It's the most wonderful time of the year...

...and I'm not even blogging about it! Life has been pretty crazy. We moved, I am no longer managing, and I am loving my new life. Here are some of the fun things we have been up to:
Thanksgiving...
I am so thankful for my family. We had a great time over Thanksgiving and it is always fun to spend time together. The weekend before my sister Sara flew in to come see Jess. We had a great time eating and hanging out. All the girls in my family (minus my beautiful mom), with Jess sporting her new brunette look. She is feeling much better. Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers.

My cute parents.

I am so thankful for my sweet Audrey and my niece Savy. Aren't they cute in their food oriented PJ's? Savy's jammers are the ones that Audrey wore at her first Thanksgiving.

I am so thankful for our little brother-to-be. I am so excited for him to come to our family. 25 weeks.

My parents sent us out on a "Mission Possible" adventure. My mom watched Audrey and Savy and sent the adults to the mall with an envelope of money and someone's name written inside. We were to buy that person a gift, coming as close to the amount of money given as possible. We couldn't tell anyone who our secret person was, and we only had one hour at the mall. It was SO fun! We had to put our purchases in these big black bags so on the way home in the car no one would know what we bought. We all got some pretty strange looks walking around the mall with those bags. Aren't shoplifters supposed to be more discreet?

We gave each other the gifts we bought and it was fun to see who thought of what to give. Luke gave Dave the best shirt...yes Luke, you are bringing sexy back (kinda). The shirt he gave has him making a funny face and it says, "Hey Dave, I'm bringing sexy back". He won for best gift given and he should have...he had to make that face in front of lots of people at the mall!

Trip to see Santa...
Our playgroup ventured to the mall to see Santa. Audrey and I talked about it for two days, and she was so excited to go see him. That is until we actually got there and saw him. This was as close as she got to Santa, and every time I asked her if she wanted to sit on Santa's lap she would yell, "No thank you!" That night when Dave asked her about her trip to see Santa Audrey said, "No Santa's lap. Little bit scary." Maybe next year Santa.
After our amusing trip to see Santa we had nine moms and 11 kids eat at Olive Garden. I forgot to take a picture, but here is the proof of the yummy Andes mint Audrey ate in the car on the way home.
I love this time of year.

Tender Mercy

My baby sister Jessica is a freshman at BYU. A couple of weeks ago she starting have really bad headaches. These headaches progressed and pretty soon were unbearable. She also had pounding in one ear, and half her tongue was numb. She went to the ER at BYU and not even a morphine drip helped with the pain. No one knew what was wrong with her. My parents flew her home to see doctors here and after she was admitted to the hospital they were finally able to diagnose her with a brain infection, and an abscess in the infratemporal fossa. 17 doctors came to see Jessica during her eight days in the hospital. Brain surgery was a huge consideration, but the doctors said it wasn't fair to do to a 17 year old girl, unless they had exercised every other option. While the surgery could be successful, it could leave her face crippled. Many, many prayers were said on her behalf, and our family experienced a miracle. The morning the surgery was scheduled, the abscess had shrunk and surgery wasn't needed. She was able to have a PIC (peripheral inserted central) line put in and finally come home from the hospital. She is on lots of antibiotics, and will be for a few more weeks, but we are so grateful for this outcome. Thank you for all those who helped pray for her. We love you Jess. We now tease her that she is a college dropout on drugs!
Before inserting the PIC line. She was a little nervous!
Getting all set up. It has be to a sterile environment.
It was my job to help distract Jess during the procedure. I told her all sorts of funny stories about Audrey, but sometimes I got distracted and wanted to watch. She obviously, did not.
Finally all done. They don't usually let people in the room during the procedure, but since Jessica is still 17 and considered a pediatric patient, they let my Mom, Dad and me stay in the room. The whole thing took over an hour. We all had to wear masks. I ate a blue cheese burger for lunch and my own breath was killing me!
We are so glad you are feeling better and get to be home. Thank you Memor and Fafa for watching Audrey so I could be at the hospital so much. It is greatly appreciated.

Tagged

I have been tagged numerous times, but I CAN NOT think of six interesting things about myself! I am tired of stressing out about it, so here are six semi-lame things about me:

1) I can not, have not, and will not ever touch raw meat. Can't do it. Yuck. I can do it with gloves on, but not bare handed. It makes me ill thinking about it.

2) I really, really, really despise birds. I think they are the most disgusting creatures on the planet. They are basically flying rats.

3) I am VERY sentimental, to the point where it is weird. When I was packing my room to go to college I found the gum I was chewing during my first kiss in a zip lock baggy. I am getting better. Baby steps.

4) I did the splits (both ways) the day I had Audrey. My mom always told me that she did the splits the day I was born and that is why I am so flexible, so I thought I would pass that "gene" onto Audrey. I don't think that is going to happen with Brother!

5) I am a germ-a-phob, also to the point where it is weird. I sanitize all shopping carts and grocery carts before I let Audrey in them, I carry hand sanitizer in all purses and diaper bags and use it all the time, and I hate touching the hymn books at church.

6) I wear support hose on my legs when I am pregnant. I don't know how I do it because I am usually a claustrophobic person, but it feels SO good! My ankles throb and swell when I don't wear them, so it's like a corset for my ankles. I can't wear them when I'm not pregnant though.

Now onto the more interesting more, Audrey.
Six darling facts about Audrey:
1) She loves cottage cheese, broccoli and any kind of treat.

2) Her first four syllable word was Pocahontas. Her second was calculator.

3) She knows who goes with who. If I say, "Auni Mimi" she will say "Gooke", she knows Aunt Rachel goes with Uncle Ryan, Aunt Sara with Ben, Regan with Joel (and Maggie), Andrea with Matt, Jocelyn with Brady, Rocia with Emerson (and Jooya, Meia and Wockwel).

4) She loves to sing. She will sing her ABC's (when she washes her hands she sings her entire ABC's while scrubbing, I am passing my germ phobia onto her!), Ariel song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Belle song, any song she can think of at any given moment. After the Primary Program on Sunday, she yelled out, "Audrey's turn!" She wanted to get up there and sing.

5) She loves to dance. We have dance parties almost every day where we put on fast music and we both dance around the house together (after we shut all the blinds of course). Her favorite is when she gets to wear her Cinderella dress.

6) She takes after her mother and all her mother's sisters in that she wants to know who I am talking to on the phone (it drives me crazy when Dave is on the phone and I don't know who he is talking to! I don't need to know what they are talking about, just who he is talking to). Whenever anybody calls, Audrey will say, "Who is it Mama?" or when I call someone she will say, "Who calling Mama?"

7) (Just to make up for lack of interesting things about myself) She wants to know what everything says. She will point to a car and say, "Car, what say Mama?" Then I tell her, "beep, beep". It gets pretty interesting when she points to a building and says, "What that Mama?" I tell her it's a building and she wants to know what the building says. I try to have her come up with ideas, but she wants to hear it from me. Any ideas on what a bridge says?

A baby changes things...

From my Baby Center emails:

Fifteen things that change when you have a baby

1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.

2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.

3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.

4. You respect your body ... finally.

5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.

6. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.

7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.

8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.

9. Your heart breaks much more easily.

10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.

11. Every day is a surprise.

12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)

13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.

14. You become a morning person.

15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.

Happy Halloween!

I have a new appreciation for Halloween. I loved it as a kid, loved it when I was a teacher, but now I LOVE it because of Audrey. She is at the age where she is really starting to "get it". She loved dressing up, holding her pumpkin and although she liked looking at other costumes more than trick or treating at times, she loves eating her "teats" (treats).
We have had more than our fair share of candy, chocolate and partying:
It started last Friday morning when Jocelyn invited us to go trick or treating at her work (Gymboree Corporate Office). Each floor decorated and the winner gets a free day off work, so (obviously) these people go all out. We had a great time with Regan, Maggie and Jocelyn (Sorry, Reg. I can't put a link to your blog because I don't want my computer to crash and ruin this extremely long post). Thank you for starting off the sugar kick Jocelyn!
Friday night we went to my parent's ward Halloween party with Melissa, Luke and Savy (of which I have no pictures) and had a great time--the sugar fest continues! Saturday night was our ward Halloween party. It was so much fun. Halloween is my new second favorite holiday (second to Christmas, of course). Audrey got her face (and hands) painted and loved it. The lady who was painting said to me, "Ummm, she won't get out of my chair."
Audrey attempting to show us her ladybug painting on her hand (and face). I love this girl!
Instead of doing Trunk or Treat, all the kids knock on the doors around the church and people behind the doors give out candy. All the doors were decorated, and Audrey just wanted to stand at this one and look at all the princesses. I, however, had a different agenda and I wanted more kit-kats, so she had to continue trick or treating!
Eating treats!
A princess and Peter Pan (aka Max). I would LOVE if Audrey married Peter Pan some day! :)
A princess and a giraffe, friends for life.
Regan, my favorite cat ever.
I dressed up from the 50's and Dave came as himself. Next year we are going to have great costumes for all FOUR of us!

On actual Halloween a bunch of friends met up and went Trick or Treating down Chestnut St and all the shops handed out candy. We continued the sugar high, but at least Audrey was willing to share. I love how her mouth is open even though she is feeding Maggie (she gets that from her Dad!). Please excuse the ugly shirt under her dress...it was cold.
This is how Audrey spent most of the day...licking the sugar off her fingers!After trick or treating we went up to eat lunch with Dave at the school. Memor came and it was SO nice having an extra set of hands! Regan, I need that picture!
That night we went trick or treating down a really cute street. It was really cold so Audrey let me put on her jacket. Dave bought this jacket for Audrey when I pregnant with her because he loved it so much. The first time I put it on Audrey, she looked at it and said, "fireman jacket". Here is my little princess fireman!
Our Prince Charming.
Hope your Halloween was as candy-filled as ours!

Blast from the past (since they didn't have blogs when Audrey was a baby, here are some pictures from her first two Halloweens).
80's murder mystery party we went to (Halloween 2005).
Ward Halloween party (2005).
Nice.
Halloween 2006. Dave said he didn't have to wear a costume this year because he made up for it last year.
Can't wait until next year!

Hiccups

Baby Brother got the hiccups for the first time today. I thought he had them last week, but it was only three consecutive thump, thump thumps. Tonight it was thump, thump, thump that lasted about an hour. Could it be hiccups, or could it be all the insane, disgusting amounts of sugar I have been eating? I LOVE Halloween!

Catching Up

I swear I have at least four blog entries titled, "Catching Up" but that is the story of my life! :) Here are some pictures of what we have been up to the last two weeks...

Crazy Canadians
Those crazy Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving at the beginning of October. Being the lucky soul that I am, I was invited to come and feast on a fabulous Thanksgiving meal...turkey, ham, rolls, candied yams, pumpkin and apple pie, mashed potatoes, and stuffing....oh the stuffing!

Almost a Pumpkin Patch
Dave and I had every intention of taking Audrey to the fabulous Pumpkin Patch in Half Moon Bay. About 15 minutes into the 45 minute drive we heard there was going to be terrible traffic. Just at that moment we saw a sign that said, "Mike's Pumpkin Patch! Turn left!" We looked at each other gave the mutual sign of agreement. Dave pulled into the left hand lane and three seconds later we were at Mike's Pumpkin Patch. While it wasn't up to par with the one in Half Moon Bay, it suited our purposes just fine...Audrey had fun! She was way more interested in the cartoon characters they had around hte pumpkins than the actual pumpkins themselves. When we asked her to pick out a pumpkin, she would look at them, look at us, and say either, "dirty" or "heavy". 100% two year old girl.
Audrey's favorite thing about the Pumpkin Patch
Our precious "Little Pumpkin"

Audrey's new uniform
It has been Halloween everyday in our house for the last three weeks. Audrey wants to wear her "Ella dess" every second of the day. Thank you Memor and Fafa for her dress. If I only knew how to wash it...

Nike Marathon Finisher!
I finished the Nike Marathon last weekend! Well, not really. Last year, Kelly and I ran the Nike San Francisco Half Marathon together. It was such a bonding experience training for it and running it together. Kelly has moved to Chicago since then, but she came back to run the race. I signed up the Nike Women's SF Marathon before I was pregnant. I wanted to sign up for the Half Marathon, but it sold out in hours. After I found out I was pregnant, I sold my bib. The girl who bought my bib emailed me the week before and told me she hurt herself and couldn't run the race. I told Kelly, and together we decided that we would cross the finish line together again this year! Kelly and her sister Brooke ran the 13 miles and I met up with them for the last .1 mile! My bib said, "Nike Marathon" on it, and I crossed that finish line 20 weeks pregnant without even breaking a sweat! :)
Kelly and Brooke this year Last year, 2006
Beach Day. I love when the weather is nice enough to go to the beach. Here is Audrey contemplating if she can handle the feat before her...

Here she is attempting to climb to the top of the sandy hill.
Victorious!

The look on her face says it all...
I am probably the only mother in the world who DOES NOT want her child potty trained. For me, diapers are way more convenient and what am I supposed to do if we are stuck in horrible city traffic and Audrey has to go NOW!!! Lately Audrey has been interested in the potty, and occasionally she goes in it. She is usually way more excited about it than she looks in this picture, but I thought this picture was perfect for describing the way I feel about potty training. Yuck.

All girl. I found her in the bathroom "dooen haaiir" (doing hair) wearing her "warwa" shoes (Princess Aurora shoes).


We have had a fun couple of weeks!

Our Little Blue Angel

I love surprising people. When we were scheduling the ultra sound apt to find out the gender, I knew exactly when I wanted it to be, and luckily it was available. Friday, October 5th, 8:30 am (none of this waiting around all day stuff). I knew that weekend was Fleet Week and also Conference, meaning we would for sure see both families and I wanted to surprise them in person with the news. We told everyone we were finding out the following Tues to throw everyone off. It totally worked. So on Friday morning, the dilemma presented itself...WHAT DO I WEAR??? If I wore pink, it would mean I wanted a girl, if I wore blue it meant I wanted a boy, and if I wore another color, it would mean I wasn't supporting our child. I know, I know, only I think this way and it drives Dave CRAZY! Being the good sport he is, he agreed to wear blue and I wore pink, that way whatever the gender, I felt like we were being good, supportive parents. Yikes, typing that out makes me realize how lame that sounds. Oh well. Here we are, the dorks that we are. Don't worry, we dressed this way when we found out with Audrey too.
October 5th, 18 weeksIt was a long day, hence the terrible picture of us.

On Saturday Dave's family came to San Francisco to watch Fleet Week. The best part of Fleet Week is when the Blue Angels fly. They are amazing to watch. They were SO loud, so smart Marianne brought ear phones for Audrey and Nathan. Where where those ear phones the three days before when Audrey couldn't nap because they were practicing and kept her awake? I can not believe how loud they are. Shake the glass in the windows, loud.Audrey was practicing her big sister skills by helping Fafa cover his ears.After the air show we came back to our apt and told our good news. We had Audrey bring a box to Marianne (Dave's mom)and we told her that Audrey had made her something. Inside the box a card saying, "Our Little Blue Angel" with a picture of our little baby boy's profile. At the bottom of the sign clever Dave wrote, "Waring: May contain explicit content" and the inside of the card was the, "It's a boy!" picture with all his little boy parts exposed. Under the card was a cute boy outfit we had bought at Baby Gap that morning. Bruce and Marianne were a little confused, and then very surprised. It was perfect! We went to dinner and then Audrey was spoiled by her grandparents and got a new jacket, shirt and "hat". Thank you!Yeah! It's a boy!
Sunday morning we woke up and went to my family's house for Conference, and to see my mom who had foot surgery. My two sisters and brother-in-laws were there, so the surprise was going to be perfect. I totally love this kind of stuff. So lame, I know. Anyway, after the morning session of Conference we had Audrey bring my mom a box and we did the same thing we did for Dave's family. Everyone was totally surprised, I LOVED it! I am sad we didn't get a picture of everyone together, but here is a picture of our little family with the card.I love our little blue angel, my big blue angel, and my spunky little pink angel.

Dear Audrey,

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
1) Whenever you are hurt, you think a kiss from Mom makes everything better
2) You are very expressive. You make the cutest facial expressions
3) You call your Daddy "Prince Charming" 60% of the time. When you wake up in the morning, you call from your crib, "Prince Charming!" He really is our Prince Charming
4) You know everyone’s name and who they are married to
5) When I ask you what you want for breakfast, every morning you say, "Um, waffles, cottage cheese, ogurt (yogurt) and syrup!"
6) You love to come to the Dr with me and listen to Brother's "heart beep"
7) You still love to cuddle
8) Every day you point to the heater in your room and say, "No push the buttons, only mommy and daddy"
9) You are very inquisitive. You want to know "what happen?", and you are always asking me, "Where is him?" or "Where is her?"
10) You are starting to outgrow this, but I love how you mix up pronouns. You used to say, "Audrey do it" then, "I do do". Or if you needed my help or wanted me to carry you, you would say, "Help you! Carry you!"
11) You sing, "I wuv you" to the tune of "This Old Man" and it melts my heart
12) This morning you saw a necklace I wore to Aunt Rachel's wedding and you asked if you could get married someday and I asked who you wanted to marry and you said, "Daddy!"
13) You say the words, "good, home" and "food" like they are two syllable words, "gooda, homea" and "fooda"
14) Your "L"'s sound like "H"'s so you are constantly pointing to things and saying, "Hook it!"
15) When I ask you a question, you used to say, "yeah" then it progressed to a "yeeepppp" and now you give a very definitive answer of "yes"
16) You will make a great big sister. Everyday we talk about Brother and you always say you want to help feed him, give him a tub tub, and take him to go see Santa
17) You are the joy of our lives and I love you more every day