It's Not You It's Me

Because I am feeling anti social....

Because I have a list a mile long of things to clean....

Because I am fairly sure this is considered "Nesting"...

Because every muscle in my body hurts at one time or another. Either from baby or trying to sanitize every inch of our house....

I shall share with you what I like to call "Death of a garden, a lawn, and a tree."

With no words.

You can thank me later.

OK just one more thing.

Some sugar snap peas survived. So far.

We are crossing our fingers for the cucumbers. Out look is grim.

Zucchini is alive and producing like little rabbits.
Carrots and Beets- R.I.P

Crap Comes In Threes

I said the other day that I had an appointment for Noon. Let me expand on that a bit.
The nurse called the other day and said that they had scheduled my date and that the time was at 12:00.
My first reaction:
"Noon?"
To which she responded with a meager "yeah. Sorry."
"Man you are going to make a girl starve all day?" I said in a charming but somewhat pitty party way.

All I could say when I got off the phone was "Crap. Noon?" "Crap. Noon?"
You see, when I had Canon my appointment was set for 7 am. We had to arrive there at 5:45. It was early, sure. But I didn't really sleep the night before anyways and was anxious for the day.
I am sure I will be getting no sleep the night before with this one either and I get to not eat or drink anything ALL morning. Then on top of it I will be thinking about how they are going to slice open my stomach at Noon.
Needless to say. Crap. Noon.For the most part I had moved past the Noon angst.
Then the next day Canon had broken this pig with balloons on it's back that we had bought for Laney for her first Christmas.
I fixed it and then thought that I should probably put it away from tiny hands for a little bit.
So I put it on our mantel.
Then I saw glass.
Sadness.
This picture. I love it.
It was given to my Great Grandma Hannah as a wedding present.
It hung in my Grandparents house, in my Mom's house and now in mine.
The glass is the original so when you look at it from an angle you can see little bubbles and waves.
It is part of its charm.
And now the glass is broken.
I don't know how.
But I do know that I am sad. Very sad.

When I called Blake to tell him about the breaking glass he thought it would be fun to inform me that "Crap comes in Threes."
Gee thanks hun.
It took a few days but sure enough it came.
There is a tree in our back yard.
I have talked about it earlier.
(The branches fell off and almost hit Laney. Scaring her for life and making it so that she is now scared when it is windy. That may be another story all on its own.)

Well...another branch fell the other day.
It was fairly big.
The landlords decided to have the tree removed.
We are OK with that. We would rather have the tree out than have branches randomly drop on our children. (I just had visions of the wizard of Oz where the wicked witch has a house drop on her. Morbid much?)
Well the bad news is....
Drum roll.....
They will have to bring in a crane to get out the bigger pieces.
The bigger pieces will have to go through our side gate.
Right where my garden is.
Good bye dear friend.

At least I will still have my pepper plants and tomatoes and herbs.

If I have to look at the bright side it will go in this order.

• At 12 we will have a new sweet baby to call our own.
  
• We can replace the glass and the picture and the frame will still be the originals.
• There will no longer be any random branches falling from the trees and come Wednesday we will have lots of little carrots to eat.
  

Seven

Well my friends, It is official.

The date is scheduled and it is 7 weeks from last Friday.

August 27th the baby is coming.

My time is set for Noon.

Don't get me started on that.

I have you know that we are now 47 days and counting.
The Farmers market is open in Salt Lake.
I couldn't be happier.
I hope that we get to go at least 7 more times before the little one comes.
My sister and I took the kids and went on Saturday.
I got some yummy bread with roasted garlic, more bread, and some honey.
I am hoping that by going to the farmers market I will be able to keep up with my habit of eating a gazillion times a day.

Pine-A-Lope

This last week Blake had Friday and Monday off. It was a nice little vacation at home.

Truth be told I am still kinda on Vacation.

I can't seem to accomplish much, nor do I care.

I have a lot of projects that I would like to start...I just can't find the way to...well...start them.

I have already started to think about our Halloween costumes.

I am aware that it is only July.

Hear me out.

I have until August till baby comes.

Then I have the month of September to regroup, take lots of anxiety meds (just kidding...kinda), and deal with the fact that we have 4 kids ages 5 and under.

Deep breath.

Then that only leaves me a month at best to crank out 6 costumes.

So I am prepping now.

I like to follow the advise of wise folks when they say "Be prepared."

Although I am sure it has nothing to do with Halloween costumes.

I think it is still open to interpretation.

Who ha. Blah Blah Blah.

The point is:

Life is pretty normal around here.

We are trying to avoid running into walls.

But that doesn't seem to be turning out so well.

And while life is normal. It is never That normal.

Just come over to our house.

You can have fruit that you have never heard of for dinner.

When The Dog Bites, When The Bee Stings, When I'm Feeling Sad

A few of my favorite things:

Pepperoni pizza with jalapenos. So good.

I bought some mint melt aways the other day and have been loving them.
Blake loves mint Oreos so he says they aren't allowed in the house because he eats them all.
I feel the same way about these.
They may have to be banished soon. I know that a lint roller is a silly thing to love but have you ever tried it on a dusty lamp shade?
It is like a little slice of heaven.
It is dusty in our house here in Utah.
I am assuming that 1953 filtration is not the best.
Just a hunch.
My dear dear friend Mr. Clean.
If you can clean floors and walls and remove crayon marks and floor scuffs and give my house a nice clean scent while containing Febreze so that I don't have any residual odor....you would be my favorite too.

Year One

Today marks the day that we moved here.

One year ago we became Utah residents.

Not much has changed with the exception of our living arrangements.

(Which are much more enjoyable.)

We are all older.

Happier most of the time.

Still unpacking random things.

Settled.

Adjusting to the weather.

Adding another kid to the mix.

Growing a garden.

Still a one car family.

Sticking together.

Making it work.

Friday

Just An Average Day At Our House

We have got the basics:

Purse- Laney carries this around constantly. It has all of her treasures in it such as: pet shops, blanket, stuffed monkey, and various other things that change with her mood.
Outfit- Laney dresses herself and so therefore we normally end up with some rocking color combinations.
Tights- A must have at our house. No matter what the temperature Laney is most likely sporting tights. Superhero- He comes in various forms but is always called the same thing at our house by this little guy: Superman.
Sound effects- If you get to close to where the noise is coming from you will most likely get covered in spit.

Sippycup- Could be "favorite" if the spot wasn't already occupied by Raccoon.
Love- On occasion the World is a happy place at our house.
Reality- Then the picture is shattered and you are smacked in the face by the facts. Love is nice but only for a minute then it starts to get on your nerves and you just want your siblings to get their paws off of you.

I Think I Need A Hobby

While trying to occupy my time and work with what I got...
this is what I have come up with. A whole lot of hair clips.

Better Late Than Never

I can think of a million reasons I love you.

One of them is that you gave me these little Monsters to raise with you.

I hope you had a good Fathers Day.

Child Labor

At our house we have implemented a chore chart. It seems to be working well.

We told the kids that they have to complete 4 jobs a day in order to receive a quarter per day.

Their jobs are things like: cleaning their rooms, picking up dirty clothes, setting and clearing the table, making their beds and sweeping.

Laney has gotten a quarter every day since we have started. Gavin is not quiet as diligent and has found a way to be a little more sneaky about it.

Yesterday Gavin picked up his toys before quiet time, made his bed, picked up his dirty clothes, and cleared the table.

After realizing that he had already completed 4 jobs he decided to not clean up his room before bed.

So Laney did it, all by herself while Gavin read a book.

Sneaky sneaky.

The other day the kids got to take their money to Target to buy a toy. We counted out their quarters, paid tithing, and then put their quarters in a baggie to take to the store.

I am not sure what Laney was more excited about. Buying a toy or being able to give her money "to the Prophet so he can give it to Jesus."

We have explained many times that she will not be able to give her money to the Prophet that she will just give it to the Bishop. She has told me that "I will give my money to the Prophet and then Heavenly Father will come down and get it."

It's a work in progress.

Just Trucking Along

Our days lately consist of most of the same things over and over again.
Blake has been working a lot. In between work and Youngmens I am lucky if I see him 3 nights a week.

The kids and I have just been kicking it.
Waiting for the baby to come out.
Keeping ourselves occupied.
Trying not to lose our minds and go stir crazy.

In other news...The baby will most likely be born on August 27th. Unless she decides that she wants to come out early. Which I highly doubt. She seems to be fairly content in there.

A Smorgasbord Of Usless Information

• Laney was playing with the keys yesterday and lost them. I told the kids that they were not allowed to play with any toys until the keys were found. After about 5 seconds of looking Gavin told me "we are never going to find the keys." My reply was "Well, if you never find the keys then you will never play with toys again." That must of lit some fire under him because about 2 minutes later he came prancing in with the keys declaring that he had found them under Laney's kitchen. Because that is a perfectly acceptable place to put keys.

• I am on a self imposed one month shopping ban. (Mind you: I do get an allowance. I am just forgoing said allowance.) Not having a car and still not having good friends that you hang out with is hard. Normally when I am bored I start perusing the Internet. I normally come across some deal or item...one thing leads to another...and I find myself the owner of a new pair of shoes, or shirt, or belt, or dress, or skirt, you get the idea. I have decided that being bored is fiscally straining. Perhaps my next pick up line for a friend should be "Hi, I'm Hannah. I have three kids and one on the way. My kids will outnumber your kids 2 to 1. But I am willing to give this friendship a go because...well...lets face it. Being bored is not good for my bank account. So you in?"
• In my attempt to stay busy I have found lots of things to make. Most of them being pillows. I am not really sure where I am going to put all of these pillows when I am done. I suppose I could just stack them up one right on top of the other and build a bed. Then the kids and I could play a game like "can you feel that car shoved in between the pillows?" Kind of like the princess and the pea. Only I am going to use a car or some other toy. Who wants a pea squished on their new pillows?
• I have also made a lot of hair bows.
  
• Canon calls anything with wheels a choo choo train. Which I find completely adorable.
• Our garden is growing nicely. We have had some snails eating my plants which makes me a little hostile. The other day we sprinkled slug and snail bait down to kill the little suckers. I told our kids it was to kill the bugs. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I wanted to kill the snails. They love snails, in their little shell...looking all innocent. Vultures.
• I replanted zucchini plants 3 times this year. Every time I have planted them they have died. I was complaining to my mom one day about this and she laughed at me. "Zucchini plants are weeds." Well, this girl could not get that weed to grow for the life of her. What does that say about me and my green thumb? After much lamenting about how I couldn't even grow a weed, guess what decided to finally sprout? Moral of the story, I guess I can grow a weed. I feel super accomplished.
  

Preschool Graduation

Gavin had his preschool graduation this last Friday.

They sang songs that they had learned.

They also gave little talks about what they liked about preschool and what they had learned.

It was about 30 minutes total and for that I am eternally grateful.

These are all of the kids in Gavin's class.

The girl sitting next to him is Mandy. When I went on a field trip with them once Gavin and Mandy were holding hands as they were walking.
The kid in the middle with the shirt in his mouth is Nico.
He was making farting noises with his armpit throughout the entire program.
Oh, the things you learn from having older siblings.

Baby 101

I am now 27 weeks along.

• This little girl is not a big mover and shaker. The doctor says it is because the placenta is at the front of my stomach so it makes it harder for me to feel her.
• We are hoping that the doctor will do the c-section on the 25th of Aug. Which means I have less than 3 months to go.
  
• When I wake up during the middle of the night I have the hardest time falling back to sleep. It normally takes me anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. (At the 2 hour times I am about ready to lose it.)
• I think my appetite has finally leveled out. Thank goodness.
• I still weigh the same amount I did when I was this pregnant with Canon.
• My "bigger" jeans still fit, but are starting to get snug.
  
• I think I am in denial about the weight gain. I still can wear some tops but I am sure it won't be long until it is all maternity tops and pants for me.
• I am dreading the day the maternity clothes have to come out.
• Laney tells me on a daily basis that "the baby is taking too long to come out."
• When ever we mention "baby" Canon will attack me, lift up my shirt until he can see my belly and then he'll push on it as hard as he can.
  
• Gavin has informed me that I go potty a lot.
  
• We still agree on one name but aren't set on it yet.
• My Dad would like veto power for the name. I have told him that is not an option.

Memorial Weekend

I love when Blake has a 3 day weekend. Who doesn't?

The problem is when you have a 3 day weekend and people are sick. We have been passing around the pukes at our house like it is a prize.
Canon and Laney have had it, and today Gavin has got it.
I have washed a lot of laundry lately.
So this weekend we just sat around.
We did BBQ yesterday, which was good. That is...until you see chunks of hot dogs during the middle of the night.
I also managed to finish the pillow I have been working on.
Which I heart.
I also heart Lysol.
Because while it does make my house smell somewhat like a mental institution, it also makes it not smell like throw up.
And that is a win in my book.