(2) Wed Nov 01 2006 11:39 Weekender: This past weekend we went to Houston to visit my old roommate Roxanne and her husband Michael and little boy Ethan. Aaron skipped Friday afternoon's classes and we were able to get into town around 3:30. It was their ward's trunk or treat so we went to that. Their ward went all out with a cakewalk and tons of games for the kids. There was a little medical drama for Roxanne afterwards but it all got sorted out, and the next day we were able to play again.

Since both Roxanne and I are pregnant, we didn't want to do anything too active so we went to the mall and walked around and then went to Pei Wei for lunch. We then took the kids home for their nap that they badly needed. The babysitter fell through for that night so we just took the kids to the beach in Galveston and let them play in the sand and run around. It was nice and relaxing for us because Lily likes water but doesn't like to get in especially if it is cold. She didn't try to run in the waves, but Ethan did. Lily was just thrilled to play on the beach and run around having tons of fun. We hit a pizza/sandwich joint for dinner and I had a yummy calazone. Lily was a little over stimulated and wouldn't sit still so Aaron took her out to the car, and then I went out after I was finished eating.

We got home and put the kids to bed. We watched a little bit of tv, but there was nothing great on and they had early church so we went to bed around 10 or so. The more pregnant I get the less inclined I am to stay up late or go tons of places. We went to church on Sunday, came home early and had lunch. Had some more relaxation time and then left around 4:00 for home. So we didn't do a ton of stuff, but it was fine because I can't last too long anyway.

It was a fun last trip before the baby comes. I am not sure when we will be able to get out again after Gunnar comes. I am so glad it is Nov and I just have one month to go.

(2) Wed Nov 01 2006 19:24 Poopy in the potty: So Lily has a potty chair in her bathroom that I bought about 6 months ago so she can get the feeling of going potty and so she can mimic me when I use the restroom. She has never really grasped it and yet tonight after her bath I dried her off and left the bathroom to get her jammies and she sat on her potty. I thought she was just playing so like I normally do, when she shows interest in the potty I said "go poo poo and pee pee in the potty". When I came back in Lily was grunting and to my surprise she actually went poop in the potty. Hurray. Maybe potty training won't be as hard as I thought it would be.

We made a huge deal about it and gave her a candy treat and I made a sticker chart for her to put stickers on to get her excited and want to do it more. Now I hope she magically tells me before every time she needs to go. That would make my year.

(4) Fri Nov 03 2006 22:49 ABC, 123: Lily has this Mickey Mouse book that is a little too old for her text wise, but she likes it and wants me to read it to her so instead I have her describe the pictures to me like "what's this"..."a birdie" and so forth. I started having her count the animals too just to spice it up a bit. You get creative when you have to read the same book each day, sometimes more than once a day just to keep yourself sane. For some reason, books written for 4 yr olds is not intellectually stimulating for me (except maybe reading it for the first time) but I do enjoy Lily "sitting on my lap" as she calls it but she is really just sitting really close beside me and I love to see how her mind works when she answers questions and surprises me with how much she knows or how she thinks. I like that she likes to snuggle up to me and have me put my arm around her to "read to her" as she says exactly. I think it is funny she calls herself "her".

She has gotten pretty good at counting. She can go all the way to 8 then I help her with 9 and then she counts to 13. After reading the book, she was excited about "counting" that she wanted to count more. She went up to a picture I have of Aaron's family and she enthusiastically pointed and said, "One Brammy, one Ga-ga, one Josh, one Jake, one Booner, one Papa, one Mel-na-nee, one Ben." Just one of the many things that make me want to grab her and hug and kiss her.

Another cute thing she does is when there are multiple animals she will organize them into families pointing at each saying "Mama duck, Papa duck, and Wil-wee duck". And she will do it to size as well. The smallest is always her, and the biggest is always Papa, but if there are at least 3 of the same animal. Otherwise, Aaron sometimes gets left out if there are only 2. I find it interesting that she puts them into families and she will only put the same animal into a family even if there are more animals on the page. Pretty smart if you ask me...

(4) Wed Nov 08 2006 07:47 Dental School Widow: Another day of Aaron coming home late ahead of me. Too late for Lily to see him, again. I will be so glad when his Pathology test will be over tomorrow. The second year of Dental School has really been harder than the first. And I hear the worst is yet to come. Supposedly, the second semester of the second year is the hardest and then they say the first semester of the first year. Whoever told me that the first year was hardest was maybe right, but definitely not the busiest. I agree the first semester was tough because Aaron had Gross Anatomy and was forced to go in on Saturdays to study, but not too bad. I mean I saw Aaron more then than when we first had Lily when he was juggling school and a part time job and I was working part time as well doing tag team.

I can't complain too much. Some people's husbands study this much every week. Every time I think about it, I am so grateful that I married Aaron who on one hand some would call lazy, but really he just likes spending time with his family more than being in the top 10 (even though I know if he really wanted to he probably could-but we would never see him). It is very busy times like this week when it is imperative he studies or fails where I am reminded how grateful I am to have him around more often.

(1) Wed Nov 08 2006 22:28 Yes, no, maybe so: Went to the Dr yesterday. I hope I don't jinx myself by writing this down, but she scheduled an induction Nov 30th at 5:30AM. If all goes well, we will have a baby boy then. I feel like I am cheating getting to have him early and I am, but I firmly believe I deserve it. I still remember leaving the midwife's office with Lily so distraught when she said she wouldn't induce me ON MY DUE DATE. I had to wait. And Lily was a whopping 8# 2oz and apparently too big.

But seriously, when people you don't even know are telling you that you look like you are ripe and ready (nice manners) right now, and you feel it...well, you can imagine my joy. Obviously, I don't want to have Gunnar if he is not ready, but let's hope he is Nov 30th so we can go ahead with it. It is crazy to think I will be having a new life in 3 weeks. I am very excited and happy to say now that I am ready for it.

In other news, I am not sure if I mentioned how adorable Lily was on Halloween. We went to our ward trunk or treat and she was the cutest saying "trick or treat" and then saying thank you to most of the people. She liked everybody putting candy into her "pumpkin purse". We went to my mom's afterward for the annual doughnut night and I thoroughly enjoyed 2 of them. We still have tons of candy that I am contemplating throwing away.

Aaron and I have done some shopping too. We went ahead while Costco was having a Vita-Mix show and bought one as an early Christmas present to each of us. They are discounted when you get them at Costco so we went ahead and bought it this early since we would be saving like $100 to do so. That day we made like 4 different recipes they had in their recipe book to try it out and let me tell you: it is worth every penny. The Vita-Mix makes the best smoothies. It is the most amazing blender. It takes no time to make one as opposed to our other blender, it would take forever and start smelling like something was burning, not to mention the consistency was nothing like how you want it.

We also got Gunnar's crib bedding. We went to the mall and stopped in Pottery Barn Kids and found the most amazing sale on the At the Zoo set. $25.99 for the quilt and bumper each and we got the bed skirt and matching valance and crib sheets. We also got a steal on a 5x8 rug. It wasn't the pattern I thought I would get but I really like it and since it was a better deal than the Oliver set I want then I am ok with it. Now I just need to get Aaron to paint the room and turn it into the baby’s room and we are all set. Can't wait to see how it turns out. It is fun designing your own nursery for your little baby.

(1) Thu Nov 09 2006 15:51 Getting a little tired of: Hot Flashes

Lily throwing a melt down tantrum 10 times a day

The fact that Lost will be on a 3 month hiatus, argh!

(4) Sun Nov 12 2006 22:46 My first surprise: When I went on Thursday to Johnny Carinos for dinner with Aaron and Lily ready to meet with Josh and Jenni and Jake and Erin, I hardly expected to find about 2 dozen of my friends and family waiting for me. Come to find out Jenni and Erin planned a surprise baby shower for me.

I was very surprised and touched that they had done such a great job throwing the party. We were in a separate party room for ourselves and we got to enjoy having dinner, and I got to open presents. What a fun girl's night out. I got some really cute outfits and baby things, but most of all I couldn't believe that Erin and Jenni did that for me. It was so nice. We even had a sheet cake from Costco. I have never had a surprise party thrown in my honor and let me tell you, they are fun.

With the clothes I got from the party and bought and borrowed from Jenni's "store" (I thought Lily had a lot of clothes) I think we are all set for the first 6 months. Now all I need is a baby to wear them.

Thanks Jenni and Erin for doing that, it was very sweet. And thanks to Aaron for not spilling the beans, although he is very good at keeping secrets so I am not surprised.

Sun Nov 19 2006 22:21 Transformations: I can not believe how much Lily is learning this past month maybe 2 months. I can see her getting more and more 2 yr oldish by the day. The sentences she puts together have more words now and make sense. She is such a vibrant spunky girl and if you have seen her piggy tails you would say they match her personality.

Apparently I say "oh my gosh" a lot because for the past couple weeks Lily has been going around saying "OH-MY-GOSH!" anytime something goes wrong or falls or anything. It really is funny to hear her say adult-like things in her little 2 yr old voice with her own fluctuations. She loves Mickey Mouse now, and any mouse she will call Mickey Mouse.

She has a habit of bossing characters in her books around. While I am reading to her if she sees something in a book that doesn't look right, she will tell it so. She has a book about how rainbows are made and each color has an animal etc. Well, the red ladybug was standing on the tail of the orange fox, and every time she sees that picture she says, "no bug, naughty, get down" I guess because she thinks the ladybug is being mean for standing on the fox's tail.

In Green Eggs and Ham there is a picture of a "Mickey Mouse" and she tells the mouse to get off the stool I guess because she thinks mice aren't allowed to sit on furniture. And when she sees a picture of someone that has their eyes closed, she always says that they are sleeping even if their eyes are shut because they are laughing or in the case of Lion King when Mufasa died. At first she thought he was sleeping and then I told her he died, and now she says “died” when she sees him. In the Lion King book, there is also a part when Nala and Simba reunite and Nala has Simba pinned. Lily tells the book, “naughty lion, get down” because it is not nice to pin another lion to the ground.

Sometimes Lily will suggest a "walk to get the mail". She knows when she get to the street that she has to hold my hand. She will say "remember the rule" because the rule is she has to hold my hand when we go in the street and she is not allowed to go there alone...So she is mildly obedient in some respects.

The other day we were in a parking lot and she saw some little boys a bit older than her. She said "look mama, friends". Just some random kids walking along. She wouldn't walk further until the boys met up with us, but then they just kept walking. I hoped it didn't hurt her feelings that her "friends" didn't seem to be interested in her and that it would squash her openness and friendliness towards children. She loves playing with kids, and today we were at one of her older friend’s house that was 5. She just laughed and played. This girl has a bike with training wheels and Lily fearlessly, with a little bit of help from her friend, climbed up on the bike and was trying to ride it. I couldn't believe at how brave and ambitious she was. She wasn't scared at all even after she was getting pushed on the bike by her friend and it gently tipped over.

Lily has such a zest for life but sometimes it is channeled in the wrong places. She got taken to me from nursery today at church because she kept pulling girls’ hair. I am not surprised, I am well aware of this flaw. The nursery leader said she would pull out chunks of hair, which was usual each Sunday but not as much as today. I too have seen her with strands of hair in her clenched fists. This is why she plays better with boys...they don't have hair she can pull. Anyway, we had to do "what it is we do" when this happens. She thought maybe we could get her to stop. Trust me, with a baby on the way, if I knew how to get her to stop pulling hair I would. Any advice is welcomed.

She is getting very much into her babies. And purses. Maybe she won't be a tom boy after all. Lately, I have been buying some baby chew toys for Gunnar and have gotten some as gifts, and I try to put them up so Lily doesn't get them nasty yet, and so she won't think they are hers when Gunnar comes, but somehow she always finds them and gets into them. I have two Baby Einstein turtles but they do different things and one is bigger than the other. She loves to have them together and call them the baby Lily and the Mama. I told her today that the turtles were Gunnar's toys and that she was going to have to share with Gunnar. She looked at me like 'what? how dare you' and firmly said "mmmINE!". She is in for a big surprise.

Lily has also been finding the spare binki here and there and refusing to give them back. She loves chewing/sucking on the binkis even though she wouldn't bother with them when she was born. Now she wants to have them in her mouth and steal her cousins' binkis whenever she sees them. I am afraid I don't want to play that game and so I think I am just not going to even offer Gunnar a binki. Maybe it is better that way I won't have to wean him off of one. Lily looks so dang cute though with one in her mouth, I don't know why. Maybe it is because she is getting so big and it makes her look babyish and part of me just wants her to stay little forever. Sometimes when she is in a snuggly mood she will come to me and say “rock-a-baby” and I will pick her up and hold her in a cradle position and sing rock-a-bye baby and then you are my sunshine. She really likes this, and so do I because even though she is so fearless and independent, she still really loves for me to hold her and give lots of hugs and kisses.

Right now the thought of having a boy instead of a girl is so foreign to me I just can't wrap my brain around it. I don't know why, it just doesn't seem possible for me to know what I am going to do with a boy. I remember feeling that with Lily but just with babies in general so hopefully after I meet Gunnar in ten minutes I won't remember what life was like before he was born.

Tue Nov 21 2006 08:28 Just what the Dr. ordered: I think I am ready for this baby as far as getting myself all dolled up. I got a gift certificate from Jenni to get a pedicure, and I loved it. I am thinking about getting another one in fact. Forty-five minutes of relaxation, back "massage" vibrations, foot massage, and my toes all pretty.

Then I have finally used the gift certificate that I got from Aaron on my birthday to get a body massage. I must say, it was nice, however getting a massage when you are pregnant is not as good as when you are not. This particular place has you lie on your side, as opposed to some places they have a foam pad you lie on your stomach because the foam pad has a giant hole in it where your belly goes in. Getting a massage while lying on your side is not the same. Plus I don't know if this is because I was on my side but she didn't get my neck or my head and face. That is almost my favorite part of getting a massage. It feels so good when they massage your head...you wouldn't think but it does. I am willing to give this place one more chance after I have Gunnar to see if they are as good as the girl in my ward back in Provo that I used to get massages from. She was awesome and the same price.

And now my hair is finally complete. I went for a hair cut and color almost 2 months ago. The hair cut was fine but when she dyed my hair, which was supposed to be a coffee color, not raven black mind you, my roots ended up being darker than the color it came out to be. So much for going dark for fall. But I went back to get it fixed and it is what I wanted now. So now that is done. Another thing I can cross off my list before the baby comes.

(1) Thu Nov 23 2006 08:25 Happy Thanksgiving: I am grateful for Aaron, Lily, a healthy pregnancy so far, a nice warm house to bring our baby home to, a bright future, and all my family and friends (you guys!).

(1) Sun Nov 26 2006 12:48 Winding down: This Thanksgiving holiday was very fun and enjoyable. On Wed we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the Walch/Taylor side. Michelle came in town and Leah and Derrick were there along with James Walker and his very fun wife Debbie. Aaron didn't make it because he was still recovering from food poisoning the day before. He was very ill, but luckily felt good enough to go to the Turkey Bowl and play football for 3 or 4 hours on Thanksgiving Day. I would say he is fully recovered now.

On Thanksgiving Day I woke up and started on my food assignments right away so they would be done before I was too wiped out to do any of it. Aaron's cousin Tyler and his girlfriend Andrea drove down from Houston and we had a party with them, us, and Josh, Jenni, Caden, and Austin. We opted not to go to Mo Ranch with Mom and the Taylor family because Aaron really wanted a traditional day instead of the buffet there at the ranch. He is spoiled like that, and when we found out that Tyler was going to make the trip we figure it would work out for us to just stay here.

I made sweet potato soufflé, corn casserole, one pumpkin pie, pistachio Jello salad, green bean casserole, and bought the turkey for Josh to fry which turned out awesome and very moist. Jenni made rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing (which I love), and a red Jello salad which is awesome too, and she made a berry pie and lemon cream pie which were both to die for. Jenni is quite good at baking. Tyler and Andrea brought a sort of Waldorf salad and ham. Between all of our food assignments we had TONS of leftovers which I have been eating all weekend long.

We had one glitch on Thanksgiving which was the turkey but it was easily remedied. I bought a 20 lb turkey and had defrosted it the day before, but when Josh called his dad for instructions on frying the turkey we found out that they can't be more than 14 lbs or they will explode from water content or something like that so Aaron had to run to the store and see if they had a small turkey that was already defrosted. Luckily, there was and the fried turkey turned out great. I really like it that way and it took like 40 minutes to cook as opposed to an 5 hours. I don't think it is that much more fattening if at all because you are pretty much left with the peanut oil you put in there. So today I am cooking the turkey I first bought because I don't want to refreeze it, I wouldn't have room in my freezer for a huge ol' turkey anyway, and plus with baby Gunnar coming I will have dinners frozen ready to be prepared relatively quickly with turkey leftovers, and I love Hawaiian haystacks and Shepard’s pie so it is good overall. And who can pass up a turkey, mayo, and cranberry sauce sandwich. Yum!

The day after Thanksgiving Jenni, Andrea, and I all got up at 4:30 AM to hit the shops for the good deals. Wal-Mart wasn't too bad, but the Best Buy was horrid. I thought Wal-Mart would be packed and it was but the line went by quickly. It was also 5 AM when we got there and 7 AM when we got to Best Buy. At 5 AM only the completely insane were out and about, but at 7 the semi insane and completely insane were out shopping. I got a good deal on an exersaucer/walker/activity station and a small TV and some DVDs, but I was pretty proud of myself for not buying too much. We finished shopping around 10 and I was ready for a nap. I only got 4 hours of sleep that night so I napped for a good 3 hours.

We went to see Deja Vu I think that night with Michelle, Mom, Aaron, and Joe and Louise. It was good. Yesterday was pretty low key, and today maybe we can get the house back in order from the busy week. When Michelle got here she cleaned my house for me as a present from David. As a mom your work is never done because it already needs to be mopped and cleaned up again. Agh, I will never be ready for this baby.

(1) Sun Nov 26 2006 13:00 Recipies: I am posting my recipies for the corn casserole and sweet potato souffle because everyone loved them and I do have to admit that they are the best I have had. I am not a big fan of Yams but no one can say they don't like these. Plus last year with all the Smith's everyone loved them. I can't take credit for them though, they are not my creations, but I am adopting them as my small family's tradition along with my mom's tradition to have them every year.

Corn casserole- Thanksgiving dinner

Mix together:

-1 cube butter

-1 cup sugar

-2 eggs

-1 can corn

-1 can of cream style corn

-1 Jiffy corn muffin mix

-dash of vanilla

-8 oz of sour cream

-1 Tablespoon baking powder

Bake at 350* for 1 hour

-Sweet Potato Soufflé-

• 3 cups mashed sweet potatoes (usually equaling 3-5 sweet potatoes)

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/3 cup melted butter

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 1/2 can evaporated milk

• dash of vanilla

Combine ingredients then add 2 slightly beaten eggs

Put mixture in casserole dish and sprinkle on TOP:

• 1/3 cup butter

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 cup chopped nuts (pecans)

• 1/3 cup flour

Bake @ 350* for 20-30 minutes

(1) Mon Nov 27 2006 11:18 First time: So I successfully cooked a turkey by meself for the first time. It was in the oven for about 4 hours and came out not too bad. Maybe a little dry for Aaron's taste which compared to fried turkey, yes everything else is dry. I got every bit of meat off the bone I could and saved the broth and skimmed the fat and even boiled the skeleton and got more broth. I freezed some meat for easy dinners later and am going to freeze some broth too. Not too bad for a first time. It is a good thing I have a mom that can tell me what to do, otherwise I would be clueless. I think I want a roasting pan so that I can make turkey more often (but not too often) because I had to borrow mom's. Seriously though, it was only $15 and I got meat enough for about 8-12 meals if not more. That is pretty inexpensive.

(2) Tue Nov 28 2006 22:55 Mad dash: So my Dr.'s office called and they want me to come in at 2:00pm tomorrow to get ready for the induction and start me off. I will have to spend the night in the hospital until they give me the real stuff Thurs morning. I wish I knew about this ahead of time. Not really convenient having to find a babysitter even more than 2 1/2 days.

I spent all day cleaning and getting things ready. Some other accomplishments that are out of the way are that mom and I are finished making the curtains that we planned. The term "helping" my mom is used very loosely. I ironed a bit and cut a bit and she pretty much whipped them out.

Also, Aaron is just about done with the deck we started. The foundation, floor, and bench are done. All that is left is the railing. It should only take a good day's work left or two short working days. Aaron also put the Christmas tree up and some of the Christmas lights, however we still have more decorations and such to put up but I am not going to worry about it now. I have bigger things on my mind like having to care for another person in less than 2 days.....ahhh! I am starting to get nervous.