Room "Transformation" and Dancing

I guess as a way of getting rid of all of my pent-up "energy" during pregnancy (since I can't snowboard or run etc.), I sew. My project from October till now has been trying to make Meili's room gender neutral, so that she can share with her baby brother. Looking at the before and after pictures-it actually doesn't look that much different besides that fact that the room looked spacious before and now there is not a single inch of extra wall space. So here's the nursery before Meili was born...

And here's the room now...

 I made Meili's bed spread, bed skirt, bought curtains (thank goodness for talking myself out of making those!)...

 ...painted the letters rather than the flowers that used to be on the wall. 

When we were looking for a twin bed for Meili, we went to a few stores with my parents, and my mom eventually said, "Do you want to use my old bed?" Her grandfather bought her that headboard and footboard at an estate sale when she was a little girl. And I remembered it sitting in our basement unfinished. She originally planned to give it to my oldest niece, but they needed bunkbeds, so when my mom offered it to Meili, I was really excited because I had always liked it growing up. My mom said that she remembered it being dark brown, then when she was a little older they refinished it white. So she said that if she gave it to Meili , she wanted to refinish it dark again so that it would match everything else in the room. I love it and so does Meili!
There's also a dresser that goes with it that needs to be refinished as well. I started on that in November, but then it got too cold for the paint stripper. So I guess that will be a project for the spring. The dresser is in the closet anyway (which also has no space left.)

 I also made the bumper pads, crib quilt and crib bed skirt. (Notice the pile on top of Meili's pillow. That's what is necessary for her to sleep: Her princess pillow, 3 horses, a kitty, a baby that glows and a second little pillow that I made her just for fun. If one of those things is not present when she's trying to go to sleep, it's only a matter of time before I hear her yelling "Mama! Where's Shamrock?"

 The room still isn't necessarily fit for a boy, but at least instead of flowers, there is the color blue. I wanted to paint the room, but Josh refused, so this was the best I could come up with.

 As with any project, there are things that I really like, and things that I'm just okay with. I actually really like how both of the quilts turned out-which is good because they were the most important part. Josh tells me regularly that he likes the baby's better, but I have to say that I really love Meili's.

Yesterday, Meili had her first dance recital. (It really wasn't a recital. They performed for a Senior Center that is close by. But I think it was a perfect practice recital.)

 I think she's such a cute little dancer. Even though she still thinks that the point of dance class is running laps around the mat.

 First position

 She did pretty well considering. There were some parts that she was a little distracted, and some parts that she did perfectly. The whole routine was probably 30 seconds long.

 She may get distracted from time to time, but at least she knows first position, pirouette, passe, tondu, and plie. (Sorry if I spelled those wrong.)

And they finished off with all the girls singing Jingle Bells. (Which is the area where Meili excels!)

Time Flies

If I had a post for every time I thought about posting, I wouldn't find myself trying to catch up with a million different events over the last month and a half. However, that is where I find myself. So here goes...

 The first snow fall of the season, Meili and I made snowmen. Me, being 30+ weeks pregnant, thought I was doing pretty well just being willing to play in the snow. However, for Meili that wasn't good enough. We had to make not just one snowman, but a snow family. I have since had several neighbors comment on being in disbelief when they saw me out building snowmen. My favorite part was when I would roll the ball way too big, and still try to lift it-which I wouldn't have even been able to do were I not pregnant. 

They are ugly, but they were our snowmen for about half a day, until they all fell apart.

 Meili built a fort-not much more to say about that.

 We have loved going to Aggie football games again this season. For the most part, Josh has been able to get tickets through his work which is obviously a bonus. Meili usually is really into it, and likes the atmosphere for a little over one quarter, then she starts to get tired and squirmy just in time to take a nap in Josh's arms for a little over a quarter. Works great for everyone!

 For Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to try having Meili sleep in lots of braids.

For a girl who doesn't really like having her hair done, she was super patient. 

And... sadly, this is the only picture (below) that we took on Thanksgiving, and you can't really see the finished product anyway, but there you have it! She's asked for me to do it a couple times since then, but I don't think she really realizes that it took almost an hour to braid, and that it takes a little planning ahead of time.

 We put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. It's very simple, but it's still my favorite every year. Meili loved helping put up the decorations this year. But it took a couple days for her to figure out that we would have to wait a little bit before it would be Christmas. She woke up the day after Thanksgiving thinking that it was Christmas, and then the day after that, and the day after that... Now she just reminds herself (and everyone else) every once in awhile that it's Christmas TIME, but not Christmas DAY. Sadly, it will be here all too soon though!

 The Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Aggies beat Wyoming to become the Mountain Division Champions. Obviously since that day we have had to endure the Fresno game where we lost the conference championship, but we remind ourselves regularly that considering the fact that it our first year in the Mountain Conference, and we have had injuries to so many key players, and we have a brand new head coach and it was just a few years ago that we were lucky to win 3 games a year... and the list goes on and on; we have to be pretty excited about the outcome of this season. And I think we have one more win left in us!

 Last weekend, in keeping with tradition, the girls in my family, (plus my dad and Jackson and minus Sara and her crew), went to the Festival of Trees. It's always a little crazy, but we love it, and it's always amazing to see the creativity of so many people.

 I couldn't even get a great picture of this "gingerbread house" because it was MOVING!

 Meili loved all the kids games and activities. She painted a village scene, made a snowman gift bag, talked to an elf on the phone, went fishing, did the bubble machine, got a face tattoo and picked a prize from the tree.

 I tried to talk her out of the monster tattoo, but she was not to be convinced. Then I let her keep it on all of the next day,and she still cried when we had to take it off for church on Sunday.

 This cowgirl tree was her favorite, but that little blur in the corner is her moving too fast for me to get a picture.

The next day we made gingerbread houses, and I did not take out my camera once, so I'll have to convince a family member to share their pictures.

 While I organized the clothes that we've gotten for our little man, Meili found endless ways to entertain herself with this tote.

 On Monday, we went to see the Live Nativity in Nibley. However, if you asked Meili, there was not nativity, just horses for her to see.

 The famous Moses the camel

 And today, we went to Hardware Ranch with Josh's brother and his wife. Again, Meili would have been satisfied just seeing the horses, although she was really sad when we didn't get off the sled to go pet the elk.

As far as life goes, I am almost 35 weeks pregnant, which seems completely nuts. I stress everyday about how we are going to adjust to having 2 kids because I think we have a pretty good thing going. However, I feel like we are mostly prepared. Nursery/Meili's room is ready (pictures to come) our little boy (thanks to Bethany, and some friends) has PLENTY of clothes and blankets etc.

I feel more pregnant this time than I did with Meili. I would say that I didn't feel like this until about 38 weeks with Meili, and I'm pretty sure I look about 47 weeks pregnant. But I'm grateful everyday that I still feel pretty good, and am able to be somewhat productive everyday. I am almost ready for Christmas, and the good news is that no matter how I feel, I am in no hurry to get this little guy here. (Plus, we don't have a name for him yet-slight problem.)

Funny story that just kind of illustrates life right now... Josh walked in to Meili's room wearing HIS OWN sweats, and Meili said, "Um... Daddy, I think those are Momma's clothes." So yeah, that's where we are in life. Meili is more used to seeing me in Josh's sweats than in my own clothes. Life is good!

The Big 3!

From the time Josh got home from work on, Meili's birthday was a little crazy. We were trying to balance trick-or-treaters coming to the door, eating dinner, opening presents, getting Meili back into her costume, going trick-or-treating ourselves, and eating cupcakes. We had crepes for dinner. (I tried to pick Meili's favorite foods for each of the meals, but let's just say, either her tastes are being influenced by me, or her picks for the day were definitely influenced by me.) Then we opened presents.

When I asked her what kinds of presents she wanted for her birthday, she said "pink ones." So that was easy enough to take care of.

This picture is showing her new rolling suitcase. The outcome of that gift was different than I expected. She always plays with the suitcases at the store, and wants to roll ours through the airport every time we go on a vacation, so I knew she would like it. When she got it, I said that it was to take with her to grandma's house. So of course, she immediately wanted to go to Grandma's house. After a few tears, and explaining that we "Had" to go trick-or-treating instead of grandma's, she insisted that we take her suitcase with us to go trick-or-treating. If it had been up to me, I probably would have just let her, but Josh said absolutely not. So if you were in our neighborhood, and happened to hear and little girl screaming from house to house-that was Meili, and she was just upset that she couldn't take her suitcase trick-or-treating. I'm sure most people don't expect to open their doors, to a little 3 year old with tears dripping down her face.

 She eventually got over the suitcase, and had fun for a couple houses. Since we had gone trick-or-treating earlier she burned out pretty fast. Plus, we got to one of our neighbor's houses that had a trampoline and playground-she would have just been content to stay there all night.

 And the obligatory cupcake after a day full of fun!

On Saturday, my parents came to the Aggie game, and to celebrate Meili's birthday. I made this cake.

 And we had Meili's actual favorite food-pasta. I also invited my sister-in-law since Meili insists that she is going to marry Shasta in the temple someday. 

 It was a little bit of a crazy night, but I think Meili wouldn't have it any other way. It was so crazy, in fact, that we forgot all about the cake. How is that even possible?

It worked out though, because we took it to Josh's parents house the next day. They invited us over for dinner and we had a  small third birthday celebration.

I had planned a party with Josh's whole family the Sunday before Meili's birthday, but she ended up getting sick. Luckily, she kicked it just in time for her big day.

What a spoiled little girl! But we sure do love her!