Seth Robert Paul

The newest addition to our extended family on my side is Seth Robert Paul. He was born yesterday evening at 5:05 p.m.  He's Jennette and Steven's 4th baby but only weighs 6lbs 13oz, which means both his big sisters out-weighed him at birth! He looks just like he fits in perfectly with all the strawberry blonde, fair skin, light eyed kids in that family! Seth is a tradition breaker in the family, his name starts with "S" and the 3 older siblings have "E" names. The name Robert is my dad's name. You'll be hearing that one again in about a week  for the same reason :) Jennette is doing well and is happy that he's finally here. Congrats Jennette and Steve, you make beautiful children and we're so happy for you!

Any Day Now...

Just a little update on my pregnancy progress here...last Thursday at my weekly OB appt. I was almost dilated to  2cm  and 60% effaced, which is good! My sister Jennette is in the hospital right now, in labor with her baby Seth and I'm so excited but super jealous!  My other sister Laura gets here tomorrow afternoon with one of her daughters, Lilly, to help us out! I could go into labor any day now, I'm sure it's no surprise that I want it to happen sooner rather than later! I've made more progress as far as cm dilated and percentage effaced than Jennette whose was induced this morning, so I know I'm getting close! Technically, if I don't go into labor naturally this week I could choose to be induced on Friday when I hit my 39 week mark, but I've planned on being at home for General Conference weekend and be able to spend some time with my sister and niece before the baby takes over the house :) Planning on Monday still, unless he decides to come sooner! April 6th, here I come! Just 6 more days!

3 More Weeks!

That's all folks! Just 3 weeks from today I'll be in the hospital, in pain no doubt...having a baby boy! I don't even care about the labor and delivery part at this point, just want to get it over with so pregnancy can be a memory :) I went to my weekly doctor appointment last Thursday and was checked to see if I'm making progress (dilated, effaced...) she said I was thinning out but not really even at 1cm dilated "essentially closed" is the phrase she used (you have to get to 10cm for delivery). I was hoping for a little better progress, but I do still have a few weeks to improve! I know these next weeks will fly by, I have so much to do not even baby related to keep my mind occupied. Ryan will be having corrective eye surgery sometime between the 19th and 30th, my sister Laura will be coming to help on the 31st, and I was just called as the "Enrichment Night Leader" in my ward and the biggest activity of the year is in two weeks...that isn't planned and I don't have a committee!  As much as I want this little karate kid out of me, he has to wait until Laura gets here, Enrichment Night is done, and Ryan is healed and can actually see him! Just hoping the stress of everything doesn't PUT me into labor!!! 21 days and counting down!

Friday the 13th!

(Skylee before the busy day happened)

Friday we had an interesting day! I'm not a superstitious person, but it's a strange coincidence what a bummer the day was.  Ryan was gone for a few days in Virginia at a military basketball tournament that his unit entered.  They planned on being there until Saturday, but when they lost their first two games, they came back home on Thursday!  He didn't have to work on Friday anyways, so we decided to get a few things done. I had a doctors appointment Thursday while Ryan was gone and they suggested that I pre-register at the hospital for when I go into labor in a few weeks. Ryan came home with an ugly pinky finger that really hurt him, so we thought we'd just go to the ER to get it checked out.  They took an x-ray and found it wasn't broken, just a good sprain. 

                   

(Ryan in the ER waiting for the x-ray results)

While we were there he figured he would get his ingrown toenails taken care of. He's had the procedure done before, but claims it was the worst pain he'd ever been in, but really needed it done again.  It wasn't so bad this time around, and hopefully they won't return! 

(Ryan's nasty toes, after the numbing shots...looks like his toes are going to explode!)

After he was all done we went upstairs to get me registered and now I'm ready to go! We had to make a trip to the store for a few items and ended up locking the keys in the car! I HATE THAT! Ryan's spare key was at home, so we had to call a few people to catch a ride back there to get the keys, bring them back, and be on our merry way.  That would have been great and all, but it didn't happen like that.  Ryan left us at the store when he got a ride to the house, couldn't find the keys, came back, and the missionaries got the door open. This all took 2 hours!  Luckily Skylee was in a really good mood, even without a nap, so we just sang songs and ate snacks to pass the time.  Ryan's keys ended up being left at the hotel he stayed at in Virginia!  The rest of the evening ended up being a nice one, we went over to a BBQ with all our Coast Guard friends there and had a great time catching up and visiting!  

(Skylee with her "babies" watching Aladdin on my bed, wearing my shirt, looking like a mess...totally in the zone!)

This week Skylee changed the way she says certain things that I loved! I miss her saying "Amen" instead of "The End" at the end of books. She's always done that, and just this week she's over it! I'm so sad! Also, she said "Moomie" instead of "Movie"...corrected that too. "Sleeping Bleauty" is now "Sleeping Beauty". I don't know why she decided to start saying things they way they should be pronounced, but I'm already missing those little quirks in her language. Of course she still has words like "cha-loc-it" for "chocolate" that I love, but the toddler language will slowly disapear sooner or later and that does make me kinda sad. I have to say that I do enjoy seeing her grow, she loves doing the hand motions for songs like "I'm A Little Teapot", "Popcorn Popping", "Do As I'm Doing", "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and any other movement song. It's so fun to have little conversations about what she did that day or having her tell me what she did in her nursery class at church. I've enjoyed every stage so far, she is only 2 years old, but I've learned that little ones will only do things for short periods of time and then they're gone, but only to be replaced by something else just as cute :)

Ryan and Skylee making pizza for Family Home Evening this week

Sneaking pepperoni

I Just Can't Wait...

To:
*Meet my little one
*Have a flat tummy again
*Say good bye to heartburn
*Sleep on my back
*Have more options in my wardrobe
*Workout
*Bend at my waist
*Put my own shoes on
*Physically be able to paint my toe nails
*Sit up all by myself
*Not feel sick most of the day
*Drink milk
*Be out of breath when doing the smallest things
*Stand up without feeling like I'm going to faint
*Get comfortable
*Be ME!

This list is for the last part of this pregnancy, it would have looked a lot different at the beginning, and I'm glad I'm past some of those AWFUL parts! I honestly daydream about life after pregnancy. It does help now that I know when it will end and that the end is within sight. If I don't go into labor naturally before, I'll be induced on April 6th. My sweet sister Laura will be coming out to watch Skylee while Ryan and I are in the hospital and staying to help me through recovery. Then my mama will be out after she leaves when Ryan goes back to work...I JUST CAN'T WAIT!

P.S. It has been requested by a few to post pictures of my tummy. I'm not ignoring you, but I'm not posting pictures for a few reasons: my tummy looks ridiculously large, and my hair is in need of some help! Love ya

How Do I Do That?

So, I like the wall art in this room. I think if I could figure out HOW to do it, it would be inexpensive and look good in my kids room. I wouldn't do it in pink, probably in brown tones to match the bedding in the room. Anyone have any ideas how to get a pattern that big? I'm not artsy enough to do that without some major help! Send your ideas my way! Thanks :)

Where Do I Begin?

Meet Jason Mesnick. For those of you that didn't watch "The Bachelor" this season, he's a single dad from Seatle, WA that was runner up on the previous season of "The Bachelorette". America fell in love with him and wanted to see him find true love. I was right there with the rest of America, and was highly anticipating last nights season finale even though I wasn't thrilled about either girl he saved for the final 2. This is Melissa on the left, who Jason last night chose to propose to, between the two I liked her better. Molly, on the right, got dumped. After the finale the "After The Final Rose" show aired, dramatic as ever. Basically Jason is a jerk...changed his mind, dumped Melissa his fiance, and asked for Molly back. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I was/still am so upset! I really did like Jason, thought he was a good guy and wanted him to be happy. Every season that I've followed I've been hopeful, but I know the actual results don't last very long or often. He acted like it was breaking his heart to say goodbye to Melissa, tears and all, and said that he wanted to just see where it went with Molly. Said he couldn't stop thinking about Molly. Of course you couldn't...that's the nature of the game, and that's why few of the relationships on the show work out. There are always those questions in the back of your head "what if" and when times get tough thinking that you would be happier with the other person you didn't choose. Melissa was rightfully upset, since the break up was a total shock to her... on air by the way! Jason said he wanted to take it slow with Molly but are you kidding me, they're already in love, and they've met eachothers families, so how do you go slow? He's just a slime ball I think. It's pretty silly how worked up I am about this one, but really, guys like that make me sick. Melissa said it right "he wasn't willing to fight" for their relationship. How sad, I don't even know where to begin... Go check this out for a better summary and to see it yourself: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6996104

Skylee's New "Big Girl Bed"

Since we'll be using the crib for another little one soon, it was time to upgrade Skylee's sleeping situation.  We finally got her bed this last week and I've been working to pull the room together, in fact I've procrastinated some of the other things I should have been doing around the house, but that was way more fun! She's been doing really well at staying in the bed, I was pretty worried that at nap/bed time she would get out and start playing, but so far she hasn't tried that yet. I'm not revealing the whole nursery, but here is Skylee ready for bedtime in her big girl bed!

Kid/Guest Bathroom

(Skylee was behind the shower curtain while I snapped these shots)

We've been moved into this new house for a month now, and I haven't posted any pictures yet. I still haven't hung all the decor on the walls, still working on the kid's room, still have to put together my office/ guest room and just got around to decorating the kid's/ guest bathroom. It was a hard choice for me...to do it all kiddo style ( duckies, frogs, monkeys???) or more grown up for our guests. I thought if I just went to the store maybe I'd be swayed one way or the other when I found something I really liked. Well I made a trip to Target and found this stuff. As Ryan says "it's really bright!" but I think it's a good in-the-middle kind of decor. I'm no interior decorator, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out.