We're like the older folks

I mean that affectionately, of course. Kyle came back (for a short stint) last night from being out of town, our kids are still at Camp Gramma's, so we are now going 24 hours together of being a childless couple in our home (before it was just me. talk about QUIET!). We've been away from them before, but because we were the ones going away. Being home without them is a lot different. A lot.

This morning I was wide awake at 6, ready for Savannah to tiptoe to my side of the bed and ask me for a snuggle and some breakfast. Except she didn't come. So up I arose and puttered around. I only had myself to get ready for church. I can't remember how many times I've dreamt about a Sunday morning in the far future in which I just had to ready myself. I had visions that my hair and makeup would be that much better if I didn't have other faces and hair to pretty up or clothes to press in the morning. Truth be told, it was the same as usual. My hair was no more remarkable, the make-up was just the same. Nope, nothing spectacular happened with just me to pretty up in the morning.

Kyle sat by himself at church today. I was on the stand for a talk. I'm proud of him for staying awake. He prefers having the munchkins to sit with to keep him from nodding off.

This afternoon after church I had no hungry mouths to feed first before feeding myself.

I took a nap.

We went to our neighbors' home to visit, which was lovely. We came home, made dinner for ourselves and then went for an evening stroll, stopping to chat with neighbors we saw along the way.

I guess that's what you do when the little ones are gone. ???

It's not very often that you get to be in your home without the young-uns and as crazy as it is sending me and as much as I am missing them, I am trying to look at the bright side by doing things I'd been telling myself I'd do "if I just had a couple hours in the house without the kids."

I plan to take the plunge and get real about having this baby. Meaning, you know, buy a car seat, get a swing and a high chair, some pacifiers, wipes and diapers... Tomorrow, I swear, is the day it's all going to happen.

I then plan to paint a dresser I found for Cade on Saturday, so hopefully it will be finished before he gets home. He actually gets excited about that kind of stuff, so hopefully he likes it.

And then perhaps I'll get to that darn office with all those papers..... and maybe the craft room so that it resembles a craft room and not a closet with boxes.

And then, when they get home EVERYTHING will be all done so I can just be with them. Right? That's the idea.

Sigh....

Cade and Savannah in front of the Mississippi River. Nauvoo, Ill. June 2010

I miss them!

Keeping me awake already???

The little baby girl inside of me is persistent in keeping me awake this evening....well, morning now I guess.  It happens every night, but tonight the kicks are more intense than usual. Good practice for what's to come a month from now!

Hmmmm...so...about today.....

I was thrilled to have my sister Rebecca and her little Bailey over to join me for an afternoon by the poolside. Rebecca wanted to work on her tan, so naturally I obliged like any good sister would. Delightful!  We had a great time and surprisingly Bailey was pretty content in the pool, even though the water is not heated.  Rebecca looked awesome in her swimsuit while I rocked it Shamu style.  Yes, I think I'm obsessing now over how big I am getting. I can't stop mentioning it. Part of me knows this is what happens when one is pregnant. After all, there is a human being growing inside of me. A bigger part of me is scared to death wondering if I'll ever return to my former self. This current state is so foreign to me, but I'm really terrified it's going to be permanent. Make sense?

Today was not nearly as productive as yesterday. Probably like one one-millionth as productive.  I was exhausted all day long and kept rotating between the couch, a chair, and my bed.  I kept waiting to catch a surge of energy but it never, ever came.  I don't remember being this exhausted pregnant with the other two. Perhaps I was just too preoccupied puking to notice or something? Who knows. I have a hard time complaining about being tired because I am SO grateful to not be sick anymore, but I'm on the couch being the same sort of worthless lump as I'd be if I were sick.   I just feel far less justified.  Puking sounds more couch-worthy than being tired and not having any energy.

On the bright side, the dining room is officially free and clear since I sold this today:

Hooray! Now it's time to move in the playroom furniture. Oh, and take care of the hanging light fixture because non-Woodburys keep bumping their head on it since the table isn't there anymore to keep people away from it.  Fortunately we aren't too tall so it's not an issue for us.

So, that's about it for today folks. We'll try that sleep thing again I suppose. 

Oh, and happy Pioneer Day!

Time Will Tell

Today I was completely without my children. They had a sleepover at Grandma's, and then took a trip to visit their other Grandma.  It's weird. I was very accomplished, but it was so quiet.  Really quiet. Eerily quiet.  Apparently I am not alone in my thoughts because my sweet next door neighbor came knocking on my door this evening with 2 suckers in her hand demanding the whereabouts of my children because they had not been over in 2 whole days (maybe even 3?) to get their daily sucker and she missed them and the neighborhood has been way too quiet.  How adorable is that? I decided I'll never again try to ration their visits to Sister Hawkins' house because she likes to be pestered by my children asking for their suckers.

So, back to the childless day:

Today I:

• Folded and put away 6 loads of laundry. I was behind. Very behind. Ever since we opened our pool on Monday that's all the kids want to do. So I say, "Sure, I'll swim with you! The laundry can wait!" I shamelessly admit I'd rather lounge in the pool than do laundry.
• Cleaned the bedrooms
• Listened to some conference talks for my own talk I am giving Sunday in church
• Cleaned out the kids' closets and put their too small clothes in bins.
• Shoved the now spare twin mattress under Cade's bed. It took some special skills to shove that under there with my huge belly in the way, so I'm glad I was alone for that chore so I could preserve my dignity
• Filled the Subaru full of stuff to take to DI
• Vacuumed
• Sold this on KSL:

And this:

(Yesterday I sold this:)

{We are converting our dining room to a toy room and the old toy room will be Savvy's new room. The nursery will have white furniture instead of black in case you were wondering why on earth I would be selling a crib when I am just about to have a baby. Kyle has been a good sport about all of my changes!}

I heart KSL.

Oh, and I....

• Waited 4 hours for the A/C guy to take a look at our A/C unit. He got it working (all he had to do was reprogram the thermostat-- HA!)

I tried to get Kyle to look on the bright side and to consider we still made money today because of what we sold even after the astronomical service charge for the guy to come out and reprogram the thermostat.  While pricey, his advice and know-how it was a lot better than the gentleman (though I wouldn't call him that) who came yesterday trying to tell us we needed a whole new furnace. His advice was free, but totally worthless, dishonest and didn't get the A/C going.

Left to do:

Lots of stuff. I dare not put my list here should I fall short and get none of it done!  Time will tell if I am really motivated enough to get it all done. Or at least just not too tired and uncomfortable to do them.

Here's to nesting!

Weekend Fun

Last Friday we went up to Wallsburg for a ward campout. It was a fabulous time. 

The Candy Cannon:

Savvy going for the Candy!!!!!

Cade with Sven on the boat

Sven, Cade, and Noah

THE highlight of Savvy's day. Her grin says it all.

So much fun!

I drove home that night and slept in a real bed whilst Kyle and the kidlets camped out. I rode with my sister and her fam up to Bountiful Saturday morning for family pics to celebrate my Grandma's 80th Birthday with all my cousins, aunts, uncles, and nieces and nephews.  

Kyle and the children  met up with us at lunch time and we enjoyed an afternoon filled with swimming, ladder ball (never played it before, it is so fun!), a bean bag toss tourney, and lots of delicious food (Thank you Hilary for bringing the Ding Dongs-- they really hit the spot and I didn't have to deal with the guilt of purchasing them on my own. haha!)  The kids came home with a gazillion prizes from the fish pod, bean bag toss, and a few other games.  They were on cloud nine.  

Later we met at my aunt's ward building to have a birthday dinner and program. My grandma gifted each of the grand daughters with one of her coveted porcelain dolls she's had on display in her home since all of us were teeny tiny babies. It was a special moment. My Aunt Carol and Uncle Randy get huge props for planning such an awesome party. It was great! 

Sadly, these are the only photos we have of Saturday--- Ummm..Auntie Carol, I know you have like an entire memory card full of pics, don't ya?!  Aunt Val??? I know you had your camera out, too, right? 

-----------

My cousin Stef and I

I am officially 28 years old and 35 weeks pregnant here (and weighing in at the weight I delivered both Cade and Savvy at. YIKES! I still have 5 more weeks of pound gain-age ...can I possibly get any bigger??!! I suppose the enormous weight gain is the result when you stop puking at 5 1/2 months instead of puking the entire 9 months...)

Jon, Melody, and Luke sporting the awesome Birthday T-shirts designed and printed by Aunt Carol and Uncle Randy. :)

Savvy and her rosy cheeks. She decided it was time to go swimming.

It was a great weekend. The kids were tuckered out when we got home, 

so bath time was put off 'til Sunday morning:

A Year Ago Today

Michelle and Shelley. Virginia Beach 7/17/09

A year ago today while visiting my hometown of Richmond, Virginia my dear highschool slash track slash cross country friend Shelley, joined me and my children on a little adventure to Virginia Beach.  How dear a friend is that? It was a day trip, so this girl willingly and happily spent 2 hours in the car, a couple hours at the beach, and then well over 3 hours (traffic was baaaad coming back to RIC) again in the car with my little munchkins and I.  She is such a good friend.

Here we are happy to be at the beach! It was Savvy's first time ever in the ocean, and Cade's second but he doesn't remember the first, so this may as well have been his first time, too. :)

I admit, looking at these photos I am a bit (okay a lot...)  homesick for this pre-pregnancy figure. I look a lot different today than I did a year ago. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Cade couldn't wait to get back to smothering himself with sand...

Same with Savvy.

A storm began heading our way which gave us the perfect wind to fly the kites my sweet girlfriend and hostess Jessica got for the kids. Shelley was an awesome kite flyer and fixer!

Good times.

Later that night the kids sang happy birthday to me and we ate these babies Jessica baked for me:

 

Cade wanted to take a picture of me:

Not too bad! You get the idea: Cupcakes. Me. Happy.

It was a wonderful trip. I am lucky to have dear friends who have stood the test of time all these years.  No matter how many years go by whenever our paths do cross, it's as if no time has passed at all.

Up next: our weekend fun. As in this weekend. Not the weekend fun from a year ago. :) Though I am sure that was fun, too.

If you were a fly...

... in the car you would hear Savvy discuss the following:

"Mom, when I get married, I never ever want to be pregnant. Because it's so hard to have a baby in your tummy and take care of it. I don't wanna frow up and be sick."

...and you would hear Cade wonder aloud,

"Mom, how come you're not more like Aunt Rebecca? She never gets grumpy."

If you were a fly at the kitchen table, you'd hear Kyle plead,

"Hon, could you not buy anymore pre-shucked corn? It makes me feel like a yuppie."

My darling family is always good for a laugh.

Daddy's Surprise

On Kyle's drive back to Chicago, he made a mini detour in Wyoming to pick up some celebratory supplies to help ring in the 4th:

Savvy is happy, Cade is not. He wants to take a photo with these by himself.

That's better! 

\Notice Cade is also sporting yet another lost tooth!  We were at my sister's for a pre-Stadium of Fire BBQ (Kyle was still driving home)and  Cade soon discovered he was in perfect company in order to get his loose tooth out. He had been pleading with myself and  his Uncle Scott all day to yank it out, but we would have nothing to do with it.  Lucky for him, my sister is a dental hygenist, her husband an endodontist, and his folks were also there-- who are also a dentist and a hygenist.  Between the four of them, out the tooth came, pain free!  He was quite excited about showing Daddy a surprise of his own when we came home.

We ran into Kyle's cousins who live in Boise coming out of the Stadium of Fire.  What were the odds of running into anyone we knew with thousands of people streaming out of LaVell Edward's stadium in the dark of night? It was a fun reunion.  They joined us on the Fourth with their families to celebrate with some sparklers and firecrackers. My sister joined us with her boys as well.

Little Lukey wasn't so fond of the noise though. He kept asking to go "buh-bye".  Once he was snuggled in a blanket with mommy, he did grace us with a few half-hearted yays.

Cade trying to multi-task:  Enjoy the sparklers and protect his ears from the noise.

The fella in the long-sleeved blue shirt is not Kyle, though it's his identical profile!  Scotty surprised us with a visit from Rexburg for the weekend.  We got lucky and snagged him a ticket for the Stadium of Fire just a few hours before the event.   It was his very first concert ever. I think he may have been disappointed he had to start with Carrie Underwood, until she winked and waved at him. :) 

watching the snake grow....

Tyler wasn't so sure he wanted to let go of his ears, even if it meant swirling a sparkling stick!

Casa, Dulce Casa

Coming home was so very sweet. I was glad I stayed up until 3am cleaning and straightening before I I left with the kids for Chicago. There's nothing like coming home to a clean house-- something my mother imparted to me long ago. Her reasoning was a bit more morbid-- "In case we die on this trip, at least I'll leave behind a clean house" is what she used to say. Of course it didn't take long for the children and I to make our house look like we never left, but the sweetness of coming home to my house didn't go away, even after breaking it back in.

I think what made it so sweet was that I have a home to come home to. It is a feeling I never want to take for granted. I feel so grounded here. It's so nice to have a safe neighborhood for my children play in, wonderful neighbors who take great care of us, and to live so close to family, too. Paradise perhaps?

We have wonderful neighbors and family that went above and beyond while we were away....I was very touched by all the kind and thoughtful things that went on in our absence...this is just scratching the surface to give you an idea:

• Randy, Kyle's brother mowed our lawn...then later discovered it was dying and spent a great deal of time with our next door neighbor fixing a sprinkler that had been broken by a tree root.
• Dick, our sweet next door neighbor was the mastermind behind the sprinkler. Once fixed, he came out at 10pm to give our dying yard a good soaking.
• Bula rescued my Mother's Day plant Cade gifted me and watered it while we were away. She also took notices and stuff off my door so people wouldn't know we were gone. She saved the RS announcements for me so I knew what happened in the ward while I was gone, too.
• Jon, my sister's hubby along with a number of other favors, vacuumed out our dishwasher (it doesn't drain all the way when finished with a wash cycle and I ran it just before leaving and forgot to vacuum out the water) with our shop vac that was already full of water that was smelly beyond description, and he got to deal with that yuckiness. Ew.

Suffice it to say, we are indebted to a lot of people now. :)

Having Kyle in the same state has been wonderful. He has come home for a brief "visitation" what I jokingly refer it as. He pulled into the driveway just in time for us to head to the Stadium of Fire to celebrate the 4th of July last Saturday. Before we left, he had the kids come to the living room so he could show them a surprise courtesy of the drive through Wyoming....(pics to come)

By the way, the Stadium of Fire was incredible! I found some discounted field tickets (thank you, Craigslist!) and bought them, crossing my fingers Kyle would be able to make it. While it was a blast being on the field, I think I'd try for the front row stadium seats next time so that we could see more of the field performances. Kyle and I were excited to see Lou Diamond Philips as the MC for the night, and he did a great job. The entertainment was certainly entertaining. I've never seen the 5 Browns perform before and that was.... an experience. :) If you were there, you know what I am talking about. I would have to say Savvy had the best time of all. She took over the field dancing away during Carrie Underwood's performance. And the fireworks? Well, there were like 5 grand finales it seemed. We never knew when they were going to end, they just kept exploding above our heads and it was beautiful. I grew up watching the Washington, D.C. fireworks each summer and have always been partial to those (not to mention that was Kyle and I's first date), but I'd have to say, the Stadium of Fire showed up the nation's capitol for a fireworks show. Easy. I'm hooked and look forward to going next year.

Kyle spent a few days home finding things that needed to be fixed and then left for High Adventure with the scouts (they roughed it boating at Lake Powell this year). Today was his first full day home and he spent it buying and installing a new dishwasher, buying and installing a new toilet, and of course-- yard work. We are all feeling the pinch that time is running out and we have a lot to do...especially before our world's are rocked and Woodbury Baby #3 makes her appearance, but it's also a nice feeling of normalcy being back at the abode busily tending to house-ish things.

I like it.

a few good things

I am tired beyond tired, but I just had to mention a few of the pleasantries I came across today.

1. Oreos on sale for for 2.54. Haven't seen them that cheap in a loooooong time. I bought 3 packages wondering if that was enough.

2. My birthday package from my MIL came in the mail today. My birthday is not for another few weeks, but I opened it anyway.  I got a darling white maternity top that FITS! It was as if my fairy godmother came and waved her magic wand right before my eyes!  Little did my MIL know I that I went searching today for some maternity tops, specifically a white or black one  but the search was unsuccessful. (family reunion pics coming up and black and white is the color scheme. Unfortunately I'm quickly growing out of nearly everything I own so even though I do have a few white and black things, they no longer fit me.... in a very flattering way anyways). Thanks to my MIL the hunt is officially over!

3. Cade and Savvy played so nicely together today! It was a dream come true watching them sprawled on the living room floor with the legos chatting back and forth about their creations.

4. And if #3 wasn't sweet enough,  Cade noticed how exhausted I was after reading Savvy her pre-nap story, and told me he'd finish up and put her down for her nap. It was so sweet how he took over the routine and let me rest on the couch. He's a great big brother.

That's it for today. Bon nuit!