The Goose Was Getting Fat...

I was supposed to post this video weeks ago but, in the rush of the season, I didn't get around to it. It's a little long, but hopefully you can enjoy the first minute of Nayeli's cuteness and get a feeling for how fun it was to prep her for Christmas.

This year she was really into the songs Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells, the Little Drummer Boy, and Rudolph. The video shows a little bit of her "enthusiasm" for two of the songs.

Thanksgiving in Boise

Before Thanksgiving, I started to get really homesick for Utah. For family most of all. So I asked Ben if he'd be up for driving to Boise to be with my brother Mark and his wife Malinda for Thanksgiving. He was game, so we called Mark and basically invited ourselves to their house. Luckily, my brother and his wife are really fun and love company so we didn't have to be too pushy.

On Wednesday we drove the eight hours to Boise. The weather was good, Nayeli was great, and by night we arrived. On Thanksgiving day Malinda's family was gracious enough to let us come to their home for dinner. Malinda's mom is a phenomenal cook and the turkey was the best Ben and I had ever tasted.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of naps, movie watching, going to my niece Makayla's tournament basketball games, and spending time with Mark and Malinda and their wonderful kids. We also got to see Catching Fire while Makayla stayed home with Nayeli. That was a treat. Ben and I hadn't been to a movie since last Christmas when we went to see the Hobbit together. Yeah, we don't go to movies a lot.

In between naps and movies we went to go see Malinda and my nieces perform at the Boise Festival of Trees. They did a great job.

Watching the performers

Nayeli loved the trees. And sitting on dad's shoulders.

We drove home Sunday and by the time we left I felt like my homesickness was just a memory. Being with Mark and Malinda and getting out of Oregon was just the remedy I needed. Thanks Mark and Malinda for a great time!

Boy oh BOY!

On Wednesday we had my 20 week ultrasound. I went into it feeling pretty sure the baby was a boy, but I was going to be grateful if it was a girl, and especially grateful if the baby looked healthy. Having a few miscarriages does that to you- it just makes you grateful to be pregnant.

I'll refrain from posting the picture that proves he's a boy and just show you this cute profile pic. It's so funny- when I look at Nayeli's 20 week ultrasound profile picture I can see her face in it. She already looked like herself when she was just so little. It makes me begin to speculate what this little boy will look like.

But no matter what he looks like, he will be loved and welcomed into our home. We're ready for another set of feet to pitter-patter on our floors :)

Pregnancy Brain

Last week I may or may not have asked Ben (in complete seriousness) if Black Friday ever fell on a Sunday.

Then last night I began cooking hamburger for dinner but soon decided to throw it away because it smelled rancid. I grabbed another pound from the freezer but it also smelled like it had gone bad. Into the garbage it went. Luckily I had enough time to run to the store to buy another pound of fresh hamburger. Much to my dismay, as it cooked it smelled exactly like the previous hamburger I had tossed. I then realized that in my garbage can sat two pounds of perfectly good hamburger.

Remember this ad? Substitute the word pregnancy for drugs and you'll understand why I'm not the brightest light on the Christmas tree this year.

Any questions?

A New Strain of FOMO

In my immediate family, we have a disease. My mother, who has a severe case, passed it on to nearly all her children. It has been unnamed for years but recently, thanks to the popularity of internet acronyms, it finally has identification. It's called FOMO, or "fear of missing out"

You may think I'm kidding, but you can Google it and read all about it. Or all you have to do is attend a get-together at my parent's house and you'll see exactly what this disease is and how strongly it runs in our veins. We can't handle to miss out on part of the action or conversation. My mother, being the worst of all, refuses to leave the room if there is something interesting being said. And if she does have to leave, she'll say, "Don't say anything important while I'm gone!" This is typically followed by my father waiting until she's left the room to say loudly with a smirk on his face, "Wow! What an interesting and exciting thing!" My mother then responds from the other room with a "Paul...." in her classic warning voice.

 Nayeli with my parents last Thanksgiving

And as I mentioned, this disease has been passed onto me. In my marriage it typically causes the most discord when Ben finishes a phone conversation that I didn't hear but am interested in knowing about. Here's an example of how the conversation might go:

Ben: I talked to my friend today.

Me: Great. How is he? What did he say?

Ben: I don't know... he's doing... good.

Me: Good. What else?

Ben: Well... life is good. He's fine.

Me: Great. But why? What's happening to him? What's new?

Ben: I don't remember. 

Poor Ben. He gets an interrogation. At times, it can cause me to practically loose my mind. Luckily, since we married, Ben has accustomed himself to remember conversations better. It's an effort of which I'm extremely appreciative.

 

But now the problem has magnified. We have recently discovered that Nayeli not only carries the FOMO gene, but also FOOMO. This is a newly discovered strain of FOMO and stands for "fear of others missing out". Don't Google it- Ben and I named it ourselves. But it truly exists and is just as real as FOMO.

We first knew that Nayeli had FOOMO when I left her with a friend one day while I ran some errands. They watched a movie together, and although my friend's eyes were on the screen the entire time, Nayeli tapped her "every few minutes throughout the whole movie" and pointed to the screen. Luckily my friend thought it was hilarious. I guess she understood that Nayeli just wanted to make sure that she wasn't missing out on anything.

Since then I've noted that she's constantly tapping us or grunting (while pointing) to make sure we don't miss out. Sometimes she will even turn my face to make me look at something. But the most common method is pointing. Observe.

 Oceanside Beach

 Sauvie Island

 My personal favorite. Sometimes there are not only one, but two things she wants to show me.

So what to do? Nothing but enjoy the ride. Overall, it's very endearing and I like it. And one day, when she has phone conversations I want to know about, she'll be the ideal subject of my interrogations. People with FOMO love talking to people with FOOMO and vice versa. We are the perfect pair.

January 2013, Utah

Morning Sickness Log: Pregnancy #4

I started writing this log before I had told anyone except Ben that I was pregnant. I hoped it would provide a humorous look into my morning sick life and that I would later laugh at my experiences while battling constant nausea. It is not meant to make you feel sorry for me. In fact, more than anything, I hope it will resonate with some of you woman out there and you can laugh along with me. More often than not, morning sickness is not really a laughing matter, but if I don't laugh I'll cry, and I'd much rather laugh.

Wednesday, August 28: 5.5 weeks pregnant

Am I sick already? Isn't this a little early to be getting sick?

Thursday, August 29

Definitely not too early to be getting sick.

Friday, August 30

Frantically begin searching for my leftover Zofran from my last pregnancy.

Sunday, September 1: Fast Sunday

Sneak the snacks from my purse into my mouth at church so people don't get suspicious.

Monday, September 2: 6 weeks pregnant

Miraculously survive a hike to a waterfall, then crash on the couch the rest of the day.

Tuesday, September 3

Grocery shopping. Nothing looks appetizing. Bought hardly anything knowing I'll have to make another trip later in the week. Who cares.

Thursday, September 6

Second trip to the grocery store this week. Purchased mostly frozen foods.

Friday, September 7

Picked up my Zofran prescription. Manna from heaven.

Sunday, September 8

Survive three hours of church.

Tuesday, September 10: 7 weeks pregnant

Threw up while making breakfast. Breakfast was postponed.

Wednesday, September 11

Laid down after dinner wishing I could throw up. Never threw up. 

Thursday, September 12

Cut up a package of chicken and made a dinner from raw meat. I deserve a gold medal.

Friday, September 13

Absolutely cannot even stand the thought of cooking tonight. Take-out it is.

Saturday, September 14

Muster up the energy to do the two mile hike to Silver Falls (with no pressure from Ben. I was dying to get out of the house). Walk at a one mile per hour speed with Ben patiently trailing at my side. Buy myself an Italian soda at the bottom as a reward. Crash on the couch the rest of the day.

Sunday, September 15

Survive three hours of church. Are we seeing a pattern here?

Monday, September 16: 8 weeks pregnant

How am I going to survive 2+ more months of this?

Tuesday, September 17

I can't even stand to look at my Pinterest feed because of the pictures of the food. 

Wednesday, September 18

By trial and error I discover that drinking soda after dinner is the worst idea ever.

Thursday, September 19

I've decided to never get pregnant again, ever.  EVER.

Friday, September 20

Coldstone Ice Cream makes everything better. Maybe we will have more children.

Sunday, September 21

Nayeli decides not to nap until 5:30 pm. I think I'm going to move to Australia. 

Monday, September 23: 9 weeks

The move to Australia can be postponed for the time being. Nayeli napped at 1pm.

Tuesday, September 24

Buy a large jar of pickles from the grocery store.

Wednesday, September 25

The jar of pickles is gone. I sincerely thought that craving was a joke until now.

Thursday, September 26

Find a week old sippy cup full of milk under the couch. Know I do not have the physical strength to withstand the smell if I open the lid. Into the garbage it goes. 

Friday, September 27

Cried during a Infant Tylenol commercial today- both times that it came on. Hormones, anyone?

Monday, September 30: 10 weeks

Ultrasound in one week. I'm practically counting the hours to know if this baby has a heartbeat.

Wednesday, October 2

Realize I haven't watered my patio plants in weeks. They are all dead. I can't decide if I care or not.

Monday, October 7

Ultrasound. Bouncing baby with a great heartbeat. All the sickness is worth it.

Tuesday, October 15

Cry to Ben asking, “How did I ever forget how awful this is?” He responds, “I don’t know how you could forget. I never did”.

                                             

Monday, October 21: 13 weeks

Finally have the energy to clean Nayeli's room which has been a mess for two+ months. Also get the grimy bathroom cleaned this week. I am finally starting to feel like myself.

Monday, October 28: 14 weeks

I survived the first trimester! And I did it without caffeine! I buy myself a Dr. Pepper to celebrate and spend the night throwing up.

Thursday October 31

Happy Halloween! Invited to a friend's house for dinner where they have delicious orange juice. I drink more than my fair share. Spend the night throwing up.

Tuesday, November 5: 15 weeks

Get to hear baby's heartbeat again. I am so happy to be pregnant.

Monday, November 11: 16 weeks

I finally feel like I'm reaching normality again. Hallelujah.

Thursday, November 14

Morning sickness? Oh it wasn't soooo bad.

Yeah right. Don't think I'll be thinking that anytime soon. Although by the time I'm ready to have another baby I'm sure I'll have forgotten. Good thing too. Otherwise, I might never have anymore children.

Character

As Nayeli grows, I am amazed at the personality she has. She is such a character. The things she says and does... I have to wonder sometimes, where does she come up with this stuff? Sometimes she does things that I feel she didn't learn here on earth- instincts that I feel were part of her spirit before she came here. And then some things... well it's obvious she didn't learn those in heaven :)

Her new thing is to say, "Uh... go" meaning "I wanna go". She says this to me when she's bored (i.e. sacrament meeting today) and sometimes even adds an exclamation point to her statement by banging on the front door or bringing me her shoes.

She also has a great sense of humor. The other day I was so excited to finally get a bow into her slowly growing hair.  I had to get a picture. I asked her to smile and this is the first face I got (complete with a growl):

Then this:

Where in the world did she learn to sass like that? I was busting my gut. My daughter is 1 going on 13...

Look how cute! I finally have a daughter who'll let me put things on her head again.

Going back to instinct:  Like many girls, she was born with a nurturing instinct. She recently found a doll and has adopted it as her "baby". This came after no prompting from me. It's like she just knew what to do with it. Here she is pushing "the baby" around the house in the stroller, complete with two "doggies" in the basket beneath the seat.

The rest of the pictures have nothing to do with instinct but I thought I'd throw them in here since they show her personality and she's just so cute!

 She loves anything dairy: sour cream, ranch dressing, etc. Here she is licking the cream cheese from the bagel I had just given her.

A "doggie" and a balloon. I think Old Navy is her new happy place.

 Talking on the phone to Grandma Jane. She will put anything and everything up to her ear and say "hi".

Last but not least, this video was taken while we were talking to Ben's little brother Sam one night. When we lived in Provo, Sam made up a silly song with Nayeli in Spanish about snuggling with him and it stuck. In fact, she asks for it every time we talk to him. This last time I had to get her on camera while listening to it and she did not disappoint.

Sammy, this one is for you.

Peanut #2

We are so happy to announce that baby #2 will be gracing our presence sometime around the end of April. The photo above is from my first ultrasound at 11 weeks. Because of previous miscarriages, I had prepared myself not to hear a heartbeat. I went in expecting the worst so that I wouldn't be disappointed. So when the "thump thump thump" came on the screen I couldn't help but shed a tear. The baby was bouncing around and measured the right size. You can even see the baby's little hand up by his/her face in the ultrasound photo. I was so relieved!

I am now 15 weeks along. I have been morning sick, but I am starting to feel better. Today I saw the doctor and got to hear the baby's heartbeat again. It's such a miracle to know that a baby is inside of me and I'm giving it life. I am helping it grow. I already feel such a connection to this little one, as does Ben. Although my miscarriages have been hard, they've made us appreciate our babies so much. And this one is no exception.

I've also started to show a lot sooner with this  pregnancy. This picture was taken this morning.

I'm finally crossing over the "Is she pregnant or gaining weight?" phase. Thank heavens.

So there's our great news. We find out the gender of the baby in December at my 20 week ultrasound. I have my suspicions about the baby's gender, but I was completely wrong with Nayeli so I'm still not too sure of myself. Besides, be it boy or girl, we're just thrilled to be expecting again.

Halloween 2013

Halloween has come and gone but I have to share some pictures of our cute little girl. Wednesday night was our ward party and unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. I must mention however, that for the second year in a row Ben won a prize in the chili cook-off. He's such a stud.

Nayeli had a great time at the party and loved seeing the other kid's costumes. I dressed up as a tiger (the same costume I wore last year) and Nayeli was a pumpkin. However the next morning (Halloween) she found my cat ears and put them on. I was just fine with that and thought they worked great with her striped pants.

 My cute little tiger

We spent the morning at the library for story time. They had a fun "spooky" story time and then let the kids march around the library in a parade. Nayeli loved it. 

That night we were invited to a friend's house for a dinner of pumpkin pancakes. We decided to Trick-or-Treat on the way back from dinner. 

Ready to trick-or-treat

 She looks thrilled, doesn't she?

This is after I told her that we couldn't see our neighbor's "doggie" until after dinner. Keep in mind she had not had a nap all day.

A sad pumpkin who just wanted to go see the "doggie". Luckily she was able to drown her sorrows in pumpkin pancakes with whipped cream. Delicious.

After dinner we trick-or-treated a few apartments but each time they put candy in Nayeli's bag she wanted it immediately. So I let her have a piece after every door. What we ended up with was a chocolatey and content pumpkin in need of a bath.

 I think this face is evidence that our Halloween was a success.

Rule the World

My amazing brother David and sister-in-law Marilyn just recently had their ninth child. They are the greatest parents and that baby couldn't be born into a more loving home.

I was sharing this news with my my non-mormon friend & neighbor the other day and told her that my parents now have 36 grandchildren. I jokingly stated, "We're trying to take over the world". She laughed and said, "I know the Mormons are trying to take over the world!" to which I replied, "I was talking about my family". We got a good laugh out of that one. She's got such a great sense of humor and we like to joke together.

For the record, this is my family last summer when my parents had only 34 grandchildren.

Oh how I love my family!

And just for good measure, here's a picture of my parents and siblings. I might be missing them all just a little. They are all my best friends and heroes. So happy I get to be one of them.

Bring On Halloween

Sauvie Island

Another Saturday, another adventure. This weekend we drove 45 minutes to Sauvie Island. It is north of Portland in the Columbia river. We had heard it has fun pumpkin patches in October so we decided to go as a family outing.


View Larger Map

We stopped at the first patch/farm we saw. It was a compilation of a farm with a few animals, a produce market, some food stands, and a field with picnic tables to eat lunch. It was the perfect stop.

This was my eclectically-dressed daughter for the day. I'd love to say she dressed herself, but it was just the modge-podge of weather-appropriate clothes we happened to find Saturday morning. Except for the necklace. That was her own addition to the ensemble.

 By the chicken coop

Fun produce bins

They had these beautiful handmade baskets for sale. I may have purchased one for Santa Clause to give to me this year.

One of the pigs

 Nayeli was not about to take her eye off of it. She's still a little afraid of large animals.

 In fact, this is a picture of her running from an approaching pig in another pen.

Eating lunch at one of the picnic tables. It looks like she's about to throw up, but she was actually just chewing. Promise.

 Sauvie Island also has a beach, although by the time we arrived Nayeli had fallen asleep. No problem. It just means we have an excuse to go back.

Fall in Oregon

This fall has been so beautiful here in Oregon. The weather is just perfect; crisp weather that only requires a long sleeve shirt or, at most, a jacket. We've been trying to get out as much as possible since we know the rainy season is just around the corner. Here are some of our latest (or not so recent) adventures.

 What is it about a child that loves to push something around? 

I found this stroller at a yard sale for $2 and it is Nayeli's favorite toy.

We have a playground by our house that has a gigantic volcano slide. One evening at the end of the summer I got this great picture of Ben and Nayeli at the top. They are best buds.

I am guilty of bribing my child with Cheetos so as to enjoy a trip to Target without any interruptions or tantrums. It worked like a charm and it's become my secret weapon when my sanity requires it.

Nayeli loves books. I can often find her alone in her room "reading" to herself. It makes my book-loving heart happy.

Another day when she put on her pumpkin hat and wore it around the house.

I love my girl

On my entry table I had a beautiful white pitcher with flowers in it as well as a porcelain fall pumpkin. The flowers sang the siren song to Nayeli and before I knew it they were in a pile of glass on my floor. I just try to think of what my mom said when I broke things as a child; "I love you more than I love my... (fill in the blank)". Wise words.

Ben and Nayeli after dinner. One of her favorite things is watching videos of herself on our phones. Yes, we're raising a narcissist, but can you blame her? 

Her latest obsession is dogs. Our sweet neighbor, who adores Nayeli, gave her a stuffed Chihuahua. She carried it around for days.

General Conference this year was wonderful. With a toddler, it's its own challenge but I think we did okay. Besides trashing the house to keep her entertained. But that probably would have happened anyway. Here she is leading the music (notice her blurry hand).

There are lots of pumpkin patches in our area with free animal petting zoos. A friend and I took our kids to see the baby goats at this one. Nayeli loved to see them but refused to feed them.

She also refused to look at the camera. Oh well.

She loves swings, or "wee", as she calls them. This tire swing was no exception. She held on for dear life while giggling excitedly. She's got such a life in her that I love.

As of late I've become mildly addicted to Pinterest. I found a tutorial for a pompom garland but you had to make your own pompoms. Since I have no patience for that, I bought a package of pre-made pompoms at the dollar store, used some twine I had on hand, and voila! I love how it turned out! I think I'm going to make one for every holiday. Can't get enough of a good thing right?

Last but not least, this is video of Nayeli saying her favorite word. She will walk around the house saying it over and over. Despite excessive coaxing she only says it once in the video. Notice her tone. That's how she says it every time.