Ticking Time Bomb

Has anyone noticed that little pregnancy timer in the corner of the blog? How it has a "1" in front?? Well I sure have. A lady in my ward was sympathizing with me the other day and said that you're really pregnant for 8 months and 1 year. SO TRUE! This last month has really been dragging. I no longer have that major nesting instinct and find myself wanting to do nothing but lay on the couch. I think this is making me more impatient. Here's to hoping that these are the last belly shots you will see. Richie wanted to take them on Sunday and I obliged since I actually felt decent. However, this Sunday was the beginning of the worst swelling I've had thus far in the pregnancy and you can tell if you check out those cankles in one of the pictures. However, I'm trying to count my blessings. I was significantly more swollen with Miles starting at 2 months or more before I delivered, so I guess I should be glad it's not worse at this point. Some other positives of being pregnant:
*My belly button is SO easy to clean!
*I hardly ever have to shave my legs. I swear scientists should study me when I'm pregnant because I have almost no hair growth the entire 9 months. I think I may have shaved my legs 5 times since I got pregnant, which is great considering they are hard to get to these days.
* I get to rock both of my babies at the same time relatively easily still. I love snuggling with Miles and feeling Gwen move at the same time.

ok...that's all I got. Besides those things...I'm done. I had an appointment yesterday and found I tested positive for group B strep, or whatever that virus is called, so I'll have to be on special antibiotics when I go into labor. I was also dilated to a 2, but she said that doesn't really mean anything at this point. Dang it!


As for the housing update...I should probably just keep my mouth shut until something is final, because plans keep changing on a daily basis. The house next to Porter Park is now our second choice because we found an apartment that's in the ward and is super cheap, but would work great for us...That's all I'm going to say because it will probably be something different tomorrow.

Can't get ahead...

We try to be nice and pay back people we owe from favors and things, and just when we think we've caught up and we're even with everyone, someone has to go and do something incredibly nice for us! It seems it's usually that way, and we'll always be indebted to those around us for their kindness.
This weekend some friends of mine threw me a "sprinkle" for upcoming baby Gwen! We didn't want a full on shower, so they just sprinkled me with a party. :) It was fun to get together with ladies in the ward and socialize. We had great food, a fun little game or two, and once again, everyone was far too generous to us with gifts and things. Here's a picture of the delicious spread. I should have taken more pictures, but it's a struggle these days for some reason!



Something new I've been trying with Miles is "school". He seems to be soaking in everything and learning quickly these days which is so fun. He was acting really interested in letters, so I thought I should probably try and foster that. I don't feel the need to get him 'ahead' or push him, but I thought it would be fun for him and make me feel like if I didn't get anything else productive done during the day, at least we did 'school'. There's a link on the side called "Brightly Beaming Resources" and it's curriculum a lady has compiled over the years for all ages. Pretty cool, yes!? So Miles and I are working on the preparatory curriculum to the "Letter of the Week" program. This week we learned about cows, A, 1, and squares. Pretty exciting stuff! This next week we learn about jungles, B, 2, and green. To be honest, I don't think any of it really sunk in...:) But I think he had fun and it is good time together.




In other news, we are no longer staying in the ward. We are disappointed, but simply couldn't afford what the apartment turned out to cost. We have however found a sweet deal in Rexburg to live in a house (converted into 2 apartments, we would have the top floor) that's right across the street from Porter Park! So that's looking good.

The Bad, Good and....Big

First thing's first...

"The Bad"
We are getting kicked out. Bummer. We've gotten so "spoiled" living in our apartment. Not like we haven't had to work for our keep, but I'd say the good definitely outweighed the bad. Now we're going to have to go back to doing things normal people do, like pay rent and utilities. Ugh. And no free Dish? Maaaan! I think it's going to be really hard to leave this apartment. We've been here for almost 2 years (longest place we've lived somewhere) and we've become quite attached to all the quirks and wonderful things about this apartment. I'll try not to get all sentimental on ya'll, but suffice it to say, it's been incredibly fantastic to live here and it's going to be more than difficult to leave.

"The Good"
The silver lining around that big, black cloud is that we are going to be ok! :) There is an apartment in the ward opening up sometime toward the end of April. The owners here have agreed to make it work so that we can keep living here until then. This new apartment is owned by great people in the ward and there will be access to a lawn! Wahoo!! I won't have to stick a sign on the door if I need to run a quick errand or deal with people complaining about their doors being frozen shut. (We live in Idaho people.) This new apartment is also just down the road from us and isn't in a wall-to-wall complex, thank goodness. We're SO glad we get to stay in the ward!! We're also just glad to have a plan and to not be up in the air about this whole thing. We feel very lucky that we get to stay in till the end of April so that our moms can come to help with Gwen and have a little space to themselves and that we won't be moving when I'm great with child. We've also negotiated that we get a free storage unit here at least until December because we figured any apartment we move into now will be smaller than what we've been used to. Even with my crazy nesting that is causing me to get rid of things left and right, I'm still amazed at how much stuff we have. Which brings me to...

"The Big"
That would be me. I can't sleep; one of the reasons being little miss Gwen is having what seems to be an awesome party inside my tummy. My back isn't hurting as much and I'm not as sore these days so the nesting is coming back again, just at a slower pace. I'm almost sick of being pregnant enough to want her to come out. Not quite. Give it a week or two and I'm sure I'll be DONE. I don't know if this is normal, but the thing I'm most nervous about is Miles. How will he handle a new sibling and a new house in such a short space of time? Eeek! I'm starting to ramble. The pregnancy is still going well, I've been having cravings again, (this weekend it was whoppers and OJ) and I hate doing the dishes with such a protrusion out front.

Guess that's it. Time to try and sleep again.

Big Reveal??

I was all excited to do a "big reveal" of the kid's room once I got around to doing everything I was planning on. Curtains, painting, shelves etc... And then I had a conversation with the owner the other day that went something like this:

Owner: "It's not a for sure thing, but we may have an offer on someone who wants to buy this place and if the offer goes through, they would want to bring in their own managers."

Me: "Oh! That stinks, when would that all happen?" (In my head I'm thinking probably in about a year, since that would coincide perfectly with all the plans Richie and I have wishfully made)

Owner: "Probably about the end of March. I didn't want to just give you 30 days notice or anything, so I thought I'd let you know now."

Me: *stunned silence, with plastered smile on my face. My thoughts however are going a million mph, and I'm thinking... Oh how nice of you to give us 40 days notice instead of 30, you're a peach. I'm also thinking, you've got to be kidding me??? End of March? That's probably the worst timing on the face of the planet considering that's about the exact time little bundle of joy is coming.

Me: "Oh ok, that's really bad timing. Do we know if this is going to happen for sure?

Owner: "Yeah I know the timing isn't ideal, isn't that when your baby is due? Well, let me know if we can do anything for you guys! I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything." And he leaves.

Me: Immediately call Richie, tell him what's going on. I think the only thing either of us said on the phone were things like, "well....ok then." and "Hmmmmmm."

I guess we just needed a reminder that we're not totally in charge here. :) We can make all the plans we want, but ultimately....

SO, we'll keep you posted. But until we hear anything, any more plans for doing fun things in the kid's room is on hold. However, I did finish the new quilt for Miles's bed, and I must say, it's fabulous. It turned out exactly like I had pictured in my mind. And it makes the room so much more bright and cheery. Not too girly or boyish, perfect for a shared room. At least that's what I think. :)



So here's the "big reveal" for now. The furniture is moved around etc so this is about half way to where I wanted it to be.

Before:


After: Imagine with cute curtains over the window



Before:

After: Imagine this with cute curtains covering the mess


Before:

After: Imagine with some sort of mural of big graphic above the crib and a mobile



Before:


After: Instead of just the one little picture, there should be a long shelf across this wall with all the previously hung pictures sitting on it and all the old books etc I've collected for the room. Oh and the entire room should be painted a light yellow.

Can you feel the love?

To spare you so many unnecessary details, our weekend went like this:

Friday:

*Richie and Rachel swapped babysitting with some friends so we could go out to dinner and use a gift card to Olive Garden!

*Richie kept rolling his eyes at how expensive it is to buy a plate of noodles. Don't let him fool you, he totally enjoyed the food.

*We laughed when the waitress assumed we didn't want wine because I'm pregnant, and vowed never to take our kids to a restaurant like that. We'd rather be able to enjoy the time out and not chase kiddos or listen to clapping games.

Saturday:

*We cleaned the house because Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday.

*Rach got the heck out of there to go get part one of my amazing Valentine's Day present; a one hour long pedicure at the beauty college here in town. It was fantastic. My feet are still soft and my toenails are all sparkly and cute-ified. She is currently looking forward to getting part 2 of her present, a maternity massage!

*Rach came back to a house full of boys playing Frisbee golf in the house with sour cream lids! :) We watched 3 boys for a friend of ours in the afternoon and Richie ran them, and himself ragged.

*Miles has nap time, Rich and Rach have plan-our-lessons time.

*Miles's friend Lily and her little brother come over to play so that their parents can have a night out too!

*Rach thinks she is so cool and decides to make heart shaped pizzas that the kiddos can decorate for dinner.

*Rach is let down when both kiddos just want to eat the shredded cheese then leave.

*After the extra kiddos leave, Rach goes to the grocery store to pick up some necessities such as milk, juice..and ice cream.

*Rach comes home and a shameful Miles tells her he pooped in the tub. Thinking Richie already took care of it, she gently scolds him and continues on her merry way, until she goes to use the bathroom and finds yucky evidence still in the tub with all the toys.

*Rach scolds Miles more harshly.

*Put Miles down for bed, then Rich and Rach start the real party when we break out the ice cream.

Sunday:

*Miles can't wait for church all week. He insists on wearing a tie many times throughout the week and tells Rach he's going to church.


*Rich and Rach are both surprised when the excited Mr. Miles doesn't even make it to the opening hymn in sacrament meeting before having to go to "THE ROOM" to work on some reverence skills. dun dun dun...

*Fast Forward to the evening when we have to leave our weekly dinner with friends early because Miles has a meltdown. He didn't eat any dinner, so he didn't get any cookies. This is proving to be a very hard lesson for Mr. Miles to learn and mommy and daddy to stick to.

Monday: Actual Valentine's Day

*Rach actually wakes up with Richie before 6 in the morning sometime. Miracle??? Yes, a Valentine's Day Miracle. She even makes him heart shaped french toast. Best wife ever??? Yes, best wife ever.

*Rach and Miles do the normal things in the morning, then we steal Richie's truck to show the vehicle and it's driver some annual Vday lovin. One oil change later...

*Deliver a little homemade present to Richie at work. Rach thinks she should just forget the homemade stuff...Rich doesn't seem to really get it. Next year?? Oil change and a car wash perhaps?

*Lunch time! Heart shaped PB&J! Miles doesn't even acknowledge it.

*Rach finishes up second "homemade present" for Richie. Laminated and bound copies of all the conference ensigns since we got married. Makes french bread for our "fancy dinner".

*We have our fancy dinner. Miles thinks the best part is the candles we lit. Easily pleased.


*Deliver some sugar cookies to the "single ladies" in the ward. Rich and Rach enjoyed the process, Miles however was outraged. How dare we give cookies to someone else, right?

*Ahhh, beloved bedtime. Rich and Rach get some ice cream and watch "Wonder Years".

So there you have it in a nutshell somewhat. :) How was your love weekend?

You're 2 already Miles?

We now have a two year old in our home! Crazy! This year was super fun because he actually understood the concept of a party for him and opening presents etc. We threw a little party for Miles and some of his buddies last Saturday and I'd say it was a hit! I was totally worn out afterward, but that's to be expected right? We actually "partied" all weekend. Here's Miles opening a card from G&G Crosby that is the music kind. It played the Mickey Mouse Hot Dog song and every time he opened it he got this surprised look on his face. We also got some extra spending money from Grandparents so we took him to get ice cream and rent a movie on Friday. Pretty much his dream night.



We had been slowly preparing for the party during the week so by Saturday morning when I was putting a tablecloth on the table, he ran into the kitchen saying "Party! Party!" And once his friends got here he couldn't contain himself. There was lots of running around in circles, jumping, screaming, giggling. It was so fun to watch.
We let the kids loose in the office area which was complete with a "ball pit" (balls and balloons in our tent) a slide (table on it's side) and a car making station. I painted the tops of fruit boxes with chalkboard paint, strung some string through them so the kids could wear them on their shoulders after decorating them with chalk and "drive around". I think that one was a little out of their range, but that's ok.





After some play time, we came in for a light lunch of bean dip with chips, fruit dip with fruit, PB&J, lemonade, and cookies. Everyone was so thoughtful with presents so we opened them and had cake and ice cream and that was it! Would you believe Miles didn't even want to eat his cake and ice cream because he was too busy playing with a new toy? My jaw was on the floor for a while. His Rexburg Grandma gave him a fishing game and it was the hit of the entire party. Nevermind the car mat his mom worked on tirelessly for a month. :) I knew that would happen.







It was a car themed party so each child got a hot wheels car to zoom around with and I made a car cake. I guess for never making one before it kind of looks like a car. ? It was supposed to be red....I ran out of food coloring, so Richie lovingly called it the Mary Kay Chrysler Car. :) Here's some pictures of the car mat that consumed my life the entire month of January. It's complete with all places important in Miles's life right now including: The temple, our "house", our garden, Paul and Lahni's, the DI, Ace Hardware, the Library, the grocery store, the park, the duck pond where we frisbee golf, dixie, G&G Crosby's house, G&G Garner's house, Wasatch mountains, sledding hill and the river we feed the fish at. Whew!

Get your thinking hats on!

Ok, I'm assuming I'm not the only one out there who tires of the winters here because it limits the activities you can do with a toddler. So here's a little list of things we've either done or seen other mom's with toddlers do! Disclaimer: I did not think of ANY of these ideas originally! Most of them I either found in a magazine or can attribute to wonderful friends out there who are also wonderful moms, so thank you for your examples! If you have any more ideas of things to do with little ones indoors, I'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to hear about them!!

*Set up a card table somewhere half up. You can then set a chair they can climb up and use the table as a slide!! It works better if you have a longer card table. We don't, so we mostly used it to slide cars and other things down.



*Paint the Snow! I just posted a little about this, but you just get an old spray bottle, put water and food coloring in it and then let them spray the snow outside! Miles wants to do it inside too, so we just put plain water in a spray bottle and let him spray the floors.

*Play-Doh- A daily activity here

*Blow Bubbles- Also a daily activity

*Paint! You have to feel semi-ambitious for this one because there is always a mess to clean up. :)

*Sometimes we fill up the ice cube trays with water, then Miles helps me drop food coloring into each little capsule. He thinks it's awesome.

*Spread rice or corn meal on a cookie sheet and trace designs. (Can also tend to get very messy)

*Bake! Miles loves to help me "make" things in the kitchen. A favorite was him helping me make sugar cookies. We got to talk about shapes and then colors while we frosted them.

*Helping with chores. Miles really likes this actually. He can help hand me clothes for laundry, put the silverware in the dishwasher, "make" his bed etc.

*Color! He's starting to like this more, so we do a lot of tracing his hand and practicing shapes. Crayons are off limits for a while however since all he does it tear off the paper and break them.

*We love sidewalk chalk, but obviously can't do it outside. Solution? Get an old cardboard box and you can sidewalk chalk on that! It works great.

*We build forts with all the boxes in the office area

*Make a fruit loop necklace! Just did this the other day at a friends house and Miles loved it SO much, we had to do it again that night at home.

*Something that's been fun lately is flashlight tag! (Hide and seek in the dark) We wait till dad gets home for this one. Super fun!

*Play with bubbles in the sink. I'll just put a chair up to the sink, fill it up with water and bubbles and give him all sorts of utensils to play with. This usually keeps him occupied for about 20 minutes

*Singing and Dancing is really fun lately with Miles because he's starting to really "sing along" with his favorite songs.

*We run lots of errands! I can't stand being in the house all day for more than 2 days in a row, so I frequently take him on errands, even if I just make the errands up. For instance, we'll just go to the DI to look at things and he can play with the toys there. Or you can go to a place with a indoor play area to get some wiggles out. We visit Richie at work and he gets to "ride" the forklift. The library is another good one. They do these awesome story times that usually have a craft to go along with the book. We've never made it past the first 2 minutes. Miles can't sit still long enough, but we sure try!

*Let's face it, we watch a bunch of movies too.


OK! I'm all out of ideas. I need some more! Please!

Am I really ready for this??

If it were up to Richie, the day after finding out we were pregnant with Gwen, she would be here. I, on the other hand, am so relieved there are still 8 weeks left. Even though I had to do a 9 point turn in bed last night just to switch sides, even though I had to ask Richie to buckle my shoes the other day... I am glad there's still some time left. I have had so much more anxiety over having baby number 2 than with baby number 1. Normal??? I've decided it's because I have an accurate idea of what's coming. No sleeping, blow outs, can't-get-her-to-stop crying fits etc. Not to mention the part where it kind of hurts to do the whole labor and delivery thing.

Miles has come down with another case of croup already. If you remember correctly, we are a broken record over here apparently and just did this in early December. It is no where near as bad this time, thank goodness, and hopefully it subsides quickly. Until then we're doing lots of bundling up and going outside in the snow to breathe the cool, strike that, freezing air, especially at all hours of the night. I mention this because while it was hard and not ideal to be up at 2, 3, 4, and then finally 7ish, every time he cried "mommy" from his room, I couldn't get there fast enough. I wanted to be by his side immediately and he would hold my hand or stroke my hair while he tried to fall asleep, or we'd bundle up and head outside to get some cool air and he would snuggle right into me. Oh it was wonderful.

So while there may be lots of "scary" things coming my way with the arrival of a new baby, I just have to keep reminding myself how wonderful it will be!! A full time cuddler, those sweet baby sounds and coos, and watching her learn something new every day.

But just so we're clear...I'm still glad there's 8 weeks. :) Our house is so organized. I've cleaned out
*The cupboard above the computer
*The laundry room
*Taken at least 5 boxes of misc stuff to the DI
*Gone through all recipes and recipe books
*Spruced up the blog
*Completely switched up Miles's room. I'd post pictures, but I want to do a "big reveal" once I get some things sewn and painted.
*I've also washed and organized all of the wonderful little girl clothes we have for Gwen about a million times.

I'll be hiring out for a short time if anyone has any organizing they'd like done. This nesting thing is powerful and I guarantee a clean house. I charge a bazillion dollars an hour. Thanks.

Miles learns to...

Wear pointy toed shoes! Obviously he hasn't learned the rules about black and brown. He found these in the house, put them on, and walked around in them for about 20 minutes straight.


Go to school! We were watching the "Going to School" signing time, and in the middle, he found Richie's old backpack, had me help him put it on, then walked to the door and told me bye bye. I'm glad he hasn't grown up that fast yet!


Paint the snow! Want a cheap activity? We had old spray bottles around, so I put some water and food coloring in them and we "painted" the snow. I promise he really liked it, just not in this picture I guess.





He learned that if you're sharing one bowl of popcorn with 3 other boys in a tent during movie night, you have the best chances of getting the most popcorn if you keep the bowl nearest to you, in your arms if need be.


Go sledding....and like it right off the bat! Last week it took some getting used to. This week, he only screamed during the getting all of the snow gear on part. Actually going down the hill was a hit this week!


"If mom and dad give you a paint brush, paint and then take all your clothes off, they must want me to paint your body right?" Fortunately a lot of paint got on these blocks we scrounged up and I think Miles's blocks actually turned out the coolest. He'd mix some colors, dab it on the block and say "Oh cool!"


Good week.

Bring it on 2011

2010 was a somewhat low key year for us. We didn't have any more children, we didn't change jobs, we didn't start or finish a degree at school etc. We enjoyed just settling into our roles and becoming comfortable in this area. From what we can guess, 2011 isn't going to be anything like 2010. We are going to have a new addition in the family and a major job change, hopefully... So already we feel anxious, but we also feel confident because we are armed with our faith and with determination. I thought about doing a recap of this past year for a post. So in preparation, I browsed through all the posts from this last year. I quickly decided not to pursue such a re-cap post. Why do you guys read this thing anyway? I found myself getting thoroughly bored in some stretches and tiring of my writing. So why would you want to re-read everything I already wrote? huh?? You can thank me later for not putting you through that, and now we're on to a fresh start and a fresh post!

We started off the new year properly by going sledding! It took Miles a while to actually enjoy it, but he did eventually, and I enjoyed staying at the top of the hill as the pregnant cheerleader. :) We came home and had tomato soup, toasted cheesers and hot chocolate, which is exactly what we did and ate the first time I met Richie's family during that Christmas break, minus the pregnant part. Good times.



It's also time for another belly shot. Why you ask? Well, some people may see this picture and think, "Woah! She must be due any day now!" C'mon, I know you're thinking it. Plenty of people already say it to my face in some form or another. I'm over it.



Unfortunately, you'd be wrong if that was your first thought. It's time for another belly shot because today I'm officially 30 weeks along! For those of you at home doing the math, that means I only have 10 weeks left! Which means I'm due practically any day now right? Which means...I need to get the house clean and keep it spotless, and sew a bazilion things and freeze some meals and on and on and on. Nesting and I have a love/hate relationship.

The Christmas Post

Hey all! Here's pictures of our Christmas vacation! We got to spend a bunch of time in SG and a few days here and there in Bluffdale with Richie's side and were lucky enough to see most of our family, even if it was just sporadically. (sp?) We're now back home and getting into the swing of things. Real life is good and all, but I'm ready for another vacation I think. Maybe it has something to do with a puking toddler. Didn't get any pictures of New Years, but it was spent in true Crosby fashion staying up late and playing games. Richie went to bed early :) I'm going to try and have the captions line up with the pictures, very high tech stuff here, so hopefully it makes sense.

Here's Miles on Christmas morning. He crept into the room of presents before we lined up, but all he was interested in was the candy bowl. In fact, it was all he was interested in all morning. So much for presents.


Lining up, youngest to oldest. :)


Kids table


Playing "Minute to Win it" on Christmas eve


Favorite picture of the entire trip


Nativity


Candy making with Grandma Crosby. Still craving that fudge....


Mom helped me make a teepee for Miles


Out to dinner!



We miss everyone already. Thank you for such a wonderful trip and a much needed break from reality!