This Week

Hello my gentle readers,

In lieu of a better: Here's a two week old picture of Bella putting away the last of our Halloween decor:


This week we had a great Thanksgiving! (thanks to the people who helped organize it all and reserve the church). We got together with friends and had tons of food. It was great!

Then Eric, the most awesome husband ever, volunteered to get up early and hit the sales since I have been a little sick and not sleeping very well with the little kicker inside me. He IS AWESOME. So, he pretty much covered our Christmas shopping in one day. Did I say he is AWESOME??!

On the downside, this baby is back to breech!?@! So, I'm scheduled to have an eversion done and possible induction on Tuesday in the hospital. 50/50 chance of turning. Sigh.

Let's just say I attempted to do a handstand today to enlist gravity's help in our efforts. :)

Also, as a new little one is about to join us I just wanted to forewarn you that we will probably be making this blog private SOON!! We think it in the best interest of our two little munchkins and anyone else we happen to feature here with pictures or names. More on that later . . .

Oh yes, and we decorated for Christmas yesterday!!! We have our 1st Christmas tree! We shopped the sales last year after New Years and got all this stuff 70% off. Eric helped me then too. Awesome.

And I took a belly picture this week for all of you to see. I know. You can hardly wait. I can just see the anticipation gleaming in your eyes. Pictures will come later.

And on a final happy note, we were lucky to trade babysitting and went out on a big nice date last night as our final Christmas/pre-baby date. We went out to Carabbas. Yum! And saw Eagle Eye. I recommend that movie. Very entertaining. Dad, if you're reading this, you would like it--all about spy and intelligence. Pretty cool.

So, all in all it was a WONDERFUL WEEK.
Gotta go! Pictures to come later!

Late night?!?

B stayed up late watching the BYU/Utah game. You can see how she felt in the morning . . .

Where has summer gone?

One of our last warm days at the park a couple weeks ago:


AND . . . the baby is now transverse! She's still not head down but it's better than breech right? Right now we'll just watch and wait (and try funny positions) until next Wednesday. Thanks for your well wishes!

Too funny

I'm trying to talk E and some of his friends into doing this for our upcoming stake variety show:

http://meridianmagazine.com/youtube/081106swim.html

Try not to laugh. ;)

Butt down, Eyes out

Hmmm . . . now what do you think that post means?!

Well, for one this baby is BREECH! Yes, her cute little butt is squished down in my pelvis and unless we can get her to turn that means I get a C-section in a couple weeks.

Second health-related news of the week is that B will probably have to have eye surgery as she has two "lazy" eyes. They tend to rotate out. We're trying "the patch" for 6 weeks to see if it helps at all. But who knows. So please keep a little prayer in your heart especially for Bells as this is pretty hard for her (she cries every day over this).

BUT, to add some humor to the situation, I'm listing here some of the "17 Ways to Turn a Breech Baby" (courtesy http://pregnancychildbirth.suite101.com/article.cfm/turning_a_breech_baby). I guess you do whatever you can do. But see if you find them as humorous as I do at 9 mos pregnant. I chose the best to share:

#3. Headstand - with assistance and in a pool frequently as possible. (Hello?!)

#4. Breech Tilt - begin at 32-35 weeks gestation. Do 3 times daily for 10-15 minutes each time, when you have an empty stomach, and the baby is active. Prop one end of an ironing board securely on a sofa or chair 12 to 18 inches high (or may use slant board). Lie down, bend knees but keep feet flat on board . . . Gravity pushes the baby's head into the fundus, tucks it, and baby can then do a somersault to a vertex position. (I believe Lynnsey said she would pay to see me do this . . .)

#5. CD/iPod headphones - place them inside mom's pants toward her pubic bone and play classical music for 10 minutes 6-8 times a day. (Anyone have an Ipod I can use?!)

#6. Flashlight - try moving slowly down from the top of the uterus toward your pubic bone while you are in a breech tilt position. (So not only will I be upside down on an ironing board--but with a flashlight making runway signals--Steph I could use some help with this airline maneuver).

#8. Clothespin - place on the small toe of each foot at the outside corner of the toenail; sideways so that the toenail and toepad are stimulated for 30 minutes per day, this is an acupressure point that is a "moving down" point. (ouch!)

#11. Pelvic Tilt- with an ICE PACK (Hello?!!) on the top of your tummy on an empty stomach, 10 minutes twice a day. Do this while lying on your back on the floor with knees flexed and feet on the floor with three large pillows placed under your buttocks. Try this in conjunction with headphones and visualization. (cold)

#14. Belly Relaxing followed by Inversion - Partner places a sheet or towel under mom's hips as she lays on the floor. Lift up on the corners of the cloth and shimmy her from side to side moving your hands up and down to wiggle her belly from side to side. These should be very small movements which mom should find very relaxing. Do this for about 5 minutes. Then mother kneels on the stairway landing. Walk your hands down 2 or 3 stairs into an all fours position; have your partner support your shoulders to balance you. Remain in this position for about 5-10 minutes or as long as comfortable. Also do this on an empty stomach. (Umm . . . can we say Not Relaxing)

I will plead the 5th when asked if I have done any of these. But let's just say if I call to borrow an ice pack, head phones, an ironing board and clothespin, or to use your pool--JUST SAY NO.

Uncle Steve

Why is Bella crying you may ask?! Because she realizes one of her favorite uncles, Steve, is not coming back to visit us for a while.


He had business in a nearby city and we were lucky enough to have him visit us for the weekend. It was so nice to have company and he was super helpful--taking Bella to the park, treating us to Red Robin burgers (yum!!), vacuuming our WHOLE house (!) and humoring me in my hormonal pregnant stage.

Here can you see the brothers resemblance? (sorry for the glare---who was taking that picture?!) I've heard alot about E growing up with his big bro Steve. They are over 10 years apart in age but Steve would let E tag along when he was little--which I guess he knew would result in a deeper bond when they were older. E feels very lucky to have Steve in his life as his older brother and we just wish we lived closer.


Of course there isn't much to do here when it's cold. But we got this Californian to brave the cold wind and decided to visit a local farm to pick our pumpkin for Halloween (yes, I know I'm a bit late posting this). B was excited that "pa-ga Seeve" (grandpa) could come with us. She often confused "uncle" Steve with this title of her other favorite male relatives. But S was a good sport about it.


Of course B had to stop at the bunnies before we could set out on our trek to find the "perfect" pumpkin. She was very good about using the complimentary hand sanitizer after touching the animals, although she forgot one minor detail--to remove her gloves. . .


And thus our trek began. We trudged through knee-high straw--at least to Bells' knees.

Then on to the tractor ride . . .

And finally after much search and debate we found THE perfect pumpkin!

B was not letting it out of her sight!

She also helped clean it to prep for carving. But that's for a later post . . .

Like the 70s hair style she's sporting these days?! We're going for Farah Fawcett by three.

Of course she had to ride the tractor. Yes, Steve and I (and some random people) are in the background.

Can you guess where we went?

Thanks so much for visiting Steve!!! We were all so glad you could come!

Finger-lickin good!

I can't recall what was in this bowl--although it was sweet and chocolatey I believe.
(note the tail of B's new friend the "whale" in the background) And yes, B is wearing the robe my mom made me when I was little!!

Annual Pumpkin Show

Hey everyone! Here's another thing we did this last month! We headed down to the annual Circleville Pumpkin Show--about 45 minutes away. It's like a huge fair and attracts 100,000 people per day! Luckily we beat the crowd and got to enjoy some pumpkin treats (they have anything pumpkin you can imagine), see a record-setting huge pumpkin pie, checkout the local vendors and of course see the 1st prize largest pumpkin (over 1000 lbs!)


It started off chilly so Bella opted for the hat look. Note her orange pumpkin shirt.

They pretty much close down all the streets surrounding the show and people just mill around everywhere. People watching was B's favorite pastime. She looks pretty comfy on Eric's shoulders.

Mmmm! For dinner we grabbed some burgers and grilled corn on the cob. Yummy!

And of course, some pumpkin soft serve ice cream for E. (note to self: get B to look at the camera)

Mmmm. . . Bella finally looked at the camera . . . since I got close enough that she could touch it.

The birthday money from Gma & Gpa Freeman and Dave and Rashelle came in handy as B just fell in love with these blow up pool toy animals. The "whale" was her favorite. Dolphin . . . whale . . . whatever. We decided since she had some "moneeee" of her own she could choose what she wanted.


At the end of the day after letting her choose her "whale," she ran ALL the way to the car with her "whale"--causing some chuckles from the crowd.



It looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship . . .

Beggar's Night

For those of you who wanted to see B decked out in her costume, here she is!!!!

What is she? you ask? A pink unicorn cowgirl of course! This costume is actually really cute but was kind of big this year and B wouldn't hold the reins so the head pretty much sagged the whole time.

Here's B and her little friends: Jeremiah the bullfrog and "Mymy" the flower. They have their eyes on the prize. :)
By the end of the night, B took turns licking tootsie pop suckers in each hand. And yes, it was cold--hence the jacket.


Here's our little pink unicorn after a night of trick-or-treating and handing out candy. Happy Halloween!