So, my kids are starting to watch ads on TV and ask for the things they see. The latest toys they want are pillow pets and zhu zhu pets. We were driving home from the mall yesterday and they both started talking about pillow pets and how much they want one. I didn't know what they were talking about but later they were watching the show Turbo Dogs and an ad came on for pillow pets and Timmy runs up to me and tells me, "Mom, look! You can get a pillow pet for $19!" It really made me laugh!
Then later in the show an ad for zhu zhu pets came on and he ran up to me again and told me how cool they were and how much he wanted one of those too.
Then, to top it off, Allison comes up to me this morning and tells me in these exact words, "Mom, I only two but I really want a pillow pet and you can get one for money!" My kids crack me up, I love being a Mom, especially during these funny moments!
I had a funny driving experience today with a psycho chick. I was pulling out of a parking lot onto a road that only had 1 lane each direction and a chicken lane. It was hard to see because there was a large semi parked along the road, so when I checked, I saw a car a ways back but figured I had enough time to pull out and get going. Boy, was I wrong!
I realized right away that she was speeding quite fast and did not want to stop down, and she didn't! She decided to make her point of annoyance by flying into the chicken lane and passing me anyway. As she passed she glared at me, and flipped me off. I responded by honking because she was acting like an idiot. Well, that really ticked her off so she flipped on her hazard lights and slammed on her brakes! I of course slammed on my brakes and realized this chick really needed to chill out before she caused an accident. She then noticed a few cars wanting to pull out in front of her so she creeped forward and frantically motioned them to go while she and of course I waited! They were confused and waited but she kept motioning so they both went.
At this point I desperately wanted to pass her in the chicken lane but knew that one of the cars was pulling out to go left and needed the chicken lane since the other lane had cars in it (he truly wasn't planning to go yet but she insisted). Plus, I knew I had my kids in the car and needed to act better than this psycho girl! So I just started laughing and giving her the thumbs up. I kept saying, okay, you win, you win! My kids then started asking me why the car in front of me won and that made me laugh even more. However, the last thing I wanted was to get in an accident with this girl because I certainly did not want to meet her face to face!
We finally made it to a 4 lane road and she sped off in the other lane, I'm sure to wreak havoc on some other unsuspecting driver :)
I want to document this pregnancy a little because I always wonder how I was feeling at so and so weeks during my other pregnancies and I think I may have documented them a bit in a journal but I don't really feel like digging them out right now since journaling has become a thing of the past for me in a lot of ways. Since I know that there are only women who basically read my blog, I will also comment on the not so pleasant side effects of pregnancy :)
Anyway, with this being my 3rd baby I can't ever remember being so incredibly hungry before. With my last two kids, I would eat a little every few hours to keep the nausea at bay but this time I am just starving all the time. That is, until about a week ago and things have finally started to calm down. As a result, I have pulled off a 10 pound weight gain in the first trimester alone, wow! I know part of that has to do with some indulging before I got sick, just because I wanted to. With my last two pregnancies, I have only gained a total of 30 pounds but this time, it may go up a little with those initial 10 pounds. With only 8 weeks of knowledge of pregnancy in the first trimester, I am averaging over a pound a week, go me!
I have a new doctor named Dr. Sumsion in the Tanner Clinic and I really like him. He is very kind and gentle and I know he will treat me right. Before I even met him, I called and asked if he would prescribe me the generic for Zofran, which helps keep nausea and vomiting down. He did right away and I sure am glad he did! As a result, I am 11 weeks today and still have not thrown up once whereas with my other kids, I started throwing up at 8 1/2 weeks and didn't stop until 20 weeks with Tim and 34 weeks with Allison although it wasn't every day for both. With Allie I threw up every day 1-2 times a day for 3 weeks straight from 8.5-11.5 weeks, it was nuts!
As a side note, I got Ondansetron (Zofran) first filled at Walgreens and they withdrew $509 from my HRA account which made me sick. We only have $2,000 before we pay completely out of pocket for $1,600 and then it goes to 90/10 for the rest of the medical expenses in a year. So, I really took the pills sparingly knowing they were so expensive. Then I had the refill done at Shopko to get a $12 gift card and they only charged my HRA $85, what a difference. I am so bothered that Walgreens was able to charge me soooo much that I probably won't ever fill there again, sorry sisters-in-law who both work there as pharmacists!
Anyway, I started taking the pills around 6 weeks when I started feeling nauseated, right on schedule. They don't completely take the nausea away (I wish!) but at least I feel human and can do normal things like cook, clean and take care of my kids. However, they do have one unpleasant side effect, constipation. With my last 2 kids, I was never constipated ever and I know this is a common side effect of the drug and I do feel a little plugged up, more than normal. I bought some fiber and keep taking it to try and help a little but haven't noticed that much of a difference.
Yesterday, I thought I would try to not take any pills for a day and see how I did. I actually felt about the same so I thought, maybe my morning sickness is starting to lessen a bit. However, I woke up this morning so nauseated that I had to force a pill down and eat some eggs very slowly for 15 minutes until the drug kicked in and I felt sooooo much better so I'm going to keep taking them for now.
As for the food, this baby is changing all of my eating habits. I ate cheerios first thing in the morning with the first two pregnancies but this time, I don't really love them and they make me feel a little ill. The most soothing is 3 eggs with a little cheddar cheese for breakfast. Also, I used to love spaghetti o's and peanut butter crackers with Tim and don't like them now or with Allie. With Allie I loved ramen with corn and melted cheese and don't really love it this time.
However, the biggest change is I don't like wheat bread really at all! I used to eat a piece of wheat bread with peanut butter before bed with my previous kids and I really don't enjoy it. I am still struggling to find something that I really enjoy eating before bed. Any suggestions? It needs to be filling so that I don't go to bed hungry. Also, I loved milk with Tim and Allie and I drank it like water since water made me want to gag but I don't really like milk this time around and prefer water. Water is still not my favorite friend but it's okay and necessary. I truly think the pills have helped the most in allowing me to drink more water this early in pregnancy.
Anyway, that's about it for now. Life is good, and I can't wait for fall especially because I know I'll be feeling better and will be able to eat some treats again.
Well, Allison does so many funny things that I feel the need to devote a post to my sweet 2 year old daughter. I seriously laugh every day with the funny things she does and want to have it written down to remember in the future some day.
One funny thing she does is insist that she be called a big girl. Even when we call her princess or beautiful, she insists that she she's not beautiful or a princess, she's a BIG GIRL! We hear this several times a day whenever we call her anything other than Allie, Allison or big girl and she even insists that she be called big girl instead of her name some times, too funny!
Next, she really wants to be potty trained and wear underwear but I need to wait until we go on vacation in a few weeks and then hopefully I'll be feeling a little better and we can work on it. Until then, she insists on wearing underwear over her diaper and if we forget and she forgets, you can be sure she will remember at some point and she will remove her pants and put on underwear and then put her pants back on, usually backwards!
Almost every night she wakes up screaming because she has nightmares that there are bugs or bees or spiders in her bed. It is a little hard waking up to this every night but hopefully this will be a short lived phase. One night she was convinced that Timmy was in her bed and when I went to leave, apparently I did not soothe her enough to be sure so I had to point out everything on her bed including pillows, blankets and stuffed animals and only then was she convinced he wasn't in her bed.
Lastly, she never goes to sleep right away when we put her in her bed for nap or bedtime. Instead, she pulls clothes out of her drawers and her underwear out and starts changing clothes. Usually she will pull out her favorite outfit, even if it's in the laundry basket and put it on. It is a brown monkey shirt with pink long sleeves and pink matching pants. If it's not in the room, she will change into other favorite clothes. Also, whenever we put her jammies on, which we let her pick out, she then changes into other jammies and usually starts to cry because she gets stuck. I have gone in many nights to find her asleep behind her door, only wearing a diaper, or just pants, or clothes on backwards or any other combination.
She also likes to sleep on the floor in front of the door. Many times she will bring her pillow, blankets, and stuffed animals over to the door and make herself a little bed. She is such a crackup!
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now but she sure is a bright spot in my life, I love you little Allie!!
Her favorite outfit!!
Her hair is long enough for a pony tail, I love it!
This was what we found one night after she went to bed, all of the stuff from her drawers on her bed with her, what a silly girl!
When I was young, we always had an outing day during the summer on Tuesdays and this summer my brother, sister and I decided to continue the tradition. My mom is working now so she couldn't join us but we had a lot of fun each Tuesday!
The first Tuesday we visited the This is the Place Heritage Park. I had not been there since I was a little girl and was amazed at how much there is to do! We had fun branding leather, pony rides, train rides, making candles, panning for gold, touring homes and eating lunch.
The next Tuesday I took my kids to see The Tooth Fairy at the dollar summer movies and then joined my brother and sister for some bowling at Fat Cats.
The 3rd Tuesday we went to Gardner Village and just walked around for a while and had lunch at Archibald's restaurant, yum!
The 4th Tuesday ended up being on a Thursday since we were having lunch with my family so we had lunch and then went to Nickle Mania and we all had a great time!
The 5th Tuesday I got a babysitter for my kids and the 3 of us went swimming at the Clearfield Aquatic Center. It was fun but very crowded with a million little kids!
The 6th Tuesday Raphael was in town so we went to Park City. We hit the outlet malls first, then did lunch at Arby's and headed over to do the Alpine Slide. After sliding down and having 2 girls stopped in front of me multiple times (that was fun!) we walked around main street and got ice cream. Fun day!
The 7th Tuesday Raphael was still in town so my brother Rusty joined Timmy, Raphael and me at Boondocks. My favorite part was the bumper boats where we thoroughly soaked each other. Timmy didn't want to get wet so he watched and I'm glad he did, he wouldn't have liked it. Liz couldn't make it because of piano teaching conflicts.
The 8th Tuesday Liz got to pick because she didn't get to go the week before so we went to Tracy Aviary. It was fun to see all of the birds and Rusty and Liz had done a groupon deal which allowed them to feed the birds too which they said was awesome!
The 9th and final Tuesday was unfortunately the biggest dud of all! Rusty picked because it was his last week before moving to college so we decided to go to Thanksgiving Point for $2 Tuesdays. We drove down there and on the way Liz starting feeling ill so we had to get off and go straight to a gas station for her to use the restroom. She didn't feel like walking around, I had morning sickness and didn't really feel like going anywhere and Rusty had just found out his laptop was ready to be picked up at Walmart so we all decided to just go home! 
We went to my Mom's house and watched Mary Poppins and ate chips and salsa, what a way to end!
Overall, I thought it was fun to continue our childhood tradition and we'll see if it happens next year!
We are expecting our third baby! The doctor went off the standard 28 day cycle and gave us the due date of March 17, St. Patrick's Day! However, the ultrasound said March 22 and that seems much more accurate to me so I think I'll stick with that. However, when I pointed that out to the doctor, he said that the ultrasound machine could be a week off so he's just going to stick with the March 17th date. Hmmm, this means he'll push to induce me earlier than I may be ready. However, not having an 8 pound baby might be nice......
Well, here's the ultrasound picture at 9 weeks!
Well, Justin made it and is officially done with his MBA from BYU! Friday was the convocation and he didn't want to go, but I made him and I was his sole supporter :) The entire ceremony only took 1 hour so that was nice and then we went to an after graduation party at one of the student's home in Pepperwood. It was a fun day and we're grateful to Rusty and my Mom for babysitting our kids.
Here are some pictures:
Well, I thought I would write some good news about my parents. After almost 2 years of hurt, pain, and a tough divorce, my parents have both found happiness. They are no longer together, but have both moved on with their lives and found significant others that make them happy.
I will start with my Dad first. My parent's divorce was finalized in July 2009 and in December, he went on his first date with a woman named Kari to my brother's Octappella concert which I happened to be at. I know they met through an online dating site, I think it was eHarmony.com but I'm not 100% sure about that. They apparently hit it off right away because they were engaged by February with plans to be married this summer. Because of some financial issues, their wedding is being postponed but they are still happy and planning to wed in the future. Kari is a very lively woman who is very passionate about politics and I hope to get to know her better as time goes by. She has 7 kids whom she cares about a lot.
As for my Mom, I didn't expect her to move on very quickly and did not expect her to date someone so seriously so quickly. In March of 2009, a few months before the divorce, my mom started to work for her Dad at Martin Door Manufacturing. A dealer named Dennis Roberts came into work and started talking to my Mom. They have known each other a little for years and Dennis even worked a little for my Dad when he worked there. They had a nice talk and she found out that his wife had just passed away a few months before. He wanted to ask her out and asked my mom's brother, Mike if he could but Mike told him that she wasn't divorced yet and still having a rough time. Well, he waited (or she waited) until she was divorced for a year and then they went on their first date. He happens to live down in Wales, UT, about 100 miles south of where she lives so it's quite the distance!
On their first date they went out to Indianola and drove around on his 4 wheeler, and she came home telling me she had a wonderful time. Then a few weeks later he had several things in SLC and so they ended up seeing each other like 5-6 times and she brought him to Sunday dinner with our family. I met him and he is a very kind, patient and sweet man. He thanked me for allowing him to date my mom and I really liked him. He has 8 kids and they are grown and living on their own.
I must admit I am glad to see my parents happy instead of constantly arguing with each other and I'm glad they have each found someone that makes them happy. If they both marry these people they are dating, I will have 15 step-siblings. Wow, that's another post altogether! Anyway, seeing my parents happy makes me happy.
I went to the Days of 47 Parade yesterday with my kids. We have a foreign exchange student here from France and he decided he wanted to go boating so Justin took him water skiing with his family and I went to the parade with my kids.
When I was on my way to the parade I called my mom to see where she was sitting and she told me she wasn't there yet. Since it was already 8:30 AM, I knew we would not get great seats and have to park far away but I asked my kids and they still wanted to go so we went anyway. After parking and walking (0.7 miles, I googled it!), we came up to the corner of 500 E and 900 S. I saw a fairly open space, not right on the curb but just behind some kids and decided to set up. However, I quickly realized that the spot was not taken because it was very wet and muddy. I didn't care, so I set up anyway and when my kids kept stepping in the muddy water and complaining, I decided to set my blanket down in front of me just for walking purposes although within minutes it was pretty soaked through.
Well, there was still a small space in front of my blanket that could easily fit a few chairs but I figured it wouldn't be taken by anyone because of the wet grass. In a sense, I was right but on 3 different occasions throughout the parade, people decided it was a great place to just stand! I mean, seriously, you are going to come to the parade after me and proceed to stand in front of me? I really could not believe it! The first people to stand in front of me was a family of 4. Eventually the family next to me got tired of seeing them standing in front of us and them, so they cleared off some of the curb and gave them seats. I thought it very kind of them since they slept there overnight and had their blankets on the curb for their own kids. Then another lady proceeded to come and stand right in front of us, it really irked me but I didn't feel like saying anything to her. She kept turning around and looking behind her like she was looking for someone and kept talking on her phone and finally after 20 minutes or so, her friend came and she left. Seriously, you couldn't stand to the side of us or behind us? She knew exactly what she was doing but did it anyway, you could just tell by her body language.
The last lady appeared over by us because her daughter saw a spot on the curb and sat down, therefore she felt it her duty to stand behind her daughter, right in front of us again, aaaaahhhhh! Now, her daughter was not small, probably 10 and would be fine if the lady moved just a bit!!! She did eventually squat down and then she stood again kind of off to the side, but all in all, I was a bit surprised at how many people thought it was okay to come and stand right in front of someone who has chairs set up. I have to say though, they probably would've sat down, maybe, but the grass was gross.
Anyway, I thought the parade was nice, albeit hot, and we stayed until we saw my brother play his trumpet in the Salt Lake County band and then we left. It was nice to do something full of pioneer spirit and enjoy the fun floats.
Then we went back to my mom's house for a BBQ and it was fun with family and tasty food. All in all, a pretty decent day!!
