Big Sister!!

I'm sure most people know this by now (thanks to fb and instagram- and unless you're immediate family then that is probably how you found out and I'm sorry but I'm just not good at calls while I'm pregnant and feeling sick), but Lucy is going to be a big sister!!  I am 14 weeks along and due October 8th.  

(This part is super boring, I'm sure, but it's for my own records.)  I have felt terrible, yet still a little better than I was with Lucy.  I called my doctor right after I found out and begged for zofran from the get-go.  Thankfully it didn't take much begging and they sent in a prescription asap.  Between that and the fact that I don't have to get up and ready at a crazy early hour for work and try and stay awake all day, I have managed the sickness much better this time.  I feel like I'm already past the worst of it, which didn't happen until 17 weeks last time.  We will find out the gender at the end of May.  Also, it's so true what they say about the second pregnancy going way faster than the first.  I can hardly believe I'm already a couple of weeks into my second trimester.

Overall, we're really really excited (and also really, really nervous) and I think Lucy will be a GREAT big sister!!  Any infant car seat that she sees on the ground at church, she will run up to it and start rocking it back and forth and then she tries to put the baby's pacifier in its mouth (after I tell her she can't put it in hers! ha!) and sometimes even tries to sneak in a little kiss.  She could really use a little friend around sometimes besides just her mama. :)

Our trip to Utah

We flew out to Utah on Wednesday, March 27th and stayed for a week until Wednesday, April 3rd.  Ryan was going to fly out for his cousin JR's wedding by himself for a few days because tickets were way too expensive for all of us to go.  Then one night at YW's another leader  randomly told me about a deal that ended that night for flights between Columbus and SLC.  Thanks to her, we found a deal for the cheapest tickets I have ever seen between Ohio and Utah, which made it so we could all fly out and make a little family vacation out of it.  So not only were were there for the wedding, but we also got to spend Easter with family and spend time with everyone out there.  Here's the breakdown:

Wed: Left super early but had an awesomely fast flight with virtually no layover because they were already boarding our next flight when we arrived and got in to Utah at about 10:30am. We swung by Janae's work to say a quick hello, then I had an orthodontist appointment, then we spent quite a bit of time checking out the new Scheel's store in Sandy.  We ended the evening by eating dinner at In-N-Out.  Yum!

Thurs: Awesome weather, spent a bunch of time at City Creek, met my dad and grandma at Cafe Rio to eat dinner.  Sara Beth came to Alpine to visit with me in the evening.

Fri: Lucy got yet another bad cold, we ran some Easter errands at Target, Bed Bath & Beyond,  Magelby's, AT&T, and a Jamba Juice that turned out to not exist, found some baby cold medicine that helped Lucy a ton, went to dinner at P.F. Chang's.

Sat: Breakfast at Kneader's with some friends, dropped Lucy off for the rest of the day with my dad, went to JR and Jenn's wedding and dinner/reception, picked up Lucy and got home late.

Sun: Easter!  Pathetic attempt at Easter pics, then we went to church, Easter basket for Lucy, nap for Lucy, my dad and grandma joined us in Alpine for Easter dinner and dessert, played outside in the amazing weather, dressed Lucy back up in her Easter gear and re-did her hair for attempt #2 at a good Easter pic right before bed.  Thankfully it was worth the effort.

Mon: Moved slow in the morning, ran to a few stores we wanted to go to in the afternoon, ate lunch at JDawgs, watched a movie at night.

Tues: Ryan and I had to close out an old bank account, cashed in an old gift card for See's chocolates, got a Jamba Juice, spent a few hours in SLC with my dad and grandma, packed and got ready to leave, headed to bed a little earlier.

Wed: Flew home at waaaay too early of an hour (flight left at 6am).  Had waaaay too long of a layover in Denver (3 hours), Lucy had 2 BAD near-blowout diapers on the plane during bad turbulence where we had to stay in our seats for most of the flight which ended up giving her a BAD diaper rash, I finally just got up and changed it and got scolded by 3 flight attendants... that I ignored and went into the bathroom anyway, and Lucy refused to take a single nap.  And some lady chose to sit in our row, when there were several other ones with seats open as well.  It was a mess and we were glad when we finally got home.  The fun part was that Ryan was wearing his BYU hat and we had a couple fellow Cougars stop us in the airport in both Denver and Columbus (we were even on a shuttle with a girl about to go visit her parents who were mission presidents in Argentina).

The end.  Here are the pics.

Poor girl kept rubbing her eyes and was so tired... but she was still so well-behaved all day.  It was amazing!  She was pretty happy with her balloon and just being able to run around outside for a while.

 When she saw this fake-castle thing in the Disney store, she squirmed out of my arms so fast and ran right inside.

We waited in the car while Mark ran an errand and so we let Lucy out of her car seat.  She climbed up on the center console and started waving her hand out the roof.  It was cute, except that it made it way harder to get her back into her car seat. :)

Ryan was the best man at the wedding and gave a little speech at the dinner.  JR spoke at ours four years ago and made up some crazy story about Ryan streaking in public (that we're pretty sure some people actually believed), so we made sure JR was a little nervous for later on when it was Ryan's turn. ;)  This picture made me laugh a little because right before we left for the temple, Ryan stuffed his suit coat with food as an emergency for my nauseous stomach.  I told him not to worry about it but had to laugh when he sat down in the sealing room and opened up his coat pockets to show me the bag of crackers he had for me among a bunch of candy. So when this picture was taken, we didn't realize until long after all of the formal pictures were taken that his coat was still bulging with food.  haha.  Oh well!  This was the only picture I got from the whole wedding, but it was all beautiful and super classy!

That about wraps up our Utah trip!  I have too many pictures from Easter, so it will get its own post.

Pots and Pans and Lucy

Lucy really does not have much interest in toys.  She has a big basket of toys and stuffed animals and yet she always goes for her "bedtime basket" of lotions, toothbrush, comb, etc.  She can also play with anything in the lower kitchen cupboards for a significantly longer time than she does with toys.  Silly girl.  One day when my mom was here, we looked in the kitchen and Lucy was getting in the drawer beneath the stove where some of our pots and pans are.  She thought it was hilarious that she could actually stand in the drawer.  Then she figured out that she could take everything out and actually sit in the drawer too.  Her excitement and expressions were enough to entertain all 3 of us for a little while (I have a funny video of it too but it's taking 95 years to download right now)!!

Another Grammy visit

My mom came to visit a couple of weeks ago and it was perfect timing... for us, at least, but maybe not my mom.  I suggested that she come visit when she did because Ryan was going to be out of town for a while for work (Nashville and then South Carolina) and I wanted some company.  It turned out that me, Lucy and Ryan were all super sick that week.  Luckily Ryan was still well enough to travel, but Lucy and I were the sickest we'd been in a long time.  Poor Lucy was super fussy and only wanted me to hold her, but I was exhausted and sick and couldn't all the time.  My mom cleaned, did some laundry, ran errands for me, did a couple of projects I asked her to do, cooked us meals, fed Lucy a lot, etc.  I honestly don't know how I would have survived that week without her.  Thanks, mom!

This picture is from her first visit a few weeks ago.  She had to move my grandma's car to the other side of the driveway and let Lucy "drive" with her.  Well, now anytime Lucy sees Grammy getting her car keys, she runs and grabs her shoes and coat to go outside and "drive."  She was not very happy when Grammy had to leave and she couldn't drive the car with her.

Ryan, Lucy, and I then went to Utah, and when we came back, my mom had to come visit again and bring some stuff that they were getting rid of from my grandma's old house (baby stuff she had around- like a stroller I wanted and stuff like that).  This time Lucy was totally back to her normal self and having an absolute blast with her grammy!  We'll be sad to not have her so near when she goes back to Utah soon (but that's okay, because we won't be here forever either).

The weather in Utah was very spring-like and warm, so she got to play outside a bit.  Ever since we got back, she begs to go outside, even though it's freezing cold.  My mom is much nicer than I am and was willing to brave the cold with Lucy for a while.  It totally made her day.

 They took a long stroller walk, sat on our front steps chatting, walked around looking at all of the trucks and tractors doing construction around us, ran around our backyard, and then rode Lucy's bike.  We're going to have a blast this summer, and probably spend 99.9% of it outside. :)

Babysitting

For the last three months I have been babysitting for a family in our ward once a week.  They have three boys (ages 4, 6, and 8...ish? Not sure of the exact ages) and they are the easiest, and super well-behaved boys.  I pick up the youngest at preschool at 11am, and take him to their house and we have lunch and hang out there until 3pm when the other two boys get off the bus.  We do homework, read books, have dinner, and play games until anywhere from 5:30-7pm.  It works out great.  What I wanted to remember about this whole thing was how cute and funny the boys are with Lucy.  They love her and they are so sweet with her.  They all call her "Lucy Goosey" and the oldest one sometimes tells her she's a "pretty princess" when he's talking to her.  Also, when they were playing "duck, duck, goose" the other day, they switched it to say "duck, duck, LUCY GOOSEY!"  and cracked up.  They chase her and carry her and try so hard to make her laugh.  Randomly they started to "fly" her (pick her up under her arms and spin her a little bit), which we already know she loves.  Another bonus (for Lucy) is that they have a dog and a bird, so it's constant entertainment for her.  As much as I am NOT a fan of babysitting (I've never liked it), this has been a pretty good setup and something to shake up our daily routine one day a week.

What we've been up to

And by "we" I mean mostly Lucy.  Of course.

• It has been a crazy cold winter here.  All of my and Ryan's siblings live in warm weather places and I sometimes go nuts seeing all of their warm, park-filled pictures when I look outside and see snow or ice.  We're supposed to have another snow storm again this week.  I should be wearing capris and flip flops right now. :)  Anytime we go somewhere Lucy ends up sick, and she just so happens to be sick yet again.  In fact, we are all sick right now.  So basically we've been hunkered down in the house trying to use random things as new toys and inventing new "games" such as "line up all of the stuffed animals."  Super original and inventive, I know.  But Lucy was amused for a few minutes.

• I painted Lucy's nails for the first time ever.  She's always been a little too wild to sit still and try and paint them, but I did it.  I painted fast, which was easy considering her nails are super small, and pulled out the hair dryer to dry them fast.  Lucy loved it and kept looking at them all day.

• On this particular day, when I brought Lucy downstairs in the morning to eat breakfast, she scrambled out of my arms as fast as possible when we reached the bottom of the stairs and bolted for a bow.  Once she had it in, she was a happy camper.  I'm glad she likes bows so much!  She's also obsessed with water bottles and anything with a straw.

• Ryan's car died, we traded it in for a STEAL of a deal (on our part- we majorly lucked out), and walked away with a Honda Odyssey. We figured if it was going to last us the next 20 years (or at least a really really long time if not exactly 20 years :), we better be able to accommodate for the future.  Also, it solidified the fact that we won't ever have more than 5 kids since it is a 7-passenger van, not 8. ;)

•  This picture is my current favorite.  Like I've mentioned before, Lucy loves to vacuum and she insists we do it daily.  Well, we missed a few days and when we went back to it, she was super scared again.  To calm down, she pulled Big Bear and Violet the puppy over to the couch with her, put on her sunglasses, and sat there while I vacuumed the carpet and rug.  She also kept the sunglasses on all morning.  This girl is developing the funniest personality- she's just so goofy a lot and I love it.

Sick

Poor Lucy was sick for about two months straight.  Luckily, she got better just as we went to New York.    That didn't last long though because when we got back, she had her doctor's appointment where she got shots.  She's never really had much of a reaction to the shots, so I wasn't worried, but this time she woke up in the middle of the night screaming, soaking with sweat, and with a 103 degree fever.  She couldn't walk on or put pressure on her leg for a couple of days because it hurt so bad.  One time she had a knot the size of a golf ball sticking out of her leg.  I felt so bad for her.  This picture was her at 4am, stripped of her hot pj's and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to console her.  When I put her somewhere, she couldn't move because her leg hurt so bad, so even though she was mad I took her off my lap to go get her medicine, she wasn't very vocal about it because she knew that me moving her again and holding her would hurt worse.  I'm glad that's over... except now she's sick again with another cold.