New callings and other Gamble happenings...

I got a new calling this Sunday, Enrichment leader. EEk! This is probably no big deal to some of you, but I have never actually been the one in charge of anything church-wise( just on committees) so I am pretty nervous. We have a super sweet ward and I had a couple ladies tell me how much fun it/I/we would be. Honestly that was the adjective everyone used, Fun. I guess I am the fun one? I am ok with that, but hopefully I can do it justice and maybe throw in a little spirituality.

Alianna's potty training is going awesome. She rarely has accidents( really only at bedtime or naptime) and always tells me and starts cleaning it up herself. Exhibit A, she came in from naps and sadly informed me" I wet" I said it was ok adn did she pee in her pants. "NO momma I peed my panties, they like pants on your legs but they just panties on your bum see" ( as she pulls up her dress and points to the panties) " see mommy they princesses on my panties and they got wet, but they not pants they panties I need to change them now and make them dry in ondry(laundry) "

Kendall is becoming quite the little flirt. He smiles at everything ( see the family pics for further proof) and is a very happy baby as long as he has recently been feed and someone is holding him or talking to him. He likes to be in on all the action. We started feeding him rice cereal this week and he seems to like it except that it doesn't get in his mouth fast enough. He also thinks he can crawl, he puts his face down in the carpet and pushes hard with his legs. If he wasn't so chubby, I think he could probably get up. 

Family Pictures

 I finally stepped up and got family pictures taken. The last professional pictures we had taken were when Alianna was about 8 months, so I guess it was about time. The kids did awesome, the picture lady kept raving about them and saying how she wished they were all this easy. I say they are just a couple of hams living it up in front of the camera.  They were some dang cute shots though, I ended up buying the cd just because I figured the grandparents would want multiple copies of each shot.

Dear Yoga X,

Thanks for reminding me just how inflexible/out of shape I am. Also, it is awesome to see just how big this post baby belly is as I try to bend in half to please you. But, by the end of our hour and a half relationship, I must be sentimental because I only have fond memories and feel empowered because I have survived and am stronger and more flexible, although you do completely drain me.

I hate your stinking guts, but please don't ever leave. 

Progress!

Potty training is coming along. I won't gross you out with details, let's just say we've got the peeing down pat. 

My wellness challenge, on the other hand, is not going so well. It is not going bad at all, but I took my one free day yesterday because we were having a big family swim party/d-backs game thing in Phoenix and I knew it would all be a wash anyways, but today it is killing me to get back with it. How can one day mess with your head that much?

What we've been up to the last couple of months

I finally just got back on the old half-broken computer to upload the pics. Here a a few of the ones I could get.

We have had some fun little field trips. In April, our friend Sadie( or rather her mom) told us about a minnie masquerade party at the Disney store. They got to dress up like princesses, watch the new movie, make a crown do a parade thru the store and were even given a prize at the end. Alianna was at the end of the group and walked right up and stared him down until he gave her the prize

We were also invited by some friends from church to a dance class field trip in April. I can not even tell you how excited Alianna was for this. She got on her leotard and had to wear her church shoes because tehy were the most dance like.

She just ran around for the first 15 minutes looking at herself in all the mirrors.


This was pretty much the face we had the whole time, "I'm so excited I can't even stand it"

We went to the zoo with "Gramma and Pipa" when they came for Kendall's blessing Easter weekend. They had a bunny that she HAD to take a picture with.
 This is pretty much her face every time we are at teh zoo, utter astonishment.
 Feeding the giraffes with Pipa.

The Easter egg hunt at the Beams, She took it very seriously.



And since I just realized there are no pictures of this little boy which is just a crime! Look at this cute face!

Potty Training take two!

As I was changing Alianna's diaper after naptime today, she informed me that she " didn't want to wear a diaper, I go in the toilet like a big girl". Well you don't have to tell me twice! We have been reading a potty time book in with all our other night time reading book and apparently it sunk in.  We went straight to the store and bought some big girl Ariel panties. I told her that Ariel doesn't want to get wet or dirty, so if she wants to wear it we have to keep them clean. 

I was trying to decide if we should wait til Tuesday because we are going to the Diamondbacks game on Monday and I was a little nervous about doing the ballpark potty training thing, but as soon as we came home she ripped off the diaper and put on the panties and showed me how she was a big girl. Here's hoping!!

In other Gamble news, Kendall rolled over on Wednesday. I didn't see him do it for that day, I would turn around for a second and I swear he planned it and when I turned back around he would be on his belly. But now he is rolling all over the place and very proud of himself thank you very much.

I keep asking myself just one question, when did my kids get so big? 

Yoga Hurts!

I was talking to a friend the other day about how excited I was for a break in my P 90X yesterday when I had Yoga. HA! I had obviously never done yoga before and figured this was just relaxing chanting stretches. Not even close, that was the hardest workout. I usually at least try all moves in my workout videos, but there were parts which they said were the beginner variations that I just stared at the screen and tried to figure out what happened to their missing limbs. I swear you have to have no spine and be triple jointed to be any kind of yoga guru. Hats off to you, freaks of nature

In other news, I have a ton of pics to upload but I am having a hard time figuring out how to do that on our new computer

Wellness Challenge

I started a wellness challenge on Monday. For those of you who don't know what it is, there are 10 items you do each day for points( 30 min of exercise, no soda, 4 servings of veggies/fruit, reading scriptures, etc).

I am having a really hard time losing the baby weight this time, or if I am being honest, doing the necessary things to lose the weight( Ie not eating chocolate every day and doing any kind of exercise besides walking up my stairs for bed.) Maybe my competitiveness will kick in and motivate me with this competition, that and the money prize.

Since I am also a little sick in the head, I decided to start the P90X series on Monday too. Kill me now! I can't lift my arms or walk up the stairs straight and I don't even have any chocolate ice cream to console myself.

Week 1 with 2

Before you begin, this is quite a lengthy post. Sorry if you don't want to read long posts, but I am using this as my journal and don't want to miss any of the cuteness that is my children. And let's face , that's a lot of cuteness.....

We have had a good first week home with Kendall. He is quite the cuddler. He will sleep for hours on end if he is sleeping on someone, but would wake up every hour if he was left in his bassinet. I think he is finally getting over that since we swaddle him up, stick him in one of those pillows that have pillows on either side of his belly and one of those bears that sound like the womb. This is all craziness to me since Alianna was not a cuddler at all, she even hated being swaddled as a newborn.
Poor boy has to sit in a pink swing. We got this with Alianna and she hated it (again with the swaddling thing) but he seems to love it. Although his daddy isn't a big fan of the pink and thinks he needs to wear super manly clothes whenever he's in it.
Couldn't you just chew on those chubby cheeks? He is such a calm baby as long as you aren't changing his diaper and he is getting enough food. :) He is a crazy nurser. ArJay did not hold him for the first 2 hours of his life because he eat the whole time. My nurses said it was just because he was a big baby and he would slow down once the milk came in. It has slowed down and he even went for 3 hour long stretches last night without eating, but he is still keeping me busy. He had his first doctor's appointment at 5 days and was already almost back to birth weight( he was 8lb7oz at birth and 8lb 5oz at the appt). Our pediatrician kept exclaiming how big he was for me and asking if I had gestational diabetes.
We had my mom here until Tuesday and she was a ton of help with Alianna. I was worried about her getting enough attention still and even more when grandma left and she didn't have undivided attention anymore but she has been great. She LOVES "my baby Kendo". She is always trying to help and tells him "it's ok baby Kendo" whenever he starts crying. The other day he started crying and Alianna came running over and told me "feed him Momma" and grabbed my Hooter hider, boppy pillow, and burp rag. I still wasn't getting myself situated fast enough apparently because she started pulling down her own shirt and trying to nurse him saying " here you go Kendo".She has also tried to use my breast pump by putting on her belly button. We had to have a conversation about how only mommy can feed him that way.
My dad and brother also got to come last weekend and had a blast with the both of them. ArJay's sisters both think Kendall looks like my dad and brother so they had a lot of fun with that. It seems like whenever Alianna realizes someone is holding Kendall and he isn't eating, she needs to be the one to hold him and says" hold it baby Kendol, hold it". And don't even try to call him anything but Kendall. I have said "Hi buddy!" or "How's my little man?" and Alianna quickly corrects me and says "Not buddy, his name Kendol Momma!"
(side note: I know she is making weird faces and looks in pain, but she really is happy. This is the face she has been giving me when I say cheese lately)

She is very protective of him as well. Last night we went to visit ArJay's family and I told Alianna to get ready to go. ArJay's sister Lacey was holding Kendall at the time and Alianna flipped out. She kept saying "kendol home, Momma's Kendol, Kendol home" Apparently she was concerned we were leaving him there with Lacey. I explained that he was coming home Lacey was just holding him. I loaded him in the car seat and put the canopy down and she had to lift it up and make sure we had the right baby and insisted on "carrying" him out all the while glaring at Lacey and muttering "my baby Kendol".

As far as ArJay and I, I think we are adjusting well to 2, we seem to have our roles fleshed out better with 2 than when we adjusted to 1. Tuesday night was a LOONG night. Alianna got sick, we thought it was an ear infection actually and she was burning up. Kendall was still waking up every hour and a half to 2 hours at that point. It was humorous because literally as soon as one would fall asleep the other was up and crying. they did not wake each other with their crying but would wake within minutes of the other falling asleep. I was convinced they were conspiring against us. Normally, me might be prone to getting a little...snappy with each other(gasp). But we just laughed and talked about how they are already letting us know that the two of them totally outnumber the two of us. Maybe we were just sleep deprived and slap happy.....

Kendall's Birth Story

I went in to get induced at 8 pm Wednesday March 2nd.

8:45 pm- they gave me what they nicknamed a "slurrie" which was a clear liquid 2 oz shot of Cytotec that just tastes like water. I was supposed take it every 2 hours and it just was supposed to ripen the cervix. I was supposed to be able to sleep and have my doctor come in at 7am and break my water and start the pitocin.

10:45pm- Got the 2nd dose of the Slurrie. Was having major cramping contractions every 4-5 minutes so my nurse put in my IV( she was going to wait until in the morning) and gave me an Ambien the doctor prescribed so I could try to get some sleep.

Midnight-4am- slept-ish while I got 2 more doses of the Slurrie and still having contractions.

4:30 am- I needed to go pee but hadn't gotten up yet when I felt a stream of wet down my leg. I thought " ok I'm pretty sure I'm still in control of my functions enough that that wasn't pee". Sure enough, my water had broken and was a little yellow because there was meconium. Contractions became much more intense( my doc later said it was because the cushion of the water was gone so his head was just butting up against it)

5:15am- My nurse checks me and says I am at a "stretchy 3 1/2" she could call it 4.

6:30am- They start my pitocin so my contractions will be regulated. They started being about 2-3 minutes apart.

7:15am- My doctor came in and I asked what was a good time to do the epidural so it wasn't too early and would slow the labor down. She said I was definitely in active labor and could get it. There was a c-section at 7:30 first and the anesthesiologist had to be in for the hour surgery but I could get it right after that.

8:30am-My nurse has the cart and all the stuff in our room ready for the epidural when a different nurse comes in and says she needs the cart because she's next on the list. My nurse asks "what list?" It was a busy day in labor and delivery and apparently there was a list for the epidural and there were already 2 ladies ahead of me.

8:30-9:30am- I'm not sure, you'd have to ask ArJay but I'm pretty sure I left some serious nail marks on his arms since I was having minute long contractions with 30 second breaks in between. At this point I finally realized why some women might cuss in labor. :)

9:30am- The anestleogist came in for my epidural. He numbed me and tried to get it in for like 5 minutes. It wouldn't go so he had to numb the net spot up and then it went in. This was probably the hardest part because I had to sit still for all of that even thru the contractions.

9:55ish-My nurse checks me and I am at a 9 and zero station. ArJay goes out to call my mom and his dad to come to the hospital so his dad can take ALianna(who my mom has) and she can come in for the delivery. Kendall's heart rate drops and then they lose it so the nurse tells me she is going to call in a bunch of nurses and not to freak out. The nurses come in and give me oxygen and turn me side to side and putting in the internal heart rate monitor. At this point ArJay walks in going "what is going on?" since he was out in the hall and did not hear why there are 5 nurses rolling me around and checking me. They find the heart rate internally and all leave then inform ArJay what is going on. The nurse that was putting in the internal monitor says she thinks I am at 10.

10:05ish- My nurse checks again and I am indeed at 10 and a plus1 to 2 station. They call the doctor and my family and tell them to hurry.

10:16am- My doctor gets there and asks me to do a trial push. She goes "wow you are having this baby" and pages a bunch of people in. They get everything set up and say I'll have him in like 2 contractions. I didn't really believe her after how long it took to push Alianna. Even as I am pushing and she is saying "next one your baby is coming out" I didn't believe her until I saw him.

10:28am-(12 minutes after she announced we would do a trial push) Kendall Scott Gamble is born. He weighed 8 lb 6.8 oz( they rounded up to 7 oz on the birth certificate) and 21 inches long.

So if you count from when my water broke, it was 6 hours. Even if you count from the night before, it was 13 and a 1/2. I'd say that is a huge improvement from last time. Although I did a lot more difficult contractions without the epidural. I kinda wish I had known I was that far when I got the epidural, I might not have. But then Iagain I was pretty done and I probably would have still. :)

He is a great baby, my only complaint is that he is a voracious nurser. I literally will nurse him for 2-3 hours at a time. They say it is just because he is a bigger baby and needs more food. Also I still am just giving colostrum and once the milk comes in he will be more full.

Our dang camera broke during the delivery, so we didn't get many shots right after( and my mom did not make it in time for the delivery, she was minutes late) But she has bunch of pics since then that I will have to get. We can't really decide who he looks like, of course everyone has an opinion. Some say my brother Mitch or Alianna. The only thing I know is he has Auburn hair that looks a lot like mine.

Girl's day

Alianna is in Phoenix for the weekend for a grandparents weekend. With ArJay working this weekend, I have had a lot of free time to myself. You would think I would be skipping around
in circles and doing a million things for myself. Honestly, it has been a little weird. It kind of feels like back in college right after a play would finish. I would feel like there was a practice or something I was supposed to be at and couldn't relax until I realized it was just that I was used to having every minute of every day planned. Yesterday I was watching chick flicks and kept thinking "There must be something more productive and fun I could be doing. Who knows when I will get this much alone time again!" Crazy right?

So my friend Shanae rescued me from myself this morning and we went to get mani/pedis. I was super excited about this because I have only gotten a pedicure like twice, both times with my mother-in-law. When I asked her if she wanted to go get them and she said yes I felt like a dork and said "um so where do we go to do that? and do we make reservations or what?"
<script>document.write(unescape("%3Cstyle%20type%3D%22text/css%22%3E%0Abody%20%7B background-image %3A%20url%28%22http%3A//i342.photobucket.com/albums/o401/Thecutestblogontheblock/GiddyupGardencopy-2.jpg %22%29%3B%20background-position%3A%20center%3B%20background-repeat%3A%20no-repeat%3B%20 background-attachment %3A%20fixed%3B%20%7D%0A%3C/style%3E%0A%3Cdiv%20id%3D%22tag%22%20 style%3D%22position%3Aabsolute %3B%20left%3A0px%3B%20top%3A30px%3B%20z-index%3A50%3B%20 width%3A150px%3B%20height%3A45px%3B%22%3E%0A%3Ca%20href%3D%22 http%3A//www.thecutestblogontheblock.com%22%20target%3D%22_blank%22%3E%0A%3Cimg%20src %3D%22http%3A//www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/images/tag.png%22%20border%3D%220%22/ %3E%0A%3C/a%3E%3C/div%3E%20"));</script>It was a little piece of heaven. That massage chair combined with the spa foot massage almost put me to sleep. The cute little lady asked when I was due and when I said Tuesday, she misunderstood and said "2 month?" Goodness sakes I might kill someone if that was the case, I guess I shouldn't complain anymore.


I have NEVER had a manicure. I had the obligatory fake nails for prom and my wedding, but my regular nails are so cruddy and break and/or I bite them so they are too short. One of the perks of pregnancy is that my nails grow long and thick.

Funny side note: The names of the nail polishes cracked me up. The red was called "I'm not your waitress" and the pink on my fingers is " Aphrodite's pink nightie"

Other side note: I am truly not being racist her but has anyone else noticed that every nail place is run by cute little oriental people and the walls are always seafoam greenish and peach colored and have 80s style pictures of nails and fake flowers. Is it like a rule that these are the only people allowed to run these places and the walls MUST be these colors. Is there a union?

Baby updates and due dates

I had my 39 week appt yesterday and I am still at 1 and a half and 50 % effaced. I have been at this since 37 weeks even though I am having tons of contractions and pain and pressure. Apparently, those are just for kicks and giggles since they aren't doing a darn thing. Although when I said this, my sweet doc was like" well it is really soft it might be another quarter of a cm. " I just laughed at her and said that's like when a little kid is counting and says 9..9 1/4...9 and 1/2..9 and 5/8.. she was just trying to make me feel better.

I had her strip my membranes yesterday ,but that hasn't done a darn thing either. Just some cramping. So we discussed an induction. I am not super excited about being induced after being induced with Alianna and it taking 49 hours. But this situation is totally different for many reasons.
1. I was not dilated at all with Alianna where I am( a bit) this time. 2. At the 37 week ultrasound with this guy he weighed 6 lb 14 oz, which is basically what Alianna weighed when she was born. So my dr is worried he might start getting too big for me to deliver vaginally if we go to far past the due date. 3. And finally, when I mentioned that ArJay works on the reservation and is often and hour and a half to 2 hours away, my doctor became very concerned that we don't want him to miss anything. If you have talked to me at all during this pregnancy, you know this has been my reoccurring nightmare, that everyone is at work and can't take me to the hospital or completely misses the birth( ArJay is often hour and half to 2 hours, my mom is 5 hours away, my mother in law works in phoenix 2 hours away during the week).

So we are still hoping that I will just go into labor naturally, but if not we have set up an induction for next week. They originally wanted me to come in Monday night to take Cita..something orally so that labor will naturally start thru the night and have him sometime on Tuesday March 1st( my due date). But they called back and said it is still considered "elective" induction then since I would come in before my due date and the hospital is full. So they scheduled it for going in Wednesday the 2nd, so I would have him sometime on the 3rd. Apparently lots of people are having babies and being induced right now, because they had to bump somebody who was elective induction for me to get that one because I am past due and considered medically necessary. The 3rd is my mother-in-law's birthday so she is pretty excited about sharing her birthday.

I have prepared myself that I will probably be induced since all the contractions I'm having aren't doing anything. I do like that I won't have to have a heart attack that no one will miss it since it is scheduled and they won't be at work.Obviously, I could still go into labor naturally in the next week, but as my father-in-law says, apparently I have a comfortable uterus and my kids don't want to come out on their own!

Sewing projects

So I think it is not so good that ArJay works nights because it gives me lots of free time to get silly ideas. Most of these ideas become converted into craft projects that are not really silly, but I become obsessed with finishing it that night before going to sleep because it is vitally necessary( at least in my pregnant brain it is).

One such example would be this skirt. Do you think that waistline is going to fit my pregnant belly? NO way, not even with the elastic waistband. The truly silly part: I knew that I wouldn't be wearing this for MONTHS, it is going to be my Easter skirt. Did that stop me from staying up late to finish...not even a little bit


And of course, that same night, I had to make Alianna's Easter dress. Because, you know, once Kendall comes I will never, ever have time to sew again so if I wanted an Easter dress it had to be made that night because I could go into labor that next day and then it would never be finished. At least that's what I was telling myself at 1am...
I have made some things that were sort of justified and necessary. I was given an adorable hooter hider with Alianna. Unfortunately, it was Red and flowers and ultra girly. I decided( and ArJay told me) that that would not fly with a boy so I made a new more boyish one. Blue means boyish right?(sorry blogger turned it sideways and I'm too lazy/pregnant to try to figure out how to fix it)

There was extra material, so I HAD to make some burp rags. The back is a cut up towel from the Black Friday sale at Walmart. I think this makes the best burp rags because the towel is super absorbent and the material is cuter than just plain cloth diapers.

I also made a car seat cover/tent/ canopy thing. I don't actually have my car seat, my Mom bought me a new one( I swear I'm not that selfish, our old one was in a car accident and not usable) so I just looked on blogs and saw one that had the same kind of car seat I have and used her dimensions. Fingers crossed it'll fit and my impatience didn't screw it up.

We also NEEDED some tie onesies for this little boy. The vest one is because my sister in law gave us the cutest little cowboy boots so we had to have a western outfit to go with it.( again just turn your head to see them correctly sorry!)


And finally, the last dose of crazy came last night. I had my 39 week appt today and so last night I freaked out that I would somehow get put into labor today and need everything finished. I had seen this awesome 2-in-1 stroller/messenger bag on one of my favorite blogs Make It and Love It. I decided it was a necessity and must be made then because, duh!, I was having a baby the next day and would never sew again. Right? NO..dang
The coolest thing about the bag is the short straps snap on the stroller handle, then you pull out the long strap and attach to other side's short strap and makes a cool messenger diaper bag.


I also made two, yes two, wipes cases. I swear it's necessary. This one sort of makes sense, I swear. I put elastic on the back of my wipes cases so I can have the diaper right there and handy too. But since I will have 2 in diapers and i don't want to go rooting around for the other size diaper, I made a pink one for Alianna and a blue one( the same material as the Hooter Hider) for Kendall. So when someone needs a diaper change, I just grab the appropriate case and it will have the appropriate size diaper with it. Genuis no? I forgot to take a picture but I'm sure you've seen them around.

So that is what I do with my spare time. Maybe it will stop after this baby is born and I'm not left to crazy hormonal thoughts. Or, at least, I won't be obsessed and lose valuable sleep because I think I have to finish them for no good reason.

Alianna-isms

I was talking to a friend the other day and I said 2 year olds are by far the funniest and most trying age ( so far). Sometimes the things Alianna does and says have me laughing so hard I nearly wet myself( maybe this is just due to being 9 months preggo) and sometimes she scares the beejeezes out of me because I think "if she is doing this at 2, what is she going to do a 12?" Most of the time it's a little of both.

The other day we set up our awesome double stroller(thanks Mom and Dad Gamble!) in the living room. It is the same type of stroller as our friends that we walk with. Alianna told me it was "dalwin(Dallin) seat and baby Ryan seat". I told her it was different colors and it was ours. I showed her "This is Alianna's seat and this will be baby Kendall's seat". She looked back and forth between me and the seat for a minute, said OK. She then walked up to my belly button and "grabbed" some unseen object and placed it in Kendall's seat and said "Here ya go Kendo, here you seat". She thought she had taken him right out of my belly into his seat. If only it were that easy Alianna...

A couple days later we set up Kendall's bassinet in our room. Alianna walked into my room and saw it and asked" Kendo's bed?" I told her yes so she again came up to my belly and took Kendall "out of my belly" and in his bed saying "here go Kendo, here you bed nigh night love you here you babeh(blanket)".

Although she is adorable, she is so sneaky and smart it scares me sometimes. She didn't want to take a nap the other day when ArJay was home. She was crying and, of course, ArJay was a pushover and went to check on her. He opened the door and asked what was wrong and told her to get back in bed. She was standing there with a pitiful face and said"Owi-Anna(Alianna) sick" and gave the most pathetic fake cough you've ever heard. As I came around the corner, she staggered dramatically into ArJay, thus furthering her "sick" act and hiding from mom in one fell swoop.

Her vocabulary has exploded lately. She knows all the numbers thru 20, all the main colors(including grey and brown), basic shapes(circle square, triangle, star), and ( as we learned by accidnet when she was playing with the magnet letters) many letters. She also makes sure I know how she feels about things. If I do not understand her, she acts so inconvenienced. After and few times of me saying " I don't know what you are saying", she will sigh dramatically take me hand and say " c'mon Mama I show you".

Maybe she's is getting all the attitude out now and will be a perfectly polite teenager right? Perfectly polite teenager...I crack myself up sometimes...

Chase Field tour

ArJay's dad got invited to come on a tour of Chase field( the Diamondbacks major league baseball home field in Phoenix) and he invited us to come with him. ArJAy was only a little excited about athis since he is kinda into sports. NOT!! This is was a dream come too for my little sports fanatic. The whole tour was obviously a pitch to buy season tickets and I'm sure the tour guy saw big huge flashing targets over ArJay and his dad as they answered every trivia question he had and nearly did happy little skipping dances as we went on the same elevator as the players and walked onto the field thru the dugout the same way the players do.



Here we are standing on the field. This picture cracks me up. Candice( my sister in law) has her 2 week old baby in that wrap thing and has the cheesy "yeah I'm soo excited to be here and something I care nothing about". Alianna is looking up at who knows what up in the stands, I think it was a crane messing with the signs. I look a little like a beached whale in all my 9 month/ 37 week glory. ArJay and his dad look like they might cry, but it is out of pure joy I promise.


There is a theme with these pictures. Alianna is never looking at the camera. There were two main reasons: 1. There was way too much visual stimulation and she would not sit still. (seriously I think her goal was to sit in every seat or at least run by each one!) 2. She informed me as soon as we walked in that she was "hungy"(hungry) and got it into her mind that she couldn't stop moving until she ate. Nevertheless, here she is in the dugout.
Of course as soon as I shot her in the dugout, ArJay had to climb up there like a little kid and get his picture taken in the dugout too. Maybe it was good she wasn't looking at the camera, otherwise ArJay might have blown this up into wallpaper.

Side Note: Right after this Alianna and Candice's baby girl Lyza started having hunger meltdowns so Candice and I took the girls out to the parking lot for nursing and snack time. I think the tour guy pounced on the no women around thing and guess who came out with "half season" tickets 15 minutes later? Gotta love those boys....

What a 9month pregnant woman does in her spare time...

This is what happens when a 9 month pregnant woman gets a sewing itch. Add a husband who has been working a lot and a daughter obsessed with all things princess and girly and you get the ultra fluffy pettiskirt.

Now the problem is just getting it off of her. I tried it on her once before it was finished to check length and it was like pulling teeth to get it off. She seriously sat at the end of the sewing table and watched me sew the last seams.


Doesn't that huge fluffy bum just crack you up? ArJay came home and said I must have way too much time on my hands.

The countdown begins...

So I had a 37 week ultrasound on Monday to check our little guy out and make sure he is not getting too big or anything. It is hilarious to me how different this pregnancy has been in nearly every way. I have gained more weight at 37 weeks then I did in the whole pregnancy with Alianna, the aches and pains that were completely absent with Alianna are ever present, I have HARD contractions from 32 weeks this time where I never had anything but mild Braxton Hicks with Alianna, and now I learned I am dilated to a 1 and 50% effaced at 37 weeks. With Alianna, it literally took 30 hours to get to that point. My doctor probably thought ArJay and I were crazy because she said that and we were like "geez do we need to go check into the hospital now?" Apparently, this is not that big a deal, it is just "getting things going".

Remember when Alianna was 6lb15oz when she was born and little Kendall is already approx 6lb14oz and we still have 3 weeks left! Yikes! When she told me that my eyes bugged out a bit, then she casually mentioned that they gain about a half a pound a week. My frantic brain did the calculations and realized that, baring that ultrasound being off, we are looking at about an 8 and a half pound boy come term. My sweet doc must have seen the look of terror on my face because she said we can have an elective induction after 39 weeks. That is the week of ArJay's birthday and I saw the look of glee in his face. Now, you'd think I'd jump on that bandwagon fast like, but after being induced with Alianna and doing 49 HOURS of labor, I'm not so excited about the whole induction thing.

BUT, it would be really nice to be able to schedule since I frequently have nightmares about going into labor while ArJay is at work and 2 hours away. Plus my last doctor got me thinking my birth canal can't really birth big babies and I might have to c section if he gets too big( but this doctor doesn't seems too concerned about that). Plus, I am already dilated and i was not at ALL last time which is what made it take so long. SO maybe it would go fast?

But what if it doesn't and I am there for 2 days again? Or what if the ultrasound is off and he ends up being tiny(won' t I feel dumb!)?

Just thought I'd share my crazy pregnancy ramblings that my poor husband has had to listen to for days. If anyone has an answer, feel free to share!

Alianna's Christmas present

ArJay works swing shift right now and gets home at 4 Sunday morning then gets up for 9 am church and is the ward clerk. Needless to say, the poor guy isn't really coherent and usually has to go to clerk-y things. I have been thinking that I need fun, new, QUIET things for Alianna to do in sacrament, especially since this baby is coming soon and I really only have 2 hands! Flannel board stories, Eureka! I found this cool etsy shop called copycrafts where you but the pattern, print it on iron on transfer paper and iron it to felt. Score, no coloring or laminating! So I went a little crazy adn bought 5 patterns and made them for Christmas as well as a travel flannel board that folds up.
She loves all the animals in Noah's ark. As I was getting it out to take a picture she told me the mommy and daddy were going to ride the rainbow. She is also learning all the animals names and saying "bye gaffe"(giraffe) as she puts them away. Score, learning names and FINALLY getting the concept that you put away one toy before getting out another.
Alianna has gotten a little OCD with the farm and where the animals go. If you put an animal in an improper habitat( gasp!) She will inform you " NO silly mommy. Pig mud not wawa(water)" DOn't you know ArJay has a lot of fun messing with her.
So Alianna HATES facial hair on men. Even her grandpa gets the shaft when he's sporting even 'stace. Needless to say, she is not having any of Santa with his big fluffy white beard.At the ward party she got 20 feet away from him and flipped out" ALL DONE ALL DONE That man!" Since she has played with this set, she has decided santa and his "Say" are "Cute". Maybe next year we'll actually talk to him.

She LOVES this set. At first she didn't think Mary was the mommy because she doesn't look like me. Curiously she agreed that Joseph was the daddy( I'm not sure that ArJay really looks like him but maybe I'm missing something...) "Beby Jesus" is by far her favorite. She actually tried to take him to sleep with her the other night.

Funny story. Alianna loves to count. When she gets bored or is sitting in her carseat, I will just randomly hear this cute little voice "Onee, Twooo, Free, FOur, Fid, sick.." all the way up to fifteen or sixteen. She also loves to ask, "Color's it?" and gets very proud as she tells us the color. Needless to say, these numbers with their colored dots get a lot of mileage at our house.

Also the random turquoise pouch in the picture is the free storage bag pattern that comes with their patterns. They are super cute and easy. As I am trying to get organized inthe new year, I am thinking of all kinds of things to store in these.

So I am pretty proud of them and she loves them. It might not look like it, but it was actually quite a bit of work since I had to cut out every figure, but totally worth it and I'm kind of addicted now. FYI, if you have a child that will be getting a present for us anytime soon, it's a good bet it might be one of these!