Less Than 2 Weeks?? Really??

So today I looked at my baby countdown ticker thing off on the side of my blog and realized that I only have 11 days until this baby is due to come out. So pretty much any day now. I guess it really hadn't hit me that I'm really going to have a sweet little girl to hold in my arms so soon until just now. I think it was just last month it hit me that I really am pregnant so it seems as if I should have a lot longer to go! This pregnancy has seriously flown by for me. I think all the traveling we have done has really helped to make that possible. I think we have been out of the country for pretty much half of my pregnancy, if not more!

Am I ready for this little baby?? Well, as far as having the house completely cleaned, nursery completed, hospital bag packed, etc. then no, not so much- ok not even close- but mentally I guess I am. I guess I haven't really given a lot of thought as to how I am going to handle 2 kids and I am just thinking I will take it day by day and adjust as I need to. I'm not worried or stressed out. I guess I am more excited than anything. It seems as if we have waited for forever to have another child join our family (I know, it really hasn't been that long in comparison to what some people go through) and we are so grateful for the children that Heavenly Father has blessed us with. I've come to realize that even though we may think, or have the plans, to have 6 kids or so, it might not be in the cards for us. So, what I am trying and will try to do is to just enjoy and soak up every minute I have with my children with every stage they go through. Of course I will need time to myself- time to clean, work on projects, build some talents, etc.- but I don't know if those little precious moments I have with those stages of their lives will be the last time I get to experience it with my very own children. Ethan is in the cutest little stage right now with wanting to tell me every little thing he does. It is constantly "Mommy, Watch! Mommy, I'm doing___!", etc. I try to always show him that I'm excited with what he is doing and I really try to listen to what he is saying. I know that he won't always want to tell me everything and that this stage will pass by too quickly and I will miss those moments with him. As crazy as it sounds, I am so grateful for those miscarriages that we went through because I really think I learned what a miracle having children is and what precious gifts they are. I am so grateful for the beautiful child (soon to be children) that Heavenly Father has blessed us with and I hope that there are more as well. I love being a mommy and I'm so grateful for my sweet husband who works so hard so I don't have to and I can stay home and enjoy all those moments with our children. I have treasured the time I have had with Ethan all to myself and will try to continue to have as much one on one time with him as possible even with a new baby :)

Anyways, these are just some thoughts I've had lately. Justin came home last night from a stake priesthood meeting and we just talked and talked (and I just might have cried and cried) about how grateful we are to be parents and how much we love Ethan and soon to be daughter. It's amazing how much we already love this little girl even though we haven't met her yet. A parents love for their children is truly an amazing thing and we are so excited to make our family a family of 4 :)

37 Weeks!

This is me as of this afternoon at 37 weeks along!


Woo-hoo! I am now considered full term and could have this baby at anytime! Not that I think that will happen anytime soon though...I would never be that lucky :) Here are a few things about this stage of my pregnancy....

- I had a doctor's appointment last Monday and I am dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced. The baby is head down and has dropped.. yay for no more heartburn!
-I'm measuring at 35 weeks so I'm pretty much right on track. It's weird because I don't feel that much bigger than I was with Ethan but I was only measuring at like 31 weeks with him at this point. Maybe the doctors measured differently or something.
- I had a nice little 6 pound weight jump since my last appointment (a month ago) which puts me at 21 pounds total. I lost 4 pounds my last month with Ethan for some weird reason so maybe I'll do the same?? It would sure be nice as long as the baby stays healthy.
-Of course I feel some of the aches and pains of the last month of pregnancy but overall, I'm feeling great! I'm still going to the gym doing elliptical, cycling, power walking, and water aerobics. Water aerobics is fun because I'm like the youngest person in there by about 40 years or so. Those older ladies are so cute!
-I'm getting occasional braxton hicks contractions but nothing too bad. I mostly get them after I finish power walking but don't worry, I'm smart about not pushing myself too much.
-Rolling over to get out of bed and bending over to pick things up is quite a chore now a days. Luckily I have toes that are as long as fingers so I can pick stuff up pretty easily that way! Also, I am always right on time for my 2:00am appointment with the bathroom every night. this little girl can really push on my bladder :)
- So far I haven't had any swelling and I really hope that it stays that way. My feet swelled pretty bad with Ethan so I'm hoping I don't have a repeat of that!

Although we are SO incredibly excited for this little girl to come join our family, I am in no hurry to get her out of me as of now. I'm comfortable and not to the point of "Get this baby out of me!" and I still feel like I need at least 2 more weeks to really feel prepared and realize that we are actually going to have another baby! We are SO excited!

Valentine's Date!

This last Saturday we dropped off Ethan at Justin's parents house and took off for a fun filled Valentine's date. First we went to Bucca Di Beppo's to grab a light dinner. Little did we know, this place has like family style, HUGE servings so we came home with lunch/dinner for the next day! The food there was so good and we were super glad that we had a coupon... it made for a cheap dinner :)

After that, we headed to Golf Land for a little put-putting (or for those of you who are not from the south, we went "goofy golfing"). Turns out golfing was pretty backed up and it would have taken forever for us to get through it so we opted instead to play around in the arcade. We are pretty sure that we were by far the oldest couple there that was not there with their own kids but it was oh so fun to act like we were in high school again. We played air hockey, which is always an intense best 2 out of 3 match... Sorry for the blurry pictures. I think all the black lights in the arcade confused our camera and it (nor we) knew what to do...

*Side Note*- When Justin and I were first hanging out, dating, etc. one of our favorite dates was going to the Nickelcade or the Wilk and playing a nice, friendly game of air hockey... Basically, I always ended up kicking his trash. It has just been recently that he has started beating me but they are always fun and close games:)

Then we played this basketball game...


And then lastly played some ski-ball...

We only had like 60 tickets combined so we got Ethan some army men and a plastic dinosaur with our winnings. I'm sure we looked pretty pathetic up at the counter with our measly 60 tickets when the kid next to us had like over 500! We had SO much fun together though. Those kind of dates are my favorite. I'm so grateful for my sweet Valentine. I got pretty lucky to snag such an amazing guy like Justin. I still wonder why on earth he married me, but I sure am glad he did. He is definitely my better "3/4" :)

We Did It!

We did it! Ethan is now potty trained!

I can't thank you guys enough for all the wonderful, helpful comments that you left giving me advice. I ate it up!

Wanna know how we did it? Well, the day that I posted asking for help we took a little break. Both he and I needed it. Here's what we did from here on out:

Day 1: He was back in big boy panties (this is what Justin calls them) and I basically just left it completely in Ethan's hands. I would ask him every 30 min or so if he needed to go and he would of course say no so then I would remind him that if he needs to go potty to tell mommy. He got the hang of it pretty fast and after two accidents, he started to tell me before he would go. After that he only had a 1/2 an accident. This is where he started to go, held it, and told me he needed to go.
If he had an accident, I would still run him to the potty so he could realize what it was that he was suppose to do. We tried to never made Ethan feel bad for his accidents though. We just said "Yucky!" and put him right on the potty. But Ethan always had to help me clean up the mess afterwards though :)

Day 2: 1.5 accidents

Day 3 & 4 (yesterday): Accident Free! I decided to test the waters a little bit and take him over to friends houses, the park, etc. and he would still tell me when he needed to go! I am SO proud of our little buddy!

What I've learned:
-My child has a bladder of steel. This kid can hold it for like 3 or 4 hours! It's really funny to see him dancing all over the house when it's time to go.
-He is a pretty stubborn child. I can ask him if he needs to go potty when I see him doing the "dance" but he will always say no and then 2 seconds later say "Mommy! I go potty!" while he runs to the bathroom. This is normal I suppose :)
-Ethan is very independent. I guess I didn't really realize it until now. All he needed was for me to trust him and give him some independence and decision making ability in this whole potty training thing.
-When he passes gas, it smells so much worse with underwear on. I guess diapers filtered the smell before..
- Ethan didn't need to be bribed with treats. I just didnt offer and he never asked. He was too interested in getting back to doing whatever it was that he was doing before that he just didn't even worry about it. But at the end of the day I do tell him how proud I am of him for going potty and give him some chocolate milk. I'm pretty sure he thinks he is in heaven!
-He pees and poops SUPER fast. Once he sits down on the potty, he is done in like 5 seconds with everything. Again, I think he is just interested in getting back to playing with toys that he wants to make it as quick as he can!
-It really helps to spend to the extra money on character underwear. We bought Ethan some cool Buzz Lightyear, Cars, Finding Nemo & Wall-e underwear and he loves them! When he would have an accident, he would say "Oh, oh no... I peed out. Wall-e so sad." He didn't like making his cool underwear all wet.
- I think it's so funny to hear him playing with his toys and talking to them about going potty and how proud he is of them for going. I crack up everytime!

I still have him in diapers during nap and night times though. He wakes up dry from his naps but I know the one time I leave him in underwear, he'll pee, and he always wakes up with a soaked diaper in the morning so I've decided to leave the night time potty training for another time, another day. I'm ok only going through one diaper a day and it doesn't seem to mess Ethan up or confuse him at all.

One of my friends (thanks Caroline) gave me a link to one of her friends blog with some good potty training advice as well. You can check it out here. I really liked her ideas but of course just like everything, you take what you like out of it and adapt it to your own child and what works best for them.

I'm so proud of our little buddy! Way to go Ethan!

This is what he spent most of his day doing those first couple of days stuck inside the house. He really does think he is Buzz Lightyear and is therefore able to jump off of anything and everything :) He will come up to me and say "Mommy! Watch!" and then he will show me his "impressive wingspan." This is followed by him saying " Ok, go fly!" I repeat this to him and then he takes off for the couch, climbs to the highest point and says "To infinity, and BEYOND!" while jumping off the couch! I love this kid :)

Potty Training Help!

So this week I started trying to potty train Ethan and so far he has done really well but I just don't think he is ready. Actually, I don't know. I'm a first time Mom trying to figure out what to make of this whole potty training thing. Tell me what you think.

We started Monday of putting him in only big boy underwear and setting a timer to make him sit on the potty every 20 min or so. He only had one accident that day but sometimes it was a full out brawl to try to get him to sit on the potty. He did it though and would go even amongst the tears and tantrums. We stayed in the house the whole entire day... He also receives 1 small marshmallow after he goes #1 ( I would rather stickers but they dont have them here in MX) and 3 small marshmallows after he goes #2. Oh and he also stays in a diaper during naptime and nightime. I dont trust him that much yet :)

Day 2&3: Also stayed inside the house (we are both going crazy) and he only had one accident. His accidents seem to happen when he is watching a movie. I guess he is too into the movie to do anything about it. Again, there was weeping and wailing a few times to get him to sit on the potty but he did and would go. We did the timer every 25 min. He never tells me when he has to go though. I force him to go and sit down when the timer goes off.

So far Day 4: He has cried every time I have put him on the potty, he yells "All Done!" as soon as I put him on and he pooped in his undies. He of course told me "Mommy, Potty" after he had already done the dirty deed in his pants though.

So, I'm not quite sure what to do. Does he sound ready yet? Or is he pretty normal? I feel like it is so time consuming and is SO much effort! Is that just how it is? Should I wait a few months and try again? Maybe after the baby comes? I wanted to get him potty trained before the baby comes to save on diapers but Im willing to wait if it will be much smoother later on. In April he will be 2 and 3/4 and I hear that is a good time to start with the boys. What do you guys think?

Any advice you have for me would be VERY much appreciated! I'm at a loss as to what to do and I don't have any mom's here in MX to help me out! Thanks!

Here is a picture of our little buddy. He sure is a cute kid though even if he doesn't want to use the potty!

Our Poor Children...

I was looking through old pictures today and I came across these of Ethan in his not so cute stage of life...





At the time, we thought he was a pretty cute kiddo but looking back, we think he looks a lot like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Scraggly, sparse, nasty hair, uneven, snaggly teeth- totally Gollum :)

Anyways, I've decided that our children really have no hope of having a full head of hair before they are at least 1 years old ... please see why below...
Exhibit A:

Justin when he was about 6 months old. I couldn't find a pic of him when he was one on my computer but he tells me he was just as bald as he was here.. nice....

Exhibit B:

Yes, I know that I look really cute in this picture but I was 3 years old and take a look at that hair. I was completely bald till I was 2 and even at 3, I still had some major hair growing to do:)

But we hope that with a little girl coming it will be easier to hide the nasty growing in of hair phase with all sorts of bows, headbands, etc. We just hope she doesnt go through a Gollum phase and we really hope none of our children have to go through this phase.....

Yikes! :)

San Carlos Beach

Sorry for so many posts in 2 days but we are here in Mexico and Justin had a change in plans last minute and instead of heading to our apartment in Culiacan, like we were originally going to, we are here in Hermosillo for a few days staying in a hotel. This means that while Justin is out working hard all day long, Ethan and I get to try to find things to do while being stuck in a hotel for 3 days. Which means lots of movies, reading books, playing airplanes, and playing catch up with blogging :)

One good thing about this sudden change in our plans was that we had a whole day this week that Justin didn't have to go into work and we all got to play at the beach! We stopped at a quiet little town called San Carlos and enjoyed the beauty of this small beach town.

Ethan and Daddy started out just playing on the shoreline since the water was pretty cold

And we also had fun throwing shells into the ocean... (this is Ethan's "ok, big smile" pose)

But soon enough, Ethan realized that he has no inner body thermometer and didn't care/realize that it was cold. So, he quickly realized that it was a lot of fun to fully emerge himself under water and Justin was a trooper to get wet with him. I was perfectly content taking pictures on the sidelines, however....




The sunset was beautiful and I'm so glad that we got to have a fun family day together. Those are very rare when we are here in Mexico and we will take them when I can :)


Quick question unrelated to this post- As I prepare for my big Europe post, and yes I feel as if i have to prepare for such an insurmountable task, I would love for someone to tell me how to arrange a collage of pictures. I really like how my friend heather has done hers but I can't figure out how to do it. Help please?! Thanks!

Gingerbread House- Only a Month Late

About a week ago Ethan and I decided to bust out the gingerbread house kit that our home teacher so kindly gave us a few weeks before Christmas. I guess with all the holiday hustle and bustle we just didn't make time to do it! After I put the house together, I pretty much gave Ethan free reign to decorate it however he wanted. Here he is showing us his awesome decorating skills...

As you can see, some of the icing accidentally didn't make it on the house...

And here is the finished product...

Ok, ok so mommy definitely did offer a little bit of decorating advice to this little toddler but you can totally tell that a 2 year old did most of it, right?! My favorite part of the house was finding half bitten off peices of the candy stuck to the icing. I guess Ethan just couldn't resist :)