Pregnancy Dreams

Many of you have experienced the ultra vivid and strange pregnancy dreams. Well, I am beginning to have some of those dreams. Most of the time I wake up thinking I know I had a really wierd dream, but I can't remember it. However after last week's overindulgence in sweets I finally got back on the wagon and was not eating any treats during the day. The problem is now I am dreaming about ice cream. I dreamt about chocolate Sundays, Banana splits, and floats. I just can't stop thinking about treats even in the night when I am asleep.

I promise my next entry will have nothing to do with pregnancy and food :)

My weekend diet

This weekend I thought I'd try the pie and cake diet. Kate has been asking us for pumpkin pie everyday for over a week, so we finally decided to make it for her. Then add Beck's oreos since he can't eat pie, two birthday parties and a wedding and you get the pie and cake diet. Here is the diet.
Friday
Lunch: cheesecake
Bedtime snack: Oreos
Saturday
Breakfast: pumpkin pie
Lunch: Cheesecake
Dinner: Ice cream cake
Sunday
Breakfast: pumpkin pie
Lunch: Birthday cake

This is not all. I also ate full meals before endulging in the desserts. The sad part is you know you are eating way too many sweets when after consuming them you think "that didn't even really taste good to me" and "I really didn't need to eat that" It was like the part of my brain that tells you when you need to stop and that you are overindulging was completely shut off. I felt like I was on the eating autopilot. My brain was just telling me to eat everything in front of me without thinking about it at all. Hopefully I can't stop myself and get back on track before it is too late. This weekend was a major setback and hopefully I can prevent that from happening again.

End of Summer

Since the end of summer is just a few days away, I thought I'd post some pictures of the nice summer days we had at the parks. We are lucky to have some nice parks in our area and neighbors who organized specific days and times for moms to be able to socialize while their kids played together.

Beck's favorite activities were playing in the wood chips and stealing other kid's balls.
We had a little 24th of July parade with decorated bikes, noise makers etc. They had a lot of fun racing around the playground in their parade.
Beck didn't enjoy the parade as much as the bigger kids. He was a little bit of a party pooper.
The other thing I will really miss about summer is swimming in grandpa's pool. Beck finally started enjoying it and would even put his face in the water to blow bubbles. The last day we went swimming he cried everytime I tried to take him out. Hopefully we won't have to start all over again next year with acclamating him to the water.

Jokes and funny conversations

Three year olds make for some pretty funny conversations. Kate is starting to get the concept of jokes. I hear this about ten times a day

K: mom where do cows go?
M: I don't know where?
K: To the MOOOvies.
Then she gives her big Haaah laugh

Daddy taught her the underwear joke so I hear her say to me all the time "mom make me say underwear"
We have tried to explain to her that it is not funny when she asks us to trick her.

Here is her other favorite joke from daddy.
K: Knock Knock
D: who's there?
K: Boo
D: Boo Who?
K: Don't cry it's just me.

Daddy tried to teach her the chicken crossing the road joke, but here is Kate's version.
K: Why did the chicken cross the road?
M: I don't know why?
K: To get to the other side to play with the toys.
I guess she needed a real reason for the chicken to cross the road insead of just to get to the other side.

I think it is going to take much longer for her to understand the concept of money. Kate currently has about $1.82 in loose change I have given her from the car, daddy's pockets etc. She also has a handful of fake pirates gold which she does understand doesn't really count. She still keeps it in her hello kitty bank with her real money. Everytime she asks for something (usually it is something very expensive like a swing set or a trip to Denver to see her cousin Brookie) and we don't have the money she will say "Well, I have money". We try to explain that her money is not enough, but a few days later we have the same conversation.
Here is a conversation we had last week.
K: Mom, where does Minnie Mouse live?
M: Disneyland
K: Jennie went to Disneyland. Could we go to Disneyland?
M: It costs a lot of money to go to Disneyland.
K: I have money
At this point she proceeds to run upstairs for her Hello kitty bank and count her money
K: 11, 13, 18 I have 18 monies. Could we go mom?
M: No, That amount of money wouldn't even buy a corn dog much less a ticket to get into Disneyland.
What a way for me to squish her dreams huh.
she responds with a frustrated sigh
K: mom, you need to find me some more money!

I think she is going to have to settle for being able to buy some bubble gum which is another one of her new favorite things. I have tried to give it to her before, but I would always hear usually while in the car driving.
K: mom, Do you know where my gum went?
M: no, did you swallow it?
K: No I lost it.
She is finally able to chew gum without losing it and now she brings it to me when she is ready to throw it away.
I guess she is starting to really grow up and I hear her say how big she is and how tall she is everyday. she is pretty proud of the fact that she is now as tall as the garbage can.

Beck is getting very big too. He now is going to nursery with no problems. He is talking a ton and although at his last Dr. appt. he in the less than 5th percentile for weight the Dr. did mention he was in the 80th percentile for head size and he is ahead on his motor skills and verbal skills. He is starting to put words together. when I will ask something like "who wants a snack" he will respond "I do" it is so cute. He was at the store with daddy and daddy said "I'm ready to go" and Beck also responded "I'm ready to go" this week he has learned several new words like turtle, fishies, pizza accept it comes out "Piyah". He is also really starting to get into imaginative play and brings me food to eat from his play kitchen and has his stuffed animals give each other kisses and to daddy's displeasure he also likes to put on Kate's dress-up princess shoes.

Part of me is relieved that he is getting bigger and a little more independent and part of me is sad. I guess it will be good to have a little more time to myself now that he is playing better with his sister. I feel like I am finally getting a handle on being the parent of two and now there will be a third to thow everything out of whack again. some people might think I am crazy for wanting to further complicate my life, but I am so excited to have another baby. I finally went to my first appt. and I am 9 1/2 weeks and my due date is April 9th. It was a relief to see the baby even if it didn't look completely like a baby and looked more alienish. It was nice to hear "everything looks good" from the Dr. and to hear the heart beat. My appetite is out of control and I might end up looking like Jaba the Hut before I am done. Every two hours I have intense hunger pains and I feel like I am starving to death. Hopefully I will get back to normal soon.

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend we traveled to my grandparents cabin North of Bear Lake to help with some improvement projects. My uncle re-graded and expanded the drive way, several of the grandsons or grandsons-in-law worked to repaint the entire outside and finish two of the bedrooms upstairs and the women prepared meals, watched children and attempted to clean and organize the inside of the cabin. I felt very unproductive because I was not feeling well and extremely tired. Some days being pregnant is kind of a drag. It was so dry up there I felt like all the moisture in my body was getting sucked away. My eyes and sinuses were so dried out. I couldn't breath and my sinus felt like they were on fire from being so dry and all the dust and allergens in the air. I was also unproductive because the cabin is not so baby proof and I wanted to make sure Beck didn't get hurt or sick. So you don't think I am parinoid or psycho, let me explain. The cabin is situated in cow country and has always had a mice problem. the first day we were there Beck was picking up rocks and sticks and dried up cow pies! I was a nervous wreck with him constantly trying to dig in the dirt like boys like to do thinking "ahhh please don't get hauta virus". The cabin is at least 35 years old and Beck almost got burned on the ancient stove like 3 different times. The carpet was the original from since I was a small child and I definitely didn't want him crawling up and down the stairs, or touching any of the original furiture either especially with the mouse droppings inside the chest of drawers in our bedroom which Beck kept trying to pull open. Candi if you are not grossed out yet here is one more thing. My sister stepped on a baby mouse as she was walking through the cabin. so carrying Beck up and down the stairs all day long and chasing him around and washing his hands constantly it was all very exhausting to me and taking up most of my time. My sister Kristy was smart not to take her twins almost 2yrs. and her 5 month old. Then there was the sharing of one bathroom with probably close to 30 people. I could mention a few other things that made it hard for me to relax and enjoy the cabin, but I think you've heard enough. The men got a lot of work done on the cabin and with continued efforts I might be able to go and relax a little more than I did this weekend. Eli was quite busy all of Saturday and Beck snatched the small opportunity he saw to spend some time with daddy.

The one thing that was relaxing was playing with the kids at the Lake. I love Bear Lake it is such a beatiful lake and the North Shore is a nice beach area with not a lot of grasses and such.
Beck didn't like playing in the lake at first and he definitely didn't like the feel of any of the sea weed type plants and algae. He did get use to is and had fun splashing around and digging in the sand with the shovel. Kate loved floating on the raft and making sand castles.



































The one other thing that was good about the cabin was the food most of it fried, fatty, salty carbs and meat. Not to mention the smores and Bear Lake raspberry shake. What more could a pregnant girl want? No wonder I pack on the pounds during pregnancy.

Our 6th Anniversary

Tomorrow Aug. 28th is our 6th wedding anniversary. It will be pretty low key since we already celebrated earlier in the month. I still remember how nervous I was that morning and the tremendous peace I felt when I saw Eli walking toward me. Just another of the many confirmations that he is the one for me. What a wonderful day it was and how many other great blessings have come into our lives since then. In those 6 years we bought a home and had two beautiful children and now have number three on the way. Eli finished his bachelor's degree and is doing a fabulous job as our provider, so I can stay home with our children. There are days when I miss having so much time for the two of us, but we love being parents. We realize it is just a short time we will have little ones to take up almost all of our attention, so we are okay sacrificing some of our couple time for them. I think another sacrifice we make is living on one income which also makes it hard to get away as a couple for date nights. Regardless of the blessings and challenges we have had in the past 6 years, I am glad we have all of eternity to continue to celebrate, sacrifice, work, experience joy, learn from each other, etc. Thanks Eli for putting up with me the last 6 years and for your commitment, patience, forgiveness, devotion, and your unconditional love! Thanks also for being such a great dad!

I just wanted to add one more comment that is unrelated to our anniversary. Lately Beck has been pointing to the pictures of Jesus and calling him "Daddy". I think it is kind of cute and kind of profound at the same time. Maybe he is in the phase where every male is "daddy", but I'd like to think there is more to it than that.

Family Reunion

Every year my family has a family reunion in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. My dad was in charge this year and he did a great job. Eli helped with some of the cooking and I helped with some of the fundraising stuff for next year's reunion. I felt kind of guilty because I was selling the tickets for the quilt drawing and I actually won the quilt. A lot of people teased me about that, but I had my grandma pick the ticket and I made sure I mixed up the tickets. My dad said it was my reward for helping out. Kate had a lot of fun on vacation. She got to float down the Portneuf River with her Daddy and swim in our hotel's private hot pool.

I asked Kate was her favorite part of the vacation was thinking she would say the river float with daddy or something, but she said it was when her cousin Kiaya gave her a piece of gum. That was the best part of the vacation... kind of funny.

Beck and I went to the private hot pool to wait for Kate and daddy. We saw a squirrel and it was so funny hearing Beck try to say squirrel. It sounded kind of like "quirl". The hot pools were very relaxing on my achy back. We also got to eat out for dinner and breakfast which was definitely not a highlight since we ended up waiting for like 20 minutes before they took our order and then our food would come and they hadn't even brought us drinks. I would usually have to ask some other employee for drink refils. I noticed that everyone around us was getting better service which is frustrating. Maybe it was because we had small children with us-who knows. It was still better than last year's rancid microwaved steak or the two hour wait the year before that for our pizza at the Pizza place. That is one thing I can say about Lava is that the dinner service is horrible. At least our hotel was nice. The bed was hard as a rock, but it was nice to have a clean, well-kept up hotel with a fridge, jetted tub and microwave.

We didn't ever make it to the regular swimming pool, but it is a lot of work with little kids anyway. My dad has a pool so we hope to swim there a few more times before summer is over. I didn't get any other pictures of the reunion because our camera was having problems luckily Eli was able to save the river float pictures. I hope our camera will last until we can get a new one probably for Christmas.