Mood Swings

They say teenagers have mood swings, but Lizzie at 1 1/2 can have a full cycle of conflicting emotions within a 2 minute time period. She's laughing hysterically, then frowning, then smiling, then crying, then trying to be funny herself, then unamused, and tired. There's no keeping up with this girl's emotions. She is generally a constant happy little girl, but when put in the right circumstances she can get set into one of these cycles.

With all these flying emotions, though, she has gained a great sense of empathy for others and their emotions. Last Sunday at church she was very concerned whenever she heard a baby crying. She'd say, "Oh no! Baby crying! Baby sad!"

The other day Dave and I were talking and he said, "thats really sad that....blah blah" (not that he was actually sad, just using the word as a figure of speech in conversation )
Then Lizzie who was busy eating piped in worriedly asking, "Daddy sad? Daddy sad?" The thought of Daddy being sad made her very distraught.

Its very sweet to see her so concerned about the happiness of others. It melted my heart the other day... she was swinging a toy around and accidentally hit me, making me exclaim ouch! (more from surprise then actual pain). But she immediately ran over, stroked my face with her hand while soothing, "nice mama, nice mama", then gave me lots of hugs and kisses.

Scripture Heroes Carnival

Right now, Dave and I are Primary team teachers for a group of 5-6 yr olds. We are loving this calling in the church and having so much fun teaching together. We recently had a scripture carnival for all the Primary children and Dave and I manned the David and Goliath booth. Each kid got a turn to hit Goliath with a slingshot and some pom poms. They loved it!
It was a lot of fun, games, and dressing up! Can you guess who each of us is dressed as?

I am pregnant Mary, Lizzie is Daniel (and the Lions' Den-she did a great job taming Lenny the Lion all day), and Dave is Ammon.

Recently, Dave was called to be an early morning seminary teacher. He's looking forward to this opportunity, but I will definitely miss team teaching with him! We've really enjoyed it while it lasted!

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..