Three's Company

Grace's Artwork

2011-12-15T21:13:00.001-07:00

Today while Claire was napping and I was making potato salad for our ward Christmas party I pulled out the (washable) markers and paper for Grace to keep herself entertained. She did a fantastic job. She colored for about 30 minutes, relating stories as she went. My favorite is shown below. She told me she was going to draw me a picture of the zoo. That she did! I think I have a pretty talented (almost) four year old.

(click on the picture to enlarge so you can read my labels.

I doubt anyone besides me would be able to make out what she drew)

A Thanksgiving Prayer

2011-11-24T19:33:00.001-07:00

I'm thankful for a lot of things. My family and I are blessed in so many ways. Tonight I am especially thankful for this little girl and the sweet prayers that she offers at bedtime when we kneel together as a family.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. It was pretty relaxed and low-key, which was fine with me. We slept in, had cold cereal for breakfast (per Grace's request!), then enjoyed a yummy Thanksgiving meal with the Dodd/Austin family. The girls and I came home for naps and movies while Justin drove to College Station to watch the Texas A&M game. His friend, who we went to the World Series with, was able to get tickets for the (possibly last) game against UT.

At bedtime tonight, Grace declared that it was her turn to say the prayer. Fine with me! She's been stubborn and refusing lately when it's been her turn. I just had to document the words of her prayer because it was hilarious.

Grace: "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this wonderful day and the good food. Thank thee for mommy being nice. Please bless us to be good. Please bless Grandma Erlenbusch because her back hurts really bad. Please bless daddy to be safe and he's gone a long time. Please bless Kenzie because she's my friend and she can come to my house to play. Please bless Dolphin to be good and play nice with Cinderella. Please bless Kenzie's daddy to be the king of the monkeys. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Oh, and please bless me and mommy and Claire to sleep good."

WHAT??? I have no idea where she got the 'king of the monkeys' idea or why she wants Kenzie's daddy to take the throne.

Also, she has an imaginary pet dolphin named Polkadots who goes with us everywhere. She buckles Polkadots in the car seat between she and Claire every time we get in the car. It's pretty funny to listen to her 'play' with Polkadots. I love her vast imagination and that she's not afraid/embarrassed to show it to us. Also, Cinderella is her friend and usually plays at our house, but lately she's been spending a lot of time at Kenzie's house.

Just An Ordinary Day

2011-11-13T13:11:00.001-07:00

I blog a lot about what we do when we have a special outing, holiday, or visitor. I thought it would be a good idea to blog about the ordinary, every day things that go on around here too. Now, these pictures weren't all taken on the same day, but it's a good depiction of what happens in our home on ordinary days.

Justin fell asleep one afternoon while I was out and about. This is what he woke up to. Grace did an awesome job of putting my make-up on the right parts of her face. It took me two days and a full bottle of eye make-up remover to get the mascara off her eyelashes.

I hope these two will grow up to be best friends. For now, these sweet moments where they show love for one another don't come around too often. There's a lot of screaming in our house.

Claire laid on the floor coloring for about 30 minutes one evening. I love that she's getting to the age where some things can keep her attention for decent amounts of time.

This girl loves the bath tub. I find her like this at least once a day. She just climbs right in and yells at me, "I WANT TO TAKE A TUBBY!"

One day I turned on the TV in my room while I was getting ready so Claire could watch Micky Mouse Clubhouse (her ALL TIME favorite right now. This girl is crazy for Mickey!) I had a laundry basket on the floor full of clean clothes and she just climbed right in and laid down like it was a little bed just for her. When I saw her she looked at me and said, "Hi mommy, I'm laying down." She was quite proud of herself.

Like I said before, Claire is crazy for Mickey. All day long I hear her saying, "I wanna watch Mickey Mouse!" She sat on the step stool holding her Minnie Mouse doll and watched the entire 1 hour episode of Mickey's Space Adventure.

So there it is. Ordinary days at home with the kids.

Grandma and Grandpa Came to Visit

2011-11-12T10:22:00.001-07:00

My parents came for a visit at the first of the month. It had been since Claire was born that my mom came to visit, and for my dad it had been over 3 years! We were so happy to have them here. We didn't do a whole lot (really, what is there to do in Gilmer?). We spent a lot of time at home just hanging out and playing. We missed them as soon as they left. Claire really took a liking to my dad (finally) and was so happy to just sit in the chair with him and watch TV.

We drove up to Pittsburg one day to Efurds Orchards for some homemade peach ice cream

(that's Grace playing peek-a-boo behind the tree)

We ate some yummy bbq

Grace was LOVING those ribs!

Justin and I left the girls at home with my parents for a couple hours and when we returned they said the girls had been so good. Yeah. SO good. This is what the back of Grace's bedroom door looked like. The front wasn't quite so bad.

Luckily, it was Canton weekend while my parents were here. We spent most of the day at the flea market. Grace begged us for hours to ride the "ferris wheel." We finally gave in and she loved it.

All in all, it was a great week. It was certainly too short, but still great. We can't wait for their next visit.

Opportunities To Do Good

2011-11-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

During the April 2011 General Confrence, Elder Eyring challenged each stake to have a day of service to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the church's welfare system. You can read the talk here. Our stake chose October 29th for our day of service. Our ward did a lot of painting around the town square and the Chamber of Commerce, as well as trash clean up. The striping on the steps around the courthouse needed some repainting. Grace and Claire got in on the action too. The kids had so much fun helping dad.

Claire decided to take a juice break and sat down on one of the freshly painted steps.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

This year, Justin was out of town the week prior to Halloween so the girls and I headed over to carve pumpkins with several other families from church. Claire was totally freaked out by all the people and the unfamiliar setting. Grace was loving cleaning out the pumpkin, until she saw a bunch of kids playing on a playground/swing set. We had a good time, but Justin is definitely the pumpkin carver in the family. I didn't even get a picture of our carved jack-o-lantern.

Jaici was so sweet and tried to make Claire happy

Grace diggin' in to her pumpkin

On the 29th we had a tri-ward trunk or treat at the church. Grace is really into the Pinkalicious books, so when I found this dress on clearance a few months ago I knew she had to be Pinkalicious for Halloween.

Here she is playing 'pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern'. That guy next to her is supposed to be a deviled egg. I thought it was pretty clever.

In the books Pinkalicious has an imaginary unicorn named Goldilicious, Goldie for short. I made up a unicorn costume for Claire so she could be Grace's little sidekick. Below is a picture of one of the book covers with Pinkalicious and Goldie. We couldn't get a good picture of Claire. She was the cutest unicorn EVER! I even made her a golden mane and tail with pink flowers. I might have to dress her up in it again just for a photo shoot.

World Series 2011

2011-11-05T21:30:00.000-06:00

Justin and I had the opportunity to go to game 3 of the world series this year in Dallas. Justin's friend Chris was able to get us tickets with fantastic seats. Chris was an umpire for 8 years so we had a fun time listening to baseball stories throughout the evening. Unfortunately, our Texas Rangers lost that night to the St. Louis Cardinals, but not without a lot of really great hitting. We were able to witness Pujols' three home runs that night, the first one opening the game. We left after the 7th inning when the score was 14-7. We were pretty disappointed by the loss, but we had a fantastic time anyways.

Ronnie Dunn sang the National Anthem and during the song they rolled out the American and Texas state flags. It was an awesome sight.

This is the view from our seats (during batting practice)

Back on the Blog Train

2011-10-23T13:27:00.009-06:00

I decided (a long time ago) that I need to start blogging again, but the thought of catching up on 8 months of our lives was a bit overwhelming. This blog is basically a living scrapbook of our lives and I have every intention of having it printed and bound into a book. It's my way of journaling. So, it's important that I keep it up.

I thought about just starting new with today and forgetting about playing catch-up, but I want the events of the last 8 months to be recorded so here's a recap:

March - Justin had to make a trip to Florida (20 minutes from Orlando) for work so the girls and I tagged along. We spent a day at the Magic Kingdom and had a blast. Grace was in awe of everything. When the castle came into view from the monorail her face was priceless!! I can't wait to go back someday and spend more time visiting all the parks. We also drove along the Gulf Coast for quite a ways on the way home. We stopped in Destin, FL for the night and it is now on my list of places to visit for more than just to sleep.

April - We took Grace to see a pediatric GI specialist in Shreveport for her ongoing issues with constipation. She ended up having a procedure done to test for several different causes. She did very well and we got a lot of great video footage after they gave her some medicine to "relax" her. It was pretty entertaining. She had a large mass/blockage that the doctor removed. They took some samples of her nerves and also some samples fro her esophagus and small intestine which all came back normal. FYI- 8 months later and we're still dealing with constipation and trying to potty train. Potty training has been the most difficult thing I have had to deal with thus far as a parent. Justin's parents came for a visit at the end of April and we were able to celebrate Claire's 1st birthday and Easter with them. I also had the privilege of speaking in Sacrament meeting on Easter Sunday.

May - We flew (as a whole family!) to California for the Memorial Day weekend to spend it with my family. My sister was Graduating from California State University Stanislaus with a Master's in School Administration. The kids absolutely loved being with their cousins. Grace spent every waking moment outside since the weather was so pleasant (it was in the 100's already at home).

June - Not much exciting happened in June, except that we had triple digit temperatures for the entire month. THE ENTIRE MONTH!! The youth in our stake participated in "A Texas Sized Jubilee" and we were able to make a trip to Dallas to watch the production. Our youth did an awesome job and had an amazing time.

July - The girls and I flew to Utah to spend some time with Grandparents and cousins. Justin drove up a few days later and spent a week with us before making the trek back to Texas. We played at the Discovery Gateway Museum, played in the dirt, went to the pool, attended our first Petersen Girls Night Out, went horseback riding with Aunt Bailey, got together for a quickie roomie reunion where we got to meet baby Lucas, played in the sand and water at Bear Lake, and drove the combine with daddy and Grandpa during the wheat harvest!

August - We started the month off by driving from Utah to Boise where we met my dad and drove the rest of the way to Oregon to spend a week with my parents. My nieces Sierra and Marissa were also staying for the week. All the girls had so much fun playing together. They rode scooters, went to the spray ground, swimming at the aquatic center, scavenger hunt at the library, dilly bars at DQ, and a horrible 2-day experience with Pasco, WA airport. Once we got home we had an entire month of excruciating heat and no rain! We spent a lot of time with our new friends the who moved down the street and into our ward. They have two little girls that are the same ages as Grace and Claire. At the end of the month I started going back to school two partial days a week. The girls go to an amazing babysitter and enjoy their time at Ms. Helen's.

September - Justin spent a lot of the month on the road. Grace started gymnastics again (and is loving it way more than she did earlier this year). I spent the month trying to get back in the "school" groove and balancing my responsibilities at school, home, and church. We spent a lot of time wishing fall weather would come our way. A lot of East Texas was on fire for a few weeks. The longest draught in Texas history combined with strong winds from a tropical storm in the gulf resulted in many, many wild fires around here. The fire departments worked tirelessly to put them out and protect the residents.

October - I can't believe this month is almost over! We spent two weekends painting the exterior of our house. The Yamboree has now come and gone. Justin and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to Game 3 of the World Series (stay tuned for a separate post on that one). Claire is officially 18 months old. She weighs 29lbs (96%) and is 33 inches tall (90%). She's been attending nursery for the last two months since I teach during the third hour of church and Justin is always busy with his calling. We're looking forward to wrapping up this month with Halloween and a visit from my parents (wahoo!).

Brandon and Bailey Got Hitched!

2011-02-11T19:12:00.005-07:00

A few weeks ago we were able to go to Utah for Justin's brother's wedding. We had a great time visiting with family and celebrating with Brandon and Bailey. We're so happy for them and that they found eachother. Bailey is such a sweet girl and we're excited to have her as part of our family and get to know her better.

They were married in the Logan, Utah temple on a very cold January day. They took their sweet time to join us all outside for pictures

Chatting with my MIL trying to keep warm!

Brandon and Bailey with all the Nessen neices and nephew.

Brandon going for the garter.

The girls stayed with my parents at their hotel while Justin and I went to the temple. Here they are all ready for the reception.

Valentines

2011-02-11T13:39:00.002-07:00

I decided to make some Valentine cards/treats for Grace to pass out to her friends and teachers at church this year. I found the cutest idea from my favorite blog, I am momma hear me roar (Cheri is seriously awesome and talented. Go check her out. She posts everyday. You won't be disappointed, especially if you have little boys). I knew that I could make them easily. I followed her directions exactly and they turned out GREAT! They didn't take much time to do either and all it cost me was a couple bags of Hershey's Kisses. I had everything else (baggies and cardstock).

They're so cute and personal, yet simple and inexpensive. Get the tutorial here.

Happy Love Day!

9 months

2011-02-05T12:16:00.003-07:00

Claire turned 9 months old on January 21. She had her 9 month well baby check up that day. Her stats are :

23.4 lbs (97.88%)

28.25 inches (75.31%)

Head- 17.5 inches (65.33%)

She's growing like a weed. I really should go back through Grace's stats from her first year and do a comparison. I think Claire has her beat in weight and height, but has a much smaller head circumference.

We had a great appointment - no shots!

Claire is such a happy, easy-going baby. We just love her to pieces. She loves to babble and blow raspberries. She loves nap time and bedtime. Whenever I put her down she snuggles up with her blanket and has a big grin on her face. She's not crawling yet, but working on it. She's having a hard time lifting her tummy off the floor (can you blame her?!). She's trying really hard to pull herself up on all the furniture and toys. She loves to eat, especially table food. The only foods she doesn't seem to like are peas and green beans.

Claire recently went swimming for the first time. We were in Utah last weekend for Justin's brother's wedding. My parents drove down from Oregon to visit with us and they were generous enough to watch the kids while we were at the temple with Brandon and Bailey. They were staying at a hotel with an indoor pool so they took the girls swimming. Apparently, Claire had a blast and splish-splashed all around. She also cut her first tooth the day of the wedding, which explained the fussiness which isn't like her at all. I think she's working on another tooth now. She has swollen, white gums. Luckily for us, she hasn't been too cranky over it and is still sleeping well.

Claire has such a sweet demeanor about her. She's always happy with she wakes up and will give me a good squeeze when I pick her up as though she's trying to hug me. She loves to give kisses and we love to give her kisses. She totally leans in with her mouth wide open. Her favorite toys are Grace's little Disney Princess dolls. They have rubbery dresses that come off and Claire loves the feeling of them in her hands. Claire also loves to dance. She wiggles all around when she hears music, or if you just tell her to dance. It's so stinking cute!

I just can't get enough of this little girl. She has brought so much joy to our lives, and I can't imagine our family without her. I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by. They grow up way too fast and it literally hurts inside to know that they will only be my littles for such a short amount of time.

Snow Day

2011-02-04T10:31:00.002-07:00

Last night we got a few inches of snow here in East Texas, so Grace and I ventured out to play this morning while Claire was napping. We didn't last long since we didn't have appropriate clothes to keep our feet, hands and legs warm and dry. We tried to build a snowman, but it was too fluffy and dry. It wouldn't stick together to make big enough snowballs for the body.

Snow in these parts isn't unheard of. We've experienced it every winter since we moved here. It usually doesn't last long, just 24 hours or so. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be above 50 degrees. It's a good thing we went out and played in it today, because I'm pretty sure it won't survive tomorrow's sunny high temp.

Scripture & Prayer

2011-01-19T17:54:00.003-07:00

Grace was assigned to give the scripture and prayer in primary last Sunday. We picked a scripture and practiced all week long. Justin would whisper the words into her ear and she would repeat it loud, pretending to speak into the microphone. She tried so hard to memorize it so she could do it all by herself. She had about half of it memorized by Sunday. When it was her turn she walked right up to the podium and started saying the prayer all by herself before Justin could get the microphone on. No one knew she was praying until she said "Amen." Justin had her do it again once the microphone was on. She insisted on saying it herself and when she stalled for a moment Justin tried to to help her. She pushed his face away and said, "I do it myself!" She did a great job reciting the scripture too. I was so proud of her. We were a little afraid that once she got up there she would be too nervous or scared, but she was such a big, brave girl.
I wanted to get a picture of her after primary wearing her special sticker she got for saying the scripture and prayer, but Grace loves stickers so much they don't last long.

A Girl and Her Shoes

2011-01-14T08:44:00.005-07:00

(I don't know why blogger keeps flipping this picture when I add it to the post)

Are they cute, or what? They were a gift from our friend and surrogate grandma, VA. Thanks V for teaching my children that it's important to accessorize!

Sunbeams

2011-01-07T10:10:00.003-07:00

Grace attended Primary for the first time last Sunday as an official Sunbeam. She had such a wonderful time. She just adores singing time. She's been teaching Claire the "Hello, Hello" song all week. It's so cute to watch her sing and do the actions along with the words. Her Sunbeam teacher is my friend Jaime, who is AWESOME with those little 3 year olds. All day Sunday Grace was telling me that Sister Pilcher is her friend. There's only two other kids in her her class, Oakley and Tony.

I just love the Primary organization in our church and the way it teaches and instills the most basic gospel principles in our little ones. Grace is developing such a sweet and simple testimony of Jesus Christ that will continue to grow and develop as she gets older and moves on through Primary and Young Women's.

Grace has always been pretty independent, but it seems as though it's becoming more obvious as she gets older. She insists on saying prayers all by herself now. She said the blessing on the food last Sunday evening and would not let us help her. She did such a great job, even blessing the food without any prompting from Justin or myself. She has led us in family prayer a couple of nights this week and when we try to help her or remind her what to say she gets very upset and says, "I can do it myself!" Gotta love her strong-willed, stubborn personality!

I also took Grace to her 3 year check-up this week. She weighs 38 pounds (94%) and is 39 1/4 inches tall (91%). She enjoyed showing the doctor all the neat things she's capable of doing, but she really, really could have done without the shot. She had to get one in her thigh this time and it was very traumatic. Good thing they had a purple lollipop to make it all better!

Here are a few tidbits about Grace at 3 years old:

favorite color is purple
she talks ALL. THE. TIME. and in really good sentences now
you have to repeat back to her what she has just said or else she will say it over, and over, and over, and over again
She loves princesses
likes to build towers with blocks and boxes
likes to play with friends
favorite food is quesadillas
has a new chocolate lab puppy named Jenny
loves to help mommy bake cookies and cupcakes
can count to 15 and recognize numbers up to 10
knows her entire alphabet, can recognize all letters and knows their sounds
knows all her colors
she's potty trained!!!
still takes a nap every afternoon (yay!)
loves to sing and dance
remembers EVERYTHING!

End of the Year Wrap Up

2011-01-04T08:04:00.011-07:00

I decided that since there was quite a bit of catching up to do (the last 2 months!) I would do it all in one long post. It's a much less daunting task than taking on several individual posts. We'll start with my trip to Oregon the first part of November. I flew to Portland with the girls where I met up with my parents, my sister from California, and my sister-in-law from Seattle. My dad took the girls back to their house for the weekend so I could attend Time Out For Women (TOFW) with my mom and sisters. We had such a fun time, I only wish it had been a longer trip. On Friday night we were fortunate to hear from one of my favorite women, Sister Ardeth Kapp. I just love her to pieces. I try to read anything by her and listen to her speak whenever I get the chance. She has dedicated her life to serving the Lord. I felt so lucky knowing that that night was to be Sister Kapps final TOFW event. The theme for the tour this year was "Infinite Hope." I thought I would highlight some things from the event.

Sister Kapp:

Hope is reflected in ones attitude about life
Hope comes from knowing that God is with us
When we understand the source of hope, there is always reason for it
2 Nephi 31:20
Suffering ceases to be suffering when we find a reason for it
Do your prayers reflect your most earnest hopes?

Sister Emily Watts (she spoke about our hopes as mothers):

The hope that your children can improve; Romans 8:24-25
The hope that the work we do as mothers is worth it
The hope that because of the importance of our work Heavenly Father will help me with it. Heavenly father will give us what we need this day. Tomorrow we must ask again.

Sister Merrilee Boyack (breast cancer survivor!)

When you have no control over anything else, you have control over your attitude.
"Strengthening Opportunities" - another name for trials
7 choices we need to make daily - 1. Choose to be of good cheer D&C 68:6; 2. Choose to be strong; 3. Choose to be hopeful in our God - He will answer our prayers in the perfect time. Choose to fully submit to the Lord's will. Either we must trust God or we don't - there's no part way; 4. Choose to be faithful; 5. choose to accept suffering - Going through trials is the Lord's way of making us who He wants us to be. Suffering is a way for us to experience a minuscule amount of the suffering the Savior experienced. Suffering should be welcomed; 6. Choose to be grateful; 7. Choose to let God bear the burdens.

We had such an uplifting weekend. I was inspired to be a better wife, mother, daughter of God, and disciple of Christ. I hope I will have the opportunity to attend a TOFW event this year as well.

from left to right: Sarah, Mom, me, Stacie

After we said goodbye to Stacie and dropped Sarah off at the airport my mom and I headed back to her house to relieve my dad. He did such a marvelous job taking care of my kiddos all weekend, but he sure was wore out! The girls and I were able to spend the entire week at their house. We didn't do a lot (it was pretty cold) but we had fun spending time together. My parents watched Claire one afternoon so I could take Grace to the children's museum. She had a good time exploring all the different play areas.

putting groceries away in the kitchen

counting money at the bank

building at the workshop

Queen Gracie

Claire experienced Cheerios and puffed rice snacks while at my parents. She loves to eat!

Now, on to Thanksgiving. Shoot, I just realized that we have a bunch more Thanksgiving pictures on Justin's camera. Check back another time for an update because we spent the weekend in San Antonio!

We stayed in Texas for Thanksgiving this year. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with the Dodd family. Thanks V for inviting us! We're so grateful to have wonderful friends here who have opened their homes to us and made us feel like family.

I saw these cute turkey shirts on a blog and decided to make them for the girls. They turned out GREAT and were so stinking cute (again, pictures of them wearing the shirts are on Justin's camera). I can't remember the blog where I got the idea, but I'm sure you can google it if you're interested in making one for next year.

After dinner we packed up and headed to San Antonio for the weekend. We had a great time visiting the Alamo and walking along the river checking out all the restaurants. We've decided that we have to go back sometime without the kids so we can really enjoy it! We left San Antonio and drove up to Marble Falls and enjoyed a little of the Texas hill country. It really was gorgeous. We have plans of going back there too! Check back soon for a picture update of that part of our weekend.

We started December and all the Christmas festivities with the Primary Breakfast with Santa activity. Grace loves the idea of Santa Claus, but not so much the real thing. We had a yummy pancake breakfast, listened to some great Christmas stories, and then pictures with Santa.

Grace was not happy

Claire was just happy to be held!

Later in the month we got to celebrate Justin's great accomplishment of finishing his Master's program at UT Tyler. Rex and Cindy made the trip to be there for his commencement ceremony. It was a really fabulous day. We're so proud of Justin for his hard work, commitment and sacrifice.

We celebrated Grace's 3rd birthday on December 20th. We didn't do a big birthday party because things were so busy with Justin's graduation and Christmas so we got a cake, balloons, and of course PRESENTS!

All she wanted to do was dig in to that cake. I wish we would've gotten a picture or video of us singing happy birthday to her. It was the sweetest thing. She was so happy and grinning from ear to ear while we were singing. We love this girl!

For months Grace was asking for purple presents and a purple cake for her birthday. We did our best.

While Grandma Nessen was here she and Grace made sugar cookies. I think it was by far Grace's favorite activity.

Justin's parents went home to Utah on the 23rd, so we celebrated Christmas with just our little family this year. This was our 4th Christmas in Texas and the first one spent at home. Our first Christmas was in the hospital after Grace was born, and the last two have been in Utah and Oregon visiting family. It was a pretty relaxing holiday this year.

The girls opened their Christmas pj's on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning! Santa brought Grace a dollhouse and a Cinderella doll. Not to mention the infamous purple jump rope he left in her stocking. It was a great day!

Grandma and Grandpa Erlenbusch sent Grace a sleeping beauty dress for Christmas. She LOVES that thing!

2010 turned out to be a great year for our family and we hope it was for yours as well.

Happy New Year!

Payback and a Purple Jump Rope

2010-12-24T16:39:00.002-07:00

I spent most of today, Christmas Eve, running around to several stores looking for a particular item that Grace decided she wanted from Santa. A few days ago she started declaring that Santa was going to bring her a purple jump rope whenever anyone asked. She's only 3 and I swear she has a photographic memory, so we didn't want to disappoint her and ruin Christmas and the magic of Santa Claus. It's not easy to find a jump rope this time of year, even in the sports/fitness sections of Wal-mart and Target. I finally decided to try the dollar store and wouldn't ya know, I found one. A purple one even. Well, actually it's purple and bright green, but the plastic handles are purple. Better yet, it was only a buck! Anything less than an over-the-top, uber dramatic, jumping up and down while screaming reaction when she opens it is going to be very disappointing considering the mobs of people I had to maneuver around all day today.

As I was running in and out of stores all morning not able to find that darn jump rope I was really worried about how she would feel tomorrow morning if she didn't get it. I was also wondering how many Christmas Eve's my parents spent running around trying to find the presents I had been telling everyone Santa was going to bring me (that weren't the original ones I had asked for). I'm pretty sure there were a lot of them, and I'm pretty sure my parents did everything in their power to find those presents for me. I don't remember a Christmas when I didn't get just what I wanted or asked for. My parents are pretty great like that. I'm sure when I was a kid they were praying that someday I would have children who would do the same thing to me as I did to them... and they're prayers are being answered!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-19T10:19:00.003-07:00

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year we celebrated on Saturday. We started the day off by running errands, shopping, and having lunch together in Longview. All that shopping really wore Grace out (or maybe it bored her to sleep).

That evening we headed to the church for the tri-ward Trunk-or-Treat. Grace had a great time playing games and winning candy. She really nailed the "trick or treat" phrase this year, and continues to refer to her Halloween candy as "trick or treats." There was a really great turnout at the church this year, and some really creative "trunks." (I feel like I'm using "quotations" way too much in this post.) My favorites were Sister Muse's and the Missionaries. Sister Muse had hers set up like Lehi's dream and the kids had to hold to the iron rod and avoid obstacles to get to their treats. One of the missionaries was dressed as Samuel the Lamanite and stood in the bed of a pick-up preaching to the people. The kids got to throw marshmallows at him. I had to coax Grace into throwing the marshmallow... she was only interested in eating it. Our hands were full with the kids, so we didn't get too many pictures this year. Here are some of our favorites:

Grace the cupcake and Claire the duck. Claire's costume is the one Grace wore for her first Halloween. I made Grace's costume... thanks to my friend Bonnie for finding the instructions. I had told Bonnie I wanted Grace to be a cupcake for Halloween and she found this one on a website. I LOVED how it turned out!

Claire was pretty worn out by the time the night was over. Poor girl lost one of her little webbed feet and couldn't keep her duck bill on straight!

The whole family. Justin and I really aren't into dressing up, but maybe next year we'll come up with a theme for our family... any ideas?!

East Texas Yamboree 2010

2010-11-16T16:49:00.008-07:00

Last month (I know, I'm way behind!) was the annual East Texas Yamboree. It's a big deal around these parts. I'm still not quite sure why. I don't get it, but then again, I'm not from these parts. We enjoy one night of good deep fried carni food and rides. Every year is a little more fun than the previous because Grace gets into it more and more. The Yamboree runs Wednesday through Saturday. We decided to head up to the Square on Thursday night to get some dinner and let Grace have some fun on the rides. When we got there we ran into our Stake President and his wife VA. VA is our surrogate grandma. She's so good to our kids (someday I'll have to dedicate a post just to her!). Grace absolutely adores her. She took a few pictures of the kids while our hubby's were chatting.

This was the best shot she could get of Grace. She's staring down the carousel, begging us with her eyes to take her on it.

Claire was pretty content to just hang out in the stroller and people watch.

Grace on the spaceship ride. I only brought my camcorder, so the still photos aren't of the best quality. As always, Grace loved the carnival rides. I was disappointed that they didn't have the little car ride like last year. She rode the carousel (twice), a school bus, the motorcycles, and the spaceship. She really wanted to go on the ferris wheel, but her cheap parents didn't want to fork over the money for all of us to go on it... maybe next year ;).

This is basically how Claire spent the evening. She even took a nap in the stroller!

On Saturday morning we parked ourselves downtown to watch the Queen's Parade. We had to rename it the "Princess Parade" for Grace since the only queen she knows of is the one from Snow White (and she's a scary queen!). Grace wasn't into the parade much this year because we didn't have front row seats on the street. She really couldn't see anything so she kept herself occupied by picking the grass and playing in the dirt.

Miss Claire enjoying the nice weather and all the attention

Justin was helping the boy scouts raise money by parking cars, so he got to the parade in time to watch the last two floats.

We had fun at the Yamboree again this year. I was so exhausted the morning of the parade because Claire was up a lot the night before and Justin wasn't there to help with the girls so we didn't head over to see the livestock like we usually do. We decided to grab some lunch and go home for naps!

We look forward to next year's Yamboree. Really, all I care about is the food!

Just so I don't Forget...

2010-11-12T12:23:00.002-07:00

My mom and I were out shopping the other day with the girls when Grace said the funniest thing. I just have to write it down so I don't forget. I love the things she comes up with these days. We were standing in line at Joann's to have some fabric cut and Grace was whining to get out of the cart. I told her she couldn't get down because there were too many people around. She looked at me (very seriously and with a straight face) and said "No, mommy. There are three many people around." Silly girl.

Grace has a new bestie!

2010-10-20T17:22:00.003-06:00

Meet Skateboard. He's Grace's new best friend. She loves him oh so much. For the sake of privacy (my blog is public, Skateboard's family blog is private) I won't refer to him by his real name. He totally prefers to be called Skateboard anyways, and I think it's freakin' adorable! Skateboard's family is in our ward and I serve in young women's with his cute momma, R. R is going to school right now and her regular sitter wasn't able to watch him last week. That's where Grace and I come in. We were so excited to spend a few hours with him. These two played together for 4 1/2 hours. They got along great! No fights or tantrums or meltdowns of any sorts.

This is one of the only "boy" toys we have and the two of them played with it FOR-EV-ER. It's a cute little Caterpillar loader that has an electric screwdriver to take it all apart. They would take turns unscrewing the parts and putting them back together. Too cute! Skateboard was so excited when he figured out that he could put the parts back together in the wrong places to make it look funny.

Skateboard brought play-dough with him and they had a great time playing and chatting with each other.

Skateboard brought some chocolate milk and shared it with Grace, so Grace shared her laptop with him (she must REALLY like him because she doesn't let ANYONE play with her laptop!)

They also played with this huge stuffed puppy for a long time. One of them would sit on it and hold on to its ears while the other one dragged them around the house by the puppy's nose.
I love how they're looking at each other in this picture... it melts my heart!

As Skateboard and his momma were leaving Grace called out to him, "I love you!" Skateboard, looking over his shoulder and being sooo cool, replied "I love you too," as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I about melted into a pile of goo right there on my dining room floor. It was absolutely adorable!

We had such a fun time with Skateboard! We hope he comes back to play again real soon!

Family Home Evening - Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-19T14:53:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, the kids and I ventured out to get pumpkins for Family Home Evening (FHE). We're planning a family outing to the pumpkin patch next weekend, so I decided to embrace my frugal-ness and hit up Wal-mart for pumpkins to carve. Grace was so excited she could hardly contain herself. It turned out to be a great bargaining chip to get her to take a nap. She wanted to carve pumpkins with daddy soooo bad that she didn't give me any trouble when I told her it was time to take a "rest" (I can't call it a nap anymore or she gets an attitude about it, but I'm getting off track now). We had a great time together as a family. This was the first year we've carved pumpkins with Grace and I'm pretty sure it will become a family tradition, seeing how she LOVED every bit of it.

Choo Choo Trains

2010-08-31T18:28:00.006-06:00

Grace has a little obsession with trains lately. She has this toy train she got for her first Christmas and has played with it daily for the last few weeks.

She loves to line things up (like the letters on the fridge below) and say it's a choo choo train.

She has these stacking/nesting boxes that she lines up and says is a choo choo train. Minnie Mouse is always the conductor and Baby Giraffe is usually the only passenger.

She gets so excited when we see a real train while we're out driving in the car. She can hardly contain herself when we cross the railroad tracks on our way to church every Sunday. She's pretty easy to please.

4 months

2010-08-31T08:43:00.004-06:00

My baby is 4 months old now and growing way too fast. We saw the pediatrician last week for her check-up, so here are her stats:

16.0 lbs (90th percentile)

25.5 in (88th percentile)

16 in head circumference (37th percentile)

Her head seems much bigger than that to me. Maybe it's because of those super chubby cheeks! She's doing well and is very healthy. We've been concerned about her head because of our experience with Grace, but Claire has great rotation in her neck with no signs of torticollis. The back of her head is a little flat, but her doctor says it's pretty normal for a baby her age since all she does is lie down. Now that she's holding her head up well on her own she'll spend more time sitting up in the bumbo seat and her exersaucer, which will allow the back of her head to round out more.

We love our little Claire. She's definitely not as easy going as her sister was. She's a little more high maintenance and has quite the set of lungs on her. She likes to scream. A lot. Especially when she's hungry or tired or both. She has been a great nighttime sleeper, but not so good at the naps during the day. From the day we brought her home from the hospital I was surprised by the length of time she spent awake between naps. She usually takes one decent nap (about 2 hours) and then two more shorter naps (30-45 minutes) a day. I just never know what order they'll be in. Sometimes her longer nap is in the morning, and sometimes it's in the late afternoon. I hate that she's not consistent. I like my kids to be on a schedule. She's also much more attached to the binky than Grace was. Claire will wake up in the middle of the night crying and all she wants is for me to put the binky back in her mouth. She's getting to the fun stage now where she's starting to grab for things and has an interest in playing with toys. She has the BEST laugh and it is so contagious. She's ticklish around her neck (yes, she has a neck!) and under her armpits. I love her wide, open mouth, gummy smile. It melts my heart. She loves to watch her sister and will crack up at Grace. I love those moments! We're so glad she's part of our family.

This was the first time I tried to feed her rice cereal. She's not a fan. I've tried again since then, and still no luck. She won't even open her mouth for it. I would never have guessed she'd be a picky eater!

Pest Control

2010-08-25T13:45:00.002-06:00

We had a cricket in our kitchen the other night, so Grace decided to take care of it herself.

She trapped it under the laundry basket. Pretty smart if you ask me. Except that the cricket was much smaller than the holes in the basket.
He eventually jumped through one of the holes and met his fate with the fly swatter.

Water Fun

2010-08-25T13:34:00.002-06:00

Yesterday while Claire was napping, Grace and I headed outside to have a little fun with the water hose.

The finger up the nose was because of the water that went up the nose in the previous picture.

Another Milestone

2010-08-25T13:10:00.004-06:00

Now that Claire is 4 months old, I decided to get the exersaucer out of the garage for her to try out. I'm so glad I did because she loves it! She was grinning from ear to ear at all the toys. Then she started reaching for them and spinning those colored wheels. I'll be honest... I cried. Just a little. She's growing up way too fast. Next she'll be eating rice cereal and solid foods, rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking... AHHHHH! I wish I could freeze time and keep my kids little forever.

Sisterly Love

2010-08-20T20:31:00.004-06:00

Claire was having fun during tummy time until...

sister came along and decided she wanted to be in the picture too.

Claire really does love her sister, from a distance. She even loves her sister from the safety and protection of mommy's loving arms. She doesn't love her sister when she's in close enough range to touch her without mommy to keep those pinching fingers at bay. Grace doesn't understand that someday soon Claire will be able to get her back.

A Name and a Blessing

2010-08-20T18:01:00.006-06:00

On Sunday, June 27th Justin blessed Claire in his home ward in Howell, Utah. We were already out west for a family vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming so we decided to have her blessing where our family could be there to share in the joy. It was a gorgeous day and Justin gave her a very beautiful and touching blessing.

My parents with our family

Justin's parents with our family

All the men in the blessing circle

Grandma and Grandpa Petersen

Grandma and Grandpa Nessen

Four generations

After church we had a luncheon with a lot of family from both sides. We had a good time visiting with everyone and enjoying the wonderful weather! We're so happy Claire is a part of our family. We wouldn't have it any other way. She has been such a blessing in our home. She is definitely more temperamental than her older sister was, but we love her just the way she is. She makes our family (more) complete!

Nessen Family Pictures 2010

2010-08-19T12:30:00.005-06:00

This spring Justin's grandparents celebrated 60 years of wedded bliss, so the family decided to get everyone together (an impressive feat) this summer to take some pictures. All but 2 grandchildren were there, but don't worry they were photoshopped in later and you can't even tell!

This picture is of Justin's parents and their children and children's spouses.
Grandma and Grandpa Nessen
The whole gang. I'm not sure the exact number, but it's close to 50. Pretty amazing, huh?

A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

2010-07-10T13:50:00.004-06:00

*FYI: This is a bit of a lengthy post*

The title of this post is a bit of and understatement... in my opinion at least. Yesterday was an awful day. Claire had her 2-month well baby check-up scheduled for early yesterday afternoon. I had called the pediatrician's office the day before to give them the phone number for the Logan Regional Hospital so they could request her medical records (more on that will come in a later post!) from her trip to the ER while we were in Utah. I asked to speak with the same nurse I had been checking in with while we were in Utah. I ended up with a different nurse on the phone, but she assured me she would request the medical records and answer any questions I had at the time. I told her about Claire's UTI and that her blood culture came back positive for E-Coli. I informed her she was on an antibiotic and wanted to know if the doctor would want us to come in that day, or wait until her scheduled appointment the following day. She told us to wait. OK. Then I asked if Claire would be having a repeat of her cultures to see if the infections were gone (these tests are hard for a mommy to watch her 2-month old go through, so I wanted to be mentally and emotionally prepared). She said no. We'd have to wait until she was off the antibiotic so we would have an accurate reading. OK.

Now I have to back up a bit to Wednesday. Our dog, Jasper, who we've had for 5 years went missing on Wednesday. Justin said he was acting strange all day Tuesday, and then Wednesday morning he was gone, and we hadn't seen him since.

So, I had made arrangements with my friend Kadie to keep Grace while I took Claire to her doctor's appointment. After dropping Grace off I was headed back toward town to get on the highway to Longview when I noticed something on the side of the road. It didn't register with me until a few seconds after I had passed it. What I had seen was Jasper. He had been hit by a car and was dead. I immediately called Justin to let him know. We couldn't believe it. He was several miles from our house. We have no idea what he was doing that far away. He never wanders away from our yard. We are so sad. We got Jasper when we moved to Wisconsin when he was only eight weeks old. The hardest part is that he was Grace's best friend. She loved him so much. She would play in the backyard with him for hours. She keeps asking to play with Jasper (*tear*) and stands at the window saying, "Jasper, bye-bye?" It's heartbreaking.

Now, back to the doctor's appointment. When Dr. Chaiken came in we talked about Claire's UTI and after a moment I realized she had no idea Claire also had a blood bacteria. She was shocked. Logan Regional did not include the blood culture results in the information they sent her. She was livid! Apparently, Claire should've been admitted to the hospital and put on IV antibiotics no matter what if she had a positive blood culture. She was also really ticked off at the nurse I spoke to because the E-Coli in the blood should have been a red flag for her to inform Dr. Chaiken immediately, which she obviously didn't do. Dr. Chaiken also said she would have insisted on seeing Claire the day before, but the nurse told me to wait until our regularly scheduled appointment. The nurse also misinformed me about the repeat cultures. Claire would be having them done that day, and the antibiotics she's on would not alter the outcome of the tests. Yay. I wasn't prepared for my baby to go through all that. Dr. Chaiken was on a man-hunt to find out which nurse I spoke to. I'm pretty sure the unemployment rate just went up. So, not only did Claire have to have a catheter urine test AND her blood drawn, but she also had to get 3 shots in her thighs. It was horrible. I had to hold her tiny little body down and try to comfort her while they pricked and poked her. The nurse wasn't very happy about it either. As soon as she finished with the shots she was outta there, practically in tears herself.

Now we're waiting on the results of the cultures. If the blood culture comes back positive Claire will be admitted to the hospital and put on IV antibiotics and possibly have to have a spinal tap. If the urine culture is positive (which we don't think it will be) she will do another round of antibiotics. As soon as we get a negative urine culture Claire will be scheduled for a renal ultrasound and a voiding cystourethrogram, or VCUG. Because of her age, the UTI may indicate a bladder reflux problem. Sometimes the valve at the top of the bladder doesn't function properly and urine will reflux back into the kidneys and cause infection. Depending on the severity of the reflux she will either be prescribed a daily antibiotic for 6 months, or need surgery to correct the problem. We're praying that there isn't anything wrong with her bladder or kidneys.

So there you have our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Grace and Jasper... Best buddies

Claire with her battle wounds

Once it was all over and she had a bottle, she was a pretty happy baby.

Mother's Day

2010-05-14T10:39:00.003-06:00

Mother's Day sort of snuck up on us this year. Justin didn't have any meetings before church, so I got to sleep in a bit and also had his help getting the girls ready. It was a pretty laid back morning. After church we headed to our friend's house for hamburgers. We had a nice time visiting and eating. The best part of Mother's Day for me was probably the day before. Justin had to attend the primary quarterly activity at the church and he took Grace with him. She brought home a couple of sweet gifts for me, a potted plant and a "Happy Mother's Day" button for me to wear to church on Sunday. I love that she's getting old enough for these kinds of things and I look forward to more homemade Mother's Day gifts from her. In nursery the kids made their moms cute little cards. The outside says, "Happy Mother's Day 2010" and the inside says, "Thumbody loves you" with Grace's thumbprints stamped on it. So cute! Someone brought Grace into the Relief Society room when church was over and she was so excited to give me the card she made. I love it!

I hope you all had an equally enjoyable day!

2 Weeks

2010-05-11T08:04:00.004-06:00

Claire had her 2 week check-up on May 5 (I know... I'm really slow in posting/updating). She's doing great! She's a great eater and growing like a weed. She's also very strong, and very alert and aware of her surroundings. During the day she'll stay awake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours after some feedings, which I think is a crazy long stretch for such a new baby. I guess that's better than being awake all night! Most nights she only wakes up twice to eat - around 2:00 and around 6:00 - which I'm extremely grateful for. She loves the bouncer and spends most of her day hanging out and napping in it.

Claire's 2 week stats:

6lbs 10oz (7.06%)

19.5 inches (17.75%)

The Timeline: April 21, 2010

2010-04-29T13:32:00.005-06:00

8:00am - Headed to my scheduled prenatal appointment. Having some contractions about 10-12 minutes apart.

9:00 - Dr. checked my progress and I was dilated almost 5cm and about 80% effaced. Dr. decided to hook me up to the monitor and see how often I was contracting.

9:15 - I called Justin to let him know what was going on. He decided to get things cleaned up at work and head towards the doctor's office.

9:25 - Dr. checked the monitor. Contractions were every 3-5 minutes. I was told to get to the hospital and order my epidural so I wouldn't miss my opportunity to get it.

10:00 - Met Justin at the hospital. Got checked in and all set up in a labor room. I had to have 2 pints of IV fluid in me before the anesthesiologist would give me an epidural.

12:00 - Got my epidural!

1:00 - Dr. came by to check my progress. I was now at 6cm and she broke my water. The epidural didn't completely work because I could still feel the contractions in my belly, so after a while I got another dose of medicine which I think numbed me a little too much. At least I couldn't feel any pain, right?!

4:45 - Dr. showed up in her "street clothes" to check me again, but didn't need to since Claire was crowning. She ran to change into her scrubs. The nurses rushed to get everything ready.

4:50 - Began pushing

4:56 - Claire arrived healthy and strong!

Grace and I just hanging out waiting for our friends to pick her up for the rest of the day.

Claire getting checked out and cleaned up

Happy parents!

Proud big sister

Daddy's girls

Newest Nessen

2010-04-29T13:20:00.003-06:00

Claire Marie Nessen

April 21, 2010

4:56pm

6lbs. 4oz; 19.5 inches

Spring Portraits

2010-04-02T17:21:00.003-06:00

We took Grace to get spring portraits this morning. It's been a year since our last attempt at pictures. She's not too fond of the camera, especially when a stranger is trying to snap her picture. It took the entire session and a few marshmallows and jelly beans to get 4 poses worth buying. I'm actually pretty well pleased with how they turned out considering the way she was behaving at the studio.

This one is probably my favorite

Classic "Grace" face with the scrunched up nose

She was having fun twirling with dad who was just out of the camera's view

Look at those eyelashes!

Baby Names

2010-03-31T16:54:00.002-06:00

Okay people, we're getting down to the wire here. I know I still have roughly 6 weeks to my due date, but I'm not really counting on making it that far. I hope I can go full term, but I'm being realistic here. We're struggling in the baby name department, so that's where you all come in. We need some fresh, new names to mull over. Leave a comment with some name suggestions that you like. Heck, even give suggestions that you don't really like because we might like them.

For those of you who follow our blog but don't have a google account to leave a comment, email me or facebook me with suggestions.

(Can you sense the desperation here? I'd like to go to the hospital with at least a couple of good contenders.)

Baby Update

2010-03-26T17:09:00.003-06:00

After my last two doctor's appointments I was feeling pretty confidant that this pregnancy could actually make as far as 36 weeks. My sonogram this morning pretty much burst my bubble. Recently, my doctor has been checking for dilation and effacement at every appointment, as well as doing a Fetal Fibronectin (FFN) test every 2 weeks. An FFN is a test for the presence of specific cells in your cervix which can indicate impending labor and delivery. A negative test means that I have less than .03% chance of having the baby in the next two weeks. A positive test means I have a 30% chance of having the baby in the next two weeks. So far I have not been dilated or effaced at all and all my FFN's have come back negative, thus my confidence in a nearly full-term delivery. However, this morning my sonogram showed that my cervix is weakening and shortening quite a bit, and under any pressure, i.e. Braxton Hicks contractions, it shortens even more. My doctor has been pretty great and is doing everything she can to keep this baby inside as long as possible, without having me on bed rest orders (which I GREATLY appreciate). As of this morning my doctor's orders are to stay off my feet as much as possible, no heavy lifting (she specifically said no picking up Grace!), no stress, and I have to stay close to home/hospital. I go in Monday and Tuesday to get steroid shots which will speed up the development of the baby's lungs just in case she does decide to arrive in the next couple of weeks. I guess I'll be spending my weekend relaxing with my feet up! At least it gets me out of cooking and cleaning...

Kitchen Chaos

2010-03-19T12:07:00.002-06:00

We are currently in the middle of a little kitchen remodel, and I am currently in the nesting phase of this pregnancy. Not a good combo. I can't wait to have a beautiful kitchen, but in the meantime this is what I am living in:

The first coat of primer went on the cabinets this morning. That wood was thirsty! It soaked up the primer in minutes. I guess it needs another coat, which will set us back another day. It's looking like I won't be able to put my kitchen back together until Thursday (Wednesday if I'm lucky!)

I'll be sure to post before and after pictures when it's all finished.

We also have visitors coming next week. Justin's parents will be here. Sorry about the mess, but we're anxious to see you!

The Bump

2010-03-16T08:04:00.003-06:00

Since I haven't posted any belly shots this time around I thought I'd let y'all see what I'm looking like these days.

Taken March 14, 2010; 31 weeks

2010-02-25T15:43:00.003-07:00

Since my previous post was about what I've been up to, I thought I'd let you all see what Grace has been up to the past few weeks.

Grace was sick over Valentine's weekend so she didn't really get to enjoy the goodies. I had to run to the store the day after V-day and they had their cupcakes and cookies half-off. She didn't hesitate to dig into her cupcake. I think she gets her love of cake from her Grandma Debbie... okay, probably a bit from her mom too!

One morning for breakfast I fixed Grace a bowl of chocolate frosted mini bites (or whatever they're called). She didn't each much of it, but she had a great time playing in it after the wheat bites absorbed all the milk.

I was in the bathroom getting ready and she came in with her hands looking like this. It looked like she had poop all over them. I totally freaked out and started checking her all over to make sure she didn't have some kind of an exploding diaper, and then I realized it smelled like chocolate.

A couple days ago I came out to the living room to this. Yep, that's a tube of diaper rash cream. She managed to get it off the shelf in her bedroom, pry the cap open, and have a hay day with it. I assume she thought it was lotion because she was rubbing it all over her hands and cheeks.

F.Y.I. Diaper rash cream is meant to repel moisture. It doesn't clean up quickly or easily.

P.S. I really am an attentive mother. I don't let my daughter run around the house getting into whatever she pleases. Sometimes she's just too quick and sneaky for me.

"Naptime" Crafts

2010-02-25T14:47:00.007-07:00

The weather has been pretty cold here recently and we've had 2 (what?!) snowstorms, so I haven't wanted to leave the house much. To keep me from losing my mind I've been working on some projects during Grace's naptime. I'm a pretty lucky mommy because it's rare for her to nap for less than 3 hours in the afternoon. I find that I can accomplish quite a bit during that time.

Several weeks ago I headed out to a new baby/children's consignment store in town to check out what they had. I'm in the market for a new baby bouncer, but came across a steal of a deal on a Boppy nursing pillow, new with tags. Since it was naked (no pillow cover) I decided I would make a cover. I LOVE how it turned out and was surprised by how easy it was to make. The hardest, a.k.a. most time consuming, part was cutting the pattern out and taping it together.

This is the backside of the pillow. I even sewed that zipper on myself! Boppy slipcovers at Target and Babies R Us range in price from $9.99-19.99. I was able to make mine for just under $6, and it's completely custom.

I've seen these car seat tents all over the blogosphere and I think they're genius! I found a tutorial and whipped this baby out in about an hour. I've seen them priced online ranging from $20-35, but I managed to make mine for $8 and some change.

The straps are what I find genius. It holds the blanket in place while still allowing you access to the car seat handle.

I would've saved a couple of bucks if I had chosen a solid fabric for the underside, but I loved the coordinating stripe, so I splurged.

I decided to dress up some burp clothes with the leftover fabric from my projects. The one on the bottom is a two sided burp cloth. Sounded good in theory, but it was a lot more work than it was worth. I think it will be my only one.

This nursing cover, also known as a "hooter hider" was my first project. It cost me a bit more because it required more material than just fabric. The straps have D-rings to make it adjustable around the neck and there's boning in the hem between the straps so you can see your baby and have use of both hands without the rest of the world getting a peep show. I also splurged on some expensive fabric at Joann's making this nursing cover come to about $12. Still significantly less than a real Hooter Hider, but it could've easily been done for half of what I spent.

Lastly are these cute paci clips. I got a package of 12 pearl snap sets at Walmart for a couple of dollars and found the cute round suspender clips on ebay for pretty darn cheap. There's a great ribbon store close by and I was able to purchase the ribbon in 12 inch lengths to eliminate waste. When all was said and done each paci clip cost me about a $1.
Cute, huh?

See below for links to the websites where I found these great projects

http://thethriftychick.blogspot.com/2009/07/simple-car-seat-tent-tutorial.html

http://www.vanillajoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/boppy-slipcover-pattern.pdf

http://www.vanillajoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/boppy-slipcover-instructions.pdf

http://www.blisstree.com/breastfeeding123/free-pattern-to-sew-your-own-nursing-cover/

http://createstudio.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-sided-burp-cloth-tutorial.html

A bit anxious

2010-02-20T15:58:00.002-07:00

It seems as though I wasn't paying much attention when it was explained to me that human gestation is supposed to be roughly 9 months... not 6. I guess this little girl is a little anxious to greet the world, but don't worry because we have things under control and we got her calmed down enough to hopefully stay put for another 8 weeks or so (fingers crossed).

I was having some lower abdominal pain on Friday and as the day progressed, so did the pain. At about 4:00pm I was on the phone with Justin and told him how I'd been feeling and he suggested I call my doctor since it was still office hours, rather than having no other option than to head to the ER if it got too bad. I thought my doctor would tell me to take it easy and if the pain and cramping turned into something else, go to the hospital. She didn't. She told me to head straight for the hospital to be monitored. She didn't want to take any chances. So I packed an overnight bag just in case (I've learned to be prepared from our experience with Grace), woke Grace from her nap and headed to the hospital. Justin was meeting us there since he was on his way hog hunting with a friend from work.

I ended up staying in Labor and Delivery for about 6 hours (thankfully not overnight) hooked up to fetal monitors. The first few hours were good. I had only had 2 contractions. Then they started coming a lot more frequently - about every 4 minutes - although they really weren't painful, just uncomfortable. The on-call doctor decided to give me a couple of oral medications to relax and calm things down and after about an hour I wasn't contracting anymore... YAY! Since I wasn't dilated or effaced at all they sent me home for the weekend with orders to take it easy, call my doctor on Monday, and the most awful thing you can think of - NO CAFFEINE OR CARBONATED DRINKS. I don't know if I'll make it 2-3 months without a Pepsi. I guess I can do it if it helps this little baby go full term.

So today has been a good day. No contractions, although I'm being extremely cautious with my activities. I'm scared to do anything that might disturb my uterus and make it mad enough to go into labor. We're keeping our fingers crossed and our faith in our Heavenly Father that we have a healthy baby... in a couple of months!

Snow

2010-02-11T15:55:00.002-07:00

It's been snowing all day here in East Texas. We had a pretty nice covering this morning, but about 11am it warmed up enough to melt what was on the ground. Now that it's about 5pm it's cold enough that it's sticking to the grass, trees, and cars again. One thing I love about living here is that we don't have to deal with snow in the winter. I guess today is the exception. I knew the weather was going to be like this today, so I went out of my way yesterday to make sure I wouldn't have to go out in it. We've been in the house all day with the blinds and curtains open so we can watch the snow fall outside.

P.S. I can hear the little kids in our neighborhood outside laughing and playing in the snow. They don't get to experience this very often. The sound of their giggling makes my heart happy.

Favorite Blogs Tag

2010-02-10T10:02:00.002-07:00

My good friend Dallas tagged me in her last post. I am to list for you my top 5 favorite blogs/websites, so here they are:

1. Hip 2 Save - www.hip2save.com. I'm right there with you Dallas. I check this website several times a day. This lady can save you tons of cash! She posts awesome deals all throughout the day that can be used online or in stores. Check it out!

2. Craft Blogs - I'm clumping these all together in one because I check them all regularly and pretty much love them all the same. They are : www.sistersstuff.blogspot.com; www.crapivemade.blogspot.com; www.craftgossip.com; www.createstudio.blogspot.com; www.littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com. These sites are full of ideas and tutorials for sewing, scrapbooking, homemade gifts, recipes and more. I love 'em!

3. www.sugardoodle.net - If you're a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this website is a must! I teach primary in our ward (CTR 5) and I would be lost without sugardoodle. There's tons of great ideas to help with your lessons, coloring pages, and handouts.

4. www.scribbleitonline.com - My fave vinyl website. I have other vinyl sites on my sidebar that you can check out too, but this one is my favorite. They have an endless supply of quotes to choose from, as well as graphics. You can also make a totally custom order (which I've done) and the owner of the site is very sweet and quick to answer any questions and get your order placed.

5. www.thepioneerwoman.com - My favorite place for recipes. Her directions are very detailed and include step by step pictures. She's also hilarious, so trying out her recipes is entertaining AND delicious.

Those are the 5 that I visit the most, but I have a bunch more that I love too. I can't wait to check out all of your favorite blogs too!

I tag:
Monica
Hilary (where have you been lately? haven't seen much of you on fb or blogger)
Amber (I don't know if you do the whole tagging thing, but I know you are an online shopper and bargain hunter)
Brooke
Jamie

Double Digits

2010-02-04T13:51:00.002-07:00

If you take a look at my sidebar you will notice that according to the babyticker I have 99 days to go until my due date. I'm ecstatic about that. I'm not very patient when it comes to pregnancy. I hate the wait. So far this pregnancy has been a breeze (knock on wood). I saw my doctor today and all is well. She got the detailed report from the radiologist about my anatomical sonogram from 4 weeks ago and this little girl is perfect. Let's just hope she's not as anxious to greet the world as Grace was and decides to stay inside a little longer.

On a side note, Grace had her 2 year check up on Monday. She's growing and developing just as she should be. She weighs 32 pounds (94%) and she's 35.5 inches tall (81%). Also, she hates the doctor. She received a play medical set for Christmas and loves to check my blood pressure, listen to my heart, give me shots, take my temperature, look in my ears, and put band aids on me. She doesn't like it when the real doctor does those things to her. Good thing we're not scheduled to go back until next January. Let's hope she stays healthy until then.

Catching Up: Tree House Museum

2010-01-22T17:49:00.004-07:00

Justin's mom took all the grandkids (and their parents) to the Tree House Museum in Ogden one day before Christmas. The kids had a blast running around this place exploring and discovering everything.

I found Whitney and Alix dressing Grace in this Robin Hood costume. Just about every room in this museum had dress up costumes corresponding to the theme.
Grandma Nessen with all her grandkids, from left: Maggie Jo, Grace, Whitney, Alix and Jaxx

Grace in the old school house

Grace and Daddy having a tea party

Grace loved the music room. She was running around like a crazy person from one thing to the next, spending about a half second at each instrument. I was exhausted just watching her from my seat on a bench!

Justin helping Maggie with the train set

Grace and Daddy building something together in the workshop

She loved this table with the barn, tractors, and farm equipment. I think she spent the most time here.

They had this cow that could actually be milked. When you pull on the utters water squirts out into the pail. Grace wouldn't have anything to do with it, so I tried. I don't think I'd make a very good living milking cows.

Our little cowgirl! She loved these horses (probably because they weren't real).

Thanks Grandma for the great time at the museum. We'll definitely visit it again someday!

Catching Up: Happy Birthday Grace!

2010-01-22T17:19:00.002-07:00

I am WAAAY behind on blogging so the next few posts I will be playing catch-up. Last month we made a very long (that's an understatement) trip to Utah and Oregon to celebrate Christmas with each of our families. We left on December 18th and arrived just in time for the Petersen Family Christmas Party 24 hours later, which will be blogged about in a later post. We were able to celebrate Grace's 2nd birthday on December 20th while in Utah at Justin's parent's house. Great Grandma and Grandpa Nessen were able to come and help celebrate, as well as Justin's Aunt Patti, Uncle Dirk and their kids. Grace opened some presents, we sang to her and ate cake and ice cream

Grandma Nessen helping Grace open a present from Great Grandma and Grandpa Nessen. She wasn't really into opening presents that night, so this was the only shot I got. I'm pretty sure I opened the rest of them for her without her evening noticing.
The cake I picked up at Sam's Club as we were passing through Ogden the day before.

I love this picture of her trying to blow out her candle. She ended up needing a little help from Daddy.

Later that night Aunt Jessie gave Grace a pedicure. Too Cute!

We can't believe our sweet little baby is already 2 years old. It's been the best two years of our lives. We are grateful and humbled everyday for the opportunity we have to be her parents. I hope someday she will understand the special blessing she is in our lives and how much we wished and prayed her here. She is the sunshine and happiness that brightens our days and has filled the empty spaces in our family and home. We love you Grace!

Sugar and Spice...

2010-01-07T12:35:00.003-07:00

...And Everything Nice

That's What Little Girls Are Made Of

Sunshine and Rainbows

And Ribbons For Hair Bows

That's What Little Girls Are Made Of

Tea Parties, Laces

And Baby Doll Faces

That's What Little Girls Are Made Of.

If you haven't figured it out yet, we're having another sweet little girl! We're very excited and oh so happy that all is well. She seems to be growing healthy and strong and is very active. We can't wait to meet her in the spring!

Pump it Up

2009-12-14T08:58:00.004-07:00

Last month, a few days before Thanksgiving, I took Grace to a place called Pump it Up for a playdate with a friend from church. This place has a building just for pre-schoolers (ages 6 and under) that's full of inflatable bounce houses and slides. Grace loved it! She's our little daredevil and the higher and faster she can go the better! They do a pop-in playtime for 1-1/2 hours Monday-Thursday for a small entry fee (parents are free and allowed to play with their children on all the inflatable toys). I think we will be frequent visitors of Pump it Up.

Unfortunately we had to go straight from there to the pediatrician so Grace could get her flu shot. That was not nearly as much fun! Grace screamed from the moment I put her on the table until she caught a glimpse of the lollipop the nurse was holding for her. No more tears after that.

Growing up

2009-11-10T10:50:00.003-07:00

Grace is growing up so fast. We love watching her learn and discover new things and grow into new phases and stages, but we sure miss the ones she has outgrown. Recently we converted her crib into a toddler bed. I was worried we'd have a difficult time getting her to stay in her bed at first, but like any of the other transitions we've gone through in her short life, she has pleasantly surprised us. After I put her to bed the first night I went into the kitchen and soon I heard Justin telling her to "go to bed" in a fairly stern voice. I guess she escaped and made it as far as the entrance to the family room. She immediately turned and ran back to her room and then slammed the door closed. We could hear her sobbing on the other side of the door. I think Justin hurt her feelings. She's not used to him being stern with her or being the disciplinarian. He went in and comforted her for a minute and got her to calm down, and she hasn't tried to come out of her room after bedtime since. Once we put her to bed, she stays there until morning. We're pretty lucky.

Grace LOVES her big girl bed

One of Grace's favorite things to do before she goes to bed is brush daddy's hair. She runs into the bathroom, opens the drawer, gets a comb or brush and makes Justin recline the chair as far back as it will go so she can brush his hair. It's adorable. We just can't get enough of her.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-09T19:00:00.005-07:00

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Our ward trunk or treat was on Halloween night, so we only had one day of festivities, which was plenty for us. Grace was a toucan this year. She wasn't too fond of her costume, but bribery seemed to work pretty well.
This was after I bribed her with a tootsie pop. She cooperated very well once she had that candy in her hand.

This picture was at the trunk or treat. My camera was acting weird and taking really blurry pictures, so this was the best I got the whole time we were there.

After the trunk or treat we decided to go trick or treating in our neighborhood, seeing how we've lived here for 2 years and haven't really introduced ourselves to anyone (pathetic, I know).

All in all it was a fun night. These holidays are becoming more and more fun as Grace gets older and is able to be a more active participant. For now, Justin and I are enjoying the bulk of her candy since she can't (and doesn't need to) eat it.

The Sequel

2009-11-04T15:15:00.003-07:00

Coming May 2010

Aggie Football

2009-10-22T11:02:00.003-06:00

Last month Justin and I had the opportunity to go to our first Texas A&M football game in College Station with some good friends of ours, the Potters, who are both A&M Alums. Michael was lucky to score 4 season tickets from a customer for free and invited us along. The Aggie's played the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It was a really fun game and fun to experience college football in Texas. Aggie fans are pretty darn loyal.

The Army Corp lined up for the team to run through at the start of the game. You can also see the student section of the stadium. It's tradition for the students to stand for the entire game, and they do

The above photo and the ones below were all taken after the game was over and the crowds were starting to disappear. I think Justin and I were the ONLY people in attendance not wearing Aggie Maroon.

Karen and I after the game. She was pretty psyched that her Aggie's won.

Us with our generous friends the Potters

The game was tons of fun and we learned some things about A&M. It started off as an all men's college so they don't have cheerleaders. They have what are called Yell Leaders. There's five or six guys who lead the student section in yells and chants all throughout the game. We sat in the season ticket holder/Alumni section which was on the other side of the field so we didn't get to see much of the Yell Leaders, but that was okay with us. From what Michael and Karen told us, it was about a hundred times quieter on our side of the stadium. It's also tradition for couples to kiss anytime the Aggie's score a touchdown or field goal. There was lots of kissing going on that night!

East Texas Yamboree 2009

2009-10-21T10:23:00.008-06:00

Last week was the annual East Texas Yamboree and it's a HUGE deal in these parts. The past 2 years we've gone to support the boyscouts in our ward. They have a food stand and the bank in town donates some of their land to the boyscouts to charge for parking the morning on the parade. This year we not only got to support the boyscouts, but also enjoy the festivities with an almost-2-year old. We had so much fun experiencing everything through her eyes. Thursday night we headed up to the Square where all the food and carnival rides were. We enjoyed hamburgers, fries, smoked turkey legs, and sausage-on-a-stick. Then we headed over to the kiddie rides. Most of the rides had a height requirement of 36" and Grace came up just a little short, but the car ride was pretty empty so the carnie let her go by herself. She was so excited and grinned from ear to ear the entire time. She rode that car around and around and turned the wheel the entire time

When the music ended and the ride stopped she threw her hands in the air and said, "YAAAYYY!"

Next we headed to the carousel where Justin rode with her. She had a a great time and kept saying, "Neigh" while riding the horse.
Saturday morning we headed out to see the parade. Grace loved it all. About every other parade entry was a school band so there was a lot of music and she clapped her hands and tapped her feet along with them the entire time.

She loved waving to all the people in the parade.

After the parade we ate lunch and headed over to the Yamboree grounds where they have the different booths, exhibits, and livestock. Grace loves all animals and to be that close to a real cow was thrilling for her. We stayed for the first part of the livestock auction and watched the bidding of the Grand Champion Steer. It was really neat to see all the support the community gives to the high school FFA programs.

After a much needed nap we headed back over to the food and rides. We let Grace ride the cars one more time and the photo above is of her waiting very patiently for her turn. After that Justin was recruited to help in the boyscout's food stand, so Grace and I got some roasted corn on the cob and nachos and then headed home. We had a great time at the Yamboree and look forward to it again next year.

Zoo Trip

2009-08-25T11:12:00.004-06:00

In July I decided to take Grace to the zoo in Tyler since she'd never been. I figured that at 18 months old she'd really enjoy seeing the different animals. Unfortunately, the day we went happened to be one of the hottest of the summer. It was 105 degrees with 90% humidity, which gave us a heat index of 112 degrees. Luckily it's not a very big zoo so we were able to see most of the animals before early signs of heat stroke began setting in (I'm not kidding about that. As we were walking around the Africa exhibits I started getting goosebumps all over my body and began shivering uncontrollably. I guess that's a sign of heat stroke. That's when I decided it was time to visit the gift shop, which is air conditioned). The heat didn't seem to bother Grace at all. She had a great time and I look forward to taking her back... maybe this fall or in the spring.

Grace loves fish. I love the way she tries to pronounce the word "fish"

Here she's pointing out the zebra's

I know her face doesn't show it, but she really was enjoying herself. There was a little boy behind me who was crying and for some reason Grace gets really uncomfortable when she sees other children crying.

So there you have it. Grace's first trip to the zoo. Hopefully there will be many more trips to come, and many different zoos to visit. I'm already looking forward to taking her to the Fort Worth Zoo someday. I hear it's marvelous.

Independence Day

2009-08-24T14:32:00.005-06:00

We stayed home this year for the 4th of July. On the 3rd our air conditioner broke, so we had a very hot holiday. The night of the 3rd we met our friends the Potters in Longview to watch the fireworks

Grace spent the evening playing with her friend Katherine

The day of the 4th we decided to drive over to Dallas for a pool party at our friend's parents' house.

Grace had a great time swimming and lounging.

By the time we got home that night Justin had figured out what was wrong with the air conditioner, and luckily he was able to fix it. By the time we went to bed it was a cool 78 degrees in the house (a whole 12 degrees cooler than it was the previous night!)

Grace's Faces

2009-08-24T11:49:00.002-06:00

I snapped the following pictures one right after another

*Stay tuned for more posts soon. I finally got all my pictures downloaded*

Nursery... Finally!

2009-06-25T19:44:00.003-06:00

On Saturday Grace turned 18 months, which means she had her first official day in nursery on Sunday. I've been taking her into the nursery for the past couple of months, but since she wasn't really old enough I've been staying with her. She has been so ready for this since she was 15 months old. After Sacrament meeting I changed her diaper then dropped her off. She walked right in the door and didn't look back. I didn't even go in with her. I turned around and headed for our Sunday School class before she could realize I was gone. The nursery leaders told me she did great. No fussing, whining, or crying. She behaved perfectly! Justin snuck a peak (or two or three) to make sure she was doing okay. I enjoyed attending Sunday School and Relief Society uninterrupted. I even brought my scriptures to church for the first time in who knows how long. It was a great day.

I also took Grace to the doctor yesterday for her 18 month well baby checkup. Here are her stats:

33.75 inches (95.16%)
28.8 lbs (94.02%)
18.5 inches head circumference (63.31%)

She's still pretty tall (let's hope she takes after her Uncle Nate in the height department) and starting to thin out a bit. I totally expected her weight to be over 30 pounds, so I was a bit surprised when I put her on the scale. She screamed through the entire appointment even though she didn't have to get any shots. Apparently she doesn't like strangers touching her and sticking things in her ears, up her nose, and in her mouth.

I can't believe how much Grace has grown up in just the last 4-6 weeks. She's talking like crazy and learning new words everyday. Some of the things she can say are thank you, hi, uh-oh, mommy, daddy, cheese, juice, ball, book, dog, down, and shoe. I'm sure there are more that I can't think of at the moment.

She's into climbing on everything. She can get herself on the couch, recliner, and coffee table. She attempts to climb on just about everything else in the house. She's our daredevil and I have a feeling we may get to know the ER very well in the future.

She's on the go all the time. She's a very busy toddler and doesn't know how to sit still. Sometimes I see other kids who are passive and quiet and think how nice it must be to have a child like that, especially during church, but I wouldn't change one thing about Grace. She's incredibly independent, strong-willed, stubborn, and outgoing. I know those qualities can make raising a toddler difficult at times, but I know in the future I will be grateful she has them. We love her more than anything and are very blessed to have her in our family.

No Excuse

2009-06-18T21:00:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I have no excuse other than not doing anything blog worthy lately. I guess I'll update ya'll (I've been in Texas too long now...I'm sure I'll start using the word 'fixin' shortly) on the not so exciting stuff we've been doing.

Memorial Day weekend came and went. We really didn't do much of anything. Justin went golfing Memorial Day morning with his boss and a friend. He ended up playing 18 holes, even though he told me it would only be 9, so Grace and I headed to the mall after getting sick of waiting for him to get home. Later that afternoon we headed south and took the 4-wheeler for a ride. Grace had a blast. She loves the 4-wheeler and loved getting close to all the cows, especially the longhorns.

The next weekend we were fortunate to have Justin's parents come for a short visit. We spent Saturday at the First Monday Trade Days in Canton, which is a giant flea market. Cindy and I had so much fun browsing all the booths. They had super cute home decor and even cuter baby/kids stuff. Sunday was a pretty special day. Rex was able to ordain Justin a High Priest and then he was set apart as the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric of our ward. It's been a pretty humbling experience so far for our family and we've already been very blessed because of it.

Justin's doing double duty for a while since they have yet to call a new Young Men's President. Last Saturday Justin set off with the older boy scouts and 3 other leaders for their high adventure trip. They headed to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico for a few days, and then headed down to Big Bend National Park. They won't be home until Saturday night, so needless to say it's been a pretty boring and lonely week in the Nessen home.

I took Grace to the pool one day, which was an adventure. The girl is fearless and she loves the water. She won't let me hold her in the water because she's so darn independent and stubborn. It was okay at first since they have a zero-entry pool, but she just kept on walking deeper and deeper into the pool until the water was up to her face. She did make a friend though and it was super cute. The little girl was the same age as Grace and they just sat in the shallow water talking to each other and splashing one another. I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I didn't dare take my camera out around the pool.

I also got ambitious earlier this week and decided to paint my dining room. It was previously a dark brown color so I probably should have primed it first, but I was too lazy and cheap. I just put on a few coats of the new color and it turned out great. I'm pretty happy with it. I just haven't told Justin about it yet. I think he'll be pretty surprised by it. We'll see if he likes it when he gets home.

Last week I booked my trip to California and Utah for July. I can't wait! I haven't been 'home" to Turlock in almost 3 years. I'm looking forward to spending some time with family, especially my cute nieces and nephew. So, if any of you are in Turlock (or surrounding areas) or Northern Utah the last half of July and want to get together let me know. We'll plan something. I'd love to see everyone I can.

I think I've caught ya'll up on everything. I have some pictures to post, but that will have to wait until another day since my camera is in the car and I'm ready to got to bed.

Do Something Permanent

2009-05-22T10:34:00.004-06:00

I've been frustrated lately. At the end of each day I wonder what it is I did all day. I know I'm busy all day long running around doing tasks, but at the end of the day I look around and don't feel as though I've accomplished anything. I've realized that the things I've been doing (and let's face it, they have to be done) are not permanent. They become undone by the end of the day. I sweep and mop the floor only to have food and dirt cover them again in a matter of hours. I clean up all of the toys just to have them scattered about as soon as Grace wakes up from her nap. I do the dishes and clean the kitchen just to have a mess again after the next meal is prepared and eaten. I wash, fold, and put away laundry only to walk past the hamper and see dirty clothes exploding out of it again. The things I spend my time on throughout the day just get undone and leave me with no feeling of accomplishment. I'm tired of asking myself at the end of the day, "What did I do all day?"

That's where the 'Do Something Permanent' part comes in. The things I spend my time on throughout the day are not permanent. They become undone by the end of the day. That's why I have decided I need to do something permanent each day. Such as, writing in a journal, catching up with an old friend, working on a creative project (sewing, scrapbooking, home improvement), reading to my child, reading from the scriptures or the Ensign, gardening, etc. (the list could go on and on, but you get the point). I have to make sure I make room in my day for those things. I'm a lot happier and feel like a better mother, wife, and person in general when I do something permanent in my day. I feel much more productive when there is tangible evidence of the hard work I've done. So, somedays the laundry may need to be put off, or I won't get the kitchen floor mopped. But that's okay because those things will just have to be done tomorrow too.

Just call my Suzy

2009-05-18T12:37:00.002-06:00

Homemaker, that is!

Last month while I was visiting my parents my mom and I made these cute little tote bags. The one on the left is mine, and the one on the right is Grace's. They were super easy to make and are the perfect size to fit a regular set of scriptures (and them some). My mom's ward made them for an enrichment activity a while back. They're made from place mats! What a great idea someone had! Grace doesn't use hers for scriptures just yet, but she loves to put it on her arm and walk all around the house with it.

I've been wanting to get a bow hanger for sometime to store all of Grace's cute hair bows, but I didn't want to dish out the dough for one, so I found instructions online to make my own. I got lucky while at Hobby Lobby when I saw art canvas' in a 2-pack for super duper cheap, and I was able to use my handy 40% off coupon to get an even better deal on them. I covered the canvas with fabric and then added the ribbon to attach the bows. I think it turned out pretty darn cute. It's hanging in Grace's bedroom.

And since the art canvas' came in a 2-pack I decided to make one for my friend Karen who has 2 little girls. Their bedroom is all red and white gingham and lady bugs so this is what I came up with. I absolutely love it! You can't really tell in the picture but there are ladybug buttons where all the ribbons cross.
I love making things. There's such a feeling of accomplishment and pride in knowing that you created something, even if it is as trivial as a bow hanger. Next Suzy homemaker project: throw pillows for our couch!

Dancin Queen

2009-05-15T11:24:00.002-06:00

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-09T22:38:00.002-06:00

(This picture was taken March 2008. Clockwise from back left: my mother-in-law Cindy, my grandmother-in-law Eleanor, my grandmother Margaret, me, my mom Debbie holding Grace)

For those of you who have children and face the daily challenges that only a mother understands...

For those of you who have had an all-too small taste of motherhood and are grieving the loss of a baby (born or unborn)...

For those of you who ache for a child but are still waiting for that blessing...

For those of you who love, nurture, teach, pray for, and influence others for good...

For those of you who are daughters of our Heavenly Father who loves us…

Happy Mother's Day to you! May you celebrate the traits of a Heavenly Mother instilled in your divine nature, and the opportunities around you to use those traits. May you remember and honor your earthly mother by blessing others as she has blessed you. May you forget what you lack, and remember your infinite potential as a beloved daughter of God.("Mother's Day and Other Holiday Challenges," from Fertile in Our Faith)

She LOVES her daddy

2009-05-07T13:15:00.003-06:00

I was driving home from the store yesterday and Grace did the cutest thing! I have to post about it so it gets recorded since I'm not into journaling (I'm using blogger as my journal). I was stopped in a turn lane waiting for traffic to clear when a white truck passed us. Grace's finger pointed to the window and she started yelling, "Dadda, dadda, dadda!" It was so sweet. Justin drives a white truck too and I couldn't believe she made the association. Then the tears came as her heart was breaking watching that white truck drive further and further from her view. She was devastated that her daddy was driving away. She didn't know it was some stranger in a truck that just happened to be the same color as the one her daddy drives. All she knew was that she missed her daddy and wanted to see him. I know my daughter loves both of her parents, but I'm pretty sure she likes her daddy more.

Side note question: Does anyone else have trouble with blogger leaving huge empty spaces at the beginning and ending of posts? Sometimes I can delete the spaces and sometimes I can't. This post seems to be one time that I can't. It's so frustrating!

Picture Tag

2009-05-06T21:52:00.003-06:00

I was tagged by Monica

1. go to your sixth folder
2. go to your sixth picture
3. blog about it
4. tag 6 people

This was taken the day Grace was born. I had already spent 3 days in the hospital on magnesium to stop my labor. Justin showed up just before 8am to take me home (I hadn't been contracting for 36 hours so I was going home on bed rest orders). When I started eating breakfast, which happened to be the first meal I had eaten in 3 days, I started having contractions again so the nurse snatched all my food away and prepped me for labor and delivery.

Lessons learned:

1. Don't inform hospital staff that you're in labor until AFTER having finished a meal.

2. Shave legs daily from 32 weeks until delivery, just in case that baby decides to come early.

3. Refuse the drug Stadol at all costs

All in all it was an awesome day, even if it is a pretty nasty picture of me.

I tag Dallas, Brooke, Janet, Ashleigh, Krisha, and Morgan

TOFW

2009-04-27T09:43:00.002-06:00

Back in March Justin's parents came out for a long weekend. It also happened to be the weekend that Time Out For Women was going to be in Houston. A lot of the women in my ward were heading down so I got a couple of tickets for Cindy and I to attend the Friday evening and Saturday sessions. Poor Grace had been sick the whole week before with an ear infection so this was what her days had been looking like.

We picked Justin up from work at lunch time on Friday and started making our way to Houston. Justin and Rex hung out with Grace at the hotel while Cindy and I enjoyed the speakers and entertainers at TOFW. Friday night we heard from Sheri Dew and Wendy Watson Nelson who are both incredibly inspiring women. We also watched performances by Jenny Jordan Frogley and Abe Mills (AH-maze-ING).

Abe Mills, who is one of the singers in the group Jericho Road, brought up all the men in attendance (why there were that many at a Time Out For WOMEN event I don't know) and had them help him out with a Boy Band medley. It was hilarious.

Saturday ended up being just as great. We heard from Mary Ellen Edmunds (very funny lady), Chris Stewart (Author of the fantastic series The Great and Terrible), Wendy Ulrich, Brent Top, and music by Kenneth Cope. It was such an uplifting experience. This was the second time I've been able to attend a TOFW event and I haven't been disappointed. I even won a door prize! My name was drawn out of over 800. I won up to 800 pages printed in full color and bound by LDSJournal.com

Grace didn't sleep at all in the hotel so this was how she spent the entire 5 hour drive home

All in all, it was a weekend. We just wish Rex and Cindy could have stayed a little bit longer. We can't wait for our next visit!

Happy Birthday to us!

2009-04-27T09:22:00.003-06:00

This year Justin and I were both pretty spoiled for our birthdays. Justin bought himself this pretty little thing

And I was finally able to get rid of our old table that was falling apart.

Now I just need to do some decorating in our dining room. Ideas anyone? I'm totally open. I'm thinking about heading to the paint store this week so let me know what you think.

Grace's new trick

2009-04-27T08:53:00.002-06:00

Grace learned a new trick while we were visiting my parents.
Unfortunately we have the same type of door handles in our house. Nothing is off limits to her now. Justin learned quickly that if you want privacy while in the bathroom, you must lock the door or else she comes barging in.

I'm in love

2009-03-24T08:12:00.004-06:00

I was shopping for cereal yesterday and came across this heavenly concoction. It's "corn flakes meets cocoa krispies" and it's wonderful. It completely satisfied my late night craving for chocolate without resorting to all the calories and fat from the carton of cookies 'n cream in my freezer.

P.S. Janet and Dallas - I promise a better post to come SOON! One with pictures and a real update on our lives over the past month.

Good News and Bad News

2009-02-13T08:58:00.002-07:00

The good news is that yesterday was Grace's last day of physical therapy. She's been going since Agust to stretch her neck muscles and develop full range ofmotionin her neck. The therapist has also been helping Grace meet her develomental milestones by encouraging her to learn the skills in a 'typical' way rather than an 'atypical' way, which she was doing because her neck wouldn't allow her to. The goal has always been to keep her in PT until she's walking. She is taking SEVERAL steps independently, although not completely walking yet, and her therapist sees no reason to keep her in PT. I am thrilled. I don't have to make the hour drive anymore, or pay for the appointments. What a relief. But what's most important is that Grace is doing so well and coming along wonderfully. She is such a happy child and full of personality. We are just crazy about her.

The bad news is that our insurance changed on January 1, and the treatment she's been receiving for her plagiocephaly (flattening of her skull) is now an excluded benefit. She is supposed to get a new helmet in 5 weeks because the one she's been in since December has done just about all it can do. She's had soooo much progress, but still has a ways to go. Ideally she would get a second helmet to wear for another 12 weeks, but if the insurance won't cover it we may have to end her treatment after she outgrows this helmet. We are trying to work something out with the clinic and our insurance company, and also find out if there are continuity of care laws in Texas. We're hoping that we will be able to get it all worked out so she can continue being treated and we can get this all behind us.

TAG - 25 Random Things About Me

2009-02-03T11:46:00.003-07:00

1. I had surgery 6 times in 10 years
2. My 2nd toe on both of my feet is shorter than my 3rd/middle toe
3. Both of my middle fingers are crooked from being broken and never properly treated
4. I can't get pregnant without medical intervention
5. 'Law and Order' gives me nightmares.. really
6. I have to sleep with a blanket pulled up to my chin even if it's 100 degrees in the room
7. I won't drink diet sodas or sugar free drinks
8. I hate the taste of water
9. I've never been to another continent
10. I love to go camping in a tent. It's not really camping if you stay in and RV with cable TV
11. I rarely make the bed because I think it's a waste of time since we're just going to mess it up again in 12 hours
12. I hate getting ready in the morning, especially the hair and make-up part
13. I blog stalk people
14. I hate to admit that Grace's bedtime changes nightly depending on what the Prime time TV lineup is
15. I would love to have a job outside the house, but thinking about putting Grace in some sort of daycare gives me a mild anxiety attack
16. I'm going to be 27 in April and most days I feel like I'm still 18
17. I'm grateful daily that I inherited my father's metabolism. I don't have the self discipline or motivation to be a dieter
18. I'm enraptured by the Duggar family... you know the people from Arkansas with 18 kids
19. I wish I had my husband's patience
20. I, like Krisha, love Starbucks but not for their coffee. I love the smell of the place, as well as their awesome Caramel Apple Cider
21. I can't play a musical instrument or carry a tune to save my life. I desperately wish I could do both
22. My dearest friends all have traits that I greatly admire. I look up to them in so many ways. They are great examples to me and heroes in my eyes
23. Grace is my greatest accomplishment thus far in my life
24. Most days I feel completely inadequate as a mother
25. I love my family dearly and I am grateful for the blessings of the temple and sealing ordinances so we can be together forever
1

I tag Dallas, Tatiana, Jamie, and Brooke

Date Night Gone Terribly Wrong

2009-01-21T13:41:00.003-07:00

There's about a hundred more productive things I should be doing right now since we are flying to Milwaukee in the morning, but I have to post about our date last weekend before it gets too late.

Saturday night was the first time I have ever hired a babysitter for Grace so Justin and I could go on a real date. My mom and dad had given us a gift card to Olive Garden for our anniversary so we decided to use it for dinner and then go to a movie. Justin knew how much I wanted to see Bride Wars so he graciously offered to take me to it (I think he secretly has the hots for Kate Hudson and really wanted to see it himself). So, off we went to enjoy an evening by ourselves. When we got to Olive Garden there were CROWDS of people waiting outside and I started to get a little discouraged because I didn't think there would be enough time to wait for a table before the movie started. Justin was being optimistic and said that everyone was probably waiting outside because the weather happened to be really pleasant. So I ran inside to see how long the wait would be and when I did there were at least twice as many people inside as out. The wait was 40-50 minutes. YIKES! Definitely not enough time to eat and catch the movie, so we drove up the road to Texas Roadhouse, a favorite of ours. There were even more people waiting there. I was really starting to get upset because I was soooo looking forward to salad and bread sticks at Olive Garden, not to mention the FREE meal we would've had. We decided to hit up Chili's and see if there was a wait. Now I love Chili's as much as the next girl, but it wasn't what I wanted that night. We were able to get a table in the bar right away and we had a nice enough dinner I guess, but I was really disappointed when the bill came because I had been looking forward to a free meal with my gift card. Anyways, we left and headed to the movie theater where we saw yet again CROWDS of people waiting out front. WHAT in the world was going on that night? Turns out it was the opening night of 'My Bloody Valentine' in 3D. There were two lines in front of the theater that practically wrapped around the building on each side. We had gotten there 15 minutes before the movie started and it didn't look like we were going to make it in on time. We stood in line and waited, and waited, and waited (behind obnoxious teenagers no less). I went up to the front and asked how long the previews lasted and they told me 20 minutes, so we waited until 20 minutes past the start time and we were still a long ways from the window. I was TICKED! I had been looking forward to this date night for a week. I didn't get to eat at the restaurant I had wanted AND I wasn't going to get to see a movie AND I was going to have to pay a babysitter for the crappy evening. As we were leaving the parking lot Justin decided to drive over to the other theater (the one we never go to because tickets are like $10) to see if Bride Wars was playing there. Sure enough when we got there it was starting at 9:00 which gave us plenty of time, so Justin called the babysitter and asked if she could stay an extra hour. She said she could and things were looking up. We were actually going to be able to salvage some of our date night. Plus, there were NO lines at this theater (there was a big sign on the ticket window announcing that 'My Bloody Valentine' was NOT playing in 3D at that theater). We got our tickets, popcorn and a large coke and sat down. After a few minutes Justin tried to pick up the coke out of the armrest holder and the lid came off and the entire 44oz drink dumped in his lap. Great way to end the night don't ya think! Luckily there were only about 6 other people in there and everyone got a good laugh out of it. Justin's seat was soaked with coke so we moved over a few. Justin was such a good sport. He didn't complain or get upset or anything. He just laughed about it and sat through the movie soaked in coke. The best part of the entire night was seeing the guy's face who sat down in Justin's wet seat after we moved. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was wet, but when he did I couldn't stop laughing. Good times, good times. I think we'll wait a while before we try date night again.

1 year stats and random pictures

2009-01-16T11:10:00.003-07:00

We survived the first year. This picture was taken the day after Grace's birthday when we celebrated with Justin's parents in Utah. This gift is from my mom and dad. She loved opening presents this year. It seems like she opened presents for 5 days straight and was completely spoiled by loving family members.

Grace had her one year check up last week and she weighs 25.2 lbs and is 31.75 inches long. She's in the 98th percentile for both. She had to get 3 shots this time, one of them being the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine which was very painful and left her with a nasty bruise on her thigh and a little fever. She was doing much better after a couple days.

Here are a few of the things she likes and what she's been up to lately:

She will only eat table food now, no more baby food for her.
She loves scrambled eggs, bananas, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (not necessarily together though).
She says 'mama' 'dada' and 'bahbah' very clearly and distinguishes who/what they are
She loves attention and making people laugh. She makes goofy faces until somebody laughs at her.
She loves music and will sing along and has recently started to dance to music as well.
She loves books and to be read to. She will pick up anything that looks like a book (dvd case, menu, etc.) and start "reading" aloud - basically babbling in her own language - as she points to things on the pages.
She has the most contagious laugh
She loves giving hugs and kisses

Now, some random pictures:

While I was watching President Bush's farewell speech Grace was just chillin against the couch. I had to take a picture.

Daddy giving a mani and pedi. He's the only one she'll let cut her nails.

The other night she was so cuddly with Justin that I had to snap a picture (actually about 6) of this sweet moment.

Another girl for the Nessen family

2009-01-13T10:04:00.003-07:00

Congratulations Brooks and Amber!

Maggie Jo Nessen was born on January 8, 2009

She weighed in at 6lbs 14oz and was 20 inches long

Maggie is beautiful and healthy and Amber is recovering well. We are so thrilled for your growing family and can't wait to meet our newest niece.

In need of some advise... Desperately

2009-01-10T20:48:00.004-07:00

It seems as though ever since Grace turned 1 she has learned how to throw tantrums. Now I understand that toddlers throw tantrums, but Grace does them at 3:30 in the morning. It has come completely out of the blue. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder and won't stop until she is picked up. Then, if I even so much as think about sitting down in the glider to rock her she starts up again. The only way to get her to calm down and go back to sleep is to give her a bottle of water. I hate doing this because I feel like I'm "feeding" the habit (figuratively AND literally). She used to be the best sleeper. She would go to bed for the night without so much as a peep and sleep for 11-12 hours. I'm totally beside myself over this. I don't know what triggered it or how to deal with it, let alone fix it. I've read that some babies will reverse their sleeping habits at about 18 months, but I was not at all prepared for this. Have any of you been through this? What worked for you? What didn't work (maybe it will for me)? Even if you haven't experienced this or you don't have kids, but you have some advise please leave a comment. Like I said in the title, I'm desperate.

Money in my pocket

2009-01-07T09:00:00.003-07:00

We've reached a sweet, sweet milestone in our home. The 1 year mark. There are so many things that come at this point in a child's life, but right now I'm completely giddy over the fact that I don't have to buy formula anymore. For you parents out there you know how expensive that stuff is, and compared to the price of whole milk, it's outrageous. So, I'm thrilled to have more money in my pocket for fun things like clothes, shoes, date-night... Yeah RIGHT! I'm sure it will be allocated to some other baby necessity, but it's still nice to dream.

Torticollis and Plagiocephaly

2008-12-05T22:14:00.003-07:00

Warning: This post may be lengthy.

At Grace's 4 month check-up our pediatrician told us that Grace has a muscle disorder called torticollis. Basically, while she was developing in-utero the muscles on the right side of her neck formed too tight which caused her head to always be turned to the right. Since a newborns skull is so pliable she developed plagiocephaly from always having her head turned to the right while lying in the bassinet, bouncer, swing, car seat, etc. Plagiocephaly is the flattening of one side of the back of the head. The back right side of Grace's head is significantly flatter than the other side. Once we learned of the torticollis we were referred to a physical therapist. That in itself was a nightmare. We spent 3 whole months trying to find a physical therapist in our area that was in our insurance network AND that practiced pediatric physical therapy. Apparently, when doctor's run your insurance and find out that they're out of your network, they don't bother to let anyone know. They just leave you hanging until you get impatient enough to hound them about it. Then they act as though you should've known somehow that they were out-of-network. Arrrgh. Finally, in August Grace began PT for the torticollis and has been going regularly ever since. She's doing very well and has about 95% range of motion in her neck to the left and 100% to the right. She will probably stop PT once she begins walking (hopefully by the time we return from Utah for Christmas). Getting started on treating the plagiocephaly was also pretty difficult. We were told that the physical therapist had to make the referral to the pediatrician, and then the pediatrician would write the "prescription" for an evaluation by a specialist at a place called Cranial Technologies. We were told over and over again that the PT would take care of everything. Yeah, right. At Grace's 9 month check up I asked the pediatrician about the referral from the physical therapist and they never received one. We had been waiting 2 months and nothing was ever sent even though every week at the PT appointment I was told she was taking care of it. My pediatrician is totally awesome (she has a 7 year old daughter who was diagnosed with torticollis and plagiocephaly when she was an infant) and went ahead with the "prescription" to Cranial Tech and we had an appointment set up a week later. Our evaluation went well. Grace's head is asymmetrical by 22mm. I guess that's kind of a lot because her treatment is going to be pretty long. After our insurance gave Cranial Tech their approval we had to take Grace in for some computer scans of her head so they could make a model of it in order to manufacture a helmet just for her to correct the flatness. Well, yesterday was the helmet day. She was fitted for it and officially began treatment. It was kind of emotional for me, but didn't seem to bother Grace at all. She tried to pull on it a couple of times, but other than that it was no big deal. Much to my surprise she got a great night's sleep with it on. She's definitely a trooper. She'll wear this helmet for about 3 months and then be evaluated again. There's a pretty good chance she'll have to have another one made and will wear it for another 3 months. We're hoping that she hits a growth spurt and it all gets corrected in the first treatment. The worst part is that I have to drive to Dallas every other week for her check-ups. Luckily gas prices have dropped so much or I wouldn't be able to afford to drive the 125 miles each way.

Grace getting ready for her scans. She tried to eat the stocking the whole time. At least she wasn't crying.

This is during the scans. There were 5 cameras taking pictures from all angles.

Just after being fitted for her helmet.

Just before going to bed. Trying to figure out what's on her head.

Have you seen this?

2008-11-11T09:53:00.002-07:00

If you haven't, go rent it! Justin and I picked up ice cream at Sonic and this movie from the Red Box last night. I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time.

Halloween

2008-11-05T09:47:00.003-07:00

On Wednesday I took Grace to the church Trunk or Treat activity. Justin had school that night, so it was just the two of us. Grace had a good time watching all the kids run around. It was actually pretty cool that night so we didn't stay too long.

This is after I realized she had gotten a hold of my popcorn and ate the top of the paper bag. It's my fault though, I was busy talking to a friend.

This is Grace's cute friend Katherine. Grace wanted her little stuffed monkey and we couldn't get her to look at the camera for anything

On Halloween night we met up with our friends for some trick or treating and then went back to their house. Grace was trying to steal the banana out of Katherine's pocket
Trick or Treating

Our adorable duck

A little of this, and a little of that

2008-11-05T09:12:00.002-07:00

Enjoying some scrumptious spaghetti

Trying to crawl through the end table

This is how Grace was when I left the room and ...

... this is how I found her when I came back. She's a sneaky escape artist. I have no idea how she got out of that bumbo chair because I have to peel the thing off her chubby little thighs.

This was taken a week ago on our way home from Dallas. At the time gas in our town was still $2.19, but yesterday I saw it in Gilmer for $1.98. Now if only the temperature would drop below 80 degrees life would be just about perfect.

Baby Tag

2008-10-29T13:42:00.005-06:00

I first saw this on Dallas' blog and thought it was a neat tag, but she didn't tag me (the stinker), so when Brooke posted it on her blog and didn't tag anyone in particular I decided to do it just because I love to hear about other people's pregnancy and childbirth experiences.

1. Where were you when you first found out you when you found out you were pregnant? At home
2. Who was with you? Justin
3. What was your first reaction? Shocked and surprised. After trying for 3 1/2 years I was always hopeful for a positive test, but expected a negative.
4. What was your husband's reaction? He knew I was pregnant before I took the test because I was really moody and being mean to him for a few days prior. He kept telling me he was sure I was pregnant.
5. Who was the first person you told? My mom I think
6. Were the pregnancies planned? Yes
7. Was everyone happy for you? Yes
8. What was the sex? Girl
9. Did anyone throw a shower for you? A few of the women in my ward hosted one for me.
10. Did you get any outfits you wouldn't use? Absolutely. Some people didn't pay much attention to the sizes and bought winter clothes even though it would be the middle of summer when she would fit into them.
11. How much weight did you gain? 26lbs
12. Did you get stretch marks? Luckily I didn't get any
13. Did you crave anything crazy? I always wanted Arby's roast beef sandwiches.
14. Who or what got on your nerves the most? Trying to find maternity clothes that fit me. Most of the pants were about 3 inches too long.
15. Where were you when you went into labor? On my way to work, but I waited about an hour before going to the hospital because I wasn't sure if it was real labor.
16. Did you have any complications? Premature labor
17. Did your water break? The dr. broke my water after about 9 hours of labor and only progressing 1cm
18. Who drove you to the hospital? Justin, luckily I was working at the same place as him so I just walked into his office and told him my dr. said to get to the hospital ASAP.
19. Did you go early or late? 6 weeks early
20. Who was in the room? Justin, Dr., and 2 nurses
21. Did you video tape it? No way, but I did get a pretty good view from the reflection on the TV
22. Did you have any pain medication? Heck Yeah! I had IV meds during most of the labor and once the Dr. broke my water I got an epidural
23. Did you have a c-section or natural? Natural
24. What was your reaction to the birth? I was surprised by how easily the delivery was. I was expecting a lot of pain and a long time pushing, but it was a really quick and pain free.
25. How big was the baby? 5lbs 4oz
26. Did your husband cry? I actually don't recall. He was pretty amazed by the entire thing.
27. When is the next one coming? Don't know. Hopefully not too far off.
28. If you could would you do it all over again? Absolutely.. I wouldn't even think twice about it.

I tag everyone in my "People I Stalk" list who this applies to!

10 months!

2008-10-25T11:40:00.007-06:00

Grace is 10 months old now so I thought I would update you all on her life.

She weighs 24 pounds and is 30 inches long
She is crawling, everywhere
She is pulling herself up to standing in her crib and on some of her larger toys
She has 3 teeth and working on the 4th
Her hair is getting long and thick. I can get it in a little ponytail on the top of her head.
She LOVES table food. Eggo waffles and mashed potatoes are her favorite
She loves to talk and babble all the time
She loves to look at herself
She crosses her ankles whenever she is sitting
She loves to snuggle with stuffed animals
She's a great sleeper. 11-12 hours per night and 2 good naps during the day.
She can't get enough of her daddy right now
She recently learned to clap and does it whenever she is happy

Grace is such a happy and well-behaved baby. We can take virtually anywhere and know that she'll be just fine. She is growing way too fast, but we love every second of it.

Here's a video of her clapping and talking jibberish.

MinExpo 2008

2008-10-25T10:07:00.009-06:00

It seems like every time I try to post something I get interrupted, so today this is the #1 thing on my "to do" list. Back in September Justin had the opportunity to help with his company's participation in the MinExpo at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Out of thousands of employees he was one of only a handful that was able to be involved in the entire thing. So, 5 days after I got back from this trip with the girls the three of us piled in the truck and headed west. It was a long drive, but Grace was such a trooper. The first day she did awesome and slept a lot. The second day we decided to prop up the DVD player and let her watch some Baby Einstein videos. It worked like a charm and we had a very happy traveler. We stopped at Hoover Dam as we got into Nevada and did a little sight seeing. Justin had to go to work that night setting up Bucyrus' "booth" at the expo so Grace and I explored the hotel while he got some rest before his all nighter began. Justin worked hard all week, which left Grace and I to hang out by ourselves. We did a lot of lounging by the pool, shopping, and checking out all the free attractions on the Strip. My parents flew out from Oregon for the weekend to go to the Las Vegas Temple. My mother-in-law came down from Utah to spend the day at the Temple with us and my brother-in-law, Brandon, drove up from Mesa to be our babysitter. The next week we were able to spend some time at the Expo checking out all the enormous mining equipment. You wouldn't believe how massive that stuff is. Grace was such a good baby the entire trip, but she had a difficult time sleeping at night. She would wake up every few hours and would only go back to sleep if she had a bottle. The first night we were back home she fell right to sleep in her own crib without making a peep. I guess she just wanted her own bed. It was a fun trip, but we were totally ready to be home again.

we let Grace play in the pool after our first day of driving and she loved it

a couple of photo opps at the Hoover Dam

checking out the local attractions :)

lounging by the pool

With my parents at the Sirens of TI show at Treasure Island. If you haven't seen, don't be too disappointed. It's definitely a PG-13 kind of show... not for the little ones.

Justin's mom with Donny and Marie

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture of Cindy in front of Harrah's with the entertainment in the background. She had no idea they were there.

The whole gang at the Temple

Grace with her uncles (AKA: babysitters). Thanks guys!

Grace being Elvis

The lady in the background was mad at us because this souvenier shop apparently has a "no cameras" policy. Oops.

Cindy at the Expo in front of one of the HUGE dump trucks that haul the coal around the mine

This is me standing next to the wheel of one of those dump trucks

The second day of the Expo Justin was able to be out at the NASCAR track with a bunch of Bucyrus customers for the Richard Petty Driving Experience. Only the customers were able to drive, but Justin got to do a ride-a-long.

Part of Bucyrus' "booth"

One of the security guards they hired... yeah, I'm pretty sure she's just a stripper

We have a ton more pictures from this trip, but quite frankly I'm a little tired of this post. Koodos to those of you who stuck it out all the way to the end.

Crawling

2008-10-15T16:23:00.003-06:00

Grace is officially on the move. She started crawling Saturday night and is getting better at it everyday. I guess this means I'm going to have to be much more careful of what I leave lying in her path. She's already figured out how to pull the magazines off of the coffee table and she is trying so hard to pull herself up on everything. She's growing up so fast and I can't believe that she'll be 10 months old on Monday. Time goes by way too fast when you have a baby at home.

Naptime Project

2008-10-15T16:07:00.003-06:00

I had seen these cute burp cloths at a couple different craft fairs and thought I would attempt to make them. They were actually really easy to do and I used scrap fabric I already had. I was able to whip both of them out in about half an hour. I think they turned out pretty cute, and it's an inexpensive way to put a little personality on those boring burp cloths.

Tagged... again

2008-10-10T13:32:00.007-06:00

Dallas tagged me this time. I had to take pictures of the following:
1. kitchen sink
2. my favorite room
3. my fridge
4. closet
5. laundry room
6. self
7. kids
8. dream vacation
9. favorite shoes
10. bathroom

With NO Cleaning!

My sink, with baby bottles to be washed. The story of my life!

We spend most of our time in the family room, but Grace's room is the only one in the house that is finished so it's my favorite.

You can't really tell from this photo that we need groceries.

This is our entry closet. We have GREAT storage in this house so all of our closets look like this... half full.

I had to take 2 pictures of the laundry room because it's only as wide as one machine and they face eachother. Lame, I know. This is my least favorite room in the house based on functionality. Oh, and did you notice the lovely overspray on our cabinets from when we textured the walls? Someday I'm going to have a GIANT laundry/mud room. Someday.

Me.

My kiddo being being cute.

Ahh, shoes. My fave church shoes, flip flops, casual and comfy, and my "hooker" boots.

I really don't know what to say about this photo. I tried my best to get a shot of the entire room without my flash being in the mirror. And yes, you are seeing this right. The bathroom has lavender cabinets, floral wallpaper, and royal blue tile. Oh, and what you can't see is that the backsplash has lighthouses on it. What can I say? The house was a freaking steal! We do have plans to remodel. We are definitely NOT leaving it this way. I just keep the door closed for now.

Okay, here's the people I'm tagging: Hilary, Krisha, Jamie, and Lisa
Sorry if you hate being tagged, but I'm trying to mix it up a little.

Better Late Than Never

2008-09-30T13:50:00.006-06:00

As I posted a while back, I had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Vegas with 3 of the greatest girls I know. We all arrived around noon on Friday and greeted each other with long overdue hugs. After getting the rental car we headed off to our hotel. We got a 2-room suite at Cancun Resort Villas. It was perfect for what we were in Vegas to do. It was family friendly (which means no casino) and had plenty of room for the 4 of us. We had lunch, did some shopping at the outlets, had a blast sliding down the waterslides and swimming in the pools at the hotel and headed out for a fabulous dinner of Brazilian cuisine at Samba. We stayed up way too late talking and playing NERTZ, just like old times. On Saturday we headed down to the pool to work on our tans in the morning. We decided to eat at the MGM Grand Buffet for a late lunch (we were in Vegas, right?) I must say that I'm quite proud of how much I was able to eat. Sometimes I worry that I don't get my money's worth at buffets, but my appetite did not disappoint, nor did the Grand Buffet. After lunch we walked the strip and did some more shopping before heading down to Freemont Street to catch the show. I think Freemont Street was my favorite part of the entire weekend. I loved that it wasn't too crowded and that there were mostly locals hanging out. We got some BIG NON-alcoholic drinks and had a good time listening to music. Click here to see a video clip of the great entertainment we were lucky to catch. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Bridget after coming off the waterslide. I love how it looks like she is trying to be all sexy and seductive.

Megan and I relaxing in the pool.
All of us after we stuffed ourselves at the buffet
Dinner at Samba at the Mirage. Great food and great company

Grrr. I just uploaded more pictures and was about to publish this post when it deleted them. Check out Dallas' blog if you want to see a slideshow of all our pictures from the weekend.
Thanks for the great time girls... I can't wait until the next reunion!

Quirks

2008-09-30T09:39:00.004-06:00

Okay, okay. Hilary tagged me and I'm finally getting around to it

Here are the rules:

Link the Person who Tagged you.

Mention rules on your blog.

Tell about 6 quirks of yours.

Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same.

"I'm too excited to sleep"

2008-09-02T17:30:00.002-06:00

In just a few days I get to spend a weekend with three of my favorite people in the whole world. I met these girls (except for Megan - I've known her since I was 10) about 8 years ago when we all moved in to Royal Crest Apartments together in Rexburg, Idaho. I don't know that we became instant friends (Bridget thought Megan and I were lame because we were blaring Backstreet Boys and dancing around insanely while unpacking, and she hated that we wouldn't remove our boxes from the apartment), but it didn't take long and we have all been close ever since. Most of my fondest memories include at least one of these girls. Over the last 8 years we have all graduated college, three of us have gotten married, two of us have kids, and one of us has travelled extensively. I love these girls like sisters and I can't wait to give each one of them a BIG hug!

(Megan don't hate me for posting this picture because I LOVE it)

I can't wait to see you all!

P.S. Brooke and Emily you will be missed and I hope you can join us for our next reunion!

Fishing and Yard Work

2008-08-26T08:36:00.002-06:00

On Wednesday my wonderful husband spent the evening with Grace and let me go to Activity Days childless. It was fun to be able to give my full attention to the primary girls and I think Grace had fun with her dad. The Young Men were out at President Austin's lake working on their fishing merit badges so Grace got to be one of the boys for the night.

Grace playing on the boat

On Thursday night we had some yard work that needed to be done. I strapped Grace to me in the Snugli and mowed the lawn while Justin ran the weed eater. This picture may look like Grace is not enjoying herself, but she actually loved riding around our yard on the mower. It worked out really well, but I no longer have an excuse for not being able to mow the lawn.

"Ferberizing"

2008-08-21T21:49:00.003-06:00

We've decided to "sleep train" Grace. We haven't been having any problems getting her to go to sleep at night or even sleeping through the night. She's been doing that since she was about 4 months old. The problem is that she always falls asleep while having her bedtime bottle. She never gets the chance to go down while still awake, thus making her learn to soothe herself to sleep. We decided to try the "Ferber Method" tonight. I mixed up her bedtime routing so that I would put her down in her crib when she was tired but was still awake. I gave her a bottle, then she had a bath, then I read a couple books to her, and then I turned on her lullaby music and we said goodnight to her. We turned off the light and left the room expecting her to cry and wail for a long time, but much to our surprise she only cried for about 5 minutes. I stood by her door after she quit crying and I could hear her playing in her crib. A little while later I checked on her again and she was asleep. I couldn't believe it. I think this was just a fluke. I'm sure tomorrow night will be horrible.

Halloween... HILARIOUS

2008-08-15T12:33:00.002-06:00

Justin left to go camping/fishing with the scouts tonight and Grace is napping so I decided to surf the web for a while. I got an email from diapers.com (I LOVE that website by the way) telling me they have baby costumes for sale. That got me thinking about what I want Grace to be so I decided to Google baby costumes and these are some of the funniest ones I found. I can't decide now if I want Grace's first Halloween costume to be something sweet and cute, or something absolutely hilarious like these. I think my favorite is the car air freshener. It doesn't get any better than that.

I'm afraid someone would sit on her...

...or eat her

If any of you out there are looking for some great costumes for your kids click here.

The Worst Thing

2008-08-15T09:50:00.002-06:00

So the worst thing that could possibly happen to someone living in Texas during the summer has happened to us. Our air conditioner has died. I'm sure you can all imagine the grieving that is going on in our home at this time. We will miss you a/c... until we get a new one that is.

Pictures

2008-08-05T12:14:00.005-06:00

While Grace and I were in Utah we caught up with Justin's sister and her kids to get some pictures of all the cousins together. Kelli's son Jaxx is almost a year older than Grace and it was difficult to get him and Grace looking at the camera with a decent expression at the same time. The kids were troopers though and we got one pretty good photo. I was also able to get a few shots of just Grace.

Grace just wanted to play with Jaxx's puppy the whole time so we gave her some flowers to distract her. They also cropped the photo to get the black part out of the background.
(Clockwise from left: Alix 4, Whitney 5, Jaxx 17 months, Grace 7 months)

Old Friends

2008-07-30T11:07:00.003-06:00

The night before Grace and I headed home to Texas we met up with one of my best friends for dinner. It was so much fun to visit with Susan and her baby boy Brandt. He is such a cutie. We ate at Rumbi Island Grill and if you haven't had the chance to try it yet I totally recommend it. They have great food.

Thanks for meeting up with us Susan and Brandt. We sure enjoyed spending some time with you.

Summer Travels

2008-07-29T21:57:00.004-06:00

I apologize for the lack in posting but Justin, Grace, and I have been busy so far this summer. In June, the morning Grace and I were getting ready to head off to Oregon to visit my parents for a week (Justin was at a welding seminar/conference in Georgia) my dad called and told me that my 16 year old brother was in a skateboarding accident and was sent by air ambulance to the University Hospital in Portland. We ended up spending the week in Portland taking turns visiting Spencer in the ICU. He suffered severe head trauma and had to undergo surgery. This accident totally changed our plans for the rest of the summer. We had originally planned a trip to Turlock for the week of July 4th, but with Spencer in the hospital we changed our plans and the whole family met up in Portland for the week. We had such a great time visiting with each other and Justin and I had the chance to meet Nathan's wife and new baby, Courtney and Karly as well as Sarah's newest baby, Brianna. Just before we left for Portland Justin found out that he was going to be traveling for work for the 3 weeks after our trip, so Grace and I decided to stay a little longer. Justin had to go to Montana for a week, then to Mexico for 2 weeks. Grace and I stayed with my parents for 2 weeks, then my mom drove us to Boise where we met up with Justin's mom and headed down to Utah for a week with the Nessen's. We had so much fun but it's good to be home and back together as a family. Below are a few of the pictures from our trip. I will post more when I get them downloaded from Justin's camera.

On the 4th of July we took some family photos. This is a 4 generation photo of my Grandma Ames, my mom, me, and Grace
Grace's first trip to the Pacific Ocean and first time putting her toes in the sand.
Grace's first time swimming. She had so much fun. She kicked and splashed and laughed the whole time. I can't wait until she is big enough for swim lessons!
The town Justin grew up in had their founder's celebration the weekend we were there. They had all kinds of activities. This was during the rodeo. As you can see Grace is thrilled to be there :)
This is a picture of me playing second base during the championship game in our softball tournament. Our entire team was made up of Nessen family members. We had a blast

I will continue to post pictures of our summer activities and hopefully it will get done in a more timely manner.

P.S. Spencer is doing really well for the extent of his injuries. He is home now pretty much for good. He will have to go back to Portland for surgery sometime soon, but he has truly been blessed and has had a miraculous recovery. We have seen the Lord's hand in our lives and answers to prayers and know that we are very blessed.

Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Mormon Mommy

2008-06-19T13:56:00.006-06:00

I wish there was a holiday or an occasion in which to receive gifts coming up soon, but there isn't. My birthday has passed, and so has Mother's Day. Christmas is still 6 months away and so is our anniversary. I have been secretly coveting programs such as this one below:

Now I'm not much of a scrapbooker. Never have been. I'm not creative and I can always think of a thousand other things to spend my money on. I also don't know where I would store all the supplies if I had them. I know I would get tired of taking everything out and then cleaning up the mess afterwards until I would just give up on the whole thing. Living outside of Utah it's not that big of a deal if you don't scrapbook. I don't feel as though I'm left out of some Mormon Mom club, but secretly I have always wanted to do the scrapbooking thing. I think they're adorable and a great way to preserve your memories for your posterity. With this whole blog craze I have found something recently that has peaked my interest: Digital Scrapbooking. Some of you are probably wondering where in the world I have been if I just discovered this, but that's okay. You have probably been scrapbooking for years and therefore are in the know about this stuff. I really want to start doing this for several reasons: 1)There are a lot of kits out there in cyber space that can be downloaded for free. 2) My pictures are all on the computer, therefore I wouldn't have to be running off to the store to print them out in order to work on pages. 3) I can be creative and try different layouts without wasting any supplies because I can just delete it and start over if I need to. 4) Everything would be on the computer and not scattered all over my house.

Now that I have convinced myself, and all of you who have gotten this far in this post, I just might have to buy myself a present.

Are any of you out there digi-scrappers? What programs do you use? What are some of your favorite websites for kits?

Another Milestone

2008-06-13T14:29:00.002-06:00

Grace is rolling over now. She's becoming mobile.