New House, New Haircut, One Cute Little Girl

I'm a little embarrassed that it has taken me this long to get pictures up of our new house! That being said, we were so busy working on the house to make it look nice that it was easy to let it slip my mind (besides, I didn't want to take pictures until we'd cleaned it up a little!).

So here is our home. We love it. We feel so blessed to be here. Our ward is amazing, our neighbors both have little girls close to Clara's age, and we have the most gorgeous view of Utah Lake and the valley I've ever seen. We want to stay here for a long time.
It feels a little surreal to have our own home after being in the basement for three years, but we knew it was time for our family to move on. It will be wonderful bringing our new addition back to a home instead of an apartment!
Speaking of the new addition, we've got 5 weeks left till D-Day and couldn't be more excited for her to arrive. I don't think that I've mentioned this before, but her name is Abigail. It's so funny to me that we were so hesitant to pick a name with Clara; with this one we just knew, this was our baby Abigail. It's been good for Clara to be able to associate a name with this mystery baby - not that it is any easier for her to understand, but at least "Abigail" isn't as abstract as "the baby." When she meet's Abigail, I think it might make the association that this is "our baby" a little easier.

I also got a new haircut! My hair was long when I had Clara and I couldn't bear the thought of having long hair this time around, especially when I break into a sweat in our mild 75 degree weather. So I chopped it. One of my neighbors cut my hair and she did a fabulous job. I love it! The weird thing is that my hair keeps getting darker even though we are spending more and more time out in the sun; just another bizarre quirk of pregnancy!

• My latest cravings have been Walmart brand fruit snacks - the tropical flavors. I go through four packs a day like it's nothing. I also have LOVED strawberry ice cream.
• I can't get enough peaches, strawberries, and grapes - something that Clara has been enjoying a great deal as well.
  
• Even though I get tired at 9:00, I don't end up going to bed until midnight because by then I am tired enough to sleep through the night.
  
• A bunch of pelvic pressure has made walking very interesting a times. It's a little scary when it feels like she's just going to fall out!
• Regular contractions have, yet again, become regular part of the regimen. I guess I just like making sure my body is really ready to go into labor.

Even though a lot of this sounds like I'm whining, I really love being pregnant. I'm really looking forward to having a newborn again, even though I'm sure it will be a challenge with a 2-year-old. Clara is a really good girl though, and I'm sure once we get through the drama phase she'll be an awesome helper with Abigail.
Speaking of, here is a picture of our gorgeous little girl. She is growing up so fast. I love to put her hair in pigtails. It just makes me and Joe happy.

26 weeks!

Almost to the third trimester! Wahoo!

We are a happy family!

I have a couple funny stories.

1. We were having family night. I'd make cookies that day so we decided we were going to take a plate over to our bishop's house. I covered the plate in tin foil so Clara wouldn't know what we were giving them and make a scene. I was really excited to see if she would give them the plate willingly (I was pretty sure she would). So we got to the bishop's house, gave Clara the plate when she got out of the car, let her carry it up to the door, and we rang the doorbell. After standing there for a minute or two Clara was ready to head home so she turned around with the cookies and started walking away. We decided to leave the plate on the doorstep, so we brought her back and had her set it down. As we were walking away she got so upset that we were just leaving that plate there she started crying and screaming bloody murder. The further away we got from the plate, the louder she screamed. Joe and I couldn't help but just bust up laughing....so much for secret service. The whole neighborhood knew we were there. I could just picture the neighboors peeking out their windows to see if anything was seriously wrong. So much for a spiritual FHE!

2. The other night we went in to check on Clara and we found her like this:


Joe gave me this giant stuffed dog for Valentine's day when we were dating. Clara loves the thing and somehow hauled it up in her bed so she could sleep with it. This has happened three nights in a row now. She absolutely adores animals so one of these days we'll have to figure out what would be an appropriate pet for her. I haven't quite determined what it should be yet...

We also have some fun news. We are buying a house! We close on it this Friday, and will be moving in the 30th of April. We feel really blessed because everything just seemed to work out really well. We'd been saving for a little while, and with the way the market is right now, we felt like it was a good time for us to buy. We found a foreclosure out in Saratoga Springs that far exceeded our expectations for our first home. The bank replaced all the carpets and repainted everything in the house so it is basically move-in ready. The yard needs a lot of work, but Joe and I don't mind doing that kind of stuff. We couldn't be more thrilled with what we got for our money and are excited that we'll be able to stay in this house for a long time. I'll get some pictures up when I can.

Pregnancy Downer...

This is two nights in a row now that I have woken up in the middle of the night, totally awake and haven't been able to go back to sleep. It drives me nuts! Am I really already to that stage? I thought that wasn't supposed to come until later on!

I've entertained myself by reading (Joe got me a Kindle DX for my birthday so that makes it really fun) and eating (that's the other weird part is that I've been starving). I've also been thoroughly entertained by Joe. He does some crazy things in his sleep! My favorite was last night when he rolled over and said, "Well what are you going to do about it." I think I almost wet my pants I was laughing so hard.

The hardest part is when I get to the middle of the day, after I put Clara down for her nap and I can hardly keep my eyes open, but I don't want to take a nap so I don't have to do this all again that night. Does anyone have any advice? I am kind of at a loss here...

On the upside, my energy is still great. I am switching between yoga and another prenatal workout every morning and just love them! Cravings have quelled, so anything sounds good. Joe can finally feel the baby move (and wow is this girl active!).

I was really enjoying this stage of pregnancy...until about two nights ago;)

It's Official!

Well, it's official...we are having another GIRL! We couldn't be more excited. It's funny because when Joe and I were watching the ultrasound, we could already tell how different this one is going to be. Can't wait for her to come!

Her Mother's Daughter

I went into Clara's room one morning a few weeks ago and this is what I saw.

That's right...two binkis! The weird part is that when I was little I wanted to have two as well. One to suck on and the other to poke in my eye. Apparently this bizarre trait is genetic...

Not my proudest parenting moment...

So I think I've been avoiding writing this post for a couple of reasons.

1. About a month ago we moved Clara from a crib to a toddler bed. It was time. Who needs sleep anyway right?

2. It was not my proudest parenting moment.

Let me explain a little bit. My parents have this adorable little toddler bed that they offered to let us use. We knew we needed to get her in a bed soon because we didn't want her to feel displaced when the baby comes. So we agreed.

My dad pulled it out of storage and did a lot of work on it to sand it down, fill in any holes or scratches, and paint it. It looked beautiful when he was done. So we set it up for Clara at their house and she got really excited about the cool bed in the living room. We thought, "Great, she loves the thing already. This shouldn't be that bad."

We brought it home and set it up during family night. Clara was beside herself excited. She was trying to help Joe in any way possible. It was so cute!

Then the ominous time arrived and we got her ready for bed, did the normal routine and put her down to sleep at 8:30PM like normal. To our total surprise she sayed in bed...for about an hour and a half. After that hour and a half she was literally up every 2-5 minutes. We figured the fun of it started wearing off for her. So as we continued to put her back to bed hour after hour and our patience continued to wear thinner and thinner, she finally went to sleep around midnight as Joe and I were turning in for the night. We were so relieved when she finally went to sleep and we were probably out ourselves in a matter of minutes.

Then I woke up suddenly around 3:30AM. I got the impression to go and check on Clara. When I went into her room, she was still laying in her bed, but she was laying in a pile of throw up. I felt like a terrible mother. We got her up, got her cleaned up, and I ended up sleeping with her the rest of the night in her bed. I felt so bad. Clara has always been so good about going to bed, and that night she'd just been trying to tell us she didn't feel well!

The upside to this story is that since then we really haven't had many issues at bedtime at all. There have been a couple nights where she gets out of bed, and all it takes is us opening the door and she races back to the bed, gets in, puts her head on the pillow and pretends to snore. She is such a good girl! I am working harder to understand what she is trying to tell me now, and it has been so interesting to see her independence grow. I think she feels like such a big girl now. Every day she is saying one or two more words. It is really cool to see.