Brian's REALLY Going to be Outnumbered....

Because we're having another girl!!! 

We're pretty excited for another female addition to the family.  Brian was really hoping for a girl (he says he remembers what he was like as a boy and is terrified of raising one) so he's especially happy.  I would have been excited either way. :)  

The ultrasound technician also told us everything with the baby looks good.  She's measuring perfect for her due date and everything is where it's supposed to be.  I'm really grateful for that, with all the scares we were having at the start with bleeding and everything I was a little worried, so I was really relieved to know that she's growing and healthy!

Here's a video where she's opening and closing her mouth!

Also, when I was pregnant with Sadie, they just had regular ultrasound machines at the hospital here, but now they've got 3-D ones as well!  I'll be honest, I think the 3-D pictures look really weird, but it was cool because we could see our baby's profile so well!  This isn't the best profile pic, I just thought it was the least freaky looking.

  

All in all, we had alot of fun today and are so excited to be welcoming another little girl!!!

Bowling Night

Friday night we decided we wanted to do something different than normal, so we went bowling.  It was pretty packed (being a Friday night) but we had alot of fun!  Sadie couldn't get enough!  As soon as she rolled one ball down the lane she was running to grab another, whether it was her turn or not.  All in all we had alot of fun :)

I loved that they had little toddler bowling shoes.  Aren't these so cute?!

Rolling her big, heavy 6-pound ball, LOL ;)

Sadie couldn't wait for us, so she started going and picking up her own ball.  We couldn't believe it!  What a stud!  I've got a couple of really cute videos of her carrying the ball and rolling it, but they're taking waaaay too long to upload.  Brian says he can reduce the file size, so I'll try and upload them after he does that.

Check our her super-stud pose.  She's getting ready to roll the ball, and she's holding it almost completely by herself :)

Last but not least, check out the new 'do!  I've been growing my hair out for a while, but I'm really a short-hair girl at heart and finally had to chop it off!  I think it turned out pretty cute though :)

Here's what it looked like Friday morning.  I wanted a "Before" and "After" since this is thelongest its been since Brian and I got married :)  (and I know, its not even that long)

New Jobs!

Or should I say "Additional Jobs!"

With the purchase of a new home, a baby on the way and the current economic situation pretty much guaranteeing neither Brian nor I will be getting a raise any time soon, we've started looking for some ways to bring in a little extra money.

For his part, Brian's trying to get his own computer and printer repair business going in Lincoln County!  Its what he does for a living here in Cedar City, but he's always really wanted to work for himself.  Since he doesn't want to compete with his employer (for obvious reasons) and there seems to be a need in Lincoln County, it seemed like a good move.  So we just started advertising out there last weekend and he already has his first call!  We're really excited and hope it can turn into more than just a side thing (especially me since I've wanted to move back to Lincoln County forever!)  In the meantime, I guess we'll just wait and see. :)

For my part, I was just searching some job postings on SUU's student job website and came across a work-from-home data entry job for a company called Ornaments to Remember.  I emailed the contact and asked a little about it and decided to apply.  They offered it to me last Friday and I accepted.

Initially I was just looking for a little extra money and didn't care much about the company, but as I've started doing stuff for them, I'm really impressed.  I'm basically doing stuff for two companies- Ornaments to Remember and The Learning Community.  I got really excited when I visited the Learning Community site because its all about resources for parents!  Ornaments to Remember ties in as its their source of funding for the Learning Community.  I've talked with a couple other employees, both work-from-home moms who've been with the company for several years, one here in Cedar and one in Oregon and they kept saying how much they've loved working for such a family-friendly organization.  So now I'm actually excited- I'm doing something and working for something I believe in, even if it is just data entry for now. :)  I know most of the people who read my blog are moms too, so take a look at the learning community site, www.thelearningcommunity.us.  I thought it was pretty cool.

So Brian and I both have some exciting new prospects.  We're both working hard, but in the long run these might allow us to actually support ourselves better and spend more time together as a family.  Thats what we're hoping anyway

One more? Why not!

Kim, this is for you!!!

We decided two adults and 1 1/2 kids isn't enough members for our family, so we adopted a cat last week.  We've actually wanted one FOREVER and were going to get Sadie one for Christmas, but decided to wait until after since we'd be traveling so much around the holidays.  I've been checking out the animal shelter websites and classifed ads looking for just the right kitty, and last week saw ours on the Enoch animal shelter website.  For some reason, she just felt like the right one.  So I showed Brian and called the animal shelter so we could come meet her.

They told me she's super-friendly, litterbox trained, has all her shots and is spayed, PLUS they don't charge an adoption fee- does it get any better?  They also told me when they got her she was completey emaciated- she'd been starved- and they'd just been trying to get her healthy before they adopted her out.  Just about broke my heart!  So Sadie and I went to meet her the afternoon of New Year's Eve and before we even touched her she started purring soooooooo loud :)  We looked a couple of other cats too, but they either had something wrong with them, or would hiss when Sadie tried to pet them (she's not really gentle- we're working on it).  So I just felt like this one was right for us.  

Since we've gotten her, we've been having so much fun!  She's such a good family cat, and loooooooooves to snuggle!  I also think she's gorgeous :)

Sadie ended up naming her.  She's starting to understand "names", like mommy's name is Tessa, the fish's name is Nemo, etc.  We asked her what the kitty's name was, and she said "Snow White".  The she went over to the cat and started saying "Hi Snow White, hi Snow White".  So Snow White it is, although I just call her Snow for short :)  We're all having fun though, and we're all really happy to have this newest addition to our family!

Santa Came!

Santa found us! And I've gotta say, Sadie's third Christmas was alot more ....lets say "interactive".... than her first two (especially since she was just four days old for her first) ;) This time she actually wanted to open presents, and she got soooooooooooo excited when she saw what Santa brought her!

Santa actually came to our house a day early because we wanted to go to Panaca after we'd opened our presents here, but there was supposed to be a HUGE storm here Thursday. So we decided we'd do our family Christmas a day early, then head to Panaca Wednesday afternoon before the snow started.

We had so much fun!!! Brian and I had wanted to get Sadie a little kitchen for her Santa gift because she's really into pretending right now and likes to pretend she's cooking, but we waited too long and Walmart (the only store in Cedar with toys) was COMPLETELY sold out of every kind of little kitchen- we were so bummed! Plus frantic, because this was just two days before Christmas and we had no idea what we were going to get her...I know, I know, nothing like waiting until the last minute, eh?

So we ran around the toy section for a while looking for what we might get and came across the CUTEST little playhouse. Its made with fabric, which I thought was nice, and you can open it up into two pieces, or close the two pieces together to make a little house. It also came with a little stove, so there was still a little kitchen element to it. It was perfect! So that's what we got.

Brian and I put it together Tuesday night, which was actually pretty fun, even if it did take us over an hour. When it was finished, it was even cuter than we thought, and way cuter than these pictures make it look.

Wednesday morning Sadie came downstairs and immediately ran into the house! She was so excited, it was so much fun!!! We had the little stove in there, and also put a princess chair and some stuffed animals that she's had so that it was more like a house. She just kept playing with her animals and the stove, and would put the animals in the oven and call it their house- hey, whatever she wants it to be, right? :)




Think she likes it? ;) You can tell she still has sleepy eyes, but she was so excited about the house she woke right up! :)



Peek-a-boo!



The playhouse was definitely a winner!



Here's the rest of the presents she got from us for Christmas. She got alot of stuff when we went to Panaca too, but of course we FORGOT OUR CAMERA! Hopefully I can get the pictures from some of my family though because we had alot of fun out there and had some good photo-ops :) One of the really cool presents she got out there was a really cute rocking horse from my aunt. I'll make sure I get a pic of that up sometime :)

Snow Day!

Well, this is a little late, but better late than never, right? If you haven't been around, Cedar City has gotten quite a lot of snow the past couple of weeks, and if you've got snow, you might as well play in it, right? So one day I grabbed the camera, Sadie grabbed "Cody" her stuffed horse (she takes that guy everywhere) and we went out to play in the snow. Sadie's friend Taite showed up for a bit too, but he honestly wasn't a bit fan of the snow so he went home after a few minutes.



These guys were our neighbors at our old apartments, and now we live just across the parking lot from eachother. How fun is that?






Yeah, she likes to eat snow. We try to deter her, but apparently it just tastes too good ;)



I made this snowball, then Sadie said we had to roll it. I guess they made a snowman at her daycare by rolling snowballs :) I'm still supposed to take it easy, so we didn't roll much, but Sadie still thought that little snowball was pretty fun.

Christmas Card

Well, this year I was a slacker and didn't get around to ordering Christmas cards- lame, I know! And now that its ridiculously close to Christmas, I don't think I'll get around to ordering and sending them all in time. I feel bad not sending anything, so I went to Hallmark's website and found this cool little program they have that lets you create photo cards, scrapbook pages, photo books- basically tons of stuff- and send them to people. So I designed a card that we can email to our family and friends. Unfortunately, if I don't have your email address, you don't get one :(

The program is really cool I think, and I had fun making the card, so if anyone is in a similar situation, I'd recommend trying it out. You can get the program by clicking HERE (the direct link to their photo cards page), choosing one of the Smilebox cards, and downloading the Smilebox program. You can also just go to Hallmark's site and try and find the program yourself, but I think its easier just to click the link above.

So here's the card I made. Pretty basic, but I think its fun :)

Have a very Merry Christmas season everyone!!!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Sadie's 2nd Birthday!

This last Sunday we had Sadie's 2nd birthday party. Her birthday's actually December 21st (poor kid), but who wants to have a birthday party four days before Christmas??? So we've done an early one for her the past two years.

I'd just gotten off bed rest two days before (thank goodness) but I'm still trying to take it easy, so we kept it pretty low key. We just had a family party in Panaca with some balloons, homemade pizza, and a really cool horse cake my friend Aimee made. All in all, I think Sadie had a great time with her cousins and all the fun food and presents, and we all had a good time too :)

Here's the cake right after I picked it up. Isn't it cool?!?!



Here are the kids (big and small) playing with the balloons :) Sorry there are so many, I just thought they were cute

The kids LOVED when Brian stuck balloons to the ceiling, lol





Our pizza masterpieces :)


After we ate, Sadie opened presents, and she got some pretty great stuff! She got coloring books, playdough, bubbles, a cool keyboard, and princess castle just to name a few.

She doesn't look very excited in this picture, but she LOVES this castle! Which is good, because that was our present to her ;)

Playing with the bubbles

This keyboard was pretty popular with all the kids. They all took turns "singing" in the microphone and banging on the piano. Notice Sadie has the microphone in her mouth while she's singing...


After presents, we went for the cake and ice cream! Last year she had a hard time with the cake- as in, she totally freaked out when my aunt "helped" her smash her hand in to get some. Its a tradition in our family that the birthday kid gets the first bite, and most of the kids just go for it and totally dig into the cake! Sadie...not so much. This year she actually started eating the cake on her own, but she'd just get a little dab of frosting on her finger and lick it off. Then I pulled the horses off her cake and let her lick them off and she though that was pretty cool :)

Blowing out the candle- sort of :)


Getting little dabs of frosting to eat


Licking the horses off. Of course, when she was finished....


She stuck them right back in the cake! It was too cute!

Back in the Groove!

First, I really want to thank all of you who have left nice comments and prayers for us :) They've meant alot, and its so nice to know that people care. :) Thank you!!!

So now the good news! I am now off bed rest and (hopefully) I'll stay that way!!!!! I'm still taking it really easy, because I don't want to end up back on bed rest, but I've been up since Friday, which was AWESOME!!! I was especially glad because we'd planned Sadie's birthday party for Sunday and I wasn't thrilled about moving it to next weekend since everyone's so busy the weekend before Christmas. So all in all, I had a great weekend! Off bedrest, and Sadie's 2nd birthday party!!! I'll post pictures of that when I get a chance.

Thank you again everyone, and I'll keep you updated!!! I have a checkup today, so I'm hoping maybe the doctor can figure out what was causing the bleeding because I'm still really nervous about it starting again. It would be nice to know if its really something serious or not.

A Bit of a Stressful Time...

Well, the past week has been a little stressful. Last Tuesday night I started spotting, and Wednesday morning bleeding pretty bad. We were completely convinced I was having a miscarriage, and completely devastated. So I went to my doctor and they did an ultrasound and some blood work and the baby is there and totally fine!!! I was so relieved when I saw its little heart beating I totally started bawling to the techician- pretty embarassing, but, hey, I'm pregant and that's what we do ;)

So my doctor put me on bed rest- no idea what caused the bleeding. It stopped by Thursday, then started again Saturday night really bad. So I went to the hospital (didn't want to wait clear until Monday) and again- baby is fine- in fact, (s)he was having a little party in there moving all over the place :) So that was pretty exciting.

Long story short, my doctor's not sure why I'm bleeding, but everything seems fine with the baby- Thank goodness! So I've just been sitting here at home on bed rest for the past week, and I'm hoping to be off in the next couple of days. I stopped bleeding Tuesday, so hopefully it doesn't start back up again. I gotta say though, I really sympathize with women who spend months on bedrest- I'm talking to you, Kim and Amber! I've only been down a week, and its been so hard! We just barely got internet today, and we only have rabbit ears for t.v. so I'm getting pretty bored. And I especially feel bad about not being able to do much with Sadie, but she goes to daycare for four hours a day so I think that helps, and Brian's been doing some fun stuff with her so she doesn't seem too bored yet :)

Anyway, just thought I'd share what's been going on. I really feel like everything's going to be ok, but if anyone wants to include us in your prayers, it would mean alot to us :) Every little bit helps, right? :)