This Week

This week, like many around the country, was a COLD one.  It hasn't been above 25 degrees in a week.  BRR!  We managed to do more than just hibernate all week, though, so here's the recap.

• Monday - Went and looked at a dresser off of Craigslist (more to come on that later); at a stoplight on the way home, a car backed into us and then took off.  Yeah, hit and run.  Ridiculous.  We called the cops and got to sit on the side of the road in the car for an hour (17 degrees outside!) waiting for the extremely slow policeman to make his report.  It hardly did anything to our car, but we were pretty peeved someone would take off like that.  We honked and followed for a block or two, but he ran a very yellow light to speed away...what an exciting life we lead!

• Tuesday - The boys and I braved the single digit temps and went to IKEA to get some lamps and take advantage of what I thought was Kids Eat Free Day.  Apparently they're not doing that for the month of January.  Lame.  However, the boys had a wonderful time being able to run around in a larger space and played with all the toys in the children's section.  I also got 2 new lamps and holy cow, it is AMAZING what some more light can do to lift you out of the winter doldrums!  Our family room is quite dark - especially in the winter - and I'm really not sure why I didn't get these last year.  I love it!

• Wednesday - Had a playdate at our house with friends.  Didn't leave the house...brrr...

• Thursday - More hibernation...went to the library for a bit in the afternoon.

• Friday - Ohhhh Friday.  We thought it would be a great day to go to the temple one last time before I have this baby.  Well...that was a bad idea.  It normally takes us 3 hours to get to Columbus, so we left at about 7am so we could bring the boys to Jeremy's cousin's house and then make it to the 11am session.  All was going well until about 9am when it started snowing.  The forecast said the snow wouldn't start until the afternoon, but apparently it decided to show up early.  We kept going, thinking we were so close, but it quickly turned ugly and we made it to Marie's house about at 10:45.  She lives about 25 minutes from the temple (normally - at least an hour in that weather), so we missed our session and decided we better just go home.  Blah!  We let the kids play for awhile to get their wiggles out and then we packed up again and headed back around 11:45.  It ended up taking us 5 hours to get back home, so we were glad we just left.  We could have stayed and gone to the 1:00 session, but then we would have been driving home in the snow in the dark...not so fun.  It sure was an adventure!  So we got to spend 9 hours in the car in the snow.  Not ideal under any circumstances - and especially at 36 weeks pregnant, but the boys were really good - they're great travelers - and we had a lot of together time. :)  We actually went straight to Jeremy's school for a dinner thing at 5 and then when we finally came home around 6:30, we almost didn't make it up our street.  Apparently Pittsburgh's not really big into plowing roads (???) and our street is a big hill that hadn't been plowed at all - in fact, it STILL hasn't been plowed.  Somehow we slipped and slid our way up there though and finally finished our trip!  It's still snowing, so we're glad to be home.

• Saturday - Eli has been begging to make a snowman every day since we've been back from California.  We missed a lot of big snowstorms while we were gone and didn't have any again until yesterday, so he finally got his wish today!  As I said, it's been freezing, but he didn't care.  So this morning at 8:30, in the 21 degree weather, I bundled the boys up and they went out with Jeremy to play in the snow.  I thought they'd last maybe 3 minutes, but Eli stayed out there almost an hour!  He was so happy and they had a blast.  It was very cute.   I stayed in the warm house and made breakfast, venturing out occasionally to snap pictures of course. :)

 Connor wasn't as ecstatic as Eli once he got outside.

 Snow!

 The snow was extremely dry and powdery, so it didn't really stick together at all.  I'm not sure how Jeremy managed it, but he was able to stack a big pile up and then he cut rings around for the shape of the snowman.  I'm surprised it held together as well as it did!

 I love this picture!  They're so cute.

Of course, as soon as I took this, Eli destroyed it.  Boys!  Glad I got the picture.  I brought Connor in after this, but Eli stayed out and was diving in the snow and having a ball.  I guess he's finally at the age to appreciate it.

Also today, I finished our taxes (woohoo!) and Jeremy picked up the dresser I bought off of Craigslist.  I'm so excited!  The boys were using our little changing table dresser thing for all their clothes, which really was getting cramped.  And with our baby girl coming, I thought we could use some more space.  So I found exactly what I was looking for!  It matches their beds, it's short and wide so they can reach, it's real wood, good shape, and it was only $30!  I'm so proud.  I looked for a couple months, but it paid off.  Eli was very excited to put his clothes in there.

So that was our exciting week!  Who says you can't have fun in the cold? :)  I need to make sure these next few weeks are as eventful as this one was, because I'm having a hard time distracting myself from just wanting to have this baby girl!  Any suggestions for fun winter activities will be gladly accepted.  It's actually supposed to warm up quite a bit next week, so we may be able to venture outside a little more.  Hallelujah!

Big Tummy

I realized I have not taken a single "pregnancy photo" this whole pregnancy, and while that is fine with me, I thought I better take one or two for posterity. :)  I was looking through old family photo albums at my parents' house over Christmas and it was fun to see pictures of my mom when she was pregnant with me, so I thought I better have at least one of those for our baby girl. (No, we don't have a name picked out yet).  So, without further ado....

Little Girl, this is what your Mommy looked like when she was 35 weeks pregnant with you!  I decided I better do it sooner rather than later, because 40 weeks+ isn't nearly as attractive, as we all know. :)

So awkward...

Anyway, moving on, I got a cute video of the boys today.  They both still want to sing Christmas songs all the time, especially Connor, and especially Jingle Bells.  Eli is finally singing some too.  For the longest time he refused to sing anything, but in the last few months he's been singing a lot more and occasionally even changing pitch when he does.  Haha.  He'll get there.

So here they are singing:

Posts and Random Thoughts

I finished blogging about our trip to California, but I back-dated the posts so they would be in order.  Sorry to be confusing and/or weird, but if you'd like to see them, you can either scroll down or click:

Here for New Years and

Here for the rest

I'm trying to keep things in order of occurrence. :)  Don't miss cute pictures of Eli on his first day of Primary below either.

In other unrelated news, I'm over 34 weeks pregnant now.  Whoa.  I'm pretty sure in the last couple days the baby dropped.  This seems rather early to me, but I'm pretty positive about it.  I feel like her head is between my legs, I feel all sorts of low pressure, I have more space above the giant hump, and I'm starting to waddle.  Oh boy!  I also have Braxton Hicks contractions quite often.  I'm hopeful all this means she won't wait until 2 weeks after her due date to show up, but babies like to play tricks on their mommies, so who knows?  I know I shouldn't count on it, but a girl can hope, right??? :D  Regardless, I'm having another baby in the next month or two and that seems crazy!  I know I'm ready to not be pregnant, but I'm not quite ready for a newborn yet, so I better start getting ready!  So far she has no bed, not enough clothes, and nowhere to put the clothes she does have, but I'm sure I'll figure all those things out soon enough.  It hasn't been that long since we were in the newborn stage, but it still feels like dusting off the cobwebs a little bit.  I think I need to get mentally prepared more than anything else...

Also in unrelated news, Jeremy started back to school today!  Talk about dusting off the cobwebs...he's been off for a month!  I think it's going to be an adjustment for both of us. :)  He left about 9am this morning and got back at 6pm, and boy did that seem like a long day to me.  Haha.  I've been so spoiled the last month having him around all day everyday!  It's nice to be getting back into a routine though, and Jeremy really likes his classes so far, so it's a win!  I just get antsy in the winter when we can't do much, but luckily the boys got a lot of great indoor toys and activities for Christmas, so we should be able to stay entertained.  And like I said, I have plenty of prepping to do in the next month or so...

Anyway, thanks for reading if you made it this far.  Hope you're all doing well!

1st Day of Primary!

Eli was SO excited all day today to go to Primary.  We were still in CA last Sunday, so we just had him go to nursery, so today was his first "official" day.  We now have church at 1:00 (boooo), so it was a long wait for him, but he was very eager when we got there and had a great time!  He told us all about it on the drive home and excitedly exclaimed, "I'm a Sunbeam!"

And isn't he a cute one? :)  Of course, since I was taking pictures of Eli, Connor had to be included (he refuses to be left out of anything Eli does), but boy was it hard getting a decent picture of these two.  Good thing they're so cute doing anything.  Love these goofballs!

 I told them to laugh so they would smile normally and that's what they did.

And the rest of CA

After a week with Jeremy's family we went back to my parents' house.  My sister Heidi and her husband Sam had come into town a few days before and so did my Grandma!  I hadn't seen her in a long time, so I was excited.

Playing games...

 My Grandma loves to play games, and even at age 80 she hasn't lost her touch...or her competitive streak. :)

 We also played a lot more legos...

 And enjoyed yummy food and crazy togetherness.

 Grandma and Connor.

 Eli latched onto Sam again just as he did at Thanksgiving.

 The last Friday we were there my Grandma's brother Kay and his wife Joyce came to visit from Davis.  I always love to see them, and it had been a really long time, so that was nice to visit with them.  It was cute to see my grandma and her brother together and my Aunt Joyce is always entertaining.  She has such a silly and vivacious personality - she had us all rolling in laughter several times. :)  (Thank you Jeremy for taking the picture)

 Kay and Grandma - they're two years apart (Kay's oldest).  My Grandma's Christmas gift to all of her children and grandchildren this year was a book she'd printed of her life history.  I've been reading it the past few days and it's such a treasure!  Her father died before she was born, so it was always just her mother and Kay and her.

 The next day we went to the zoo!  It was unusually chilly that day, but we still had a great time.  It's a lot smaller than our Pittsburgh zoo, but they had a lot of different animals than we have, so it was fun - and not nearly so exhausting since we had a lot less walking!

 The anteaters were pretty awesome.  They are crazy looking!

 These little river otters were pretty darn adorable too.  Heidi wanted to keep one as a pet.

 And not to be forgotten, Jeremy's favorite animal - the Jaguar.  He was very excited. :)
So that was our trip!  We spent our last couple days taking advantage of my mom's babysitting and got a lot of time out with just the two of us.  It was wonderful! :)  It also took us hours the day before we left to pack all of our many things up, but somehow we made it.  Thank goodness for Southwest and free checked bags!

New Years and such

We spent New Years Eve and New Years day with the Nowlands.  Jeremy's sister Becky and her family came to visit and we had a great time seeing them, even if her husband and all four of her kids were sick. :(  Everyone was constantly washing hands and sanitizing surfaces so the whole house wouldn't get sick, and by some miracle it worked.  Our whole family and Jeremy's parents were all spared.

The Nowlands always have a great spread on holidays, and this was no exception.  We enjoyed lots of yummy food!

 Eli and Connor love all their cousins.  It's really cute the way they look up to them and follow them around.

Even baby Levi was sick, poor thing.  But he was still so cute!  He looks exactly like his daddy.

 We went to the park again...man, I miss that already.

 Eli, Connor, and Lydia.

 Lucky Jeremy got some snuggles.

  Jeremy took the boys outside one day and Eli saw some boards and got it into his head that he wanted to build a house.  So Jeremy got him some nails and a hammer and he was thoroughly entertained for quite some time. I love his tongue sticking out as he concentrates. :)

Then the next day, they nailed two boards together and then stood the other ones against them and really did make a little house! :)  Eli was in heaven, although he looks very unhappy as he's squinting into the sun in this picture...

 I hardly got any pictures of Becky's family, probably because of the sickies, but we really enjoyed being able to see them.  Jeremy saw them a few months ago, but the boys and I hadn't seen them in a year, so it was great to visit and see their cute baby!  Yea for family!