Arm full

Naomi just loves her little sister.

And sitting in my lap.

And smiling at the camera.

This is a wonderful kind of snuggling!

I have no ankles.

Please don't mind the white skin - I don't see much sun. Anyway, I was feeling extra swollen and realized my ankles had disappeared. I haven't been wearing my compression stockings since I had the baby and I'm pretty sure that was a bad idea. My toes and feet felt so tight and so I will be wearing my stockings from now on, at least until my body can get rid of all this extra fluid. Hopefully it goes away soon.

34 weeks with baby #10

Oddly enough, this is the first pregnancy picture I have taken. I kept thinking about it but never did it and so this pregnancy starts off being less documented than any of my other pregnancies. What can you expect with #10, right? Well, she is growing and doing well, as far as I can tell. I have all the same issues as I have with the others so nothing new there. I am weighing in a bit heavier than I would like - probably due to my starting weight and my lack of exercise. We are looking forward to having this little one join us some time in the next four weeks!

Frustration, Irritation, Sadness

I have not had very good luck with computer hard drives. The first one crashed but we were able to get everything off! Thank you to the computer guys! The second one I broke and we can't get anything off - unless, hope against hope, I send it out of state to some guys who might be able to work magic and save it for a hefty price. The third one died as well, and I guess we got everything off.... Except they didn't and I was sick about losing more pictures (from March to present). I was also sick because my external drive which has all the same stuff also died! What is up with this issue!?!?!? So my wonderful husband got a new external drive back in March and I was not excited about trying to figure it out and get things taken care of. Never procrastinate! As my computer hard drive started to act up last month I finally tried to copy everything over to the new external. It took some time and lots of praying that I could get it done before the computer crashed! I thought I did it but then I couldn't find anything and then it was done. I was relieved when I did finally sit down to try and figure out our new external drive and was able to find two extra folders of pictures and so life was not so bad. But then the computer hard drive crashed. I took them both in to the computer guys and they did get stuff off the computer drive but the external they declared dead and couldn't get anything off! Ack! Maybe I will send this to those magic workers and pay the hefty price so they can get all my treasured memories! I wish I had a pensive so I could just put them all in there. I bet that never crashes. If only it were real. Just thought I would share my inner most sickening feelings about it all. I need to find all my discs because I copied lots of pictures to discs. I just need to find time to look at them so I won't feel so sick about it all.

Framed!

No crime was committed, and no one is to blame. I just ended up framing a few of my paintings and thought I would share the results. I wish I would paint more often because it really does feel good.

I actually framed them for a talent "show" that my friends were putting together at the end of April. Because of my trip to my parent's house, I was not in attendance but I sent these paintings, an afghan, and some pottery so they could be displayed. I have no idea how it went, although many of my friends sang or performed music. I was sad to miss out but it helped me to look at my pieces with new eyes. I think I will leave them framed - although the frames did have things in them already.

My Key Ring

Yes, I actually have keys in the collection - but only two that I actually use. The rest of the stuff reminds me of wonderful memories and people who love me. I had to show the hear nut shell that I added from my trip to my parents house. It is a great addition and I love to think of them every time I use my keys. If Kevin ever has to drive Harvey, he has his own set with just the van key and the house key, and that's fine with me.

Real Birthday! 41 will be just as good as 40, I'm sure of it.

Pancakes with vanilla ice cream and 

maple flavored sugar water

(our version of syrup).

Pasta salad with chicken, grapes and apples!

May sound weird but it is so good!

Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting!

Really big bag.

Holding lots of shirts, jeans and shorts.

How very exciting!

Wait? There's more?

Surprise!

A dozen doughnuts and 

chocolate ice cream!

(Inside joke: if Kevin ever asks me if I need him to 

pick something up on his way home,

I always say, 

"doughnuts and chocolate ice cream.")

Special present from Kemiah...

Handmade wrapping made out of our scrap paper.

Handmade treasure box for all my little treasures.

Almost Birthday!

Yummy homemade won tons and egg rolls.

Really lovin' this stuff!

Tres Leche Cake with strawberries and whipped cream!

So very good!

Fake Birthday celebration!

Dinner was delicious!

Flank steak, Mr. Dell's potatoes, orange jell-o and veggies.

Oh so good, but I remember now why we don't have flank steak. ($$)

 Yummy brownies with yummy topping!

He is getting really good at cutting rounds into 10 pieces.

Sweet Mess

I know other people do this - lick the top of the new Fluff container. It wasn't a messy prospect when I started out, but then Kevin came by and helped me out a bit. Thank you very much. I will admit that it was really sticky, but came off rather easily with warm water.

You would think I would learn...

Back up all my photos and documents to the external hard drive! Keep it current and don't let it slide. I have lost too many computer hard drives/mother boards, and thus had to pay for someone to get the data off said hard drive because I didn't simply put a copy of it on the external drive. It happened once again. This time the drive was broken by me so it is my fault. I lost pictures from April - present that were on the computer's hard drive but I did not copy them to the external. I lost documents and so forth. Oh man! Fortunately, I did blog about a lot of those pictures here so they are saved in this form. But there are some that I didn't blog about so they are lost. This time, the magic computer shop couldn't get the information off the hard drive because it broke physically. Lots of lessons learned, and hopefully I'll actually change and do something different in the future. That's what learning is all about, right?!

Thank my Heavenly Father

I just thought I would thank my Heavenly Father for the tender mercy He showed me today. I was at Church, waiting with 5 of my kids, while 3 of my girls practiced with the ward choir. While we waited, I was talking with a friend and Camdilyn walked away with my iPod. I know, I should have grabbed it from her, kept it from her, whatever, but I didn't. After a long time, I saw Kemiah walking out of the Men's bathroom with Camdilyn. I was bewildered as to what was happening. Had I really been out of it to not even see what was going on? I asked her what was happening and tried to figure out how Camdilyn got into the bathroom - it's a really heavy door to push. Kemiah said the door had been propped open so Camdilyn just walked in... and proceeded to play with my iPod in the toilet! Ack! I was sick. Not so much that she was playing in the toilet, but thinking about my dead iPod. I took off the rubber case and dried off the iPad in a clean diaper - it was the most absorbent thing I had in my diaper bag. I said a little prayer in my head (and heart) that the iPod would be okay. As I took it out of the diaper, I received two messages from Kevin so it seemed to be okay. I was so relieved when it turned on fine and it seems to have no ill effects from it's "bath". I am so thankful.

Happy Fake, Almost, and Real Birthday to me.

I didn't do much this year, except feed us a bunch of desserts for several nights in a row. Truly, we ate desserts for almost an entire week, which is something we don't normally do, so it's a good thing I'm still nursing the baby.
For my Fake birthday dessert I made Tres Leche Cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream! Delicious!

For my Almost birthday dessert I made Chocolate Lava Cupcakes, served with vanilla ice cream. Made a note to bake them on a lower heat because they were too done. Oh well.

For my Real birthday dessert I made a fantastic chocolate cake that Kevin brought home the week before. I made chocolate cream cheese frosting and served it with vanilla ice cream (as you can plainly see). It was so yummy!

A couple weeks before my birthday, Kevin decided it was time to look for a new dining room table. Two of our kids couldn't sit "at" the table for meals so we did need a bigger one. We went without the kids during the day, before Kevin had to go in for work. We found one really solid table that would extend out to what we need right now, but we still wouldn't have room for guests. Not like we entertain all that much but you never know. So we found a little bit smaller (cheaper) table and bought two of them. Happy Early Birthday to me! Kevin picked the tables up on the 24th and we set them up right away (with a pause so we could eat dinner). They are very nice. Our house smells like the varnish, and they wobble a bit on the uneven floor, but it is nice to have us all able to sit together.

On my real birthday, we had ice cream and pancakes for breakfast - even though we ate sort of late because we slept in a bit. We skipped lunch and went to an earlier dinner at Outback Steakhouse. (Our neighbor gave us a gift card for snow blowing her driveway.) The food Kevin and I got was really salty. It was nice to eat out and not have to make my own dinner. We went shopping for some things on my wish list but ended up not getting anything, which is fine because I figure the tables will be enough. After cake at home, I took my three oldest girls, and the baby, to the Relief Society Broadcast at the Church. They were having a dessert social (tea party theme) before so we socialized a bit. I wasn't offended when all three of the older girls sat with someone else. It was a nice day, all day long!

Why didn't I think of that?

Kevin ordered a new bunk bed unit, because we'll need another bed in another month, and we need to start rearranging now so all the children are used to their new sleeping places when the baby comes. They delivered a large box today, with the parts and pieces for the bed inside. I wasn't sure where Kevin decided it should go - girl's room or Ben's room - so I was going to just move it inside and off the front porch. Ben grabbed one end and I was ready to lift the other but when we tried, we realized it was WAY too heavy for us. So I decided we'd have to wait for Kevin ('cuz he's real strong). I was sitting on the couch with Domonique when I told Kevin about the box, that Ben and I could not lift it, and that we would need help to get it inside. He looked at me and said, "Did you open it?" And that's when I realized what we could have done - just moved the pieces inside one at a time instead of trying to move the whole load at once. I started giggling and then I was out right laughing at myself and couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of that. I'm not sure why I thought it was so funny, but it really was. I mentioned it to Ben a little later and he laughed and slapped both hands to his forehead.

I'm 29 on the 29th!

Okay, not really, but that's what I'll pretend I am. We enjoyed another Three Day Celebration! It's a wonderful tradition.

Wednesday we celebrated my Fake Birthday. Kevin surprised me with a new 8 qt. pot, with a glass lid! I made my favorite brownies and enjoyed a piece after I put the kids to bed. I would have shared with them but we went to the Cub Scout Pack Meeting and they enjoyed ice cream cone cup cakes.

Thursday was my Almost Birthday. Kevin surprised me with a new 10" pan, with a glass lid. I washed it and used it that morning to cook apples for our oatmeal! I ended up not making a different dessert but shared the one from Wednesday with the kids before I went Visiting Teaching.

Friday was my Real Birthday! Kevin surprised me with a box that holds all the parts and pieces (with instructions) for the cruise control for Harvey, the Beast. He'll have to install it some time in April. The weather was beautiful, so the kids enjoyed playing outside all afternoon. They had all worked very hard to get their school work done quickly and we had a great day! After dinner, Kevin surprised me with two glass Pyrex baking pans. Ben made me a little heart shaped pillow with a note that says, "Some would say I'm made of string and cloth, but really I'm made with LOVE." Marissa drew me a couple cards... I also received a card from my parents, as well as from two ladies from Church. And over 50 of my friends on Facebook sent me birthday wishes! What fun! We all enjoyed the chocolate pie I made for my cake! Kevin ran to the store after dinner to pick up a few items and grabbed a movie for us to watch after the kids were in bed. It was a fun day!

 

If anyone wants to know...

We are going to have a wonderful 2013. Well, I guess that's just the way you gotta look at it. We didn't stay up late last night, and we got up at our normal time this morning. We even had school today - instead of taking it off like I ended up doing all last week! It's cold outside but we are warm inside our home. We have all the things we need and even some things we don't need. Our bodies are fantastic gifts from our Heavenly Father that continue to heal themselves. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ to help us through our trials. We have family and friends who love us through it all. We know our purpose and our potential, and we strive to be better each day. My children love me and I love them. Their father loves me and he loves them. We are a hard working group of people who will continue to learn and grow through this next year! Good New Year to you all!

Interesting, very interesting.

I was thinking about Little Caesar's crazy bread today. I was even thinking about making some at home. I looked on the internet to see if I could find a recipe and I found several. They all talked about using Pillsbury pizza dough. Well, I don't have any of that on hand, so I wondered what I could do next. The interesting thing is that, while I was nursing the baby, Emily said our neighbor wanted to talk to me. I asked her to see what he needed. She came back in with a big smile on her face and said, "Do you know what you are making for dinner?" I hadn't decided yet so she informed me that our neighbor gave us a pizza making kit. She brought it to me and you know what? It was a Little Caesar kit with all the fixin's, including crazy bread! I'm not kidding you! I felt very loved - by both my neighbor and my Heavenly Father.

My Birthday

It's a three day dessert fest, although that's not quite what happened this year. I did make glazed popcorn on my Fake Birthday, but we didn't eat it until after our nightly routine (instead of right after dinner because I was late in making it). Wednesday was the Pack Meeting and Pinewood Derby and I didn't get around to making a dessert (or dinner so we ate cold cereal before we left). Thursday was my Real Birthday. The kids did their computer work in the morning and we watched a movie after lunch. It was a relaxing day.

This is the first year that my husband has given me a present each day. I think it had more to do with his excitement and inability to keep a secret - which I'm fine with. On my Fake Birthday (3/27), he gave me a new blue toner carteridge for our laser printer so that it would stop putting blue streaks on everything. Hooray! Of course, when he installed it, he realized we needed new pink and yellow as well. For my Almost Birthday (3/28) he gave me blu-ray discs so I can use my blu-ray burner to copy all our HD homevideos from the island so we can watch them. I'm so excited! For my Real Birthday (3/29) he gave me the Seafarers expansion to the Settlers of Catan game that we love to play. Our friends, the Smiths, came over to play and enjoy my yummy birthday dessert. We played once with all the kids, then sent them to bed and played againg with just the adults. It as really fun and not nearly as complicated once we figured it all out. I'm ready to play it again though, so maybe I can hurry the kids through their stuff, have class, lunch, stack some wood and prepare for dinner and then play the game with them. So that was my birthday in a really large nut shell.