Baby Showers

I have lucked out with some of the best friends and family ever! 

We had a couple baby showers which were so great and I just couldn't believe how generous everyone was! 

Quenalee threw Tylee and I a joint shower and it was fun! It was mostly family with a few friends who stopped in. We took turns opening gifts and came away with some fun stuff! I was so happy and grateful for how it turned out!

My friends also threw me a little baby shower. We met at a little deli restaurant in Idaho Falls and had a party! We had some great food and I opened some awesome gifts so it really just doesn't get better than that. This babe is so lucky to have so many people who love her already, and I have been feeling pretty blessed myself! 

Non-Important Bits

1. The flies are stiiicky right now and I hate it. They swarm around the doors so every time I open them for a even a second I get a deluge of flies pouring in. And then, they don't really want to stay in so they just sit and buzz around the windows until they die in the sills. It's just not my favorite thing right now. Another thing that is not my favorite right now is all the smoke in the air. We can't see the hills, let alone the mountains behind our house. It is just so dreary and weird and makes everything feel closed in and claustrophobic. 

2. I've got a nasty cold that's dragging me down. Maybe (probably) I'm just a wanny, but my colds are the worst. I get the aches and chills and a fuzzy head and basically I've been out for the count for a few days. Maybe I'm just milking it extra because it will likely (hopefully) be my last sick day without anyone else to take care of. (Kolton doesn't count. He's pretty self sufficient) Although this morning I did drag myself from my hazy medicine ridden fog to peel another peach for Kolton's breakfast (I'm wondering if he will be sick of peaches soon. He's honestly eaten one for two out of three meals every day this week). I was halfway through peeling when he mentioned that maybe I ought to put the cut peels somewhere other than in the bowl with the peach he'd already peeled for himself. I thought that maybe he'd made a good point there. 

Also, the other night I took some nighttime Tylenol cold stuff. With the nighttime medicine I either sleep amazing or not at all, and I can't figure out what makes the difference. Anyway, this particular night was one of the horrid ones. I don't know if this happens to anyone else but sometimes when I take those meds it just makes my head buzz. I just go over and over the same stupid thought process in my head and I can't make it turn off. I'll lay there for an hour thinking about the same dumb thing that doesn't matter. And I KNOW it doesn't matter but my brain will just not quit harping on it. It's odd. Maybe I'm the only one. I don't know. Anyway this night was really, really bad and just as I would turn my brain off and start getting some sleep I would have to visit the bathroom and then start the whole process over. But on one of my ten trips to the bathroom that night I noticed that Kolton was no longer in bed and was sleeping on the couch. The next morning I asked him about it and without saying a word he gets on his phone and starts watching a video of a motocross race. I asked him again and he turns his phone toward me and I see that it is no motocross race on the screen, but instead a sound recording of me snoring. And I'll tell you what, it was LOUD. I did not know sounds like that could come from me, but it's this cold I'm telling you! I think I've made the point that I'm not loving being sick. 

3. The other day I was mowing the lawn and ran out of gas. And then I realized that our gas tank was also out of gas. So Kolton called to get it refilled but it has yet to happen. So our lawn is half mowed and has just looked really cute and trashy for the last three days. So that's been fun.

4. I'm getting large as a barge. Actually, that's not true. I still feel pretty little and somewhat cute most days. Occasionally I'll get a side view and have to avert my eyes but honestly I am feeling really good. Really good. I feel almost guilty for how great I feel right now with 6 weeks left (say whaaat!). And you know what else? My morale is pretty high too. Some days it's a battle between being called names like "Prego" (courtesy of Kolton. Not THE prego, just Prego. I'll use it in a sentence: "Hey Prego, will you peel me my fourteenth peach of the day?") and my favorite by far, "Prega-Mega". (Brevan is the genius behind that one which Kolton has also adopted.) So even though there are those who try to bring me down, I've managed to keep my spirits up. And Baby Girl has been moving like crazy lately! I feel her all the time not necessarily kicking but just squirming and trying to find some room. 

Speaking of room, I'm in a state of panic over baby's room right now as a result of the fact that I can barely wedge the door open because there's so much junk in there. Here's the rundown: all my shower gifts, tupperwares of clothes, a crib (still in the box), a crib mattress, a carseat, an ironing board, a drying rack, a desk, a rocker recliner, oh! and a piano. So that is just fabulous and really causing my blood pressure to rise. Hopefully one day very soon Kolton will slow down at work for half a second and we can work on organizing and hauling everything out. But until then I've got a little knot creeping up my esophagus that has nothing to do with heartburn because...6 weeks people! She's basically here and this shiz is getting real.

However, you will be interested to know that every day I get more excited and less nervous. So that's been fun/comforting. I think she's gonna be pretty cool. 

5. I heard some great news the other day! School started 2 days ago and I can't even express to you how happy/elated/jumping for joy etc. I am to not be down there. Doesn't that sound awful? I loved my job, really. It was a blast and I think I was somewhat not terrible at it. But this right now just feels so right and good and I am just totally great with being done with that part of life for right now. Kolton informed me that he was pretty happy about it too because now he doesn't have to hear all the mundane details of every second of the day along with my observations about each of those seconds of the day. Okay, but that's not the great news. The great news is that one of my teacher friends told me they got the ISAT scores back from last spring and that my 5th graders had scored above the state average in Language Arts. I was pretty darn pleased about that. While I definitely don't believe standardized testing is the end-all-be-all, it's great to hear that the kids were prepared and able to do something that was really scary for them (and me). So I'm going to live on that news for a while. 

I think maybe 5 numbered points is a tiny bit excessive, so I'll stop there. I just had a lot of non-important things to share! 

Oh yeah, one more thing...

This (they tell me) is a photo of my unborn child. I'm not entirely convinced that it's not a stock photo but that gigantaur nose does look a little familiar.  It's been blowing my mind all week and we've been pretty excited about it. 

Tylee and Tyrel

They did it! They finally got married! Not that we've been waiting for forever or anything, but it's all very exciting either way. And I am actually having flashbacks to when Tylee was on her mission and I was giving my mom a pep talk because she was just sure that Tyrel had a girlfriend. So maybe it is a pretty big deal. 

It was a great day and we are super excited to have Tyrel in the family. Those two just go together and it's fun to have another married couple to pal around with. Also, I'm just really excited for them because marriage is the best thing I have ever done and I get excited when other people get to experience it. 

The sealing was so nice and the reception was beautiful. We had some great weather and just really lucked out. I only got this one picture from the day, but I just really love it so here it is: 

Happy day!

Quit Crapping Your Pants!!!

So a while ago we went with my family to the Ramp Riot which was a big Motocross and BMX show. They had gotten free tickets from a fertilizer guy (or something of the like) and not to miss out on any parties, especially free ones, we were all over it. 

We ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse which was a real shame because that was during the part of this pregnancy where eating meat made me sick. So I stuck with rolls and mashed potatoes and salad. I do not know why anyone would willingly put themselves through the torture that is vegetarianism. 

Then we went to the Mini-Dome to watch the show. They had huge jumps set up and were pulling out some pretty big tricks. We were enjoying the show and definitely enjoying our Mini-Dome ice cream (because really, why else would you go to the Mini-Dome if not to get some of their ice cream?) when the evening took a turn for the worse. 

The guy sitting in front of us with his family must have had one heck of a sick stomach and wanted everyone around him to know it. Kolton had the good luck to be sitting right behind him and oh my heck. Stinkiest worst thing ever. And they just kept coming. Kolton was getting rather disgusted and then flew right by disgusted and became absolutely livid. At one point during the show he yelled, "Quit crapping your pants!!!!" and then I died laughing. And then when Tylee and Tyrel heard they died laughing too. And when we finally got out of that show and back with my family and told them about it they couldn't quit laughing either. All the way home. I'm pretty sure their esteem of Kolton rose about 10 points that day. So I guess it was worth it! 

School Wrap-Up

The last few weeks of school were some busy ones! It seems like so long ago now, I hope I can remember! 

We had teacher appreciation week which is always my favorite! But unfortunately I caught the flu and stayed home during two of the days that week so I didn't feel as much appreciation as I wish I had! The PTO brought in treats every day of the week and of course the one week we have treats I had to miss out. And staying home from school really isn't all that fun. I just sit and stew about what is going on and hope everything is going according to plan and that the kids are being good. So it was nice to go back later that week. 

We also took a little field trip that I thought was super fun. We went to the Craze and played laser tag, mini golf, and arcade games and then took a tour of BYU-Idaho. We went to the planetarium and watched a movie about under the sea dinosaurs which the kids loved and then went to the Geology Museum, the Food Services, and the Wildlife Museum. It was a good time! 

The last week of school was nuts of course. Monday was Memorial Day and then Tuesday was the day of our Research Project Presentations. The kids worked so hard on their projects and it was fun to watch them present! They wrote two page typed essay about their topic (someone from American History), made a poster, found a costume, and wrote and memorized a one minute speech to present. They all did so great and I just loved that project. 

That week we also had Field Day which was super fun and then it was the last day! Those kids worked their fannies off for me! They were great. I had to clean out the room (both my stuff and whatever else was in there) for the new teacher and was feeling overwhelmed at the task. But when I saw that I had 21 kids with nothing to do all day I decided to take advantage of it. And I worked them hard. Everybody had jobs and I didn't do any work at all! I just bossed kids around all day which is something I'm really good at. I had some kids help me dejunk shelves and drawers and got a kick out of their expressions when I handed them huge stacks of paper and told them to throw it away. We went through many trash bags that day but by the end of the day the room was all cleaned out. The kids were so great and helpful and I don't know how I could have done it without them. Then we went to the gym for the last hour of the day and had a little dance and then turned them loose for summer! It was definitely a bittersweet day. I am totally okay with being done teaching but I will miss hanging out with those kids every day. They were such great kids and just so fun. I definitely learned a lot from those two years of teaching and I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. But I am also ready to have just one kid to take care of and make sure she is behaving. But I will miss it!

The Fourth

Over the Fourth of July weekend we were super busy! We had 2 family reunions to hit so basically our weekend consisted of a lot of driving. But we still had a nice time. The first reunion was the Mickelsen reunion in Island Park. On Thursday I had to go to Girl's Camp for dinner and testimony meeting so I talked Kolton into coming with me and we could just leave straight from camp. He finally agreed, so that's what we did. I don't think he was too impressed with Girl's Camp. It wasn't rugged enough for him and there was a lot of singing. But I sure had a nice time! From there we grabbed Addi and had her ride with us to Island Park. It was quite a drive late at night and we were all a little sleepy so to keep us awake we started making up a poem, each taking a turn to write a line. Kolton was hesitant at first, but once he started he really got on a roll and made up basically the entire last half of the poem by himself. We thought we were quite funny.

One summer night we hit the road 

By the light the full moon bestowed,

Headed to celebrate the day

Now that we're all done with hay,

With my wife beside me nagging all the way

I will listen carefully to what she has to say (because it's so important),

We saw many cops along our route 

We are not sure what they are all about,

Time soon told why they were out

I'm sure when he handed them the ticket they began to pout, 

On we headed through the night 

Our eyelids putting up quite a fight, 

But not our trusty pilot he is steady and sure 

Try writing poetry that's the cure, 

Our poor prego has lost control

We were soon on bathroom patrol,

With all other stores out of site

Last Chance looked to be right,

11:06 time ticking away 

We were anxious about our day of play,

Addi stinks she hasn't showered 

She's getting smellier by the hour, 

The top of the summit we are getting near 

To our destination we are close my dear,

On and on we think and drive

What next line can we derive,

It's getting late our minds are mush

Addi has lost interest in this stuff,

And so our poetry must come to an end

As Brevan would say "That's the end my friend."

The next day we got out on the water and did some wakeboarding. There were only a few tears as we tried to convince the kids to get out there. When we had had a gut full we headed back to the cabin, ate lunch, and then I settled in with my book for the rest of the afternoon. Kolton took a boatload (literally!) of people out again and they were gone for a couple hours. Meanwhile I read and read and applied sunscreen and ate Otter Pops. It was fabulous. 

That night we ate dinner and had s'mores and went to bed. The next morning Kolton and I jetted out while the rest of the family ran the little Island Park race. We had many miles to travel and were headed to Malad for the Hansen reunion. 

We got to the campground around noon and visited for a little bit. Then I was starving so Kolton, Tyson, and I went into Malad to grab some lunch. Then we came back and visited some more and played a few rounds of cards. Later that night we had a little program where we played Jeopardy and answered questions about the original Hansen family. Our team won no thanks to us (although we did know a couple of the answers). 

Then before the fireworks started we decided to take a little ride up to see the spring. And it was beautiful up there! You wouldn't believe that all that beauty is just a few miles from the freeway. 

Then we drove to Malad and watched the fireworks which were a pretty decent show! I know Kolton wasn't dying on going to the fireworks, but I just love them too much and he is a sport. Luckily Kirt and Sandra had reserved some rooms at a little Bed and Breakfast near the campground. And it was the cutest little b&b I've ever seen! It was also great to be in an actual bed and not a tent. Especially because we woke up the next morning to rain, rain, rain. All that rain continued through breakfast and the little Sunday service and only let up as we were heading out. 

And that was our weekend! It was a good one filled with family and good food and fireworks. Cant' get much better than that!

Test-Run

So a while ago we had our first little test-run as parents. We have been parents to Brevan and Addi before but it's not really the same. There's nothing we can do to fix them at this point. Oh, and they are kind of old and can take care of themselves basically. 

So when Shannon asked us to watch Emme for the weekend we were a tiny bit nervous but also excited. It got even better when Calvin decided that he wanted to stay with us too. The first little bit Emme was upset but she calmed down and was great the rest of the time! That night we played and ate dinner and hung out. It was pretty low key and a good night! That Calvin is quite the talker and about everything he says is hilarious. I learned a lot about baby hopping cows throughout the whole weekend among other things. When I got Emme to go to sleep I laid her in the pack n' play in the spare bedroom. I was nervous about Calvin getting to sleep because I worried that he would get scared. But he was great! 

We turned on Magic School Bus on Netflix which took both of us back to our childhoods and to my surprise Calvin loved it! We had set him up a little bed on the couch with the John Deere blanket. We figured he would fall asleep during the show but after three episodes he was still going strong! Kolton on the other hand had falled asleep on the floor. I was doing everything I could not to upset Calvin because I worried that it would be a slippery slope but when he asked for a fourth show I had to say no. And he was just fine. I ran him to the bathroom and then laid down next to him on the couch while he fell asleep. It was 10 by then and he was a little worried about the tiny bit of light coming through the slits of the closed blinds. So I closed them the other way and then tried really hard not to laugh when he asked me to push the button on his pillow pet that he was using as a pillow to make it light up. It didn't take too long for him to drift off and then I had to rouse Kolton to come to bed. Man, putting three kids to bed can be a lot of work! 

Emme slept til about two and then woke up and was very upset so I had the brilliant idea to bring her into bed with us. It was quite the night from that point on. She slept pretty good but would wake up and whimper about every hour or so. All it took to get her back to sleep was a little "shhh..." and pat on the back. So it could have been a lot worse. But there definitely was not enough room for the three of us in our little bed, especially with a squirmy baby who was kind of all over the place. She pretty much took up the middle while Kolton and I clung to the edges. 

The next morning we had breakfast and then Kolton took Calvin to work and Emme and I hung around the house. It was pretty rainy and wet outside so Kolton rigged up some rain boots for Calvin by putting bread bags and rubber bands over his shoes. I died laughing but also recognized the brilliance of the idea. While the boys were gone Emme and I cleaned up (turns out syrup and kids is not the greatest idea) played and then cuddled up on the couch and took a little nap. 

After our nap I fixed us a little lunch. While we were eating I kept hearing a wailing sound. I could only hear it every so often because I had the fan going but I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought it was probably Calvin but when he and Kolton never came in the house I didn't know what to think. Finally I checked outside and of course, there was Calvin and he was soooo sad. I felt awful! He had to go potty so Kolton dropped him off (I have no idea why he didn't bring him inside or at least TELL me that he had left him.) and he had come to our front door which no one ever uses and couldn't get it open. He had had an accident since he had been sitting outside for forever and I just felt so so so so bad. So I brought him inside and put him in the bath and basically asked what I could get him to make up for our parenting fail and make him happy. He requested 5 M&Ms. I can do that! By the time he got out of the bath he was happy again. 

But from that point on our relaxing afternoon turned a little hectic. After Calvin got out, I stuck Emme in the bath because she had ended up with peanut butter in her hair. Then I made Calvin lunch and Kolton lunch and because we were trying to go on a date that night I was trying to get ready and clean up and pack up the kids and it was a lot of work! 

But we got it all done and really did have a good time! And because we kept our heads above water we decided that maybe we can handle one baby. Maybe.