Like father, like daughter

March was a tough month for little Eden. She must be going through a growth spurt because she's always falling down or running into things. I know part of that just goes with being a toddler, we've always joked that her walk is more like controlled falling, but the last few weeks have been extra rough. A few weeks ago during family home evening we had just made it to the closing song without incident when Eden randomly leans off the couch and falls into the coffee table head first. She got a huge goose egg just below and to the side of her left eye and during the next week it spread into a beautiful shiner. It was just starting to fade when disaster struck again. We're not quite sure who started it, but the rocking chair won. And this time Eden came away with a big goose egg on her right eyelid that has turned into beautiful green and purple eye shadow. We're almost afraid to go to church tomorrow. Maybe the nursery people will assume it's the same eye. I've tried to take dozens of pictures that never seem to show the depth of the bruising, but at least in this one you get a little bit of an idea. Hopefully these are just a few isolated incidents and not a portent of the future. Poor kid doesn't have any more eyes!

Ode to the Second Trimester

How I love the second trimester. Goodbye nausea, hello being able to eat food again without flinching. Give a big welcome to looking like I'm pregnant and not just chubby around the middle, and being able to look cute in maternity shirts. (I went to motherhood today and spent not only the wonderful gift card brent gave me for valentines but also a fair amount over. Yes I do have lots of m. clothes, but they're all the wrong season). And of course let's not forget how great it is to being able to walk up the stairs without having to sit down and take a nap. Plus the added bonuses of having much clearer skin and slightly more emotional stability (my family is also very grateful). I know that this stage of pregnancy is fleeting. I'm in that magical zone between 4 and 5 months when the memory of those yucky first months is still enough to make me grateful for every day that I feel almost normal, and not uncomfortable enough to complain. So second trimester, here's to you!

p.s. I go to the doctor again this week, so stay tuned for either a comfirmation or denial of the boy-issue...

'Easter Spring' Day

We've started a new tradition for our family. Instead of having the easter bunny, egg hunts, and candy on Easter Sunday we've created an extra holiday: Easter Spring Day. The Saturday before Easter we celebrate the oncoming arrival of spring, and of course have easter baskets and lots of candy. This way we'll be able to focus on Easter Sunday on the Savior and the miracle of the Resurrection. Having thus declared our new holiday, i have to admit that this year it didn't quite work out the way we planned. On Saturday we drove up to Brent's Grandma Geniel's home in Midway and spent a wonderful day there. The girls had a fantastic time making easter cupcakes and planting sunflower seeds in pots with Grandma Geniel, and playing cards with Uncle Wayne. Brent and I enjoyed a rare nap. Then we decorated plastic eggs with glitter glue and stickers. I thought it was a fantastic idea, avoiding the mess of dye since the girls are little. And it was fun, except that the eggs had to dry overnight and then the dried glitter designs just fell off! Oh well, another good idea out the window. But we did save enough undecorated eggs for an old fashioned egg hunt in the front room. Midway still has a few feet of snow, another set back to our 'spring' day:) Plus we were so busy with all of our great activites that we forgot about the easter baskets. And we forgot on Easter morning! So after church Brent dropped me off at the house so I could put the baskets together, and went for a drive around the block to look at houses. That night our neighbors asked us if we were moving, Laura had told them we were looking at new houses. Anyway, by the time they got back little Eden had fallen fast asleep. So we had twice the easter basket excitement after she woke up. Laura loved the sidewalk chalk and notebook the easter bunny brought her, although she noticed that he must have gotten them at Wal-Mart because she found them when we were there the next day. And Eden loved her plastic flute, except it got broken on Tuesday. But even with all of the little glitches we had a wonderful Easter weekend, and hope you did too.

The latest scrapbook attempt

Please help!!!

Those of you who are mothers know what I mean when I say sometimes the monster-mom just comes out. A random scenario: It's raining outside, you wake up 15 minutes before you have to have your child to preschool, you throw on a hat and some mascara and run out the door with orphan-looking children. Next you hit walmart looking like someone who belongs there. Then you've got to unload groceries, make lunch to drop off to hubbie at work, pick up preschooler, make them the specific lunch they requested and which they of course won't eat, and before you know it mean-mom is here. No patience. Zip. Just a not very nice person who yells. A lot. and is fond of time out. I know that I'm not alone out there, everyone has their moments, although mine seem like they're much more often than normal. So I'm sending out this plea from one recovering monster-mom to the saner species out there: What do you honestly do to keep your cool when things get bumpy!?

I guess I really do like blue. maybe.

Tuesday marked the beginning of the second trimester! woohoo! congratulations to brent and the girls for making it this far. oh, and to me too:) We had our doctors appointment on Thursday andwe were especially excited because our doctors office does ultrasounds at each appointment so we were able to see the heartbeat and how big the baby's growing. And as an added bonus he gave us our first guess at the gender. Much to our initial disbelief it looks like we might be having a little boy! What?! Blue?! trucks?! I'm not quite sure I believe it, and it's not absolutely certain, we'll have to wait until next month for a double check, but for now we're thinking of boy names and envisioning a very busy garage sale season. For those of you who don't know I am one of 4 sisters, and between the 3 of us who are married there are 7 granddaughters. This would be the first boy in 30 years. Talk about lack of experience. I had to call Brent's sister Lanna to have her tell me how much she loves her sons; thank you by the way for the reassurance:) So for now we're calling my tummy a brother, but you never know, we'll have to wait and see...

The new Sweet Ride

Introducing the not so-new Chrysler LHS sedan. Featuring all leather interior, a smooth ride, and pretty darn good gas mileage this car is sure to appeal to both your frugal and indulgent sides.

Seriously, we're so glad to have this car! It's a '95 with only 92,000 miles and in absolutely terrific condition. We've been saving up for a little while to buy a second car for Brent to commute to work in and were lucky enough to find this one when we were close to despair. Thank goodness for KSL! Of course now that he doesn't get to check the ads every day Brent won't know what to do:)