FYI

We were able to pick the baby's birthday today. If everything goes according to plan she will arrive on January 10. :)

Happy Birthday To You!

Emily turned two on Thanksgiving Day this year, so needless to say we had a party for her the following weekend. While shopping at the party store with me, Emily decided she wanted an Ariel party, so everything was Ariel themed.

A quick rundown of all of the fun things she got for her birthday:
A scooter, boots, and Jasmine pajamas from Mom and Dad.
A cute Mickey outfit and a Belle doll that sings from Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen.
A Mickey stuffed animal and jewelry from Aunt Robyn, Uncle Dan, Averley and Aidan.
A bubble lawn mower from Uncle Ryan, Kaitlyn and Hunter.
A very cute complete sparkly outfit from Uncle Rory, Aunt Katie, Oakley, Sophia and Jace.
A Tinkerbell movie from Grandma Beth.
An easel, stamps, markers, etc. from Grandpa and Grandma Fiorucci

Holy cow! Quite a birthday for such a little girl.

And now the pictures:

32 Week Update

I had my 32 week appointment today. I have been getting a little nervous because at 33 weeks with Emily, I had to go on bed rest. I have been hoping that wouldn't happen, and the signs that were there last time have been absent this time. (My legs aren't the size of large tree trunks, and my toes don't look like overfilled sausages.)

The doctor informed us today that everything appears to be going quite smoothly. My blood pressure is staying low, thank goodness, and we should be able to pick the arrival date of our new little girl at our next appointment. (Oh, the wonder of scheduled c-sections!)

I cannot even express how thankful I am to be having a healthy pregnancy.

A little early...

I know, I know, we have not yet seen Thanksgiving pass and I already have a Christmas background. Forgive me for my impatience. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes a couple of weeks ago, and am now fervently ignoring the looming presence of Thanksgiving, and skipping right on to Christmas. What fun is a holiday of deliciousness, when you have to count every single carb that goes into your mouth? Oh well....

Halloween

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and now that I have a toddler to enjoy it with, I think I like it even more. (Ben doesn't really understand my love of the holiday.)

Ben had the day off, so I started my Halloween by going to my mom's to get my costume ready for school. Emily and Ben stayed home and slept in. School was the usual craziness that Halloween at elementary schools always is, but it was a lot of fun.

When I got home from work, Ben and Emily had already carved the pumpkin, so I don't have any pictures. We then put out our candy with a sign, please take two, and left for my mom's house. (For those of you wondering, our candy did presumably get dumped into one selfish person's bag.)

At my mom's we had some delicious soup, and met up with Emily's cousins Averley and Aidan to go trunk-or-treating at my sister's ward.

Emily scored big time, and we had lots of fun!

One happily squished Belle.


Emily and her cousin Averley. As soon as Averley found out Emily was going to be Belle, she had to be too.

A girl happy with her haul. Apparently Aidan really got into character.

If I do say so myself, that is one sweet Oompa Loompa costume!

GULP!

It hit me this morning. It is about three weeks until Emily's birthday, about three weeks later it is Christmas, and about three weeks after that it is the baby's due date. I repeat, "gulp!"

A baby girl! (This explains the pink background!)

We got our 20 week ultrasound today, (I am actually 22 weeks) and found out that we are having a healthy baby girl. So Emily will be getting a baby sister in January! How exciting.

Our doctor even burned us a CD of the pictures so we didn't have to scan in any pics.


Classic profile.

Ben says that she will be our little diver. You can see her leg straight up by her face.

Two dollar Tuesdays

Waiting in line with Averley and Jace.

Waving to Grandma and Aidan.





Yesterday we took Emily to the Thanksgiving Point Farm. Thanksgiving Point is offering $2 Tuesdays for the month of August, so it was a good deal.

We walked around the farm for a while, and the animals seemed to be making Emily pretty nervous. The goats, camels, chickens and turkeys all scared her, so I didn't have much hope when I saw the pony rides, but I had Ben take her anyway.

She had to wait in line for about twenty minutes, but her cousins were waiting with her so she was o.k. When it got to be her turn I figured Ben would try to put her on the horse, and a giant fit would ensue. But much to my surprise, Emily got right on and LOVED her horse. She enjoyed two minutes of sheer heaven riding that little pony around in circles.

We will definitely be going back to the farm when the weather cools down. I would highly recommend it for anyone with little ones.

A few pictures from this summer...

Playing at the lake.

Reading a book in new jammies.

Drinking yummy pool water.

First taste of Harward's Corn.

Frosting cupcakes.

5 years!...and a couple days

Friday was our five year anniversary. I can't believe that we have been married for five years, and together for seven! It's amazing how time will fly.

Ben had to work on Friday, and then had a soccer game that night, so we didn't do anything that night. Saturday, my sister Robyn watched Emily for us. In the early evening we saw the Batman movie. Apart from a disappointing Rachel replacement (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and a disturbing "batman voice", it was a really good movie.

After the movie, we went to Outback for some yummy cheese fries and delicious steaks. We only had to wait for 10 minutes on a Saturday night, pretty lucky. The steaks were cooked perfectly, but Ben was a little disappointed in his side choice of sweet potatoes, they tasted like pumpkin pie.

After dinner, we finished off our night out together in a most romantic way. We went to a car wash to vacuum up all the crumbs we found under Emily's carseat after we transferred her seat to my sister's car. Yuck!

Five years have flown by, and I can't think of anyone I would rather have spent them with.
I love you Ben!

13 Weeks....

I went to the Dr. today for my thirteen week check-up. Ben was able to come to this appointment, and even though he only sat in the corner and didn't say a word, it was really nice to have him there. These first visits are not very exciting, but it is nice when you are not the only one anxious when it takes forever for the Dr. to find a heartbeat. After hearing the much anticipated pitter-patter of the baby's heart, the Dr. asked me how I was feeling. I told him that I was pretty sick, and that with Emily it hadn't gone away until the very end. After learning that I am down fourteen pounds from pre-pregnancy, he raised his eyebrows and...... prescribed me antinausea medication!
Oh sweet Zofran and Fenigren! I have been on Zofran for about six hours now and I feel, well not great, but I feel O.K. I ate dinner hours ago, and it still resides in my stomach! I even dinner off with a bowl of ice cream. So bring on the extra pounds, bring on the stretchy pants, bring on the exercise after the baby! It is so worth it.

(I know, lots of exclamation points, but I am excited!)

The only diet that ever works for me....

This is a photo of my new best friend. We are inseparable. If for some reason she is unavailable, I have also become quite fond of

and
They are my 3 amigos!

I know, throwing up is not the healthiest weight loss solution that has ever been introduced, but the little "gummy bear" inside me doesn't care for anything I eat.

Hurray! We are having a baby! I am due January 17, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that this time I will be able to go full term with a healthy baby. (Emily was four weeks early, and had lung problems.)

I started feeling sick and throwing up almost immediately, and don't have much hope for being relieved anytime soon. I am into my 12th week, about the time the doctors assure you that you will probably start feeling better, but with Em, I was sick well into my 7th month. Maybe I'll get lucky this time!

Emily is very excited to be getting a baby. I don't think she really understands, but when you ask her where the baby is, she will point to my tummy. She has also started to point to her own tummy as well. Whenever we see a baby out in public, she gets this really cute scrunched up look on her face, her voice gets really low and husky, and she cries out "baby!" I guess we'll see if she still loves them when she has one at her house all the time.

As for two posts ago when I promised lots of fun summer activity posts, I apologize. I guess I was a little optimistic on how much we would actually do with me frantically clutching my "emesis bag".

Flooded!

Last night Ben asked me to shred some junk mail. Our shredder is located by our computer in our basement family room. We keep the shredder turned off to keep little fingers from being shredded, so I had to kneel to turn it on. As I was kneeling on the floor, I felt my pants get wet! As I investigated further, I found that there was a wet spot on our floor the size of a coffee table.

I immediately called my dad, Mr. Plumber, to come and see if he could figure it out. It was 10:00 at night, so he wasn't able to do much. He promised to come back in the morning to figure it out.

When he came this morning, he discovered that the siding surrounding our hose is not sealed well. We now think that when we were watering our flowers out front, the sprinkler would also hit the unsealed hose hole and seep into the house. He promptly went to Home Depot for sealant, and some things to make us a sprinkler that wouldn't flood our house.

So far it seems to be working. We are hoping that this was the only problem. The carpet seems to be drying out, so we will keep our fingers crossed.

Thank goodness for plumber dads!

Thanks Dad!

KUNG FU PANDA

As I was shopping at Kohl's with my mom today, I saw a stuffed animal Kung Fu Panda. Since this is the first movie preview that Emily has responded to, I decided to splurge and spend the $5 for the bear.

Emily loves her new toy, and is constantly walking around the house with it saying "hiya!" Am I a horrible mother for thinking this is completely adorable? Maybe, but I think it is way cute.

Here are some pics of her showcasing her newfound Kung Fu skills.

SUMMER!

Wow! Three weeks since my last post! Life has been busy.

Two days ago, May 28th, my WONDERFUL husband turned 31. I know, I know, he's ancient, but we still love him. :) After spending the day with Emily while I was at work, we went to Outback for dinner for some yummy steaks to celebrate, and when we came home he was able to do his favorite thing: participate in a fantasy football draft. Not the most glamorous of birthdays, but I think he enjoyed most of it. Happy Birthday Baby!

Today was officially my last day as a fifth grade teacher. Goodbye pre-adolescent attitudes, hello cute third graders! I am very excited to be moving back to my "home grade". This summer will be fun filled with planning my third grade year again, and changing classrooms once again. (Three rooms in three years, pretty good eh?) But it will all be well worth it.

I am especially excited to spend this summer with my beautiful baby girl. Here's to days of feeding ducks and picnics in the park. I know I will enjoy my 10 short weeks of being able to stay at home with Emily, but Fall will be here before I know it.

Stay tuned for lots of fun summer posts now that I have the time to do them!

Spit Swappin'

My sister and her husband had a formal wedding to attend tonight, so we watched their kids while they went. We took all of the kids to Pizza Factory for a yummy dinner of pizza and pasta. Of course we had to get suckers for the kids on the way out. This resulted in a free for all spit swap in the back seat of our car. Which leads me to the question: How old is too old to swap spit with your friends?

Hooray for Stability!

I found out today that I will be moving to third grade next year. After moving to fifth grade four days before school started this past year, knowing what I will be teaching next year is a breath of fresh air! The grade change brings positives and negatives. On the bright side, I will be teaching with one of the teachers I taught with last year, and I loved him. Unfortunately third grade is not included in the technology grant that I won this year, so I will be losing all of the wonderful things that came into my classroom. Overall I think this will be a very good move for me!

Eating Ice Cream

I got home a little late from work today, so dinner was a little delayed. This is a major problem for my extremely scheduled little girl. As I was cooking, my brother Ryan took pity on Emily and gave her some of his Frosty. I knew she was enjoying it, but when I turned around after a few minutes I found Emily trying to drink the rest of the ice cream from the bowl. I thought it was pretty cute.

Giant head=giant intellect. Right?

I once heard that it has been scientifically proven that babies with large heads are more intelligent than babies with small heads. While I question the validity of the science of this test, I am going to agree whole heartedly as a biased parent.

While drudging through the massive pile of baby clothes my sister Robyn passed on to us, we came across an 18-24 month beanie. Considering that Emily turned 18 months yesterday, we figured Emily could run around the house looking cute in the beanie. The results are the following pictures. My baby has a GIANT head! I have no idea where she gets it. (We bought me a one size fits most women's hat at Disney, and it was too small.)



As Ben and I were folding the never ending pile of baby clothing hand-me-downs, Emily understandably got a little bored. She went looking for her own form of entertainment and found a bottle of Fabreze. Ben found her with the bottle and told her she had to the count of three to put the bottle down. After Ben said, "one", we heard a tiny little voice say "two" and both cracked up. Obviously Emily's head is so large in order to house her giant brain.

Making Cookies

What to do when your toddler hardly touches her dinner? Make cookies of course! This is the second time we have made cookies with Emily, so this time she started trying to eat the dough as soon as the mix was out of the bag.

Oreos with Daddy

The other night Emily had her first Oreo dipping session with her daddy. The pictures were so cute I decided to share a few.

Easter

This was the first Easter that Emily really knew that something special was going on. We tried to get her excited when she woke up, and kept asking her if the Easter Bunny came. We led her into the living room where she found her Easter basket. Because Ben and I enjoy sports, Emily got a mini bat and ball set, and a little pink soccer ball. She loved her basket and especially loved eating a chocolate bunny for breakfast. In the afternoon, we went to my parents' house for the annual Easter egg hunt. Emily was surprisingly enthusiastic about finding the eggs, and even tried to steal some eggs from her cousins' baskets. Overall it was a great Easter.