Baby Shower

I have awesome friends. I really do. These two lovely ladies got together to throw me a baby shower. It was such a great time. We had a good turn out and all I can say is that this little girl is going to be very well dressed.

Suzanne, Joslyn, and me. These two threw an awesome shower. So glad that I have them.

The shower was thrown in my yoga studio next to the house. It looked amazing. The food was all fantastic as well. So yummy.

Joslyn designed this cake and her sister-in-law made it. So much talent.

Then we got started. Joslyn welcomed everyone and then Suzanne got everyone started on our activity. Instead of shower games we made felt flowers. It was so awesome. It was nice to get a few more fun things to put in this little gals hair as well.

It was wonderful to visit with so many friends and family members. I felt very spoiled, and as you can see we really were showered.

So, growing up my mom used to tell me that I was very expressive. In fact it was sometimes a problem. I wear my emotions right on my face. Which can get me into trouble if I'm annoyed or otherwise in a bad mood. It's something I've been working on. But apparently when opening gifts for little girls I'm not so good at it. I was cracking up as I looked at all the different ridiculous faces I made while opening presents. Check it out:

Funny stuff. It was a really wonderful party. I felt so loved and supported. Now if I could just get this little girl here life would be great. Thanks to everyone who came and showered us with so many wonderful gifts. It was a really great time. And a very big thank you to Joslyn and Suzanne. You guys are the greatest. So glad that I have such wonderful friends.

Gymnastics

There's this awesome gymnastics gym close to our house that opens up for the general public on Fridays. For one hour every Friday we have been going to this gym to run wild. Several of my good friends come and bring their kids as well. It's perfect. Social hour for mom, and a chance for Cormac to do what he loves best: run, jump, climb, and otherwise move his body.

Photographic evidence:

Jumping on one of the many trampolines.

Climbing over the various pads.

Getting up on the balance beam. This is one of Cormac's favorites.

Walking all by himself on the balance beam.

Big jump on to the soft pad at the end of the trampoline.

Jumping down the trampoline.

Mid jump. I love this one. 

Cormac is definitely his father's son. He loves to jump. He jumps all over the house. The other day we were walking into the doctor's office, and Cormac had to pause to jump over every line in the sidewalk. He's a cute one that kid. He jumps from the carpet to the linoleum in our house. And he always enters the house by jumping over the threshold. I think he'll have a proud future in jumping. Especially if he takes after his dad.

Pointless Post

I feel like most of my posts these days are pointless. Not the kind of pointless like they are a waste of time necessarily (although I'm sure that could be argued), but the kind of pointless where there is simply no point. I just post random pictures and thoughts. The end. But to be truthful it's probably a pretty good representation of my life right now. Meandering and random. Just getting through one day at a time.

I saw the doctor yesterday. Baby girl is growing right on track. And apparently very comfy in there. The doctor will be surprised if she shows up before 39 weeks (I'm 37). Drat. I was hoping to be done. I feel like my life is sort of on hold at the moment. I have managed to accomplish basically everything I wanted to before her arrival. So now I just need her to arrive. While we have been waiting we have been doing a lot of movie watching in our pjs.

I'm not proud of it. But that's about all I have some days. Most days. I'm tired and worn out. Poor Cormac misses his mom I think. I do too.

We did manage to get enough snow to finally take Cormac out in the sled that he got for Christmas. I pulled him down the driveway to the hill. The sled then didn't go down the hill on it's own so I had to pull it both down and up the hill. We only did two trips down the hill before I decided it wasn't worth it. We were back in where it was warm within 15 minutes. Maybe next time Ammon can take him.

We have been preparing for baby girl, of course. In the meantime we dug out all the binkies. Cormac rejected his binkie at 7 months and never looked back, until recently. I had to hide them all again because suddenly he thinks he needs one. Strange kid. And the shoes? Well, Target was having a sale on ruby slippers for less than $4. I couldn't resist. I know she won't be able to wear them until she's 3 or 4, but they were so cute. So I brought them home. They are a couple sizes too big for Cormac, but he found them and needed them. He has been wearing them around the house a lot lately. In fact he wore them during his nap one day because I couldn't get them off of him. Crazy kid. I think Ammon has hidden them away. I have tried to raise his son right. I really have.

And in parting, I tried to get a few pictures of Cormac smiling. He really does smile, but not when you bring out a camera. This is the best that I've gotten.

He's talking more and more. That has been fun for us. The other day I was taking a drink and it went down wrong. As I was coughing to get the water out Cormac came in and started patting the back of my leg and asking, "Are you okay?" I about choked again. He's really growing up these last few weeks. I have a feeling that's going to continue when number 2 arrives.

And that my friends is the conclusion of this random and pointless post. I hope you enjoyed your glance into our little life.

Nursery Preview - The Tree

A funny thing happened to me last night. Ammon had a basketball game. I usually go to watch him play. I love to watch him play. But the game was at 8:00pm and since Cormac no longer naps (a constant source of anxiety in my life) I thought it'd be best for him to get to bed. I didn't want to deal with a grumpy Cormac all day today. So while Ammon was gone I started making fabric flowers. Earlier in the day I had completed a mobile for the baby's room. I had also started crocheting another hat after finishing my second afghan since learning to read a pattern.

Ammon came in the house after his game (which they won) and sat watching me a minute. Then he said, "You're crafty." I never thought those words would be used to describe me. Then I started thinking about it. Thanks to various craft blogs that I read and Pinterest I suppose I have become crafty. In fact, I think I've become one of those crafty Mormon mommys. If you'd have asked me 10 years ago I never would have seen myself here, but alas here I am. And I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I'm so very happy and blessed. And yes, maybe a little crafty when I want to be (thanks to the brilliant people who post tutorials all over the web).

So when I started planning the nursery I decided I needed a tree. I wanted to do something like this:

I was especially in love with the second picture. How cool to have pop out flowers on the wall. I loved the feel it gave. So I was lamenting to my neighbor one day about this tree. I didn't have a projector to get the image up on the wall for me to trace. I have no skills to free hand something like that (I guess I'm not so much crafty as resourceful maybe). I had been looking into vinyl trees, but they were expensive. Then she volunteered her husband. I wasn't sure how Brandon would feel about that, but as it turned out he's an artist that doesn't get to use his skill as much as he'd like, and he was rather excited to do it. 

So after the bustle of the holidays we got to work on The Tree. And by "we" I mean Brandon. Eliza would come and visit with me on the couch, the kids ran around wild and made a glorious mess, and Brandon would go straight to work. We did this for a few hours a few days a week. And the results have been amazing. I'm in love (with the tree, although the Elmers are wonderful too).

The first coat up!

And the finished product.

Another view.

And with a few flowers up.

My challenge now is to decide if I want to put up flowers or not. I made these fabric roses to just test it out. Ammon wasn't a fan. He said it was weird because those flowers would never grow on that kind of tree. Fair enough. He also likes the tree as it is. I like the pop of color, but am not sure either. What do you think? Or maybe I should make a different kind of flower. Something more realistic. Apricot blooms or something.

A close up of my favorite of the flowers.

If you'd like to hire my artist let me know. I'll get you his information. I kind of like thinking I have an artist. The tree is perfect. I love the way it looks. Sometimes I go downstairs just to look at it. And the best part is that it is 100% custom and I did nothing to get it there. So awesome. I guess we are nearly ready for this girl to get here. She certainly couldn't have come before the tree was up.

And for your viewing pleasure (no not a picture of Cormac, I'll post some of those soon) a view of the cute mobile I made. I love how it turned out, this picture doesn't do it justice.

Stay tuned for news of the older brother and all his comings and goings. Also, a full look at the beautiful nursery. It has turned out so very cute. You won't want to miss it. Just 3 weeks and 3 days to go!

Christmas Day

Christmas was wonderful! A great feature of having a young clueless child is that we were able to sleep in. Since church was at 9:00 am, we decided to just wait to do the present thing after. Each year my wonderful Aunt Harriet sends us home from the Christmas Eve party with cinnamon rolls ready to go in the oven. They are the kind my grandma used to make. They make me homesick for her. I do miss her a lot. So we started the day off with some delicious cinnamon rolls and a little nostalgia. Then it was off to church. The messages were wonderful. I loved the sweet reminder of why we celebrate the season. How blessed we are to have a Savior.

All dressed up and ready for church. When taking pictures with a timer one should do a few test tries to see how the shadows are working in the background. Oh well, you get the idea.

The glorious scene left behind by Santa.

Uncle D and Aunt Bird (my sister and her hubby) made Cormac an official member of the family by initiating him into the "crab tradition." It's a long story, maybe for another time.

I look a bit beached in most of these pictures. Get over it. This little girl has to fit in there somehow. 

I got a Kindle Fire!

Cormac could model for Little People. At least he could if we could get him to smile for the camera.

Cormac got a baby to practice with before the real deal gets here. Here he is giving her a kiss and a hug (this was before he ripped all her clothes off and left her naked and cold on the ground).

At first our present opening was rather slow going. Cormac wanted to get out everything and play with it a while. We weren't in a hurry, so it was no big deal to take our time. But eventually Cormac realized that all those boxes under the tree were going to be opened. And that all of those boxes had fun things in them. Then it got exciting. He'd go grab a box and really rip at the paper until it was off. Then we'd open the box and he'd pull whatever it was out. If it wasn't a toy he'd throw it on the ground and run for the next present. If it was a toy he'd linger just a few seconds longer before moving on. It was pretty funny. He was in Heaven all day with his ramp. I've never seen him so occupied for so long. It was really a wonderful day.

Christmas Eve

Since Ammon and I have started staying home for the Christmas holiday rather than going to our parent's homes we have spent Christmas Eve out at my Aunt Julie's home. It's always a good group of aunts, uncles, and cousins to enjoy and laugh with. Each year we eat delicious homemade pizza, frappe, shrimp, cheese balls, fudge, and toffee. So yummy.

After a spiritual message we do a white elephant gift exchange (aka the crass potty humor exchange). It's always a riot. Lots of laughs and lots of fun.

Cormac did sit for about 3.5 seconds of the spiritual message.

The rest of the message he tried to get a better look at the camera. It is requisite that he makes faces such as these when doing the closer inspection.

Hunter wanted to give Cormac a loving hug. Cormac wasn't sure what was going on. We need to work on that.

Shea opened the first gift. It was a lovely neck pillow.

Jesse opened the singing Santa hat. The top flipped back and forth. It was rather entertaining.

Then the potty humor began.

There were others, but these were the ones I got pictures of. Lots of entertaining gifts.

I gave away this stylish basket. To make it better I added some toffee to the inside.

Along with my toilet paper and reach extender that I scored I got these pants. I think my weight loss plan is looking pretty good even for being 8 months pregnant.

Ammon joined me in the other pant leg. I think this is a great maternity picture of us.

We had a wonderful time. We really don't spend enough time with our family that lives close. That's my fault. But I'm glad that we are able to join in on this tradition each year. It has been a highlight of our Christmas season.

Thanksgiving

In case you haven't noticed I'm a bit behind these days. Not just with my blogging to be honest. My house cleaning is always a bit behind. Dinner is often behind. The only thing I seem to be keeping up on is sleep. And I only do that through making sure I get a nap in when Cormac does. So, we sleep a lot. Anyway, I have a few pictures from Thanksgiving that I wanted to share.

These first few are from the talent show. Cormac is a great marksman, but he actually showed off his skills at rooting on the Cougars. I didn't take pictures of all of the talents, but let me just say that we have a very talented group of nieces and nephews.

This is the first trip we've taken out to see the family when I felt that Cormac actually enjoyed all the attention he usually gets. The cousins all get along great and love each other. Cormac really loved playing with them. He did a lot of time on his own as well. 

The highlight for Cormac was definitely the buggy rides. Grandpa got out his team Anne and Andy and even let Cormac ride up front. He loved it.

Ammon and I loved the chance to visit and play games with his parents, siblings, and siblings-in-law. It was a wonderful time. Dinner was amazing (as usual). I discovered how uncomfortable overeating can be when you are very pregnant. It about killed me. But as usual, the food was wonderful and plentiful, and the conversation was lively and entertaining.

Ammon's parents were recently called to the Nauvoo, Illinois mission. They will be leaving at the beginning of March. We are certainly going to miss them, but are excited that they will be able to serve.