Fly Catcher...

We live close to a bunch of farm fields. It is fun to watch them get plowed, planted and then see what grows. There are a few side effects though. The stinky manure, then after everything is harvested the leftovers along with manure attract flies. Along with the flies that come from the fields there are my neighbors and their dogs. We are surrounded by people who own dogs. It is hot outside and these people aren't very good at cleaning up after their dogs. Gag. It is stinky, hot and flies don't care where they came from, so they come here and bother all of us. Lucky for me I have me very own fly catcher. This kid gets his gear on and goes to work. He never really caught any or killed any until one day... He came upstairs to show me Henry. A fly he caught. Not only did he catch it but he caught it in a 2 liter bottle. He was very pleased with himself. I kept telling him that it wouldn't stay alive for long in that bottle. But that dang fly was alive in that bottle for a good 2 weeks. Now we don't catch flies, we kill them. Much more productive. 

Laine Jo loves her crib. We have transitioned her into her big girl bed and she was doing just fine. By just fine I mean she slept in it after a huge fight, loss of the oh so needed nap, and putting her back a million times at bedtime. Well we put the crib back up in her room and this is the result. She starts in the bed, on the other side of the room, then at sometime she climbs back into her crib to sleep. I know that taking the crib out would completely solve the problem but a part of me doesn't want to. She is my baby and I think I will let her feel that way for a bit longer.

Well, I guess she can be the baby until this little baby makes her grand entrance. She is already throwing her weight around as you can see. She, many times during the day, curls up in a ball and rolls to the right side. Making my belly very misshapen.

Here we are in all our glory. I am still feeling really quite good still. Defiantly waddling everywhere I go. My belly in huge and only getting bigger. On the bright side, the bigger the belly the less everywhere else looks so big. Does that make sense? I just mean that the belly is huge so maybe you don't see growth everywhere else. 31 weeks... 9 to go or less if I am lucky. Oh yeah, I cut my hair,.

Gag. I hate outside. I am sure this temp is reading a bit high but not by much. Never again, if I have any control over the situation, will I be pregnant in the summer. We do not go outside much. It honestly makes me angry to have to go out in the heat.

Oh and can I just say this? I have been reading, writing and looking at blogs for about 6 years. I think for alot of people personal blogs are going out of fashion. Not for me. This is 6 years of history for my little family and I do not see myself every stopping. But I have in the last year found my biggest blog pet peeve. I used to look at a lot of crafty, DIY blogs. Many of them started out with ladies just excited about projects they did and they wanted to share. Well over these years they have evolved and not in a good way. Now they are just money making things for people. The projects used to be new and inventive. Now I feel like they are just grasping as straws to make crafty things. Like come on! Does every little thing need to be mod podged, fabric-ed, bedazzled and flowered!?!  It it just a box of baby wipes. Who has the time and energy to make it match the nursery? And why is it necessarily? Then there are the ladies to are redoing their house on a "budget". Like I said their blogs started out with things I could to on my budget. But now their "budget" includes $75 a yard fabric. Needless to say I don't look at many craft blogs anymore. I scan the tittle to see if it is interesting but pass on 99% of them. I don't miss it. I think pining away after all the projects that were out of my reach made me jealous of what others had and not appreciative of what I have. I love my house and don't need to be comparing it to soandso@blogspot.com.

Just dance...

Laine got to start a little dance class this week. She was so very excited. I wanted her to do something small that was just for her. She is to young for preschool and this one day a week dance class was perfect. She was so excited to put on her dance clothes and kept telling us that "I go to dan class now".

This was me on my 4th birthday. I loved to wear swimmies and leotards. I remember going to dance class and having recitals. I loved it. Sadly I had 2 left feet and no rhythm.

Bode is feeling much better after sleeping and resting for a few days. He finished his antibiotics and started getting a rash. It was a new antibiotic and made me wonder it it could be a reaction to it. So we called the Dr and they want us to come in tomorrow to rule that out. It is either that or the virus he had leaving his little body. Goodness, if it isn't one thing, its another. 

Jeremiah bought a boat. Well he went half with a friend on a boat. Evidently it was just to awesome of a deal to pass up. It is a fishing boat and with a little work it should be pretty cool. He has been working out lately. He says it is for Tough Mudder, but he has his 10 year reunion in October and I think that may have influenced his new routine. Poor me though, I get to go to my husbands 10 year reunion 9 months pregnant. I might have Lee step in and pretend to be me.

I have been working really hard on watching my calories in and effort to not gain as much weight with this pregnancy that I have in the past. But is seems pregnant me gains weight the same way no matter what I do. I am still going to keep watching my calories (don't worry, I am not starving myself at all, just making sure I don't over do it) but figure I'll still gain 35 pounds, Much better than the 75 I gained with Bode, still a bit depressing though. Such a vicious cycle. The only good news it that I can still button my "fat pants".

I find myself being very short fused these days. Dang pregnancy hormones. But today ended up being a nice day. Jer and I did grocery shopping with out kids. That becomes such a luxury and so nice when we get to go alone. Then Jer took the kids to walmart for a bit so I could pick up the house. We had dinner then had family home evening. We had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom and then finished the evening off with a few rounds of hide and go seek. It was so nice to slow down and play with them today. They grow so fast! We have been working hard on making prayer and scripture study and consistent part of our daily routine. It is one of those things that can be frustrating at times. Trying to get the kids to sit down and listen. I know that  making the effort goes a long way even when things don't go exactly as planned. 

Days of the week...

Monday-The first day of kindergarten.

Tuesday

He was super excited to go back to school. This is an outfit I picked out. I wanted him to wear it on the fist day of school, he did not. But I pulled it out for the second day and he decided it was ok to wear. Later in the morning he came up to me and said, "mom, I feel pretty cool in these clothes". I told him its not the clothes, you are just a cool kid. Cute kid.

Wednesday:

Lee called me up to see if I wanted to go to Goodwill. Of course I did. We walked around there for and hour or so. Scored a few fun things and left there starving. We tried a new restaurant for lunch that turned out to be pretty good. To keep Laine occupied I let her play with my phone. She snapped this little gem of Daisy. It made me laugh.

Thursday:

Thursday Laine took advantage of the long wait to pick up Bode and took a quick nap. She is now a little over 2 1/2 years old and will no longer take a nap. Boo. I think she still needs one but between moving her to a different room, putting her in a big girl bed and Bode being gone all day she is feeling a little, lets say. grouchy. So we are going to be working hard on setting up the rules for an afternoon quiet time and save the fight for the new bed time routine. She also is really missing Bode during the day. She asks me all day where he is, if she can play with him and when he "come home". But I do think she is enjoying the one on one time with me and Jer. She just putters around behind me and basically just does what I am doing, which can be so helpful... or not so much. I have realised that I don't know how to entertain a 2 year old. I did when Bode was that age. Laine has always been entertained by Bode. We are going to figure out how to keep her entertained and out of trouble. I have also noticed my house is staying alot cleaner without him here. That is a nice bonus.

 Thursday continued:

When we finally got to pick up Bode from school on Thursday Bode was not a happy camper. He saw me and he look fine, then I walked up closer to get him and he was bawling.  His teacher said that about 20 min before that he said he didn't feel good and he was looking a bit sick. We got to the car and he said a million things. Like he was so tired, it was too hot, there are to many people at school, he missed me, his head hurt, I forgot his water bottle and that Braden isn't in his class. I figured that 4 days of full day kindergarten finally caught up with him and he was just worn out. He took a nap right when we got home and then went to bed at 6:30. During that time his fever rose and he just pain old didn't feel good. I was hoping a good nights rest would do the trick.

Friday:

I was wrong. He woke up with a high fever and a horrible stomachache. Jer took him to the dr this morning, boy they sure have gotten their money out of us. He has a sinus infection. He has just laid low all day. He curled up and took a nap with Jeremiah this morning and hasn't got off the couch all afternoon.His fever is coming and going. Hopefully the antibiotic will do the trick and he will feel better soon. I am not surprised that he got sick. He has been go, go, go full of anticipation and anxiety for a few weeks and then school has just worn him out. He is always the first to get sick whenever we get together with family. I was just really hoping it would have taken longer for him to get sick. So today nothing has been done. He wants me to sit on the couch with him. I have been very obliging. He is growing so fast and why miss the moments that he still needs me?

First day of kindergarten...

Today was Bode's very first day of kindergarten. A day we all have been anxiously waiting all summer. Bode pick out his clothes the night before, packed his backpack and got his very first before school Father's Blessing. I thought he might have a hard time going to bed or get up super early but no. He went to bed on time and got up just like normal. 

He requested cereal, toast and a banana for breakfast and was so excited to put on his new shoes. We read scriptures, said our family prayers and it was off to school. We parked a little bit away because it was a zoo. I was doing so well until he decided to grab Jeremiah's hand and walk in front of me. He looked so little but so big at the same time. It tugged on my heart strings and I knew letting him go was going to be harder that I thought. We met up with friends right away. Bode is lucky to have 3 other boys from church in his class and of the 3, 2 of them went to preschool with him last year. I am glad he has a few buddies in his class already. He made his way to his cubby, hung up his backpack, walked over to his table and sat down all ready to begin. I told him to have a good day, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, which he wiped away very quickly :) and said goodbye. Jer said a little goodbye and we left. I held my emotions in until we walked out the door and it was over. I can't say I was sad but just felt like I was leaving a little piece of me behind. I know he will do fine it is just the first step of letting him go and grow up. Laine was so sweet, in that moment. She noticed I was upset and I held her, she grabbed my face with such a sweet look of concern, pushed my hair out of my face and said "oh, mama".

Jer and I had some errands to run that ended up keeping us out all day. We celebrated Jeremiah being a police officer for three years and Bode's first day by having lunch at Sweet Tomatoes and made it back just in time to pick him up. He was waiting with the rest of his class and when he saw me he ran over grabbed my hand and waved goodbye to everyone. He was pretty quite on the way home but turned in to a jabber mouth when we got home. He told us about the school nurse, the library, the green, yellow and red cards, lunch, and recess. He said he played with Jalen, Braden, Brayton, new friend, and new friend. I thought a full day of school would wear him out a bit and he would just need to veg a bit when he came home. I was wrong he had a ton of extra energy to burn off and was running all over the house. 

I for one am glad that we will have a routine again. I thrive with structure in my day and the last few months have been rather chaotic. It will be nice to have a set schedule. Laine starts a little dance class on Monday and I start preschool the following Thursday.  I have a feeling the next few months will fly by and this new little baby will be here before we know it. 

Speaking of routine and schedule's I have one blip in my timing plans. I know it sounds a bit stupid and maybe unimportant but man I need to chop off all my hair. I have been growing it out for nearly 3 years. Meaning every time I would go in for a hair cut I would just trim it hoping to get it to grow. Well after all this time it has barely grown to my collar bone. I have always wanted big pretty curls but man it is taking so long. At this rate it will be another 4 years before it even gets close to the picture I have in my head. I used to have somewhat curly hair around the front of my face and all underneath. But with each pregnancy it gets less curly on top and more and more curly underneath and thicker. So to get it straight and manageable it takes about 45 min everyday to blow dry and straighten. That is time that I do not want to have to spend on myself everyday. I would so much rather do other things. So I am thinking it is time to say goodbye to the long hair dream and say hello to an awesome 10 min style routine. Something along the lines of this... yay? or nay?

Poor little Laine Jo...

So this picture does not give justice to the amount of swelling one little foot can have. We should have taken it from the other angle. It is really quite fat.

You see the purple bruise?

Well that bruise sent us to the doctor this morning.

I got a new preschool table this past week. Bode and Laine have been told over and over to not sit on it because is needed to be anchored to the wall. Well this morning Bode was sitting on the table, of course, and Laine was sitting under it. Bode tipped the table, which is very heavy by the way, and it landed on her foot. It immediately swelled up and turned purple. She wouldn't put any weight on it and just cried and cried. So it was off to the doctor. After and exam and an xray we walked out of there with a prescription for a sinus infection. ha ha! Her foot should be fine. Just a deep tissue bruise. We just need to watch her and if she still won't walk on it we should get it xrayed again to make sure there isn't anything they missed. After the xray I just asked the doctor to check her ears and throat because she had a fever the other night and has been really congested. Sure enough she has a sinus infection.

Bode is feeling pretty bad about the accident he caused. Not right away though. His exact words right after it happened were, "um, good thing that wasn't me". Since then he has been very helpful all afternoon. He has been getting her toys, bringing her books and trying to teach her how to walk. He even said he would carry her up and down the stairs. I said thanks but no, that would for sure cause a few broken bones.

Along with a very bruised foot and a sinus infection you see all the little red bites and small swelling?

I let the kids go play outside early one morning. While I was in the kitchen I heard Laine screaming bloody murder and saw her running towards the house. From about 20 feet away I could see that she had black stuff on her legs. I thought it was some gross stuff we had out from a fly trap and figured the water full of dead fly's  gross, splashed on her legs. But as she got closer to me I saw what it really was. Hundreds of little black ants crawling up her legs. I grabbed her and rushed to the kitchen sink to get them all off. There were so many of them! Her poor little legs have ant bites all over them. Again some bendrly and eczema cream did the trick and made her feel so much better.

Hopefully next week will be a better one for my sweet little girl.

Sometimes...

A paper cut just stops you in your tracks...

And a few nasty looking bug bites don't slow you down for a second.

Bode got the tiniest paper cut ever and it ruined his whole day. There really isn't much you can do for a little paper cut and I had to chuckle at myself at the compete melt down he had over it.

Next, the bug bites. A few days after we got home I put Bode to bed and he came downstairs to have me look at a bump on his leg. It looked like a big mosquito bite and I sent him off to bed. Fast forward a day and we were sitting on the couch and I saw this big old bite on his arm. On further inspection I found 2 more, both on his legs. They panicked me a bit because of their bulls eye pattern. I know that bad spider bites can make the same pattern. So after calling my parents, talking to Jeremiah and my other brother I ended up giving him benadryl and putting some of Laine's eczema cream on them. Then I watched him like a hawk to make sure they didn't get bigger or start to have another type of reaction. Luckily the swelling went down and he was fine. He has always had bad reactions to bug bites this was just the worst we have seen.

Random happenings...

My belly went from a barely there belly to a full on, poped out pregnant belly.

This is at 26 1/2 weeks.

It has grown a ton since this picture. I had an appointment this last week and I was measuring 2 weeks bigger than my due date. My belly just gets huge (along with my butt, legs, face...). Comically huge to tell you the truth and I feel like it is much bigger at this phase than either Laine or Bode were. Oh well, we are both healthy and who could ask for any more than that?

I also turned 27 years old while in Pinetop. Jer wasn't planning on being there for that day but ended up leaving at 1 am and getting to my parents house around 4 am. It was so good to see him after not seeing him for nearly 2 weeks. To celebrate we took a little vacation inside our vacation. We left the kids at my parents house went out to lunch, went shopping for new makeup for me, slept at a motel and saw Harry Potter. It was a great birthday! 

What would a trip to Pinetop be with out a few walks around the lake?

Laine felt like pretty big stuff when she got to walk Boo.

Poor girl had a break out of eczema while we were up there. Her legs were to red here.

Bode has so much fun playing with all of grandma's office paper, pens, scissors and tape. This day he chose to make a Cat in the Hat hat for himself and Sally hair for Laine. Then taped them to their faces.

We missed dad...

During our vacation in Pinetop Jeremiah had to be a responsible adult, he couldn't a take a whole month off to enjoy the beautiful weather, he had to work. He came up with all of us for the 4th of July and came back a few weeks later. One thing was for sure during the time he was gone, we missed him, a ton. I am so grateful for him and his love for his family. Lucky for us we have the modern conveniences of cell phones and skype so he was never to far away. But nothing can take the place of actually having some with you. Made me very grateful for my husband and gain a ton of respect for those who for one reason or another are forced to be away from their spouse for long periods of time. So when Jeremiah came back up to Pinetop we were all very happy to have him back. The kids could not get enough time with him.

The morning Jer came up, Laine crawled in bed with him and just stared at him and placed her hand on his face. She was so happy to have him back.This isn't a picture of that time, but she did take any extra time she could to crawl in bed with her daddy for some extra snuggle time. This in in my parents trailer. We moved outside to clear up space in the house for everyone. It was actually kind of nice.

Bode was so very happy to have his favorite play companion back. I guess Boo, my mom's dog, was happy to have him back as well. 

Swim lessons...

We spent an extra 2 weeks in Pinetop. During this time I signed up the kids to take swimming lessons so we would have something to do. They loved them! 

Laine and I were signed up for the mom and tot class. We did one day of it before I switched her into the preschool class. She was much to old to be in that class plus she wouldn't let go of me and was really scared. I knew that if I wasn't there she would do so much better. Although technically she was not old enough to be in the older class they switched her anyway.

Bode was a bit shy the first day but after buying a pair of goggles he got brave! There were a few other kids who had goggles and he was convinced that was why they could swim better than him. He got those goggles and became a little fish. Not a fish that could get very far, but a little fish just the same. He was to proud of himself.

After Laine got switch into the older class she had so much fun! She had a little crush on her teacher and would only sit by him and do the little activities with him.

 After we came home we went swimming at the Brook's house. Bode was showing off all his newly acquired skills. He didn't want to wear a floaty and was jumping in the pool left and right. He is by no means able to swim by himself, but he can manage to jump in, touch the bottom and make his way back to the side of the pool. 

They both had so much fun and it tired them out for the rest of the day. Laine couldn't even make it back home without falling asleep.

Pioneer days...

At the end of the month everyone made their way back up the mountain to come celebrate pioneer days with my parents stake. All the grand-kids dressed up for the little parade.

Then we took the opportunity to snap a few pictures seeing as it isn't very often we are able to be all together.

 I am not to sure Laine could have hacked it as a pioneer. She does look awful cute though.

One of the booths at the Pioneer Days Celebration was a dunk tank. All the bishops and Stake President took some time in the wet seat. A few of the grand-kids and 3, who shall remain unnamed, siblings took a few throws to try and dunk Grandpa. We were all unsuccessful.

Fishing...

To look on the bright side of things, while the fire was ripping through the mountains, Big Lake was closed. During that month or so there was no fishing, so when the Lake opened up the fishing was great. I cannot tell you how many times I have been fishing up to Big Lake and no one caught a single thing. Not this time!

Jeremiah and Tim loaded up the boat and took Bode, Mike and Quinn up to Big Lake to fish.

I didn't think they would be gone too long, a few hours tops. A boat with 3 kids couldn't be that fun.

Well I was wrong. Fishing was great and that out weighed any of the stress of taking 3 young boys fishing.

They were gone all day!

Big Lake...

One Saturday morning we all hopped in the car to see Big Lake. In my mind I had this picture of ash, burnt trees, and pure desolation. It was so nice to drive up there and see the damage the fire had done with my own eyes. Truthfully, there were some bad, bad areas but over all I was so happy to see that is isn't all gone. I was happy to see that even though the fire destroyed so much we can still see the beauty and use the land.

This was a spot that was hit pretty hard. It is right across the road from the camp area we liked to go to. I say liked because the camp spot is nearly all burned down.

One place that I think everyone was happy to see standing is the Big Lake store.

The kids were so hoping we would hop in one of those boats and row away.

Lucky for them they were with grandpa and instead of going on a boat, they got ice cream.

It is a tradition to stop at the store and get a bit of ice cream. 

It may have only been like 9 in the morning  but it was still good.

Cousins...

cousins and more cousins.

During our time in Pinetop we were able to play with all the cousins.

The kids were in heaven. They played and played, and fought a bit.

Over all they loved it.