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.