Play group at the Bean Museum

On Friday for play group, we took the kiddos to the Bean Life Science Museum at BYU. I've been meaning to go there for months but never made it down there until now, and it's a pretty neat place! (And free, which is always great!) Here are some pictures of the gang looking at the cool displays:

Isaac insisted in holding Kaleb's hand while walking into the museum. So cute!
Isaac and the zebra
Isaac, Kaleb, and Lincoln looking at a display of ducks, or prairie dogs, I don't remember, but they were pretty fascinated, for a few seconds anyway.

From left to right: Kaleb (with Lambie), Yazzi, Isaac, Lincoln, Marilyn, Ethan, and Benjamin. It's nothing short of a miracle that we were able to get a picture of them all staying on the step for a few seconds - and that's about all we had because shortly after this, the kids were on the move again.

I thought this was the neatest display because it's made up of hundreds of butterflies that make up this one large display, and you can tell that it's not small. Isaac especially loved the different bug exhibits because he's really into spiders, beetles, bees, worms, ants, and other creepy crawlies right now.After the museum, we met Daddy at work and had lunch with him. It just happened to be "Bring your Son to Work Day," but Isaac was a bit too young for the scheduled festivities to stay the whole day, but it was still fun for Jarom to show off his son a little bit and show us around his new work. In the cafeteria they had snow cones and cotton candy for the kids and Isaac thought that was pretty neat.

An induction? For me?

I had my drs appointment this morning and was a little surprised to find out that I'm still just dilated about 3cm and about 75% effaced, so about the same as last week. I was contracting pretty strongly and regularly last night and even had my parents come down to be with Isaac so Jarom could take me up to the hospital, but as we were driving up to the U, the contractions got more irregular. We drove around a little bit and then came home, and by the time we got home, my contractions had all but stopped. So yet another false alarm. My doctor said that if I don't go into labor on my own this week, then I can come in Sunday night and be induced then, so unless Emilie has other plans, she will likely be born early Monday morning - my little Cinco de Mayo baby. :)

And something else completely unrelated, we went to the new Harmon's tonight that just opened up down the street from us - I LOVE IT!!! It's huge inside and very nice, and layed out about the same as the other one in Draper that I usually go to so I didn't have any problems finding anything. They have some great deals on cereals and meat, so we loaded up on those, and the best part is they are giving you double the discount on gas, so with the groceries we bought for this week, I got a $0.30 off per gallon discount! And let's be honest, with gas as outrageous as it is these days, every little penny helps. I'm so glad that I'll be able to enjoy this new store so close to home, at least for the next few months before we move.

While we were there, they were handing out ice cream cone samples and I let Isaac have one, and it was chocolate ice cream (I know, you are probably already imaging what happened next). He enjoyed that ice cream so much and was being so quiet sitting in his little race car cart, so I just let him enjoy his ice cream and didn't pay too much attention to what was going on. After a little while, I looked in on him and saw that he was covered from HEAD TO TOE in chocolate ice cream. It was all over his shirt, pants, socks, you name it. BIG MESS. But he didn't care, and I was too tired to worry about it, so I just let him be sticky. We did what we could with a few wet wipes, and Randy Harmon was walking around, saw him, and gave him a little apron to wear, but we still had to strip him down as soon as we got home and clean him off. And by we, I should say Jarom because he took care of the messy stuff while I put groceries away and got dinner ready. Thanks, love! I just wish I would have gotten a picture of Isaac covered in his ice cream mess.

We have a contract

This morning we sent off the acceptance papers for the sale of our townhouse, so we are now officially under contract. We're not getting as much money from the sale of our house as we had hoped, and the buyer's agent is also selling our neighbor's home and we think she is pure evil, so the thought of paying her commission is enough to make me want to vomit, but at least the deal is done and now it's a matter of meeting the deadlines until things are official. The lady buying it will use it for a rental property, so she will rent it back to us until the end of August when our new house is done.

While I'm not quite as excited as I had imagined I would be, I am relieved that the selling process is over (knock on wood that something else doesn't happen to make the sale fall through!), and now we can worry about getting the new house under way. We'll go to the design center next week and start picking out things. I got an updated list from the sales office today with the prices of things and a few things have gone up in price in the last few months which is very discouraging, so we probably won't be able to get as many upgrades as we had hoped, but that's ok. Luckily I have a very handy hubby who loves to work on home improvement projects that we can work on along the way.

In other news, I went in to false labor Wednesday night and was getting so excited thinking that I was going to have the baby this week! I was contracting about every 5 minutes and they were increasing in frequency and intensity, but I got checked out by the nurses at the hospital and I was only dilated 3 1/2 cm. They monitored me for a while, then had me walk around for a while, but the contractions were just a bit too irregular and my cervix wasn't changing any more, so they sent me home. They don't like to keep anyone unless they are at least 4 cm dilated. So alas, no baby. But having the trial run was good because I got my bags packed and realized that I was missing a few things and not quite as prepared as I thought I was. So in the following days I was able to get the last few things I needed and finished washing the baby's clothes. I think I am now about as ready as I can be and that's a good feeling. I was really hoping that I would be able to have this baby this weekend, preferably today, but at least right now, I'm not in labor and I doubt that I will go into labor, at least not tonight. We'll see what tomorrow holds, although she could continue to be stubborn and hold on for another week or longer. I was feeling so patient until Wednesday night, and now I am just getting so excited for this baby to get here!

Isaac has had a good last few days with his potty training! He was just about potty trained until his little hospital stay and has been so reluctant to try any more after that, but he had his 3 year check-up on Monday and his doctor gave me a wonderful article about potty training reluctant children and it has made all the difference! He still has the occasional accident, but it's getting better and he is learning to take more responsibility over his potty training.

At his check-up, it was wonderful to hear that he is in the 45% for weight (that's a first!) and 55% for height! For the longest time, he wasn't even on the chart, so it's very exciting to see this kind of improvement in his growth. He was also so cute when he got his vaccine because the nurse gave him the shot so fast and was able to distract him so he felt the little prick but didn't know what happened, but before he knew what was going on, she was putting the band-aid on his owie and he was so grateful! He didn't even cry but kept talking about how he had an owie but Danielle (the nurse) gave him a band-aid and made it all better! He wouldn't take the band-aid off for 3 days until it finally fell off on its own and kept talking about how they made him all better at the doctor's office. :)

Strawberry Shortcake

While shopping at Costco last night, I saw some crates of beautiful, big, luscious strawberries and I started drooling. Then I saw someone carrying a large box of shortcakes, so I quickly sent Jarom back to the dairy case to grab some whipping cream, and home we went. I made some Bisquick shortcakes, cut up some strawberries, and whipped the cream, et voila! C'est magnifique! We had some strawberry shortcakes after dinner last night, then since we had a few more left over, we made some more after lunch today. I don't know if it's just because some foods taste extraordinarily yummy while pregnant, but this was just the tastiest thing I've eaten in a long time. Isaac liked it too, especially all the strawberries! (notice how there were none left?) I think we'll be making these a lot more often now that strawberries are in season.Last weekend when it was so warm, we had a fun time playing at Draper park, and I just had to snap this picture of my boys playing on the swings. I love seeing Isaac and Jarom doing things together and enjoying being together!
I had Jarom snap this pic of me yesterday - my 37 week picture I suppose. As much as I don't particularly enjoy being photographed while huge, it's fun to look back and see how much I/we've grown over these last months. I noticed yesterday morning that the usual rib pain I usually feel was gone and my belly seemed lower than usual, so I think that the baby has dropped. I guess it's all just part of her impending arrival. I do feel a little different and am finding it harder to do much walking, but that's ok. We don't have too much longer until her big arrival! I am just amazed that yet another week has gone by and she is still hanging in there. With my luck, she will be born this week, between Wednesday and Friday, because my doctor is leaving town for a conference, and she has missed my other deliveries, so with my luck, she will be gone for this one too. :) At least I have a wonderful nurse who always makes sure that a great doctor is available to help me out. (Ironically, the same doctor delivered my other babies and just happened to be on call both times... I should ask Michele if she's on the schedule for this week...)
A quick update on the house, still trying to sell. We've had showings every week, so there is still interest out there. I'm fine with things taking longer to sell because it means that we will be here when the baby is born and we can worry about things afterwards. We still drive out to Saratoga Springs every so often and look at our lot. There are quite a few other homes framed and it's exciting to see the neighborhood coming together. Last week we saw another Escalante framed and it was great to walk through it and imagine what our house will look like. Here's the rendering of what our house will look like. Hopefully this will be our house soon!!!

Dental Flush

I am a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I have only flossed Isaac's teeth a few times, because he usually fights me so much when I try that it's not worth the fight. I'm just happy when he brushes his teeth! So tonight before bed, I was letting him watch Signing Time, and it was the episode where they talk about brushing and flossing teeth. Isaac was so intrigued by it on tv, and since it has been a while since I've tried, he wanted to floss his teeth. I was only too thrilled to accommodate his desire, so I told him to lay down and got the floss out. He was such a good boy - he just laid there and let me floss which teeth I could get to easily enough, and when I was done, he took the floss and wanted to do it himself too, which I happily allowed. When he was done, I asked for the floss back so I could throw it away, but he said no because HE wanted to take care of it. He hopped off the bed and headed right into his bathroom. I heard the toilet open, then flush, then close, and he came back into my bedroom with such a proud look on his face. Apparently, the proper way to dispose of dental "flush" is by flushing it down the toilet. I guess the word "flush" is much more a part of his vernacular than "floss," so in his mind, they were the same. No wonder he was hesitant to let me "flush" his teeth before.

More sickness

Not feeling the best last night, I wasn't sleeping very well, but I woke up around 1am and saw the hall bathroom light on and could hear Isaac splashing around in the bath tub. Was I dreaming? And where was Jarom? I called out and it hit me, Isaac must have gotten the same stomach bug as me, poor guy. He threw up all over his bed and jammies. I went in and sat with him in the bathroom while Jarom cleaned up his room and changed his sheets. He seemed to feel better afterwards and with some clean jammies and blankets, went right back to sleep. He woke up feeling pretty chipper this morning and I'm feeling a bit better too, although I'm still a bit timid to eat anything too complicated in case the nausea comes back, but I think whatever it was that we caught is on its way out. I just hope Jarom doesn't catch it too!

37 Week Update

Well, almost 37 weeks.

I had a rather uneventful doctors visit today, which is always nice. I'm dilated 2 cm and about 70% effaced, so things are progressing but not super quickly.

I woke up feeling a bit nauseas this morning (isn't morning sickness over by now?) and tired (but that's usual because getting a good night's sleep at this point is a nearly impossible feat), and I expected those feelings to dissipate as the day went on, but that was not to be the case. In the afternoon I was too tired to work and the nausea kept increasing, so I tried laying down in bed with Isaac while he watched Toy Story, but that didn't help. So then I tried taking a bath (with my little helper, of course. And no, a pregnant mommy and a 3 year old do NOT fit very well in a bath tub), but that didn't help too much either. Jarom came home from work a little early to help me out, but I kept feeling more and more sick. I knew I needed to throw up, but it wasn't coming, so I waited and waited. Finally the first round came and I thought, yeah! I'll finally start feeling better! So I finished off a drink Jarom got me, and within a half hour, the entire contents of my stomach came back up. No more drinking anything for me, other than a few sips of water. And do I feel better like I had hoped? Not really. So I've hardly done any work today and am too exhausted to do much of anything right now, so I think I'm just going to go to bed.

Sorry if this is exceptionally gross. I have some pictures I need to get off my camera that I want to post of Jarom and Isaac playing at the park on Saturday - they were so cute! And maybe tomorrow I'll unload my feelings about the craziness unraveling in Texas with the FLDS families down there, or complain about how ridiculous gas prices are these days, or any other more serious topic other than the contents of my stomach, or lack thereof. Until then, I shall try to get some sleep. Wish me luck. :)