Pregnancy

Is it possible to not feel pregnant but have all the pregnancy symptoms?

I'm nauseated, hungry, don't want to smell food, sore, tired, achy, peeing far more than should ever be allowed and a lot of other things that don't need posted.

However, I don't feel pregnant.

How is this possible?

I'm beginning to think that because I can still see my toes, bend over and move in any direction that I want to, I don't feel pregnant.

Any woman who has ever been pregnant knows what it is that I'm talking about. The last trimester is always a beast so even though I feel like I'm half dead I don't feel truly pregnant yet, isn't it great!

Christmas Day

Alexis and Drew opening their Santa gifts.

Madison decided on Christmas Eve that sleep was a luxury and not a necessity again. She woke up at 4:45 am and I didn't get her back to sleep until nearly 7!! (Drew woke up at about 2 because he was excited for Santa to come. I had to tell him he had to sleep until the sun woke up. I thought I had a couple more years before they started doing this!)

The kids came down the stairs at 8 and this is Madison waking up to the commotion of them opening their gifts.

Madison holding her Santa present up, she was so excited.

Santa brought Alexis and Madison the same exact gift, a my sized baby doll/barbie that was dressed as a fairy. They both love their dolls and they take them all over the place. Alexis was very excited that Santa brought her a doll that was "her age". Her doll is 10 years old according to her, which makes me chuckle.

Drew asked Santa for a barbie for Christmas, every single time he saw Santa and when we asked him what he wanted, without fail.

Christmas Eve Mrs. Claus was very worried that he wouldn't like his Dinosaur mountain, she was very tempted to go and buy him his very own barbie so that there wouldn't be any tears Christmas morning.

Mr. Claus was very definite that that would not be happening under any circumstances, unless Mrs. Claus completely over-ruled him.

As you can see, Mr. Claus gave him the Dinosaur mountain and . . . . Drew loves it.

When he opened it he said: "Mom, you were right, Santa was getting me a dinosaur."

I was worried that he wouldn't like it, but all the kids love it.

It growls when you push the button on his head and there are cool little trails that things fall down and get trapped in, just right for a little boy!!

Alexis gave Drew a Triceratops, he was sooooo excited.

Alexis bought Madison this little kitten. I think it is probably Madison's favorite gift. She loves having babies to carry around and put to bed and fake feed.

Madison bought Drew a Transformer. He had no clue what it was, so here I am showing him how it works!!

Alexis was so excited to open her very own fairy skirt, she ran and gave John and I hugs.

I made these skirts for cousins and friends for Christmas and Alexis wanted one so badly but I told her that they weren't for her.

She was so surprised!

Alexis and Drew in their fairy skirts.

Yes, I made Drew his own skirt. He loves to play with the girls so why leave him out?

He loved his "boy skirt" as he called it. I made it with boy colors so he could be a boy fairy.

John and a few others thought it was silly that I would do this, but I did it anyway.

Madison in her fairy skirt, she loved the bells on it.

Ignore the toilet paper under her nose.

I didn't want to take them to church last Sunday for fear of catching something but we went anyway and Drew and Madison both ended up with nasty colds.

(Is it really that hard to keep your kid at home when they are hacking and have a nasty nose? It annoys me to no end that people go to church sick.)

Drew was so excited to get this ducky game.

When he opened it he said something like, look mom I got duckies, just like Grandma's huh?

Christmas Eve

Doesn't this look unappetizing?

I was upstairs folding laundry and the kids decided that they were hungry.

Alexis is such a good helper and as she says, a good ingredient mixer, that she got them each their own piece of bread with butter on it.

The butter was so thick I'm surprised they didn't all have heart attacks that day.

We decided to act out Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem, John was the donkey. Alexis decided that she did not want to be Mary, so she was Joseph and Drew was Mary.

Drew has his teddy bear in his shirt because he was pregnant.

Here they are around the manger, which was the piano bench turned upside down.

They didn't like that there was only a blanket for him so they went and found a pillow to put underneath him so he would be comfortable.

Alexis was a shepherd looking for baby Jesus.

Madison was the bright shining start leading the way to baby Jesus.

And here she is being one of the wisemen that went looking for baby Jesus.

We stayed in Logan this year for Christmas and it was so nice to be able to sit back and relax.

We did what I've wanted to be our family tradition of reading The Night Before Christmas finally. We've never accomplished this goal because we've always had family things going on that would go too late to do it. It was nice to not have the running and shuffling this year, we enjoyed just being together.

Drew's exciting night

Can you see his smile?

We put the kids to bed at 7, after giving Drew all the medication we could.

About 9 Drew woke up crying that his arm hurt. We weren't surprised, the doctor actually gave us a prescription for liquid Lortab just in case he couldn't sleep. We hadn't picked it up and we really didn't want to give it to him unless necessary. So, I gave him more medication and then John came up to give him a Fathers Blessing.

He told Drew what a Fathers Blessing was and he told him that it would help his arm to feel better. The grin Drew got was priceless. His little eyes were sparkling and he was just about as giddy as could be. After John gave him the blessing, we brought the small DVD player upstairs and turned on his favorite Scooby Doo. About an hour and a half later we put in The Jungle Book. John erroneously thought that he would fall asleep while watching his show. At midnight I took the DVD player away, redrugged him and he went to sleep.

At 4:30 John and I heard little footsteps coming into our room.

Drew came in a ever so quietly and said: "I need more medicine mom."

I put him back to bed after redrugging him and he didn't wake up until 8 when we had to get ready for Madison's 18 month doctor appointment.

The doctor appointment was at 9 am. What was I thinking?

I was not thinking that we would have a little guy with a bum arm, that's what.

Madison is doing great! Not only is she only having 1 - 2 accidents a day, but she has 3 nights of not peeing her diaper under her belt.

She is almost 25 pounds (59th percentile) and 33 inches long (86th percentile).

Her head is in the 81st percentile! Don't worry, it matches her body.

She got FOUR shots today. She was so unhappy, but she got over it.

She was such a happy little girl today, you would never have guessed she got her shots today.

Drew only asked once for medication today, which was a shock.

Madison didn't seem to need any medication today once shots were over, so she only got a half dose for bed time just to help her sleep.

Overall, today was much better than I anticipated it would be!! Hooray for small miracles.

I'm telling mom . . .

I was upstairs flip-flopping (John says that this is not common slang for changing the washer/dryer over) laundry upstairs and Drew and Alexis were downstairs playing. I heard Drew start crying and I decided that I was just going to ignore it until I was ready to go downstairs. Soon I heard him saying: "I'm going to tell Mom that you hurt me!" followed by his little footsteps trudging up the stairs. I met him at the top of the stairs and I could tell that something wasn't right. I had him try to move his arms and then I took his shirt off and examined his right arm. It was apparent that he had broken his clavicle aka collarbone.

I called John to leave work early because I couldn't take all three kids by myself and I also couldn't go into x-ray with Drew because of our impending bundle. I loaded them all up and then took Drew to insta-care because the regular doctor office didn't have any openings for at least three hours and then they weren't going to have an x-ray machine available. His fracture was not a complete fracture, she called it a green fracture. When you bend a green stick the top breaks but the bottom stays put, which is what his did, look at the x-ray closely.

They told Drew that he was a great patient while he was there and as we were leaving he said: "I got a ball and a sticker because I was good and patient!"

According to Alexis, she didn't want Drew on the blanket so she pulled it really quickly to get him off. Her punishment for being mean and hurting someone? She has to help him with whatever he wants or needs while his arm hurts because she caused it. She's been a great helper to him so far!!

Drew in his sling. He's doing just fine with having it on, to the point that he's head banging to Scooby Doo music (see below).

* A quick side note - Madison has not had one accident today!! We're getting so close!!

Demo on gingerbread ville

This is what it looked like outside at 10:30 AM. It looked just the same when we got back at 10:30 that night. I'm looking forward to one day living where it is warm and you don't see stuff like this, except in pictures!!

John's work party was supposed to have ice-skating on the roof of a building, but we found out at the last minute that the water pipe had broken and there would be no ice skating. Alexis was excited because she didn't want to ice skate anyway. Overall the kids had a lot of fun and we enjoyed the good food!!

Drew's finished product. The right wall was later demolished so he could put candy inside.

John was so excited to be decorating his very own gingerbread house.

Alexis' finished house. There is a hole in the middle that she kept putting candy in with some licorice ropes so that the gingerbread man could climb out of the house just in case the door was locked. We obviously didn't explain what a gingerbread house was well enough!!

This is John's finished product. He was very excited that he was able to finish without the kids knocking it down or trying to "help" him.

This is the finished product of all three kids' gingerbread houses.
Drew did some demo so he could get to the inside of his house and Alexis followed suit to get to the candy inside of hers. They didn't get the idea but they had fun.

I'd rather be sick

We got some really big carrots and Drew loved them.
Madison loved them as well, but she wouldn't hold still for a picture. Everytime I'd get close to getting a good picture she's try to put the carrot in her belly button, silly girl.

We made sugar cookies. The only part that they really liked eating was the colored frosting, anyone surprised?

During the big storm we decided to go sledding. It was fun, except for the part where we were all freezing. John decided to go down this hill, it didn't work so well. Then he decided to try and go down head first, he must be a man, I was worried that he was going to end up eating the front half of his face. He didn't, but he didn't do it again either.
Drew didn't like the sled so he mostly walked around and threw snow in the air.
The girls really liked the sled and loved sledding down a small hill that we found. Madison thought it was great, she would throw her arms out and squeal with delight.

Drew was mad that I wouldn't let him have more sugar so he pulled this chair over himself and curled into a ball. Every time we tried to move the chair he'd follow and stay underneath all the while screaming that he didn't want us to do that. Madison decided to come and see what the commotion was all about, she thought it was silly!

I finished finals, hooray. I passed all my classes, what more could I have asked for this semester?

Christmas is a big topic with the kids, what kid isn't talking about it? Alexis asked me what I got her the other day and I told her she'd have to wait to find out. She starting her guessing with a barbie, which seems fairly reasonable, but she got the standard response of "No, I wouldn't buy you that, I got you an elephant!" She always rolls her eyes when I say that, it's cute. So, she moves on to her next guess and it went like this: "I know what you got me mom . . . . my very own computer, so I don't have to use yours and dad's computers!!" Insert big cheesy grin here.
Honestly, does she think we're made of money? What four year old asks for her very own computer and truly thinks she'll get it?

Drew the other day out of the blue told me that he was going to be a fire fighter when he grows up. Uncle Ryan is a fire fighter so it didn't seem odd to me that he would mention it. Then he follows up with "So when you're old and die I can come and save you!"
Isn't he the sweetest boy in the world? I'm only 27 but we're planning for my death already!

Drew and Alexis were fighting at the dinner table about who got to hold the DVD's, while John and I were setting the table and getting everything ready. We took the DVD's away and told them that neither one of them could have them. The fighting stopped, aren't we smart parents?
The next thing we know Alexis is screaming that Drew's milk is all over her. I looked over and Drew was standing in his chair with his cup still aimed at Alexis and all of it's contents on Alexis, the table and the chair. I couldn't help laughing, it was such a picture perfect moment.
When I asked Drew why he threw his milk at Alexis he said he did it because he was mad at her and she wouldn't listen to him. I guess it's better than hitting!!

Last weekend was very busy for us.
Saturday night we had the ward Christmas party. This party was a little odd though, they had the dinner catered and they paid a ventriloquist to come and entertain us. I've never been to a ward Christmas party where there isn't ward member involvement. It was nice to not have to do anything, it just didn't feel the same. Then Santa came and the kids loved that. Drew asked for a Barbie again, I'm beginning to wonder if he's going to like his Santa gift this year. Alexis asked for a doll. When I asked her why she didn't ask for a fairy barbie again she said " I asked for that when I talked to the mall Santa. This Santa was a church Santa so I had to ask for something else." I sure hope she isn't expecting a gift from each Santa.

Then came Sunday. I dreaded Sunday.
We had to talk in church. UGH.
I really don't mind getting up and talking in front of people, ie Microbiology seminar - no problem 45 minutes and I did just fine. I could talk about forensics or serial killeres or a myriad of other topics and be just fine but put me in sacrament and tell me to talk and my voice gets all shaky and I feel like I'd rather be home with the flu.
They said that there would be two musical numbers and another speaker that Sunday so we'd have less speaking time than normal and we could have the kids talk if we wanted to. Then we had the big snow storm, so I was really hoping that there just wouldn't be that many people.
There weren't that many people, but I still wanted to be home.
I put Drew up to talk and instead of saying what I told him to say, he says "I don't want to do it."
Next was Alexis, she said her peice and she did just fine.
Then it was my turn, I finished, I didn't puke on them and I survived. It could have been worse I'm sure.
John did great, as usual and filled the rest of the time up perfectly.

Confessions

Here's how my day went from about 11:45 until 12:05.

I was folding laundry all morning and the kids were playing downstairs.
Madison came upstairs with a nasty bum and my lipstick smeared all over her face. I realized that John would be home for lunch soon so I'd better head down and get things rolling. (11:45)

When I got downstairs with MJ in my arms the first thing I noticed was the pumpkin pie that was ground into the carpet. (The kids didn't even want to taste it prior to this morning.)
I hurried and changed MJ's butt and when I tried to put a diaper on she let me know she needed to pee, so I put her on the toilet while I ran the nasty outside. When I came back she still wasn't done sitting on the toilet so I began cleaning the pumpkin pie out of my carpet. This is when I realized that they had also gotten into the caramels and left them on furniture and carpet alike. Madison decided that she was done using the bathroom and when I tried to put a diaper on her she threw such a fit I decided that it wasn't worth it to fight her. I let her run naked. Really, I should've seen what was coming next.

So, I'm cooking macaroni and cheese while hurrying to get a load of dishes into the dishwasher so I can use the sink to drain the noodles and MJ decides to pop a squat on my floor and pee in front of the dishwasher. I put her back on the toilet and started cleaning the pee. Drew came into the kitchen looking for snack foods and was very upset when I sent him packing without any. MJ finally finished doing nothing on the toilet and I had to fight her for a solid two minutes to get a diaper on her. (The clothes didn't come until about 1:15.) I hurried and put the lunch on the table (soggy noodles because I let them cook too long) for the kids so they would quit whining and then all was well. (12:05) (Until I noticed that they had made powerade mix with minimal water and smeared it all over my couch. It was an easy clean, just time consuming.)
John came home about 12:05 and made lunch for me, what a sweet-heart.

So what is the confession you ask?

I like to self medicate.

Some women use alcohol and they look forward to bedtime with anticipation so they can have their wine or what have you and just relax.

I too look forward to bedtime so I can self medicate, but I use Lindt chocolate truffles. They are soooo good and I really look forward to bedtime so I can get one or two and not have a child asking to have a bite.

The really bad part is, after a half hour run like I just had, I sneak a chocolate and go hide while I eat it so they won't ask for any.

What am I going to do with four kids?

News, news, news

Thanksgiving was great.

We decided to stay here in Logan, since John had to work on Friday, and make our own Thanksgiving feast. My mom came up to share in the festivities with us. I think she was excited to leave after being stuck in the apartment with Madison's high-pitched screeching all the time.

Then on Friday we went back down to Spanish Fork to unload the house and haul it all up to a storage unit here in Logan. Needless to say, it's done and we don't ever want to do it again. The highlight for John was that he got to drive the big truck, he really enjoyed it!

John was lucky and John Mills invited him to go the BYU vs Utah football game. It was a great game and John was excited that he was able to go in the midst of all the chaos of moving. John also requested that I put on here that he agrees with Max Hall's post-game comment.

We also found out for positive on Saturday, that we are indeed pregnant. The pregnancy test showed up positive about five days before that, but it wasn't in the recommended time so John wouldn't accept it until it showed positive within three minutes instead of five. (John says that the line that showed up was "extremely faint" and he says the line showed up an hour later not minutes later.) If you read the box, it says that the intensity of the line doesn't matter, if it's there, it's positive.

It wasn't planned, but we are excited to hopefully get Drew a brother. The kids want us to have four at one time. I think they each want their own and then they figure we can share the one that they haven't taken.

Finals are next week for me and I can't wait until I can sit down and watch t.v. without feeling guilty for not studying instead. (I usually do both though, I like to multi-task.)

Madison has been potty-training as well, she tells us, we weren't ready to start that just yet. She's only been having 1 - 2 accidents a day!! However, she loves to sit on the toilet. She will sit there for half an hour after she's done and if she gets toilet paper to play with it will be even longer. When she is done being on the toilet she pitches a fit when we try to put a diaper on her. Once we get it on her, we rarely get her pants on. I think she likes to be naked. It's freezing cold up here, so you'd think she'd want to wear some clothes, but whatever floats her little boat.

Alexis and Drew have taken up doing "projects", this usually involves glue and scissors and mom cleaning up lots of messes afterwards. They love it and I don't have to listen to any fighting so can I complain? They also love to do plays as well. Alexis told me the other day that she loves movies because they are just plays on the t.v. I thought it was very astute of her to realize what it was that was going on in movies.

Church stuff

Can you see Alexis?
John says that you shouldn't take pictures in church, oops.
He made sure that the flash on my phone camera was off but it still made the shutter noise! Ha Ha.
She's right between the ponytail guy and the white shirt guys' heads.
This was her first primary program performance and she did great.
She had one line, that she got two days before the program and she had it memorized!
She got up when it was her turn and said: "I lived with Heavenly Father before I came to Earth." She did so well and we were so proud that she had it memorized, said it clearly and didn't chicken out.
We told her it was a play and that that was her part and she LOVED the idea of being in a play. I know, we're in big trouble.

Madison went to nursery all by herself for the first time today!
Yes, she's too young but I decided to give a try anyway.
They called John and I to teach in primary, again, and I wanted to get this taken care of before we had to try and get her to stay while teaching a class.

Drew will be moving into Sunbeams next year and it amazes me how quickly the time has flown by and yet I wonder how in the world it's only been three years!! He's crammed a lot into his little life, here's hoping he's built a lot of immunities and won't have to keep dealing with all of it.

This and that

I just found my camera that has been missing for a month . . . hooray!
Michelle and her kids came up and visited with us for a day during the summer, it was so much fun. The kids enjoyed going to the pseudo-zoo and then we came back and they played and played and were so good. It was fun to be able to sit and talk and have the kids entertaining themselves. I think George was a prince or dragon, but he was protecting princess Alexis, does it surprise you? We loved playing and can't wait until it gets warm and we can go back outside. Yes, already.

My mom kept Alexis for a week a couple of weeks ago, and we discovered that my mom really doesn't listen to me. I told her that if she had a t.v. on Alexis would not go to sleep until it was off. Well, at 2 a.m. mom had to turn off the t.v. because Alexis was still watching it! Needless to say, Alexis didn't get much sleep that week!
While Alexis was with grandma she called and while we were talking grandma told Alexis that she was pooped. That was a new phrase for Alexis and she couldn't stop giggling for almost five minutes, she thought grandma had actually pooped her pants. Whenever we wanted her to start laughing again, we would ask if grandma had pooped her pants and it would start all over again.

Madison will not stop screaming in her high pitched squeal, so I got a water bottle. Any guesses what I do with said water bottle? I spray her in the face whenever she screams. She'll start her screaming but as soon as she sees that water bottle she'll get this look on her face that I swear reads: You wouldn't dare! But, she usually stops the screaming! Hallelujah!

John's aunt Ann offered to watch the kids for us while we went to a Veteran's Day concert, which she got us tickets to, and we couldn't refuse the offer. Thanks again!
I got all dressed up for the occasion and when I came out of the bathroom Drew took a look at me and said: "I love your costume mom!" Oh how I love little boys!
I had to leave and go take a test before the concert so John and his parents put the kids to bed so Ann could relax and read and not have to worry about getting them into bed. Alexis wanted a really big drink before bed and she guzzled it down too quickly. Yes, true to Alexis fashion, it all came back up. Poor John had to clean it all up before he could leave.
The next morning Drew was climbing down the bunk bed ladder but he'd waited too long and ended up peeing all over Alexis' bed and the ladder. So, Alexis' bedding was changed twice in less than twelve hours! Don't worry, I got to help in the clean up, John left all the sheets and shirts piled throughout the upstairs for me! At least I didn't have to see it, so I was a happy camper.

Alexis has taken up playing the drums on my butt. It is more annoying than you can imagine. I asked her why she keeps doing it when she knows that I don't like it and she told me that she likes the way it makes my butt jiggle. I don't care if you are anorexic, that comment will make anyone feel like they have a big butt.

Sad news

Sandy our dog died yesterday.
Aunt Janice had been watching her for us until we could get a place where they allow dogs. She has a dog herself, Cooper, and the dogs could run and have lots of fun together, most importantly she'd said yes to taking Sandy. Yesterday Sandy got off her leash and she and Cooper went running around. Somehow Sandy got hit by a car on the highway during their escapade. We're hoping it was quick and painless for her.
Unfortunately, it was a lot more painful for Janice. Not only did she go and clean her up from the highway, but she buried her too. On top of all of that, she had to call us and tell us that our dog died. It is sad, but of all the times for her to go, now was the best for us. The kids have been away from her for a while now and I think the news won't be as hard as if they'd been playing with her yesterday.
Thanks for taking such great care of her Janice, we know she was happy there, we're glad she had a chance to have a good playmate for a couple of months!

Happy Halloween

Madison figured out a way to crawl up to the bar by herself. Then, she speared some banana bread with a butter knife and chowed down on it. It was adorable to see her being so creative and excited that she was able to do it herself.

When I kinked my neck really badly a couple of weeks back turning around was so painful I couldn't do it. On the drive from Spanish Fork to Logan we gave the kids some cereal cups to eat on the ride. Drew had finished his and he insisted that I take his cup so that it didn't spill because he wanted to go to sleep. I finagled my body around so that I could grab the cup and when I looked inside this is all there was. They never care if they make a mess in the car. "Oh, I spilled my Jamba Juice and I didn't tell you so now the car smells like yeast? Sorry about that, I didn't think it would matter." "I brought a couple of handfuls of dirt into the car, who knew that it get all up in the carpet and you couldn't get it out?" I started laughing I was so frustrated and in so much pain after that little stunt.

A disgusting picture I know. John killed a monster fly and it splattered all over the wall. It was so nasty, John was gagging while cleaning it.

The first snow here in Logan and the kids were so excited to build a snowman. As soon as John came home they were begging him to take them out and get it started. He did a great job didn't he? Why the smirking faces on the kids you ask? Alexis wanted to kick them down, as soon as he had the heads rolled she was asking to kick them down. Poor John, all that hard work and all they really wanted was something to beat.

For Halloween John and I treated ourselves to staying in Logan and not running down to Spanish Fork for the weekend. The kids dressed up as Wizard of Oz characters. Here they are waiting in line at the mall to get some candy! It was such nice weather, if it was like that all winter I would be oh so happy!

John and I snuck upstairs for a minute after we got back from the mall (no comments on that) and when we came downstairs this is what we found. Notice those little rolls on her stomach, I love it. She had chocolate everywhere and skittles scattered all over the floor near her. I think there's even some candy stuck to her shoes.

Drew was really tired the other day, he wasn't feeling well, he told me he was going to lay down for a little while and rest until he felt better. When I went to check on him this is what he was doing. I don't know why my camera turned the picture green, I would have taken a second picture but he heard me and put his fingers down. Stinky camera.