Almost Christmas?!

      Last week was interesting, and very busy. Of course, most of the busy was self-inflicted, because I keep choosing to make Christmas gifts instead of buying them. I keep telling myself that this will be the last year, but I don't know that I can actually guarantee that. ;) Anyway... yeah, very busy. And a little insane because it took until last week to truly realize how close Christmas is. Oops. Jessica's been sad that there hasn't been a Christmas tree up yet, and I can't really blame her, especially anymore. It will probably go up tomorrow, since today I need to get ready (more emotionally and mentally than physically) for my graduation tonight. I have to speak (as does every graduate) and I've literally been dreading it all year long.
        Monday was probably one of the 2 legitimately busy days. During preschool I had my midwife appointment, and everything looks good. I'm still measuring big, and gaining weight (though not too much) so baby must be growing. ;) I also have now reached the point where I have appointments every 2 weeks, instead of 4. Yay! That means its on the count DOWN! Yup yup, almost in single digits on weeks left. So happy.
       After preschool, I went to my school to pick up some things... and ended up locking myself OUT of my car. Whoops! My mom was working at the school that day, so I don't think the kids minded at all. Jacob was furious when I finally did take him away from Grandma so we could leave. But I felt super embarrassed to have to call the police and ask them to send someone to come unlock my car. They did, and he was super nice at least, but I still felt embarrassed.
        I think that part of what makes me feel so busy, is that it takes me a lot longer to do anything than it used to, even with previous pregnancies. There is just a lot of muscle and joint pain this time around, and it makes it difficult to move very much. Sitting (and preferably laying down) are much more comfortable. So I don't move very quickly, or as much as I would like, making everything go a little slower.
       I also had a dentist appointment, getting in as much medical stuff as possible before the end of the year. (deductibles already met and everything) Lots of cavities filled. Yuck. Sadly that made it so I couldn't even really open my mouth much at all on Friday and Saturday, since one of them was in the very back on the bottom. My jaw was sore.
       And last but not least, we also had fun painting. Maybe later I'll show you what we were painting, but for now, these non-descript, non-defining pictures are all you get. ;)

Lots of handprints/partial handprints.

       Jessica thought it was the best thing ever. She loved it. Jacob however....

Jacob didn't much care for the paint though.

didn't like it quite as much. I know, he looks extremely pathetic in the picture, but I think a lot of that may be the shadow on his lips from him trying to eat the paint. He definitely wasn't a fan of painting yet though. Maybe eventually, but not now.

28 weeks

      Isn't that the name of a horror movie? Oops. Well, this week has nothing to do with that at all, and despite the fact that my body seems to keep yelling at me for still being pregnant, nothing horrific at all. ;)
      I think mostly I've just got little blurbs, some with pictures, some without. So, first of all, I finally put up the animal hammock I made for Jessica's birthday. (Yes, I know, we're a bit slow-moving here. But I got it up, and I got all the animals to fit in. Yay.

Animal Hammock full of stuffed animals and dolls.

       Then, apparently I didn't make it clear enough that it was only for stuffed animals. During quiet time I suddenly hear sobbing from her room. Not screaming at least, but something was obviously not quite right. So I go back there, and the hammock is hanging by 2 hooks and the 3rd hook is broken. She had tried to climb in it. I was finally able to comfort her, and I reassured her that I had another hook, and we'd be able to fix it before bedtime. About a half hour later she asked me to come back and look at something, and I found this. She had modified the hammock so that she could shove animals into it a little at least. Pretty ingenious if you ask me. Rather than accepting that it was broken, she made it work.

Modified animal hammock

       We also had their well-child visits this week. Granted, It was about 4 months too late for Jacob's 18 month appointment, but oh well. Everything's good, everyone's healthy. Jacob isn't talking as much as he's "supposed" to be, but he recognizes words, so we, and the pediatrician, aren't too worried about it. Jessica is still coming in super tall, in the 95th percentile for height at 43 inches. She  has also put on weight quite nicely (considering where she was at her first birthday, in Oct 2010) coming in now at the 87th percentile. Jacob is... well, lets just say he takes after me. ;) At 32 inches tall, he's still in the 11th percentile for height, and at 27 pounds he's in the 51st percentile for weight.  I'm sure he'll hit a growth spurt soon and stretch out, but for now, he's short and squat. And terribly cute about it.

Random cute picture of Jacob, just cause he's cute and does silly things like put his sister's hat on sideways.

       This week also marked 28 weeks for me. Yay! 12 weeks left! Actually, as of right now, its probably closer to 11, but hey, that's still less than 3 months. Sorry I can never seem to get clear pictures of this though. I seem to have issues holding a camera steady.

28 weeks pregnant.

      And, last but not least, it was Nathaniel's birthday on Saturday, so we went on our date. Yay! We don't get enough of those. We dropped the kids off at a friend's house, and slowly made our way to the movie theater to watch the new Thor movie. Saturday it snowed nearly all day long, and was still snowing pretty bad at the time of our date, and it seems that Orem, or whoever was in charge of State street and University Parkway had decided to cut budget and not hire snowplows. The roads were awful! We barely made it to the movie on time. But we did make it on time, and it was good, and we had a fabulous time watching it before heading over to dinner. Sadly, we forgot our coupon for dinner, so we had to pay full price, but oh well. We'll survive.
      I will say though, I'm not looking forward to going out in the snow today. Jessica has preschool, and I have a midwife appointment, so I have to go, but I sure don't want to. I would much rather stay home, and stay inside where it's warm, and not icy at all.

Tired

      It's been a very busy week, and my body is trying to rebel against me. So I'm probably not going to write very much. But there are a few things I wanted to write about. Mainly just some stories about Jessica and Jacob. Sorry though, no pictures. ;)
      Jessica loves to play the piano, and when I'm in a better mood I tend to let her. Otherwise they play with the lid to much, so I refuse. Anyway. She had pulled out one of her story books and set it on the music stand. Then, she began to play random notes, and "sing" the words of the book. It was rather hilarious and cute.
      Then, we had an incident with Jacob. He often kicks at the sides of his crib, and one of the bolts had come off, and we couldn't find it. I still put him in the crib for naptime, hoping he would fall asleep quickly and it wouldn't be an issue, and also hoping that it would hold. Then, I hear Jessica yelling from her room "Jacob's at the door". I come back, and sure enough, he was sticking things under the door. When I opened the door, I couldn't stop laughing. We were lucky that he wasn't hurt, cause I know he could have been, but he'd opened the side of his crib like a door, climbed down, and come over to the door. Luckily, when Nathaniel came home, he was able to find the bolt, and fix the crib.
      Thanksgiving was good, though very busy for me. We stayed at home and had a nice dinner with our little family (though now I've got huge amounts of leftovers in my fridge) and it made it so I spent all day for a couple days making food. Which, for me, was extremely tiring. Plus, Friday and Saturday were busy too, so today is my first real chance to rest. But! There is a funny story from Thanksgiving. I'd dressed a little nicer, and done my hair, and put on makeup. So, when I went to get Jessica from quiet time, she says "What's on your eyes?" "Makeup" I explain. "They look funny." was her decision about me having makeup on. Well, I guess its obvious I don't wear makeup very often huh?
     

Busy busy busy

      Wow, November has really gone by quickly for me. But then, it has been rather busy. I've also noticed that, much as I try, I'm really not as good as I'd like at remembering to write down the cute things that my children do. Working on that. So, I do have pictures, and I will explain them, but most of them will just be inserted, and have nothing to do with what I'm writing. I just figured you might like to have pictures interspersed, instead of all at the end.
      Warning: It's long.

Here, I have proof that we seem to be growing worms around our house. (Bookworms that is). I looked over and Jacob had a pile of books around him, and was reading one, though he closed it before I got the picture.

       So, first of all, one of the things that has contributed to my busyness was the fact that I have been doing NaNoWriMo this month. I explained it a bit in the last post, but if you didn't see that, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a novel (50,000 words) in 30 days. And due to various reasons, I decided that I wanted to do that. So I have been. It has been a blast! But, it does keep me busy. I worked on it really hard during the first 2 weeks of the month, getting around 35,000 by the end of 2 weeks. But, I knew that I had family events (weddings, Thanksgiving, etc) and school events going on in the second half of the month, so I really needed to. So at this point, I could stop, even though my story is not done, and be considered a NaNoWriMo winner, but I want to finish my story. Tentative goal would be finish the story by the end of the month, but for 1 thing, I don't know how much of the story is left, and for another, it's Thanksgiving this week, so I'll be busy cooking. So, I will finish the story, but maybe not quite yet. I do have a cute story I'd forgotten to write about last time though, about when I went to Starbucks. Jacob had a grand time while we were there. He was sitting in his stroller, coloring, and we were near the line. Everyone loved him, and he loved the attention. He would grin at people, and they'd smile and wave, and point, and ooh and ah over him. Then he'd drop a crayon on the floor, and laugh hysterically. They'd come pick it up, hand it to him, and he'd take it, give a coy smile, and throw it again, laughing hysterically. The great thing was, no matter how many people Mama asked to NOT play the pick-up game, he had a never-ending stream of new people.

This was trying to show him putting together the legos. The ones in his hands, yeah, he was putting them together by himself.

       I also had a midwife appointment... sometime since I last wrote. Everything seems good. I may be a little low on iron, so trying to get my iron intake up. I'd gained 10 pounds and 6 cm in the previous 4 weeks, so, it seems baby had a growth spurt. (Though, I will admit that I did eat probably more than my share of Halloween candy. ><) This pregnancy has been harder though. My body seems to be trying to tell me already that it's done, with various aches, pains, inexplicable exhaustion, and pinched nerves. I keep telling it that it gets to wait until Timothy is ready, which won't be for another 3 months (ish).

Jessica with the handprint wreath she made all by herself. (I cut out the hole in the paper plate).

       I'm doing okay with my school. Still hoping to be able to get my facilitators certificate, and still lacking a number of the clinicals necessary. I've got a couple that are in the works of being set up, but I still need about 7 more, (unless those fall through, then I need 9). So, I'm starting to talk to my school about an extension. Hoping I can get that, so I can still get my certificate. I do have a fun story from the children's clinic though. The director of the school, after finding out that Jessica was my daughter, asked her age, and was shocked to find that she was only 4. "She seemed a lot... more, than that". Yup, don't I know it. Jessica has always seemed like "...more". Pam had thought she was a small 7-year-old, not a average-tall 4-year-old.

Standing under the two handprint wreaths, one she made herself, one made with Jacob's handprints by me, that looks a lot more like the idea picture. I'm quite proud of myself for forsaking the perfectionist part of me long enough to actually let her make her own, and not correct her handprints or cutting.

           Monday I had a bit of a scare. I was sitting at my computer during quiet time, and suddenly I hear a blood-curdling shriek from the back bedrooms. So, I go racing back there, expecting, I don't know, blood everywhere, or missing fingers or something. Jessica was standing by the corner of her bed, screaming. I obviously cuddled her for a bit, and tried to figure out what was going on. She said she stuck her hair clip in "it". Her first finger and thumb were black, so I thought she'd likely stuck the hair clip down the hole in her bedpost (it's half a bunk-bed) and gotten grease of some kind on her fingers. So, I go to wipe the "grease" off, and she screams "don't touch it! It hurts inside." Oo--kay, so we've got something more than grease here. Thinking maybe she'd shoved her finger too far in, and then broken it pulling it out (or something) I did what I could to inspect her finger without touching it. Meanwhile she's babbling mostly incoherently about what happened (incoherent because of crying) and I catch the word "flames". Ooh, so maybe not the bed-post scenario. 
      "Wait, Jessica, so, what exactly happened?"
      "I stuck the clip in it," pointing toward the wall, "and there were flames, and it hurts!"
She'd stuck the clip in a power outlet. Luckily, despite how old our wiring is, and therefore none of the now-mandatory protections that will blow the circuit if that happens, the breaker did pop. So she didn't have all that electricity go into her. So the black was ash (it did rub off eventually) and she had blisters on her finger and thumb, but no other damage. I, on the other hand, probably have some massive psychological damage from that.

Jessica with the "pilgrim outfit" they made in preschool. She makes quite the adorable little pilgrim if you ask me. ;)

      That night, we went to a friend's house for a party, and I've got a cute story from Jacob. I had sat down, and he wanted up on my lap. Being non-verbal still, he had to use his sign language to ask. So, I asked him to ask, and he rubbed his chest (please). I then said "Please up?" Trying to get him to sign please, and then try again to get up. He rubbed his chest again, and then thought for a moment before throwing his arm into the sky. "Please up." That works for me. Ingenious little tyke.

Jessica loves reading to her brother, and she has the board books memorized, so it works really well.

       Monday Nathaniel also got a job interview, for another remote job. (Meaning working remotely, in case there was any confusion) He had a good chat with the person interviewing, and had a good feeling about it. Tuesday, he got a call from them, saying they were offering him the job! Yay! But due to paperwork, and background checks, and drug tests, etc. he won't be starting until the end of December. (December 30th) But yay! He did get the new job. It is contractual, but they seem to prefer doing contract-to-hire, as opposed to continually getting new contracts. So, now we're trying to get all sorts of doctor stuff done and out of the way before the end of the year, so that we can make use of the fully paid deductible and better insurance.

There is a triangular hole between our chair, couch and the wall. Jacob seems to like hiding in it. And its a cute picture.

       Sadly, over the past few days, Jessica has come down with a nasty cough. Bad enough that we kept her home from preschool on Friday, much to her dismay. Thankfully, it seems to be going away now, so hopefully we can take her tomorrow to the last day of preschool before Thanksgiving.

I pull out the camera, and Jacob decides I must be intending to take a pictures of him, so he comes over to me to make it easier. But those big eyes are too cute not to oblige.

So yeah, busy busy busy. Ready to just skip the next few months, and land in March or April, where, even though there will be a new baby, at least everything else shouldn't (hopefully) be quite so hectic.

24 weeks.

     Yay! I'm on the count-down side of pregnancy. My body has not been terribly approving this time around. Nothing major, or scary, just a lot more constant aches and pains, and inability to do much of...anything I used to.

I didn't mean to wear basically the same outfit as last month, but it definitely explains why I've been feeling so much bigger the past few weeks.

      Everything seems to be medically fine. I have my midwife appointment on Tuesday, so I don't know quiet yet, but the baby is moving around plenty.
      There isn't tons to report from this week. We got my new phone working this month, so I have that  now, but sadly, my old phone was apparently just a little too old for the contacts to transfer to the new phone, even by trying to save them to my SD card, or to my google account. So, I had to go in and transfer them manually.
      Two other things went on this week. The primary program was today, as was a nephew's farewell, so we had a slightly hectic day at church today. We went to our ward, and Jessica and I did our primary program, and then as soon as sacrament meeting ended, we raced over to my nephew's ward, hoping to hear him speak. His ward had only started 30 minutes after ours. We walked in as the choir was singing a song, and then he stood up. Perfect timing. Phew!
     The other thing is something I've been debating about talking about, for various reasons that I will keep to myself, mostly insecurities that I am trying to overcome. Anyway, in November there is an event that I have been aware of for a few years called NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. The goal of participants is to write a novel (50,000 words) in one month. I have been (and still am) a participant this year. No, it wasn't a spur of the moment thing. No I haven't really written much before. No, this isn't to prove myself to anyone (even myself). I actually waited until October 31st to sign up because I was trying to figure out why I was wanting to do it, and if my reasons were playing into old habits of insecurity and trying to prove myself good enough. I've been trying to write more over the past few months, but it is really hard to get into the habit of daily creative writing. So I was also considering using the format, but not signing up, to get into that habit. I finally decided that I wanted to do it because I wanted to do it, and that if I didn't sign up, I wouldn't have the incentive to actually write every day.
      So, I signed up with 3 main goals. 1: Don't let writing interfere with my family. Writing is something I can do while having a family, but family is far more important. So if there was family stuff (or other social stuff) going on, I wasn't going to miss it because I wanted to write. So, I've had naptimes and bedtimes to write. (admission, I haven't done as well at this one as I'd like, but I think its less the writing, and more some other stuff going on)
2: School comes second. I've been going to school since January, I graduate in December (hopefully with a facilitator's certificate, if I can get enough more people to do clinic processes with me) and it is not worth it to me to give that up, or to slack off here at the end. So if I can't write on a day because I've got a process during naptime, and one after bedtime, then so be it.
3: If I can do it while keeping 1 & 2, write 50,000 words, in a novel.
      Yay! Its been fun. I started with a basic (very basic) idea for a story, and just started writing, and apparently its been working for me, because I'm a lot further than I thought originally that I'd be. Yay again! I don't know how good the writing is (seeing as this really, is my first time trying to actually write something since... oh... 5th grade?) but often, as with other things, you have to get through the bad stuff to get to the good stuff. It takes practice. So, this is my practice novel. We'll see after its done, and actually edited, if its any good.

Halloween!

      Well, so obviously Halloween happened this past week, so that is going to be the majority of the post. However, we did receive some slightly disappointing news on Tuesday. The place that Nathaniel had been interviewing decided to rescind their... offer of an offer. They never actually made an official offer, but they did tell us they were working on it, and it just needed to be signed. But, in the end, no new job yet. Back to the drawing board, and basically square one. Sigh. Oh well. We'll find something eventually.
      So, Halloween. Always a fun holiday. Sadly, no pictures of Nathaniel's or my costumes. I wore a brown shirt and maxi skirt, tied a golden sash around my...above my belly, accentuating it, and I pinned leaves in my hair and went as Demeter, Greek Goddess of the harvest but also... Fertility. ;) Nathaniel pinned glow sticks to his black pants and hooded sweatshirt, and went as a stick figure. But everyone cares more about the kids anyway right. ;)

Captain America now rides a unicorn. Didn't you know that?

 So, Wednesday morning, Jessica had preschool. And since she didn't have preschool on Thursday, that was their Halloween party. So, she got to wear her Halloween costume, and went as Captain America. So, when I turned around and saw this, I just had to take a picture. It was just too good.
     Jessica also, the entire time she was in costume, would refer to herself as "Captain America". As in "Captain America wants candy" or "Captain America has shoes". It was rather entertaining.

Jacob as a frog

 

This is the only picture I got of Jacob (alone) in his costume. He was NOT impressed, and really, as soon as I finished taking pictures, I took the head piece off. He was much happier then. 

2013 costumes

      And here we go! Wednesday evening (which was our ward's trunk-or-treat) and pretty much ready to go. 

      The weather wasn't terribly good on Wednesday night, but probably the worst thing was that it was cold. And really, probably the problem was more for me than for the kids. But I was wearing sandals due to my costume, so my feet were just frozen. Jessica remembered what to do from last year, though I did have to continue to remind her to say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you". But at 4, I'll excuse that. It was generally more of a "what do you say" instead of "say thank you". Jacob was very confused at first, but it didn't take him long to realized that if he ran up to the person standing at the car, they'd give him candy, or even let him grab one himself. He was quiet excited after that, and often tried to run. There was even one time when he went up to a car that wasn't open and just kept pointing at the trunk, trying to get in.

      Thursday night was much the same. Though, the weather was better. Definitely not as cold, which was nice. Again with reminding Jessica to say something at the door, and again with Jacob getting terribly excited. It was all I could do to keep him from running flat out to the next door every time. and I didn't want him running because I didn't want him falling, and he's not the most sturdy on his feet while running. Plus I didn't want to run. However, the most hilarious thing on Halloween night was Jacob's reaction everytime someone opened the door. He would just stand there staring up at them, and just keep staring until after they closed the door. Even after they closed the door, I'd often have to drag him away from the door. I wish I were better at describing it, it was just hilarious. 

      Oh, and one more story, from yesterday. It seems that Jessica has inherited the Hiatt ability to quote movies with precision, and without seeing them too many times. Jessica doesn't get to watch any shows very often. Our DVD player is broken, and I don't want her watching on my computer (due to the fact that she never leaves it alone). Plus she's actually generally more pleasant when she doesn't watch a show. However, occasionally, when she sleeps during quiet time, Nathaniel will turn on an older cartoon show, Avatar the Last Airbender. Yesterday, she was 'reading' to Jacob, but she didn't know the words in the book, so she started quoting, word-for-word the intro to Avatar the Last Airbender. I think it was one of the most hilarious things I've heard in a long while.

And the verdict is....

      Sorry, I know, I made you wait an extra day. I got home from church yesterday, after spending an hour and a half helping the primary kids learn the program, and I was just wanting to sit and relax. So I didn't write. But I am now! ;)
      So, Monday night we had the ultrasound, and the verdict is....

Baby profile.

      A Monkey? No, but that's what Nathaniel said. They showed us the profile, and I said "it looks like..." and Nathaniel cut me off with "a monkey?" No. I'd been going to say "they're puckering out their lips." Silly Nathaniel. Though, knowing the McBride tendency for climbing, monkey may fit a bit. ;)

Baby face.

       No, I'm not going to post the picture of the gender reveal, because I find no need, but we are having another little boy. Yay! We're excited. So, in late February (or early March) we will be welcoming little Timothy John McBride.

       Then, on Tuesday, Nathaniel got notified that there was a job offer being prepared for him from the company he'd been interviewing with. Yay! The COO is out of town, so they have to wait for him to be back and sign it before they can officially send it to him, but it is looking extremely hopeful. Hopefully that should be at the beginning of this week, but I guess we'll see when it comes.

Marshmallow mummies.

        We didn't do quite as many crafts this week, because I was being ornery, and because Jessica kept pushing my buttons. But, we still had some fun. We used mini marshmallows to make a mummy, which she was able to do pretty much entirely by herself. We also started making some yarn spider sacs (for Halloween decorations), but we haven't finished them yet, and I didn't get any pictures.

Mixing cookies for her preschool class. Gotta bring treats for her birthday.

       Then, on Tuesday we made cookies. Jessica's birthday was on Wednesday, and so we wanted to have her bring treats to share with her class, and I figured it would just be much better if she also helped make the treats. So we had fun with that.

And I was even brave enough to let her help me put the cookie dough on the cookie sheets.

Happy 4th Birthday little miss! Here she is with her special birthday cake pancakes.

     I started a tradition last year to have her have birthday cake pancakes for breakfast on her birthday. I will do this for Jacob, and future kids too, but seeing as Jacob is barely old enough really to be eating the pancakes, he didn't get them on his first birthday. Jessica however, loves them.

And using the birthday present from Grandma Hiatt. She LOVES painting in her book.

       We also got to go visit Grandma on Jessica's birthday, and she got some really cool presents. Her favorite seems to be the "painting book". Its a paint with water book, which makes it so I don't have to worry about mess as much, so its really nice.

Last minute change of mind to want a monkey birthday cake. I think I did pretty good.

      Saturday we had her birthday party. Sadly, the day that I chose seemed to be a bad day for many people, so it wasn't a very large turnout, but Jessica had fun, so that's what's important.

Blowing out the candles.

Cake and Ice cream with friends.

      And last, but not least, my favorite thing from her birthday was her dress that I made. It turned out so very cute. Sadly, its also a tad bit too short, so I'll have to do a bit of an adjustment to get it to be more wearable, and I need to put in a different zipper, because its really hard to get the dress on, though once its on, it fits perfectly.

Adorable red dress, just a tad bit too short, fixable.

Tired

      I look back over this past week, and tired is basically all I really remember. Luckily, I've gotten good at writing things down as they occur, on a little sticky note (on my phone) to remind me of what to write about on here. I blame the kiddos. (The 2 already here, and the one in the process) I blame them both for the tired and for the not remembering. ;) Anyway, with the look at the details, it looks like we did lots of crafts here this week. Both with the kiddos, and by myself. Its coming up on Christmas (yes, I know, a couple months. But for a crafter, that is way too close.)
     So yeah, anyway, here's what we did this week...

Painting, yes in their pajamas under my old t-shirts

 I am trying to have Jessica do themed (so, Halloween) activities every day. It isn't working, but we get a lot of them at least. In this one, we were making black cats out of paper plates. But first, the plate had to be black, so it required paint. I thought it would be fun to have Jacob included...yeah... as soon as the paintbrush went into his mouth, he was done.

 

 

Red Dress

So, Jessica has been begging for months to have a "red dress". So I decided that making her one for her birthday would be a great idea. So, this was the finished product, which I finished... on Tuesday? I realized after the fact, that with her birthday in October, the little flutter sleeves may not have been the best idea, but we'll get her a little white cardigan to go over the top of it, and it should be fine then. 

This is Jessica's "smile". At least I took out the red eyes, it looked almost demonic before. 

        Another craft we did this week was to make pumpkins out of yarn. The instructions I found had us cover a balloon in glue, and then wrap it in yarn, I don't think it worked very well, it was almost impossible to get the yarn off the balloon, and have it retain shape. But it did work. And it made Jessica happy, and hey, messy play. I'm working on it. Messy play is not my strong point, but I am getting to the point where I can do some controlled-messy play.

"I'm not as think as you drunk I am."

       Anytime he sees thee flash of the camera, Jacob insists on getting his picture taken. Out of the 5 I took, this one looked the least drugged/drunk. Plus it had his huge grin. 

Deciding on pumpkins?

      For our last Halloween activity this week, Jessica and Jacob got to pick out pumpkins which will then allow us 2 more activities in the coming weeks. :D

Jacob, after deciding (on the one directly in front of him) trying not to be blinded by the sunlight.

Jessica-sized apron.

     Jessica has also been wanting an apron for a while, and since she keeps using my favorite one whenever I (rarely) let her help me in the kitchen, I figured birthday was a great time for that too! Yay for birthdays! Now I just hope it fits, seeing as my model was asleep when I made it. ;)

      Also this week, Nathaniel has had a first and second interview with a company, and it is looking fairly promising. So, I'm hoping for good news there this next week. It would be awesome.
      And I know, you're probably all looking for information on whether we're having a boy or a girl, since I'm over 20 weeks now. Sorry, still no ultrasound. But its scheduled! We will have our 20-week (okay almost 22) ultrasound tomorrow night! YAY! So next week it will all be revealed.

20 weeks!

     Yup, I have officially passed the halfway point in my pregnancy and am over 20 weeks along! Yay! No, I don't have the answer to your question yet. I haven't even had my 20-week appointment, let alone the ultrasound. I'll meet with the midwife on Thursday, and she'll give me a list of their recommended ultrasound techs, at which point I'll call one of them to get an appointment set up for the ultrasound. And yes, we do plan on finding out the gender, and yes, we do plan on telling people, so don't worry. ;)

Here's me at 20 weeks. Yup, I get fairly big, fairly fast. It has slowed down though, I'm not terribly much bigger than I was at 16 weeks. 

     This past week was really a bit rough. We tried all through the beginning of the week to get me a new phone. Mine is having... struggles. It keeps doing things I don't tell it to do, instead of the things I do. So we'd planned on switching me over to Nathaniel's old phone. Got everything set up, and suddenly, we weren't able to activate the phone! But they'd already taken my phone number from my carrier, so now my phone number was in limbo, and neither phone worked. Grr. Nathaniel spent almost all day Monday and Tuesday working on it. By Wednesday morning, when it still wasn't working, we just switched me back to my old phone, and will try a different method at the end of this billing month for me. Too much hassle so far.
      For some reason, I was struggling with anger a lot this week too, so instead of taking it out on the kids too much, I spent the week knitting, and Sunday  morning I finally finished my sweater! I was so excited. I'd been really wanting to knit myself a sweater this winter, but I wanted to make sure that with me getting to be 9 months pregnant during the coldest part of the year I would be able to have some growing room in the sweater. (Without stretching it out) So, when I found the pattern for this sweater, I thought it was perfect!

Super-comfy, super warm, and since it's made with bulky yarn, super fast. And I didn't think it had anything too difficult either. (I didn't see the cables, which I've never done, until I was about halfway through with it.) And then I found some super cheap, super soft bulky yarn, in my favorite purple (that I often get compliments while I'm wearing it)
     So, I knitted it up, and here it is!

Finished sweater.

Close up on the detail work. Cables at the raglan sleeve attachment. Gorgeous, and not as difficult as I may have thought.

And here I am wearing it. 

     Sadly I don't think it looks quite as good on me. Not bad, but not the best either. I think partially because of the haircut, and partially because of the pregnant belly, it wasn't terribly flattering. However, as I said, it is super-warm, so I doubt I'll be wearing it until closer to late December or January, at which point my belly will stick out far enough to show tons, which will make it a little better on the flattery part. So, still pretty excited about it. And hey! I finished a sweater! Now I just need to  get back to work on the Christmas and birthday gifts I've been neglecting. ;)

More roller coasters

     Well, lots going on these past 2 weeks. Most of it was very good, some of it was very sad. I didn't write last week because we were all in a very emotional state. I'm going to write about that all first, so that I can then finish up with all the happy stuff.
      Last Saturday morning my brother's wife had their baby a few months early. (I don't know the exact weeks, but she was due in January) Monday morning we found out that little Zoey hadn't made it. So this week was really rough as we prepared for and had her funeral. She was a perfect, beautiful little angel. She had very long thin fingers, and her nose was just perfectly shaped. Very, very beautiful. One of my nieces said it best, "she looks like a doll, only she's real". What was also interesting (to me) was my son's face during everything. He would look around at everyone crying, and then look at me concerned and confused. He could tell everyone was sad, but his eyes were seeming to say "Why are you sad? She's right here with us still, right there, next to Grandpa." So yeah, it has been a rough week for the Hiatt side of my family.
      Now back to the happy stuff, and cute stories/pictures. So, first of all, Jacob has started semi-talking. We've heard a few words, but are still in the "struggling to get him to repeat them" stage. He has said "mama" a couple times, and even some where it seems he's calling for me. He then, when I went in to wake him up so we could pick up Nathaniel from work, repeated "papa" back to me. I'd said "come on bud, lets go get Papa." He then said "pa-pa". And he has since said it at times when it sounds like he's calling for Papa. More recently, he has now said "ball". And that one was more distinct. We were getting ready to take Jessica to preschool, and he held up a ball to show me and said "ba". He will even do the same if we point to a ball in a book.

Jessica loves reading, and Jacob is starting to love listening, so Jessica will often "read" (recite) to him.

Jessica's "bridge"

 Nathaniel will often play legos with Jessica and Jacob, and he started building the Tron bridges, so she started imitating them. So, despite having never seen Tron, she's building bridges like them.

I love when they play nicely together. 

They do sure both love to play with the legos.
      Let's see, more stories. Last week, it started snowing in the mountains. Jessica's preschool teacher had told them what the weatherman said, so she was extremely excited when it actually happened. And, surprisingly, though I don't much like the bitter cold winters that we get here in Utah, I was excited for the cooler weather of fall as well. And I have been loving it. As I said, not the bitter cold, so not the really windy, much colder days, but I love being able to wear my boots and sweaters and jackets. I like my fall wardrobe much better than any other. ;)
     Last week also started looking up for my schooling. I'm into the home stretch, I've got 9 weeks left of class (with 1 week off in there for Thanksgiving) and I have finally started getting some clinicals. Its starting to look like I may actually be able to reach my goals and become a facilitator. Yay! I had been getting really worried, so its nice to have that ease a bit.
     Thursday evening we finally put up Halloween decorations, and you should have seen Jessica. She was thrilled. I also allowed her to help put up some things, so that was a good activity for her. I'm trying to get it to where we do some sort of special activity every day, preferably with a monthly theme, to get her excited about various things. Especially as we're heading into the holidays. And, because this is me, and this is where my strengths are, most of them are crafts.

October 3rd: Halloween Carousel

 Last year, during after-Halloween clearance, I found a Halloween Carousel kit, so we put it together. Jessica obviously loved it, and I let her dictate where to put anything decorative. However, I was less than impressed with the stickiness of their adhesive, so I pulled out the glue and my scrapbooking sticky dots. Much better. And Jacob has to be in pictures.

October 4th: Halloween countdown chain.

 I cut the strips and the tape, and I showed her how to make the first ring, but after that she chose which color to do next, and put it all together herself. I was actually quite impressed that she did it after seeing it once.

Jacob cheese.

And again, if Jacob sees me pull out the camera and take a picture, he insists. There must be one of him. And besides, who can say "no" to that face wanting a picture?

Who knows what to title these anyway...

     Wow, this week has seemed really crazy busy, but it was probably just mainly the last 2 days. (Because when I look back, there really isn't much to write about from the first part of the week. It is canning season, but I only had pears from my Mom's yard, and there was only enough for 1 batch (that were ready to can at least) so I did that on Tuesday and it was all good. But there are a few things I can write about. ;)
     First of all, Jessica reading. Now, I'm not sure she's actually reading, though she does recognize "I" and "and" and I'll often have her say those words when we get to them in books. However, Monday morning I brought her books in her room, and then as I was sitting out at my computer, I start to hear her reciting one of the books (The Gingerbread Man). Now, we've had this book for about a year, and I've read it to her a number of times, but not within the past 3 (at least) months. Within the  past 3 or 4 months, I'd only read it to her once, last Sunday. So, she was basically reciting it after hearing it once. That little girl is extremely intelligent, and has a very good memory.
      This week there was also a sudden change in temperature. One day the high in the afternoon was around 90 degrees, the next morning it was in the upper 40s when we woke up (and only got up to 70 that day). Yay! Fall is here! I love the autumn season, and I was loving the cooler weather, except when I take Jacob to the park while Jessica is at preschool. That was a little more rough, because it is super windy out in Highland, which made the cold bite.
      I'm pretty sure I told you about Jessica being sick on Sunday and Tuesday this last week, well, Wednesday I seemed to catch it. I was able to keep my meals down (thankfully) but I was sick enough that I left class early, even though it was my turn to get processed. Thankfully I was better then next day too, because I needed to can tomatoes. Holy cow! Tomatoes are so easy! Seriously, scald and squish that's it. (okay, peel and core them too, but after scalding them, you can't keep the skins on) And to think I'd been dreading them.
      Now, Friday... That was crazy busy. Friday was payday (Grocery day) and there was preschool, and canning that needed to be done, and... heh, heh, heh, oh yeah, weekend training for my school that I was staffing for, so I needed to be there around 5:30. So here's how my day went. I got up and got ready, and boiled tomatoes, and ran them through the saucer, and then we left at 8AM to drop Jessica off at preschool. Then, I headed back to Mom's to drop Jacob off, so that I could go get a haircut. My last haircut had been in January, when I went with a pixie cut, and so I'd just been living with 8 months worth of growth, and it was looking really shaggy. I'm still trying to grow it out, but I really wanted it to at least look nice while I do so. So it may take longer for me to grow it out, but I will be cutting/styling it differently along the way. So, after dropping Jacob off, I headed over to Evans Hairstyling College to get my haircut.

Hard to see maybe, but its an A-line cut, and stacked in the back (and super simple to do)

     Thankfully I had a much better experience than the last time I went to a school to get my hair cut. (not naming names, but it wasn't Evan's) The last time it took them an hour and a half, and they for some reason couldn't get my haircut to be even across the bottom. And this was back when I just had long hair, and just wanted a trim. No layers, nothing extra, just cut it straight across the bottom. I should have gone to my mom.
      After the haircut I had just enough time to get back to Mom's and pick up Jacob (chat for a bit) before heading over to pick up Jessica. That was hilarious though. I drive up, and all the kids have their backpacks, and Kim (teacher) was standing there with a box. "Oh fabulous! Book orders, she's probably handing books the parents I guess". Nope. We got the box. "You know you're addicted to books, when your child brings home the box from the book orders." Then we went grocery shopping, came home, I got Jessica and Jacob lunch, and into quiet/nap time. Then I hurried and put the tomato sauce boiling, and got pears done, and then got the tomato sauce in jars. I literally got them in the canner right before walking out the door to the weekend training. Holy cow! I was tired.  And Saturday I spent the whole day staffing the Weekend Training, which was amazing, and beautiful, and probably, much easier than going through it. (Because I didn't have my own emotional trauma coming up for the most part, despite getting triggered a couple times)
     So yeah, that was our week. Hopefully I'll have more pictures, and more stuff about Jessica and Jacob next week. (Hoping to take them to Thanksgiving Point a couple times.

Lovin' the Rain

     I must admit, I really have been loving the rain recently. My kids excitement at watching it probably helps, but I think its beautiful to sit there at the kitchen sink (I've been canning) and watch the rain and the storm clouds, and feel the cool breeze. Doesn't hurt that it makes canning much more bearable since it's cooled off the temperatures. I'm used to 90 degree weather while canning, which makes for a VERY hot kitchen. This is much better. I'll take it. So far, I've canned over 50 quarts of fruit (peaches and pears) though 2 of them didn't survive. :( It sounds like a huge amount to me, and is in comparison to last year, but then I actually think about it, and realize that there are 52 weeks in the year, so I have just about enough fruit for 1 jar of fruit a week. Suddenly it doesn't sound like quiet so much. Goodness though, I'm pretty sure that it will have to be enough for me, because my body is starting to hate me for standing over the sink so many hours. And I still have tomatoes and applesauce to do. (I've also done some tomato sauce, and about 8 quarts worth of peach syrup). I love having all this home-canned produce on my shelves, enough so that I'm willing to put in the work. Now I just need to find out an inexpensive way to get more quart jars (and preferably more half-pint jars too). I'm almost out. Sadly, I haven't taken any pictures of all the jars of fruit lined up. However, I do have lots of other pictures to share. :D

Mom, this slide is awesome!

       During preschool, Jacob and I don't come home (20 minute drive, no thank you) so we found a nice little park that has been deserted every time. So he gets the entire playground to himself, which seems to suit him just fine.

Shorter bangs.

       I'd been getting requests to see Jessica's shorter bangs, after she cut them herself. Here you go. So short they're barely there.

Hiding in the hamper.

       This is one of Jacob's favorite games these days. He'll empty the hamper (his and Jessica's) and then put it over his head and go running around the apartment. Then he'll start purposely bumping into things (people) in it. Another of his favorite games lately (no video, sorry) is to spin around in circles, and then try to walk. Seriously. He does it all the time. It only scares me when I come out of the bathroom to find that he is spinning with my knitting needle in his hand.

Peek-a-boo!

       When we went down to Reno to visit Mike and Crystal, Jacob seemed to find a new favorite friend. Crystal would play peekaboo with him, and Jacob adored it. This is a picture of him placing her hands back over his eyes to do it again.

Even mannequins need hugs. 

       This, ladies and gentlemen, is Jessica, so sure that even the store mannequins need hugs. Which I find hilariously adorable. (Especially, fellow Whovians, since she has seen the first episode with Chris Eccleston)

16 weeks pregnant.

      Yup, I'm 16 weeks weeks pregnant, and sorry its a bad picture. The hall light burned out, so it was hard to get any decent quality ones.

Sleepy sick girl.

      Sadly, the past week has been a rough one here because we've been sick. Last week was a bad head cold. This week, well, Jessica hasn't been able to keep anything down, and has been laying on the couch most of the time. She was sick all day Sunday, and then seemed better yesterday, but then today it started again. :( Here's hoping she's better soon.