Last Trimester!

Ok, nobody else is probably as excited as me about this, but I officially started my last trimester this week! This baby cannot come soon enough!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year!

Oh, how I love Christmas! It took me a while to get in the spirit of things this year, but once I decorated my house and it's cooled down to below 80 degrees, I can enjoy the holiday! Here's a little snapshot of how we've been celebrating...

BETHLEHEM
We went to Main Street Bethlehem again this year. This is one of my favorite things to do for the holidays. I am just so impressed with the actors/townspeople. They do a great job of staying in character and really portraying what it was like at the time of our Savior's birth.

DECKING THE HALLS
Like I said, it's not Christmas till your house is decorated. We still have our tiny pathetic Charlie-Brown tree, but we're on the hunt for a new one. We love going through each ornament as we decorate the tree and reflecting on the memories of the past years. Each one represents something special we've experienced or accomplished in years past. And, of course, Jaimason gets to put the tree topper on. But I think his favorite part is drinking "nog" and eating cookies.









ROUND ROCK TREE LIGHTING
The city had its annual tree lighting and festival, and we decided to attend. They do a great job of making it festive and fun. They had horse-drawn carriage rides, game and activity booths for the kids, live music, face painting, free food and hot chocolate, and Santa of course. We had a good time playing BINGO, decorating gingerbread cookies, eating popcorn and hot chocolate, making candles, and watching Jaimason's cute friend perform a dance on stage (she's 2).











We've done a bunch of other things as well, just haven't taken pictures. We have many more holiday activities to look forward to next week when Jaimason and Ben will be home. Can't wait!

Baby Bump-6 Months

This is pretty late...I'm on the final week of my 2nd trimester now (wa-hoo!) and my baby "bump" is more like a baby melon now. I wore the same outfit in this picture as I did last time for comparison, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do that again next month. I'm moving on to the wonderful world of maternity clothes...

Baby Bump--5 Months

Last time I was pregnant, I got ONE picture of my belly, so this time I vowed I would take more. Of course, I haven't been feeling like posing in front of a camera when most days I don't get out of my sweats, but here's what we have so far. Don't mind the shadows and blurriness...

22 weeks

Happy Birthday, Dear Ben

This past Saturday (Nov. 6) was Ben's birthday, and let's just say I'm grateful he's such an understanding person! It was NOT a good day. I ended up having a really sick day that day (every day is a gamble of how I'm going to feel) so we didn't celebrate much. I laid on the couch a lot of the day and snapped at everyone. Ben was supposed to go golfing with his friend, but they were having a tournament on the golf course, so that option was out.

To top it off, we had to cancel our date last minute because of several factors, so Jaimason cried all night because he was disappointed he couldn't go to his friend's house as planned....and I think Ben felt like crying, because he had looked forward to it all day. We were left with no dinner (I think we ended up having Ramen), no cake, and no fun.

Thankfully, the next day I was feeling a lot better, so we had a RE-DO! This time, we decorated the house a little bit, made BBQ beef brisket on homemade buns, and enjoyed Turtle Cake for dessert.

We even re-wrapped the presents he had opened the day before so he had something to open!
Ben was such a good sport about it, pretending to be surprised at each new present, which Jaimason thought was hilarious!

Of course, since it was Sunday, we still didn't get to do our date, but hopefully we will get to do it soon! Dates are a rare commodity in this household!

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y B E N! Love you!

H A L L O W E E N

Halloween was a bit different this year for us. Instead of spending weeks making a costume for Jaimason, I took the easy road and pulled one together in about an hour! I'm ashamed to admit it, but there's only so much you can do when you don't feel good. However, it turned out pretty cute.

Jaimason went as a magician. I made the vest, cummerbund, hat, and bowtie. Jaimason already had the cape and the wand:

Ben and I also had the opportunity to attend a Halloween work party, where costumes were mandatory. We weren't planning on going until the night before, so our costumes were also last minute.

I went as an 80's girl. My friend Julia let me borrow her "beautiful" sweater and jewelry and legwarmers. I supplied the leggings, hairdo, and makeup:


Ben's costume turned out pretty good; he went as a Mad Scientist. Most people at work are not accustomed to seeing him outside of his work mode and he hates to dress up, so he got a lot of compliments for stepping outside of his comfort zone.


Other Halloween festivities were limited for us this year, as I am not feeling well and not up to doing much, but here's what else we did to celebrate the season.

Pumpkin Carving




Fall Fun Festival for our neighborhood




Ward Trunk-Or-Treat

Pink or Blue?

Well, it's official....we are having a GIRL! We went to get our 20- week ultrasound yesterday, and after much coercing, this little precious bundle decided to let us know she's a "she." I've felt, since the beginning, it was a girl, but I wasn't sure if that's because I just wanted one so badly. However, this pregnancy has been different --worse!--than with Jaimason, so I thought maybe that was the reason. Regardless, we are all so happy to add a baby girl to our family!

I hope our experience with the ultrasound isn't an indicator of her personality, though; otherwise, we'll have an uncooperative and defiant little girl on our hands! It took much pressing and prodding and bouncing by the doctor to get her to open up so she could measure everything she needed to. The baby was curled up in a tight little ball so far down in my uterus, the doctor said it was a wonder she didn't fall right out!

Because of her unwillingness to cooperate, we didn't get many good ultrasound pictures, but here's what we have. I can't get our scanner to work, so I just had to take pictures of the pictures. Sorry they're a little blurry and hard to see:

The profile picture, of course (head is on the left)

This is an action shot of her opening her mouth to put her fist in it

And a tuckered-out girl. Isn't she sweet?

44 Pounds Lighter

I am happy to report that I am 44 pounds lighter and 3 dress sizes smaller than I was on January 1st! And let me remind you, I am 4 months pregnant.

May I just preface this by telling you the "before" picture is very embarrassing for me to post, but I wanted to show you the difference. However, neither picture really shows the transformation that well. I wish I had pictures of me flexing (how conceited is that?? Or should we just call it proud?). I (DID) gain a lot of muscle mass (though it's gone now....3 months of sitting around and wasting away will do that to you).

I have to admit, half of the weight that came off was due to extreme "morning sickness" (also called hell, which I am still experiencing, by the way), but I am SURE it would have come off anyway. I had been working very hard to lose the weight and there was no way I was going to quit before reaching my goal. It's the first time my New Year's Resolution actually stuck, and I am proud.









Before..................................... After

I have actually come to enjoy eating well, doing cardio, and especially weight training. I have learned a LOT through many hours of research and trial and error. I really can't wait till I start feeling human again so I can get back to it.

Jaimason is 6!

On Saturday, we celebrated Jaimason's 6th birthday. Since I haven't been feeling well and Ben's been super busy, we didn't have any plans, but it turned out to be a pretty good day.

We started off the day with 6-shaped blue pancakes and green eggs, by request, then went to a toy store who was having it's anniversary celebration, so they had some fun activities going on...(and it gave us a chance to buy Jaimason a birthday present! Shhhh...)He got a free train whistle, which turned out to be his favorite thing of the day, and they also had a bounce house to jump in.

After, we went to a place called Gattiland. It's a family fun center, with a pizza buffet, arcade games, and a theater. Because it was his birthday, Jaimason got a glowing button that said "It's My Birthday" and $5 extra game dollars to use. He was pretty excited about that.One of his favorites was a roller-coaster simulation ride.On the Star Wars ship with dad. This is serious business, people!

Gotta do the spider stomp!

Jaimason beat dad at air hockey!

At the end of it all, he got some neat prizes, one of them being Magic Disappearing Ink. That stuff is so nostalgic for me...I used to get it from Chuck E. Cheese when I was a kid. I didn't know they still made it!

Then it was back home for ice cream cake and presents. Everything was pretty low-key, but we had a great time anyway...and the best part is, Mom didn't even get sick the whole day!! We love small miracles.We love Jaimason! He is such a thoughtful and smart boy who always tries to make peace. He definitely brings excitement into our home, too. We're so grateful to have him!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUD!

Kindergarten Time

On August 24th, Jaimason entered the world of public school. It was a very exciting and momentous day for him: packing his lunch, making sure his school supplies were in order, picking out an outfit.....(ahhh, takes me back).

We met his teacher; she is very nice. In fact, we joke that we like her so much because she's just like me! She's got the same birthday, she's the same age, she enjoys the same hobbies, and she's been teaching as long as I have (did). She's even fairly tall and has brown hair. Jaimason was also excited because he already knew 5 friends in his class, mostly from church and the playgroup I headed up this past spring and summer.Now it's my time to vent for a minute. School in Texas is very rigorous, we've come to find out. It's a 7-hour day for these little ones, and they only get ONE short recess! I may be crazy, but I think THAT'S crazy! There is no imaginative play, no play-based learning at all, really. I remember when I was in Kindergarten (which was only about 3 hours a day) playing at the rice table and dressing up in the Dramatic Play center....what happened to those days? They work on each subject for 40 minutes to an hour, and a lot of it is writing or reading. They're working on learning stamina. They have homework every day. They are not taught HOW to write; they are already expected to know the formation of each letter--upper and lower case--what sound it makes, sentence structure (spaces between words, periods, etc). It's really a good thing Jaimason knew all this before he started. I know there are many kids struggling right now because of it. It makes me very sad to know that my son's childhood is probably gone. He's now more concerned about behavior scores and homework than being a child.That being said....the schools here are top-notch, some of the very best in the country. Jaimason really loves school and never complains! His teacher tries her very best to make it as fun and stress-free as possible, he's learning a lot, and he's making great friends! I can't complain too much. I was just shocked at first.He's already been the Star Student, which means he got to take Tattle Tiger home over the weekend, document their time together with pictures in a journal, and make a poster about himself. That was a very exciting time for him! We're very grateful he's in a great school, he's loving it, and learning a lot!