A Few of LG's Favorite Things

What can I say? M's watching "The Sound of Music" right now.  So here are a few of her sister's favorites.  Of course, these are subject to change as LG becomes older than a week!

Milk! She loves the milk and is very adamant about when it's time for more! (Don't worry, we'll spare you the actual picture details!)

Sleep!  She is continuing to give me 4-5 hour stretches at night! Hooray!

Her pacifier-M calls it her "firepass"

We got her a new swing this week and she seems to be a fan

LG is my snuggler. She loves to lay on my chest and listen to my heart and just sleep!

I'm pretty sure she loves her sister too but we're working on a more gentle relationship!

LG loves a good butt massage!  She loves her vibrating bouncy seat and calms right down if SHE thinks it's time to eat but MOM thinks otherwise!

1 week down!

I have not had so many emotions wrapped into one week in a long time! Probably for two and a half years, really, when M was born!  Having a new baby in the house is a jumbled mix of joy, fear, anxiety, tenderness, stress, laughter, kisses, chaos, and tons of love! At the same time with all of our house guests, adjustments, two year old moments, and late nights, my sweet husband's work has been very stressful as well.  It's been a bit overwhelming!

Mom says I gave birth to a one-month old!  This week, her eyes are open more (a big accomplishment for this squinty-eyed one, believe me!), she's eating like a pro, has found a nice loud cry (it seriously got louder two days ago!) and is sleeping wonderfully!  She came home and the next two nights slept for four and five hour stretches!  Love it!  The next night she woke up after two hours and wouldn't go back to sleep for three-just to remind me she's a newborn, I guess! But then, last night she slept for six hours!  There is something to having a nice big baby who can go for those stretches. She nurses in clusters because of it.  She nurses all evening and loads up again in the morning after she's slept for so long.  She is sweet and mellow and has BLUE eyes!!!!!  Of course, they're newborn blue so they'll probably change, but they're not chocolate brown like her sister's.  I'm excited to see what they end up as.  We love her!! (more on M later...)

email

We had to finally erase our hard drive and hope that starting over will solve it's crashing habit!  Soooo.... I lost ALL of my email addresses! Please email me at: weholman at gmail dot com so I can put your email back in my new address book!  Pretty pretty please!

Couldn't have said it better myself!

We're cleaning M's room and whatever we organize, she takes out again.

Me: M, can you focus please?

M: I can, but I don't.

Classic.

This pregnancy vs. Last pregnancy

I wrote this a week before I had the baby on a long and hard day.  But I still wanted to post it.

It's funny how you think, I've done this, I can do this again.  This is familiar territory.  But what "they" say is true.  Each pregnancy is soooo different! I feel more tired this time but I also think it's because I don't get to come home and crash, I get to come home or be at home and chase after a busy 2 year old! :)  I'm lucky and don't get very sick.  My trigger has always been brushing my teeth but I rarely threw up with either. 

baby #1: I worked five days past my due date, FULL TIME! In fact, I was at work when they called me to schedule my induction.

baby #2: I took my last on call day two weeks ago.  It was too hard on EVERYBODY!  I would come home from work and be so exhausted that I couldn't relieve Grandma or Daddy from M-sitting which is no fair for them either!

baby #1: I swear I was more comfortable! I'm sure my memory has faded and I do remember being miserable the last weeks.

baby #2: I have been uncomfortable for MONTHS! I'm five pounds heavier this time-that can't make that much of a difference, can it?  I feel like someone's trying to rip my pelvic bones in two directions. I can't sit for long but my feet swell if I'm on my feet too much!

baby #1: I was so worried about slipping and falling on the ice and hurting the baby! I tiptoed around the Minnesota ice and snow!

baby #2: It's soooooooo dang HOT!!!!!!!!! The maternity clothes that I loved because they were so comfy last time are my enemy with their constricting bands that only make you hotter!

baby #1: I had the flu and several colds at the beginning but otherwise felt like my immune system was so strong!  I used to get lots of colds though when I was working with kids!

baby #2: I have the annoying crap: continuous stuffy nose-I've never blown my nose so much! And I've been on reflux meds since the beginning or I wake up in the night with bad reflux symptoms!

baby #1: M had irregular growth that caused a lot of worry and heartache-ask me about her pinkies sometime! :)

baby #2: M left behind blood alleles that I'm allergic to so I developed anti-bodies in me that could possibly attack this little one so I have to have my "titres" checked every month to make sure her blood is safe! 

baby #1: I felt her kick at 21 weeks.

baby #2: I swear I felt her kick at 16-17 weeks.  The flutters I didn't recognize the first time around as kicks soooo were kicks!

baby #1: kicked me in the ribs and back

baby #2: kicks me in the bladder!  that was a new one and not a fun one! I didn't know how much that could hurt!

baby #1: was most active late at night, when I'd stretch out on my bed flat and relaxed.  She LOVED when I would do voice therapy.  There's a lot of singing and chanting involved and she LOVED that. She would start kicking like crazy!  She also loved juice and water! At my weekly non-stress tests, they would give me juice or water to get her moving and, boy, did it work! In fact, they stopped giving it to me because it would get her too active to track her heartrate and movements!

baby #2: She is active ALL THE TIME!!! She is going to be a gymnast or dancer or something, I swear! She is always moving and making my stomach do the hula!  We saw fireworks on Pioneer Day and she would jump whenever there was a big one! :)

baby #1: no Asian food! none!  "I had a bad experience!"

baby #2: some Asian food is okay but the more "Americanized" the better. I can't handle anything too authentic! :)

baby #1: salty food was all I wanted!

baby #2: It's all about the sugar this time!  It's flip flopped a bit back and forth but in general, chocolate and ice cream are my friends this time!

baby #1: I had so many ultrasounds, I felt like I knew what she was going to look like and she did!  She looked just as I imagined her with lots of hair and the shape of her face.  I recognized my friend who had kept me company for so many months.

baby #2: I'm soooo excited to see what she looks like! It feels like such a mystery when I seriously felt like I KNEW what M looked like!  I would love for her to have W's hazel brown-speckled eyes! 

I love being pregnant.  I love having this friend inside of me that no one really knows yet except for me.  I love that bond.  I'm trying to remind myself of that today when I'm very up and down emotionally frustrated that I'm still pregnant but trying to be patient! 

More details!

I was induced on Friday morning as planned!  Things went so smoothly!  We didn't get started as soon as we got there because this little girl was crooked in my uterus!  Her head was off to the side and they wanted her fully head down. So they did a mini version and started the Pitocin to start more contractions.  Things went slowly but smoothly all morning and early afternoon. By then, I was dilated to a 4 and they gave me my epidural right before they broke my water.  My epidural was great! I had the pump kind where I could control how much extra I needed so I could move my legs and adjust in the bed and not feel completely dead but didn't have pain!  Perfect!  So I rested off and on all afternoon and evening until I very quickly went from a 6 to being ready to push!  They called in my doctor, she said to push and she came with three pushes!  Yes, three!  Yes, all 9 lb. 4 oz. of her in 3 pushes! My mom says I have the pelvis of champions. :) They put her directly on my chest which they didn't do with M, and I loved it. I saw her right away and got to hold her for a while until they took her to weigh and clean her.  She's healthy, beautiful, and sweet!  

All cleaned up, sitting with Dad.  She has lighter hair than M but the same cheeks and nose.  I love my big babies! They're born with very very kissable cheeks!!!

Me and my girls! When M came to visit, she just grinned and grinned!

Ready to go home!

And I even got a four hour stretch of sleep last night! Can't beat that! 

Announcing...

Lucy Grace Holman

9 lb. 4 oz.

20 inches long

lots of light brown hair

Mom and baby are doing well! We just got home so we'll get more pictures and details up soon!

Princess Purse!

These are probably my favorites so far! (And Barb, I think I have figured out the PERFECT scripture bag size so I'll use the last fabric you gave me and make it this size!) My new favorite purse! I saw a girl at Noodles on Monday with a similar design and came home and made it! My problem with the scripture bags was I was making them too small! The unfinished size of my original bags is 18"x18" and this one is only 14"x14" so I was over-estimating how much I'd need to shrink it! M saw my blue and green bag and said she "needed" a princess purse. I wasn't sure what I was going to make her with this fabric anyway, so here you go. She woke up from her nap when I'd finished it and was appropriately thrilled, hands clasped together, "oh, mein dosh!" So cute!
This one I embellished with grosgrain ribbon and used a fusible interfacing on fabric for the inside to see how it worked. It was great and makes the smaller bags so much less bulky! 

Last Minute Preparations

I'm also trying to show the hubby how to post since I won't be able to for a few days! (yes, the laptop is broken AGAIN!)

Our predictions: more dark hair and eyes, 7 lb. 11 oz. (we're hoping she's smaller than M was!) 

a few of the things I've been working on for the baby.
I wanted to make my own diaper bag (another thing I have no idea where in the storage unit it is!) I actually made two very similar ones and can't decide which I like better!
T and I copied this from a onesie that Ire gave to Ruby but I didn't finish it until this last week.
I finally got smart and figured if I couldn't find my burp rags, I'd make my own! So easy and flannel at Walmart is a whopping 2.50/yard so each of these was less than a $1 to make! Love it! 

The Plan

i'm going to be induced Friday morning. if I get bumped, there will definitely be tears.  

Gymnastics Scoring is STUPID!!!

Okay, so I am loving the Olympics still!  I'm so frustrated with the gymnastics though! I love watching it but it doesn't make sense!!!!

How does a girl who was 12 years old two years ago, suddenly appear as a 16 year old to compete in China?  Poor girl, she's going to be too old to compete for the next Olympics at this rate!! 

How does a girl who fell on her landing of her vault win a medal against a girl who landed both of hers????? 

How does a girl who had an equally good or better uneven bars get a lower score????

I don't understand why the new scoring PUNISHES the gymnasts for doing NOTHING WRONG!!! It totally defeats the point of the Olympics and "friendly competition" doesn't it???? There should have been two gold medals for uneven bars last night.  There should have been SOME recourse for better vaults, regardless of their complications.  If she landed her vault, she did a better job, right?  No matter how many twists she did in the air!!!

You know a system is broken when its EXPERTS can't even explain or understand it!!! 

33/100

The Big Read, an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts, has estimated that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed. How did you do?

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Star the books you LOVE.

1 **Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 **The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 **Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 **Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 **To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible –
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman-started but didn't finish, someday I will
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 **Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare-not sure how many I've read but several
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 **Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 **The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis-wait, this is part of 33, oh well, I've read both
37 **The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 **Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 **The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 **Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 **The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon-this was like opening up my brother's brain and seeing how it really works! 
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 
65 **Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 **The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett, if you liked this book, read A Little Princess as well!!!
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 **Charlotte’s Web - EB White, read his other books too!
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl, I like his other books, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda and Witches better!
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

How about you?
(I've seen this before, The Big Read is legit, but who knows if the list is, but it was still fun to see what books I'd read on "someone's" list!)

Yes, it's my due date

...and no, no baby yet.  I knew today would be hard. Especially since whatever I do up on the stand at church leading the music makes me break into contractions.  I went home again after sacrament because I was so uncomfortable.  Every movement is starting to hurt.  but of course the contractions have slowed again. We shall see.  W is getting more excited and thinks missing a rough Monday at work is a great idea so he wants to go on a walk and jump on my uncle's trampoline this afternoon. We shall see.  The good news is, I won't be pregnant this time next week.  I can do that. I can make that.  The bad news is, I'm still pregnant right now! :)

Everyone's comments and emails and such have been so supportive though. I really appreciate them.  My emotions are so up and down-one minute I'm fine with being big and awkward and uncomfortable and the next I'm a cranky, angry mess!  Definitely learning patience on this one!  

My Favorite Olympic Moments-week 1

Week one of the Olympics was amazing and I can't wait for more!! Here are some of my favorites!

The Opening Ceremonies were amazing!  They were the best I've ever seen and all the commentators are right-everyone else should just stop trying!  I loved the drummers at the beginning-their synchronization and their performance was amazing.  I told W that I want an LED light suit like these guys for Halloween! :)  Just kidding! I loved the costumes, the culture, the music, watching the athletes come in, everything!  What a display!

The US Men's Gymnastics Team finals. I know the Hamm brothers are amazing but I don't think anyone else on that team got enough credit until they started to stand on their own on Monday night. I thought it was so impressive to watch them take a tough situation and rise to the occasion rather than letting it ruin things. I loved watching the high bar and seeing them nail their routines and how they KNEW it!

The Mens 4x100 relay in swimming! This was amazing to watch the team as they started to realize they could win and to watch that incredibly close race!  Their faces said it all about how excited they were. It was so fun to watch Jason Lezak surge from behind to win!  My favorite part though, was when they interviewed Lezak later and asked him how he felt winning the race to continue Michael Phelps journey toward a new record.  I'm a Michael Phelps phan as much as the next person, and think he's of course an amazing athlete but I love how Lezak basically said, Michael's great but I won this race for myself and team USA.  If there is something I haven't loved, it's the HUGE deal the media's making of Michael.  Is what he's doing amazing? Of course!  But heavens, let's give some of the other guys their credit when they finish an amazing race as well!!

The women's all-around Gymnastics! I loved the women's team as well but the excitement around the all-around was so fun to watch! It came down to all all of the last routines and while I got annoyed with the scoring (why did the Chinese seem immune to deductions when they screwed up????...hmm.....) but Nastia Liukin was perfect and Shawn Johnson is so fun to watch. I loved watching them get better and better as the night went on!!

The men's inter-medley relay! Not sure if I got that one right, but it's called something like that! :)  I love the relays. I love watching each person take their turn at the leg and whether it sets them ahead or if they have to make up time then.  

I love the women's swimming too!!!  I wish they got more attention amid the Michael Phelps-mania!  I love Natalie Coughlin and I think Dara Torres is amazing for being such a great swimmer and a mom and twenty years older than the rest of them!!!  I love what she said last night about what she's going to tell her daughter, that dreams don't have age limits!!!

Olympic Symbols

We (W, me, Jeff and Katie) were wondering tonight more about the Olympic rings.  I remembered that the colors represented colors that appear on all national flags (each flag has at least one of the five colors on them) and that there were five rings for five continents but we couldn't figure out why only five. We learned it's because the Americas is considered one.  But we had a lot of fun on Wikipedia learning about Olympic mascots.  Especially Barcelona's cubist sheepdog, Sydney's "Fatso the fat-arsed wombat" and the up and coming sasquatch  and mythical orca-bear for Vancouver in 2010.  We had a good laugh!  

Tired!

I am loving the Olympics, but okay, seriously!  I have the self-control not to look at the results online.  Can't we do some delayed showings on at least one of the NBC affiliates?  All this staying up until midnight is wearing thin! I already don't sleep well and have a toddler waking me up before seven!  

Cinderella's Temple :)

We met W for lunch downtown today.  We had to take him some papers and had a lovely quick lunch.  On the way home, I drove M past Temple Square.  She loves the Salt Lake Temple.  When Grandma was home, she went to the temple one day, and M was so upset that she couldn't go with Grandma! She wanted to go to the temple too! :)

As we were driving by, she asked if it was Cinderella's temple or Snow White's temple or Sleeping Beauty's temple! :)  See, whenever we watch a movie, she gets excited to see Cinderella's temple (aka, castle) You can see the similarities, can't you? :)

She's such a funny girl. She was so adamant that the temple MUST be occupied by a princess!  We had a short talk to remind her about how it was Heavenly Father's temple and that He lives there.  In the end, it was Heavenly Father's Cinderella temple.  She's two.  She'll get it sooner or later! :)

The pregnant lady has too much time on her hands!

I've redesigned my blog, sewn more bags, read a book in three days and still no baby!

I just finished this book this week.  It was amazing!  It was for the S&S book club but it was just wonderful!  I loved the characters, I was amazed at their trials and the things they went through just to survive and how they grew.  I love historical fiction as well.  I'm so glad that I don't have to be a pioneer.  When I read about the main character having children, I was actually grateful for my hot summer for once this pregnancy!  

This was also an amazing book!  I really enjoyed the Kite Runner but it was very difficult to read.   There are some awful things that can happen to people in this world.  The things I have appreciated most from both of these books though, is more understanding of the Afghan world and culture and history.   Things like how at first, they were so grateful for the Taliban because it felt like anything was better than the Russians occupying Afghanistan.  This story is one of those where all these separate characters suddenly become intertwined in an amazing way and have amazing impacts on each other.  It also focused more on how life is for women which I also appreciated learning about. It was easier to read than the Kite  Runner but still very good.

I love Shannon Hale.  My favorite is still the first one I read, the Goose Girl but this is a very close second! It was wonderful!  She takes obscure fairy tales and turns them into fascinating and fresh tales.  But they're not shallow either. The characters grow and develop and become strong women. I love that!  This one had an Asian twist to it which was also fun!  

In honor of all you defensive Utahns and your corn...

I just don't understand why you can't get good produce, good meat, good bread and good deals without going to four different places! Hasn't anyone ever heard of one-stop-shopping to save on gas???  I think it's sad that people just keeps suggesting the farmer's markets and roadside stands.  It just proves my point- you can get crisp, locally grown, sweet corn at any grocery store for 10-20 cents an ear there!  I have yet to see that here! 

...but in the mean time, I'm definitely going to try the Murray Park farmer's market! Where is it, Marci??

I just don't understand....

...why bread molds soooo quickly here where it's drier than a bone when mold is supposed to thrive in damp environments!

...why gas is the third highest in the nation here, only behind California and Hawaii.  And that's for the octane 85 junk which is even lesser quality than gas we paid LESS for in other places.

...why gas prices are so high in the first place.  I simply don't understand the whole let's let the oil companies make billions in profit while gas prices continue to rise and make us all broke.  I just don't.

...why all the cats in our complex have short tails!  It's like there's a cat-tail-guillotine somewhere that they've all fallen victim to.  There are cats everywhere and they ALL have stumpy short tails!

....why M has never been one to sit on my stomach, until now when it hurts and she can't!

...why we can't get good corn here in Utah either!  It's small, sticks to your teeth, and doesn't taste as good as midwest corn.  And then of course it's more expensive.  I miss Minnesota corn!!!!

...how M KNOWS when I'm tired and don't feel great and so of course she needs extra attention that day!  

...how the gymnastic scoring works.  And if it's a better system and needed to be reformed, why are there more suspicions about bias and fixing scores?

....why this baby won't come!! It needs to come!!!

One week to go

I had contractions all day long yesterday!  10 minutes apart and some of them sharp!  However, they never progressed so it could go on like this for days! Won't that be fun! :)

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!

I love the Olympics!  Did I say that already? I LOVED the opening ceremonies last night!  They were fun to watch and not with boring spots (sorry Salt Lake) or weird parts (sorry France) like previous ones that I remember watching.  It was fascinating and beautiful and original!

I love watching the sports. It's the only time where I care about skull racing or fencing or weight lifting but I love watching the competition and the stories and everything!  M is disappointed that we want to watch so much TV which limits princess movie time, but we'll survive.  In fact, I had a baby with the last Olympics too!  The winter ones of 2006 were when I was home with a newborn M nursing all day. In fact, the basement where we kept the TV was so cold that we brought the TV upstairs so I could watch and not freeze me and the little one! :)  Ah, the memories!  

In the summer Olympics, I LOVE the swimming, diving and of course, I'm a girl so gymnastics!  Those are my favorites but it won't stop me from watching the other stuff too!!! Go Team USA!!

My 2.5 year old

Name: M
Age: 2.5
Favorite activities: watch princess movies, sing and dance around, play with dolls, read books, play outside, swim
Favorite foods: CEREAL, mac'n cheese noodles, tacos, sausage pizza, "juice" (Crystal Light), rice and beans (the filling from my Chipotle or Cafe Rio burritos) fresh fruit: pears, peaches, cherries, ice cream cones
Least favorite foods: vegetables, soup, spaghetti
Favorite Music: "church meesic", "pincess meesic", Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam, Popcorn Popping, Do As I'm Doing, Itsy Bitsy Spider and other nursery rhyme songs
Favorite Toy: dolls, blankets/towels/fabric or anything that can be turned into a princess gown/veil/crown/cape
Favorite book: "iptures", princess books
Favorite clothing item: dresses! especially the pink flowers and the pink bubbles dresses, glass slippers (really, they're tennis shoes)
What makes you sad:time outs, when mommy is sad, when mommy says we're done watching movies for the day, when I asked her, she said, "I don't know"
When I was pregnant with M, I was due at the end of January. The months leading up to the big day were like an event ticker, first we had to move, then Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, then the final countdown. This one hasn't worked that way. It's just been a long summer, but I kept thinking, wow, M is going to be two and a half when this one comes. And now she is! She's such a big girl and talks so much and is usually so happy (except when she senses our stress so her moods have been a bit up and down lately! I blame W and me mostly!) She loves to have her hair down like princesses do. She loves to take "princess naps" and do anything that seems worthy of Cinderella or Belle or Sleeping Beauty doing! She still loves Noodles Mac and Cheese and requests "mac 'n cheese noodles at bye bye" sometimes. She is a perfectionist and would rather direct me to color in the lines than color messy like she can. She is still learning to share but loves having friends to play with. She loves anything I do. She is recently fascinated with wearing eye shadow when she sees me put it on the one time a week I wear makeup :) and she comes out fiddling with her ears saying she's putting on her earrings. She's a total girly girl and gets upset when her Dora and Princess nightgowns are in the wash. She thinks there's a baby sister in her tummy too but hers is the size of a walnut, not big like mommy's. She loves to point out all the "new" gear around the house as being for "baby _____" and loves to make and remake the moses basket bed for the baby. I think she'll be a wonderful big sister...and then probably want to return the baby after a few months. :)

Funny Things she Says:

Oh mine dosh!

I have a baby seester in mine tummy too!

I take a pincess nap like sleepuh booty

I need.... (EVERYthing is I need!!! We're working on asking a bit more politely!)

What is a Taggie?

both my hubby and my MIL asked the same question.  Well, here's your answer! 

Tonight's project

I wanted to make a "taggie" for M when she was little and never got around to it.  It had to be super easy and cheap and it was!  So, this is for Ali, so she can see how fast I whipped it up after she gave me the dimensions this afternoon! :) (16"x16")

ps-W wanted to know if the baby would hurt herself on the ribbons :) so just to put you all at ease, the ribbons are sewn on three times over! :) 

Book Reviews!

I've been reading a lot lately as well but haven't kept up on my reviews. First, I have to give myself Kudos for getting my cute little sister to stop re-reading Harry Potter and Twilight books for a little while by inundating her with Shannon Hale and Fablehaven this summer. Next summer we'll work on more "classic" books! :) 

The Monk Upstairs-This is a sequel to "The Monk Downstairs" and a cute book about a lady who falls in love with an ex-monk. It was a little hard to read actually because the Grandma dies in the book after a series of strokes. It was a little too soon after Grandpa had died for me, I guess.

Fabelhaven 2-Rise of the Evening Star

I'm loving this series and wishing the third one was in paperback already so I could just buy it!! I love how it's magic and it's fantasy but it isn't shallow and it's original! The ideas and characters don't make me feel like I'm reading LOTR or HP all over again.

The Host-did I write about this one? my SIL said, It's not Twilight! Well, good, in my opinion! It shouldn't be. I liked the original story but I had a hard time getting past the beginning-I needed a little more background and detail to go on so I wasn't so confused. But I liked the premise and the characters-although I didn't picture Wanda that way at the end-fragile and blond and small. So in my head she's just going to look different! :)

Breaking Dawn-Loved it! of course! Loved it! I think Renesmee is a stupid name though and I was expecting a bit more action near the end but I won't say any more for now though because so many of you are still reading it.

My Latest Creations

These are all turned in iPhoto so I'm not sure what is up. I'll fix them later.  But I've been busy! And I can finally send the bags to my sisters and Mom!!

This one's actually for my Aunt Barb. She gave me some fabric to make her one. I still have another to make for her!!! Augh!!!!
And this one's mine.  I used the left over fabric from T's and now it's my work/church bag.  I also have some cute fabric that I'm going to make a diaper bag out of..... :)