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?