream. Alona commented on how colorful the ice cream was and ate all of her cake. It was rainbow sherbet and it must have been too colorful for her she didn't eat it.
There was a Dora Pinata that both Abbi and Alona got to hit. Abbi did a great job by herself. When Ephanni's dad broke it open Alona went right for it and knew just what to do she came out with more loot than I would have ever thought that I could give her credit for. She was real excited about the blues clues notebook and crayon that was in her goody bag. She helped write her name on the bag, when we got home later she came up with her little notebook and showed me, "Mom I made a hump". She has been trying to write her name and hasn't quite gotten the "n" yet. She knows that it has a line and a hump, and today she made one!
Then afterwards She says "I'm gonna have one of these at my birthday", referring to the Dora party blower. She says, "I want a pinata too with presents and balloons and hats at my birthday! And Mom where am I gonna have my birthday?"

P.S. scroll down...I wrote three other posts today, and added a picture to "Abbi Update"!

Feather Salad

We all went grocery shopping today...when we got home it was six o'clock. Quite late for the girls to be eating dinner, so we fixed something that would not take much time that we had just bought, a frozen pizza. To go with it I pulled out a bag of dole salad, the greener selection kind. I poured it onto my plate and even started eating it then after a few bites I noticed that this dark green "leaf" was actually a feather. I was so grossed out, I had to get Paul and show him. I asked him if he thought I would get sick. I immediately used mouthwash, how gross a feather had touched all of the salad that was now in my stomache.

62.5%

Yay so here is another five weeks gone by....I am now 25 weeks or 62.5% of the way there. A little more than 14 weeks to go! I told Alona that the as my tummy gets bigger it means that the baby gets bigger and that he will come out a month after her birthday. She says, "wow thats long", "thats a long time!" It seems like it but it sure will go by fast.

Single Night

Tonight I felt like a single woman. It was so wonderful, not to be without a husband but to get away to be "myself" and not just a mother. I am so grateful to Ruth for watching both girls and being there for me in every way, I don't know how to repay her. I was going to go to the Bountiful Temple and drop off the girls at her work just for an hour or so. Of course with the luck that I am having lately it didn't turn out that way. It said..."Closed until August 1st".

I was able to go to the Ogden temple and do 15 out of the about ninety names that I had available to do. I was quite surprised that I went under the water with ease being 6 mos pregnant. I was glad that I got to experience that again. I remember going there as a young teenager with the Young Womens group. It is definetly a different but good experience each time that you go.

I drove Ruths car to the temple and while getting in I had inserted the key and thought that I had turned it on and so put the car into reverse. Then it would not go. I continuously tried to start the car again and thought that the battery must have died, the lights were on and every time that I attempted to turn it over the went out and nothing worked. After about five minutes of quietly panicking I looked at the console with the "shifter"(she has an automatic) It said reverse, so I put it into park and the car started right up. I am such a cluts, I have been driving manuals for so long that I don't know how an automatic works that sounds so silly!

Right on a corner of 21st street in Ogden less than a 1/4 a mile where I was, was "Farr better Ice Cream"! I was able to go in, and was in luck! An ice cream cone for less than two dollars! I only had two dollars in cash on me so I thought, I couldn't seem to find my debit card. MMM I got a scoop of the burnt almond fudge, It was to die for. I only took less than five minutes, I was in a hurry to get back to the girls. I remember going to the Farr Ice Cream shop when I was a child with my dad, Great times!
Yay I found a pic of the store, a picture of the inside of the shop with people that I don't know. But its a picture!

Even Driving back I felt so relieved, I had had over two hours without my children, not much stress. No why's, or "No"! I was so extremly calm. It was so "WONDERFUL!" I am so very grateful to Ruth I don't think that I am able to truly express how grateful that I am.

Abbi Update

A few days ago Abbi learned to say please and I woke up this morning to two little girls at the foot of my bed, the smallest one saying "Please, please, please" she really wanted me to wake up. Then yesterday she learned to say, "Thank You". It was so cute. She also says Grandma, Grandpa, and loves to pull out all of the wipes from the bucket and walk around rubbing herself saying "wash, wash, wash." She also runs out of the bathroom with all of the wash rags.
I have tried to teach her songs, the only words that she seems to remember are "up above" so she goes around singing that. Twinkle, twinkle hasn't caught on yet. Other words in her vocabulary that I can think of are: off, up, shoes (she learned this one because her sandles keep coming off on purpose),nose, eyes, mouth, Alona, diaper, brush, banana, fruit, and feet. She tries to say Elmo and Amen after prayers but both words come out sounding like Mama. I am sure that there are many more words that she can say. She used to say buh-bye, but now when we ask her to say it she just blows kisses.
Here is the picture of Abbi blowing kisses. Not the greatest because it was taken by a cell phone. But my camera did not have batteries at the time.

Who knew you were suppose to read the labels

Who knew that you needed to read them?? Okay so I am not the smartest cookie, I didn't think there would be that much to it. I applied the sunscreen on both girls on Saturday when we went swimming and some on myself. We left the aquatic center after more than three hours of swimming(sitting and splashing in 6 inches of water). When we got home and were out of the sun the girls looked like raccoons, they had gotten burned under their eyes, a little on the forehead and shoulders. Of course I was burnt to a crisp. Paul asked me what sunscreen I had used I swore that I thought it was waterproof. Looking at the bottle it said Waterbabies...It so should have worked I thought this darn thing must have expired, does sunscreen expire. Who knows maybe not. I read further down on the back where it says "Directions"!

"to maintain effective sunburn protection for 80 minutes in water.... Apply liberally to all exposed areas prior to sun exposure and reapply after prolonged swimming" Okay so after 80 minutes I was suppose to reapply oops so sunscreen doesn't last all day like I thought. Now I know better, read all labels before use!!

Nursery

So the baby won't have his own room yet, being that we live in a two bedroom duplex with three children, but he will get to have his own decorated side of a wall. Thanks to my impulses and Paul catering to my questions of "is this to expensive", "but we can do without it." I ordered this online it was on close-out sale at Nursery Depot. I love the blue, it definetly says BOY. And the cars are a good touch something that I haven't much of in my 4 1/2 year experience with girls. Probably many people will not come to my house or look in my room, but it makes me all happy and relieved inside to be ready for this baby. I won't get the exitement of seeing it all put together for a few weeks though, which hinders my slight urge for nesting/being prepared. But not bad for free shipping and NO sales tax. It seems hard to be able to "nest" much with two little ones that wear me out. When I do attempt to organize or clean, their help is more than I can handle. So what do you think of my choice?

Vocabulary expansion

So it slips my mind what Alona was telling me "NO" about yesterday but Abbi was intently listening to her. She came around the corner of the couch and out of her mouth was "no". Of course no meaning behind the word, it was just like look what I can say Mom and Dad! She is such a cutie, there is her new word!

Family Cold Fun!

Yes even though it was cold, we had fun! What a great family trip. So this is our one vacation for this year, we used some of our tax return money that we left in the bank and booked a reservation at the campsite back in April, and we were able to use the money for gas and everything else that we needed. It was a great drive besides the fact that it was a very long drive(5 hours!). Not too hot or too cold. We were definetly able to deal with no air conditioning. After getting there and setting up camp we decided to go for a walk. We just went from our tent to the end of our camp site and then decided to walk another 1/4 mile to the visitors center to look around. We look around at the souvenirs and of course the girls want everything and wanted to touch everything. While being in there for just a couple of minutes I heard another say that it was raining outside, but didn't think much of it. But thought that we should start walking back. On our way, with every step that we took the rain came down harder and harder. It is a good thing that we started walking when we did. And the temperature dropped drastically, it went from being toasty in shorts to needing a jacket and pants quickly, which of course we did not bring. Eventually the rain lifted, but the clouds and the cold stayed. It is nice to be able to provide for your family when you need to, we got in the car and drove the less than five miles to the all in one store(souvenirs, clothes, groceries, gas and restaurant) and got Paul and the girls sweatshirts. The girls had to get the same size and neither of them fit like they should but they were darn cute and it kept them warm. It turned out to be a good thing for Abbi, they didn't sell pants at the store so the sweater was a multi-use item it kept her whole body warm top and bottom.


On the drive back to camp we drove down to.......................................
It really was beautiful. The only place in the park where you could see the view that it had.
After coming back to camp Paul was able to start a fire, that had much trouble getting and staying lit. Roasting hot dogs on it didn't work too well. After he got it going we were able to get some wood from a nice couple and roast some marshmallows. The clouds stayed and we were not able to see any stars that night, and boy was it cold. We were able to have eggs and bacon for breakfast and then we went on the shuttle that they have it takes you to all of the different viewpoints that Bryce Canyon offers. We stopped at three of them, the first was Bryce Point, it is at the farthest point that the shuttle takes you. We were able to walk a short ways down one of the trails there, wish that Alona would have walked longer. We will have to go back when the kids are older or gone.

Then probably the most breath taking point was inspiration point. No wonder it has that name.You could walk up this really steep walkway to the very top, we didn't even go halfway for this picture. But it was so gorgeous. Then next stop actually had a trail that looked short enough and safe enough to take children on. But Paul was too tired to go. Glad to know it is there though.

The shuttle ride was fun it told about different cool facts about the park. It is one of the smallest national parks in the country!
A few hours after getting back it rained, AGAIN! But this time the clouds went away and we had a clear, dry but chilly night. We were able to do a great fire that made awesome smores. It took a lot of cohersing to get Alona to eat one bite of chicken and one bite of potato salad so that she could have a s'more. Abbi easily stuck a bite of salad in her mouth and decided that it needed to come right back out, she is more of a simple girl still. She had her marshmallow and chocolate separately and passed on the crackers.

Both girls during the middle of the night woke up one right after the other and wanted to sleep by "MaMa", which is great that they like me so much but it was crowded. Before hand I was on one end then Paul, Abbigail and Alona on the other side. When they came to sleep with me they took the very little space that I had and Paul was left with plenty of of space on the other side of him. Oh what it takes to be a mother, I didn't want Abbi to get cold cause now she was sleeping on the end so I gave my blanket to her.
There is a gorgeous set of rocks from a mountain that as you are leaving/entering Bryce Canyon you get to drive under them, what an amazing natural rock formation. Our drive home wasn't so bad Alona kept herself busy for the most part and slept for twenty minutes. Abbi slept for a little over an hour which was nice, even though it wasn't anything to worry about. She was awake for more than the first hour of the drive home and was very content.
P.S. I will have Paul tell you about the chipmunks!

I cant do what?

Who knows if I am showing to other people by now. But as it will always happen now it is a detourant. I was bending over to put paper in the printer to print out directions to Bryce Canyon and I would not go. My front half just collided with my mid-section.I could feel my ribs just go right on to Kacen. I can longer just bend over, now starting this pregnancy I will have to bend around the bump of a baby growing inside of me. So different, yesterday I could bend almost straight down.

So here is a picture of a supposed baby at 24 weeks: He looks cramped but is actually very comfortable. Maybe this is why the baby and me are now colliding...my uterus is now 1 1/2 to 2 inches above the navel from what a website claims. It also says that the baby will be gaining 6 ounces a week for the next few weeks.

4th of July

At the end of July I unsuccessfully went to a parade with Abbi. We arrived there during the last 2-3 minutes of the parade, so she didn't really get to experience it. It was great, Paul drove forty miles just so that we could go to the parade with my sister and her family. They gave out flag at the parade, both girls got one Crystal gave up hers for Abbi. The one thing that Alona had been asking for since the beginning of summer. She got one last year at the West Valley parade and just adored that thing. Today she asked me to make one out of two sticks, I don't thing that I am that talented. She was very distraught that Abbi ripped up the only one that we brought home her cousin took the other one.
They were both improved from last year with picking up the candy. Alona actually didn't need for all of the candy to be pointed out. Abbi was really good at getting it if we directed her. She kept wanting to go back to the curb away from the candy and the parade. Their older cousin was so over eager to get all of the candy.They threw out popsicles. Great thing!, especially with the heat and the children liked them, don't stick to teeth like taffy either. Abbi kept pointing to the horses, saying "horse, horse" she really loves animals. Alona looked like a beauty pageant contestant when I asked the children to wave, it was so cute. Abbi's wave is a little different just pulling her fingers to her palm repeatedly.
About halfway through the parade a float came that passed out beaded necklaces to all the girls soliciting their tumbling/dance business. That was really cute. They enjoyed the necklaces and looked really cute in them. I should enroll them in something that would be fun.
Afterwards we went back to My sisters and Alona and Abbi played in their pool. Abbi did awesome playing with her little boy. He is 13 mos and can't quite stand by himself yet, she was real gentle with him. Boys are so rough compared to girls, Alona got buckets of water splashed on her and she would turn her head and just start to cry. Her cousin that is the same age was play fighting with her and she freaked out when she actually got hit, she assumed that you aren't suppose to get hurt while swinging something at another person?
We ended up going home at lunch time and that night did some fireworks in our driveway. It was pretty neat we were able to see the city fireworks from our driveway, that was neat!

A Mere Farm

Cherry Hill was originally a fruit farm that has been owned by the same family since 1924 and operated as a camping resort since 1967. It once rendered the name "A-Mere-Farm". I thought that it was a pretty neat fact. They still sell fruit pies there from their "Pie Pantry" too!

Me and the girls drove there with Grandma on Friday. They really enjoyed it. Alona really loved the Pirate ship, especially the wheel. Bigger kids didn't seem to care much for the presence of her or any other younger child. They came up and turned the wheel the other direction of what she was going. She was determined to hold on while screaming because they were taking away her fun and overpowering her. She kept ahold of the spoke that she was trying to turn while a bigger kid came and turned it the other way, she ended up on the other side of the wheel screaming blood oozing from her mouth. She had lost a piece of skin that connected her lips and gums. After a bit of comfort, she was the one that kept asuring me..."I'm okay, it'll get better!" I felt awful I made her take a picture before cleaning her up, she was a good sport though. She refused to go down the slides, though the water was very shallow, she couldn't be convinced to go down.

Abbi really liked to run off whenever we were trying to do something different. She really enjoys saying "Hello, Helloo." She is really good at talking to strangers, so she would go up to them and continuously greet them. But when it comes to people that we know she couldn't be more silent. Of course she didn't want to eat her lunch at lunch time, so it was about 2:00 before she decided that her corn dog would taste good, two hours after being cooked. The part that she liked most about floating on the tubes probably was the mule. Every time that we would pass under the bridge that had the mule she would say "horse, horse" in her cute little voice. She enjoyed sitting on top of the tube especially next to her sister and holding onto the handles. I think that she will be a good swimmer, she is a water baby! She is really good at kicking in the water and is not afraid.

There was a small jail at the side of the pirates cove Alona really enjoyed hanging from the bars.

Then of course there was me, I should have listened to my own lesson that I gave to my children about sunscreen and worn it so that I didn't get burned by the sun and have owies. I shall suffer the consequences of my actions. Oh boy am I.....
my camera did not do it justice it is actually much more red than it looks, and my front side that was not covered by the swim suit is not pretty either. Probably the shoulders are the worse. Hopefully I will learn! But yay!, did you see my belly much more there than in the Lagoon pictures though the ton of extra weight (20 lbs. already) that I have gained might have something to do with that. Kacen will come out addicted to sugar if I don't mend my ways!