Stir Crazy!

We have been SO busy lately! I am not sure how things got so crazy around here. Suddenly, in less than 2 months, Adam went from no clients to 5, and I am working 10-15 hours a week. So I have been working a lot on Saturdays, and Adam comes home at 4 on weekdays and makes dinner with Lily while I work. Unfortunately, this has been limiting his time to study for his classes, grade assignments for the class he is teaching, meet with his clients, and work on his dissertation. I have also been doing a home-study HypnoBabies course, which I am really excited about! It is a different approach to natural childbirth, and I think it will make this a really great birth experience. However, it is "labor" intensive (haha), and requires about an hour each day, which I can only do after Lily goes to bed. And Lily never goes to bed before 8:30 (usually more like 9), has stopped napping, and always wakes up at 7. If we put her to bed earlier, she wakes up earlier. So by the time we get her in bed, clean up from dinner (some days), read scriptures, and I do my Hypnobabies studying, it is past our bedtime already! In fact, it is so busy that I am almost excited for this baby to come so we can have more time . . . I said "almost". I recognize that once that actually happens, we won't even have time to sleep!

So how's that for an explanation of why I haven't written in almost two months? Let's see, since I wrote last, we went to California for Christmas, had a wonderful time, got completely spoiled by Nana & Papa, visited San Francisco for our 7th anniversary, got fairly sick, but had fun anyway. Here are some pictures of our fun trip to California.

Lily decorating the tree with her cousin, Amelia. 

And her aunt Amber. 

Playing Mr. Potato Head with Nana 

Christmas morning! 

It was a fun trip. Lily got her fairy wings from Santa, and a lot of other fun gifts. May too many . . . :) We all enjoyed it, but it was also nice to come home and start regular life again.

Then I had a lovely week in January when I couldn't do anything because my back went into terrible spasms. It was so painful that I couldn't sleep or do anything else for four days and had thoughts like "If only I were in labor right now. At least that ends!" Ultimately, the chiropractor said that my huge belly has been pulling my back out of alignment while I sleep. So I invested in a super-awesome maternity pillow, and every night I look forward to snuggling with it! I also spent a lot of days in a friend's hot tub, borrowed a massager from my neighbor, tripled my intake of calcium, and increased my exercise regimen. And now my back feels great, thank goodness!

Otherwise, we are doing well. Lily is growing up and saying funny stuff, as usual. She asks "why" to everything, and has for about a year. Those conversations usually terminate in "because that's just the way God made us." So for example:

"Lily, put your shoes on please."
"Why?"
"So we can go to the store."
Why?"
"Because we need to buy food."
"Why?'
"Because we have to eat in order to live."
"Why?'
"Because that's just the way God made us."

Well, that has backfired. Now, whenever we ask her a question, she responds with "Because that's just the way God made us." Whether we ask her why she doesn't want to eat her cereal, or why she threw her sippy cup on the floor, or why she took a toy away from a friend, or why she is screaming. "Because that's just the way God made us," she replied, with a pesky little grin. It has been funny, but also really frustrating.

The other day, Lily was singing "Jingle Bells" and a little while later I told her, "Lily, you got Jingle Bells stuck in my head." She replied, "You have dingle bells stuck in your hair?" We laughed, and I tried to explain what having a song stuck in your head means.

Then the next day, I was brushing my hair and Lily asked what I was doing. I said, "Getting the tangles out of my hair," to which she excitedly replied, "You getting the dingle bells out of your hair!" Classic.

This next little guy is also making his presence known. He can really kick! He kicks much harder and much more often than Lily did, and I thought she kicked me a lot. I am also getting bigger, and have already had someone ask if I am having twins. Really?! In fact, most Sundays and Tuesdays, when I take Lily to the library, I have multiple people ask, "You must be getting really close, right?" No. I am not getting really close. I am just getting really big! But, honestly, do you have to rub it in? I am certainly grateful that I don't need to worry about him being a low-birthweight baby. But I had really hoped to gain less than 50 pounds this pregnancy. That will probably not happen. I guess I should just be grateful that I lose it easily. :)

To ward off any unnecessary weight gain, I have been successfully avoiding sugar for the past month. However, yesterday I went to a friend's house and she taught me how to make fudge. That kind of catapulted my sugar-resistance efforts. But I thought it was worth it since fudge is Adam's favorite thing ever. I really wanted to make him some for Valentine's Day, but I have failed at making fudge so many times that I knew it would be a bad idea to attempt by myself again. Happily, our fudge was a fantastic success! We made the marshmallow creme kind and the old-fashioned kind - so much work, but vastly superior!

And today, it snowed another 10 inches in Corvallis, and it's still coming down hard! I ended up watching a friend's children most of the day since school was out, but she still had to work. We played in the snow a little, but Lily got cold really fast. Hopefully the whole city doesn't shut down again, or we will be really stir crazy! But if it does, maybe I will get caught up on all my neglected sewing projects. :)

Christmas and So Much More

Well, it's been a while, but for good reason. The past two months have been INCREDIBLY busy! We went to visit my family in Utah for Christmas, which was very fun. We also got to see Adam's family. Lily had a lot of fun with her grandparents, aunts and uncles, her cousin Amelia, and ESPECIALLY the cats and dog at my parents' house. She is a super-fan of cats and dogs, and chasing kittens around pushed her to complete confidence in walking. We went sledding, visited temple square, tromped around in the snow, visited friends, shoveled A LOT, and just had a great time. Here are some pictures from our trip:

Chocolate face! Lily takes after her Nanna in her affinity for CHOCOLATE!

This was Lily's first experience with snow. She was much more impressed with the dog than with the snow, however.

Lily and Daddy exercising on Grandpa's rowing machine:

Sledding with Nanna and Daddy!

Lily and me on the Sunday before Christmas. Isn't she so cute in the dress I made for her? :)

Our visit to temple square:

Christmas Eve with Adam's family:

Lily and her cousin, Amelia had fun dancing and twirling (and sitting on the floor) in their Christmas dresses.

Lily with her Grandpa on Christmas morning:

Visiting with our good friends the Lees.

I stayed in Utah for two weeks after Adam left, which was hard. I hate being apart, but it was for good reason. My mom has been quite sick from the treatments she is doing for breast cancer, and she really can't be alone. She needed someone to be there to take care of her, and I was the most available person for the job. I think my parents really loved having Lily there for a while. 

It was hard to watch my mom struggling with her health, but at the same time, I have not been burdened with worry about her. Since she was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, I have always felt peace about it. My dad has given her multiple blessings, and all say she will fully recover, and I have complete faith that it will happen. In all the years I was growing up, my dad never gave a blessing that did not come to pass, regardless of how small or miraculous. I know he takes the priesthood power seriously, and I know the Lord makes good on His promises. Even if my mom does not recover, however, the peace I have felt so far has been reassuring to me that God can grant us peace and comfort even in difficult circumstances. It was actually wonderful to be there with her and take care of her when she has dedicated so many years of her life to taking care of others, between raising her children and helping people improve their lives through her therapy practice. I love my parents so much and am grateful for the opportunity to spend a few weeks with them, since it will be many months until I see them again.

Here are a few more pictures from our time in Utah during January. Lily really came to love her aunt Lisa, who doted on Lily during our visit.

Lily also came to love Kitty, my family's cat, but unfortunately the affection was not returned. Kitty's attention to Lily consisted only of some growls and a few scratches! Ouch!

Love you so much Grandpa and Grandma! Thanks to all our friends and family for a wonderful Christmas and a fun visit!

Christmas Pictures

Yes, I know this is more pictures than I should post. But I have a good excuse - many relatives who were unable to see their only grandchild/great-grandchild/niece at Christmas. So for those of you who missed her, here are a few pictures:

 

This is the sleeping sock and hat my aunt Danielle made for Lily, which we put her in every time we go outside.

Here is a picture of Lily in a dress that used to be mine:

Lily's first bath:

Christmas day at Papa and Nana's house in Monterey:

Lily wearing the cute hair bow made for her by her aunt Lisa:

We gave Lily some Gentian Violet to get rid of an infection, and it made her lips purple.

Pictures from Lily's blessing day: