Thinking baby.

Lately.. like everyday.. I wonder about the sweet little girl growing inside me. I wonder what she'll look like. I wonder if she'll look more like me since I only see Mitch in Tessa. :) It's making me anxious to meet her in approximately 11 weeks! YIKES. Its scary. I don't know how I'll do juggling a baby and a toddler. But I can't wait to have a newborn again!! I can't believe how fast babies grow. The proof is below.

The first is Tessa when she was 6 days old. And the second was taken two weeks ago. She's 21 months.  I can't believe how grown up she is.. and she isn't even 2 yet. Its so bitter sweet!

Trip to Preston

I can't believe Tessa is going to turn two in three months. She's such a big girl. And she's become my little girl friend. We spend all day everyday together and she still smiles and gives me hugs and isn't sick of me. AND she loves going to the gym with me!! I work out and she plays with the balls in the kid area. We've been having lots of cookie making parties lately.. not good for my current weight gain.. but its quality girl time! :)

We spent the end of May in Preston for my Moms birthday and Memorial weekend. I was like a little kid on Christmas Eve. I miss my family SO much. And it was so great that Tessa got to spend time with cousins. She'll just start talking about Paisley and Cubby randomly and it's been almost 3 weeks since we got back! 

My sisters awesome "Diabetic Birthday Cake"! 

 Forget diabetics, the kids devoured it!

 Cuddle time with Livy!

 

Saying good bye is so hard! Its not fair. But my baby sister will be here this weekend :) which made it easier to come back to Cali. Even though the trip wasn't long enough! 

Mama!

I love being a Mom! :)

( Tessa has been going potty on the toilet inconsistently for the past 5 months, just cause she asks too. I realized yesterday that I didn't have a picture of her being such a big girl! She's so proud of herself! )

I know its over a week late to wish all the awesome mothers I know a happy mothers day.. on mothers day.  But I think it's okay to say it today.  Thank You for being an example of a great Mom. (this thank you is extended to basically every mother I know.. sorry not making a list.) Your examples have helped and inspired me. So thank you. 

 I love my Mom so much and I love being a mom.

Running Around With My Head Cut Off

CAUTION: This post is 55% Pregnancy Woe Is Me 101.

Not to be a downer or anything.. but, I don't remember my first pregnancy being this bad. I'll be in the middle of a sentence and my mind goes completely blank. I no longer remember not only what I was saying but what we were even talking about!!! I'm praying that this is just a pregnancy thing that'll go away and not some early set Alzheimer's thing. Its really freaking me out. Oh and I've decided that there needs to be a gym for pregnant ladies. Or even just a class. It takes all I've got to keep from cutting my work outs short because I feel like a tub of lard. I was super grateful and still kind of am that I don't show real early on so I'm 21 weeks and people have no clue I'm pregnant. But I'm super jealous of the couple girls at the gym that are 9 days and the other 4 weeks ahead of me, and are ALL belly! Its so cute and no one looks at them thinking, "Umm you came to the gym to work out, so don't take it too easy." I hope no one thinks that.. and no one is watching me either. Working out doesn't give me energy like all these moms keep telling me it does. It kills me dead! I feel like I need a 6 hour nap afterwards. So to sum it up.. I'm tired, completely loosing it and look like I've gained 6 lbs.. because I have. WOE + TMI = long tangent. Sorry!

Enough about me.  We moved a couple weeks ago. Exactly 2 miles according to google maps. We have an AMAZING ward and they helped us get it moved in like three hours! It was so awesome, THANK YOU! So now we are living in a 3 bedroom townhome with an attached garage that we love. The only downside is the dogs that start barking at 11 p.m and the roosters that start crowing at 4 a.m. Its funny how a mind can mix up the two with a baby crying, haha.

We made a trip to Disney last week when some family came out on vacation. :) I love that place. It was nice to see family and to have a whole weekday with Mitch!

Tessa is at such a fun age! She talks so much and says, "dank you." ALL the time. :) I love her soo much. Speaking of love, we finally got her to say love you. It comes out, "whaw woo." and melts my heart. We spent this afternoon playing in her kiddie pool on our patio. She cried when we had to go take our much needed naps and it was the first thing she wanted to do when she woke up. It looks like we might brake her water phobia yet!  :)

Oh and I almost forgot. We discovered the sex of our baby! (if you didn't already hear..) Its a girl! We are SOOOOOOO Excited! Sisters!

Easter

We had an Easter breakfast and egg hunt at the church Saturday morning. Tessa woke up with the cranky cry that only comes with being sick. She ate most of my french toast which boosted her spirits.. ( french toast has the same affect on me.) It was her first Easter Egg Hunt due to the fact that last year we were trapped in a car driving across the country to our new home here in Simi, we actually forgot it was even Easter. Sad I know, no chocolate for me. Although it wouldn't of mattered much she was less than 7 months old a year ago. I can't believe how fast kids grow. Anyway they let the 3 year olds and under have a bit of a head start and we were off. I love the fact that we didn't even have to tell Tessa what to do with the eggs she just smiled when she saw her first one and dropped it right into her bucket. She then would frantically look around asking for more, more, more? And better yet she had NO idea that there was anything inside the eggs!  It was super cute. We spent the afternoon at the beach and the rest of the weekend hiding the eggs in her room over and over again. Kinda. Ya remember that cranky cry I mentioned before. Well she slept practically the entire Sabbath with a fever that climbed over 103. Poor girl was so zoned out Mitch said she cried when the baseball game went to commercial so he turned on his PS game and she sat staring at the demo. Sigh.. I'm guessing the beach was probably not my best idea. Oh well. We live and we learn.

I went to church, since Tess was sick I volunteered Mitch to find a sub for his class so I could teach nursery. I'm so glad I did! Those sweet kids are so stinking smart. I think that's why I love nursery so much. I don't want to sound like I'm trying to take credit for teaching them everything. When I say its time to pray they know how to fold their arms, and when I show them a picture of Jesus they already know His name. I know they learned that at home. For Easter Sunday I took the lesson right out of the book so they had a little cut out of Jesus and the tomb. I told them the story once and then passed out the crayons. One sweet little boy sat his crayon down and picked up Jesus, put him in the tomb, covered the opening with a rock, turned to me and asked, "then what?".  It made me smile. He could care less that there were crayons he just wanted to act out the story over and over. His Mom let me know that he was excited to tell them the story when they got home from church. Oh how I love it!

I don't know why I was called into nursery. Sometimes I think its silly since Tessa wants most of my attention. I think maybe it was because I needed to go back to the basics. When studying the gospel on my own sometimes I try to dig too deep. In nursery I teach the most basic principles in simple simple terms. I can't believe how it's strengthened my testimony. No wonder I love it so much.

Okay enough story telling..

HAPPY EASTER

The BIG 1 and 1/2!

She has her daddy's smile! :)

My baby is one and a half! And I'm not kidding everyday she seems smarter. When she said "stroller" yesterday I almost starting crying (I'm pregnant remember) but because she's such a big girl. She's to that point where she says words and I realize that its the first time I've ever heard her say them. Her vocabulary is seriously bombing! My favorites right now..

• Me daddy pease (please)
• Kaykey (Kacey, the little boy she's in love with)
• Where it caw (asking where the caw "bird" is)
• Hopporn (popcorn)
• Ooore (more)

I was really hoping that her doctor would be impressed by her words and forget about her weight. She was not. In December Tessa weighed in at 19.4 lbs (my memory might be off an ounce) at her appointment last week she was a whopping 19 lbs. Yup.  This may not be the answer but I'm making a constant effort to keep something sweet hanging around our house (out of sight from Mitch) so I can bribe Tessa into taking another bite of her lunch or dinner. This way she can have ooore of the sweets when she has ooore of her food. I ruled out Mitch's idea of giving her lots of ice cream but realized my way is just an alteration of his.. so he can have all the credit. :)  Wish us luck.

Picture Update

Tessa enjoying a pretty sunset from our balcony. I LOVE our view.

 

These  were my V-day roses from Mitch. They made our house smell awesome.

These are all pictures from our trip to Vegas a couple weeks ago. It was a fun little get away from work and we spent it with friends and some family that I met for the first time! :)

The News is Out!

Here is me...                         

Except that is not me (For some reason I don't seem to look that pretty when I up-chuck.)  

The real news is this..                 

Except that isn't right either (its just another pic I got off google.) I'm feeling a bit lazy and don't want to upload.
*SIGH* Okay hold please..

There we go!  (I know it kinda looks funny but I don't have Photoshop and that's as good as I could do with Paint. FYI it's nearly impossible to get a picture of a 17 month old holding a sign! I know I tried it!)

So this is the real reason why my gym outings have been cut in half + some, why I act like I've ran a marathon after playing with Tessa at the park, why my house looks the way it does, and why I'm the most anti-social I've been.. probably ever. lol I know it doesn't sound like it but I really am excited.  I Love newborns! They make me feel close to heaven and open my eyes to how precious and pure our bodies are! It's the home of our spirit and that's a pretty special thing if you ask me.

Everything is going as expected. We are 12 weeks in which means our new bundle should be here September 17! FUN right! Another September baby. I'm thinking vacations!! School will just have to wait till October for our kids. Okay probably not, school is too important.. I can't have them missing games cause they missed school!! ;)

(note to Livy/Miss Varsity: If my kids aren't athletic I'm hiring you as their personal trainer.)