Yuletide Review

There it is, the infamous Santa picture we went through so much to get... I love it!  I have the cutest kids!
So Christmas, it was wonderful, even if it had a few black marks here and there.  One huge black mark was that Thomas was sick. Like REALLY sick.  Go to the ER sick.  After 3 days of no eating and only kind of drinking and non stop crying, we took him in, and he had 2 bad ear infections and a viral infection.  So they gave him meds to stop the vomiting (did I forget to mention he was throwing up all the time?)  and antibiotics.  Also, apparently little kids in the ER get the red carpet treatment.  It was very full, and we got a private waiting room, they gave Thomas a quilt, a search and find toy, a book, and a stuffed dog.  Nurses kept coming to see why he was crying, and if they could do anything, it was really nice of them.  Finally the Dr said he had to drink something, otherwise we would have to be admited to give him fluids, which apparently is really hard on a toddler (for obvious reasons I guess) So the nurse brought him 2 sodas, apple juice and "special pink juice" which he actually drank! And then proceeded to drink everything else, once they got the anti-nausea meds in him he was doing much better. But then we had to wait 2 hours to see if he could keep it down. He did, and we left only to have him throw up in the parking lot, no joke.  But it was okay.
Also, my mom was really sick, so that was no fun.  But we had a great Christmas.  We got to spend time with both families, and give and get plenty of gifts, and we got tons of snow (YAY!)  And Lorelai was perfect, not a peep the whole time we were in the ER and dealing with a super sick brother, she was great.  I love that girl (you too Thomas) 
I just spent the last 4 hours unpacking and putting away gifts as well as reorganizing to fit it all,  we are so blessed! And Thomas is laughing, BEST. SOUND. EVER.

Cookies

We recently took a trip to Colorado, and James' sister had some delicious cookies, so I totally copied her idea.  I found some recipes and reworked them and created a sugar gingerbread hybrid cookie, and then some salted caramel cream cheese frosting. They are pretty good, not gonna lie. I thank my sister in law for the inspiration.  It was so much fun for me to have Thomas help me cut out the shapes and he also had a blast.  I am loving the Christmas season, I also made hot chocolate on a stick. Haven't tried it yet, but we have given it t our neighbors, so I hope it's good....
We have also totally given in to Thomas asking to open presents early, yeah... So we have half as many as we started with, but I'm fine with it, let the magic last as long as possible.   We have decided that we are having our own little Christmas on Saturday, before we celebrate with our families next week.  I'm really excited, I have meals planned, and fun treats and everything, I can't wait!
Also we have started watching Vampire Diaries... It's very CW.

Thank you giving!

I figured since I have been HORRIBLE at writing lately I should give an update.
Thanksgiving was great fun. We spent time with my family, and shopped, and ate. It was wonderful.  Thomas wouldn't say Thanks-giving, he would say "Thank you giving" or "Happy giving!"  It was really cute.  He loved all the great food, and spent the whole meal "cutting" his stuffing with his fork. Love that boy.
This year I went all out with my mom and did a whole table setting and everything. I had WAY too much fun doing it. I'm pretty sure my whole family thought I was silly, but I had a blast with it.  Maybe I'll put pictures up, somewhere... Probably not. 
Lorelai slept though Thanksgiving. She wasn't too excited about it. She was also a bit of a mommy's/daddy's girl all weekend. That's tiring!  She moves all over the place now, but not front back, it's always side to side...  And Thomas just tried to sit on her head. Oh the joys! It's the little things really.
Black Friday was a huge success!  We spent what we planned, didn't go totally crazy with gift buying, and still had a great time!  
Ok, I'm being cut short by a super cute little girl who is rather upset that her brother won't leave her alone. He just wants to play Lorelai!

Watermelon

I love it. Seriously. I can eat all I want, all day, every day, and it's never too much.  It's not too much of a good thing, and it's not too many calories.  I actually read somewhere that watermelon is a negative calorie food, meaning you burn more calories digesting it than you could consume from it.  It just makes me happy.

So we celebrated Thomas's birthday, and it was so much fun.  We went to the aquarium, and at first he was a little scared of the fish, but then he loved it. Especially the penguins.  We had a fun cake and cupcakes and pizza and breadsticks. It was great fun.  Then on his actual birthday we ordered more pizza (I'm sick of it) and sang and gave him his gift. We got him a tool set, with a drill that actually spins and screws in little screws.  He loves it. As in for 3 days that's the only toy he played with (that's a big deal for a 2 year old, let me just tell you).  He also got a fun magnetic alphabet book, cute clothes, and shoes from our families. It was a great 2nd birthday if I do say so myself.

The kids got shots, and Lorelai is 13.15 lbs, 23 inches, and Thomas is 23lbs and 33 inches.  I have one tall skinny kid and one short chunky one. I LOVE IT!  It's so much fun :)  However both kids shots at the same time, bad plan.  I had to have my mom come with me because James was at school, it's a good thing she was there because I hate it! Thomas was so upset, he kept saying "Hurt, hurt"  and it made my heart hurt.  Lorelai got over it pretty quickly, I cuddled her and she was fine, Thomas was sad for hours and kept telling me about it.  But he's done with shots until kindergarten, party!!!  Lorelai goes back in 2 months.

The police academy is in full swing now, and I miss James like crazy. But he's having a great time.

My little not-roller

Lorelai hates to roll over.  She has done it about 5 times, and gets really upset about it. So now she refuses.  She scoots around on her stomach, and can do a complete 180 while on her stomach to face the toys she wants, but she refuses to roll over.  It's a little odd actually. Thomas was a rolling fiend, he wouldn't stop, I couldn't keep him on a blanket to save my life. Lorelai, on the other hand, must get motion sickness or something.... We do tummy time all the time, sometimes twice a day. Who knows.
I often find myself only posting on my blog when one of my friends has, and I think "Oh, I should write something" 
My phone fell into the toilet. Very tragic, it's currently getting a rice bath to fix it, I hope.
Lorelai started solids. She is pretty good with them, still spits some out, but actually eats too.
Thomas still refuses to eat, and Lorelai is gaining on him. Literally. They are less than 10 lbs apart now. My little chunky girl.
Thomas LOVES nursery all of the sudden. He gets mad when we leave, and asks to go back all the time. Which is great!
I have our Halloween costumes almost all done, it's awesome. We are the famous foursome from the Wizard of Oz.
Lorelai is barely into 3-6 month clothing, apparently she's not as chunky as I'd like to believe...
James is amazing, he has made it through 6 weeks of school, every day. Until last Friday, I asked him to skip because I missed him.

Life is good, and Lorelai is crying, got to go do my thing!

A Church-time Disaster

So this morning as I lay in bed I thought "I want to sleep in, but I'll get up and we will go to Church, it's important"  So getting dressed was the same ordeal it always is, Thomas not wanting his tie, Lorelai pooping on our way out the door, ect.  Nothing out of the norm, other than Lorelai was a little fussy, but babies do that sometimes.
We got to  church right on time, sat down, both kids were doing good, we had announcements and then Thomas started to cough. Just a little, oh ho, little did I know how problematic a little coughing could be.  He kept coughing, and then burped, really loudly (several people turned and smiled at us, especially those with little kids) and then he made a face.  The worst face, one you never want to see, but especially not while sitting in Sacrament meeting.
Thomas threw up. All over James, the bench, me, the pew in front of us, and the VERY nice couple sitting in front of us. That's right, during the opening song my two year old managed to catch every eye in the audience.  Poor kid,  before we knew what was happening he threw up again. I then very sternly told James to take Thomas outside, all the way outside so that he wouldn't get anything else dirty. And then I got out the baby wipes, gave a few to the people in front of us and set to cleaning as much as I could.  Right then Lorelai started screaming.  At that moment I thought "I am the most irreverent mother that ever was".  And I wanted to cry.  Then a very nice older lady came over and took Lorelai, and Thomas's nursery leader brought me paper towels and I got it all cleaned.   On our way home I thought "Why do we ever bother? we NEVER make it through sacrament, and now everyone in my ward will know me as the mom whose kid threw up in sacrament meeting" We got home, got everyone cleaned, and as we put Thomas in the bath I just started to cry.  I was so mortified at what had happened, and completely embarrassed.  I felt like everyone in the meeting turned from the first counselor who was speaking to us, and just stared at us. 
Of course that wasn't enough, I went in my room to get something, and my bed was soaking wet.  Our air conditioner that is above our bed leaked.  And Lorelai was still screaming.
Oh my, it's been quite the day.  I'll post again soon, and that one will have a happier undertone, I promise. But right now, I am a little upset.

I'm no good at this...

Coming up with creative titles that is.  My dear friends whose blogs I read always have such good titles and fun stories and I just feel like I can't find a creative title to save my life.  Perhaps I am just too hard on myself and people don't really care what I title my blog....

Probably.

Anywho, life around these parts is pretty awesome.  James took Friday off of work, just cause he didn't want to get up in the morning (and then two minutes later Thomas woke up and he had to get up anyway, lol) but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  We got to go to the park, and play all day, and I got to clean my house without holding a 3 month old and constantly craning my neck to check on my two year old who gets suspiciously quiet from time to time. Yes, that is my exciting thing, cleaning my house. What can I say, I'm a homemaker through and through (my friend Brittany would have undoubtedly had a much funnier way of saying that, and for that, I think I need to spend more time hanging out with her and her two adorable kids...) Anyhow, I feel like we are finally getting a good rhythm, I have a schedule of what part of the house gets cleaned on what days, and when the kids get bathed, and what time of day we do reading time, and singing time ect.  Lorelai still likes to have little fits of annoyance when I sit down to read to Thomas (for some reason she has decided she has to have me holding her and standing while trying to read to Thomas... it's kind of like a circus act, because Thomas wants to turn the pages and point out letters and pictures, I have mad skills) Speaking of my adorable kids, want an update? I'm sure you do, I'm sure you sit around all day thinking "What is going on with Amanda's kids?" No? Oh, well okay, too bad for you. You're going to get one anyway (I realize as I sit here that I keep saying you, and acting as though I am talking to a specific person, does that in any way qualify as me talking to myself, like, digitally... food for thought) Thomas is way too much fun, and way to freakin' smart. He figures everything out, even if I am trying my best to keep him from doing so. He remembers where I hide things, and days later will go get them to play with them. The dang nerf guns I got James for Christmas last year have become the bane of my existence. Thomas figured out how to load and shoot them.  The big problem is, he doesn't think he can do it himself, and acts like he needs my help.  So instead of him playing quietly by himself for a little while, he chases me around and asks for help.  He has found them 5 different times when I have tried to hide them... Hopefully the back of our closet behind our Christmas decorations will last for a while... Hopefully.  Lorelai is such a little observer. She always wants to watch everything, and gets mad if she can't.  She loves to look at toys, all of them. But just look, she's not into touching them. I worried that maybe she couldn't get them or something, but when I try to clean her nose or wipe her face she can sure grab my hand with uncanny accuracy... So I'm thinking she just doesn't want to hold the toys...
We are watching  "Operation Dumbo Drop" so I gotta go before I miss the good part ;)

He did it!

James is officially in the police academy!  I may have said this before, but now everything is done.  We got the email about financial aid just yesterday and bought his uniform last week.  It's all done and he starts on September 11 (which I find oddly fitting that he will begin his training in law enforcement on a day with such an intense history)  I must admit I have very mixed feelings about this. I am so excited for him to get to learn and train, he's really interested in criminal justice, and this is important for that.  Basically any job in law enforcement wants you to have gone through POST (peace officer standards training) and he'll get to learn cool stuff like how to breach a house, and take down a suspect ect.  It will be great, because once it's over he'll finally be able to get a job in his chosen field which we have tried for but failed because he hadn't gone through POST.  But, (big but) on the other hand I am really sad and nervous. He will work from 8-5 and then go to school from 5:30-9:30 M-F and then Sat will be POST from 8-4.  I won't see him at all during the day, and neither will Thomas and Lorelai (mostly Thomas) from September to November and then March to July (it's a very odd time block of classes)  I have no idea how I'm going to deal with this.... James and I do everything possible together. He goes grocery shopping with me, anytime I have an errand I wait for him to be home so we can all go together.  He watches the kids so I can shower, and occasionally nap, or do my hair (which is even more rare). Basically the only way I stay sane with 2 small children is having James around and looking forward to that time in the day that he'll be here and I can have 5 minutes of quiet time, or ask someone else to change yet another dirty diaper (2 kids produce an insane amount of diapers. If we want to help the environment, figure out a way to turn baby poop into a resource, trust me, you'll make millions)  And honestly, I just don't know how my sanity will hold up... So if by Christmas you see me muttering to myself and looking generally insane, you'll know why :)

Thomas gives mommy a heart attack

So I went to the bathroom this morning (nothing strange about that) I had laid Lorelai in her swing and Thomas was munching on some crackers, so I felt safe enough to leave them for a few minutes.  Well, Thomas came into me and said "Lorelai, gone" and I said the baby is in her swing and he said "No see" (love that 2 year old grammar) and I said "Lorelai is not in her swing, she's gone?" and he said "Yes" So I rush out to the living room, wondering where on earth my baby could be (isn't that part of a Pearl Jam song?) and my heart is pounding, and she's there. In her swing. Just like I said.  And Thomas looks at her and says "OH! BABY!"  and continues eating his crackers.  It sure seems that my children like to scare me...

A story...

Gather round children and let me tell you a story.
This morning I went to Seven Peaks with my inlaws. It was a beautiful day and we had fun, we stayed for a few hours and both kids were asleep by the time we got home. So I put them both in bed and changed and laid in bed as well. After about an hour or so Lorelai woke up and was fussing, so I was trying to comfort her, when I heard out front door open. I look at the clock and it's 3, not even close to time for James to be home, so I think "Maybe I'm just imagining it..." then I see a shadow on the wall, and I freaked out. I yelled out "Hello" and grabbed our gun and loaded it, because at this point I'm thinking "Holy crap, it's the middle of the day and someone is coming into my house where my two children are sleeping" So then I hear the front door close, and I think "Okay, apparently I scared them off" But I still take the gun and go through the entire house (and my heart is beating out of my chest, I'm so scared)  Well no one was there, so I check outside, and no one was there.  So I go back into my room grateful no one was actually there, and call James and tell him what happened, and by this time Lorelai (who had woken up when I started to hear things) was really upset, so I nursed her (keeping the gun close at hand) and called James.  After she finished eating I came back out to check and see if anything was missing or moved ect. I don't see anything at first, and then I notice something on my kitchen table. My Pass of all Passes, which I had left with James's family that morning so they could get a tube. So I called them and asked if they had come into my house and they said yes, it was my brother in law David dropping off my pass and getting some water, not some crazed psycho.  So I told them I was going to have to beat David because he had me thinking someone was in my house, and finally my heart stopped beating so fast.
Let me just tell you, I had a million things running through my mind and here are a few "We have to move" "What if they come back, I'm never going to sleep again" "I'm in my underwear (because I had come home from the water park and immediately taken a nap, I didn't need clothes)" "It's probably a good thing I didn't see David because it would have been very awkward... I wasn't dressed and I'd have pointed a loaded gun at him"  "I'm going to punch David for scaring me so much" "James would be so proud of me for keeping my wits about me and getting the gun"  "I should write this in the blog because it's actually a funny story"  Well it's funny now that I know someone wasn't breaking into my home.
So to sum it up for you: don't come into my house without me knowing, because I'll think your a crazed psycho killer and will load the gun to come make you leave...

Livin' the life

Lots of things happening! Well, they aren't exactly exciting (unless you're me, and everything my kids do I find exciting!)  Lets start with the not so exciting:
Thomas dropped Lorelai. I wasn't even sure I wanted to post about this, because I'm pretty sure it makes me the worst mother ever, but I figure I don't care if anyone judges me, and I feel like a horrible mom either way... I went to the bathroom, and they both started to cry, I figured Lorelai wanted to be held, and Thomas wanted something or other, he comes running in crying asking me to come with him and saying "baby, get!"  I told him one second (not knowing anything was wrong) and Lorelai had stopped crying, so I came out and Thomas ran in front of me, and I come into the living room and Lorelai's on the floor (not crying at this point) and I freaked out. I ran in, and grabbed her, scaring her and making her cry (much  to my relief!) I held Thomas and Lorelai and comforted them both, and cried. Called the Dr, the nurse was awesome, she told me it happens all the time, and to watch for a few things, and come back if she had certain symptoms. She was fine.
Thomas has figured out hide and seek.  Which is cute, and utterly terrifying at the same time. We like to leave the door open in the morning and later evening to help cool the house. So James and I were getting things from the back of the apartment, and I came back out (after literally 1 min) and said "Thomas!" and he wasn't there. So I went into the kitchen, not there, so I went into both bedrooms, the bathroom, the living room and kitchen again, by now screaming his name and becoming frantic. James joined me searching for him, we even checked outside just in case (horrible thought!) he has fallen off the porch. He was nowhere. I was freaking out, screaming his name and almost crying when James yells "THOMAS!" like he does if Thomas is in trouble or about to do something that might hurt him, and Thomas started to cry and came out from behind the desk in our living room. Worst 2 minutes of my life. I started to think horrible things about why I couldn't find my son, and I cried when we found him. Needless to say we both held the kids for the next few hours.
Thomas has smacked his head on the ground twice this week. And I'm sorry to say once was my fault.  We went to take family pictures, Thomas was playing with grandpa, tripped and hit his head on the asphalt. He's fine, I was terrified he'd really hurt himself and ran over to him, big lump, a bruise, and he was fine a minute later. Then today on our way out the door for church, I picked him up so we could get down the stairs faster, and fell down the stairs.  We were at the bottom, so he only fell about 1 foot, but he hit his head on the handrail, and I twisted my ankle. Again he was fine in a minute and I felt horrible for hours, probably days (I'll let you know)
Now for something happy, because I'm sitting here feeling like the worst mother ever and wanting to hide in a hole.
Thomas is using little sentences, and they are adorable! He'll say things like "Miss daddy" or "want plate" ect, and I love it! He's also started saying  "Want!" and shaking his head no if he doesn't want something.    He is learning the alphabet really well. He watches different shows, and loves "Super Why" on netflix. Whenever we are out he finds letters and points them out to me. He is also getting better with colors, calling certain things correct colors.   He loves to explore, and make messes, and he loves his little sister.  He wants to learn all the time, and loves to read. We are trying to get him to read to us, rather than just being read to. And he's started doing it. He has one books called Monster Halloween and we have read it hundreds of times (no joke) and he has it memorized. So he will sit down and "read" it. Each page says "Monster (word)" so he'll say Dress, or scare, or share, or shake, whatever each page says. But he only does that sometimes, he much prefers to be read to. So we do, all the time, every day :)
Lorelai is the cutest baby ever! She has fat rolls on her thighs and I love them!  Thomas was never fat, and so the fact that Lorelai pretends to be, makes me so happy! She also has super fat cheeks, the most adorable thing!  She is stingy with her smiles though. She loves to look at us (especially Thomas) and makes the cutest sounds! She is pretty much a 2 1/2 month old baby :) But the most perfect one ever!
James is officially in the police academy. Which is awesome! And horrible at the same time... He is going to go through this fall, and I am so stoked for him. He's also very excited!  It'll be really great, the downside is it's M-F 5-9:30 and Sat 8-5 from September to November and March to July. So he will work all day and go to school all night.  I'm going to be a single mom for all intents and purposes for a few months :( The worst part will be when Thomas wants to play with James and I have to tell him Daddy is at work... I'm glad he's still so young and so it won't be something he remembers, but I still hate it...
And now that I've written a novel I will leave to ponder my words, until I decide to post again :)

Squats

As I write this Thomas is alternating between running around the living room and doing squats. Apparently my daily living room workouts are having a good impact on not only me and my body but also my little family. It warms my heart that my goal to be in better shape is wearing off on the people I love the most.  My sweet two year old is seeing his parents be healthy and exercising, and I really hope that we can continue to do that so he grows up being as healthy as possible.  Especially since  I have always struggled getting him to eat as healthy as I want him to.
Also Thomas has decided he wants to start potty training.  He has used the big boy potty 3 times now, and this afternoon he came up to me while I was going to the bathroom and said "Pee!" and so I asked if he wanted to go pee, and he emphatically said "YES!" so I took off his diaper, and sat him on his little toilet and he went pee in the potty.  I was so proud, I can't even express it.  He has always been that way, when he is ready  to do something new or learn something new, he lets us know. When he was ready to sleep in his own bed he stopped sleeping through the night in our bed. When he wanted to learn to walk he wouldn't let me go anywhere without holding his hands and letting him walk.  When he wanted to feed himself he wouldn't take food from a fork unless he was holding it.  I am so glad he's so wonderful, because there are so many times that I think to myself "I don't know how to teach him this, or when to teach him this" And then he lets me know, that he is ready for it, and we work together and he is extremely paitent with me as I learn how to teach him.  I LOVE being a mom, and I am always amazed at how much divine help I am given on a daily basis.
So a brief overview of our summer so far.... We have a pass of all passes and we have been to Seven Peaks quite a few times, and we went to an Orem Owlz game, and Trafalga.  We are going to another Owlz game on Saturday with some close friends of ours.  Thomas has painted the bathtub (with washable paints), and his new favorite activity is to play with water. I fill up a big pitcher and give him cups and such and he sits on the front porch step and pours them back and forth. It makes me wish that we had a deck, or a porch that was safe enough for him to play on alone. Alas, we will suffer through apartment living for a bit longer.
Lorelai is growing too fast.  She is still in newborn clothes thankfully.  But she's getting bigger, and I love and hate it at the same time.  She can now lift her whole upper body while doing tummy time. Just think of the Cobra pose in yoga and pilates, she's a pro at it :)  She sleeps really well at night, and is just a happy girl. Her hair is getting longer, and I have tried several hairstyles, I still like the mohawk the best :)
I'm also proud to say that I have been doing pretty good at exercising. I have been trying everyday to get in half an hour of straight strength training everyday.  I can now do 200 squats, 300 toe raises, 60-90 pushups, 200 jumping jacks, 100 crunches (on an exercise ball), 75 mountain climbers, and about 100 reps of 4 exercises that I don't know the name for...  It makes me really happy that I can feel myself getting stronger, I try to push myself to do more and more reps, and it kills me, but I love it.  I haven't figured out a way to go running with both children without spending the money on a jogging stroller... So we'll see what happens with that.  Maybe I'll get motivated enough to get up at 6 so James can come with me and deal with Thomas, or maybe we'll do it at night (not an ideal situation because I hate being hot when I go to bed...) We'll see, since I am running a 5k in March. We are doing a 5k on the 14th, but we are just walking it. It's a fundraiser, so it's for a good cause.
James is a trooper, he still goes to work at a job I know he doesn't like everyday, and he doesn't ever complain about it.  He is so amazing.  I love that he gets to come home somedays at 3, and hate that we dont' get enough hours. I complain about it more than he does!!  He is going to Wyoming for work in a few weeks... Yes, Wyoming, it's weird and I am not sure why they chose to do a corporate retreat in Wyoming... But he'll be gone for a few days, so I am going to stay with my family. I HATE being home alone at night, it makes me feel like I need to sleep with the gun just in case... So I'll go hang with my family.
Sorry all of my blog posts are like epics now.... I just don't write often enough and then I have too much to say. Although I suppose I have too much to say even when I do write more often...

Eyes! Eyes!

This is what Thomas says when the sun is in his face, or if he stares at something bright and it hurts his eyes.  He'll say it over and over again until I acknowledge it and ask if his eyes are bothering him. Then he'll simply say yes, and move on. That's how he is with most things these days. He just wants me to know he's talking, and as soon as I let him know I was and respond, he moves on.  He says so many things now, a big problem is he learns new words, and I haven't figured out how to translate them yet...I'm getting better and he's pretty patient with me :)
He's also loving summer. Well, what summer we've had so far. The wind is putting a serious damper on his new swimming pool, we filled it up and I was so excited to spend the afternoon sitting on the grass with Lorelai while Thomas played in the pool, and then for the past week we have had insanely windy days... I think I'm more disapointed than he is...
Lorelai is an angel. Seriously, she's perfect. She is such an easy baby, I thank Heavenly Father constantly. Literally.  She is content to just hang out, be held, not be held, sit up, lay down, watch her brother, whatever. There are a few things she doesn't like. She HATES being cold, so if she isn't wrapped up or cuddled then she fusses, until we put more blankets on her. She also dislikes being changed, I'm guessing for the same reason. You take off her clothes or her diaper and she is upset! But is happy almost immediately after you get everything back on.  She's a month old, and I am loving it!  Thomas and I talk about how cute she is, and he comes up and kisses her, and then he makes me go play with him. Good times.
James fixed my jogging stroller, so we went for a walk, and it was fabulous! I'm still supposed to wait 2 weeks, but that ain't happening!  I'm feeling great, and I can tell when I am doing too much, so I just listen to my body and enjoy being physically active again.  I got James to do a pilates video with me, it was awesome! He has a whole new respect for when I tell him I've done pilates. Lol He was actually pretty good at it! I think he prefers tennis and basketball, but still, he's a great husband for supporting me and doing it!
In summation.... All is great!

First excursion

That's right, I did it. I took out both kids, by MYSELF!  So it wasn't anything super intense, I got everything packed up and took the kids to my parents house for the day. So all I had to do was get them into the car and drive down there, but it was still a bit of an effort.  Getting together diapers and extra clothes and making sure everyone had clothes and everything was a bit intense, I was worried I would forget something essential, like you know, the baby.  But I managed to get everything and get down there! We played all day, and it was fun.
I had a fever this past weekend, it was horrible! I was freezing and sweating for a few days, completely miserable.  Thankfully James got to take a few days off to help take care of me and the kids.  We also went to see Snow White and the Huntsman.... meh. It was only okay, let's just say I don't like Kristen Stuart as anything, so that didn't add anything.  But it wasn't too bad, pretty good if she wasn't in it, actually.  We took Lorelai with us, and she was great.
Last night, however, she was not.  I nursed her almost all night long. And when she wasn't nursing she was fussing. Which is really odd for her. She is always so chill, she only fusses if she's hungry, and then it's usually one yell, and then she waits for food.  She doesn't even care if her diaper is dirty (which I almost wish she would so I could know if she pooped, right now I just change her every 1-2 hours, and it's always dirty, so I have no way of knowing when in that time frame she is filling her pants...)  So needless to say last night was bad.  I hope today she is better... We'll see

Day 1

Today is my first day all alone as a stay at home mom of two... And it's going quite well so far! Thomas and I have had story time, and run around the house a little already, Lorelai has been perfect, she's eaten once, and just sat and chilled either in her swing or in my arms.  I'd say so far today has been a success!  Of course it's only 9:15am... I have high hopes!
James job is giving us issues... we decided a while ago that we would wait until Lorelai came and then start looking for another job for him. Well it's a good thing too, they are seriously cutting back on hours, they only give him enough to just barely keep him full time. Which I love in some ways, he get off most days around 3 or 4, which gives us much more family time.  But at the same time we aren't getting paid as much, which is hard.  We are trying really hard to spend less eating out and other misc things that come up. It's not that easy... The eating out will be much easier now that I can walk and cook food again.
 Oh, did I mention that? Now that Lorelai is here all my pregnancy complaints have vanished! I'm still not in great shape (being on bedrest for 2 months, and partial bedrest for 4 months really makes you out of shape) but I feel so much better! I am cleaning my house and making meals and feeling great!  Here are some updates on my two beautiful chillens (that's what my mom's southern relatives call children...)
Thomas: He is the perfect big brother.  For the most part he ignores her. Which is great! when he does pay attention it's because he wants to hold her, or kiss her, or hug her.  I feel like it's perfect!  He wants to give her his toys, and he is always so excited when she squeaks or wakes up. He also gets really concerned if she cries (which she doesn't) It's adorable
Lorelai: The perfect baby. She only cries when she's cold or hungry, and it's usually just one yell. Then she'll stop, and see what you are going to do about it.  She sleeps pretty well, not as great as Thomas yet, but we're working on it :)  She is so chill, we did some newborn pictures yesterday, and she was great!  She is getting bigger, and it makes me a little sad, but she's still quite tiny :)  We went in for a one week check up, since she had a bad rash, and she had gained some weight, which is amazing. Most newborns loose in their first week, and slowly get it back, she's sustaining her weight :)
James: not my child, but still my family :) The perfect husband.  Looking for another job, and looking forward to the police academy in a few months, it should be really good training for him.  He was so great, having him home was like heaven. I realized that for the rest of our lives I am going to be sad that he has to go to work... I'll have to work on it, since he has to go to work. I totally cried this morning after he left, I'm worse than my toddler...
Me: Down to pre-pregnancy weight, and then some. In my entire pregnancy I gained a total of 5lbs (I was weighed the day I was induced) and now from that weight I am down 15lbs, or 10lbs from my prebaby weight.  I am starting my diet either this week or next (waiting on a few food items I need) and I can't really start exercising for another month, but I have started doing some core strengthening exercises, just a few a day, but I'm dying to get back to regular exercise, so I'm pushing the limits of post pardum exercise allowments...

Children

That's right, now I have children, there are 2. And I am completely in love with them both :)  They are so fun!  I mean, don't get me wrong, I often feel completely overwhelmed and inadequate, and James is still on his paternity leave... Next week is going to be a long week for me I think.  I am truly blown away at all the emotions I can feel when looking at my little family. I love them so much.  It is an all consuming kind of amazing love that is completely indescribable. The three of them are my whole world, and I'd do anything for them.  And at the same time I look at Thomas and Lorelai and think "I can't do this, I can't be a mother of 2! They out number me!" and I worry that I will spend too much time with one of them, and the other will feel forgotten, or that I won't show them enough how much I love them.  I am scared that I won't be able to handle everyday life, and it's kind of overwhelming.  But this afternoon, we were hanging out in the living room and James was holding Lorelai, and Thomas came up and got in the chair with them, and they all just sat and watched the TV.  It warmed my heart, and made me think that just maybe I could handle being a mother of two...

Birth Story

Well, she made it :)  Little Miss Lorelai is here! She's perfect, and healthy, and adorable.  So since this is my journal I am going to write the story of how we got her here!

On Thursday May 3rd at my weekly Dr appt the Dr suggested I have an amniocentesis the following week to see if Lorelai's lungs were mature enough to be induced.  We agreed, since I was having so many issues.  My hips had become increasingly worse, they both were giving out under me, I had even fallen quite a few times and bruised my hip pretty good (pretty bad?).  So we were scheduled for Tuesday at 10:15 am.  On Monday morning I was feeling pretty bad, and depressed.  So James called in sick to help take care of Thomas and I, and just to kind of have some time together. It was a really nice day actually, we got some stuff done, and played with Thomas a lot.  So Tuesday came, Michelle and MarJean came to watch Thomas and James and I went to the hospital. The nurse came out and called for Michelle, I waited a second, and since I was the only one in the waiting room said "I'm Amanda MICHELLE" and she laughed and said, "Oh, yes! Sorry, I was reading the wrong part of the form!"  So we were rolled back (I was in a wheelchair) and they did a nice long ultrasound to check her out, and find a place for the needle. The dr came in and told us all of the risks, which included her being born (kinda the point of the test) and possibly nicking the umbilical cord, in which case I'd have an immediate emergency c-section. This was like a 1 in 1000 chance, but it sure sounded bad... We agreed, feeling that it was best to do the test. So they put the needle in the first time, and boy was Lorelai uncooperative! She kept moving in the way, and wouldn't stay still long enough to do the test. Well they put the needle in and Lorelai literally grabbed the umbilical cord and moved it toward the needle.  Well that was too close for the Dr, so she took it out (I was fine with it!  Babies safety is way more important than anything else!) unfortunately that meant that she had to put the needle in my stomach again... The second time hurt a lot more than the first.  But they were able to get the sample, and then we had a NST while we waited for the results. So about half an hour later we got the results, and obviously it was that her lungs were mature!  So the nurse tells us this, and speaks to my Dr on the phone, and the nurse tells us to go home, and they would call us to let us know when to get back. So long story short, we go home and wait, and wait and wait, finally about 5 hours later I called the Dr, only to find out she was trying to get a hold of me the whole time, the nurse was crazy. We were supposed to go straight from the test over to Labor and Delivery, WHAT? So we hurridly find a sitter, and get everything together, and head to the hospital.  Get all checked in and they start hooking me up and what not.  We got there about 5pm, they started the pitocin at around 6, and by 8 nothing was happening... We were just waiting. So I sent James to get some dinner, I knew we would be up all night and the hospital only serves food during the day. So he got some Carl's Jr and I just kind of chilled, and waited. Still nothing happened.  So around 10 the Dr came in to see me, and she suggested we break my water so we can jump start everything and start doing internal monitoring because the external one wasn't working very well.  So around 10:30-11 we broke my water and my contractions came in at full force.  Right on top of each other, like 1 min apart.  So I got the epidural, I figured there was no use in waiting, and boy was I right.  I got the epidural around 11:30, and the nurse came in to check a little later, maybe 20 min, and I was at 9 cm.  Before they broke my water I was 3cm. So between 11 and 11:30 I made it 6 cm, and then by midnight I was 10, and getting ready to push.  The Dr came in and started getting everything ready, and by 12:30 we started to push.  She was born 15 minutes later.  Perfect, and beautiful. She had a full head of dark hair, and I was so excited! They let us keep her for about an hour and she nursed and we smiled and laughed and hugged her. Then they took her to the nursery for a bath, and I made my way to our room.  I got all cleaned up, and James and Lorelai came back. We cuddled a while, and then I asked the nurse to take her to the nursery.  I wasn't sure if I would have woken up if she cried, and James was exhausted. So we sent her to be taken care of, and slept for a few hours.  Of course they kept bugging me and taking my BP and giving me shots, ect. Well the baby slept for 6 hours! I was so sad I didn't get to sleep that whole time too! The next day we had a lot of visitors, and Thomas LOVED the baby. He just wanted to hold her and kiss her, it was so adorable!  He had so much fun seeing her! We left on Thursday afternoon, because I wanted to get home for Thomas. I would have liked to stay and have the nurses a little longer, but I felt like Thomas needed to come home. Well, that's the story so far!  We are so excited to have her home, and we are very blessed to have such beautiful children!

Lacking

Sorry my blog posts haven't been coming as regular as I would like, but I feel like I complain so much in my posts that I almost feel bad writing them...  So here are some fun bullet points, so that I can complain a little, but still have moments of happiness :)

-Thomas says so much!  He repeats almost every new word he hears, including the other day when I said "Shoot!" it was really cute, but now I'm realizing how many words I say that I'm not sure I want him to say.  I call him freakin' adorable all the time... I'm not sure I want him to say that to someone.  James however is trying to teach him words and he refuses.  He really wants him to say "homie-g" Thomas just laughs at him, which makes me laugh, and thus reinforces Thomas's giggles, it's a vicious cycle, but a really cute one!
-James and I graduated! It was great!  Because I was so hugely pregnant my mom kept telling everyone that I needed this and that, so we walked in first, our names were read about 6th or 7th, and then we got to just go.  We didn't sit through the rest of the 1300 names or anything. Also there was a freakin' (see I used it again!) hilarious poem, I'll see if I can find it on YouTube to share, because words cannot describe...
-Thomas kind of gave up putting himself to bed about 2 weeks ago, he just decided he wouldn't do it. So of course once he started to get out of bed we would go get him, not realizing we were teaching him that meant he didn't have to go to bed. So after a few nights on 10pm bedtimes and a few mornings of really early rising, we decided to stick to our guns and let him cry a little.  He figured it out quickly.  He would come  to the door, and cry, and then after we didn't grab him he would crawl back in  bed, whimper a little and then go to sleep.  Sweet success!
-James' job is just so so.  It's a bill payer, however he doesn't enjoy it, at all.  And it's hard because he kind of feels slapped in the face because of how they restructured everything. They changed how it all went and he got moved, it was a totally lateral move, but he doesn't like what he does now.  He is still full time, so we have benefits and he still gets paid (read "HUGE BLESSING!") but I just wish he enjoyed work more.  Now it's more of a chore than ever, and I kind of hate it.
-This pregnancy is pretty much killing me.  My body is not reacting to it well, and it just keeps getting worse.  It started with a few issues here and there, and has grown into serious pain all the time, the inability to walk, inability to sleep, and relying on everyone around me to ensure my son is taken care of, my house is clean, and I'm existing safely.  It's been really really hard on me.  Every movement hurts, especially if I lift my legs. I know that sounds like something you could avoid, it's not. Think about it, walking, sitting, putting on  your clothes, rolling over in bed, going to the bathroom, all of these common activities require your legs being lifted, well I can't do that. So I hobble around, James helps dress me, and I sleep horribly.  But all things will end.  I am having an amniocentesis tomorrow (a needle in my belly to take out some amniotic fluid to ensure Lorelai is ready to be born) and as long as the test comes back good (since she is so far along the chances are really good that they will, obviously not 100%, which is why we are doing the test, but still good) then she'll be born this week!  If not then I'm going to have a complete mental breakdown and this will be my last blog post.  We'll see!
-I'm actually terrified on the Amnio... just the thought freaks me out.  Needles are a big issue for me, every blood draw, and shot, I just psych myself out.  So knowing what's happening tomorrow, freaks me out.  James is really good at distracting me, and I have figured out how to do a little mind over matter calm down, mostly it involves James talking to me, me texting, and trying to talk to him, and singing a song in my head. This way I can try to avert all my attention elsewhere.  I figure if my brain is too distracted thinking of other things, I won't think about the giant needle piercing my skin... I'll let you know how it goes :)

And for today, that is all.  I'm watching TV and enjoying what I hope is one of my last nights being pregnant, fingers crossed!

Wonderful People

In my life I am surrounded by many wonderful people.  For example, while on bedrest I have had so much help from loving family members, it's just wonderful.  To start, I have my amazing husband, he has taken up every household chore, completed all of the grocery shopping, and tirelessly takes care of Thomas every second he's home.  He gets up early every morning so that he can take care of Thomas, get him juice, change his diaper, and get him ready for the day so I can sleep a little longer.  He comes home from work and cleans and makes dinner and still manages to deal with an insanely emotional crazy pregnant woman.
Then there is my family.  My mom has been here every other day for the past several months, and in the past week she has been here pretty much every day. Taking care of Thomas, cleaning my kitchen, chatting with me (Thomas isn't much for conversation, he's only good for a quick word here and there) and spending way too much of her free time with me, rather than at home with my dad (where I know she'd love to be)  Then there is my dad, he hasn't been able to come up as much as we would like, but Thomas just adores him. Whenever we see him Thomas yells "PA!" and runs to him, it's adorable.  And my younger sister.  She has her life (I mean she's a 19 year old college student, there's always something fun to be doing) and still she came today and spent the entire day cleaning and taking care of Thomas.  She got him up from his nap so I could sleep longer, and fed him and dealt with his fussiness (I think all of the stress and hoop-la-la going on is hard for him, he's been acting out a bit) and spent her whole day just chilling and changing dirty diapers.
Then today my dear mother in law came over and brought my sister in law and they swept through my whole house, cleaning and organizing and scrubbing for several hours.  Making me sit and watch them do all of the things I should be doing (and feel like a horrible housekeeper for not being able to do) and did it with big smiles on their faces. They also kept me company for a while, it was nice to have a little group of people to chat with, I feel like I don't get a ton of interaction with anyone but my 19 month old, so it's really nice when I have someone I can talk to.
Both my and James's families are wonderful.  They come at a moments notice to watch Thomas, or call to check in and see how we are doing, they never pause when offering assistance and love to us, and I am so truly grateful for them.  In my life I have so many wonderful people surrounding me, I am so truly blessed. And with baby girl coming pretty much any day now, I am so happy to have such a wonderful family for her to be born into!

"Now, where were we?" "I'm huge"

Gotta love Madagascar 2, I'm actually stoked for the 3rd one (odd I know)
I know every post has been about being pregnant, and this one won't stray from the norm, but I promise soon it won't be a pregnancy complaining outlet for me, soon it will be all about my two wonderful kids and how I get to stay home all day with them! But, in the mean time...
We ended up in the hospital again last night... Lots of strong contractions for several days, none super consistent, but they were VERY painful, so I called my dr and she was booked solid, so they sent us in for a check up, to see what was happening.  So we got there and the nurse started offering James snacks and all sorts of things, and I started thinking "Oh no, we don't want to stay, I just want to make sure the baby is okay, stop acting like we are staying!"  So they checked me, and not good news, I've already started to dilate, I'm at about a 1 1/2, and 60% effaced and at -2 station (if you don't know what that means, count yourself blissfully ignorant, it just means my body is prepping for labor way too soon!) So they made me stay for a few hours to be monitored and ensure the dilation wasn't happening quickly.  Well after a few hours my contractions slowed down, and I hadn't dilated anymore, so they sent me home.  Well, before the sent me home they gave me a shot of morphine and some anti-nauseau meds. So I was very relaxed when we got home :)  So I have an appt on Thursday, we'll see how it goes.  Who knows what will happen at this point.  I really want to walk at graduation on Friday, so hopefully nothing has changed by Thursday.  I'll let you know!

Dropped

Baby girl has decided it's time to drop down even lower than she already was. She's basically getting locked and loaded and ready for her grand debut. She is a little bit early though, so I'm trying to convince her that while punctuality is good, there is a such thing as too early.  My doctor is rather pessimistic about making it until 37 weeks, which is not a great feeling. At my last appt she said "I don't think you'll make it to 37 weeks, but if you can make it through this weekend then you'll be 34 weeks and 34 weekers tend to do much better than 33 weekers, so hold out"  And my thought was "Well gee, you're really inspiring confidence in me about this situation"  So that's that I guess.  I'm just trying to keep contractions to a minimum, which means doing as little as possible, because doing anything makes them worse, it's a ton of fun.
We graduate next week!! YAY!  I'm pretty excited, hoping I can walk through the ceremony alright, thankfully James will be walking right beside me, so I think we'll make it!
Thomas is still the cutest kid ever.  He is learning so quickly it blows my mind.  If he sees us do something once, he has to do it too.  He now has to wash his hands everytime I go to the bathroom (so we wash our hands like 50 times a day)  he loves to help unload the dishwasher (for some reason he always goes for the knifes in the utensil tray (probably because they have colorful handles)) he loves helping James put the groceries in the fridge, he always wants to help me pick up his toys, and then of course get them back out.  His new favorite thing is to help me push the laundry basket around, half the time he pushes, half the time he wants to ride in it, but it's still really cute.  He is my perfect little helper :)  He also loves the nice weather we've been having. We have the perfect little yard for him to play in, and he loves it.   I am working really hard on getting him to tell me what he wants, he's got the whole point and grunt thing down, but I am trying to get him to say what he wants.  Mostly because it drives me nuts when I can't figure out what he's pointing at and I can tell it frustrates him, so we are working on using words.  He's really good at it, his new favorite word is M&M's :)  They are my go to treat for him if he's being good or if he ate his lunch well, mostly cause I can give him 2-3 and he thinks it's the greatest thing.  That way I control the amount, and he can feed himself with minimal mess, they are my favorite toddler candy.  He's getting really good with multiple syllables, pepperoni and pudding are what he says to his dad all the time (because those are James' favorite snacks, and so Thomas has to have what daddy is eating)  We got him some fish, and he has to show them to everyone who comes over, it's adorable.  He's got so much personality I almost can't handle him!  Today he brought me my hair brush and started to brush my hair, I guess I do that a lot too, cause he's really good at it :)  Apparently I'm more vain then I thought :)

"If you wonder what I'm doing, I'm being awesome"

That is what my niece said to me this last weekend while playing at my in-laws house :) They are such funny girls!  One is 10 and the other 8, and they provide me with so many laughs!  This weekend was pretty epic!  Friday started off great, James let me sleep in till 10! It was a huge party!  Then when we got up (mostly me) we cleaned up a little bit, and played around a lot.  We decided for James' birthday we'd get fish, that was super fun!  So we hung out all day, and it was glorious!  Then Saturday we got up a little early, and went shooting with James's family in Saratoga Springs. Brett and Becky surprised us and were there too! It was a great birthday surprise for James! Thomas and I mostly sat in the car making driving sounds and eating muffins and cinnamon rolls.  It was fun.  After about an hour of that we headed back up to South Jordan for some more fun. The Harris's threw me a baby shower, which was great fun! Lots of fun clothes for sweet Lorelai and some fun games and punch. While we baby shower'd all the boys went outside and had a Nerf war.  We had bought some Nerf guns at Christmas because they were mismarked and super cheap, then the Harris's bought a few more, so they guys when out and shot each other while we giggled about babies.  After that we had a classic Harris family bbq, with tons of yummy chicken, steak, burgers, potato salad, fruit, baked beans, and everything else good!  After that I took a nap (because my stomach is now larger than my 19 month old, and it's tiring carrying it around) And James and Thomas went to play tennis with everyone else.  I woke up and joined them all, and it was so fun watching James play! It's been a long winter it feels like (even though winter never actually happened) and I haven't watched him play tennis in a while, I love it!  Then we had an easter egg hunt!  It was great! Thomas loved walking around picking up the eggs, thankfully he didn't think to open then, and he had no idea they were full of candy.  I managed to empty them all before he connected it, phew!  Then we played a game of Bocce ball, James loves that!  After that we went and shot off model rockets.  Thomas was exhausted at this point, so he just sat on James lap (and refused to even talk to anyone else),  but it was fun for me to watch them cuddle, Thomas just adores James, and I love it so much. After that we went home, ate left overs, chatted, and put Thomas down. Boy was he mad at us, he wanted to keep playing! But he was so tired he couldn't walk straight, so I put my foot down.  And I thought, oh, maybe I can get to bed soonish too. Little did I know the Harris's weren't done partying yet (I'm not quite up to partying par when it comes to the Harris's and I'm 8 months pregnant, I just can't keep up!) We went to see Mirror Mirror. It was quite enjoyable!  A silly family movie, but they are my favorite kind.  It was a good movie. Quite the contrast to Hunger Games which we saw last week, both good though.  So then we finally went to bed, well everyone else did. I spent the whole night tossing and turnning, I ended up on the couch because we were in the same room as Thomas, and I keep waking him up... So I tried the couch, not much success. We went to bed at midnight and of course Thomas got up at 6, so neither James nor I got much sleep.  But we went to church still, it was fun. I had packed us all nice easter outfits (of course I forgot to take pictures, curses!) and Thomas slept through sacrament, I was a little envious. So when we got home, James and I napped, for 2 hours. Glorious! Then Brett and Becky headed back to Colorado and we had a delicious easter dinner of ham and potatoes, then we played games!  Charades first, which was great! Mary and I were on the same wave length, it was awesome!  After that we watched Emperor's New Groove, a gift I got James. I forgot to mention that he got a gift an hour all day Sunday (it was supposed to be Monday, but we had too much happening, so I did it Sunday when we'd be home most of the day!)  He got some fun stuff! I'll let him tell you about it :)  Then we actually went to be early, it was nice!  We got up Monday way too early (Thomas) and headed to Cabella's and the Dinosaur Museum. Thomas loved them!  I would have loved them more if I could have floated rather than walked.... Then we came home, and Thomas napped for almost 4 hours! I slept for 2!  And now we are playing at home while James takes a stupid test. Well that was our weekend in a quick nutshell, hope it wasn't too boring!!

The first night

Thomas is sleeping in his crib, like normal, however, tonight we took off the side of his crib. It's actually convertible to a toddler bed, but my mom got him the cutest train bed that we couldn't hardly say no, so we are trying to transition him into it.  Well, we have tried a few times to get him to sleep there, and it won't work, he just freaks out when he wakes up or notices something different around him. So in an effort to slowly work his way into his toddler bed (so Lorelai can have the crib a few months after she makes her grand appearance) we took the side off his crib, so he can adjust slowly to not having four walls around him while he sleeps. Naptime today was a huge success.  Which was a huge relief, and then tonight, that is the real test. We put him down for his nap differently then we do at night.  For naptime I always sing him to sleep (which I know it probably a bad habit, because when I have 2 kids it won't be so easy, but I can't resist. He cuddles up next to me and hums to the songs I sing until he slowly falls asleep in my arms. He is so sweet and peaceful, I can't bring myself to stop. It's the only time I get to hold him close anymore, the rest of the time he is all about playing, and daddy, and exploring. I am holding on to his baby time a little bit more)  And then at night we brush his teeth, sing him a song as family (he hums along) have family prayer (which he now wants to participate in, we let him "Say" the prayer) and then I hug and kiss him goodnight, and James cuddles with him for a while humming to him, and then we lay him down.  He always goes down really well, our routine has worked wonders for him, but when we lay him down he's awake still. I was so worried he'd just get up and go play. When he woke up this afternoon he got up, went to the door and yelled for me. It worked out so well!  So now I'm nervous about how tonight will go. He went down great, and so far he's still out, no noise or anything.  We shall see!  I hope it works, I have been worrying about transfering him into a toddler bed, and it would be nice to take a step in the right direction!

Title

I'm pretty sure my blog is becoming a place for me to vent and rant about my annoyance with people and things.... I promise my next post will be happier.  Mostly because this weekend we are celebrating James' birthday and it should be a ton of fun!!  But in the mean time....
I'm annoyed with NuSkin.  They were good enough not to fire James, but they have been really sucky about it. He was transferred to another department, which is good, we get to keep our insurance and he's still full time. however, he now has a job he dislikes, a lot.  He's a phone agent now, taking all incoming calls fro NuSkin distributors.  He's not excited.  Then they promised him an 8-5 schedule, and they emailed him and said it's 10-6, so we are working on figuring that out.  His boss is just not good at what she does.  I swear everytime she makes a decision I think to myself "What, seriously? Do you have any idea what you're doing?"  And she doesn't.  She and James agreed that he would work 8-5, explicitlly agreed, now she's changing it. Well what she obviously doesn't know (and I learned in my employement and labor law class) is that she created with him an implied contract.  Which is just as good as a written contract, she made certain promises, and she actually has to keep up with them, because she said it would happen that way.  This is not to say that I know everything, or really anything about managing employees, I just know what I have read in books and learned in classes, but I do know that according to every great business mind I have studied, she's not good at what she does.
We are resident managers for a company called REMS. If you work with them, be warned! They never respond, and then when they do they yell at you for not taking care of things sooner. I kid you not, I left 20 messages in 5 days because a tenant had a plumbing problem, finally I was able to find an alternate number to try calling (they told me it was their old number and probably wouldn't work anymore)  Well come to find out they got a new phone system, and even though I called and got their answering machine they didn't get the messages.  And then started talking to me about how I need to get things done quicker and blah blah.  Well I got so annoyed after one person called and left a message saying "Amanda, you're a resident manager, you need to answer your phone. I need this information so I can get this done, we need to get it done quickly. Call me back and answer your phone"  So I called back, and I said "I got your message, it was really rude. Here's the information you need. And just so you know, I have 2 kids (I was watching my niece) and I will answer my phone when I can. If I can't I will call you back as soon as I can. Thank you, bye"  In an earlier call he had been talking about how to get a hold of him, and he said "Just so you know I always answer my phone unless I'm on a ladder or have my hands busy with electrical wires, but I always answer"  In scolding me for not getting a hold of him sooner (Which I had been trying to do, but no one told me that they changed their phone numbers and answering machines)  AH!  So annoying!

Anyways, sorry for the complaining, I am just in a bit of a foul mood.  I swear this baby grows by the hour, and she finds the most uncomfortable positions to lay in.  I get tired so easily, we went grocery shopping and I could barely make it, it was 9am.  I'm pathetic.  And annoyed.... Looking forward to the weekend for sure.

When it rains....

*Fair warning: This is a very long winded post, full of my complaining and worrying*
So it seems that since James and I got married almost three years ago, and haven't really had any real trials, I mean Thomas in the NICU was horrid, and we have had a few hard times, but really, we have just lived charmed quiet lives.  Seems our time is up, lol.  This week has been rather stressful, and the weeks to come promise a bit more stress.  To start, we decided we would finally fix the AC in our van, it's been a while, and 2 children in the Utah summer, well they deserve not to die of heatstroke on the way to the grocery store.  So we took it into the mechanic, and he said "One day, tops!" well halfway through the day, I call him to see how its going, and he tells me that he can't possibly do it in one day, because he has to order the parts. Reasonable enough it seems, so we tell him we will  bring it in next Friday, he'll order the parts and be ready. Fine. So James brings it in, and I have spoken with him on the phone, he promises it will be $750, parts labor, everything (gross right?) Okay, that's fine, we need it, whatever. He tells James the exact same thing, so we leave it with him, and he tells James he will have it done early afternoon.  So after he hasn't called by 2, I called him to see what's going on.  First he says that he couldn't possibly have finished it yet, and that he probably won't get it done by 6 (the time James would get off to come and get it) and that it's a very hard job, because the doors don't open (one of them gets stuck, but does open. also, a lot of vans only have one side back door, so deal with it!) and then he says to me "Do you know what's in this car? It makes it much harder to get to anything"  Of course I know what's in it, it's my car!  And we keep a lot of stuff in the car, we have 2 kids! He complains about the 2 carseats (really dude, it's Utah valley, I KNOW you've seen 2 carseats in a van stupid!) So I just keep my mouth shut, thinking "Fine, whatever, you complain, just finish it, I need my van back, I dont' want to argue with you"  Well after a few more hours, I call to see what's up, again ,since he never called. And he informs me that there is no way it will be done by 6, it's just too complicated a job to do in one day, it's usually a 2-3 day job, and he just can't have it done by then. At this point, he was rude, and I was pissed, so I said "You told us one day, we didn't ask for that, it's what you said. If you had told us you needed 2 days we would have arranged that, but you didn't. So now my husband is stuck at work, and I have no car and an 18 month old. How long?" So he promises 8 or 9 at the LATEST. My mom happened to call and offered us their extra car, we were so grateful!  So I went to get James, and we waited for the mechanic to call. And waited, and waited. So at 10:30 James called him, and he said "I told your wife it would be a hard job, I'll call you when I'm done!" So we wait a bit longer, and finally at 1 James gives up and goes to bed.  I gave up at 9... Anyway, at 5 am, 5 AM! the mechanic calls, of course we didn't answer, he leaves this message "Hey, your van is done, I will be here until 10am, if you can't come before then, well then I'm sorry"  Really?! So James gets up at 8, missing his Saturday morning class to get the car, and the guy gives him this huge hassel.  Wants him to pay $1,000, seriously!?!?  James argues with him for a while and ends up paying $850 (okay fine, more than he said, but he did work on it longer than he originally said, whatever)  So James comes home, and the AC works, but is making some strange noise, like air leaking, all  the time. So we run a few errands, and the van barely starts after one, kind of odd, but whatever.  We figured we'd deal with the noise on Monday, and just forget it and enjoy our Sunday.  We get to the van this morning for church, it's dead. Dead as a doornail, won't turn over, wont' do anything.  Fine, we'll just walk, its only 2 blocks, whatever.  I sure wish I hadn't chosen to wear heels lol Thomas was horrible. This was his worst Sunday ever.  We made it through half of sacrament before we were both in the halls trying to stop his screaming and tantrums, so we gave up and left.  As soon as we got home, he was fine.  Oh man, I was so annoyed!  He played us like a fiddle, got exactly what he wanted, and we just did it.  Needless to say we now need a new plan for church, any ideas?  So we get home, and I wanted to wash some clothes, so I push on the little thing on the detergent to get it out, and the whole shelf falls down.  Thankfully it was above the washer and dryer, so everything on it just fell on them, but I scared the life out of James and Thomas, who came running in worried something had fallen on me. Thomas was crying, and James was on the verge of tears, and so I cried, and we had a nice little family love moment.
On top of all of this last week Lorelai decided that she wouldn't move, for 5 hours on Thursday night. Nothing, not a nudge or a hiccup, nothing. So I called the Dr, and she said go in and have it checked, once I got hooked up to the monitors, I guess Lorelai didn't like them, because she woke up, started hiccuping and moving.  Of course we were so happy, but I felt so dumb!  Going in all worried something was wrong, only to find out she was just taking a break from beating me up from the inside.
Also, James's boss wants to talk to him on Tuesday about restructuring in his department, which scares us since a few months ago she said that his position may not last the next 6 months because they are trying to get rid of full time employees.  But then they have had him do a ton of training, and also had him take over a few of his bosses responsibitlies because she's been so sick.  Well, color me confused.  We were thinking things were going well, that maybe they were going to just have him take on more responsibilites and what not, but now this seems a little daunting.
So needless to say, the Harris house is a little stressed.  We are holding our breath that whatever news comes on Tuesday is good, and that hopefully the van can be fixed easily, and that Lorelai keeps kicking me and nothing else in our house falls apart.   I'll keep you updated :)

Thomas

In the following blog post I am going to talk mostly about my children.  What else is new? you might ask, well, this is my blog, and so therefore I get to talk about/brag about my adorable children.  I love being a mom, they are my joy, so I like to talk about them :)
Yesterday we took a CFP (concealed firearm permit) class, it was all day long.  But we did learn a lot of good stuff, and while I am still not sure about carrying around a loaded weapon everyday, I always like learning more.  And it was really important to James that I took it with him, so I did.  Thomas got to spend the day at my parents house, which is so cute, because they get just as excited as he does for him to come over.  He now recognizes my parents house, and as soon as we get out of the car he starts to yell "PA!" which is what he calls both grandma and grandpa, not sure why...  And then of course the dog hears him, and starts to bark, and my parents meet us at the door, and he can't wait to say hi and play.  James and I are basically just Thomas's chauffer's, and we get a hey, how's it going? and then they pull out the toys, or go to the backyard, and we are superfulous :) It's fun for me actually, I never had grandparents around growing up, and when we did see my grandma she was never really into doing anything but watching movies and sitting down... So Thomas having 4 grandparents that love to play and dance and laugh with him is one of my great joys.  They spent all day yesterday together, and by the time we got back, they were all exhausted :)  Thomas slept in the car on the way home (he never does that) and my parents were both totally pooped.  I just love it.  They were so excited to show us what he had learned, first off they have a bell on their front door (partially cause it's leftover from Christmas, and partially because my dad likes to know when someone is coming into the house) and Thomas asked them to see it and they told him it was a bell, so for the next hour he just ran around saying bell and asking them to ring it. Then it was story time, it was a peek a boo book, and one of the animals is a duck, and so he picked upon that  and when they asked him what a duck said he looked at me and in a high pitched voice said "wack, wack, wack"  It is my new favorite thing that he does, I ask him to do it about once and hour cause I think it's so cute!
Lorelai is growing so much.  My belly is huge I feel like.  I don't ever remember being this big with Thomas... even looking at our family pictures from Hawaii, 3 weeks before I had him, I feel like my stomach is bigger now. It's probably not true, but I actually love it.  I did finally gain a couple pounds at my last appointment, I am almost back at my pre pregnancy weight, so I didn't have to have any more annoying tests done.  And I just love looking at my growing belly.  She is getting to be a lot stronger, and sometimes her movements stop me in my tracks because it hurts, but I just love it.  I am getting so excited to meet this little girl.  I did so many girl crafts this week that it's just adding to it, and I love looking at her little clothes hanging in the closet, and the nursery is getting turned into half boy half girl, and I can't wait!  James is also very excited, every time we see a cute little girl he just smiles and gets more excited.  We can't wait to have 2 children around here, we are stoked.  Thomas is such a wonderful little boy, so much fun to have around, and we love him so much, we can't wait to have Lorelai.  Thomas will be such a good big brother. There is so much excitement around our house these days.  Our semester ends in 5 weeks (YAY!) then we have my two favorite relatives coming for my graduation and then baby girl gets here!  So we have so much to look forward too in the near future.  James birthday is also coming, and I am planning some fun stuff for him.  I got him 2 days off work, and planned a Harris family party day, and it's easter, so we are taking Thomas to an easter egg hunt, and a few other things that he doesn't know, and I don't know if I should say, in case he may actually read this blog... Long shot I know:) 

Recharged

This week has been my spring break, and let me tell you, it came at a perfect time.  I was beginning to think I would never make it through the semester.  But this week was perfect.  James had two random afternoons off, due to construction mishaps.  Fine by me!  So on tuesday my mom and I made about 25 freezer meals for after the baby comes, then James got to come down and we played, and relaxed and went to see John Carter, it was really good!  Then the next day we ran about a million errands, reorganized the nursery, folded, sorted and organized all of the clothes we have for Lorelai and got their room all set!  I'm stoked :)  I also made a stuffed giraffe, burp cloths, hair bows, blanket and cleaned my house.  Its been a good week, with much needed rest and a ton of accomplishing.  I love spring break.

1, 2, 3

I feel that I should preface my story with 2 other stories first.
When I do laundry I like to put all of the clean clothes in a big pile in the living room so I can slowly work it down, and Thomas has unfolded clothes he can throw around, hopefully preventing him from messing with the folded clothes. It doesn't actually work, but I like to think my efforts are worthwhile.
Second, Thomas loves to play on James and my bed, especially when we are throwing him on the bed.  We will count to 3, and throw him on the bed.  He laughs and giggles and just loves it.
So, here's the story:  As I had all of the clothes in the floor, Thomas climbed on top of them, and said "One, two, threeeeee" and then fell over backwards and laughed histerically at himself.  I thought it was the most adorable thing ever, I laughed with him, and he did it over and over again.  He is learning so much! He picks up on things I don't realize he notices, and he is taking it in and getting smarter and smarter.  I just love him.  So, short story, a lot of back story, and a little bit of me bragging about my son :) Enjoy your day!

Oh baby...

Thomas has become obsessed with babies.  We have watched my niece a few times and he loves her, he just kisses her and tries to give her a pacifier or bottle.  It's cute :) So I pulled out his baby pictures so he could look at them, and he loved them.  He kept saying "baby!" and trying to talk to the pictures, it was adorable.  It makes me feel really good about the fact that Lorelai is getting close :)  And looking at his baby pictures makes me really excited too!  I have around 2 1/2 months left and I am so excited!  For multiple reasons, the first being I can't wait to meet her, I am glad to not be pregnant anymore because it's been so hard, and it also signals the end of college, FOREVER.   Can't tell you how much I am looking forward to May getting here.  I have been getting all of the newborn baby stuff back out and organizing it, we are so excited, and almost ready.  I still have some things I want to buy, mostly frilly stuff we probably don't need, but i can't hardly stand not owning.  But either way, we can't wait!

Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

So maybe it's not actually summer, but today was for sure a lazy day around these parts.  We made it to church this morning EARLY.  That hasn't happened in months, we always seems to end up saying "Oh, we have tons of time, we can sit for a minute, the church is a block away"  and then we leave at 10 till and end up late and barely finding a seat.  We got there today and there were only 2 other families.  It was amazing, we got to choose where we sat!  Of course halfway through Thomas had a tantrum, so we took him out (because there are way more comfortable seats in the foyer)  and then after that he was okay for a bit, but seeing outside made him even more restless, so we left after sacrament.  Since I am totally useless these days I can't really sit through Sunday School and RS on the folding chairs, because this baby is beating me up.  So we just kind of make an appearance at church theses days.  Plus at my doctor's appointment on Friday my doctor warned me about Whooping Cough, which is apparently going around, and she said that church is the worst place for that, which makes sense.  So she said to avoid children at church, as if that's possible.  I live in a family ward, no matter where you are, there are children.
We came home, and I took a nice long nap, James took Thomas, and then he made dinner.  Unfortunatly by the time dinner was done, and I was awake, none of us was hungry.  So James carved the bird, and put everything away, and we made muffins, and ate them for dinner.  Very healthy.  Also at my last dr appt I found out, still no weight gain, I was down 2lbs from the last time they weighed me, my weight has been doing a little yo yo with those 2 lbs, that's the only change they see, up a little, down a little, but no real change.  I now get to go do the diabetes test, and if I haven't gained any at my next appointment in a few weeks, I'll get to go to a nutrionist, and they'll probably make me drink ensure or some nasty something, can't I just let my body do it's own thing?  Who knows.  I'm tired,and it's only 8:30, maybe I'll go to bed early (again) :)

Nesting

For the past week or so I have been slowly going through each room in our apartment and regorganizing and cleaning, I wasn't really sure why, I just felt like it.  Then, today, I realized: I'm nesting!  Getting ready for baby girl to make her grand debut in a few months.  So far the nursery is looking great, I reogranized our food storage yesterday, and got all of the laundry done and made 2 blankets for Lorelai (one little swaddling blanket, and one cute minky blanket)  And I have been making bows and flowers like crazy.  I made her bow holder, it's almost done, I have to figure out what to write on it, but it's ready for bows either way.  I went a little pinterest crazy and made about 10 different kinds of felt flowers, and my amazing sister in law has a ton of ribbon, so we made a million bows in every color possible.   I also made a decorative letter L to hang on the wall, and repainted a shelf that I had for Thomas (it used to be blue, so I painted it dark brown to match the crib and make it more gender neutral)  We have also gotten pink bins, a pink changing pad cover, and pink and green sheets.  So now we have a nursery ready for a boy and a girl :) I made James scrub the toilet this weekend (cause that's gross) and I cleaned the whole bathroom.  We have reorganized mine and James closet about 3 times now, it seems to be acceptable now....We'll see how long it lasts.  Today has been the living room, its lookimg good.  I feel like I should clarify, a lot of the big stuff James has done, I just kind of organize and supervise... Gotta love partial bedrest, which I suck at by the way.

Less than 100

Days that is, until baby girl's due date!  Which means we are getting tantalizingly close!  I am guessing we'll meet her somewhere between 2 and 3 months from now. James and I actually have a little bet going, I am betting April, and James is betting May. So I told him if she comes in May I would buy him his new gun :)  He wants a glock 1911 26 (he would be so proud of me for remembering that)  So if baby girl comes in May, not only will we avoid the dreaded NICU, but we will have another gun to add to the collection :)  My doctor has actually changed my appointments to every 3 weeks, and probably after my appointment next week I'll go to every 2 weeks.... And I am about to take the diabetes test, yuck.  I'll have to go on a Saturday so I can have James watch Thomas, since last time I spent most of the hour in the  bathroom trying to keep that nasty orange stuff in my stomach.
Thomas is eating so well these days, it warms my heart.  I love that he eats now, it was a fight for a while.  Every morning he eats 2 blueberry Eggo waffles.  I should probably add butter or something to them, but then I can't let him eat them by himself without having massive cleanup... So he eats them dry.  But, he eats them, every single bite.  I've tried giving him more, and it doesn't ever end up eaten, so we stick with just 2.  He also is starting to show signs of being ready to potty train.This morning he came to me and grabbed his diaper, and said "poop" and then started to poop.  I know to anyone else in the world that would be a little gross, but I was so proud!  I clapped and cheered and he got really excited...  Anyhow, he at least knows what the word poop means....

So, new topic, I'm trying to upload a video of Thomas playing fruit ninja, he watched James play it, and then he decided he wanted to.  He's pretty good (he won't break any records anytime soon, but it's fun) Fingers crossed it works!

James has his interview tomorrow, I'll keep you updated!

Changes are a'comin!

James has a job interview next Thursday.  Its still at Nuskin (which would be nice, no transition) it is in the something or other department... I really don't remember, quality control maybe?  Either way he would work from 7am-3pm.  Which would be awesome since we've decided he is going to the Police Academy in the fall which is M-F 5:30pm-9:30pm (gross, right?).  Then we could stay with our same health insurance plan and he could do the classes he needs, and I would actually have him home for a little while in between :)  So, fingers crossed and lots of prayers that he gets it.
He also got a little bonus at work too, just a year end type thing. We decided since everything else has been to save, or pay bills, or put aside for when the van dies (we think it's coming, she has been struggling lately) we would spend a little of this on fun stuff.  Well, James wants a shot gun, a rifle scope, a glock 26 (don't ask, I have no idea) and a few other guns, I have decided I want to buy Lorelai I blessing gown. They are so expensive I was thinking I may just have to make one (which was such a success when I made Thomas's blessing outfit, not) and I almost cried thinking that my baby wouldn't have a blessing dress (not a big deal, I know, but I'm pregnant, I cry all the time for no reason)  So I went online shopping. And let me tell you, it's insane!! Who knew blessing gowns could cost $400, not me!  I found the perfect one, only $90 (still a lot, I know) and I am stoked, James really likes it too, so now I just have to order it! Here's the link:

http://www.onesmallchild.com/products/Lucy-Christening-Gown.html

It is techincally a christening gown, but who cares (that I am not even sure what Christening is, so what does it matter?)  It brings me a lot of joy!

And Thomas just woke up from his nap... Gotta go!

309 times in a row, that's got to be a record!

If you can tell me what that quote is from I will buy you ice cream. I'm serious.  I totally copied the movie quote title idea from Brittany, thanks for the inspiration :) I never know what to title my blogs because all I ever do is ramble on and there is never really a theme to name it by... Maybe I should use a theme tonight....

I got nothing.

Thomas has been asleep for the past 2 1/2 hours, and this is his second nap, the first one I had to wake him after 2 1/2 hours because I had a dr appt.  I'm a little worried, not gonna lie.  He hasn't been eating great lately, so much so that I just texted James and said "Maybe we should get him a cheeseburger, he loves those"  I have tried everything.  He even refuses ice cream. He ate 3 bites and was done.  Apples, no.  Chicken, no.  Bread, no. Waffles, no. Pedia sure, no. Oranges, no.  Toaster struddle, no. Eggs, no.  Toast, no.  PBJ, no.  Mac and cheese, no.  Hot dogs, no.  French Fries, no.  Chicken wings, no.  Cookies, no.  Goldfish, no.  Mashed potatoes, no.  Lemon Cake, no. Fruit smoothie, no.  Candy cane (thanks Grandma), no.  Pasta, no.  He did eat a few bites of my mom's salad at olive garden, and then gave up on that too.  I'm out of ideas.  The doctor says to make sure he's hydrated, and keep offering food, but it's been days now...  Its not like he's a big kid to start with.  We were excited to even be in the growth percentiles at his most recent visit.  Now, he's stopped eating.  I am seriously about to get in the car and get him a cheese burger.  If he stops drinking apple juice, I don't know what I'll do. 
I feel like I complain a lot in this blog... sorry bout that.  
Last night we watched ground hogs day, and it makes me smile everytime.  Partially cause it's funny, and partially cause James' family could mute the movie and still quote the entire thing.  It's really fun :)   I have only been part of the groundhog day party for 4 years (that's actually the first time I meet the Harris's, was 4 years ago yesterday)  so I can't quite stand in with the big boys, as they say, but I try :)  James feeds me quotes and I act like I knew them myself :) He's a great husband!

Rutabaga

I think that's a funny word, I had to look up how to spell it, and I've never eaten one, but its a funny word.
I am on partial bedrest, which basically means no intense exercise, no heavy lifting (other than my 20lb toddler) not a lot of walking, no running, and spending a lot of time sitting or resting.  That may sound easy, or nice, trust me, it's not.   It's annoying.   Chasing around Thomas is hard enough, but sitting on the couch and trying to get him to come to me when he's crying, or trying to explain to him why I can't pick him up all the time is not fun or easy.  Lorelai is just fine, she is growing like crazy , already weighs more than a pound (or so says the ultrasound tech in the ER) and moving like nuts. She's really strong, and her due date was actually pushed up a week, so we are 23 weeks rather than 22...  The bedrest (only partial!) is for me.  This pregnancy has been much harder on me than my first one was.   I have currently only lost weight, I am now almost 10lbs below pre pregnancy weight, and I contract ALOT.  If I am standing, or moving, or doing anything other than laying or sitting, I am contracting.   Thankfully the contractions aren't causing preterm labor, so that's good.  However, they are uber annoying. 
Okay, now that I have complained for a while, I shall cease and talk about happy things. Like my adorable son, who is saying so many words now.  Words I don't think I have taught him.  I have worked hard to teach him the parts of his body, and bear, and ball, and dog, and other stuff like that.  But the other day he brought me a book, and said "book" and he went to his bedroom door and asked me to open it by saying "door".  He just picks up on words, which probably means I should get my road rage under control, otherwise Thomas is going to think something in the van is named "Stupid"...
James only has two classes this semester, and I am so glad!  He is picking up all the slack at home, doing all the laundy, and dishes, and always taking care of Thomas, he's pretty much a saint, I don't know what I'd do without him!

The Haps

Thomas says please now all the time, if he ever wants something, or wants me to do something, he rubs his belly and says peazzz.  It's the most adorable thing I have ever seen, and I pretty much cave to whatever it is he is asking me.  Perhaps that's not the best parenting style, but I really want to encourage him to say please.. where is that happy medium between teaching him that please is what you say when asking for something, and that I will not always give him whatever he wants whenever he wants.  That is my parenting condundrum at the moment. That and I wish I hadn't taught him to blow kisses cause now it's interfering with his sign language thank you that we are working on...
He has an amazing sense of rythm, he gets it from his father, and I love watching the two of them dance. When I dance it's more of a "move my weight from one foot to the other and snap, or clap a little so I seem like I have some idea of what I'm doing" with Thomas it's totaly natural, he gets the beat and he moves his little butt, his legs, his arms, and his head all in sync and perfectly to the music.  I am jealous of my 16 month old's dancing skills....
I went to the hospital twice this week, so that makes it 4 times in the past two months, which is insane. That's quadruple the amount I had previously in the past 4 years.  This pregnancy has been much harder than Thomas was, many more pains, more contractions, more sickness, more tired-ness.  And I can't help but wonder if perhaps I am just more whiney this time.  Maybe I'm just a bigger sissy now, being a mom has made me a big baby.  Who knows?  But I do know that I find it utterly annoying that I never feel great.  James and I tried to go shopping, and after one store I had to sit down and get some water because I got dizzy and lightheaded.  What is this?  My sweet doctor is doing all she can, and she does a very good job of not making me feel like a whiney annoying possibly hypocondriac pregnant woman.  I feel like I always need to say "I'm not making this up, I really am in pain"  James is pretty great too, very understanding, always there to help me and get me what I need. 
We are watching You've Got Mail, and it's the end when she cries and says "I wanted it to  be you" and it made me happy, I just love that movie!
While at the hopsital they did an ultrasound to check everything and make sure all was well with baby Lorelai (she's great, it's just me having issues)  and we actually got a chance to see our sweet girl.  When we did out other ultrasound the woman was all about get in, get out, and go away.  We barely saw her, and Thomas was being bad so James missed it all. This time we got a good 20 minutes of the guy saying "Look, this is her arm, her heart, oh look at that cute face!"  And then after I called her a girl the tech said "Wait, they told you it was a girl?!"  And my heart stopped, and I said "What? Are you kidding me?" cause I was so prepared for a girl, and in the interest of full disclosure, I was on some serious pain meds, so Iwas totaly not all there, and the guy looks at me and says "Yes, I'm kidding, it's a girl!"  Long story short, it's still Lorelai in there, confirmed now for the 3rd time :)  This ultrasound was really good too, we could see more than just bones and her basic structure, we got to see her ears, and her cute little bottom, it was a lot of fun.  Of course at this point I was totaly drugged, so I had forgotten about the previous pain I was in.  It was better that way.  And now I'm pretty sure I'm babbling, it's been a long week, and I think I am still a little drugged, Thomas is crying and I'm going to go :) Sorry if this post is everywhere and off the wall, but that's what I am right now...

Shots

Thomas had his shots on Saturday, and the poor kid did so well.  He cried of course, but he just cuddled with James and I the rest of the day.  We felt so bad that we took him to Jamba Juice after and got him his own :)  He has been really sore every since, I have been giving him meds and if I'm even just a little late then he gets so sad and just holds on to me and cries.  I HATE IT!  But at least he won't have to have anymore shots for a while. 
I am starting my last semester of school tomorrow, and I am excited.  It's finally almost over!  It's going to be so nice to just be a mom and wife.  I can help James with his school and focus on my kids, I am so glad!  It will be nice someday when we are done with College and aren't students anymore, then our kids will be students and the cycle will continue!

Snow and Kisses

It snowed!! Maybe it was just a tiny bit, but still, it snowed!  I love it so much!  I have missed having snow this year, we made it through all of December with no snow, none.  What is that?  It's Utah, aren't we supposed to be ski central?  You can't ski if there is no snow!  Not that I will be skiing anytime, I have bad enough balance when I don't have a nice baby belly going on, I would probably die.  Speaking of the baby belly, with Thomas I carried really low, he sat below my belly button for most of the time, and I felt like I had a cute little  baby belly, this time, I am carrying much higher, so I feel like I have a gut of fat, rather than a sweet baby girl... It's probably just my pregancy self conciousness :)  I have actually only lost weight this pregnancy.  I am 20 weeks today, and I had an appointment yesterday, and I lost weight from my 16 week appointment, probably from being so sick, but what can I do?  I eat, oh trust me, I eat.  And I eat whatever I want, whenever I want. But I'm still not gaining, my belly is growing like crazy, and I am getting smaller in other places.  My arms and legs are both smaller, which is making my clothes fit funny..  They fit my belly now, but my legs are always loose, its kind of annoying.
Thomas give kisses now, mostly he half opens his mouth, and puts it against you.  On occasion he will stick his tounge out while kissing you, that's fun.  This morning James was heading out to class (on Saturday, yeah, that sucks) and he had on his scarf to ride the scooter, and Thomas reached out for James to pick him up, and then Thomas moved his scarf and kissed James's cheek, so adorable!  Thomas will also hug the baby, it's really sweet.  He is going to have a bit of a hard time adjusting to the baby being outside me I think, now whenever we talk about a baby, he goes to my belly.  And when he sees a baby, or a dog on TV, he gets really excited, yells "BABY!" or "DOG!" and starts dancing, so cute!  Maybe I should find a TV show that is about babies who play with dogs, any ideas?