The Last Week or So

We played at the park and this happened. No it's not jelly from a snack at the park. He went down the slide on his belly (feet first) and bashed his face on the end of the slide. Unfortunately we had walked so I had to carry him, keep the dog under control and walk as fast as I could while encouraging Ruth to do the same so we could get home and clean up the poor guy.

Last night ladies at church had a baby shower for me and two other gals. It was so nice to be surrounded by friends and talk and laugh. I was amazed how generous everyone was. Lots of cute clothes, diapers and 900 wipes! And enough money to get a small swing, high chair and nursing accessories. Now all baby girl needs is a name!

Joy

We watched the Anderson kids the other night. Ruth got to practice her big sister hold. Both of the kids LOVE Hazel.

We've truly been very happy recently. There has been lots of laughter and happiness. I think a lot of that has to do with being a lot better at living the gospel. We love doing family home evening, prayers have become very important when we're sad, and I don't know HOW I would have explained death to Ruth without the knowledge of the resurrection. (This was one of the most touching mommy moments I have had to date.)

The other day Ruth was very concerned about death. So I explained that we'll all get to live together again, and that we'll be resurrected which means your spirit will be reunited with your body. She was SO relieved to know she wouldn't have to leave mommy and daddy. And was thrilled to realize that we would ALL (yes, including Aunt Tia) live with Heavenly Father if we made good choices. I really don't know I went from being totally overwhelmed with her as a newborn to answering profound gospel questions, when did she grow up?

In lighter subjects, we had a blast at Hop-2-It this week. Will surprised me at how much he has developed since we went last time. He's a regular climber just like Ruth. His language also continues to explode, he's working on more and more 2 word sentences. I'm so proud!

We've been looking for a dog for over a month. We've been visiting the animal shelter several times every week looking for the perfect pooch. We ended up going to a breeder in Boise to get our beautiful La Fille au Cheveau du'La (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair...a Debussy song). She's a 3 month old Golden Retriever, who we call La Fille. She's ADORABLE. And I mostly get all the positives and none of the negatives of owning a puppy since she's Brad's! Brad takes her out to pee, feeds her, walks her, takes her to work, etc. She's the perfect puppy too. She lays around when we're relaxing and is excited to play when we go out back. The timing this time around is impeccable, we're all happy to have her around, and not stressed out like we were with the first dog two years ago.

Mostly Brad

I love my hubby so much. And I am so grateful for his amazing talents. He plays the piano wonderfully and is getting better everyday. It's wonderful to have our home filled with beautiful music, not to mention that the kids love dancing to it.

This week I am especially grateful for his Mr. Fix-it talents. When we were first married I was VERY skeptical of these skills. When he offered to fix his dad's truck the first summer we were married I almost scoffed. The repair was suppose to cost over $700. Brad did it with random stuff he found in his grandpa Nelson's shed (we lived in their house that summer while they were in Oregon on a mission). I was pretty impressed. But I digress. I am now usually unimpressed when Brad fixes things, because in the end I know that he'll be able to do it. (Which has come in extremely handy since buying our house.)

This week he fixed the suburban. The light that showed which gear you were switching into and showed your mileage went out...like more than a month ago. Everywhere Brad looked it was going to cost at least $200 to get that fixed. So what did Brad do? He pulled the console behind the steering wheel out, took it to a mechanic/doo-hicky store, found the pieces he needed to re-solder, and fixed our car for $1.25! It's pretty ridiculous how just being willing to try, along with a natural talent for fixing stuff and having the internet to do research, can save you TONS of money.

In other news we've decided that Ruth is going to be an artist and gymnast, Will is going to be a baseball pitcher and drummer, and #3 is going to be a Tae Bo instructor/Kung Fu master. I have been feeling very run-down/tired again. I had about 3 weeks of feeling energetic and good this pregnancy, but it has also been the most mild as far as other symptoms go so I try not to complain. Luckily it's getting warm-ish already and the kids play great, so I can just sit and avoid doing dishes when I need to! Oh, and heart-burn is back.

Mostly Me

I've entered the 3rd trimester! I can't believe how fast the second flew by. And with the 3rd trimester came my craving for sandwiches stuffed with tons of veggies. (With Will I couldn't get enough sprouts on a sandwich.) Tonight we had BLT's and the whole time I was eating mine I was thinking, "Why did I put bacon on this?" I've also been downing PB&J's like none other.

Speaking of sandwiches stuffed with veggies, yesterday I made homemade pitas to go with our gyro sandwiches. Oh yum. Fresh pockety bread stuffed with roasted red pepper hummus, tomato, lettuce, cucumber, grilled red onion and feta. Again while I was eating I was thinking, "Why did I put this gyro meat on here?" I just ate another pita as a pre-bedtime snack minus the meat, SO good.

And in other baking news I also made a strawberry rhubarb pie, all from scratch! Ha! I was nervous about the crust but it tasted good. Brad is a serious pie man, so it's fun to finally be comfortable enough in the baking world to make stuff he actually likes...because no, he doesn't like cookies or cake.

Sunday was GORGEOUS and 60 degrees so we went on a walk through the park. Picture thanks to Ruth:

While out there we saw two owls sitting in a tree, it was very cool.

And here are some of the crafts Ruth has been working on these days. She loves to get her craft on!

And in Will news: we've been looking at drawings of what baby sister looks like in the womb that shows the woman's belly too. So last night Will pointed to my belly and said "baby!" Then he lifted my shirt and was digging around trying to find baby, it was pretty funny.