Call Home!

Yay for Spring! I've been loving the weather. . .warm, snow, warm, cold, rain, sun, etc!!! It's made it very interesting for Rachel, Irene, and I trying to figure out where and when to workout each day, but we've been able to go to the park a few times, and we've really enjoyed that! I've been pregnant for 27 weeks now (87 days left as of today--hee hee) and have still been running, OK, so I've been getting slower and slower, but nonetheless I'm pretty proud of myself. :) We found out we're having a boy. I really can't believe it. Kyra and I were both so sure he was a girl!! But, I'm very excited to have another little boy--I can't wait to see what he looks like. Well, we made it through our remodeling projects (not that we had to do much but move furniture--which Hobie and Irene did lots of-- and stand by and watch, and be without stuff here and there, but it still seemed like a long time and a lot to deal with!) and our house is beautiful! I almost feel like we moved into a new home. We got new flooring throughout upstairs, new bathroom counters, a wood fireplace mantle, painted the bedrooms and bathrooms, and got new couches. Very fun!

Last month Dave and I went snowmobiling for Valentine's and Dave ended up in the ER for stitches. We had a great time until then! :) This set him back in his training enough that he won't be able to compete in April afterall, but he'll still go to the tournament to coach his team.

We got to have Megan and Jacob stay with us for a week while Kim and Jon went to Hawaii. We had a really fun time with them. Dave still mimics Jacob and asks the kids who he's being. Having Megan here made me realize how much my kids are dropped off at their cousins and how routine it has become for them. I'll ask them to get in the van, drive them to Rachel's, drop them off and drive away, all with no explanation and they don't even blink or think twice, they just run into her house and continue whatever they were doing the day before! Or I'll tell them to run to Irene's and they'll just go without wondering why or for how long! Until I tried to do the same with Megan who wanted to know why, where I was going, and when I'd be back, etc. I didn't realize how common and comfortable it had become! :) We loved having them here, and miss them already.

We took Mark to an ear specialist to see if surgery or a hearing aid could help his hearing. They ended up finding a cyst on his ear drum that must be removed. It'll take two surgeries--a year apart--to remove it, and he won't be able to go in water for 3 months after the surgery, so we're thinking of scheduling the first one at the end of this summer. But we also found out that there is a kind of hearing aid that would help him hear!! It's called a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid). It sits behind his ear and hooks onto a screw that is anchored to his skull. We're looking into that now. It's very expensive and we've been told that insurance does not cover the procedure, so we'll see what we can do. . . !

We're looking forward to our vacation coming up. Mark and I are going to Catalina Island with his school for a few days, then meeting up with dad for a couple days, and then meeting up with Dave and the girls to go to Sea World and Disneyland for a week. Can't wait. :) I guess that's it for now.

A New Genre?

I just finished reading three books that I really enjoyed: The Alliance by Gerald Lund, and Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I was about to say that these were a totally new genre of book for me because I usually think of myself as only reading historical fiction or non fiction, but on second thought, Harry Potter and Twilight would both fit into this type too. So can I now say I like to read science fiction? That sounds weird. Anyway, I recommend these books to all of you, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on them. Now. . .what to read next?

Happiness

Is it a choice? Is it a consequence? Is it a gift? Is it perspective? I have to admit, I’ve always basically thought it was a choice. And, I’ve read in the scriptures that it is also a consequence of righteous living. But is it that simple? Over my MANY years (hee hee) I’ve come to think that maybe it’s not. I’ve met so many good people who struggle with being happy. . .and it’s never seemed to be that hard for me. . .which leads me to believe now that maybe it’s a gift too. We are told that we can and should be happy in this life, and obviously NOT only when life is easy, because it never is! So why is it so hard for so many people? I don’t know the answer. I’m curious to hear what you all think. All I do know is that I’ll continue to consider my happiness as one of my gifts or blessings, and thank Heavenly Father for it every day!

and the bedrooms. . .

Since we found out we are having a boy before we painted, we got to paint a cute blue in the soon-to-be nursery! It goes well with the girl's bedding until then too! I love the walls being tan and having one accent wall so I can change a room easily by just painting one wall if I ever want to. :)

Remodel COMPLETE!!!

We're finished! Boy, what a ride, but SO worth it! We LOVE our new floors (carpet, slate, and travertine), fireplace mantle, bathroom counters (tile), couches, and paint (in bedrooms and bathrooms). We've lived in a bunch of dust, mess, and disorganization for the past month and now we get to put it all back together and see the finished product. BEAUTIFUL. Here are some befores and afters:

100 Days To Go!!!!

Thanks to Christina who noted her 100 day mark, I thought it would be fun to see when I only had 100 days left until our little guy is due to be born. Today is the day, and I can't believe it. I'm SO excited to be pregnant again, and to think that we'll have another little one in our family in so short a time. I can't wait. The kids love to give him kisses and whisper secrets to him already. :) What a joy it is in our family just anticipating his arrival!

The SEALED Envelope!

So, Dave and I decided we were not going to find out what our baby was this time. We didn't find out with Mark or Darci and we did find out with Kyra. I loved both ways, but Dave liked NOT knowing more, thus our decision. So, last month we had our first ultrasound and we did not find out the sex. Everything looked great, but the baby wouldn't turn enough to see the mouth perfectly, so we asked if we could have another just to be sure. . . . Last week was our second ultrasound. When we got in the room the tech confirmed that we didn't want to know the sex, when Dave said "Weeeeeeeeelllllll, maybe we should have you write it down and put it in an envelope, then we can decide if/when we want to find out." I was shocked! "Really?" I thought that was a brilliant idea, I mean, who could have it in an envelope and NOT decide to open it?! I had to stay for my apt., so Dave took the envelope and went home. We didn't even really mention it for a few days as our lives are in a bit of disarray while we are getting our flooring updated. But, each time I thought about it I got more and more excited to open that sealed envelope. I asked Dave where it was and he would only reply that he wasn't sure where he put it. . .ya, right! But, he wasn't ready to open it yet. He wanted to come up with a fun way to do it. We talked about waiting until we were in Disneyland, going out for a romantic dinner, letting the kids open it and tell us, etc. On Sunday the kids finally got excited enough about it that they started bugging us to let them open it. We decided it would be fun to let Mark read it and tell Kyra, who then could tell Darci, who got to tell Dave, who then got to tell me. . ."IT'S A BOY!!!" It was pretty fun. Kyra and I were shocked. I knew I was having another girl!! :) Here's a pic of me holding the ultrasound picture that says "it's a boy":

I'm 26 weeks--just entering the third trimester--and feeling great. We've been discussing names, and when I mentioned one that Darci didn't like she said, "Well, it still might be a girl, so she won't have that name." I told her that we KNEW it was a boy because they took a picture of it in my tummy and could see that it was a boy. I asked her if she knew HOW they could know it was a boy. She replied that it probably had boy (short) hair. I told her that ALL babies had short hair and that they STILL knew it was a boy. She was confused, so as I tried to get her to figure it out on her own, we continued to have a very funny conversation: "How do you know that Breanna is a girl and Reed is a boy?" "Well, Breanna's feet aren't as big as Reed's and Breanna has girl eyes." "OK, well, some babies are just big, and they all have pretty eyes, what else can you think of?" "ummm. . ." "Well, what about when you change their diapers, is there anything different?"  "OH!!! Ya! Breanna's diapers have yellow ducks and Reed's have green frogs!" OK, forget it, I didn't want to jeopardize her innocence so we just left the conversation at that! :)