I love food :)

I'm to the point in my pregnancy that instead of eating meals, I tend to graze all day. From the moment I wake up until my head hits the pillow, I'm putting food in my mouth. It's kind of hard not to because my stomach is getting squished so I can only eat a little bit.

The problem? I lose the ability to stop eating. I start to eat when I'm not hungry. After all of my pregnancies, I have had to make a conscious effort to stop eating all the time.

I'm not hungry but I'm still eating. I'm eating Cheez-Its and Sprite. I know. It's bad.

Merril went to Japan...

Okay, so before time slips away from me, I need to mention that Merril went to Japan for a week during the first part of December!  He was going to the Tokyo car show with some buddies from Australia and visiting missionary companions.  Merril served a mission in Japan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 2 years from 1997-1999.  This trip was his first time back.  He was gone for a week and a half.  So here are some of the pictures that I liked best from his trip.  

He walked past the Cup 'O Noodles Museum and thought it was funny that there was a whole museum dedicated to Cup 'O Noodles.  

This was a cool Christmas tree in Tokyo.

Merril and his friend, Hiro, went to this Shinto shrine and Hiro bought an Omamori, which is kind of like a blessing.  You can buy all different kinds of blessings and he bought a blessing for me and a healthy baby.  Hiro and his wife actually went the following Sunday to this Shinto shrine to bless their new baby.

This is Merril in Kyoto at a Buddhist temple.

Here's more of the Buddhist temple.

This is Kinkakuji, a famous Buddhist temple in Kyoto, which is covered in real gold.

Here's Merril on the streets of Tokyo.

This is a funny Japanese sign telling people to run from a tsunami when you hear the tsunami warning sound instead of continuing to swim.

Here's a Japanese van that was at the car show.  Mooneyes put on the car show.

Merril flew standby and was bumped up to first class for the flight over.  He said it was very relaxing and the food was really good.  On the way home, the flight was pretty empty and he got 4 seats to himself and laid down and slept the best he's ever slept on a plane.

He was so busy he said it felt like he was only gone for a couple of days.  (It felt different for me and the kids.)  After he flew from Tokyo to LAX, he drove to Seattle, WA to pick up his newly purchased work truck.  Then drove home.  For a few days afterwards, he'd sleep all night, wake up for a few hours, nap at 11 a.m., wake up again and fall asleep on the couch at 7 p.m.  But now his sleeping habits are back to normal.

His new truck needs some work (of course) but it was a screaming deal.  Before and after pictures to come.

Mac & cheese alternate name...

So the other night, Merril and I planned to go out to dinner and so we needed to make something for the kids to eat before we left. We decided on macaroni & cheese and vegetables for the kids.

I didn't have any upstairs so I sent Maxine down to the food storage room to grab a box.  She came back up and said, "Just so you know, this is the last box of We're going out to a nice dinner and this is what we're feeding the kids."  (Peals of laughter from Maxine)  I replied, "Okay, I'll get more."  :)

Coming to terms...

So over Thanksgiving, I was laying on a couch and hoping to fall asleep. I was with my whole family and I could hear my Mom and sisters in the kitchen talking. They were talking about cleanliness. Somehow the conversation turned to clean houses. Now I know my house is not the cleanest, especially when compared to my sisters. But it still bothered me when my Mom said that my house wasn't as clean as theirs. So I've been mulling it over in my brain since then and trying to make a better effort to keep my house picked up.

And then it occurred to me, I choose spending time with my family vs. cleaning my house. When Merril says, "Do you want to go to the sand dunes?" and I have a sink full of dirty dishes, I totally choose going to the sand dunes. I think of all those people who lay on their death beds and wish they'd spent more time with their families. Nobody lays on their death bed thinking, "I wish my house had been cleaner!" So after thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that YES, my house isn't as clean as it could be. I've traded a super clean house for time with my husband and family. And I'm okay with that. (There's always time to have a SUPER clean house later.)

Maxine's Christmas recital and our tree...

Maxine's Christmas recital was last night. She was pretty nervous but played excellently. She played "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and "Auld Lang Syne".

(There were more pictures but other kids were in them. I don't want an irate parent mad at me for putting their child's face on the internet.)

And I had a request for our Christmas tree so here it is.

There's only 1 stocking hung on the wall so far but I'm hanging the rest today. My Mom and sisters tend to have those really pretty, professionally decorated-looking Christmas trees. Mine is made up of ornaments I've collected over the years and some balls. These are some of my favorites!

This is a Ravensburger puzzle ball ornament. 60 puzzle pieces snap together to make an ornament. We think they're fun and tear them apart every year so we can assemble them next year.


This ball is a hand blown glass ornament that was hand painted in Venice, IT. We bought it when we were visiting Italy as a family during Christmastime. That was 5 years ago.


These paper stars were brought back from Sweden by Merril's little sister, Megan. A light is inserted and they glow. I'm very fond of them.

There's a collection of kid picture ornaments. Maxine made this in preschool.

This Hallmark ornament was the first one I ever collected. It was given to me by Grandma G.


Under our tree lies our baby Jesus in the manger. When the kids do selfless deeds, they get to put a straw in the manger. The goal is to have it full by Christmas.

Other than that, I'm just trying to get things finished up and wrapped. I keep telling myself it's fine and I still have 2 weeks left. I'm usually done by now but I'm lagging behind this year. :) Merry Christmas!

Chia Obama...Hilarious!

I was just died laughing because I saw a commercial for a Chia Obama. The commercial made it seem like having a Chia Obama would be a great tribute to our President. I had the exact opposite impression.

Earrings...

We put the kids "to bed" at 8:00 p.m. but I don't really make them lay down and fall asleep until 8:30 or so. So I sent the kids off to their rooms at 8:00 and started to watch a movie. Maxine and Juliet came into the living room about 20 minutes later and said they'd made earrings. (My girls can't get their ears pierced until they're 10 so they love dress up earrings.) They'd cut a beaded necklace and taped it to their ears. I thought they were really cute and creative.

(Jack looks like some crazy stalker that's going to jump them and steal those earrings)

As a side note, I wrapped presents today! I hadn't wrapped any so far and my tree looked so sad without some presents underneath it. So I wrapped until I ran out of tape and gift tags. :)

P.S. I've procrastinated something I have to do today. Bummer. I really put things off sometimes! One of my less desirable qualities.

"It's a Wonderful Life"...Fabulous Movie!!

It's Christmas time so I always have to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" at least once. We received a black and white copy on VHS which allows me to watch it in its entirety, something I never was able to do as a kid. As a youth I always seemed to catch the movie part way through. My sister, Jeannie, hadn't seen it all the way through until a couple of years ago. If you haven't, I'm going to make a plea to you to do so immediately.

From Wikipedia: The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody. Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and the contribution he has made to his community.

It's #1 on the American Film Institutes most inspirational American films of all time. George feels like a failure because he doesn't have any money and hasn't done anything huge in his life but learns, no man is a failure who has friends. Makes me smile and cry every time. :)

Taking pictures...

I like to take pictures of my family and possibly my garden. I don't particularly like to take pictures "professionally." My Mom thinks I take pretty pictures and could easily get paid, although I'm not sure my Mother is a trusted source. (Not because she doesn't look at pictures but because she's my Mom, she has to say stuff like that.) I think I take pretty good pictures but if I take them for other people, then the pressure is on. What if they're blurry, what if the lighting is bad? What if I'm really not that good at taking pictures because I've never taken a photography class in my life and I'm really just messing around with all the settings until the pictures look right?

For the most part, if I take pictures for other people, then it becomes work, not fun. I'm stuck for hours in front of my computer in post production until my eyes are tired and my mouse hand starts to look like a claw. Anyway, I'm rambling. It's just how I felt today.

A freshly cut tree...

The day before Thanksgiving, we headed out to cut down a Christmas tree. Anticipating being out of town for the whole Thanksgiving weekend, we wanted to get our tree cut down early. Then we could decorate it after we got back. (I'm against putting up Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving, a curse from a guy I dated.) So we headed out with our snow gear. It was quite pleasant outside, but the kids still got decked out in full gear. They were so happy to play in the snow.




Merril found a fabulous tree and cut it down. It was located at the bottom of a hill and the Tahoe was at the top. So I helped him drag it up the steep parts and then let him do the rest. It was the first year we've tied the tree to the top of the car. (We've always had a truck or trailer or something.)

I was there too, sipping hot chocolate. This picture is wiggy, but everything else the kids took was out of focus or too dark to enhance.

After cutting and playing, we sipped hot chocolate or apple cider and ate ginger spice cookies. It was a wonderful time!

The kids wanted me to take a picture of them sleeping. FYI: They're all awake and posing for a picture.

On the way home, we had to make a quick fix because the wind gusted and blew the tree sideways on the roof. Luckily it didn't fall off, just turned sideways.

It was righted and we continued on our way. During this trip, I thought about the tradition of cutting down a fresh tree for Christmas. Merril only started cutting trees when we got married, but I can't remember a single Christmas in my whole life that I didn't go cut a tree. I thought that was pretty darn great.

Loving technology...

I love YouTube.

I spend more time than I should there. I watch old movies broken into 9 minute segments, trailers, music videos, etc. I think YouTube is great. However, I've lately come to despise the comments people make about videos. If people don't like the video, they can swear in the comment and it rarely gets removed. So I turned to my old friend, the internet, to see what could be done to rid myself of expletive-ridden comments. :)

We use Google Chrome for our internet browser and an extension for Chrome can be downloaded to simply eliminate YouTube comments. Can you believe that awesomeness??! After downloading the extension, my YouTube pages load totally void of annoying comments replaced by beautiful blank white space. I love techology.

Wahoo we didn't all die!

So today is November 11, 2011, otherwise known as 11.11.11. It's pretty catchy. If I could've planned it, I would've had our 4th kid today. (I don't need it to come 3 months early so we're just going to let it cook a little bit longer.) I'm glad I wasn't in Egypt today because the great pyramid of Giza was closed because of 11-11-11. (Because of the crazy people) Merril and I were just glad that bombs didn't drop and the world didn't come to an end. Merril did, however, go to the Verizon store, which opened at 11:11 a.m., to purchase a new phone. Maybe it'll be good luck and he won't go through this phone in a matter of months. (He's hard on phones.)

We should've done something fun but we just went through the whole day doing normal Friday things. Tomorrow I'm making blueberry muffins for breakfast. Doesn't that sound good?

Isn't that a lot of oatmeal?

Jack really likes oatmeal for breakfast. He probably eats it almost every single day, something that I think is nuts but whatever. I used to buy oatmeal at places like Wal-Mart but in the last year or so, I decided to buy it at the LDS cannery in 25 lbs. bags.

(This is not my picture, nor my kitchen.)

It's cheaper to buy it at the cannery but I feel silly with so much oatmeal for some reason. In my pantry, I have a 5-gallon bucket of flour, sugar, and oatmeal. Who keeps oatmeal in a 5-gallon container in their pantry? It just seems ridiculously excessive. However, the amount of oatmeal diminishes in the bucket at such an alarming rate, I really can't see any other alternative. I just think it's weird.

P.S. Less than 100 days to go until bambino...yikes!

Jack lost his first tooth...

So Jack lost his first tooth on Wednesday! He was really excited to get a gold dollar coin from the tooth fairy!

Unrelated: I'm 25 weeks along. Only 3 1/2 months to go!

Storytelling Festival...

Maxine's school holds a storytelling festival for grades 3-5. Kids compete in 4 different categories: adventure, mystery, folk tale, and fairy tale. Maxine competed with kids in the upper grades but still placed 1st in the folk tale category! She was really excited to get a trophy.

Halloween 2011...

It seems like last week was super busy. There was Halloween events and Red Ribbon Week at the school. Merril and I had Halloween parties on Friday. We dressed up as Napolean Dynamite and Pedro. I had originally wanted to be Napolean's girl friend but my hair is too short for the side ponytail and I'm too pregnant not to notice. I thought it'd just be weird.

Juliet was a black cat, Maxine was a mean witch, and Jack was a stitched up race car driver.

The kids went to Halloween parties, costume parades and trunk or treating before actually going house to house for real trick or treating.

They have soooo much candy.....that I'll be eating.

Odds and ends...

We went to a family reunion with Merril's family last weekend. I totally brought my camera in anticipation of taking pictures of all the cousins playing and all I snapped was this picture of a wagon train on the way to the cabin. It has nothing to do with our family but I still thought it was neat. I have never seen a reenactment wagon train so I pulled over so the kids and myself could get a better look. This is just a small section of the wagon train, it was quite long.


Other than that, I'm 23 weeks pregnant (5 months to anybody who needs a translation) and feeling great. We went for a hike on Saturday and I probably hiked a mile.

I know, I'm still small. I've gained 15 pounds so far and am feeling a little apprehensive as the end draws nearer. The only apprehension is that my easy life will become more difficult. My children are very self-sufficient and I do quite a lot without having to worry about diapers, wipes, extra food, baby toys, etc. The days of burp cloths, diaper rash ointment, and high chairs have been behind me for a while. So even though I smile when I feel bambino dance around my insides, I still sigh when I hear a crying infant and see its mother take him or her out because that reality is coming post haste. :)

Apple Orchard...

This is a little out of order but we went to a nearby apple orchard at the beginning of October and I didn't want to forget about it. (I haven't been as diligent about blogging lately and bothers me that our family history isn't as complete.)

So we as we started picking, it started raining. Luckily, we were in Grandma's car and she had a big umbrella.


Jack really liked the umbrella and kept trying to be a ninja.

Juliet disliked her sloshy flip flops and carried them after a while. This picture is a little blurry since I took it quickly as we ran back to the car. I love how Maxine is giving a thumbs up sign. Not quite sure why I was getting the thumbs up. Maybe the trip was a success.

Just a little hike...

So Dan M. thinks it'd be fun to go on a hike to some petroglyphs and talks some suckers into it. After 45 miles of dirt road (16 miles of it being crappy, muddy dirt road) we arrive at said hiking destination out on the Arizona Strip. "The road should be fine!" I should've known better. This coming from a guy who called 911 after getting dehydrated and lost on a mountain not 3 months ago. It's just who Dan is, no point in fighting it.

Seriously, we had a fun time I was just expecting to be back earlier in the day. The weather was perfect for hiking! See me bringing up the rear? I'm in the red shirt way up the hillside. Max and Merril are in the foreground.

The hike was 7 miles round trip, 3.5 miles in and the same back out. Since the whole family went, I anticipated turning around early. Juliet hung in there and hiked with a great attitude. Just over 2 miles, Juliet said she was getting tired. The 2 of us probably hiked around 4.5 miles total. Grandpa, Grandma and Jack probably turned around about the 2.5 mile mark.

Here's Max, cousin Lizzie, cousin Stephanie, Grandpa C. and Jack.

Maxine, after some tears and inner struggles, decided to hike the whole thing and wouldn't give up. She made it all the way to the petroglyphs at Shaman's Gallery.


Juliet and I hiked pleasantly back to the cars and got back about 45 minutes before everyone else. This view is from the top of the hike. It was the end of the day.

I hear the petroglyphs were amazing but I had fun just going for a hike. My calves are sore. Otherwise, I felt great during the hike. It's going to take several more days to get all the clay mud off the Tahoe. It's sooooo very muddy.

Healthy baby...

We had an ultrasound today and the baby is healthy and measures perfectly. It's not twins, despite what my friend Val kept saying. Thankfully, it's just one baby and it looks great. The doctor was unable to tell the gender because the cord and its feet were in the way. Sorry people, even the doctor doesn't know the gender. And here is a generally fuzzy, you won't know what you're really looking at ultrasound pic. It's a picture of its nose and upper lip. Imagine you're looking at someone face to face and their head is tilted back so you can see the two nostrils, mouth open slightly, eyes are blacked out and in the shadow.

She had a hard time getting a look because its arms were both up by its face. All the other pictures look really skeletal. This is the only one that looks like a real face. So anyway, there it is. Factoid for the day: I learned the difference between a miscarriage and a stillborn is 20 weeks old. If you have it before 20 weeks-miscarriage, after 20 weeks-stillborn. And now you know.

Halfway there...

Last Thursday I hit the 20-week mark which means I'm halfway there! All right!! All I can report is that I have an ultrasound on the 6th of October and we won't be finding out the gender of the baby. :) Sorry. Other than that, I feel really good. Sleeping is hard with allergies and I'm not taking anything for the congestion besides saline nasal spray. But I often get a nap in so it all evens out. Ultrasound details to follow, hopefully nothing out of the ordinary.

IT LIVES!!!

My phone survived!! I'm using it again today (after disinfecting it of course)! YIPPEE!! Other than that, Jack had to have some dental work done this morning and he was sedated because he freaked out yesterday at the dentist. He has chewed his bottom lip so bad that it's swollen and seriously messed up. He's prone to cankers so I bet his whole bottom lip becomes one gigantic canker. He's on antibiotics to help with the infection.

He is sticking his bottom lip out a teeny bit but he really looks like Bubba from Forest Gump. (You think I'm kidding. I'm dead serious.) This is a profile, now that he's not trying to look sad and his face is relaxed.

I'm praying the antibiotics keep the cankers to a minimum. Yikes.

Feeling a little dumb...

I just dropped my phone in the toilet. Luckily the toilet just had water in it and nothing else so I grabbed it immediately. I pulled the battery and dried it off as well as I could. Currently the disassembled pieces of my phone are sitting outside drying out. If I'm lucky, I haven't done any huge damage and I'll be able to use my phone tomorrow. But for now, I won't be answering my texts or making any calls.

I miss you.

Crazy cookies...

Last night I went to the Relief Society General broadcast. The broadcast was great but a funny highlight were the refreshments. They were sugar cookies cut in half and folded over with pink icing and white marshmallow teeth. They look like smiles. :) I believe the acronym was SMILE: Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal. All I could see is a blog post with funny smiley cookies.

Road vs. Face

The kids were playing in the water out in the front yard on Saturday. Maxine got her hair all wet and jumped on her bike with the intention of shaking water on the other kids. She closed her eyes and shook her head and fell off her bike. Her face hit the pavement; since her eyes were closed, she didn't even get a hand up to protect her face. She said she didn't even realize she was falling until she hit the ground.

Day 1: Red scratched face, says it really hurts

Day 2: Swollen eye and cheek, scratches have scabbed, still hurts

Day 3: Swollen purple eye, scratches are looking better, doesn't hurt

Her eye is very purple and green now and the scratches are continuing to heal. She seriously looks like Rocky Balboa when she first wakes up. This morning there was less swelling around her eye but she still looks pretty bad, very bruised. She also scratched up her knuckles, knee, and shoulder. My kids have been supremely lucky and this was the first scary accident for her and me. I told her it's too bad she didn't wreck her bike right before Halloween: we totally could've made it part of some gruesome costume. :)