Belated Mother's Day!

Well, you saw all the cards I made in previous posts for my Mom.  I finished the other project for W's Mom.  I love making these bags now!  They're so quick and easy!  Oh, and she liked it too!
My Mother in law loves yellow so I did this one all red and yellow and I love the way it turned out.
My Mom and T's bags that I made for Christmas have had handle problems so I put lining in these handles too and sewed over and over to reinforce them.  Hopefully they'll work better.  I'm a little obsessed with fat quarters right now. :)  I have a whole collection so I can make more bags.  I want to make myself a scripture tote and then some more just for fun!

Why Mom, why???

So, I'm proud of her and think she's brilliant.  We all know that.  And, of course, she is! :)

M has learned the question, "why?" and while it's very cute and precocious, it's also quite exasperating!!! 

For example:

I'm eating and M comes up and asks, "why eating, Mom?"

Me: Because I'm hungry.

M: why?

Me: Because it's time to eat.

M: why? 

Me: Because our bodies need food to stay healthy.

M: why?

Me: Because if we don't eat, we get sick.

M: why?

Me: (pausing to think and not get frustrated!)

M: why Mom, why?????

Me: Because food is yummy.

M: okay. food yummy.

AUGH!!!!!!! I love her dearly but I teach kids why questions in therapy way later than 28 months so I'm worried this might be a LONG phase! :)

A Quick Update

We just spent a wonderful weekend in Colorado with family complete with swimming, playing, a birthday party, a baby shower and lots of good food! I will post pictures as soon as the computer is fixed (I promised Emily she'd be famous and make the blog again!) 

More good blood test results-things are still good with the baby so far!

M moved into a big girl bed right before we left town and LOVES it!  I finally came in her room at 9am this morning (a full 14, yes FOURTEEN hours after she went to bed) and she was awake, just lying happily in her new bed.  Princess sheets do wonders!

Yes, eight hours in a car is "fun" when you're seven months pregnant! :)

Book Reviews

I have been on a reading kick.  And I got my library card finally! Yay!!! So, here goes on what I've been reading lately.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. I loved this book! It gives so much detail into the Chinese culture including arranged marriages and footbinding that was just fascinating and had a wonderful story with incredible characters! Read it!

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull.  I found this one on a list of "what do I read now that Harry  Potter is done?" and really enjoyed it! It was juvenile fiction but you all know I have a soft spot for that.  It was different and I liked that!  The characters and overall premise were very original rather than copycats (rather than how I feel about Christopher Paolini books)

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. Okay, I devoured this one in the car on the way home from Colorado!  I literally read this one in less than 24 hours.  It had me hooked.  I won't give anything away but it was definitely a page-turner and emotional.  I didn't completely like the ending but she sure knows how to create a controversy.  I enjoyed reading this book but it was hard to read this book. Does that make sense?  And I didn't quite like it as much as My Sister's Keeper.

Next on my list...

These is my Words -if I ever can find it for my S&S book club!

Pope Joan -now that I have my library card!

Okay, let's be realistic, The Host is next  because I couldn't resist and got it at the library!!!!!

withdrawal

My computer is very sick.  It hasn't been this sick before.  And Dad hasn't called me back so I don't know how to fix it!  So, I'm therefore going through email/blogging/surfing withdrawal.  I'm trying to have a good attitude that it's good for me.  But I have tons to share.  So I will save my cute pictures and be grateful for my slow backup computer that my grandparents left here.  And be back later!  

Creativity Progress Report

I LOVE the dress!  It's so cute!  There's just one big flaw (besides that it's not hemmed and I haven't taken out any of the basting stitches).  It's made for size 3 gigantor babies!  The pattern didn't say that!  I usually have the opposite problem (the pattern is way too small!) so I didn't worry too much and made a size 3 for my 2 year old because I wanted it longer.  Oh well. So now I'm trying to decide if I should try to alter it (which could work or could make it look well, altered) or just put it away for next year (or three years from now based on how gigantic it is!)

One mother's day present down.  (I'm depending on my mother's not ever reading my blog here so T&G shouldn't show this to her!) I've been wanting to make my Mom some cards for her birthday/mother's day present and finally got together with Katie to do so.  We had so much fun and what's cool is that some of these are her designs and some of them are mine so we made a great pair!

Other progress:

-the bed is downstairs thanks to the cousin get together on Saturday!  yay!!!! I'm sleeping underneath a cool fan and next to a cool A/C vent. No more sweltering lofts for me!!!! (but no, not making a huge dent in the insomnia)

-no other fabric cut but I've got to get busy on some of this or my other mother's day presents won't make it!

I'll keep you posted!

We love packages!

We must be very loved!  We got more fun mail recently and, as you can see, M wanted to immediately put her new stickers to use!  And we mean immediately.  She was so cute about the princess stickers too!  They were super-sticky and so they lasted through several days and she wore them everywhere and yes, Daddy and I wore them too!  

What a girl needs...

My cousin tagged me and it was indeed entertaining.  You type your name into Google along with "needs" and see what pops up.

What I "need"...

1) protection

2) three olives and some yarn

3) a HERO!!!

4) a brewskie

5) your prayers

6) to stomp that Latin out!

7) loving

8) a spring cleaning

9) more hip action

10) no defense

M "needs"...

1) help

2) a very quiet home in a place with few or no thunderstorms and lots of sunshine

3) a summer intern

4) a [butt] kicking

5) to return to Rexburg (yes, seriously Grace!) 

6) sleep

7) a makeover

8) to buy me a drink

9) a pep talk

10) to go back to school (try start in three years!)

Please bless...

M's been repeating prayers for months and I love it!  She loves saying her own bedtime prayers.  I'm trying to help her be more independent with it.  She now knows how to start and end her prayers all by herself.  I'm also just prompting, "we're thankful for" and "please bless" and trying to let her fill in the blanks.  It's has yielded some pretty cute results! The other night she was both thankful and blessed BUBBLES!  (apparently we need to play with them more because we hadn't for days when it appeared twice in the prayer!)  Last night we were at Jeff and Katie's and she blessed Jeff twice.  We already knew she was a fan of Jeff but apparently we didn't know how much! :)

Let the Insomnia Begin!

I remember this from last time. I've been dreading it.

The point where you just can't get comfortable.

Where you toss and turn all night but wake up each time because it's such an effort to get the beached whale to actually turn all the way over.

The point where your mind will not slow down and stop for the night.  

Where all of a sudden you can now remember all the things you forgot on your list.

I couldn't get to sleep last night, then I woke up every hour and even read a chapter in my book at 3am.  

Help!

Needing to get back into my creative groove!

I had a lot of fun buying fabric last week.  Now I need to get to work!

I've had  a lazy month in April, recovering from a bunch of stressful ones.  I think I deserved to take a break, enjoy living with my family together again, and not working as much.  However, now I need to get back to it!  My goals this week? 

-make a dress for M (I got the fabric and pattern a month ago and it's sat in the laundry room since then!)

-start on L/E's baby blanket 

-bring the bed downstairs and have a real bedroom again! (Grandma's been encouraging us to do this from the start so it's about time!)

-make mother's day presents before we leave for Colorado next week

-only one lunch out with M (don't judge me on this one, it's too easy to grab a sandwich when your toddler's best errand running time is right around lunch!)

We'll see how we do.  In the meantime, here's some of my inspiration!

fabric for the new baby's blanket
this one's for me-not sure what I'm going to do with it but it's so pretty! and cherries!  how could i resist???
This is for M's dress. I'm halfway there and hopefully will be done before too long!

My Top 10 Mom List

5 Things I love about My Mom

5. She is one of my favorite people to talk to.  I talk to her almost everyday and only worry that I'm pestering her some of the time. 

4. She is a wonderful example of everything-good cooking, housekeeping, being a supportive wife and Mom, attitude, unconditional love, talent

3. She has always played a big part in my life: from embarrassing me in elementary school class parties with her crazy costumes complete with bells on her shoes, to finding a way to come to all of my girls' camps, to taking care of me when my baby was born and I had surgery.

2. She's a wonderful grandma to all six and a half of her grandchildren-loving them and caring for them and teaching us to be better parents to them.

1. She's my Mom and she's always loved me and I know she always will.

5 Things I Love about Being a Mom

5. M is my biggest fan-I love that she thinks I'm the coolest! (although it hasn't been helpful with my new calling-she's had to leave sacrament meeting two weeks in a row screaming for me!)

4. I love watching my babies grow and the companions and friends that I've gained in these two beautiful girls (I'm just sure this next one is beautiful too! :)

3. As overwhelming and scary as it is, I love teaching and sharing the world with my girl.  I love watching her learn and develop and being a part of that. I love watching the traits come out that remind me of me or my sister like her singing and dancing.

2. I love snuggling with my girl.  When she was tiny, I loved having her sleep on my chest and now I love when she snuggles up with a book or a princess show or just because!

1. It is amazing to be part of my girl's life-to know that we created her, to know where she came from and for her to be a part of our eternal family.

What did you say???

This morning M was playing with my hair and said,
"Mom! Duck pee!"

what?????
translated: Mom! Look Pretty! :)
funny girl

100 to go!

The first 100 days of a presidential term are supposed to be very telling. (a little tribute to this little one's Dad!) These last 100 days should be just as telling!

I have a form of RH incompatibility. It's not the simple kind where I can get a shot though. Basically, there are lots of blood alleles and one of them is E. I am anti-E. W is obviously positive for E because he passed it on to M and she left enough in me that I built up antibodies in the last two years. So when they did my blood tests when I got pregnant, they discovered that I had anti-E antibodies. It caused a lot of worry at first until we learned more about what it all meant. (Heaven forbid I have an uneventful pregnancy, right? :)

-if this baby also inherited the big E, then the antibodies can cause problems with this baby's blood. If my antibodies get too high, it means they could start attacking the baby's blood and cause anemia in the baby. If the baby gets anemia, it reacts by blocking blood flow tot he brain to send it other places which of course is very dangerous for her brain development. However, 1) we don't know whether she inherited the big E or not. 2) it's milder in earlier pregnancies-I haven't had that much time to build up the antibodies. 3) there's nothing we did to cause this and there's nothing we can do but monitor it. So, the bottom line is, we get my blood checked every month to see if I'm building more antibodies or just maintaining. IF I built up more antibodies, they would start weekly ultrasounds to watch the baby more closely. They would monitor her blood flow and make sure her brain is developing fine and getting enough blood. If the blood flow did become interrupted and there was anemia, they could actually do an intra-uterine blood transfusion to supplement. Those last two steps are where I get freaked out and scared.

-Not many people know about this complication with the baby, so for all of the rest of you who are now freaked out, here's the good news! I keep telling myself that everything is absolutely fine as long as my blood levels stay okay. And that's true. And it's going fine so far. My blood levels or "titres" have stayed nice and low and haven't budged for three months in a row. We'll keep monitoring it for the rest of the pregnancy but so far, so good!

In general though, this pregnancy has been so easy! I was HARDLY sick and I have felt great. I expect to get really huge over the next 100 days and really uncomfortable! :) And we're excited!

because it's funny...

I haven't watched SNL in years. I have only seen Penelope once but she's funny!

Enjoy this clip!

Sweet Moment

Now, is it any wonder that these are my two favorite people????

Princess Sleep Bee Bear

We have gotten a lot of fun packages in the mail recently! One came courtesy of Aunt Grace's new job at Build a Bear. Now Princess White Bear has an alter-ego!
sorry, my rotating powers have been temporarily disabled!

she also got plates, napkins and cups with her favorite people on them and had a tea party with her bear. Thank you Grandma and Grace!

Cousin bonding

These pictures are a few weeks old but I am still catching up! We've been lucky to have cousins close by who love games even more than we do! Jeff and Katie were soooo good to W while I was gone and we've kept weekly game night going. We trade off dinner and treats and then play a few games. We're so glad it's kept going! And M loves their baby! He's a year younger but she asks about him all the time and wants to see him all the time! I love that she has family her age around here.



He wasn't as keen on holding hands as M was!

As an aside journal note, I love how my babies react to when I drink especially. I just had a glass of water and the little one inside is kicking up a storm! M was like that too! I would drink a glass of juice especially and she'd go nuts! I LOVE this stage of pregnancy!

Weekend Report

I worked at the hospital for the first time on Saturday! And it was by myself! Augh!! It went really well actually. I had to call my supervisor once because my default settings on the computer disappeared and I needed to reset it with his help. But I was able to find what I needed and enjoyed my day! yay!

I got a new calling at church. I'm the ward chorister. I must have chorister stamped on my forehead. They said if I was related to my grandmother (we go to her ward) then I must know how to lead music! I joined the stake choir on Sunday. I was nervous about going when I really don't know anyone yet but our stake conference is coming up and Elder Nelson is our visiting General Authority and so I couldn't pass this up! I think it will be fun and I DID recognize someone there!

I heart Macey's!

Not the department store, the grocery store!

It's one of those things I've been so happy hasn't changed since I moved away six years ago! It still has fabulous "farm bread" and still sells cheap ice cream cones!

And last night, it was open at 3am when I needed to get motrin for my little girl with a fever! I love it! And it still is closed on Sunday! Good store!

M seems fine today but low energy so I'm not sure what is up but she was hot hot hot last night and crying so I got to trek out in the dark because of course, the motrin is packed! So hopefully she'll be back to her energetic self soon. sweet girl.