32 weeks

 i had my 32 week ob appointment this morning

our little girl is measuring 2 weeks big

and currently breech 

we recently decided we definitely want to do a v-bac

so i hope she changes her position soon

our saturday

 today we had nothing we needed to do

it was awesome

so we went out to breakfast

 then to a super cheap kids movie

at the theater that noah's school set up

 next we went home for olive to nap

hazel to color

and noah to play wii and ride his bike

 then we ran a couple of errands and shopped at goodwill

 then a long visit to the library

 and home for pizza

it was so relaxed

and exactly what we needed

the little things

i really need sleep

like 8-10 hours even when i'm not pregnant

so yesterday was bound to be a bad day

but a few things that made my day awesome were

noah didn't hold a grudge about the poor start to his morning

and was super stoked that the reptile man came to his school

and he thought it was so funny that the crocodile peed on him

i got a 15 minute nap that gave me a little extra energy

my sweet neighbor brought me chocolate chip cookies

michael came home from work early

with flowers

my counselors came to stake council with me

 and one offered to give the spiritual thought

she totally rocked it

reasons today is not my favorite day

i slept horribly last night

it was really stormy

and i woke up with a crease in my brow

from being unhappy and unrested

i had a WIC appointment at 8:30am

so i figured i'd let everyone sleep in

and i'd drive noah to school on my way

that was fine except we forgot his backpack and snack at home

so i stuffed snacks from my purse in his coat pockets for snack-time

he was all stressed out (as was i)

and only went inside because he saw a girl in his class going

after the WIC appointment hazel was telling me

she'd stopped to smell some fake flowers

and since that hadn't registered, i let go of the door i was holding

and the door handle of the heavy door hit her head really hard

poor girl

then the internet wouldn't work

without a lot of unplugging

and replugging in of things

not sure what i was doing

but it eventually worked

i have like 5 loads of laundry to fold

i have to babysit today

and give the spiritual thought at stake council

can't wait for tomorrow

31 weeks

 i'm really starting to feel pregnant lately

like hard to put pants or shoes on,

ligaments hurt really bad,

uncomfortable just sitting on the couch,

pregnant

of course it will be completely worth it

in just two short months

when our sweet girl is here

ps 

thank you to my sister andre`a for getting me this shirt

for my birthday this last year

busted

we recently decided it's time for hazel to stop using sippy cups

she's three and a half 

can use a regular cup

and we can't really lug a drink for her

and olive

plus a new baby soon 

 the other day i totally caught her drinking out of olive's bottle

which i thought was kind of funny

until i watched olive try to get it

and hazel pulled it out of her reach

busted

now we're about to switch olive to sippies

so hopefully hazel doesn't snatch them too often

ice skating

we went to the stake ice skating activity tonight

it was fun to see noah rock ice skating again

but it does not come as easily to hazel

she mostly hung out with olive and me 

eating cookies and coloring

until she decided to melt down

i bet everyone was really glad when we left

snow much fun

michael is smiling because he just threw a snowball at noah

and noah is pretend dying because of it

  michael and the girls in the igloo

that michael and the kids have been working on

for the past two evenings

 noah being cool

he thinks throwing snowballs is way fun

so that's what he spends his time doing in the snow

 cute olive loved being out with the big kids

 hazel never lasts too long outside

i think she only goes out so she can say

she's ready for hot choco (as she calls it)

 i was washing my maternity coat tonight

so i got to wear an xsmall coat unzipped

i had been dreading the snow all winter

but i suppose it is kind of fun

a couple of things i don't want to forget

noah had a realization the other day and said, 

"mom, you're going to feed the baby with your privates"
i just responded, "yep"

hazel tells me several times a day that we're,

"best friends FOREVER!"
and then she cuddles up real close
so we can have a little moment

noah does not like his hair to stick up
but the poor boy has a lot of cowlicks
so i try to keep it short for him
the other day he told me his great idea,
that we could just cut it every day
like mr. moore (his principal)
who is completely bald

olive has only gone to speech for a few weeks
but she's already improving so much
she's saying, "diaper, blanket, yeah, bye bye, balloon, hot dog, night night, Daaa!, popcorn, got it"

the other night i got mad at hazel while putting the kids to bed
and she cried, she's a little sensitive
(like her mother)
and doesn't like being in trouble
i finally convinced her to say her prayer
and she prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for her mom
i was touched and humbled

that same night after the kids had been in bed for 20 or 30 minutes
i heard noah laughing and thought, "those bums are playing!"
but no
hazel was sound asleep
and noah was recounting an episode of pink panther
to himself and cracking up really hard
it was really funny

we have pretty much a whole new living room
since we bought a new couch and tv stand this last week
and michael and i keep talking about how
grown up we are
like our furniture determines our maturity : )

kids i love

i love the way olive loves everyone's shoes 

especially boots

and can walk around with them on

even backwards

i love the way hazel dressed herself in a cute shirt and pants

and then put a button up over

that she insists is her sweater

 i love how happy noah is to be home

school is cancelled from the snow

and we couldn't be more thrilled

i love the way olive says cheese when she sees i'm taking pictures

our new couch

funny story

when michael and i got married we bought a leather couch

off of craigslist for $100 dollars

we really liked that couch but sold it

before we moved to pullman

and we've missed it's wipe clean ways ever since

but the couch we really wanted was this one:

 it's the ikea ektorp leather couch

and extra funny that it would show up on craigslist yesterday

after we'd been couch shopping previously in the day

what we really want is a couch and matching love seat

and what do you know?

this couch has a matching love seat still being sold at ikea

and since this couch is in perfect condition

and cost $300 less than it's original price

plus we saved on tax and shipping

we're excited to add it's little sidekick to the mix

next time we go to seattle

preferably before we have eleanor or it won't fit in our van..

i know we've gone through a lot of couches in our marraige

like....6 or 7 if we're counting

but i'm pretty sure this is all we ever wanted

and it'll be sticking around for a while

i mean, at least until michael lets me spend $2000 on my dream sofa.. 

kidding.......

valentine's decorations

i made a couple of easy valentine's decorations

that i can toss afterward if i feel like it

since we don't really have room to store anything extra

first i cut different sized hearts out of pink and red scrapbook paper

with pinking shears

and sewed them together with red thread

 and hung them above our family pictures in the living room

then i used my letter stamps
and stamped l o v e over and over again
on white card stock
put it in a red frame i already had
and then hung it with a black ribbon by the front door

next i'm going to work on a festive wreath for the front door

and valentines for noah to take to school

random happenings from this weekend

we went to the ward pancake breakfast

quick trip to lewiston

kids played in the snow

bought a couch

gave away our 9 foot retro sofa

that was way past its prime

michael even drove it for them

since they were planning on walking it home in the snow

got the sewage leak patched up

and luckily a bit of the stink is gone

painted the gray wall in our bedroom

back to "northwood white"

michael let the kids help

drove by a house we want to start renting in may

good news and bad news

we've had a weird smell in our house for over a week

we thought it was something weird in the kids' room

like an old piece of food or something..

but we couldn't find anything

and then we

discovered the smell was coming through their outlet

and it wasn't just in their room

it was in kind of all over the house

so we thought it was a dead animal in the crawl space

we told our apartment manager last week

and finally maintenance came over today

the good news is, it's not a dead animal

the bad news is

it's a broken sewage line

under our kitchen

how gross is that?

hope you're all have an awesome mlk day, too

my view

on our way to and from lewiston today

things i love

i love that noah loves the food i cook

he totally appreciates my cooking

i love that i went through my memory box yesterday

and found a letter from my brother that i'd completely forgotten about

that completely changed my life

i love michael

and the way we grow closer and closer all the time

i love our little family

i love how happy noah is when he comes home from school

i love how much olive loves me lately

i love that hazel is such a good sister to olive

like, the best

she takes super good care of her, never gets mad at her

and dotes on her all day long

i love that i cleaned our room yesterday

i love that shows are back on

i love that michael and i have the same priorities

and support each other

i love what a natural dancer hazel is

and that she loves to dress up,

wear lip gloss and all things girl

i love how blessed we are

29 weeks

silly olive

ever since we got eleanor's new car seat

it's been sitting on top of olive's dresser

because i knew if i ever took it down

this is what would happen

olive jumped right in

when i took it down for a minute

such a happy girl 

kicking her legs

sucking her thumb

poor olive has no idea

there will be a new baby soon

hopefully she won't mind eleanor too much

as long as the new baby promises to share her car seat with olive

adding another

 day before noah was born

 day before hazel was born

day olive was born

i kind of can't believe i volunteer for this
over and over again
at least i know it's always worth it
i do love my babies

a cradle for eleanor

remember this cradle?

 well we finally got around to working on it a couple of weeks ago

michael had to replace some hardware on it

(which we will probably paint gold to blend better)

we sanded it

and couldn't decide whether to paint it or stain it

but since we had left over stain from making Christmas presents

we thought we would give that a try

i think i like it

 we had an extra piece of foam from making a bench

that fits perfectly as a mattress 

and most recently i made a sheet to cover the foam

it isn't perfect so i'll probably make another one in white

but at least eleanor now has a place to sleep

winter break

winter break ended for noah last week

but michael just went back to school today

we had such a nice break

once michael's body decided to stop being sick

we finally got to feel normal again

 there was lots of coloring 

all three kids love to color

 noah reignited his love for angry birds

 we took the kids swimming at the public pool

and again at michael's parents hotel pool

we had a really nice visit with michael's parents

they brought us second Christmas 

and spoiled us (more than normal)

after a trip to costco

we let the kids play at the park on the river in lewiston

they were so excited to be able to run and play at a park

for the first time this winter

that they could not stop for a picture

 olive and i don't move as fast as they do

 noah and hazel enjoyed swinging

olive was way less sure about swinging

she loved it last summer but i guess it's been a while

but she always loves brushing her teeth

sunday best

 noah's grumpy the girls won't stand where he wants them to

hazel's freezing

and olive's trying to escape up the stairs with her toast

 pretty hazel

 noah wanted everyone to do a silly face

mostly he just looks (was) grumpy

 michael's trying to make them laugh

and olive's licking toast off her face

it was a big sunday for our family

hazel moved up to primary (a week delayed in our stake)

and olive went to nursery for the first time

noah walked hazel to primary

and they sat next to each other

it was so cute

after church they told me that they fought in primary

and that hazel made noah cry...those kids!

olive did so well in nursery

michael confessed after church that he checked on her every few minutes

what a cute dad!