Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our week of Chirstmas was definently less than perfect. Not that I really expected perfection but I sure wasn't looking for a bag of poo to explode in my lap either.
As previously mentioned we have been taking turns being sick in this house for the last few weeks. I figured that by the time we got to Chirstmas we'd all finally be back to (some what) normal. I was sorely mistaken :-(

Monday everything seemed fine. Tuesday again normal. Eliza, Alayna and I all ran errands here and there and successfully forgot multiple things over and over and over again. I swear I walked in the store with a list and still somehow managed to walk out without some of the things I needed. There is nothing more irritating than that a few days before Christmas when there's horrible traffic and lots of crazy shoppers.

Wednesday Ben had the day off and woke up feeling terrible so he spent the day in bed or on the couch feeling really miserable. I tried to get Ben and my gift to eachother that day and was utterly unsuccessful because the only close store was totally sold out. (We're getting a food dehydrator!!). So instead we got gift cards for Christmas.

Thursday was a Happy Christmas eve... until about 3pm when I started to feel really yucky... We went over to the Merritt's for the traditional family devotional and dinner, I was really very excited about doing all of this. But shortly after arriving I started violently vomiting. (perfect Christmas gift right!?) Then Eliza joined the party. So by definition Ben felt lots better and promptly jumped on top of all of the parenting duties including cleaning up lots and lots and lots of sick. He set up Christmas eve and stayed up extra late (due to some miscommunication) helping Santa get the toys all ready for the girls while I tried to sleep and not puke anymore. He also got to clean up Eliza change her cloths, sheets, pillow, etc after she got sick in bed.

Christmas morning started far to early. Eliza still wasn't feeling any good so she woke up for the
day at 5am. By 5:45 I gave up and let us get up for our own Christmas morning. I layed on the couch... Eliza thought her new toys were awesome! and unwrapping was lots of fun! We then hurried over to the Waite's house to make sure I could talk to Jaron. Again lots of gift opening... After a good long nap (I still felt pretty horrible) we headed over to the Merritt's house for dinner and more gift opening. Dinner resulted in Eliza getting sick again (poor baby) but at least it wasn't all over the carpet that time. By the end of the day we all made out like bandits as far as gifts were concerned... I was reminded how thankful I am for such wonderful family to share this special holiday with. I love them all so very much!

Saturday Eliza wasn't back to normal yet... much closer but still felt really yucky! She spent the day laying on the couch or cuddling in my lap. We were suppose to go to the Waite's for sibling gift exchange that night and almost backed out of it but decided we'd go anyway. (I'm very glad we went!) When we got there I got the greatest Christmas gift ever!!! Rachel, Bruce, and Hailey showed up! They weren't suppose to be coming at all and I was thrilled to see them there. The funniest part was how they annouced their arrival (it was a supprise to everyone but Lindsay). They ding dong ditched Hailey (who is 3-4wks old) on my mother's door step. My mom was in total shock to see a newborn in a carseat on her door step with no parents but once she really looked at the baby she knew who it was and was thrilled that Rachel had come!

Today is Sunday.... No one is sick in our house (outside of the runny noses) and hopefully it will stay that way (knock on wood!) for a good long time. I'm ready for all of us to feel better and not be so miserable! Our lessons in church were fantastic and I got a special visit from my bestest friend Melinda. I love our visits and am so thankful she was willing to sacrifice what little time she has home with family to come see me! What a sweet heart, no wonder we're such good friends!
There are no pictures from this week because we were too sick to remember. Sorry. No Christmas morning pictures.... sad day.

Mush.... yes mush.

Grandma Waite and my beautiful little angels!

My brains have turned to mush. I thought that pregnant brains were suppose to leave after you weren't pregnant anymore, but apparently they don't leave they just get worse. I am having a terirble time remembering a good portion of the week...

Monday was normal until that night when Eliza apparently didn't feel well and was up enough that Ben and I finally just put her in our bed so that we could all get some sleep. By morning she was fine. We were exhausted from being poked and kicked all night long by a two yr old but at least she felt better in the morning.

Tuesday... nothing too exciting in the day... that night I got sick. (yes timing is everything) I hadn't felt really super for a couple of days but by Tuesday night I started running a temp therefore i was freezing cold with chills. I tried everything i could think of to help it and nothing helped. by about 4 am I woke Ben up because I was in such bad shape I couldn't get myself some more water at which point we realized the reason was that my fever had reached 103.5 and I had sweat off every last bit of nutrition in my body.

Wednesday started off with Ben helping me get the baby downstairs and me calling my mom to come help me. She couldn't come because my grandmother was in the hospital so I called my mother in law to see if she could take me to the doctor before going to the temple. She being the sweet and incredible mother--in-law that she is canceled all her plans for the day and came and took Eliza for me. I discovered that I have mastitus and just needed an antibiotic. Alayna and I spent the rest of the day trying (in vain) to control my temp and sleeping.

Thursday I woke up feeling like a whole new person! As did both my girls (well maybe it was just my attitude change but either way we were all a lot happier!) We spent the day running errands with my mom in Loveland and getting that much closer to being 100% ready for Christmas! We also took the adorable pictures of my Mom and the girls!

Friday Hailey, Brian, and their kids were here for the day so we spent the day playing with the cousins. Eliza was good and exhausted by the time we went home but loved getting to play with the boys!

Saturday Ben went snowboarding with his dad so I took the girls and myself to Loveland to finnish off my Christmas shopping and hang with my family.

Today Eliza officially has a cold... but church was excellent! They did the Christmas singing program and it was beautiful. Ben sang in the Choir and Eliza has been telling me about it all day because I happened to be feeding Alayna when he went up to the front so apparently I couldn't have noticed that was where he was at. She was so proud of her daddy!

Potty Training

This week the weather has been terrible. And by terrible I mean nightmareishly cold. It snowed a ton and then it got crazy cold. The highs of most days were in the single digets anywhere from 5-8 degrees... pleanty cold. So due to the intense chill in the air we opted to stay home all week, at which point Ben suggested that we venture into the world of potty training Miss Eliza. So that's what we did all week long. I dedicated myself 110% to getting this whole process over with as fast as possible. I will not lie the first few days were terrible. My carpet saw a whole lot more action than my toilets did and my furniture is still carefully covered to prevent having to figure out some way to clean those as well.

Alayna has been a trooper this week with all the trips to the potty she has spent a fair ammount of time in the swing and bounce seat being basically ignored and she has done great with it all the way around. Eliza finally figured things out around Friday and is only having a few accidents a day rather than the 12+ she was having before. My washer and dryer thank her for that.

Friday we had our ward Chirstmas party and it was fantastic to finally really get out of the house. Eliza was probably the most excited to get out, she gets cabin fever really bad!! So we really enjoyed the singing from grandpa and the visit from Santa. Well sort of... Eliza still really hates Santa. As you can tell from the pictures. In fact I mentioned the other day that he was going to bring her presents and the conversation ended quickly as she cried and told me she didn't want Santa to come!

Saturday we went to my mom's for the day and played. I got some more stuff to crochet and am keeping busy with my many little projects. Eliza loved getting to see the twins and of course Lucky. As a side note for Jaron's benefit, Lucky is really sick and they aren't sure that he's going to pull through... it's going to be a very sad day for the twins and for Eliza when I have to explain that one to her.

That was the week... I hope everyone has a fantastic week to follow

Happy Birthday Eliza and Hailey

Enjoying cup cakes and ice cream!

Blow out the candles!... it took a little help but she sure tried!

Coloring on her new easel... a definent favorite!

Finally got the concept of unwrapping and the presants inside!

Making her cupcakes! my own little chef!

Honest... this is a happy face!

Well this week has been full of all kinds of excitement!

Monday... nothing too exciting.

Tuesday was Eliza's birthday... it's official we have a 2 year old that has invaded our house! In fact she even made a point to demonstrate her two year old abilities at my presidency meeting that morning by throwing a couple of really impressive screaming fits. Thankfully the other leaders all have kids so they understood! After my meeting we stopped by the store so that Eliza could choose what kind of cupcakes she wanted... (funfetti of course!). After nap time Eliza was an excellent helper and got to make her very own birthday cupcakes! The real celebration didn't start until about 6:30ish when all the family came over to spoil her rotten! It took a little convincing to get her to open the presants but once she got the hang of it she was VERY excited. The hardest part was that we kept opening these gifts and not letting her play with them right away... what mean parents!

Wednesday Rachel's doctors finally decided that her baby needed to hurry up and get here so Rachel and Bruce welcomed little Hailey Elizabeth Sommerfeldt (7lb 9oz 19.5 in) into the world. We spent the day in Loveland playing with my mom, making bows for Rachel's little one, and running errands it was a little crazy by the end of the day but totally worth it so that I could be there when Mom found out they were inducing Rachel! (if you can't tell i'm a little excited for my sister)

Thursday Eliza spent the day with Grandma Merritt and mommy got a much needed little bit of quiet time and time to run errands with just one baby in tow instead of two! I even got my house picked up a little!

Friday normal day. Eliza and I have been very busy playing with all her new toys, computers, easels, painting and coloring to our hearts content! Alayna has been spending a lot more time awake these days and a bit more interactive and vocal. She's still incredibly quiet but she's learning to speak up when she needs something!

Saturday Ben went snowboarding with his dad so the girls and I made it a jammies and movies day... all the snow and cold made me very uninterested in going out. That evening the Merritt's were sweet enough to take both girls for us for a little bit so that Ben and I could go out on a much needed date!

Today was fun... I'm working on a really cute hat for Eliza (provided it ends up being the right size) and church was good. Ben and I both taught lessons and they went well for both of us. Eliza had fun in nursery as usual...

We survived the Holiday!

Ok so I did do a post last week... I was having issues with getting my internet to work so I typed it up in a word document with the intention of copying it into blogger and posting it... well that didn't happen. Everything I tried failed me miserably in an effort to copy it into blogger... so you'll just have to go without last weeks post.

So now that I've made an effort to explain my slackerness... This week has been crazy!
I love holidays but they really seem to wear me out! Once the cousins arrived it was non-stop play for Miss Eliza. She would get sooo excited at the mere prospect of getting to go play with 'Jacks' (that's how she refered to both Jackson and Grant) We'd walk in the Merritt's door and she would imidiatly start calling for the boys to come play! We got to meet the newest cousin addition as well, Miss Elizabeth, she was adorable! She sure looked tiny next to Alayna but they are both so very adorable and we're looking forward to future years of watching the two of them run around together! In the time that we spent enjoying the company Ben and Jackson had a successful 'run in' and Jackson walked away with a bloody nose... that was the end of rough houseing together for the two of them. Eliza went on a walk with Uncle Brian and Grant and came back with bloody knees... so we apparently made sure to play hard with all of the kids to wear them out :-)

Thursday was Thanksgiving the morning started at about 6am in my house in a effort to get ready for the Merritt Family pictures. Mallory took the pictures of all of us and then each of our individual families. The raw pics that I saw were amazing and I'm really excited to see how they turn out when she's done editing them! Dinner was amazing (as usual!) the football games weren't bad and best of all was there was lots of time to just sit and cuddle the new babies! We got to go to my parents house for dessert that evening and I was yet again reminded that my mom's pies are the very best around!! I made the most amazing pumpkin pie I got compliments from lots of people so it must have been good...

Sunday was Alayna's blessing day. It was really a special day all the way around. Ben invited his co-workers to come and Robert and his wife actually came!! It was kind of a supprise to me but I was so grateful for them making the effort to come and be a part of that with us. Most of my family was able to come as well as most of Ben's... We did miss those of you who couldn't make it!
Ben gave a beautiful blessing!! Such a sweet spirit and Alayna was very well behaved... in fact she slept through the whole thing and didn't make a peep! We had a beautiful lesson in our combined 5th Sunday classes. It was all about Christ and different prophets testimonies on the topic. It was put to some beautiful music and I really enjoyed the spirit that was in the room! After church the Merritt's were nice enough to host a 'post blessing' party to celebrate the addition of Alayna to the family. We had excellent food and really enjoyed the time to just sit and chat for a while.

That was the main excitement from the week... I don't have any pictures from the week but all my in-laws took some that I will post as soon as I have access to them :-)

It's a short one.

Alayna and Daddy sunggling in the recliner

Sun bathing... working on her first tan :-)

Eliza, Daddy and Alayna... Eliza is so helpful givng her sissy her pacifier

Eliza playing on the stairs

First family picture... nice and casual!

Mommy and Alayna hanging out

So this weeks post is going to be short seeing as how there hasn't really been a lot of time since the last one.

We're doing very well overall. Alayna was having some struggles with her billi levels and so we kept having to go in to get her foot stabed. The somewhat odd part of it was that she did not cry about getting pricked but every time they tried to collect the blood she totally lost it! I've honestly never heard her scream so loud. In the end, three draws, four vials of blood, and two days later it was established that the naked time in the sun was enough to avoid the billi lights.

The majority of the week after my last post was mellow with lots of chill time for me. I've been SO greatful to Ben for all his help I really don't think I could have made it through this past week without him! He's made my recovery much faster and significantly more enjoyable!! I really did marry the greatest guy in the world!

Eliza has been busy being entertained by Alayna and hanging out with mommy and daddy. She has really enjoyed having Ben home to play with throughout the day. She hasn't had a hard adjustment to the newest addition at all which is great for Ben and me, We do have to keep an eye on her so she doesn't 'over love' the baby but at least we know she loves her.

Alayna Diane Merritt

Warning this post contains a labor and delivery story... that was your fair warning if you continue forward no complaints will be accepted because you were warned. Alayna Diane Merritt 8lbs 8oz... 21 in long

Eliza and Alayna on their first meeting! Eliza loves to give her sister kisses!

Moments after being born... mommy and Alayna

This week's post is going to revolve around two days... saturday and sunday. so if you don't like that too stinking bad!

I was lucky enough to become an Aunt again (Hailey had her little girl Elizabeth) and therefore I went into full on pregnancy envy. SO I started doing as much as physically possible for any pregnant woman to try and induce labor. I walked and cleaned like I'd never see my house again. The good news is that my house looked amazing by the time I was done! The bad news was that I only kinda put myself into labor. I was having regular contractions 3 minutes appart that were just killing me! Alayna was sunny side up (at the time she wasn't delivered facing up, she did turn around eventually) and therefore I was also having lots of back labor to top it off. So by 7pm Saturday night Ben said we were going in weather or not I was ready (lol) we called Grandma Merritt to come take Eliza for us and we headed to the hospital. I sat on the monitors for an hour and walked for another hour and in those 2 hours I hadn't progressed at all. The worst part of all was that means (usually) that they'll send you home to labor there instead. I was crushed (tears and everything) because I had long since past my ability to even tolerate being pregnant anymore. Anyway my nurse went to talk to the on call OB about what they wanted to do with my crazy contractions that weren't doing anything productive (mostly just to get approval to send me home) and when she got back they offered to have me stay and they would get the antibiotics in me and break my water so I could hurry up and have the baby! I was being hormonal about the whole thing and wasn't sure about it so I called my mom and she helped talk me into staying and not feeling guilty about it. I labored all night without anything except lots of discomfort and very very little sleep. Ben didn't sleep well either (real shocker those fold out beds are terrible!). By morning I hadn't really dialated much more but the dr. came in a broke my water... that was about all it took. Well that and an amazing epidural! One nap, Four pushes and a few good laughs with the doctor we had Alayna Diane Merritt.

November 8th at 10:37am. She was 8lbs 8oz and 21 inches long.

She was a little blue at first and really 'spitty' but she did a really good job of coughing and crying all the mucus out so they didn't need to use the suction on her like they did with Eliza. The craziest thing of all is that full head of hair and beautiful skin color... if I hadn't just pushed her out myself I might have questioned if she was mine... j/k.

We stayed in the hospital that first night and had a total of four visitors. The grandparents. The hospital has a policy currently due to H1N1 that made it so that no one under 18 could come visit moms and babies. So Eliza had to wait to see her sister until we came home (I was pretty ticked about this!) SO due to their policy I came home as soon as possible. I went through a little bit of Eliza withdrawl by the end of the day Monday I couldn't wait to see her! Who knew that two and a half days of not seeing your two yr old could be so hard! My family came monday evening for a House party (House the TV show) and to meet Alayna. I think that all the stimulation was a bit much for Alayna but we got through it in the end and then got a good nap the next day to make up for the lack of sleep the night before.

Eliza's adventures were great for her... Sunday she got to go to church with Grandma and Grandpa Merritt (who are now called Ma and Pa according to Eliza). They did a little nativity picture and dressed all the kids up in nursery and Eliza was really mad about having to dress up (she was a mouse) so she is apparently crying in the picture (lol! memories!). The Merritt's tried letting her play in the hot tub at their house and it resulted in tears (supprisingly because she loves it with mom and dad!). Monday morning Eliza got up and went to the pool with my family (6am) and she loved it. My mom ran her ragged all day and then the big meany got her up from her nap to get the kids from school! I finally got to see her Monday evening and was thrilled to have her home. Her first reaction to Alayna was that I needed to put her down and hold her instead. She did eventually warm up to her and now she thinks she's the greatest thing in the world! She's so sweet in the morning and asks to hold her and she's always more than happy to let me go or comes to get me when Alayna is crying. SO cute!

Happy Birthday Rachel... and Happy Halloween!

38 weeks... a picture is worth a thousand pounds; I mean words.

Chef (with bun in the oven) and her cupcake!

pouting almost done about having to wear her costume

Trick-or-Treat!

And the best part of all is the sucker at the end!

Ok so it's time for another fun, exciting, entertaining update... and time to find a different blog to read! Haha!

My week's been relativly boring... Highlights didn't really happen until the end of the week/ weekend.

Monday thru thursday was really uneventful outside of the 14 (ish) inches of snow we got on Wednesday. Eliza got to come outside with me and play in the snow for the first time this year while I shoveled the driveway in a vain effort to go into labor. Eliza loved the snow but she was soaking wet by the end of it and I came to the conclusion that snow boots were going to end up being a must this winter! Thursday we were at my mom's house which was a nice change from being stuck in my own house!

Friday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!) was a fun day!! For me at least :-) I droped Eliza off at Grandma Merritt's house bright and early so I could go to the doctor. My appt went well... the baby is still in there though (little stinker thinks it's funny to torture her mother with contractions that come and go! rather than just letting them come and then be done for good!). I'm dialating and progressing toward that end goal so in the end I'm just greatful for any kind of progress! After that I had the whole day to myself! I LOVED every minute of it! Eliza got to do all kinds of crazy things with Grandma including going to a couple of meetings and making sugar cookies that she decorated herself! She brought some home and I was reminded how fun it must be to be two... There were little pinches out of the tops of each cookie where Eliza had helped herself to the sprinkles she decorated with. It was sooo adorable! I'm sure that Grandma must have been exhausted after a full day with Eliza but I really really appriciated the time to get my house clean and rest up a bit!

Saturday; Happy Halloween! We spent the morning going to the store to get some walking time in for me and get some stuff we needed as well. Then we got to go do some trunk-or-treating. Eliza yet again reminded us that she does NOT like her costume but she will wear it after she's done pouting. Everyone LOVED her cupcake costume (she was really cute I have to admit!) and there were multiple people who came and ask to take her picture because they liked the idea so much! (proud mommy momment!). Eliza made out like a bandit with candy and we didn't even go trick-or-treating to houses! Good thing shes young enough I can still somewhat control the candy intake or else she would happily sit and eat most of it in one sitting and be really miserable afterward!

Sunday; is today... I've been having lots of contractions so church was kinda miserable. They've slowed down a lot now that I'm home with my feet up (poo!) but maybe it's a sign of labor coming sometime in the next few days (hours would be better but I'll settle with days). So all of you start having labor thoughts for me for the next week and we'll see how good your telepathy skills are with an unborn child!

Two Week Crunch.

Daddy Pet the animals... Eliza looked on cautiously.

This is the way she LIKES to look at animals, behind bars.

Eliza and Grandma at the pumpkin patch!

Please note, this board says 'How TALL this fall'... I thought that a more appropriate like is ' How WIDE this fall'. Check out that huge belly! haha!

Eliza on the carosel with daddy... crying... being forced to wave... she'll love it someday i'm sure!

Ok so I missed the post last week. Sorry to all those who hang their weekly 'happy high' on my ever so enertaining post... hahaha!

The past two weeks have been interesting. Ok who am i kidding I've just been glad to get through the past two weeks. Eliza has been learning more and more words. She's gotten a whole lot better at actually talking to me and I understand her. We even have conversations some times which is fantastic! It makes me ever so excited for her to REALLY be able to carry on a conversation that isn't full of yes and no questions. Now there is one specification on this whole talking thing I should clarify... She talks to me, I understand a small portion of what she says and hopefully answer appropriatly. She doesn't talk to other people. I did not realize this until after leaving her with Grandma Merritt and Aunt Abby where she didn't say two words until I was back with her and then we couldn't get the kid to stop talking. Haha! Grunts and pointing is all she does for everyone else.

SOO... Two weeks ago... what did I do? I don't know.

*Had a Dr. appt for the baby (new name Elphy short for Elphaba until birth that is.) I'm dialating (slowly) baby is healthy and in the proper position. Got the flu shot.

*Went to 'Wicked' (the musical) with Lindsay, Mom, Heather, Heidi, and Mike (apparently we needed a little testosterone to help balance all my hormones on our girls night, hehe) It was fantastic the only thing that could have made it better would have been to have Rachel be there too!

* Sunday I started to feel a little under the weather but figured it was no big deal

This Past Week:

* REALLY miserable on monday. Sick, no energy yucky, yucky, yucky! did nothing all day.

* Tuesday was even worse. I was so miserable it took all my effort just to keep Eliza fed that day. Finally called the Dr. who put me on some Flu meds... turns out I got the flu anyway! the meds were amazing! within 24 hrs I was feeling a lot better! Thanks a billion to Diane who went and picked up my drugs for me so I didn't even have to get them myself!

* Wednesday was at Grandma Waite's house... Eliza ended up having NO nap at all thanks to her Uncle being so sweet (and a little uninformed)... She was one tired baby by the end of the day! Ben and I registered at the hospital and also found out that NO one under 18 is allowed to visit me while i'm there. That includes Eliza... I'm very ticked and motivated now to come home ASAP after this baby is born. Oh well I cannot change their 'flu season policy' I just get to think it's a little extreme to not even let the siblings come.

*Friday I got a massage (Aaahhh!) it was great! Eliza played at Grandma Merritt's house with grandma and Abby. We also went to my parents Trunk-or-treat... Eliza caught onto the trick or treat concept very quickly and loved it. We only got her to wear her costume for a little bit and I don't have pics but my parents do (forgot my camera). She looked adorable though!

* Saturday was also a fun filled day. We invited Grandma Merritt and Abby to come with us to the pumpkin patch. It was a learning experience for all of us... Eliza didn't stop whinning and crying the whole time. We did force her to ride the carosal and go in the petting zoo... she was started to enjoy the animals by the end but was never really thrilled. Hence the ticked off look in the majority of the pictures. Oh well it was fun for the rest of us.

Ok so that's the past two weeks in a nut shell... a really big nut shell.

another week's gone by...

One more week down... 4 more to go. Yes my time line revolves around eventually getting this baby out of me, to reduce the front half of my body and get some more sleep. Now don't argue with me on the getting more sleep thing with a newborn because getting up every few hours for a cute little baby is much easier than waking up every few minutes because she's abusing your internal organs!

Our week started out with Eliza and I going shopping in Loveland and then spending the rest of the day with Grandma Waite. I finally got my Wii fit all set up and am really excited about seeing what happens when you suddenly loose lots of weight (aka baby). The other thing is that I discovered that my balance is all kinds of messed up for the time being so some of the games are a lot harder than they should be! Ben's been using it some too which is really fun to watch! Eliza thinks that she should get to play while we play too so I finally set up an account for her to play and then she promptly lost interest! silly girl!

The week proceeded forward with little excitment in the house. Eliza is getting more and more language which has been helping the overall moral within the house significantly. We have been going to the library for story time the last few weeks and the librarian has a bear puppet that's mouth moves and his hand waves... well Eliza is terrified of this thing. I mean litereally near tears every time it moves. So this week my goal was to get her to actually turn and face the bear (a good distance away of course) and we were successful! Oh the joys of the little things in life :-) Maybe this next week we'll try and 'meet' the bear... maybe.

Thursday I wasn't feeling so good... lots of cramping and stuff like that other signs that I might have a urinary tract infection and after consulting the grandma's I finally called the dr's office while Grandma Merritt had Eliza. I was hoping they would just let me run to the lab here in Longmont and be done but NOOOO they think I'm going into labor and they want me to come in so they can strap the monitors on me for an hour... Poo! It wasn't part of my very well planned day but I went none-the-less. After sitting there for an hour feeling uncomfortable they informed my that (shortend version) I don't have an infection but I am having regular contractions, the baby is handling them just fine and they aren't going to do anything to stop labor at this point. SO the pain I am feeling is probably the ligiments holding the uterus being stretched too much too fast and the baby is more anxious to be here than my body is apparently ready for. They said sorry they couldn't do anything and take some tylenol.... well in the end I kind of felt like that was a waste of 3 hours driving and sitting in the dr's office but better safe than sorry!

Friday: Ben won tickets to the Rockies game on Saturday night!!! it's post season and very good seats! that spoiled boy!....

Saturday: Ben's Rockies game got postponed till sunday due to snow and terribly cold weather! It was the first snow of the year here and it's only October 10th! What the heck... doesn't the weather know that it's not suppose to snow until Halloween!!? We hung out at home most of the day as a family and then that evening went to Scott and Lesley's wedding reception which was beautiful!! The bride and groom looked incredible and they had the worlds best 'first dance' I've ever seen! The food was great and Eliza had a blast getting to run around with all the other kids!! The funniest/ saddest part of the evening was that just before we left Eliza fell head over heels down the stairs she got a bump on her head but seemed fine once we got her calmed down. Then at the reception she was sitting at her place drinking from her cup (cheap hard plastic that's pretty but breaks easily) and fell head first out of her chair breaking her cup in half therefore pouring water all over mommy, cutting her face up pretty good and wacking her head on the leg of the chair. Poor kid, by the end of the night she looked like she'd been in a fight and came out the looser!

Final statement: funniest thing I heard all week from a sweet sweet girl to my mother in reference to the size of my belly: " How is it that 'joan' (another pregnant lady at the wedding reception) is due in 10 days and she looks about half the size of Sarah and she's not due for another month!" .... Yes I'm fat and getting fatter and I soo appriciate the fact that everyone else notices this fact :o) hahaha!

Happy Birthday to my Missionary!

So Jaron's (my younger brother on a mission in South Carolina) birthday isn't really until tomorrow but I had to wish him a happy birthday seeing as how I don't actually get to talk to him and I miss him like crazy! So Happy Birthday J-Wa we love you lots!

As for the rest of the post it's been a fun normal week.
Eliza has started to use some more words that I can actually understand... I'd make you a list but it might go on for a long time and I'm not sure if it counts as real words when most everyone still doesn't know what it means. But the most important person (myself) does understand so that is fantastic progress! In case you didn't know we've been working on using more words these days to talk to eachother due to the anger and irritation that flows through my house when She doesn't get what she needs and it's all because 'I'm not listening' (or rather that i don't have a clue of what she's asking for). So additional words being added to her vocabulary is a very exciting thing for both of us!

The begining of the week was mellow. Wednesday was at Grandma Waite's house because she was crazy busy at the end of the week so we took advantage of the time she had open on Wednesday! I also started my very first baby afghan. It's bright red with sparkles and I think it's going to turn out really cute in the end! I'm about halfway done with the first part and overall it's been a fun experience I might just have to try another one later!

Thursday was a great day for me! Grandma Merritt, being the amazing person that she is, offered to have Eliza through her nap so that I could get something done around my house and feel a little more human again! I really really really appriciated this seeing as how it appeared that a bomb had gone off in my house and I was in desperate need of some time to steal a short nap! So after I walked home from Grandma's house (we walked there upon Eliza's request so walking home was a necessity) I watched a movie... slept through parts of it and then got my house all sparkling clean! I felt so much better by the end of the day! Thanks again Grandma!

This weekend was General Conference and it was fantastic! We stayed home and watched all 4 sessions here. 8 hours of church is still a little hard for me but being home made it fun for Eliza. I made her some playdough and she is absolutly in love with it! My hands on the other hand can't handle how dry they get from all the salt in that stuff! Of the 8 hours she actually sat and listened to a good portion of it which I didn't expect but enjoyed non-the-less! I had lots of favorite talks and couldn't tell you which was really my all time favorite. I did think it was interesting how much they talked about God's love for us and such. It was a nice reminder. My favorite talk from today was Elder Holland about the Book of Mormon. It was very powerful and direct which is really nice, you could really feel what he was trying to get across it was just an amazing spirit overall. I feel so blessed to have the technology that allows us to hear directly from our Prophet on such a regular basis and the freedom to worship as we choose in this wonderful country of ours!

Tonight we celebrated my Mom's, mine, Nana's (my grandma), and Jaron's birthdays... the reality is that the celebration was for mom and myself because we were the only ones there. We got my mom a birthstone ring (difficult process when you have 8 kids!) and I got spoiled rotten by my family who got me a Wii Fit. I have been wanting one for some time but had no money for it so it was not on my mind until I opened it and then I wanted to jump out of my chair with excitment... the jumping doesn't happen when your 8 months pregnant and on a comfy couch it just wouldn't have been pretty trust me! But I did the happy dance in my head!

That's the week in a nut shell. I don't have any pictures sorry! Oh and before I leave an update on the baby... She's busy busy busy. You can watch my belly morph from across the room... she keeps me up at night and makes sure to remind me on a regular basis that she's there throughout the day by pinching my sciatic nerve. I have mastered the pregnant waddle and am looking forward to holding the little bundle of joy in my arms!! That's about it so have a happy week!

And the Birthday's begin!

Fun camping pics... And by camping I mean going to the lake, letting your in-laws cook your dinner for you and going home afterward to sleep in a comfy bed. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy camping but when your 8 months pregnant sleeping on the ground is more than I can take! Eliza playing... 'sliding' down some rocks.

Grandpa Merritt cooking our dinner (Yummy!)

Grandma Merritt... what a cute camper! (too bad the rest of us don't look that good when we camp!)

It's official we've crossed into the never ending celebration of holidays and birthdays for the next few months.

Wednesday was my birthday! but Tuesday Ben, Eliza, and I all celebrated (a day early) and it was great! The whole day overall was a normal at home, don't do a ton, type of day. But that evening Grandma Merritt took Eliza so that Ben and I could go out to dinner which was really nice! (Texas Roadhouse yumm!). Ben is an amazing hubby and he got me socks (which was all i was suppose to get!) and a new case for my camera that is fantastic! and then to top off the evening he even told me that he found the case on a clearance rack and it was completely within budget for him to spoil me which made me even happier!!

This week has been hap-hazard enough that I don't really remember what happend on what days but here are the highlights:

*Eliza and I baked cutout cookies one morning and I learned my lesson that it's not really worth the stress to let an almost 2 year old help bake those particular cookies. Cute idea... great potential... terrible headache afterward!!

* Went to visit daddy at work one day and took cookies (previously mentioned) to feed all his co-workers so that mommy wouldn't eat them all herself.

* Baked my birthday cake and cooked my birthday dinner

* Hung out at Grandma Waite's house... well Eliza did. Mommy went and visited a friend who happened to be in town with her 1 week old (Sooo cute!)!!

* Worked on Eliza's costume a little bit (thanks to Grandma Waite for finding the lamp shade I needed!)

* Went to the Lake and had dinner with the Merritt's. Eliza loved getting to explore and go where ever she wanted! So much open space and dirt to play in made her not care one bit that it was cold outside!

* I took school pictures for a family friend (they turned out pretty good if I say so myself!)

* Saturday was my Mom's birthday (check birthday #2 off the list) I called... we'll have our real celebration next weekend.

* Went to the Relief Society broadcast. Laughed a lot durring the dinner and then had a hard time being reverent durring the meeting (whoops)

Yep that about covers the week we've had... I think.

New Calling...

32 weeks and counting (check out the pic from 25 weeks and it gives a better view of how big I really am!)

32 weeks... still getting bigger

This week has been fun. Eliza and I have spent a good portion of the week working really hard to learn some new words for talking to eachother. Ok so mostly to get her to talk to me so that we're not so irritated with each other all the time. We've made some good progress thanks to the advice from my mom and a blessing of a lot of extra patience from the Lord this past week!

Wednesday Eliza and I went swimming and I was reminded how wonderful it is to not be holding a baby all out in front of you! The water felt soooo sooo soooo good and all the weight of my belly was gone (for the time being!). Eliza loved getting to play in the water and with all the other kids which was great!

Thursday I had my 32 week appt for the baby and everything is looking very normal. I'm measuring just perfect and the baby's heart rate is great too. I even took Eliza with me to this appt and she did great with the whole thing. Outside of the one outburst of tears when the nurse shut the door (she thought we were there for her) She mostly sat there and looked at books and watched everyone in the room very carefully to make sure they didn't get to close to her.

Friday Ben and I had a temple assignment to go do sealings and Ben's parents (who are our default babysitters for these kind of things) happened to be signed up for the same assignment SO Eliza got to have her first ever sleep over at Grandma Waite's house. I spent the day in Loveland and then just left her there when I needed to get back home to change. It was a fantastic time at the temple and oddly enough in the room full of people (half of which were in the Greeley Stake) Ben and I knew everyone in the room except for the sealer! It was really neat to share in that with all kinds of people that we knew from years ago! Eliza LOVED getting to stay at grandma's house. Heather and Heidi even let her sleep downstairs with them. I do wonder how much abuse they took from my wiggly little sleeper all night but it made her day she even told us about it the next morning! She was not thrilled about going home but she was much more upset about Heather and Heidi leaving the next morning to go to the temple than she was about us taking her home (I see where I rank on the 'fun scale').

That was the week in a nut shell. We did have one last (probably last) run on the lake before we call it quits for the season. Ben had a pretty good wreck and is sore today but it was SO worth it (just ask him)! Today in church Ben got a new calling... He's now the second counselor in the Elders quorum presidency. That should be a fun calling, he is a little bummed about giving up his primary class calling because he was finally starting to really like it but I'm confident that he'll love this one just as much!

I thought it was September... Not May!!

This week has been insanely busy! In fact after looking at my calander I'm convinced that it's not September it's actually May, because no one is this busy unless school is about to get out!

Monday we spent the morning on the lake (the water was like glass it was so beautiful I seriously considered getting in to wakeboard myself even if I don't have a life jacket big enough for my baby belly!) We played in the water a little but Eliza wasn't thrilled about getting in, which is strange because she's usually begging to get in. We spent the rest of the day (literally) hanging out at Grandma Merritt's house. Eliza had her nap and I got to sit and visit with Grandma Lael and Grandma Merrit. It was nice to just get to sit and chat for a while. The boys went golfing that afternoon and were out for a LONG time because the course was really busy. But the best part was that Ben finally broke 100 in his game including four par's and a birdie!!!

Tuesday Eliza and I spent the day in Loveland running around with my mom. We stopped at a farmers market (yummy!). We got some of the best bread in the world! It was a lemon white chocolate something-or-another Mmmm! Also did some window shopping at some thrift stores and had an enjoyable day all the way around. That evening I had enrichment (youth group for old ladies!) which was really fun. I love the social time with the ladies in my ward they're all so sweet!

Wednesday I had a dentist appt in the morning so Eliza hung out at Grandma Merritt's house. Past that, we cleaned the car (it was starting to cry every time you opened the door "clean me please! have mercy on my sweet interior!") and hung out for the afternoon

Thursday Eliza was suppose to go play with Grandma Merritt again but it took a ton of coaxing to get her there and then once we were there we walked around her neighborhood a few times before she was willing to go anywhere near the door. Silly girl! I had a Stake leadership meeting that evening that was very informative and fun!

Friday we went back to Grandma Waite's house to play. Eliza chased Lucky around for a good while and played with Kara some. Really it was a fantastic relaxing day we didn't have any major commitments (thankfully)

Saturday the weather here was super gloomy it rained for 90% of the day so we didn't really get out of the house. I was suppose to drive some of our Youth to EFY in Loveland but then we had a bunch of no-show so I ended up getting to go home without the extra trip to Loveland this week. Eliza was totally stir crazy by the end of the day so we tossed her in the car for a quick trip to Sonic for dinner. We even had a picnic in the living room to make it a little more fun for her seeing as how she'd been shut up in the house all day due to rain!

That was my week... I think I saw my house for more hours on Saturday than I did the rest of the week combined so I'm looking forward to a more relaxing week next week!

You know those moments...

This is the swimsuit that Mommy set out...
To be used in the pool that Mommy filled up... This is the child that deemed swim wear unnecessary...

And these are the leggs that turned purple with cold

Because the child wouldn't let the pool warm up before she got in!

NOW FOR THE POST: (sorry for the randomness of picture/text order I'm having computer problems... or user problems :-))

You know those moments when you wish that time could be frozen so you could sit in your blissful moment and enjoy the secenery? My weekend has felt just like that! All I've wanted to do is freeze time and allow myself to relish in the moments of laughter and joy that seem to be so contagious within the world of a toddler! I have loved every minute of it all!

Once we successfully got past the 3am wake up call every night from Eliza it's like the whole world has seemed at peace with itself. We are all much better rested and therefore a whole lot happier! We have spent the week running around trying to come up with new ways to wear out our little ball full of energy so that she'd sleep better and the end result was as follows:

*Go shopping (almost every day this week) ... DON'T SPEND MONEY (ok some but not too much)

*Go to the park... indoor and outdoor

*Attempt to go swimming (that didn't work out because apparently they clean the pool this week. Grr)

*Successfully go swimming in the back yard

*Go to Grandma's house and let Grandma chase the kid around for a few hours!

*Seriously question my sanity and patience level while listening to an almost two year old cry in the store

*TGIS take Eliza on the boat... play in the lake... Nap and back outside

*fill the baby pool again and catch her in it fully clothed (AGAIN!)

*sit with my feet in the pool while daddy grilled and chased the munchkinn around the yard! Remebering all the while that I'm the luckiest wife and mother in the entire world and wishing I could freeze everything right where we were and stay that relaxed and happy forever!

*Go to church... send the baby to Nursery and enjoy a good spiritual feeding!

NOW MORE PICTURES:

These were her gold fish... intended for a snack...

Which turned into a game instead... with diligent effort she placed every single cracker she ate between her toes before freakishly bending her leg up to her mouth to gobble up the fish. At least we know she's a very flexible child

These are all from out Saturday outside! Eliza coaxed Daddy into pushing her down the roller coaster it was SOO funny! Mind you she's soaking wet from head to toe but she loved every minute of it!

It was Eliza's job to push the car back to the track and it got a little stuck... She refused to put the ball down though so she cried instead.

This was to show of Ben's handy work... Those were some of the yummiest ribs EVER! (everyone may commece drooling now!)

Chicken Pox... are you SERIOUS!!!

Eliza is now into the "take pictures of my babies mommy" phase.... I was trying really hard to get her to let me get a cute picture of her today with her little piggy tails and everytime I snaped a picture that doll was up in front of her face!
Eliza's officially got hair enough to get pig-tails! She looks SOO cute even if it takes a ton of hairspray to make it stay!

And this was the closeset we got to a picture of her adorable outfit today... The doll was up again about a half a second later so sorry for the poor quailty but she's still cute!

So it's been a bit of a long week in this house. We spent the whole first half of the week just trying to get Ben and myself healthy. Eliza seemed to be getting significantly better only to take a turn for the worse on Wednesday evening. We spent wednesday playing at Grandma Waite's house with Kara and Lucky. That evening we went to see Grandma Merritt (for the first time in two weeks) Eliza was pretty estatic to have her playmate back! By bedtime that night she was running a random fever.

Well Thursday we hung out and did laundry and cleaning Eliza ran a fever all day long and it kinda made me start to wonder what the heck was wrong with her! Well that evening I was putting her PJ's on and she had what looked like a mild case of the chicken pox all over her chest and back! Poor kid! Next morning resulted in a phone call to the Dr. who promptly told me that although it's not completely normal for kids to get chicken pox from the vaccine (that she got a week before) it is likely that she is having a negative reaction to the vaccine. The good news was that she is NOT contagious (thankfully).

Friday we spent in Loveland letting me play with Rachel and Bruce. It's official that I'm about twice the size of Rachel despite the fact that I'm only 4 weeks ahead of her in the pregnancy! If you want evidence you should check out her blog pictures and my last ones! There is proof enough!

Saturday was a big family dinner and such while Rachel and Bruce were here! Jaron was missed (we love you and hope you had a fun Saturday on the mission!) It was tons of fun to just sit and socialize with my family! We stayed out too late but it was totally worth it just for my family fix!

Today was church and it went great! Eliza woke up grumpy but by the time Ben picked her up from nursery she was MUCH happier... She must be her mothers daughter and was really in need of a social pick-me-up!