Oh BOY!

I'm bummed. I can't find the cord to transfer my pictures onto the computer, so I can't post any Christmas pictures. And they were cute ones too! I guess I'll just have to push forward and do without.

We spent the holiday in Soda Springs and we all had a great time. The food was excellent, LOVED the prime rib for Christmas dinner, the company was great, and the girls just loved all their presents. They were even pretty good on Christmas morning, taking turns opening their presents. Once Gwen lost her will to resist temptation and tore off most of the paper to one of her aunt Maci's gifts, but other than that she was pretty good. Phoebe didn't care much about opening presents. She just wanted to play with all the toys inside them, so Gwen got to open a few more. A few things they got were a dollhouse and accessories, toy horsies, moon dough, an easel, doctor kit, a Mr. Potato Head, Toy Story 3, and other stuff. Logan got me a Nook and I got him a very heavy collection of all the Far Side cartoons ever penned, published and not. We're also enjoying the first two seasons of Psych, a deep fryer/steamer, and a cutlery set. We made ourselves leave on Tuesday, mainly because we had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I'm not sure when the appropriate time to take down a tree is. I'm ready for it to go now, but I'm afraid the girls will mutiny.

Anyway, yesterday at my appointment I had my ultrasound. The girls were allowed in the room with us, and they were so good the entire time. They didn't once try to smash their computer and take the ultrasound stick thing, such good little girls. The technician had to run through some checks, like brain fluid, eyes, kidneys, fingers, etc. Finally she got to the good ol' between the legs check. And for the first time, we heard the words, "and there's the third leg." Not like she needed to say anything. There was no mistaking it! We were thrilled! I personally didn't think it would happen. We would have been excited for a girl too, of course, but we were hoping to have at least one son. Now we're getting him! We stopped at a few places after the appointment (Pizza Hut to celebrate, the mall to look at baby clothes :) and I couldn't stop looking at the ultrasound pictures. I still can't believe it! As of right now, we're calling him Isaac Douglas. (Douglas is Logan's middle name and his father's first. Isaac isn't after anybody really... it's just the only boy name that we both liked.) So we're getting our first son three days before Logan's birthday, May 16th. Well, that's when he's due. Both my girls came a day early or a day late of their due dates, so I'm guessing the 17th is when we'll get to meet Isaac. We'll see! Now I get to spend the second half of my pregnancy shopping for boy stuff. I want to get him tiny little suits and vests.

Isn't he handsome? He looks like his daddy already. I love our BOY!

Pregnancy Update

Today I am 18 weeks pregnant! I am through being nauseous, and have a great appetite. I'm feeling the baby move everyday, which greatly excites me, because it's finally feeling "real."

On December 29th, I get my ultrasound and find out what it is, and it'll be even more real. This time around, we are equally excited to have a boy or a girl. Having three girls would be precious and having a boy would be something new! We're finally settling on a couple names, but don't quite yet have a middle name picked out if it's a girl. We're completely stumped. But we have plenty of time.

I probably won't get around to posting before Christmas, so let me say now that I hope everyone has a joyous and safe holiday!

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Finally!

This has been a huge week for us, Phoebe wise. Phoebe has always been mama's girl since day one, and since her eyes are so big and blue, I have always found it very hard to say no to her. Because of this, she turned 20 months old and I was still nursing her to sleep and she slept in our bed for more than half the night! For 20 months! We finally decided (or I did anyway... Logan was decided on week 1 of Phoebe's life) that Phoebe needed to learn to fall alseep on her own, and in her own bed.

The first thing I had to do was wean her. The first couple of days was rough. But I stayed tough and didn't give into her screaming and begging and adorable pleads of "num nums, please? Please?" I told her, "I'm so sorry, but we're all out of num nums! Lets cuddle instead!" It took a couple of days and sleepless nights, but it worked! When she wanted to sleep, she would crawl onto my lap and fall asleep! Step one complete!

The next thing we did was convert her toddler bed back into a crib. This way she would stay in bed and not scream at us from the door. (We keep a child gate set up at nap and bedtime. Discourages Gwen from running away in the middle of the night.) The first night was killer. Phoebe screamed for two hours before I caved and snatched her up. She was out immediately , but I still kept her in bed with us. The second night I thought was harder than the first. She screamed for an hour, but this time it was more than just screams. She sobbed, "Mommy's gone! Mommy's gone! My mommy's gone!" I could have cried right along with her! Finally, FINALLY, her cries subsided. Logan peaked in on her and discovered that Gwen had climbed into the crib and lain down next to her. Phoebe was about to fall asleep when Gwen wanted out. But she only cried for a couple of minutes before falling asleep. She woke up in the middle of the night, and being the weak, tired thing I am, I brought her into our bed.

Day three we found success! At first when I tried putting Phoebe into her crib, she started screaming and Gwen started crying and begging that I let Phoebe sleep on the couch. When I said no, Gwen jumped into the crib before I even put Phoebe in. Phoebe cried her heart out for two minutes then all was silent. I thought that Gwen might be smothering her with a pillow, so I made Logan check on them. They were both asleep! It took only five minutes! And the best thing is, even though we moved Gwen back into her own bed, Phoebe slept the entire night in her room! Yay! What a blessing to not be kicked in the face and gut twelve times during the night! It's a great feeling. We got a great night's sleep, and Phoebe was extra happy and cuddly this morning. Next baby will never ever sleep in the bed with us! That's what I said when Phoebe was born, but I mean it this time!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year! The wards that meet in our building had a large trunk-or-treat for the whole community, and there was a great turn out. The girls were on their best behavior and weren't greedy, only taking one candy a piece. I was so proud of Gwennie for saying thank you when she remembered, and making sure that Phoebe got a piece of candy in her pumpkin. I'm glad there was a trunk-or-treat because I didn't see any trick or treaters in the area Saturday or Sunday. The girls got a good load, and I took my "mommy tax" so I was happy too. Logan was all too happy to eat all the candy we bought in case we got trick-or-treaters. We have a lot of candy in the house at the moment.

Gwennie was a "princess witch", as she called herself.

Phoebe was the cutest little pumpkin. She got a lot of compliments.

And of course I let them pig out on candy in their costumes, so they have chocolate stains all over them now.

Oh well. 

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

A bunch of everything and nothing and maybe something big

My problem with blogging is that I never have anything interesting to blog about. And every time I sit down to blog, the girls attack me. They don't like me on the computer... they don't like me to read, sleep, shower, visit the bathroom, anything that takes me out of view or their attention... so I don't get around to blogging much. I have momma's girls.  But I figured since it's been 2 months since the last update, I should try to throw something together.

Three weeks ago, we moved to Idaho Falls. So far it's just been a lot of traffic in between errands, but once the house is finally put together the way I like it, we might have time to do exciting things in the "city." The townhouse is a hundred times better than any apartment we've ever lived in. We have so much space now, and the girls have a fenced yard to run wild in. And we have a real life dining room with a hard floor! No more scrubbing mac and cheese out of carpet! So far since we've lived here, Gwen's broken the blinds off the large glass doors so now everybody can look in and see our business, especially at night; Phoebe slid down the stairs on her behind with a large load in her diaper that I spent a half an hour scrubbing off each step; battled through our first October colds and fevers; chased away countless salesmen from our house; went to the wrong ward; and I couldn't even tell you how many times we've been to Walmart to find screws, filters, tools, and anything else we've either lost or broken in the process of moving. But we're loving our decision to move out of Rexburg. Who knew there was such diversity in Idaho? All of our neighbors are smokers, the people in our church beat their kids in public, and I even got a phone call from the Methodist church inviting me to a single mother's support group... not sure what that was about, but I was impressed that there is a Methodist church nearby. It's been interesting, but not as interesting as what I was used to in NJ. So much better than NJ!

Gwen is psyched for Halloween this weekend. All the wards that meet in our church building are hosting a community trunk-or-treat, and Gwen's been talking about it nonstop since we got them costumes. Last week we took the girls to Halloween City to pick out costumes, and Gwen picked out a cutie witch, and Phoebe wanted to be a pumpkin. I'm excited for Halloween this year because Gwen understands what to expect. Though visiting trunks in a parking lot instead of knocking on doors might throw her off a little. Phoebe doesn't know what's going on, but she'll have fun anyway. Hopefully it won't rain! That would be awful. We would have to walk the girls around to different parts of the house to find treats. Not as exciting.

I haven't been taking many pictures since we've moved. I keep thinking I'm going to get the house unpacked and decorated very soon and I'll take pictures then, but I'm having a hard time getting everything done. Keeping up with every day chores and the kids are hard enough, especially since I'm much more tired and queasy lately. Which brings me to my next paragraph -

Maybe I should have mentioned this earlier, but I'm pregnant again. I haven't announced it to the whole world yet (meaning facebook) for some reason, I guess I'm waiting for after my ultrasound. But since mostly everyone on blogger already knows, I didn't see the point in not sharing. If you didn't know, surprise!  I'm 11 weeks along now, and my due date is May 16th, just three days before Logan's birthday. We think it just may be a boy this time, because my morning sickness hasn't been as bad as it was with my girls. Or I could just very well have another girl and have three like my momma. We're kind of leaning toward wanting a boy this time, because he would be born around his papa's birthday and we could name him after him. Gwen was named after somebody born in July, and Phoebe was named after somebody born in February. We want to keep up with tradition, and we don't have any other family members born in May. But a girl would certainly be welcomed, especially since I have four full bins of baby clothes for girls! I wouldn't have to buy a single thing! Gwen is excited, kind of. She's been looking through baby magazines and understanding somewhat that there's a baby in my belly. Sometimes she kneads my stomach and talks to the baby, which is adorable. I don't know how small children can understand something like pregnancy. Saying "there's a baby in mommy's belly" makes it sound like I've eaten a baby... but she doesn't seem bothered. I guess she understands more than I give her credit.

I'm not the only one pregnant either. I have two sisters-in-law who are pregnant, too! 2011 is going to be an exciting year! Good thing too, since the world's going to end the year after that, right? Live it up!

Kids and Things

It's been a while since I posted last. Just the same stuff happening, really. But I guess I can update a little bit on the girls. I mean, some new stuff happens to us. We have lives (sort of.)

Phoebe has started nursery. She does really well! I never had to stay with her. She sat next to her sister at the play dough table ( I made sure to tell the leaders that she will try to eat it as soon as their backs are turned every time) and I left them. The leaders told me she cried a couple times when she noticed I wasn't there, but it never was for very long. She's easily distracted. Yesterday was her second time to nursery (we put her in a week early) and she opened up more to everyone. She talked to them. The leaders have told me that I should get Gwen's speech checked, because she's very hard to understand for a three-year-old, which amazed them because she's so "sharp." (She's the only kid there who knows her alphabet and numbers.) Phoebe's not that way, I guess. Gwen's very talkative, and I can usually figure out what she's saying, but she does have a hard time communicating with others. We'll see what happens. Anyway, back to Phoebe - she is learning her letters. She knows what letters are, but she can't see one and name it correctly. When she sees words, she points to them and says "B O I E." She's getting there! She talks a lot. She asks to sit on the potty, and she sings "Bye Bye Pee Pee, Bye Bye Poop." It's disgusting, but most potty training dvds are. She'll probably be trained before her sister. Seriously.

Gwen is in her terrible threes. She has as much energy as ever and she keeps me on my toes. She's a sweet heart, too. She loves her sister very much even though she knocks her down a million times a day. I think she's getting bored with the apartment.

Good thing, too, I guess, because we're moving. Next month we're getting out of Rexburg and moving on to something. Not sure what that something is yet, but we're moving toward it. We're staying in Idaho, that's all we know.

No pictures this time, because I have them all on facebook. Nothing to illustrate anyway. I just wanted to post to let people know we're still around, but not for long. Thank goodness!

Princess Gwen Turns Three!

Gwen's birthday was Saturday, and, as everyone keeps telling me, I have a three-year-old! Sometimes I can't believe it's only been 3 years. Sometimes I feel like she should be a teenager already. But most times I can't believe she's not a baby anymore. She speaks in complete sentences now (and I can understand her more than half the time), she loves pizza, she helps take care of her sister (when she's not pushing her over). She's no longer my little ball of energy... she's now my big, gigantic, how-the-heck-am-I-going-to-catch-her ball of energy. She may be a little hard to handle at times, and she can be strong-willed and hyper, but I think those qualities will make her a successful person. She's going to be great at sports. I need to figure out how to contain that energy, keep her safe, and make sure I don't discipline the love of motivation right out of her. This little girl is awesome.

Gwen on the morning of her birthday. She's so excited to be three! All day long she chanted "It's my birthday!" and while at the grocery store picking up party food, she told everybody she was three. A woman from the bakery even gave her a free cookie. Yay for more birthday sugar!

She was so happy she even gave her sister a hug without being asked to.

And gave her many kisses, as long as I was taking pictures.

Since I forgot my camera for the first half of the party (what kind of mother am I?) I didn't get many pictures of the party. But here's one of her opening a present - Snow White! She loves Disney princesses, but she only had The Little Mermaid. She now goes around the apartment singing "Hi Ho! Hi ho!"

Here's Gwen in her new princess bedding, wearing her new princess sunglasses and new princess outfit. She's not exactly a girly girl (her favorite color is blue, believe it or not) but she certainly loves her Princesses!

Rockin her new glasses before church. I'm surprised she let us take them off of her before she left.

Happy birthday, love!

Random Pictures This Week

We're off to Soda Springs for the weekend! I thought I would post some pictures before we left. No reason. Just felt like it.

Potty Training Blues

How in the world do you potty train a kid?! We've been trying to get Gwen to use the potty for a while now, and recently we bought a princess potty to go on the toilet and princess training pants, which she absolutely loves, but still she refuses to go. She asks to sit on the toilet multiple times a day, but still nothing! She'll be three in a month, so what do I do? Tell her she can't start preschool until she uses the potty? I've tried bribing her with chocolate, even. Nothing's working. I'm sure she'll get it eventually, right??

Seriously. Any tips?

Ducks!

Because of the gorgeous day today, we walked to the Nature Park for some fun. The girls get absolutely crazy being cooped up all the time in the house, so it was a much needed adventure. We ran into a bunch of ducks and got to feed them our cracker snacks we brought us. Those ducks were brave. They came so close to us, I couldn't resist taking pictures. We could have hand fed these ducks if we wanted to. But we didn't. I've seen enough funny home videos to know that these things can get grumpy and attack. The girls were very excited to see quack-quacks up close.

Gwen never fails to make me laugh!

Sometimes Gwen can make me want to jump screaming from the window (good thing we live on the bottom floor) but this girl can make my day brighter in an instant. One minute, I'm pulling out my hair and the next I'm practically rolling on the floor laughing. I love this crazy one.

Right before Logan and I go to bed, Logan goes in to Gwen's room and tucks her in. This is how he discovered her the other night...

How in the world?? Which reminds me - Gwen's been "reading" up a storm lately. She has three books that she wants read over and over again lately, and last week I told her to read "Go, Dogs, Go" to me (I was sick of the story.) So she began to recite the book back to me word for word! She was startled, I could tell, that should could "read" the book. She kept laughing hysterically after each page and jumping up and down excitedly. She now doesn't let me read it to her anymore. All I have to do is turn the pages. She can also recite "PJ Funnybunny" and a lot of "Are You My Mother?" She's a clever little girl!

And the other day while I was making room in her closet and making a pile of things I was giving to DI, she found her old diaper changing pad, strapped herself into it, and walked around in it for over an hour. She would even lie down in it to watch tv. When she was a baby, her changing table would settle her down out of the most terrible crying tantrums. I guess it proved to be still comforting. Now another baby will get to be comforted, as I still gave it to the DI. She doesn't miss it...

I just love it when she lets me put her hair up!

In other news -

Last week, Logan and I had eye doctor appointments and we got new glasses! Well, Logan got new glasses, I got glasses for the first time ever. Before I got pregnant with Gwen, I had great eyesight and prided myself that I was the only one among my friends who didn't need glasses. Well, pregnancy hormones made me near sighted, so now I have my own pair of corrective lenses.

Logan's hot, new glasses. I don't know if you remember, but his old glasses were silver and slightly too big for his face. Now he's even sexier, don't you think? Yes? I thought so.

I'm not quite as stylish in glasses. Not all all. I think they're too big, or something. Maybe I just need to get used to them. I look like a strict librarian.

Good thing I don't need to wear them all the time. Just when I want to see at a distance, when I'm watching tv, at the grocery store, or while driving. Stuff like that. Logan needs his all the time. He's going blind. Sad day. Good thing he looks so good in them!

A New First

Gwen must have caught a stomach bug from nursery a couple of weeks ago, because last week she woke up in the middle of the night sick. It took her a couple of days to get over it. She was so quiet and cuddly. I hate it when she's sick, but a calm Gwen is something special. She would pull me over to the couch, saying "my tummy hurts," and that was my cue to sit and cuddle with her and watch tv. She's pretty much over it now. Sometimes she'll come over to me and pout, "My tummy hurts!" because she wants special hugs. She's adorable.

Last night, Phoebe woke up in the middle of the night with the stomach bug! It was so sad. Her first tummy sick. I had to bring her out in the living room and stay up with her for hours. Gwen was never sick like this when she was a baby. I'm not exaclty sure how to handle it, but I think we're managing. She sleeps a lot, and though it's hard for her to keep anything down, I make her drink her water. I give her cuddles, wipe downs, and extra loves, and I don't think there's much more any one could do. She's weak, but sometimes she'll get on the floor to play for a couple minutes. I'm just glad they didn't get sick at the same time. Now I'm praying Logan and I don't get it. (We will. Who am I kidding?)

Since Phoebe is anti-crib, I set her up on the couch. I had to surround her with all her friends, because she misses me when I don't hold her, even when I'm just in the kitchen. Her friends made her feel better.

Gwen thought it was pretty neat and wanted in, too.

While I was putting Phoebe down for a nap in her crib (she's still in there!) Gwen covered herself up on the couch to drink some milk. I surrounded her with the toys. She gets pretty jealous of her sister, so, even though Gwen's not sick, I have to give her all the extra care I've been giving Phoebe. Oh, well. Who doesn't need extra hugs once in a while?

This picture has nothing to do with stomach bugs. I've been trying to get Gwen to use the potty, and she's pretty determined not to. But Phoebe seems all for it. She get's mad when Gwen is on it for too long and she'll try to push her off. Then she climbs onto the potty herself and stays put for a while. At this rate, I'll be potty training them both at the same time. I can't wait. I'm so sick of changing diapers. Almost three straight years now! Is it silly to fast for your child to use the potty? Because I'm seriously thinking about doing just that. Either that or throwing away all her diapers and strapping the child down until she goes. That sounds like a really good idea right now.Oh well. I guess she'll go when she's ready.

Seems like Phoebe's ready now, though.

Easter Day

We hope everyone had a great Easter/conference weekend! We certaainly did. The girls got baskets and pigged out on candy all Easter morning. We stayed in jammies most of the day and cuddled up on the couch to watch the conference talks. Gwen was excited to point out "Present Monson" whenever he appeared. Even though it was just the four of us for the holiday, I wanted to make a big meal. It was my first big, holiday meal ever, so I was extremely pleased that everything turned out yummy. I jump on any reason to pig out. The only leftovers we have are rolls and apple spice cake, and they will be gone before the end of the day. So freaking good! Thanks, Patti, for the delicious spice cake recipe! I will be making that often.

Of course, Gwen didn't completely understand why we celebrate Easter. I told her we celebrate Jesus coming back. Through out the day, she'd say "Jesus is in the sky. He came back!" I love it when she gets excited to learn about Christ. The talks given in conference touched a lot on teaching your children in the home. I'm not sure how to make a 2 year old understand most things pertaining to the gospel. I'm not sure how to explain some things. I'm sure Heavenly Father will help us!

Gwennie was all too eager to help share Phoebe's basket.

The girls had a ball playing with all the bunnies the Easter bunny left to guard the baskets.

Happy Easter!!

Easter Dresses and Bubbles

Since GC is Easter Sunday this year, I was very pleased to dress the girls up in their Easter dresses for church a week early. It was very hard taking pictures of these two. I'm planning on taking more on Easter and hopefully they'll stand still for me. But we got lots of comments from people at church. I was surprised that not more people dressed up in pastels and whatnot for Easter. Maybe it's because we don't have church on Easter this year. When I was little, my mom went all out on us girls. She pranced us girls into church in matching dresses, hats, gloves, and purses. Logan wouldn't let me get them hats. They wouldn't have worn them for very long anyway. Still, they clean up nicely, huh?

Gwen's really into bubbles, as most kids are. She's been practicing doing the actual blowing. She's pretty good at it now. She calls it "bubble potion" like they do on Super Why. That or "Mr. Bubbles" from Lilo and Stitch.

Her cheeks crack me up.