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.