Babies, Babies Everywhere!

I really want another baby. Heck, I always want babies. Lucky for me (since we are not pregnant and not planning on being anytime soon), other people have had or will soon have a baby for me to hold and cuddle. Much to my husband's dismay, holding other babies does not squelch my baby fever - it just feeds into it. However, I know that now is not the right time. So...


Congratulations to my cousin, Shanna, who had a little boy on July 21st. Jackson is so adorable. There were some scary moments in the delivery, but baby and mom are okay so that is such a blessing. He was only an ounce bigger than my little monkey and holding him makes me miss my tiny newborn. I got to spend a couple of days at Shanna's trying to help her out. She wouldn't go take a nap while I watched the kids, but she did get a few other things done. Most of all, it was nice to visit with her and spend a couple of relaxing days hanging out.


Congratulations to my sister-in-law who finally had her baby boys on August 6th. Jen and Jeff spent a looooooong time (and a lot of money) to get those boys here. We are grateful that Jeff is healthy and Jen made it through her pregnancy. The boys are so tiny and had a couple of problems, but went home at six days old. I am so excited to be their Friday sitter when Jen goes back to work.


I have so many other friends and family who are pregnant. Let's see if I can remember them all: Jess & Austin, JuliAnn & Jumbo, Linda & David, Becky & Mike, Chelsea & Jordan, Janae & Tyler, Kelly (from Bunco) & her husband (sorry, I forgot his name)... Yeah. Hopefully I didn't miss anyone.


I have been trying to get back into scrapbooking. I have a few projects in the works. My most recent finished project was a book Lindsay and I made for our parents for Mother's and Father's Day. It was fun and they loved it. I can't divulge some of my projects right now, but I will when they're finished. Lindsay and I have decided that we will have an SSS (Sister Scrapbooking Session) once a month. Kaeli is our adopted sister if our schedules allow us all to "get together" on our computers and gmail and talk and scrapbook together.


Hazel is just as cute as ever. She is also busy, busy, busy! She has started giving us dirty looks sometimes. We just laugh cuz it's funny. She loves her grandparents and we are so lucky to have all of them here in Vegas. It's always great when my parents stop by and Hazel just wants them. It gives me a chance to do a few things without being interrupted. Usually we just have her help us do whatever we're doing (vacuuming, taking out the trash, picking up toys or shoes, etc), but it takes three times as long. She's still a happy little snot and she's making lots of friends at church.


Brody is excited to be the Priest Advisor in Young Mens. We had dinner with all of the YM leaders and their wives on Friday and it was great getting to know people. Brody wants to take his truck and go camping! He is very anxious to get the campouts started.


As for me, I still haven't started all of the projects I had hoped to finish before school started again. Where the heck did the summer go?? We have had fun. Lots of swimming and tv and hanging out with our families. And lots of work around the house! Somehow I have to continue to get all of these things done while starting up at the middle school accompanying for the choirs. But I have a super cute, helpful husband at my house to help me and put up with me, so I am definitely one lucky girl.


It is a few hours past my bedtime and the fact that I haven't been taking advantage of Hazel not only sleeping through the night, but sleeping in quite late into the morning is really quite puzzling to me. Oh, well. I can now cross the last important thing off my list for the week and get ready to tackle my new list!


Good night.

Hitting the Halfway Mark!

We've made it halfway! Woot woot!

I was 20 weeks today and had the BIG ultrasound appointment. Even though I told Brody I was going to keep it a secret from everyone, including him, I didn't want him to miss out on such a big occasion so I told him when it was so he could come with me. I'm glad he was there; after all, he IS my baby's daddy, no matter how many times he tells people we don't know who the father is.

We have a lot of awesome pictures of our little alien baby, but it is late and I will have to scan and post them another day. We also were able to take video of the first part of the ultrasound, which I will also post later.

My favorite thing was seeing how much the baby was moving and watching him (for all intents and purposes, I will refer to the baby as "he" rather than "it" because Brody is hoping for a boy, but we did NOT find out what it was) yawn and stick his tongue out at us. That was pretty much awesome. I know he's part of my side of the family if he stuck his tongue out at the camera! Haha.

The technician was nice enough to do a gender check (while Brody and I closed our eyes) and took a picture, which she then sealed up in an envelope just so we could have it. I asked Brody if he was secretly mad at me for not wanting to find out and he said yes, so it's really not much of a secret anymore. I know his family is mad at me as well. My family doesn't care. I think my parents are just glad they are still getting more grandkids! I am just excited for more motivation to get this kid out of me when the time comes. I told my sister I would have to think back to this day when I was having contractions and remember how excited I was to see our baby's cute little nose in a profile. You'll get to see it soon enough, but for now, it is time for bed.

I love my baby.

And my baby's daddy.

IT'S A BOY!

Haha. Tricked you. I don't know what's in my belly, but I know what's finally out of my sister's belly! After 60 1/2 hours of labor and finally going in for a c-section, Cooper Joseph Driscoll came into this world! I'm too impatient to wait for my sister to update her blog (oh, and she's kind of still in the hospital and dang tired), so I'm updating mine to tell everyone I'm an aunt for the 5th time. Tyler, Emily, Trey, Ryan, and now baby Cooper. All nephews and one niece.

Fun times.

Cooper Joseph Driscoll
January 23, 2009
9:32 am
8 pounds, 1 ounce
22 inches long

More updates...

Wow. Two days in a row. Can you believe it? I almost can't.

Today was the first day in a long time that I was going to be able to fall asleep after kissing my husband goodbye at 4:30 in the morning. Lately I have been wide awake after that kiss and lie in bed wishing I could go to sleep. Then, around 6:00 or so, I crash and sleep in until 8:00 and end up not getting much done. I was fading back into my slumber when the bedroom door opened and Brody told me his ipod was stolen out of the truck. SUCKY! He figures he must have scared whoever it was away by starting the truck from inside because they didn't get much more than a few things. There was a lot of time and money put into that ipod, though, so he is not a happy camper...

Speaking of unhappy campers, I'm pretty sure that's what my sister is after being in labor since 9:00 Tuesday night! Poor thing must be exhausted. It's just after six now, so she's been in labor for over 57 hours. My mom got there yesterday and has been with her ever since. She went in to the hospital for the fourth time and finally got an epidural last night. Then I got a text that said, "I love epidurals! :o)" Around five this morning she got another one. Cooper has now missed our dad's birthday and is going to have his own. For everyone's sake, that baby just needs to get here NOW!

The last update is in response to some of the very quick comments that were posted from my post yesterday. I thought I made it clear how stubborn I was going to be on the whole finding out/not finding out the gender issue. I don't want to find out! I just wanted to know what everyone else thought. (Isn't that just what people want to hear? Tell me your opinion, but I'm going to do just what I want to do. Oh well. My family is used to that.)

I think Brody has finally accepted that we will find out if he have a son or a daughter when the baby joins us in this world. I haven't told anyone exactly when my next appointment is. Not even my husband. Not that I want him to miss the ultrasound - that's too exciting and he was there for the other two so it's not like I'm trying to keep him from experiences all the joys of the pregnancy (which is only fair since he's definitely dealth with the joys of pregnancy that are pretty much the complete opposite of joy). But I have some questions I need to ask about my appointment before I tell him.

So the verdict is no. We're not finding out. It's not like we have a lot of space for the baby anyway and he's barely gonna have a spot in the spare bedroom. If he's lucky. He doesn't get his own special baby room yet. Haha. (Saying HE is not a slip of the tongue - I just call the baby a he all the time, but we really don't know if it's got two legs or three yet.) We'll just be glad to finally have a little baby and I pray it doesn't take as long as it's taking my nephew to get here!

Belly Updates...

Just for fun I decided I would put a picture of my sister and I side by side (that was a pain in the BUTT since I don't understand html codes) to show our baby bumps at the same time. These are our 16 week pictures, mine from January 12, 2009, and hers from August 7, 2008. I am 18 weeks today and need to get another picture soon. Lindsay is obviously much bigger right now and back at the hospital for the THIRD time after being in labor for a day and a half. She is only dilated to 1 cm and she and Chris are pretty darn tired.

We (our family) kept teasing her yesterday and telling her that she should just wait until our Dad's birthday (which is today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!) so Cooper and his Grandpa would have the same birthday, but we weren't actually serious! Now we're hoping she'd just hurry up and have that baby today for her sake and for the fun of them having the same birthday.

My mom is in the car, driving up to help Lindsay this weekend and see her newest grandbaby. I talked to her early this morning and she said she'd rather Lindsay hurry and have the baby and not wait for her to actually get all the way up to Quincy. Mom was the same way with Lindsay - contractions very close together for a long time, but not dilating. Poor Lindsay. And poor Chris. In about 5 months or less I will know how they are feeling.

I am so excited to go see her next month and hold that cute, little baby boy while she takes lots of naps so she can feel more rested. I am also excited to see their new house. My baby bump will definitely be bigger by the time I go in four weeks and Lindsay is excited to rub my Buddha belly.

I swear it just popped out even more the other day! It's so weird. I just stand sideways in front of the mirror and look at my funny shaped body and smile. Some people say I'm not showing at all. They are all crazy! I may be small at this point, but I'm pretty sure that ever since puberty, my boobs have ALWAYS stuck out farther than my belly. Promise. Now, it's the opposite. Even at my fattest, I don't think I've ever been this big around!

Hopefully Cooper will join us in this world today and Lindsay can get some rest. I'm so excited and have to refrain from calling her every five seconds to see how she's doing. That's the last thing she needs right now and I trust Chris to do his job and take care of her.

It's official - I look funny!

1/4/08 - 15 1/2 weeks
(And I'm standing up as straight as possible
and thinking about trying to suck it in!)

I am no longer trying to suck my stomach in. It's just too hard to do - even just thinking about it makes me tired. For the longest time (well, duh, not too long since I'm only three months along) I just felt like I was getting thicker and, at the same time, also tried to convince myself that it was just wishful thinking. Of course, as my sister is about two weeks from her due and tired of being big and pregnant, I also try to remind myself that I need to be patient in waiting for a cute prego belly. I gave up long ago on the weekly photos like Lindsay did, cuz, quite frankly, I did not start off with as nice a stomach as she did, so this is my first official belly picture and maybe I'll do them more than once every three months.

To Find Out or To Not Find Out - That is the Question

Okay, so I already know what I want - I want to wait until the baby is born to find out what it is. My husband, on the other hand, says he hates surprises (but he sure likes to surprise other people) and wants to know as soon as possible what we are having. I've always wanted a girl first, but we have a boy name picked out and haven't really been discussing a girl name since we don't agree, so I've kind of been hoping for a boy. Brody, being the man he is, wants a boy first to pass along his family name. It would also be fun to have a boy since my sister is having her boy, Cooper, next month.

So far I have had two dreams about the baby. One dream was at the doctor's office in the ultrasound and we accidentally found out it was a boy; the other was last night and I had twin girls, which was a surprise cuz we thought we were only having one baby. It was funny in the dream because I decided I would name one girl and Brody could name the other one, but he couldn't think of anything. I told Brody about the boy dream and he said we should find out, but I told him that we will just plan on a boy and be very surprised if it turns out to be a girl! Haha.

No one will change my mind and who knows if my husband will even read this post or any comments about this post to use against me in his argument, but I would like to know what everyone else thinks. I was in the room when my Kenzi was born and, after having two boys and trying not to get her heart set on a girl, Paula was so excited for the doctor to tell her it was a girl at last! That anticipation was so great and since I'm going to be doing all the work that day, I want to wait until that part of the hard work is over to find out the gender. Besides, Brody thinks that his place as the husband is in the waiting room, so if he doesn't know what we're having, that will give him a compelling reason to be in the room with me during labor. I think he knows he'll be in the doghouse if he isn't in there. I won' t be very happy with him cuz he's the only one I want in there besides the doctor and nurses.

So... what are your reasons for finding out or not finding out?

A Tornado Has Hit My House and More About the Dogs

As you can tell by my background, I have felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I got caught in a tornado and that Wicked Witch just flew around laughing at me! It picked up my house and shook it until everything got taken out of it's proper place and randomly landed throughout each room.

My house is a disaster.

To get ready for my sister's visit/baby shower/birthday party next month, I had to (finally) gut the spare bedroom so she wouldn't have to sleep on the couch. It has been filled with wedding stuff and wedding presents for quite some time. (I haven't even started Thank You cards - aaahh!) So all the presents got hauled out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. They stayed there for quite a while until I stacked them in the hall so we could actually use the kitchen. We took the duplicate presents back to Target and bought a few more things from our registry that we didn't get for the wedding.

I started cleaning and rearranging the spare bedroom so I can move Brody's desk out where the kitchen table is holding the computer so the kitchen table can go in the garage. (We don't sit at the dinner table - that's why we have TV trays!) Then I'll move my desk from the laundry room to the spare bedroom, and the bookshelf from the master bedroom to the spare bedroom. I also need to clean both bathrooms (deep clean - they are gross) so I can put away all the new towels and rugs and hang the new shower rod and curtain in the guest bathroom - I'm sure Lindsay would love to be able to have her own bathroom and I would love to have a functioning guest bathroom instead of a dog room. Once the bathrooms get cleaned and my desk is moved, I can move the dog kennel into the laundry room along with both dogs' bowls and water dish. When we bring Brody's fridge over, it will take the place of my fridge in the kitchen and my fridge will get moved into the laundry room to become the "Drink and Storage Fridge" and I don't know where we'll put the dog kennel.

So basically, I have a million projects and most of them require another project being done before I can get to the one I really want to work on. So I'm just trying to keep my head about water and get all the regular things done as well as everything else that gets thrown at me on a daily basis, on top of all the projects I have to do. Thankfully, my hubby got working on his "Honey-Do" list this week and I sure am grateful he is such a handy man. He put a light in the living room, backed up the computer and yesterday he tried to put the new curtains up over the sliding glass door. That has been put on hold until we find curtains that are long enough - the ones we bought are too short.

Since Brody thinks this is more of a Dog Blog (maybe I should start one just for them...), I have to mention my two adorable and energetic kids. I substituted on Wednesday and Thursday of this week and got wonderful "Why did you leave us for so long, Mom?" greetings upon my return. Emmitt usually isn't so needy, but I think he's been spoiled having me home during the day whilst Dad is working and he demanded my attention for quite a while. Bostyn is her usual psychotic self; the giddyness of seeing me again just lasted a little longer than normal.

They are getting better at listening and doing what they are supposed to do. Today Emmitt had an appointment at the groomers so we went for a fun ride in the car to drop him off. They were so excited to go for a ride in the car. They love to put their heads out the window and feel the air go up their noses. Haha. Bostyn wasn't happy about being at PetSmart cuz she didn't want to stay and it was Emmitt's first time at that location so he was a little hesitant. But he went in all right and Bostyn then proceeded to get upset that her friend was leaving and she couldn't go with him. As soon as we got home, she searched the house for Emmitt and when she didn't see him, she decided to just be lazy for a while and went to lay down.

My latest goal is to teach them to hold things in their mouth when we want them to. That way they will learn to bring us things and, ultimately, maybe throw things away for us when we don't want to get up. This might take years. Haha. Emmitt doesn't like holding things in his mouth upon command and Bostyn is a little slow when it comes to learning something new. They are both stubborn, just like their parents.

I have now spent entirely too much time updating the blog, but it needed to be done. I only have a few hours to work on the tornado before my hubby comes home to give me his weekly paycheck. I just love him for that. And I'm pretty sure he just loves me for taking it and getting all his bills paid so he doesn't have to. That's just how we roll when it comes to money.

Sister...

So... I talked to my sister. My day is complete.

The end