Peter Pan

Connor loves to play with his shadow when it decides to come out and play. The other day he went up to the wall and said "high five" and then "boom!" While saying those phrases he high fived and fist bumped his shadow/the wall.

He sure is curious. I love him!

Excited

I feel like this year I am SO excited for Christmas! I don't know why I felt so Scroogy last year, but this year is completely different. 

Our day usually starts off with Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and then we follow that with The Polar Express. I guess that definitely helps with the mood, but it's always fun hearing Connor saying "Tanta." 

One thing this year I have definitely learned is online shopping is fantastic! Shopping with a toddler that has the attention span of a fly and being pregnant has been quite daunting, however Amazon has saved the day! I signed up for a free trial of their Amazon Prime (in which I just cancelled), and so I received most packages within 2 days of ordering. {cheers!}

I'm just excited to GIVE this year! 

I guess this year has just been so crazy with Brandon's job loss, having to move, being pregnant, etc etc, I feel like this Holiday season is a good way to look over this year and be truly grateful for everything we have. I know I can't help but look around our house with the tree lit up and think how blessed we are! 

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season! We have 6 days till Christmas and I'm stoked!

Merry Christmas!

15 Weeks

I am officially 15 weeks today on this second pregnancy. 

Did you ever think growing up that there are really so many complications with pregnancy? I know I sure didn't. I remember growing up thinking I'd meet a great guy, fall in love get married and we'd start a family. You never really hear about all the scary things that can happen during the pregnancy. 

This pregnancy has been a little bit harder on me than Connor was. With him I didn't really have complications until I went preeclamptic, which caused an early delivery, but everything turned out fine. This baby however has made me bleed twice {sorry if that's TMI}. Once at 9 weeks, and then another time at 14 weeks, on the dot. At 9 weeks we found out everything was fine, no issues...However at 14 weeks we found out that I have a low lying placenta. The doctor was really nice and said the majority of woman that have this issue early on it goes away {as the belly and baby get bigger, the placenta will rise up}. I'm constantly praying that will happen, because if it doesn't, and it does eventually cover my whole cervix I'll have to have a c-section. 

Now the c-section doesn't scare me. Recovery with a rowdy boy does. Connor loves to run, jump and climb on me, and I just worry that it would be really hard for him to understand. But we're having a lot of faith that things will change. I've seen my Heavenly Father's hand throughout this pregnancy already, and I know he'll continue to watch and protect our family. 

Good news is we find out January 17th. Mark your calendars and let me know your guesses! {We do have a regular check up December 26th, to check on heartbeat and things too}

Car Problems

There is nothing ever good about car problems. Ever.

A few weeks ago, Brandon, Connor and I were coming home from a BYU game one of our tires blew out on I-15. Now this had never happened to me before, so I was kind of lets say upset...(ok hysterical). I was so stressed! We were on a part of I-15 where people are driving 80+ mph, two lanes, and lots of big semi's (to paint a small picture for you). Luckily Brandon's parents weren't too far ahead of us so they turned around and my FIL helped Brandon change the tire. We drove home extremely slow, but got home safely.

So we had to get two new front tires this week, and since we did that we knew we needed an alignment. Well we got the tires (which are never cheap), and then went to get the alignment yesterday. The mechanics called Brandon saying they couldn't do the alignment because some parts weren't working on our car, they needed to be replaced on both sides. Awesome, so we had to do that, then our front brakes were practically gone. So new brakes too. YAY (only a hint of sarcasm there). 

In all honesty I kind of had a feeling we were going to be spending more on the car (not necessarily $300+ more), but still. On the way there I had an extremely comforting feeling, and even though we found out we had to spend way more than we wanted I knew everything would be okay. Now the weird thing is Brandon was stressing so much about it (which if you know us, I'm the one that stresses over money). We were able to talk about it later, and thank heavens for the comforting Holy Ghost, we were both able to know we'd be okay. 

During all the car trouble issues, I had a friend post this quote on Facebook (which I later posted as well...so shoot me, I really like it). “The spirit of the gospel is optimistic; it trusts in God and looks on the bright side of things. The opposite or pessimistic spirit drags men down and away from God, looks on the dark side, murmurs, complains, and is slow to yield obedience.” Orsen F. Whitney. Things are really tight (financially, but aren't they always?), but we need to look at the positives. We have been blessed so much this year, and things always turn out for the best, we just need the faith it takes to get through the trials. I know my Heavenly Father won't give me a trial I cannot overcome, because not only he is always with me, but so is my great husband. 

Family History

I get into these moods where I'll search my family history for temple work that needs to get done. It's quite addicting actually! The thing is most of the work that needs to be done is well EVERYTHING. Baptisms/Confirmations/Initiatories/Endowments, even a few sealings once all that work is done. 

The thing is we're going to the temple soon, and I know we'll probably just do an endowment session, but I was hoping to do some family work, I was able to find some male work that can be done, but no female (unless we start from the beginning). Anyway, I'm still excited to go to the temple, it's been WAY too long... 

On a complete side note, as I was looking into my family history I found some royalty! How sweet is that? I got pretty excited. I found a lot of Kings, Queens and Princesses of England. I also found a Princess of Scotland, some Kings and Queens of Norway too. One of the Kings was slain in battle revenging his brother, that's a pretty neat story! The best thing I found was...

Temple work was COMPELTED for the King of Franks, Farabert Metz and his wife Mrs. Farabert Queen of Franks and their daughter. The time frame they're from is 138-230 AD! How cool that that work is completed! I was even able to go back as for as 63 BC before the site started to hiccup.

Anyway, I better get back to real life, playing with Connor and I have some work to do today too! Have a good day!

Planner

I am a planner. I've always wanted to be spontaneous, and be able to drop everything and do whatever. But lets be honest...I'm not like that. I get anxiety, I stress, I'm a mess basically. 

Since we've moved we've had to make a lot of adjustments to our budget. Things have been tighter, but our family has grown so strong. Our Heavenly Father has also blessed us in many ways so that we've been able to make ends meet each month. Some ways have been unexpected, and it's been nice to finally not be so stressed. I feel like we're finally getting into a 'norm' again. 

I'd like to think 'money wise', I'm great with money (who wouldn't want to think that of themselves?). We pay our tithing, and bills on time. We aren't late on anything, however we're still in debt (lovely). This morning I had some thoughts on how we could slightly speed up our debt reduction. It's not elaborate, and it's honestly quite simple after I wrote it down! After I wrote it down I thought, umm, why have I waited so long to think about this, this can be so simple. 

Will things continue to be tight? Sure, but I have a plan! If we can be dedicated to it (which might be hard during the holidays), I think we can really make things work and pay some things off! 

Since I brought up the holidays, I felt like last year I was such a scrooge...But hear me out, I hate how everyone goes crazy over the holidays over presents, and how many they got etc, etc etc. Christmas just isn't about presents, and I didn't want Connor growing up thinking that Christmas is only about getting the coolest new toy. Last year we implemented a new tradition, we each got 4 presents, something we wanted, something we needed, something to wear, and something spiritual. I liked how it was so simple, and we had more thought into the gifts. 

Are you a planner or are you more spontaneous? 

What are some fun traditions that you like to do for the Holidays?

Fears

Some people are afraid of spiders, or heights, others are afraid of snakes or speaking in public . One of my biggest fears since we've had Connor is a second child. Now this doesn't quite makes sense since I want a decent sized family, but hear me out. 

Naps. When you have a second (or third, etc) child you can't take a nap when the first is napping. Nap time is very important to me, or just a little downtime during the day so I don't go crazy. (Call me selfish, but I need me time every day).

Feedings. How do you feed a newborn/toddler at the same time...I'm pretty sure this is when a few more arms could come in handy. 

Keeping everyone happy. Seriously, how do you calm a newborn down and comfort it, when your toddler is wanting attention and to play.

Housework. When there's one munchkin running around like a monster, toys everywhere, a newborn that wants to be constantly held, when can you clean? How does your house stay semi-decent? The easy thing to say is at night, and yes that solves the toddler situation, but what about the newborn, they still need to eat every few hours, and nursing/lack of sleep is exhausting. 

Can you tell I've thought about this a lot. Lets be honest, there are times with Connor when I think he might be an only child. He has such a HUGE personality and an even bigger temper (awesome). On the same note, he is also starting to help out a lot more, he'll pick up things around the house, throw things away, he helps me move clothes from the washer to the dryer, he can even brush his own teeth...well kind of.

About a week or so ago I've had to face this fear. Yes, we secretly moved to Cache Valley so nobody would know about our second child. Haha, kidding. At the end of July my sister in law had her darling baby girl, she has since had to return to work and I've offered to help her by watching baby L. 

To be honest there are good and bad times. This week more so good then bad, but that's the whole process of life isn't it? Connor is getting better at being soft and learning to play little games with her like patty cake. baby L on the other hand is learning to sleep with lots of noise! I am definitely learning patience and time management. I'm doing my best to let Connor feel loved and not ignored as much as possible, while still not forgetting about baby L.

So maybe when it comes down to it, I'll be able to figure out how to manage two children for 24/7 when I need too, but not quite yet. Till then I'll enjoy all the fun games and songs with Connor, and I'll sneak in any snuggle time with baby L too.

What are your fears?