Pay it Forward

This is fun---be sure to leave a comment if you want to play... I won a drawing on my cousin, Sommers' blog, so now it is my turn to "pay it forward"! This is how it works... You simply make a comment to this post in the next week and on Tuesday -- February 5th and I will put your name in a drawing and the three people that I draw out get something fun sent to them from me! Winners will be posted on the 6th. If you win, be prepared to PAY IT FORWARD!*must have a blog to play and be able to pay it forward.I can't wait to see who wins.... Have FUN!!!!!!!!!!

My living room is a giant toy box

It's true, I no longer have a living room. Beck's toys have slowly and surely taken it over. There are toys everywhere, what started out as a small corner with some wicker baskets has turned into the under stairs closet "toy room," and now this gigantic train set that his babysitter gave him that took me an hour and a half to put together! But he sure does love it. You hear that noise the 2 little trains make? Yeah, I get to hear that all day because he has to take them everywhere.

Today there was another school delay, so that means no school for me.... I'm starting to really miss the kids. We have had 3 snow days/delays, Martin Luther King Day, and Beck was sick one day, so I got a sub. I have really only taught my kids 3 times since coming back from Christmas Break! Argh! But I have been into the gym and school a lot subbing for others or doing cheer things, so it's not like I sit at home all day. Although today I am going to try and get a start on painting Paisley's room and then if Stephen makes it home we are going to go sledding at the sand dunes. Fun Fun!

Last night I heard of our Prophet's death and it really hit me by surprise and kind of hard. I shed some tears and then bucked it up, because now he is with his dear wife, whom he loves so dearly. Its just that he's really the only prophet that I remember. I remember praying to bless President Hunter and other's, there have been 4 Prophets since I was born, but President Hinckley has been our Prophet for 12 years! He was also the same age as my Grandpa Beck and I can't imagine him passing on, even though he says he's been waiting to for years. He has been without my Grandma Anne since 1987!

Prophet

We love you President Gordon B. Hinckley and will miss you.

Boring Day

I really have no idea why today was so boring. This morning I was up early and showered and put a load of wash in, breakfast eaten, cleared away, and it was only 8:00. Stephen left for work a little while later and I walked into the laundry room into maybe 1/2 inch of water. Yippe skippee. It was all the way out into the living room and I hadn't noticed until it got there. Bummer deal, so I cleaned up that mess and the rest of the day just drrraaaagggggeeeddddd on way too long. I don't know why I was so bored. I got some scrapbooking done, Beck rediscovered his animal train that he got for Christmas 2 years ago and has not let it leave his side, and we also played his favorite thing of taking all the yard sale stickers off of the sheet and them putting them all over his face, himself, me, and the funiture. Then we went and finally got dressed for the day and took some cookies to some new friends that moved into town, filled my car up with gas because Beck had fallen asleep and dropped off a late baby shower gift. Then something weird happened with my car. I took the keys out of the ignition and the parking lights and such stayed on with the door beeping like i had left a ligh ton or the keys in the car. SO that took me forver to deal with, all the while Beck sleeping in his car seat. It wasn't even anything stupid that I had done or forgotten to do like put it in park. The only way I could get the lights to shut off and then beeping to stop was if I locked the dorrs with the automatic lock thing from the outside. Crazy, so called the dealership and I am really curious as to how much that is going to cost for the sensor thing going out. And as for the washer, Stephen is currently pretending that he is a handy man....

Before church

Now that we have church at 11 am instead of 8:30 I wanted to take some pictures of all of us together. Beck looked so cute in his church clothes and new white shoes and we didn't look so bad ourselves, so I made everyone sit down and take a few shots. And I have been working with my camera and figured out how to set the timer and have it take up to 10 pictures right after one another, so I don't have to keep getting up and down after it takes a picture. I still have a lot to figure out with that thing, but I am happy to say that I am now on page 34 of the manual! Look at my huge belly, Beck can just sit right on it! I had an appointment today and I am 29 weeks. My midwife said that she is going to be gone April 6 (my due date is the 8th) so she wanted me to think about it, whether I wanted her to induce me or not. I was like I have to think about this? Of course I wanted her to induce me! I mean, I want her to deliver me and not some guy I've never met, but more because the sooner that I am not pregnant (at least past 36 weeks) the better! I had Beck at 39 weeks, so Iam planning on that, and that is when she would induce me, so it's good ot know that I don't have to go over. I just told her that I don't want to have Paisley on April Fool's Day or the 2nd because my neice Hanna said that she doesn't want to share her birthday. :) So I'm hoping the 31st or the 3rd. I think I'll shoot for the 3rd, so there no chance of it happening on April Fool's. :)

Beck Painting

It's funny how after you have kids it's like you don't exist anymore except for existing for them. There are like no pictures on my blog of me or Stephen, it's all Beck and info about Paisley. Man, growing up we are all so selfish, well I was. It was like do I have time for this for me? Even when you first get married, it's so hard to understand that it is no longer about YOU anymore, now it's about US and then you have a kid and it's like WHAM! Let me make this perfectly clear, I LOVE IT. It's hard at times and I only have one kid and a bun in the oven, not like seven or something, but the, "mom, mom, mom" that Beck says about 50 times a day is so worth it. When I walk in the door from being gone and Beck runs towards me, arms outstretched, "mmmooooommmm!" It's just great. The only thing that I talk about is Beck and the only thing that others talk about is their kids and it's just so normal now. Well, depending on who's reading this, but dried boogies on your shirt is so normal! Right now Beck is really into watching movies and he LOVES painting! It's hard to watch him make the mess that I know may not come out of his clothes or when he gets marker on his new western shirt or something, but he loves it so much!

I was writing down some of Beck's words the other day and decided to type them up in here, so that I'll remember them down the road. It's frustrating sometimes because his cousin Piper Nelson speaks like full sentences and Beck still resorts to grunting most days. :) Here are some of his words at 23 1/2 :) months that I can remember:

pup, eye, Ween (Lightning McQueen) NO (which he says more than anything) baba (bottle) ju (juice or milk) mama, dada, mom, oovie (movie) ch ch (choo choo or Thomas the train movie) ite (light) iper (Piper) shoe, shhh (he always says when there's a baby or it is dark) baby (he is really into babies, ecspecially his baby Furreal toy panda that he likes to feed it's "baba") bubu (bubbles) car, Go, papa, chee (cheese) earro (cheerios or cereal) poo :) DAD ew (when there's something that looks gross or there's a mess) He says "wea wow" a lot, but I still haven't figured out what it is. He knows what beso and zapatos are, points to body parts in English and Spanish, except that the thinks boca is his lips and mouth he opens up wide, and he growls when he sees a shark or something with teeth.

Today something HUGE happened

Today my little baby was all grown up. I believe that it has been happening for a while, I just hadn't noticed. As the days pass and my belly gets bigger and bigger bringing us closer and closer to baby Paisley's arrival my little baby Beck has grown up right before my eyes. He'll be 2 next month and I can't bring myself to realize that 2 years have gone by since they placed my newborn on the scale in the delivery room and I looked over to see; not chicken legs, like my 2 neices when they were born, but big fat turkey legs. He had so much black hair and was so big! I remember feeling so surprised when the Dr said, "8 lbs, 13 oz." And now my little dark haired baby is blond and is one of the shortest little things with cute stubby legs.

I went to lunch for a friend's birthday and I got Beck out of the car to walk in to the restaurant and I set him on the ground and held his hand as he picked up his little feet and stomped through the snow in the parking lot and it hit me; I don't have to carry him anymore, then it really sunk in, I want to still carry him. I want him to always be my baby. When he gets married someday I am afraid that I am going to be that mother that doesn't want to let go, that drives my daughter-in-law crazy, poor girl. My little boy is no longer a baby and I hope that I cherich each day, each tantrum, each hug and kiss. Oh, man, now I'm getting all sappy and emotional. Anyways Beck, if you are ever reading this some day and we've gotten in a huge fight because you wrecked my car or missed curfew, I'm just glad that you are home, even if my car is a pile of mangled metal or you are late. :) Love you Baby Beck

Pure sugar is good for you

This pregnancy all I eat is sugar cereal or sugar. And, I figure since I'm pregnant that I get to buy the name brand stuff, so notice the Captain Crunch and Fruity Pebbles. I still buy Marshmellow Maties because that is really the one cereal where the bagged cereal is better than the name brand stuff, I know that my friend Bethany would diagree and she aims for the Lucky Charms. I pretty much eat cereal for breakfast lunch and dinner. Our pantry has a whole shelf devoted to just different kinds of cold cereal. It is so good! When pregnant with Beck I would get up in the middle of the night and eat 4 Chocolate Chunk Chips Ahoy cookies with a glass of milk, now I just eat a bowl of cereal before bed, sometimes 2 bowls! My last pregnancy I also gained 55+ pounds, and I don't think that this one is any better considering that I just gained 8 pounds in 4 weeks. Hmmm..... cut back? I don't think so. Other way yummy things right now are Sour Punch Strings, skittles, and Peeps. Yes, the good ol marshmellow Peeps, lucky me they have Christmas tree ones and Easter is just around the corner because my Easter stash of Peeps has diminished and I had to stock up on the Christmas ones after I ate all the Halloween ghost ones. So I guess that it is safe to say that the Peep addiction is not due to the pregnancy.....

On another note, I started a Recreational Cheer Squad ages 5-11 hopefully turn Competitve by next Fall, at AIM Gymnastics. It has been a lot of fun working with the girls and it is growing like crazy. We just had a half time performance last night and a demo at the Fun Meet this afternoon. The girls are so cute and have improved so much! Older girls are getting interested so our High School class starts next week. Hopefully next year I will just be the director of the competitive groups and I will have 3 different coaches to cover the classes for me because I want to be at home.... we'll see how it goes because I still plan on teaching the Preschool 3/4's Spanish next year.

Seven months pregnant...

Here I am 28 weeks along and looking more and more like a whale everyday. It's funny, right after I took these pictures I bent over and ripped my shirt! haha! I really like this shirt, so luckily I was able to sew it back together at the seam. I really like that first picture, but the color on it is off for some reason. Beck is so cute because he says that he's the baby when he points to pictures of himself. This pregnancy has been a lot different than Beck's. I don't remember being as tired and sick with Beck, but Stephen tries to remind me that I was sick for like the whole 9 months with Beck. Also with my first pregnancy I documented almost every day and filled out a pregnancy journal and such, I also had pictures for like very month. With Paisley I have only taken these pictures and the one of me in my snowflake jammies. I still write in my journal and I have this blog, but Paisley's baby book is so empty and Beck's is overflowing. I know that I will love Paisley just as much, and so many people have warned me about not doing as much scrapbook wise for your second child, but I am going to just try and do my best, even, if the girl only gets a box full of pictures one day, at least she has the pictures, right?

BEWARE OF THE FOLLOWING PICTURES.....

they may gross you out......I know that it's rather strange to post pictures of your baby when he is all boogery, but this was a part of our lives for a long time. When Beck was born he had a plugged tear duct and that meant that there were always boogies and tears collecting in his eyes. And when he was sick it got way worse. But at 13 months we did surgery and now it's only bad when he's sick and well, he's sick right now. I thought that they looked extra gross, so I took him to the Dr yesterday, Dr Bond, not his usual Dr, but a very nice fella, anyways it's just a cold, but mixed with 2 eye infections, so he's on eye drops and last night was awful; up all night with coughing and boogies everywhere, so I stayed home from teaching today and now he is a new person! He looks so much better than when I took these pictures yesterday. I think that he secretly likes being sick because as you can see in the pictures he gets a "baba" like his cousin Piper, and he gets to watch movies all day. Because well, as spoiled as he is, he's still by baby and when my baby is sick, he gets whatever he wants.....

A day in the life of...

I saw this on another gal's blog and decided to try it, so let's see what I can remember of what I did today...

1 am- Beck woke up crying, so I went in after going to the bathroom for the 3rd time that night and gave him a sippy, but he had already fallen back to sleep, lucky me

4 am- got up to go to the bathroom again and heard Beck fussin, but again he fell back asleep... Yeah!

6:59 am- woke up one minute before the alarm went off and jumped in the shower, didn't even notice the snow conditions outside. Did hair and make-up. Bad hair day by the way....

7:30 am- eating a bowl of Captain Crunch, that's all I eat now is sugar cereal to help keep me from being nautious, how in the heck do you spell nausious? During breakfast my sister, Kortni called to tell me about the school delay, so that means that I didn't have to teach pre-school this morning which was a great relief because Beck has had a pretty bad cough and runny nose and I didn't want to take him to the sitter. Made about 4 phone calls and found out school was canceled all day.

8 am-Beck finally wakes up and I feed him his yogurt and cheerios and go upstairs to wake up Stephen and put Beck in the bath tub.

9:30 am- While Stephen is shoveling the walks Beck plays in the snow and eats about half of it.

10 am- leave for town, spin a full 360 on a corner turn... stop at Maurices and some Fashion Bug store, I am dying for a new purse! Didn't find anything, head to Rite Aid to pick up a prescription, it's not done yet. Go to the gym and work on lesson plans for a bit, Beck pulls some little girl's hair and makes her cry. Answered the phone about "school cancelation and yes, there are still gym classes after school......" about 47 times.....

Noon- head to sister, Kortni's, after getting lunch at Taco Bell. Beck was excited to see her girls and Kortni and I chatted about gym and school and Christmas... until it was time to head to my Dr. appt. Baby Paisley declared good, need to drink more water and Braxton Hicks won't be so bad, appts moved to every two weeks now, bummer deal. Hit the 28 week mark. Back to Maurices to buy the shirt that Kortni was wearing when I was at her house earlier because it was way cute and I am going to use it as my "losing weight after baby is born" shirt.

2:15 - pick up Beck from Kortni's and help her get out the door to go to the gym to teach a private lesson, visit friend Melanie and her new baby, Reed. Cutest baby on earth right now, next to my twin sister's Baby Jax of course.... Wal-Mart to buy the new purse, they've gotta have something. End up buying a Santa Little People train present for Beck or Paisley next year for Christmas and Beck gets a Lightning McQueen toy phone, even though he already has the Toy Story one. I swear I know the marketing behind sticking those toys in the check out aisle at kid eye level, but it sure sucks for me. To Rite Aid to pick up prescription, call Dr and get Beck an appt at 9:15 for his cough and nose, whish hopefully I make it to because I have to go drink that stuff for the glucose test at 9:00 and then head back in an hour for the test, so hopefully I fit Beck's appt in just right. Crossing my fingers.

5 pm-get dinner of ravioli, sauce, brocolli, and garlic bread ready, Stephen was upstairs on the computer working, it was so hard not to go up and bug him!

6pm- dinner and then dishes and clean up, Beck heads up to the bath tub and I get to get on the computer. He sure loves the bath tub and his fingers get all wrinkly before we can convince him to get out.

7 pm- finishing up post and the rest of the night will go something like this; scripture reading at 8:15, all of us laying in Beck's bed and then I'll read Beck a few stories from his Fairy Tale book that used to be Hanna and Alizah's until he falls asleep. Then I'll hop back on the computer and work on a calendar from Shutterfly and get diaper bag and sippys packed for tomorrow morning and hopefully go to bed by 10 pm and then get up to go to the bathroom right after I got in bed and fall sleep by 11 or so.

So that's me, and a day in the life of. Oh and the fact that I probably went to the bathroom about 12 times today. Man, Paisley sure seems to like sitting on my bladder, do you think that she thinks that it's funny?

New Year's 2008!

Well, we were all asleep to bring in the New Year of 2008. I remember waking up to take one of my many bathroom trips about 1-ish and there were still a few of the nephew teenagers up, but that was about it. We were at the new cabin in Priest Lake, Idaho with Stephen's family from the 28th of December until last night, the 3rd. There was tons of snow and it was just beautiful! A few caught a little flu bug (Beck, Ashton, Bob) and I had something of a head cold and sinus infection mixed with the worst nausia since my 1st trimester, but other than that, it was relaxing and reading the last Harry Potter book, watching movies, playing games and sledding. On Monday the 31st, the wives took a day off and went shopping and to lunch in Spokane. It was fun to just walk around with them and the boys took all the kids sledding. The cabin was a disaster when we got back that night, but other than that and Jocelyn getting a comb stuck in her hair, all survived. Beck loved to play in the cjow, but hated to wear his gloves. All he wanted to do was eat all the snow in sight. He liked riding on the snomobile and kept calling it a car. Sitting in the hot tub and playing with cousins were also among his favorite things to do. We have had a great holiday season and I am sad to be putting my decorations away this week, but it is nice to be home and hopefully get back to some sort of routine, like Beck sleeping in his own bed for instance!

To bring in the New Year I have thankfully unpacked everything and I reorganzied the bathroom last night and I am getting a jump on getting Paisley's room put back together after organzing all her clothes, then I am going to paint it, organize my scrapbook desk (which is in complete chaos by the way) paint her cradle, and paint Beck's room. These are a few goals that I have in mind for the upcoming little bit before I get so big that I can't move around anymore! My sister, Jakobi, did a little "2007" looking back thing, so I am going to see what I can come up with.

2007

2-new callings in church for Stephen and Korbi

0-no new cars this year

0-no times that Beck got the flu, even though Stephen and Korbi did

7-things we did or stuff about us

#1 got prego with baby #2 :)

#2 Stephen built us a fence

#3 had 4 cats, all gone now :(

#4 painted 3 rooms and the stairway

#5 organized and reorganzied the garage at least 4 times

#6 drove to Idaho 5 times

and #7 got TV channels! Even though we are letting them go in February when football is over.... but we'll still have the internet!

So adios 2007 and welcome 2008 for the Ashton Family.... Thanks for reading...