Waiting for Lizzie =)

After 2 such crazy busy months on inservice hospital rotations, Sean took 3 days off, which sandwiched a weekend, so we got 5 glorious days with no work! On the first day we went to the Provo City Center Temple open house. I brought my nice camera and wanted to get some good pictures of our family and my mom and dad in front of the temple, but unfortunately after going through the whole building, we were all a little too tired and hungry. It is a remarkable building, so so beautiful. Brett said his favorite room was the “Glory” (Celestial) room because of all the black (dark wood) and sparkles (chandeliers). Alana liked the stairs the best I think, she was enjoying dancing and prancing through the whole tour =) We went to a restaurant called Wallaby’s for lunch. They are an Australian BBQ place with delicious meats and tons of yummy serve yourself sauces. My favorite was the peach BBQ, Brett and Alana loved the rolls, and Sean loved the sweet honey sauce. After lunch we stopped at the big Distribution Center in Orem to get a blessing dress for Lizzie. These are the only pictures I got from the day:



On Friday we went to the Fashion Place mall because I wanted to check out the H&M. Brett has been growing like a week and needed some new pants and their clothes seem to be really cute and a really good price. He got 3 pairs of pants, Alana got a rainbow dress, and I got 2 post baby shirts so I won’t feel so grungy right after our sweetie arrives. The kids hate being in a stroller so I just never bring one anymore, but their legs always get tired and since holding them for long periods of time almost always causes contractions, Sean took them both. He’s been doing T25 workouts since he’s had more time too, so poor guy was pretty sore that night! We played at the Mac store, looked at the lego store, and I spent some time browsing through Brighton and Pandora. It was a lot of fun!
 
I almost forgot that we stopped by Dayne’s Music on the way to the mall which is the same store where our piano was purchased. Sean was in heaven looking through music and playing to his hearts content on the beautiful pianos there. He got some Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Zelda music. Brett has been so interested in the piano, especially the star wars music and he is begging to learn how to read the notes. It’s so fun to see him getting interested in piano! Brett has also been starting to sound out words. He does pretty good with the first letter and sometimes other letters in the word, although he doesn’t really know how to blend them correctly yet. On Sunday, he was looking at a flash card of a deer and was trying to sound it out. He thought the d was a b and somehow got a tch sound at the end and was excitedly proclaiming to Sean and I that the word said bitch! We laughed pretty hard and helped him properly sound it out. Another wonderful story about Brett lately is about his bad dreams. For several months the poor guy has been having bad dreams on and off. He had had several in a week and ended up sleeping with us or having me sleep in his bed for awhile. One day while we were sitting at the table talking with my mom he just looked at me with giant tears in his eyes and said “Mom can you please say a prayer that I won’t have bad dreams anymore”. In the middle of the night he would remember to pray and sing primary songs and would ask for my help too, but it was so inspiring to have him bring it up in the middle of the day. He was so emotional about it and I suggested we ask Sean for a blessing. He liked that idea a lot and later that night Sean and my dad gave Brett a beautiful blessing promising him that he would have better dreams through his faith and that he would learn how to get through hard things with his faith. He hasn’t had a bad dream in nearly 2 weeks! His faith truly inspires me! He is the first to remember FHE and begs us to read him the scripture stories at night! Last Sunday we went to our dear friends the Ehle’s house for dinner and to take some pics of their family. It’s always so so fun to spend time with Matt and Whitney and its been a long time since i’ve gotten to play with my camera. It was snowing/raining and super windy, but we were able to find a few moments of peace to get some great shots=) Here are a few of my favorite:
Test shot=)

Sean still had work off on Monday, so we got he oil changed in both cars and I got a hair cut. I told her to cut it shoulder length but on the shorter side. Its pretty short and has been an adjustment to get used to, but I think I like it =) Here’s a 36 week bump shot with my new hair:

This pregnancy has been more difficult that my other 2. I’ve had a lot of digestive problems and a lot more other discomforts. I had mentioned having lots of contractions earlier and although they have died down, they are still there and I’ve had a few nights where I just can’t get comfortable with lots of contractions. A fellow pregnant mom described pregnancy as feeling like your hips and 10 inches wider, you are always on the edge of peeing your pants, and in general just feeling like a bus. It think that sums it up pretty well =) I went to the doctor today and am dilated to a 3 which is pretty exciting to know that the contractions are actually doing something. I will still only be 37 weeks on Thursday so I think we still have some time to go. We’ve been getting ready for baby girl to arrive though. She has a little set of drawers in our room:

And she even got the biggest drawer in our dresser:

Her bed is all set up (although we are missing the metal bars for the basinet attachment so we are borrowing those from N&R. Her diaper changing pad is tucked in the corner next to her bed because there is no room for a changing table =)

She even has some clothes hanging in Brett and Alana’s closet =)
 
I’ve also been working on her wall hanging. Since we announced that we were pregnant with a 1 fish 2 fish theme, I thought it would be fun for her to have an aquatic nursery. I cut the fishes, added stiching and buttons to add detail to them and then appliquéd them on the background.
 
It was looking kinda sparse so I added some plants, bubbles, and gravel. I then hand-quilted it with a swirl pattern. I have it all finished now except for attaching the little fabric loops so it can hang.
 
It was so so warm last week and we really enjoyed being outside! The kids love the swings and Alana almost prefers to swing on her tummy rather than her bum. They asked for bubbles one day so I poured them a bowl. Before I knew it Alana was sopping wet and making mud pies with the bubble mixture. She was having so so much fun and I was so torn if I should have her come in because I was worried about how cold she must be. I let them play for a good long time, then finally dragged them inside. Alana asks to go outside all the time now and love love love loves it! She is getting more and more opinionated and has started requiring more time outs =( Her lower lip action is very darling and impressive when she is trying to make a point.

Brett and Alana are as obsessed as ever with Elroy, and I think Elroy is becoming more obsessed with them as I keep finding him sleeping outside their door at night. My mom also got a bird feeder for outside our kitchen window and we’ve all been obsessed with watching the many varieties of birds that come to get seed.
 
On Saturday, Sean and I used one of our Christmas gifts and went to a play at Hale Center Theater called “The Pirate Queen”. It was a celtic story based on true events and was absolutely wonderful. We both love live theater so much and the music and dancing were just spectacular! Sitting for the 2.5 hours was nearly the death of me, but so so worth it!
 
As part of the gift my parents provided babysitting =) Brett and Alana enjoyed an outing to Applebees with Grandpa, Grandma, and Great Grandma and especially loved getting to go to Toys R Us.
 
Yesterday, Brett had a field trip at the local Smiths. Each of the kids got a plastic bag and the manager took us through the store filling the kids bags with different items including yogurt, bananas, oranges, cookies, string cheese, and ice cream sandwiches. Alana got a bag too and had a great time!