25.5 Week Belly

   Yeah, both pics were lacking something, so they both got posted... There was no way Jeff was gonna tolerate me directing the shot even more. 

   Anyway - whoa, I'm huge!  Had an appointment yesterday and doc says I'm right on for measurements and weight gain... but geez, I'd like to still have a torso 3 months from now!  Let's say right about now, I'm rethinking the possibility of natural childbirth... not if this one's a giant!

   Speaking of growing - check out how lng my hair is! Yowza!

The Zoooo!

We have a little zoo here in Utah, but fr kids, a zoo is a zoo!  We used to have a membership to the children's museum, Discovery Gateway, and the girls L-O-V-E-D it.  They were in heaven anytime we went (and still ask to go.)  I thought it was great for them, but less for mom to do and Jeff didn't love going all the time. PLUS I'm a thrift-skate, so I'd decided that we were going with a rotating membership scheme.  Once our DG membership expired, we decided on a membership for... the zoo!  We've been loving it so far, the girls can go again and again, but this time with some things that interest mom and dad. Plus, they will be opening some new exhibits this next month, so there will even be a little something to change it up.  Here are only a few shots of many visits we plan on having in the next year.

 Amie turtle!

 Ride 'em tiger.

Two Juveniles.  Explains so much.

Love it!  If you ever end up there, we'll come too!

Missing Gems

These were posts intended for some time ago, and I finally got around to putting the pics on the computer to get them up.  These first few are from when we went to Disney on Ice - we got to go free for donating books, and the girls loved it!  Look at those excited faces. :)

 The original Disney Crew - I was glad they showed up, even though it was a Toy Story Theme this year, the girls loved them.

This was a fun day at grandma's - just another weekday afternoon, but all the little cousins were there, and so was the ice cream man!  I thought they were super cute enough to chronicle.

Meeeeessy.

Keep scrolling - I got quite a few posts up in one day!

A mini-vaca

I have been itching, seriously itching, to go for a little vacation for the past few months.  We finally decided to just make it happen and made a reservation for 3 days/2 nights in St. George (which was awesome cause this resort is always booked.)  Theeeeeeen, it just so happened that our car got busted up a few days before we were supposed to drive down there...  Luckily we got our pimpin' new car in time, but it was 11 o'clock on Friday night when we rolled out of the dealership.  So, we had put conditional work to be done in our offer, and Jeff -bless him - got up to take the van in early Monday morning.  They took f-o-r-e-v-e-r working on our car, and finally around 1 or 2 we told em to do the superficial stuff another day, we're outta here!  So we headed to St. George and arrived for a late dinner, which we brought to our condo.  (The drive down in a minivan, by the way, was nice and probably more comfortable than in our littlie!

The girls always love to go to our "trip house" and were excited little runts running all over the first night.  We really got there much later than planned, so we just settled in that night.  The next morning, we got up and had a small breakfast in then headed straight to the pool.  That was really fun (except that I couldn't use the hottub) and the weather was perfect for it.  We went out for an Asian buffet lunch and then headed back to try for naps.  There was only minimal napping goin on (ie, Jeff and I tried to nap while the girls would not and kept waking us up) so we finally got up and went to the temple visitors' center - where they fell asleep as soon as we pulled in, of course!  It was a tad bit advanced for the girls, but they loved the flowers and movies, plus the statue of Jesus.  We debated a movie but couldn't find one that worked for us, so we had some playground time, then had dinner at Anasazi.  It's a steakhouse where they cook and bring you your food on a hot rock.  It's really fun!  And we did fondue there, too, which we love.  Though, it turned out to be kinda dangerous with a 2 and 3 year old, and I don't mean the heat, I mean the drippy chocolate and their poor clothes!  Afterward, we got the girls a redbox and popcorn, while Jeff and I caught the Jazz game. The girls actually slept in the big girl beds that night, that was a first!

Our next day, we had breakfast and packed up just in case, then headed out to Snow Canyon State Park.  It was just a maybe on our itinerary, but I am so glad we went.  They had an area of sand dunes that was pretty much a giant sandbox for the girls.  We also saw a rabbit, climbed some petrified sand dunes and dad showed off by climbing up into one of the rock faces.  It was a highlight for us, and it was nice that it was a smaller place since we had toddlers and pregmeister.  We finished right about checkout time, so we grabbed some Jack in the Box (yummo!) and hit the road.  We really wanted to stay longer but I had to be back for Young Women's that night.  Blessedly, the girls watched their movie again or slept the vast majority of the trip home and we didn't have to stop once.

 

   

 

It was a great little trip, though I was sad we had to cut it a little short on both ends.  It was great after a stressful week, but I think it only served to aggravate the itch further for me!  Here's to many summer trips ahead!

Our favorite Jeffrey!

Monday the 14th was Jeff's 28th birthday (- we'll be the same age for a few months!) We were very lucky to have leap year be this year, so his birthday skipped over being on Mother's day.  We made a baked French Toast, gave dad his gifts (clothes as requested, video games from the girls - NCAA football and Kung Fu Panda - and a golf punch pass) and then let dad try out his new goodies before heading out for lunch. 
He chose to go somewhere kid-friendly so dining out would be an enjoyable experience, and we had McD's.  We then dropped off the kids with grandma and went for a round of golf.  For probably the first time, he really killed me! I can usually hold my own.  (I blame it on the pregnancy and 2 year hiatus from golf.)
We went from there to see Avengers (great) and then had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in the new City Creek Center (with which, Jeff is very impressed.)  We picked up the kiddos (freshly bathed and jammied by grandma, woohoo!) who fell asleep on the way home.  That actually allowed us to end the evening with some grown up time, instead of each of us just falling into bed dead tired at different times.  Seemed like Jeff enjoyed the day, and I hope so - he sure deserves it!

Now, for 28 things we love about Jeff!

1. He is so great with our kids, he loves to play with them. (Although he is openly excited about adding GI Joes to the all-Barbie mix.)

2. He likes everyone.  Like really.

3. He is so easy to get along with.

4. He is a great cop.  He works hard and shows his integrity at work.
5. He is dedicated to providing for our family and has a plan to always make that happen.

6. He makes us a priority.

7. He pretty much always treats me extra-special.

8. He treats me extra-extra-special when I am pregnant.

9. He is funny, always makes me laugh.

10. He goes around the house singing songs about his family or just whatever he/we are doing.  It's awesome.

11. He is a great singer.

12. He is a great basketballer.

13. He is humble enough to usually be the one to apologize first.

14. He's the best dad in general.

15. He is slow to judge (or at least keeps it to himself where others can't.)

16. Jeff is willing to talk about anything.

17. He supports me in my work and interests.

18. He loves to travel as much as us.
19. He expresses his appreciation.
20. He never never never fails to tell us he loves us numerous times a day.
21. He believes in education.
22. He wants tobe (and is) a good example for our children.
23. He has a strong testimony.
24. He tolerates my crazy mood swings with finesse.
25. He loves to go to the temple with me.
26. He likes to have his hair just so. :)
27. He "lets it roll."  Goes with the flow
28. Our favorite thing about Jeff is that we get him forever!

Movin Up

On Friday 4/20, I rushed out of work and had a thousand things to do that day.  After picking up my 2 girls and on my way to our house (to meet my brother in law who was already there, AND pay the tree man before he was done getting rid of the gigantic dying tree in our yard... we cut down the giant, dying tree yay!) the afternoon traffic was thick.  I'm talking to Alisa, trying to get her to take her hand out of the window while I roll it up.  The very next thing I know, I am slammed into the SUV in front of me, maybe 30-40 miles an hour, zero opportunity to brake.  I do not recall any impact, any noise, any airbag or anything.  I do recall feeling like we were still just moving moving moving down the road and then mashing my brake in for a long time - probably way after we stopped.  The first thing I noticed was a weird smell, and saw that the airbag had gone off. Next, I just noticed noise and lots of it.  That turned out to be my horn - stuck on, honking non-stop - and both of my babies screaming in the back.  I tried to assess whether I was ok, but couldn't feel anything, so I got out and began to unbuckle them, but then thought, how can I get the horn off, then thought I need to call the police.  I seriously just kinda went back and forth, not doing anything for a bit, then tried to call 911.  That was super fun with the horn blaring and trying to get both my screaming girls out of their seats, going back and forth trying to decide who needed me more.  It was sometime around then that I noticed blood all down my left forearm.  Somewhere in there, I had apparently thrown my hands up in front of my face, getting my arms burned and stripped by the airbag.  Mercifully, the 911 operator said someone else reported and I could hang up.  Even more mercifully, some unknown stranger came and unhooked my horn.

The cops and ambulance came very quickly (my insiders say they usually book it to a pregnant woman in an accident.)  They were talking to me, asking all the usual questions, and as you may be able to tell by now, my brain just was not working.  I keep thinking back to answers that I gave that were probably just not accurate. At all.  I got wrapped up a bit and checked, but had Jeff come get us and take us to the hospital instead of ambulancing it.  Our car was towed - crunched up, leaking and not going anywhere.  We were in and out in about 2 hours, maybe 3.  We got really briefly checked over, but I got a full on ultrasound.  The doctor said right away that he saw what he needed to.  The heartbeat was strong, and as before, he was moving all over the place the whole time.  That was really the big reason I wanted to go in to the ER.  I've felt him moving lots just like normal, but I still will be glad to go see my OB this week.

Our injuries consisted of little marks on the girls from the carseat belts (otherwise they were fine.) I have a seatbelt bruise/swell on my shoulder and across my hips, bruised knee, a steering wheel half moon on my tummy, the burns on my arms and general soreness. Insurance has already called and worked out our info, and all our hospital bills are taken care of, thank goodness.

So, our car was done, and we had been talking about getting a bigger car, anyway, as 3 carseats wouldn't be fitting in back of our mid-sized sedan.  I had been looking around a little, too, at some options.  For whatever reason, I let Jeff convince me to go straight from the hospital to the car dealership... I wouldn't recommend it - that was one long day.  We did, however, need a car and didn't want to put money into a rental while we let everything settle, when that money could be a down payment.  So... I looked at their options online in the way in and we test drove 2 minivans.  Same year, similar price, similar features.  We chose the one that was a little cheaper and had more features/options and leather seats (think 3 kids in carseats...)  It's a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country, and it was well taken care of.  We got a great payment and an interest rate that was a third of the other time we bought a car.  They even fixed some things and gave us free oil changes for a year and next year's registration.

I have to say, before we bought, I was definitely leaning toward a crossover or SUV, but when it came down to it the prices and mpgs did not agree with me.  It cool, our minivan is good.  I'm not so obsessedly in love with it the way other minivan drivers seem to be, but I really do like it and definitely think it's a good move for us.  (That is how I know I am getting old.... I have a minivan... and I like it!)
Here's the beauty.

All the things you can't see: power doors and back hatch, driver/passenger/rear ac controls, 6 CD player, seat warmers, 2nd and 3rd rows both fold into the floor for extra storage, built in DVD system.

Phew.  Now, here's hoping for a little mundane-itude for this week.