Christmas Pictures!

We finally got our Christmas pictures off the camera, but the sad thing is I didn't charge the battery before my family's party on Christmas Eve, so I only have pictures from Jarom's family party and Christmas day. I hope my siblings took lots of pictures and will share them with me! At least we got lots of video from that party.

We had a wonderful Christmas season, even though I really had to take things easy and rest often. On the Sunday before Christmas, we had a wonderful dinner party at Jarom's parents' house where we exchanged our Secret Santa gifts and sang carols. That's when Jenny and Matthew announced their pregnancy, much to everyone's surprise and joy! Then on Monday, Christmas Eve, we went to my sister Michele's house for my family's dinner party. Although it was snowing and cold, we all arrived safely and had a very nice evening exchanging presents, acting out the nativity, singing carols, and visiting.

On Christmas morning, Isaac got us up at 8am and we all went downstairs to open our presents. He was so funny about opening presents because he would open one, then stop and want to play with that toy and do nothing else. We kept having to convince him to keep opening presents, and he reluctantly did, but not without keeping a stockpile of new toys by his side incase the new toy wasn't as exciting. That afternoon, Jarom's parents stopped by our house and brought us some more presents and had lunch with us.

I think Isaac especially had a wonderful time this Christmas season as he learned a few Christmas songs, woke up every morning to his "Good Morning Chocolate" (advent calender), opening presents, and telling everyone "Merry Christmas!"

Another ultrasound

We had another ultrasound this afternoon to see how things are coming along, and the miracles just don't cease to come! Amazingly, there hasn't been any change in my cervix, although I'm still having contractions, even with the nifedipine. While the lab tech was doing the ultrasound, she asked if I could feel a contraction. I said no, but she said that I was having one. With Isaac I would often have contractions that I wasn't feeling, so I guess that's another thing to worry about with this one. While I'm having fewer contractions, I still have about one a day more, more if I push things too much, (like over Chistmas!). I'll go back again on January 4th for another check, and hope that things continue going well for us. With Isaac, by 21 weeks, I only had about 1cm of cervix left and was in pretty bad shape. I'm just amazed at how well things are progressing with this pregnancy.

And I hope it's safe to spill the beans, but I've found out in the last week or so of a number of dear friends who are expecting babies right along with me! My dear friend Andrea is pregnant and due in mid July (she told us when she came over to dinner last week, but I promised I wouldn't say anything until she had a chance to tell her family at Christmas). My sister in law Jenny announced at Christmas that she is pregnant and due at the first of July. (More grandbabies for Cindi and Selby, whew!) My next-door neighbor Jenny is also due around the same time as my sister in law Jenny. I found out this morning my good friend and partner in SHARE Judy is expecting, and I'm guessing is due late July/early August. My friend and neighbor (for at least a few more days) Charlotte is newly pregnant and due about the same time as Judy. More babies coming that will be here sooner than mine that I've known about for a while is Val, who I worked with at TAB back in the day, she is due about 2 months before me, so is Natalie, my friend from our old Draper ward and old running buddy. Then Mandy is adopting a baby girl who is coming in mid-February. It's a good time to have babies!

As for my stroller dilemma, I think I'm most leaning towards the Sit-n-Stand stroller. Now I just need to find a good deal somewhere. Ah, the hunt begins.

And yes, I will get my Christmas pictures posted one of these days. My trip up to the U for my ultrasound took up most of my day today and I didn't get hardly anything done.

Double strollers?

I know I should be blogging about our wonderful Christmas, but I need to pull the pictures off my camera first, so I'll try to do that in the next day or two. Until then, here is my dilemma - I want to get a double stroller with this next kiddo on the way, but I'm not sure what kind to get! I've been looking at the sit-n-stand kind, the traditional ones, ones with stadium sitting, side-by-side, you name it. I've done some reading online of reviews and for all the pros are almost as many cons and it's very overwhelming. So, my friends with experience, what things should I look for? If you have one, what do you like about it, what do you wish was different? I still have a few more months before I really need to worry about getting one, but I want to start looking now, especially if there are any year-end sales I can maybe take advantage of. Thanks!

Thank goodness for good friends

My dear sweet friends Mandy and Andrea and their families came over last night for a fun Christmas dinner party. Every year around Christmas we try to get together and have a nice dinner and exchange presents. Since I'm not getting out and about much these days, they came over to my house and brought the food with them so I didn't need to worry about doing too much. Mandy even brought paper plates so I wouldn't need to do dishes, thanks Mandy!
Andrea's little girl Elayna is a few weeks older than Isaac and they played so cute together last night! Elayna is a little mommy and followed Isaac around telling him what to do. They started out sitting at the small table to eat, although neither really ate too much. At least they enjoyed throwing all the toys from upstairs down the stairs and running around.
Here is Andrea, her hubby Brian, and Paul (Mandy's hubby) sitting at the table waiting for dinner. Thanks for not getting too close, Paul...Mandy is adopting a brand new little baby that is due February 18th, so Andrea and I wanted to make sure that she had enough essentials to go pick up her little girl in Alaska. We are so excited for you Mandy! Try to get some rest now before your baby comes!

I've known Mandy and Andrea since we were kids growing up in Bountiful and we've stayed such good friends throughout the years. Having good friends like them is truly one of the greatest gifts I have. Love you guys!!!!

Pregnancy update

We had a good visit at the doctor today. I've been having a fair number of contractions this week and have been anticipating some bad news today, because with past experiences, contractions usually mean bad news. But amazingly, my cervix is still 4cm long, just where it was at the start of everything, so that's great! But with the contractions, I'm starting to take Nifedipine to slow them down and I need to try to rest more and drink more fluids. The combination of more rest with the drugs should keep things a little quieter.

I'm just about 20 weeks along, and I wouldn't have imagined making it this far without any real problems yet, so I feel so grateful for our continued progress and good outlook. We may make it into the 30's weeks after all! By this time with Isaac I was already on bedrest for a few weeks and had already had significant cervical shortening, so for what ever reason, we are already doing better than we did with him. I know that we still have a long ways to go, but I feel very optimistic that things are going to keep going well.

Scrapbook pages done!

Yes, I know it's late, but I just finished my scrapbook pages and I had to post them up to share. Every year for Christmas, my family makes a few pages describing what we've done throughout the year, make copies for everyone, and shares them. We started back in 2003 and have just about filled a binder. Isaac loves looking through the album and seeing pictures of his cousins! (if you click on a page, it will bring up a bigger image so you can actually read the text.)

Food Storage on $5 a week

I hope Brea doesn't mind, but I found this on her blog and was so intrigued by it, so I am copying it and putting it here. We really, really need to boost our food storage, and I really like this plan, so starting in January, we are going to put this plan into action. This is a long post, so just scroll to the end.

Food Storage on $5 a week

week 1: 6 lbs. salt
week 2: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
week 3: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 4: 8 cans of tuna
week 5: 6 lbs. macaroni
week 6: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 7: 8 cans of tuna
week 8: 6 lbs. yeast
week 9: 50 lbs. wheat
week 10: 8 cans tomato soup
week 11: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 12: 10 lbs. powdered milk
week 13: 7 boxes macaroni and cheese
week 14: 50 lbs of wheat
week 15: 5 cans cream mushroom soup
week 16: 50 lbs. wheat
week 17: 8 cans of tomato soup
week 18: 20 lbs. of sugar
week 19: 8 cans of tuna
week 20: 6 lbs. shortening
week 21: 50 lbs. wheat
week 22: 5 lbs. honey
week 23: 8 cans of tuna
week 24: 6 lbs. shortening
week 25: 50 lbs. wheat
week 26: 5 lbs. honey
week 27: 10 lbs. powdered milk
week 28: 20 lbs. sugar
week 29: 5 lbs. peanut butter
week 30: 50 lbs. wheat
week 31: 7 boxes of macaroni and cheese
week 32: 10 lbs. powdered milk
week 33: 1 bottle 500 aspirin
week 34: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
week 35: 50 lbs. wheat
week 36: 7 boxes macaroni and cheese
week 37: 6 lbs. salt
week 38: 20 lbs. sugar
week 39: 8 cans tomato soup
week 40: 50 lbs. wheat
week 41: 5 cans cream of chicken soup
week 42: 20 lbs. sugar
week 43: 1 bottle 500 multi-vitamins
week 44: 8 cans tuna
week 45: 50 lbs. wheat
week 46: 6 lbs. macaroni
week 47: 6 lbs. sugar
week 48: 5 cans cream of mushroom soup
week 49: 5 lbs. honey
week 50: 20 lbs. sugar
week 51: 8 cans tomato soup
week 52: 50 lbs. wheat

Some weeks you will have leftover change. Save the change each week in a jar to be used for the weeks you may exceed $5.00 (for example, as when purchasing wheat or milk). You will end up with:

500 pounds of wheat
180 pounds of sugar
40 pounds of powdered milk
12 pounds of salt
10 pounds of honey
5 pounds peanut butter
45 cans of tomato soup
15 cans of cream of mushroom soup
15 cans of cream of chicken soup
24 cans of tuna
21 boxes of macaroni and cheese
500 aspirin
1000 multi-vitamins
6 pounds of yeast
6 pounds of shortening
12 pounds of macaroni

This should be enough to sustain two people for one year. For every two people in your family, add $5.00 more and double or triple the amount of the item you are buying for that week.

Breakfast with Santa

Our ward had its Christmas party this morning, a breakfast with Santa. We got up early and drove in the snow (it's so pretty outside!) and made it safely to the church. We arrived about 15 minutes before Santa, which gave us time to eat and get settled. Isaac was very curious about the man in the red suit, but we explained that it was Santa and he didn't seem to mind. On the tables they had paper for kids to write their letters to Santa, so I helped him write one, and then we stood in line for our turn to see Santa.When it was finally Isaac's turn, he walked right up to Santa, gave him his letter, then sat on his lap. He posed for his picture and just cuddled right in Santa's arm like he was going to sleep! What a far cry from the weeping and wailing last year when he saw Santa! Go figure.


After the breakfast, we ran to the store and got the rest of our Christmas shopping done, yeah!!! Besides a few little goodies for Isaac and Jarom's stockings, I am all done, what a great feeling! I still have a few things to put together and wrap, but for the most part, I don't have to worry about it any more. Yeah!

Then tonight we decided to use up some movie passes I got last Christmas and were going to take Isaac to see the Bee movie, but it was an hour later than the website said, and the theater had a special showing of the Polar Express, so we went to that instead, even though we have it on DVD. It was Isaac's first time to go to a movie theater, and there was only one other family there, so it was like a private showing! Isaac really enjoyed the movie and sat still for most of it, which for him is a big accomplishment. He didn't take a nap this afternoon and he fell asleep right before we entered our neighborhood, so as soon as we got home, we changed his diaper and put his pj's on and let him go to sleep. What a cutie. I think I'm ready for bed too.

I'm tagged...

I guess it's my turn to be tagged (thanks Annakaisa)

1. What is his name? Jarom Selby Hatch
   
2. How long have you been married? Just celebrated 7 years
   
3. How long did you date? About 4 months before my mission, then 6 months after my mission.
   
4. Who eats more? Jarom, unless its pancakes, then I can eat Jarom under the table
   
5. Who said I love you first? Jarom
   
6. Who sings better? I would say Jarom, but he would probably say me
   
7. Who is taller? Jarom, by about 6 inches
   
8. Whose temper is worse? Me, Jarom's so mellow.
   
9. Who does the laundry? Me
   
10. Who does the dishes? Me, although Jarom helps sometimes
    
11. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Jarom, and Isaac when he needs to come to our bed in the middle of the night.
    
12. Who does the cooking? Usually me, unless it involves grilling or lots and lots of meat, then Jarom is the king.
    
13. Who is more stubborn? Me
    
14. Who proposed? Jarom... in the Valley Fair Mall parking lot... unofficially...
    
15. Who is more likely to admit when they are wrong? Not me, I'm never wrong. HA! And Jarom's only wrong when it comes to driving and remembering where we are going.
    
16. Whose parents do you see the most? It used to be Jarom's, but since they moved, we see my parents slightly more often now.
    
17. Who pays the bills? Me, and auto-pay
    
18. Who wears the pants in the family? We both do depending on the situation,
    
19. Why do you love your husband? Because he is handsome, kind, and makes sure my computer is always running, even if it requires him to get up early in the morning so that I can work. He's a good daddy and he wants me to be happy.

So I suppose I need to tag others too, so I am tagging, Mindi, Laura, Charlotte, Melissa, and Brooke. You're it!

Snow Day!

We woke up Saturday morning to a big snow storm! Isaac had so much fun playing in the snow! (and yes, those are pumpkins still on the porch... hint, hint, Jarom!)As soon as Jarom walked outside, Isaac pegged him in the gut with a snowball, very funny!

It's a girl!

After my cerclage, the doctor did a quick look at the baby with the ultrasound they have on the unit, and at that time, the doctor said that it looked like we were having a boy! She also said that it was still a little early to tell and both genders look quite similar, but that was her guess.

So for the last month, we've been thinking about boy names, making boy plans, all kinds of things thinking we were going to have a boy, then when they took a look today, Baby turned out to be a girl! Jarom and I were both pretty surprised and excited by the change in events!

We had a really good visit today. So far things look really good. Baby is growing right on schedule, her organs and body parts all look good. My cervix is amazingly still holding together well, so for at least two more weeks I will not likely need to be down on bedrest. We're in better shape than we were at this time with Isaac's pregnancy, so that is very encouraging.

There's our good news for today, thanks everyone for voting! It looks like the majority of all y'all were right! :)

Seeing the Lights!

The weather was pretty decent this morning and early afternoon, then while Isaac was napping, the rain started falling. And falling. By dinner time, I was worried that we wouldn't be able to take a trip downtown to see the lights, but I looked out my window to the north and it didn't seem like the weather was too bad, so we dug out our warmest winter clothes and went to see the Lights! As it turned out, it wasn't all that cold and the rain stayed away the entire time we were gone, yeah!

I didn't want to worry about finding parking and having to do more walking than necessary, we hopped on TRAX to go downtown. Isaac loved looking out the window and seeing everything pass by! By the time we got to our stop, I think he was ready to get off the train, but over all, the ride was very pleasant.

We went with our friends Les and Mindi andd their little boy Kaleb. The little boys liked seeing all the pictures of Jesus and we all appreciated getting warm inside the visitors center. It's always cute seeing all the sister missionaries walking around. A cute sister from Africa showed a cool little video about a 90 year old blind woman who made thousands of quilts (while blind!) to donate to the humanitarian center. Wow!

Isaac loved being able to walk right up to the temple doors. He marched up the stairs and started knocking! He and Kaleb had fun posing for portraits. Isaac gets so excited when he sees pictures of temples and he loves seeing them from the car, but I think it was really neat for him to be able to actually walk up and touch the temple and feel the smooth walls. He talked about seeing the temple the whole night!

I think Isaac's favorite part about seeing the lights this year was seeing the water fountains and the reflection pool. He loved seeing the lights floating in the water and wanted so badly to play in the water. I kept having to remind him that the water is coooooold!

Pedi Day!

This morning, Michele and I treated Mom to a manicure & pedicure (and got pedicures ourselves, of course!) at the nail salon at Walmart. We're celebrating Mom's birthday a couple weeks early while I can still get out a little bit, and even the snow couldn't deter our morning of beautiful feet!
Don't our feet look sexy??? Mine are the red ones on the left, while Mom and Michele chose more tame colors. At least Michele is finally putting color on her toes! Last time it took begging and pleading to get her to put any color on at all! She'll have bright red toe nails too before she knows it. :)

We have a climber.....

Yesterday afternoon, we put Isaac in his room to take his nap, and being exhausted myself, I also laid down to take a nap. Well, he didn't sound like he was going to go down easy, but we left him in there anyway (locked in his room with the baby gate) and hoped that sleep would overtake him.

About 45 minutes later, I had dozed off, but Jarom came upstairs to see how things were going, and a beeping noise startled me out of sleep and we realized that somehow, Isaac had turned his monitor off. Jarom went in there to see how he got to it this time and this is how he found Isaac.

How on earth he climbed up to the top of his dresser, we will never know, but needless to say, we went over to IKEA last night to find him a shorter dresser that will be a lot less tempting to climb!!! And we will be securing it to the wall this time too. Yikes! We would be getting him a new dresser soon anyway so that we can use this one for the baby, but this little episode just hurried things along a little faster.

No Gender Today

We just got back from my doctors appointment, hoping for an ultrasound to take a peak at Baby's gender, but they didn't need to do one like I had wished. My next visit will be at 18 weeks and then they will do the big ultrasound with all the measurements, so we'll hopefully find out then for sure what Baby is. We kind of have an idea since after my cerclage they did a quick ultrasound and the doctor thought that she could tell, but at that size, it can be hard to detect either way. So stay tuned and we'll make our announcement soon!

And even though we didn't get to see Baby today, it had a good, strong heart beat and is moving like crazy, so that's good. My belly seemed to have popped out this week so I'm feeling more pregnant than ever! :)

Halloween

Isaac had a GREAT time with Halloween this year and he very, very quickly caught on that if he said "trick or treat," people would hand him candy! Amazing! He would go up to the doors, knock or ring the door bell, then stand back a step or two, hold up his "pumpkin purse," and say his line. And he didn't get too greedy about taking more than a piece or two at each house (for the most part!).

This picture is him right before we went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. He's showing off his little glow stick.


This picture is at the ward Trunk or Treat standing by his best friend Kaleb the dragon. I think he was tempted to go around the circle of cars a few times, but once had to suffice.










After the trunk or treat, he begged for a piece of candy. And since he didn't take a nap earlier that day, by the time we got home, he was exhausted! He couldn't even make it through a whole sucker!
(notice the drool dripping onto his shirt, yuck!)









As if the opportunities to get more candy weren't sufficient, Isaac also went trick-or-treating at Jarom's work. He's standing next to his cute friend Emma. It took a few tries to get a picture of both of them looking at the camera! They look thrilled though, don't they?

The first entry

I suppose that it's about time to start our own Blog since it seems like everyone else is doing it, and goodness knows, we don't want to be left behind! :) So here we go, embarking on another exciting chapter in our family history, so we might as well document the highs and lows!

As of today, I am 15 1/2 weeks along in my pregnancy and it seems like things are continuing to do well. I had a cerclage placed a week ago Monday (not the funnest experience), and I'm still feeling pretty sore, but most days I'm able to get around well enough. My next doctors appointment is on Monday and we should have a better idea of Baby is a boy or girl! We have a little bit of an idea since they did a quick ultrasound after the cerclage and thought they could tell, but it was still pretty early. We'll make the big announcement (assuming we are able to get more confirmation) on Thanksgiving.

Isaac is still the best little boy a momma could ever ask for. The other night, though, he started having a really barking cough, so we took him to the doctor in the morning and found out he has croup! He seems to do ok during the day and sleeps well enough at night, so I know that it could be a lot worse, but he doesn't seem to have it too bad. Still, whenever he starts coughing, my heart just breaks to see his little body going through that. He's wearing his Thomas pj's this morning and things that Thomas is great! He says "Hello, Thomas!" just like the narrator on the show. He knows all the engines by name (I know their names but can't tell them apart!) and is fascinated any time he sees a train out his window. He loves everything that moves, especially trucks too! He loves to point out semi-trucks, semi-trailers, garbage trucks, cleaning trucks, money trucks (armored vehicles), delivery trucks, you name it! He only needs to see a type of truck once and he remembers what it's for.

I'll have to spend more time later talking my little boy, he really is the center of my world and I don't know if I could be any more crazy about him. One more quick thing, though. Isaac was still saying "Happy Weeeeen!" since he thought Halloween was the greatest holiday EVER, so we've been working on saying "Happy Thanks (pause) Giving!" and he enjoys saying that too! He gets very excited seeing Christmas lights that are already up, so I think he's going to really enjoy the upcoming holiday celebrations now that he understands things a little bit better than last year.