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!

Halloween

First off, some random pictures of playing in the leaves. Word to the wise... When you are looking for a house and the listing boasts "Mature trees," and you are thinking about how beautiful those leaves are in the spring. Stop yourself before you get too excited, and count each and every leaf on each and every tree, and imagine yourself raking each and every one of those leaves off the ground when you are 30 weeks pregnant, and have a three year old who just wants to play in the leaves and redistribute them throughout the lawn for you. Then decide if those "mature trees" are such a selling point. 

With that being said, I love the fall, I was so excited for the leaves to turn colors and to play in the leaves with Meili. We just have A LOT of trees, and each one has A LOT of leaves, and Josh's every spare second is consumed currently, so my back is not loving the fall, and all our leaves. But there are worse things than this...

When I was pregnant with Meili, I wanted her to be born pretty much any day but Halloween. But I have to say, that it's turned out to be pretty fun to have her birthday on Halloween. This year, we started off with a breakfast of French Toast, bananas, and she got to open one present. Then she had dance, and her teacher said that they could wear their costumes.

What a cute cowgirl!

Then, Josh demanded that she and I go trick-or-treating on Main Street so we could stop in and see him. However, he was busy both times we stopped by. Murphy's Law right. 

We went with my friend Alisha and her son Isaac. It was a lot of fun, and they got loaded up on more treats than their little bodies can handle, I'm sure.

Honestly, at the end of the day, Meili probably would have been content to just ride on all the Big Blue statues along the street.

 Then, she and I went to Arby's for lunch, because she wanted a "hamburger," as she calls a Ham and Cheddar sandwich. We went home and had a nap. Stay tuned for the rest of the birthday/Halloween pictures.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

It's a tradition for the girls in my family to go to Gardner's Historic Village around Halloween so that we can see the witches and have a girls' day out. Apparently it's our tradition, and most of the state of Utah, because every year it seems to get a little busier, and a little crazier. Eh, what would a girls' day be without a little craziness right?

I don't think the girls would even care what we were doing, they just like being together.

And, the girls of bunco had our second annual Halloween party, and also realized that we've been having our girls bunco nights for four years as of November. Wow! Time flies! Of course we are planning to celebrate with a bigger 4 year anniversary party!

(You can't see my costume very well, but I think you can tell that I'm a speed bump. There's a street on my shirt and I sewed Meili's Lightning McQueen car on the road. And that is why I only got to wear my costume once. Meili got very upset when she saw that her car was on my shirt, and became obsessed with trying to get it off.)

All Things Pumpkin

Some of our neighbors' parents' have a tradition of throwing a "Halloweenie Roast" on their farm. This was our first year going, but it was a lot of fun. I don't really know what to call it, expect maybe a smaller version of the Pumpkin Walk, with no pumpkins. But Halloweenie Roast doesn't really do it justice either-especially because I had no hot dogs.

 The pictures from my phone also don't do it justice. It was really cute, and so nice of them to do so much work just for fun.

 Meili loved the little train!

 The Friday before Halloween we carved pumpkins

 Josh helped Meili with her little pumpkin, since he had painted his pumpkin at a Young Men's Activity. He was completely done with hers, before I had even finished scraping all the guts out of mine. Figures!

He tried desperately to get her to stick her hand in the pumpkin with all the guts in it-but she wasn't having it. Such a girl!

 This picture commemorates the fact that Meili and Josh fought for 10 minutes about the light in her pumpkin. We didn't have any little candles, so Josh decided to use a flashlight in the meantime, but Meili was intent on having the light pointing directly out, but then you can't see the face on her pumpkin. I thought it was hilarious watching the two stubborn kids duke it out. Guess who won?

 The Saturday before Halloween, we went to the Pumpkin Walk. I absolutely think the Pumpkin Walk is one of the best things Cache Valley has going for it. I think it's so fun, and so many people do really cool things, and it's all free! 

 The line was so long, but, again it didn't bother me, because Josh waited while Meili and I watched the puppet show, and looked at some of the "stick your face in the painting" things.

 That may have been Meili's favorite part.

 Such a fun night! And it doesn't hurt that the weather was perfect!