First Half of February

Sick days
Everyone except Richie has taken a turn with a yucky respiratory bug. I'd say Gwen and Miles slid by the easiest, Benson the next, and then Lindy and I tie for the worst cases. Mine has been bad, because it's still here!! I think I'm going on 6 weeks. I've tried everything to get rid of it, and now I'm convinced that it's just a result of the baby gumming up the works. Lindy always gets respiratory viruses really intensely. And of course it turned to croup. She had at least 1 really rough week. Poor girl. Check out the discoloration on her face!



Spa Day
Grandma Garner wanted to do a girl's day where we made all sorts of fun bath bombs, lotions etc, ate yummy food, and have foot massages. The woman giving the "massages" is a foot zoner, which was a first for me. Super interesting stuff! The girls felt very special attending for sure. :)


Ben and Becca's
Mom and Dad were in town to report their mission to the Hinckley side of the family, so we got together at B&B's for dinner one night. So fun having them close! I say it like it's a new thing, but they've been here close to a year now! Izzy made Lindy's entire year by giving her a makeover. She felt so incredibly special!



Valentine's preparations
I wasn't sure how into Valentine's I would be able be this year. I LOVE Valentine's, but I knew I'd have to take it easy. So I didn't do some things I normally do, but I just couldn't pass up making sugar cookies to deliver, and decorating pretty hearts, and working on class valentine's and boxes. Ahhhh! It made me so tired, but I really, really loved it!


Valentine's Day
We don't do anything huge on Valentine's, but I try to make the ordinary things more fun and festive. We had our heart pastries for breakfast, heart shaped PB&J for lunch, and heart shaped pizza for dinner. We did homeschool group at Makenna's that day and exchanged Valentine's and she made some festive snacks! The kids had got to exchange Valentine's with classmates and dance classes earlier in the week. Sadly, Richie had to stay late at work that night for Parent Teacher Conferences, but that's life. He got me the most awesome baby bag/purse and inside was a luxurious robe. :) He wanted a jazz standards book, so I snagged that for him.



Still Pregnant
Yep, still pregnant. At this point, every day is a milestone that I survive. Good thing I have a sweet husband to make me crepes while I take long hot baths, and a bunch of other sweet people checking on me all the time.



Cute Benson
One day I was trying to rest on the couch while the kids had quiet time. Benson refused his nap, and refused quiet time. I was irritated, but then he climbed and sat on the window sill above the couch and was so cute and grown up. He looked so big to me! He got a kick out of me tickling his feet and knees and gave me the best belly laughs. I snagged a picture to remember my sweet, big, Benson, right before life gets crazy with a baby. He has no idea what's about to happen. None of the kids ever have when they've been 2ish and we're getting ready for another baby. I always feel slightly guilty, because they don't understand how fully their world will be rocked. Sigh.

The Rest of January

Everyday school Stuff! Keeping Benson entertained by rolling balls through a tube, Miles building the tallest marble tower he's ever built (which was promptly destroyed by Benson), Lindy matching upper and lower case letters with spoons, Gwen and Lindy getting some play-doh time in, Miles working on the Kiwi Crate. (love those things!)




Lindy at play time at the library. I like to try and go to story time with Lindy and Benson when the older 2 are at their epic days. It makes me feel like I'm doing one of those very typical good mom things, that doesn't actually require a lot of effort from me. :) However, even though Lindy's only 4, she's a very mature 4. For a long time now, she has made it known that she feels too old for most of the activities at story time. This particular day, I had to really convince her to go in because it wasn't even story time, it was play-time, geared towards toddlers. However, she soon took a liking to this hoolahoop and did it the entire time! It was her first time trying one, and usually she has a problem if she doesn't get something right away, but she stuck with it and actually got fairly good! It was a happy moment.:)


Museum Day! Canyon Grove had a family field trip to the Museum of Natural History up in SLC. For a museum trip with 4 small kids, it went pretty darn well. I only had to pull Benson off a dangerous precipice once, and pull him out of the children's demonstrative stream once. So pretty good. We got to meet up with our old homeschool group friends, so that was fun for me to be able to chat with McKenna while we corralled our kids.


Got in a date with my Gwen! Trying to get a date in with each kid before baby gets here. They are super simple cause all I can handle these days are dessert dates, obviously, but it's still time well spent with my kids, right? I took Gwen to Menchie's because I had a coupon. :) It should also be noted that I got a date in with Miles too, but have no picture to prove it because my phone died. We went and deposited some of his savings money at the bank, and then he chose to go to the same dessert restaurant I took Lindy too. :)


It needs to be documented that I have the best husband in the world. Scenes like these are not abnormal around here, but because I'm almost done with this pregnancy, and because I've been battling a sinus infection, Richie has upped his spoiling of me. For the past several Saturdays, he has me sleep in while he make the Saturday waffles, and then makes sure I get into a hot bath for as long as I want while he does all the Saturday chores with the kids. He brings me my breakfast and keeps checking in with me to make sure my water bottle is full and I have everything I need. Can I pick 'em or what???



This could possibly be the last photo of me pregnant, ever!! I'm 38 weeks along, baby can come anytime he likes. Although knowing my history, I should just plan on waiting the rest of my term. We have a new little dresser, all the baby boy clothes pulled out, the car seat cleaned and installed and we're having the carpets cleaned on Friday. I'd say we are about as ready as we're going to get. Anything else we do to prepare is just gravy at this point. At this point it's just mentally getting my head wrapped around the craziness that will be our lives in a short amount of time. I go between complete terror, and a really relaxed "come what may" attitude frequently. The farther along I get, I lean more towards the terror side. In this last trimester I've been more emotional and more uncomfortable, particularly when trying to sleep. That's normal. On a positive note, I think this is the least swollen I have ever been! Of course, I'm still swollen cause it wouldn't be me pregnant without swelling, but relatively speaking, very minor swelling!

Happy Birthday Miles! The Big 1-0!

The Main Man Miles turned 10! I usually feel more mentally invested when it comes time for birthday celebrations, but this year with pregnancy and a sinus infection, we just did the best we could. Miles was also a tad sick with a cough. Sick enough that he felt the need to call me from his 1 day a week school at Canyon Grove, and have me pick him up a whole 15 minutes early. It had been a long day, and for some reason, this didn't really help. So when we got home and Dad unveiled Miles's birthday present (a street hockey set up), instead of enjoying the excitement, I went and crashed on the bed. But everyone else had fun, and after my cat-nap, I felt up for the rest of the night. Miles requested Papa Murphey's pizza, and red, white, and blue cupcakes. After we ate, we picked up his good friend Parker and went to Nickel Mania. Having a friend come really made it feel more like a party, even though I told him no friend party this year. After the kids wore themselves out playing $2 worth of nickel-cade games, and agonizing over how to spend their tickets, we came home to have cupcakes and ice cream. I was worried that he was disappointed about how his birthday turned out. He didn't seem as openly excited about everything. But I think it ended up being a pretty good day, because the next morning when he was getting ready, I found him quietly crying on his bed. When I asked him what was up, he said he was just feeling sad because yesterday had been such a great day and now he has to wait a whole year for his next birthday. :)

This kid is growing and maturing at a crazy fast rate. He is a hard worker and rarely complains about the task ahead. Even when he sometimes wishes he didn't have to do something (usually school), after a moment, he just rolls his sleeves up and gets it done. He is constantly on the look out for how others are feeling and acts accordingly. He's always been my sensitive kid, which is great when it comes to reading people's emotions and being mature enough to set aside his own wants and desires in order to help those around him. But it can also be hard when others don't respond kindly to him when he's having a tough time. He loves goofing around with friends, which usually means playing pokemon, video games, or sports outside. He is such a great big brother. Yes, there is teasing and yes, they have fights, but overall I couldn't ask for a better example or helper for my first child. He is constantly expressing his love to me and others, sometimes sincerely saying "I love you" etc multiple times until I have to get him back on track to wherever he was going.
Love this boy of mine.