Spring, Chalk and Chipmunks!

Taylor "colored" her eye pink with chalk. silly girl! heehee

We have had a few nice days and even I went outside and layed on our front lawn.. (gasp) We got the sidewalk chalk out and the girls had so much fun playing hopscotch. Tay is an old pro, and Halle is at that cute stage where her hopping is a little run/skip/hop/bounce and I LOVE it!

Ok, so for Family Home Evenings we have been going through President Hinckleys Be's and two weeks ago the topic was "Be Smart". So each Monday night we have been picking something new to learn about. Well, we learned all about squirrels/Chipmunks...Taylor and Halle can give you a refresher's course if you need one, and we learned that we have "fox squirrels" in our back yard.

We normally only see one at a time in our backyard so Halle calls "our" squirrel "Chippy". Its too funny!

We actually purchased a piece of furniture! We bought this table and chairs at the end of last month with my Mom's help and we love being able to eat in the Kitchen again...(our other table is in the "dining room" aka homework and project room :)....oh and the wallpaper you see in this picture is basically all gone thanks to my awesome girls who come and help me since I am disabled... :) Oh yeah, I put them to work on all the really vital important stuff!

Time is actually moving, we are in our 3rd trimester and amazingly enough I am still alive. :) With that acknowledgement and the fact that spring is here or is just around the corner-it feels like I can breathe again. I just may survive this yet!

Happy Valentines Day...at the Newport Aquarium

The aquarium was so neat and it had really, really neat sharks. There was one that they had bred there at the aquarium that was part sting ray part shark. It was freaky looking...They had exhibits of Jellyfish, seahorses, otters, birds, alligators, frogs, and obviously a lot of neat fish.

My Dad flew out for Valentine's weekend and it was so wonderful to have him here with us! We put him straight to work, poor guy! Sorry you had to live for so long without Mom!! Ok, that shark looks like it is seriously wanting to eat Taylor's head...

I survived almost the whole day. I sat down a lot and layed down some and passed out in the parking garage but all in all it was a good day! :)

There was a guy that was charging $15 a picture but my mom stood right next to him and took this picture. haha

Happy 31st Birthday Greg!!!!

Is February really almost gone?

Greg wanted me to blog about the hospital visit complete with pictures....uggh, The girls Had so much fun at the hopital! They thought it was great..there was a t.v. and everything-you could tell that they have been tv deprived for 5 months....

They came to visit me but since I had a ton of drugs going through the IV I couldn't even keep my eyes open.

No caption necessary...

One more glorious picture and we are done!

This would be me.....with my seabands on, looking really cute in my "Handy Helper". It was my big day out. haha My mom and I laughed soooooo hard! I sat down in the cart and we were both just laughing-I guess it felt weird to both of us to have to push me around. Well just as we turned a corner in Hobby Lobby this little girl, probably Halle's age said,"Oh Mommy, that lady is really old!" We didn't really know what the Mom was trying to say to her daughter for making the comment because we were both just laughing so hard! If I had been hydrated at all I definitely would have peed my pants and my mom just about did! Then we saw her again in the store and she said, " Oh mommy, look, she does have a booboo!" That poor mom, we have all been there right, when your kids say something somewhat phopaw and you just want to run and hide. Happy memory with my mom for sure!

Mmmm, Halle needed a tea party with mommy so we decided to have

'Watermelon Tea"...aka water and I think she made us some "corn on the cob". She is ready for summer!

Halle was taking some pictures one day and I deleted of the ones she took-ya know, close up pictures of our table and stuff but I could not delete this one. How cute that she took a picture of her little feet with pink tights!

Baby blue eyes. When she was a baby Dr. Hensley checked to make sure she didn't have any cataracts or problems with her eyes because she had never seen a babies eyes so wide open.

Greg went o!n a fieldtrip with Taylor's class and they went to a musuem who was having an exhibit on the Mexican culture. This is Tay with her class. I love how she can't "just" smile!

Tay and a "favorite" classmate. haha

Taylor on the bus. Its not something she gets to do very often so when she does ride on the bus, it is a huge deal! Thankfully Greg was there this time to catch a photo of our big girl.

Halle totally fell in love with Tay's horsie this month-she dressed it in pink jammies almost everyday.

Oh, Grandma, we love you!!!!!!!!!!! We miss you so much and cant wait to be with you again! Thank you so much for your month of service to us!! We will never forget it...ever, ever!

So funny, we went in to check on Tay and Halle and they were both completly out but it looks like Tay was thinking about getting up but only got this far!! haha

My mom shoveled our driveway so many times while she was here! She thought she was getting away from the snow when she moved from Wyoming at the beginning of January but we grabbed her before she could enjoy any of that warmth emanating from Southern Utah

Oh, my girls, always there to help out.....Maybe they thought they could eat all the snow to help Grandma.

Wow, Please ignore previous post-Can you say "Whiner"

Just a little bit of pregnancy hormones kicking in there. I changed my mind....the help is AWESOME! haha, today I had a ton of stuff that I needed to get done and Emily did most of it, and played with Halle and helped her her letters, while I layed around and felt really sick. Awesome! I am almost Giddy-You know, I am totally getting spoiled and I'm already thinking of ways to slyly convince Greg that I need to keep the help even once the baby is born. Let me know if you think of any ideas! Hee hee.

Lou, Lou Skip to my Lou!!!

You know that quote from Sister Hinckley that says (and I am paraphrasing) that she would rather laugh than cry because crying gave her a headache. Well, I am wondering what she did when she missed her Mom, or had days like today. Laughing just wasn't an option, at least, I dont think it was. We hired a girl to come in twice a week to help out with some errands, clean a little but most of all, play with Halle while Tay is at school and give her some perschool time. After my Mom was her for a whole month, going back to the messy house, no dinner, no errands done kind of life just didn't sound appetizing.....so we hired someone! The girl is awesome! We are so blessed to have found her. Halle loves her and had a ton of fun with her. But....It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be! When we went to go pick up Tay, Halle wanted to skip so she and Kelly skipped up to the door and I followed slowly behind. Sooo so sad to watch it. I feel like I am willingly just stepping out of her little life. Who knows how much longer I have that she will even want to skip with me places. That doesn't sound like a big deal but to me it is, missing these little things in their lives is the stuff that motherhood is made of! They are only this little once. I feel like I am just being a big (yes I know I'm big) whimp!! I feel like I would rather pass out and throw up after skipping with her than miss it all together. Maybe I will give our helpers another week or so, and if I am still having an emotionally hard time than I am just going to have to tell her "sorry...but I need to be a mommy, even if its a sick one...." You know, I really am so lucky that I am just pregnant and not dying from some awful disease...because I really do get to say, Ok..I can skip with her in July. It's "funny", it is going to be a lot "harder" when baby #3 comes out but I cannot wait to take on the challenge. hahaha I am sure I will be writing in July-Help, this is so hard. The point to this LONG blog....................SKIP NOW WITH YOUR LITTLE ONES!

January Fun!

We (I use the word "we" lightly) went sledding when Greg got home from work one night and the girls thought it was so fun to go sledding in the dark. We have a park called Glenn miller Park that actually has a big grassy hill that was perfect for sledding. You could hear the girls screaming all the way down to the bottom of the hill. Love it!

It finally snowed here in Indiana this month..Tay had lots of snow days and delayed school hours so their was plenty of time for playing in it! Tay loved going out and playing, but Halle just loved the dressing up part, and getting hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows.... go figure.

When I get the chance I will post the finished product of their art...

I love to watch them sleep.....is that weird?

I went in to check on the girls and Halle had gotten out of bed and put on a crown...the magic wand is behind her, obviously she fell asleep in the middle of the imagining....perhaps she wished herself to sleep. Even princesses must get their rest I suppose.

Cute things they say!

The other night, after I had gotten home from the hopital, I laughed really hard at something Taylor said and she said to me..."Oh, you laughed like the regular old mommy!" It was way cute and made me realize that they know there is a difference between this mommy and the one that laughs with them and takes good care of them. I can't let myself get depressed at my current state of mommyhood because this is the tiny price I pay to recieve another one of "His" children. Sadly, they get to pay it too but I am hoping they forget by the time they see how cute he is!! Halle said to me the other day...."Mommy, you were pretty when you got married...right?" How funny is that! She was probably looking at me and thinking, ok that lady had to be pretty at least when she was getting married because that is just mandatory. I told her that I was gorgeous on my wedding day and that I would even put on makeup and maybe take my hair out of a ponytail when I was all better She was really excited about that....perhaps we should lay off the perfect princess barbie movies for a while...they make mommy look frumpy!

Yeah....more I.V.s!!

I am here in the hospital...and you know I told that baby, no more hospital visits until he was good and ready to come out. Boys....they can be so difficult sometimes :) I actually dont mind the IV in, it gives me the fluids I need that I can't keep down. We are going to see how I do after this hopital visit and then if I still end up coming back then we will probably just do a pic line (is that really how you spell it?) so that I can just have a nurse come to the house and help with it every so often. My mom is amazing I am so, so grateful that she is here! The girls love it. And needless to say, so do Greg and I.
The hardest part about all of this is that I feel like my relationship with my girls is deteriorating, since my Mom is here to do all of the Mom stuff I am not feeling very close to them. Which proves to me that the service we render to someone...especially our own families will only help us to feel closer to them and love them even more. Perhaps through my prayers....scriptures...and Sister Hinckley's book, "Glimpses", I will be able to feel that peaceful spirit that in return they will feel as well. I love the gospel, the testimony I have now, and the knowledge that with my Heavenly Father all things are possible....even being a good mommy on bedrest. These are precious years when they are little...I already feel like I am running out of time.

So it is the boys who cause all the trouble!!!

I am finally home from the hospital....and hope to never be there again until about 18 weeks from now! On tuesday evening (1/20) I realized that I had not kept down any solid food since the previous Saturday (1/17). I and probably all pregnant women get so used to throwing up that it wasn't until I looked back that I realized where I was... I switched to all clear liquids and couldnt keep that down so when I talked to my Dr. on Thursday he immediately admitted me into the hospital and got me on IV fluids and vitamins. I had a lot of cramping pain that they (and I) were concerned about so while I was there I got an ultrasound!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH! I was going to have to wait until I was 28 weeks along but look at what I will do to get my way and see it sooner!!! :) And we are haveing a BOY! We are so excited, baby is perfectly healthy, its amazing to me that it can survive an entire week of no food and 2 whole days of no hydration!! Cause I felt like I was dieing!! Anyway once I kept down all of the drugs orally and kept down some chicken broth and toast I was able to leave. I haven't moved my diet much from the broth and toast idea but its working. OH, AND MY MOM IS HERE! We talked to her Friday and she got on a plane on Saturday and she swooped in and saved us all!!! Yeah!!!! I am sooo grateful to have her here. I am so dizzy and weak and tired so I sleep a lot so my Mom is literally doing it all. THANK YOU MOM! I LOVE YOU! And thanks Dad for sharing her! Thanks to all of you for the phone calls and emails....we are doing great!!