Pregnancy Portraits

Just 3 more weeks until my due date! I can not wait any longer to meet little Julie! I am looking forward to her debut so much that it really prolongs the WAITING GAME, otherwise known as "pregnancy."

I checked out my "belly shots" blog post from when I had Lizzie and I had written: "Over the past two weeks I have had continuous prelabor contractions and even my doctor is surprised that she has not been born yet! Apparently strong contractions every 4 minutes for 1 min length over hour long periods does NOT mean for me that the baby is coming!"

This really made me laugh because it reminds me how similar my two pregnancies have been.


The lesson learned from past experience, though, is to not expect early labor, despite contractions that are indiscernible from real labor. Then when my water breaks I'll FLY to the hospital because my muscles are strong and ready for the real thing.

I'm hoping for a fast birth just like last time, but hopefully not too fast!

Whatever happens, regardless, I am so excited because in the end I will have another sweet little gift from God.
Thanks for the awesome pics and preserved memories Jamie!

21 more days to go....

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the great Dads in my life! My dad, my father in law, and Dave all deserve recognition on this day! Its so great to have such great men in my life.

It has been so fun to watch Dave transform from husband to father, after Lizzie was born. He is so good with her, its no wonder she is such a Daddy's girl. As soon as he gets home she rushes over to him in excitement and is never disappointed by his greetings in return, which usually consists of being thrown into the air and spun around over and over.
From that point on she insists on being in her daddy's arms for the rest of the night. By the time he gets home from work, he usually has about an hour with her before bed time. But that hour is always jam-packed with Daddy-daughter fun! There's continuous laughing, tickling, games, and fun. She is generally worked up to a full on frenzy of hyperness right before bed. But, whenever I mention that to Dave he reminds me that he only has a little time with her so he gets to make it as fun as he wants.
And then I remember how glad I am to have a husband who is so excited and loving towards his daughter.

Happy Fathers' Day Dave! You're soon to be a dad twice over in a couple weeks and then you'll get to throw TWO girls into the air every night!

Baby Julie

Its getting closer and closer to the big D-day! I am just past 35 weeks now and trying to hang in there for this last month! I certainly can't complain because my pregnancy has gone really well but the last couple months can still be pretty tough at times!

We are sooo excited for the arrival of little Julie. I am amazed whenever I think about how blessed we are to be getting ANOTHER sweet little girl so soon. Its fun to try and guess her personality from her little kicks and actions from inside my belly. At this point I imagine her as a snuggly, laid back, sweet little girl based on the fact that she doesn't seem to move too rapidly or crazily. I remember Lizzie doing insane acrobatics all the time. Julie seems to be content to curl up and relax most of the time- she'll give a gentle kick or roll every once in a while just to let me know she's there. She's also very polite about where she rests her feet- Lizzie used to always rest her foot on my ribcage which after about 10 min would start to get really sore! I've found myself better able to fall asleep this pregnancy with a calmer little one this time around.

Yee-Haw!

I finally got hold of a spring riding horse toy so that I could get the third generation picture of Lizzie riding the horse! She's very cute while riding, saying things like "yee-haw!" and "fun horse!" Every once in a while she will stop bouncing the horse to give it a smack on the behind or pet its soft plastic mane.

I tried to replicate the picture I have of myself riding a horse for now...
I do, though, see myself in the near future getting Lizzie a cute cow girl outfit, hat, and then taking the horse and Liz outside for some super cute pictures!

I'm Sorry

Dave and I were just reminiscing on how grateful we were and still are that the burns on Lizzie's hands have healed so well. Just four months ago we were worrying about motion limiting long term damage. Now, when you look at her hands you would never know they were ever injured.

There's nothing more painful than seeing your child in pain. Even when its a small injury, bump, or scrape, I find that my pain level parallels hers.
Now, most of the time its Lizzie getting a small bump and then over dramatizing the event for attention. (for which she gets no attention!)Lately, though she has taken it to a new level to capture more sympathy from all onlookers and audiences.

When Lizzie hurts herself, generally, we give her a hug, kiss and sympathsize by saying "I'm sorry!" However, she has mistaken the meaning of "I'm sorry" to mean "I'm hurt." Its pretty sad now whenever she hurts herself she'll hold the injured body part, crying, and sobbing, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" (translation=I'm hurt! I'm hurt!) It sounds very much like she is pleading for mercy.

Its most embarrasing when we're in public. She makes me feel like a child beater! She'll bump herself or get a little hurt then start to plead, pathetically, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" over and over again. I feel like people start looking at us just waiting for me to say something like, "You better be sorry or I'll hurt you even more!"

We've all witnessed that awkward parent/child interaction at the local store where you end up walking away thinking, "I can't believe how that mom treats her child! Terrible!"
But the moral of this story is: Don't judge the "terrible" mom at the grocery store! Reality is not always as it may appear..

Speaking on the Island

This past Sunday we were asked to re-give our talks on Anderson Island (the ward there is so small they need people to travel there so they don't have to hear from the same people every week.) It felt like a mini vacation- traveling on the ferry and checking out an island I've never been to! Anderson Island was a tiny little island with a tiny little community- very quaint. It seemed like a great place to get away from it all with lots of places to go camping! Lizzie loooved the ferry ride, pointing at the water and all the boats. She was a natural little commuter- relaxing in the booth and reading the baby news.

The island was so small and we had such an easy time getting on the ferry in the morning that we were fairly lax about getting in line to make the 12:30 pm ferry ride back to the mainland! Boy, were we surprised when we ended up being in line 3 with what seemed like a million cars in front of us!! We were really sweating at this point, imagining how terrible it would be to have to wait another 3 hours for the next ferry. Not to mention, we would have to keep the car there in line, the whole time, with a grouchy 18 month old in the back seat! At this point we were out of extra food, water, and it was already nap time!

We sighed with relief as they continued to load everyone, including the car directly in front of us. Until...just then they lowered the arm and stopped us!! We were going to have to catch the next ferry! We started pleading with the operator so he called the other worker on board and heard him ask, "what kind of car is it?" Luckily, we weren't driving a large truck or anything so they let us squeeze on! Woo hoo! That was a true Sunday miracle!

Wall Mural Complete!

It has truly been a week of painting. My mom flew in from Chicago Mother's Day night and we went painting crazy!! It started off with my mom bringing a canvas oil painting of Mount Rainier. A beautiful gift that we loved and completed by shopping for the perfect custom frame. (pics of that later).

Then we tackled a full-room wall mural for Lizzie's room! I have been dying to attempt some kind of wall mural since we bought our house. So mom and I started in and didn't stop for 3 days straight! We went painting crazy!


The perfect recipe for success was a do-it-yourself-kit plus my mom's artistic guidance! I definitely couldn't have done it without her help. (Especially with an 18 month old on the loose.)

We weren't really planning on painting THIS much, but we were having so much fun that we just kept on going, and going...

The canvas painting my mom did a year ago fit the room theme perfectly!

After painting for hours and hours we finally finished!

We then decided to end the week of painting by treating ourselves to pretty painted toes! But this time we did not do the painting ourselves. We left that work to the pedicure professionals!

At the end we showed Lizzie the finished product. She has been going crazy about her room ever since. When I get her up from her naps, the first thing she does is yell "TWEET TWEET!!!" then points at all the birds in the room. She is loving pointing out all the animals and flowers to me over and over again.

It really was a great time spent with my awesome mom! She is so talented and fun to hang out with. It was a great Mother's Day treat for me to have her fly out!