Picture Dump

While we are catching up, it seems I skipped over a bunch of stuff!  Here are some more pictures from the last year from my phone.

Balloons from my birthday.  

 

 Top Knot

 

Sleep hair. 

 

Mornings

 

Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point

 

Hay Ride

 

Baby!

 

My Christmas tree.  It tipped over at 5 AM on Christmas morning.  I even have it on video.

 

First (and only) hair cut!

 

Christmas Morning

 

HP present from Shannon.  LOVE.

 

Root beer.

 

Shooting!

 

Mommy and Me

 

I joined a Bunco group this year!  This was my winner card.

 

Sweet

 

8 Months

 

Building a custom computer

 

Sweeping

 

Easter

Catching Up

Well, shucks.  Maybe I should post something since it's been a while...  the two biggest updates are that we moved and we had baby Charlie.  I did take a few pictures but not much.  To get caught up, here are the pictures:

Swollen Feet in April

Playing Piano with Grandma Hanson

My water broke on Mother's Day
2 weeks early

Charles Anthony 5/11/14 6 lbs 5 oz

Food Coma
Favorite picture so far

Bath time!  He didn't like getting out.

Just a little guy

Mabel went to Jackson with my parents the week after Charlie came.
Her new bear jacket from Grandma and Grandpa

Miss Montana, Idaho and Wyoming at Yellowstone.
She loved the princesses.

Ice cream with Grandpa, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Matt and the Yellowstone Lodge

Lots of time at the park!

Skinny baby!  Alien picture

Played with Boston and Kamden when Naty came to visit from VT

With Naty!  My face is still swollen

Like father like son

Chillin

We go to the pool a lot

Siblings!

Strawberry Days Parade
Cotton candy mustache on Elise

Found a warm spot to nap

Mommy's bed is occupied

I've been working super hard on losing the baby weight and signed up for a mud run in September.  We also went camping when Charlie was 4 weeks old.  Grandma Keele came to visit  and help out and Eric's sister, Jessica, is here for the summer.  I'm sure there is lots of other stuff I'm missing but we are just going to pretend we are all caught up and hopefully I will do better at documenting our activities.  Also, I think Eric has more pictures so I will do another picture dump once I get a hold of those.

Code Yellow

This mostly for my reference in case I'm ever pregnant again but maybe some of you care to know.  Today was my 32 weeks appointment.   I'm showing signs of preeclampsia.  I have a lot of pressure in my upper right hand quadrant, trace amounts of protein in my urine, my blood pressure is a bit high and I gained 13 pounds in the last month (a sign that I'm retaining water).   I am swollen in my hands, feet and face but it's nothing compared to how swollen I was with Mabel.

I had my blood drawn today and they will call me when they get the results if we have anything to worry about yet.  They will probably draw my blood every week or two just to be sure since with Mabel I didn't have high blood pressure or protein in my urine.

The doctor said that our goal was to get to 34 weeks (I think that will be pretty easy) but I would prefer to make it to 36 weeks so the baby doesn't have to stay on the hospital as long.  If I get put on best rest, that will be pretty interesting since we have to move on April 26th (I will be 38 weeks if I make it that far).  Bad timing on that for sure.

I'm not too stressed about the baby or myself because I really feel like we will be fine.  I'm more concerned about moving in the middle of all of this mess but I'm sure we will figure it out.  I did get some good news though.  Because my insurance is changing, I can now deliver at the Orem Hospital which is only a mother and baby hospital and has the highest patient satisfaction in Utah.  It's just tiny but I'm really happy about the switch since I wasn't thrilled about having a baby at the Utah Valley hospital.

P.S. We were in St. George last weekend so I will post about that soon with pictures!  It was glorious!

Here's what I think

Ways that being pregnant is like being a newborn:

You only want to sleep, eat and cry.
Eating every two hours is imperative.
If you don't get to eat when you want, you WILL throw a little fit.
You throw up a lot.
You have lots of doctor's appointments with needles.
Sleeping a solid 6 hours is a miracle.
You have to "go" about 10 times a day.
Daddy/Hubby has extra duties.
You need several naps a day.
You gain weight every day.


And yes, for those of you I haven't seen yet to tell you, I'm 15 weeks pregnant. Due May 25th.  Feel free to add any to the list!

Shaking the Quakies 2013

Yesterday was the October General Conference Sunday so when it ended, we kept with tradition and went up Millcreek Canyon to shake the quakies.  This something I've done for as long as I can remember and something my mom did as a little girl.  It's mostly just a walk in the woods but we shake Quaking Aspen trees (quakies) to watch the yellow leaves come down.  It's very pretty and gives everyone something to do on the walk. 

This year has been pretty cold again so we didn't get to do much shaking because most of the leaves had already fallen.  It had already snowed as well so we were walking through mud and snow.  Not the best year but it's still fun.

 

Grandpa and Mabel

 

For some reason, Mabel has been covering her face for pictures lately

 

Doughnuts!

 

Hot Chocolate Bar

 

Documenting

 

Bridger Boy!

 

Shannon and Matt

 

 

Eric had to work, James wasn't feeling well and Kim was in Salem, MA so we didn't have everyone this year but we managed to have fun anyway.  Hopefully next year we have everyone and it's a bit warmer!

My first guest post

My sister, Shananigans, shared this lovely little narrative she wrote for class with me and I asked to post it because it's SO FUNNY.  The assignment was to write about the types of masks we wear. 

Who knew she was such a good writer? Plus, she mentions me at the end. This makes me feel special.
With out further ado, I introduce "Mask One: The Spider Destroyer"


  
    My husband and I currently reside in the small basement apartment of an old house in Sandy. Within, it is immaculate. Without, there are many bushes and weeds that grow along the antique brick, adding to the old-time feel of the place. While charming, the outward conditions of the dwelling provide ideal living conditions for many of God's less desirable creatures, and, despite the regularly scheduled spraying of our home with industrial-strength pesticides, inside and out, arachnids of varying sizes occasionally pass through the carefully distributed chemical barrier unscathed. As a result, the basement often becomes home to more than just we two humans who pay the rent. When my husband is home, he gallantly obliterates these unwelcome guests with the swift flip of his sandal. Sometimes, however, my husband is not home, and I, his borderline-phobic wife, am left alone to deal with the unpleasant surprise (and it is always, unfortunately, a surprise). This leaves me very little choice but to wear the mask of the spider destroyer, fueled by a fierce sense of self-preservation.


    After gasping or screaming at the beast and catching my breath, I make a conscious decision to be incredibly brave and put on my mask. I am, after all, a capable woman who knows how to use a shoe. I stare at the spider intensely, hoping to convey that I mean business and that he best not move from the place in which he was discovered. A quick and painless death is silently promised him if he will comply, with the assurance that fear and agony (on both of our parts) will ensue should I be forced to chase him around AT ALL. If the perpetrator is relatively small, I run to the closet and snatch up a flip-flop (a fabulous weapon, as it is thin and can fit into the corner where the flooring meets the baseboard). If he is large, I retrieve from the storage room the can of Raid that my husband so lovingly deposited in my stocking last Christmas. Sufficiently armed, I run back to the site of encounter and remind myself again that I will not be defeated by such a small enemy, nor will I allow him, under any circumstances, to live and reproduce. I square my shoulders, breathe deeply, and strike!

   Oh my heck I am so brave!!! I'm so proud of myself!

    The spider destroyer immediately rips off her mask, shudders dramatically, and yells something along the lines of “blah!”. I've nothing left to prove. The threat is diminished, and I am free to assume my real identity as the girl who seriously freaking hates those things and never ever wants to be near enough to touch one again ever. The victim (the spider, I mean) is left in a knot where he was slain for my always-brave husband to throw away upon his return. I've been brave enough for the time being, and I now want only to focus on performing yoga breaths in an effort to return to my resting heart rate.


    There are a few other circumstances under which I am willing to don this mask. These have to do with the protection of those that I love, and who find themselves helpless. For example, the time when I spread a blanket upon my husband's nearly-sleeping figure, and the spider who had concealed himself within landed perfectly on the lump that was my husband's left thigh. Or when I visited my sister, who is even more terrified of the 8-legged opponent than I, and “the jumpy kind” was discovered on her living room wall. Were I unable to assume the role of exterminator in these situations, my husband would have had to disrupt the spider perched on his leg, leading to who knows what kind of hunt (in our bedroom, no less), and my sister very well may have passed out, leaving her 2-year old daughter unprotected, and the cat highly confused.
So this was Mask One, I think there will be two.  Hopefully she will share the second with me.

PS I have never passed out because of a spider, thank you very much.  I only, occasionally, go into hysterics.

Mine is 3

When I ask Mabel how old she is now, she says "Mine is 3" and then tries really hard to hold up just 3 fingers.  It's the cutest and I can't believe she's 3!  Her birthday (and our 5th anniversary) was on Friday then 2nd.  We decided to make this weekend about her and we will celebrate our anniversary next weekend with a babysitter.

The first thing we did was to go get Mabel her present.  She got a little tricycle and she LOVEs it.  Here she is patiently waiting for Daddy to put it together.

 

Helping Daddy

 

Time to go! 

 

 She had a hard time figuring out the pedals and getting enough pressure to get started but she was still pretty upset when it was time to go. She looks like a character from Mario Kart.

 

Lunch at her favorite place! Here she's trying to hold up 3 fingers.

 



 

We came home for a nap but only Mommy got one.  Mabel just played.  Then we went to dinner and Mabel fell asleep on the way there and didn't wake up till the next morning so we did cake and another present the next night.  We had a pizza party and watched her new movie Tarzan with popcorn and treats.

 

Trying not to breathe on the candles

 

Opening a Playdoh set.  One little piece at a time.

 

 

All in all, I think she had a pretty good birthday and we had a great weekend.  I hope next weekend is just as great!