New Year's Resolutions

I've been thinking long and hard about what I want to accomplish this upcoming year other than the ubiquitous goal of being a better mother, wife and spiritual person and I think I have it narrowed down to a few attainable things:

I wish I could say I am going to lose 25 lbs by the end of the year, but it seems that the only way I can do that is to get pregnant, gain 20-50 lbs and then lose it in the following months and then be at a stand still about five pounds under pre-pregnancy weight. So, I'm just going to say that I'm not going to gain any weight and if I lose some, then bonus. So it looks like 2010 will be a pregnant-me-less year.

I am going to eat healthier... Right after I eat all my clearanced after-Christmas candy we splurged on.
...
And I don't think that will include the after Valentines Day chocolate, either.

I will potty train Aiden. Does this even count as a New Year's Resolution? Aren't those supposed to be something that you do to better yourself? I'm sure this counts because smelling his poopy diapers up close and personal on a daily basis can't be good for my health.

I will pack my house up before the last week before we move, minus essentials, of course. I hate moving. A lot. I moved once the entire time I grew up, and I was 6 so it doesn't really count. I didn't do anything to pack. The only thing I remember around that time in my life has nothing to do with boxes and packing tape and moving trucks, but instead my dog being ran over by a car, being excited about my first plane ride and being terribly upset that I was missing my Christmas Concert at school. Really, why couldn't we have moved our entire family a week later so I could sing with my other classmates for 20 minutes? That's not irrational, 6 year-old mind reasoning at all.
But anyway. I moved when I was 6 and that doesn't really count as having to deal with the moving process, but then when I was 19, that was across country from New Mexico to Florida and that was a process.... And again when I was 20, not across country, but I had "grown-up" stuff that made it a process that was moved in the back of my brother in-law's pick-up truck, load after load after load ..... And then again when I was 21.... And then when I was 23, with a 14 month old and 7 weeks vomiting-pregnant.... And now again when I will be 24, across country, from Florida to Utah, with two children and my husband staying behind for an extra month or so. I hope I won't have to move again for a while after this one because I'm tired of it.

But onto the most important ones:

I resolve that I will not be so desperate for the lime-light that I will pretend my son is caught in a homemade balloon that is drifting away.

I resolve to keep my threats away from the "shove a ball down your throat" path.

I resolve to not be, in any way, shape or form, like Kanye West.

I resolve to keep my congratulational gestures to hand shaking when it comes to blind people. That way my high-five won't be left hanging.... on national television... on one of the most watched shows.

I resolve this year that I will not marry someone, have twins with them, try for just one more and end up with six more and drive them so crazy by my constant nagging and stupid hair cut that they are driven to cheat on me with someone way younger just months after renewing our vows and telling the world that you are doing this so your children will know that Mommy and Daddy will always be together, no matter what.

I resolve to only fly US Airways through a flock of birds if Chesley B. Sullenburger III is my pilot.

I resolve to keep being a homebody instead of turning myself into a famous golfer that then cheats on their spouse with more than a baker's dozen of women.

I resolve to not take fertility drugs and end up pregnant with 8 babies.... especially if I already have 6 at home.

I resolve that when I win a record number of gold medals at the Olympics, I will not find myself in a huge controversy because a picture of me smoking pot surfaced.


I resolve to never help Drew Peterson with anything. Especially anything that involves disposing of blue barrels.

I resolve to stay home instead of flying on any commercial airplane if I have tuberculosis.

I resolve to not help a pimp and prostitute in their endeavors to open an under-aged brothel.

I resolve to leave the biggest carbon footprint possible, now that we know that Global Warming isn't real.

And last but certainly not the least:

I resolve that if I find myself attending a Midnight Mass with the Pope, I will not attack him because no matter who you are, or what you believe, that cannot be a good thing.

Seriously, how could you see this and think, "I'm going to attack that man."

Hope 2010 brings you all the best!!

Notice how I didn't mention anything about Michael Jackson? That's how it should be...

Today I will do my laundry...

Since I was called to the Stake Young Women's Presidency, my life has been full of loading kids to drive to other towns to visit with the Ward's Young Women's Presidencies and every spare moment my husband and I have no obligations, we are out at his parents spending time with them before D-Day comes and we have to move.

I am holding up mentally, emotionally, and physically wonderfully until I factor in the fact that my house is a mess. My dishes are perpetually piled up in the sink, my clothes are clean, but piled into our giant tote that we keep our Christmas Tree stored in for 11 months of the year, my dog is probably underfed and likes to compensate by trying to eat used paper towels that end up shredded all over the floor.

This morning I participated in our Stake Pioneer Trek Youth Conference. I was an "angel" that came at a trying time for the girls to help push their handcarts. A more detailed post will come later when I can figure out in my mind how to do that experience justice. But one huge lesson was learned after my 3 minute short burst of an incredible amount of energy. I helped them push the handcart up a sugar-sand hill and through loose sand after that for only about 50-60 yards. By the end, I was exhausted and felt like I literally could not walk another step and then it hit me that as exhausted as I was, these teenaged girls had been pulling these for an hour or two at that point and still had half the day left and that they are doing this trek because for thousands of people, some of them my ancestors, this was their life for months. They pushed their handcarts and held their children when they were exhausted and at the end of the day when they had a break, they had to cook and clean for their families and make everything in order because they would be leaving in the morning.

If they can do that, then I can fold my loads upon loads of clean clothes and put them away where they belong... all in the same day.

And tomorrow I will do the dishes.

My children have colds and I hate it.

For those of you who have read Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, remember the part when his father had to suck the mucous out of the little boy's nose (for the life of me I can't remember if it was Frank McCourt or his brother) using his own mouth because the boy couldn't breath from being so congested?

Well, when I first read that part, I was so disgusted and said I would never be able to do that and that I was glad I lived in a day and age when there are nose aspirators and saline spray. Never did it cross my 15 year old mind that those things wouldn't work. What happens when that doesn't work?! Oh, how having a baby changes things.

This morning I was about ten seconds away from doing that myself with my two and a half month old daughter and then she threw up because she was gagging on the post nasal drip and the most incredible amount of mucous came out with it. My hand was covered in it and once relief washed over me, all I could think of was Men in Black when Tommy Lee Jones is inside the cockroach at the end and shoots the cockroach from the inside and the mucous blasts out all over Will Smith.

Just so you know, I am not a bad mother. I had been using the nasal aspirator all night long, it just was going back down her throat so it wasn't as effective as it could have been. It's the pits when you can't do anything for them and you had to hear their little tiny body coughing. I'm sure you can imagine how many prayers I said last night.

I Want That!

This is amazing!!! If you didn't catch what it just did. The guy took a video with his digital camera, and set the camera down and went on his way while the SD card inside the camera automatically uploaded the pictures/video he took - ALL BY ITSELF!!

Technology is amazing and I want it.

Merry Christmas!

I've had mild interest in Celtic Woman recently, but today I think it bumped up to full blown love. Every song I have listened to has given me goosebumps at least once. I hope you enjoy! This song is absolutely beautiful.

P.S. Can you tell I just figured out how to post videos without having to look up the steps to make it work every time?

I Believe in Santa Clause

Is it Santa Claus or Santa Clause? I can't remember! But that is besides the point.

Recently my husband has had two very separate conversations with two very separate people that could not have more opposite mindsets when it comes to politics, religion, and family. Yet, they came to the same conclusion: They aren't comfortable teaching their children about Santa Clause.

One is in the far left as far as politics goes, is atheist or agnostic, at best and doesn't feel that marriage is a sacred covenant but instead just a piece of paper. He feels that to teach your children about Santa Clause is a bold faced lie and nothing more and that it will be detrimental to the child's upbringing when they find out their parents lied to them for years on end until they were old enough to find out for themselves that Santa isn't real.

The other is far right as far as politics goes, is a devout Christian and feels that marriage is a sacred covenant to be taken seriously and to be upheld. He feels that to teach your children about Santa Clause is taking away from the true meaning of Christmas and that it is commercialism gone awry and trying to take Christ out of Christmas.

Given the two options, I have to say I relate more to the latter, but not entirely.

I feel that you can teach that Santa is the Spirit of Christmas personified. How do you explain to a two year old the true meaning of Christmas? How do you make them understand that this is a time to remember all that we have and because we have so much, we should share of our love, time and in some cases, our means, to better mankind? What better way than to tell them of Santa Clause and how he comes in the middle of the night, not to receive glory, to leave presents anonymously under the tree for each and every person so they can put a face, a name, to what we all feel inside? Then when the times comes that they find out Santa Clause isn't "real", they can truly understand that he is real in the spirit of what Christmas truly is about. Love and giving of ourselves, which is what Jesus Christ did throughout His entire life.

Santa Clause loves little children, Santa Clause is happy, Santa Clause brings great and wonderful gifts much like Jesus Christ loves little children, is happy and brings the world's greatest and most wonderful gifts known to mankind.

So you can say that at my ripe old age of 23, I still believe in Santa Clause and I hope my children never stop believing, either.

Merry Christmas!

A Song for the Mormons

This is quite possibly the most pointless song I have ever heard, but it made me laugh so I hope you enjoy.


P.S. Sorry the right side is cut off, I couldn't fix it, but you don't miss anything.

Hello, my name is Kim.

So I think I am officially a blog addict. It seems almost every day I find another blog to follow because they seem to comment a lot on the blogs I already follow and so I check theirs out and if their blogs inspire me or make me laugh, they are added to the list.

When I first started a blog, I was surprised to see how many of my friends had a blog as well and through theirs I found blogs of my Stake President's daughters, a girl that was in Young Women's with me but I never really talked to because she was two years older and I was always intimidated by how gorgeous she was, my sister in law's sister, all of whom I follow anonymously because I don't know what they would think if I followed their blog. Dumb, I know. I legitimately know them, could tell you their birthdays even, but that may or may not be because I am a freak with dates like that. (My husband would assuredly say it's just because I'm a freak like that. I could tell you the date I moved from Utah to New Mexico.... 17 years ago. I could also tell you the date my brother had to report to the MTC and the date my other brother came home from his mission.)

But now I have found the wonders of following blogs of people that I really don't know, but have things in common with me. For instance, most of the blogs I follow have a common denominator. They are young mom's trying to save money and still do cute things for their kids. They live in Utah or New Mexico and to hear them talk about it makes my heart warm a little bit. They are Mormon and like to poke fun at the fact that a lot of people have misconceptions about Mormons that stem from next to complete ignorance about what our religion is about.

Some of them I skip over on a semi-regular basis, but most I laugh out loud and when I try to explain to my husband why I am laughing, it all seems lost on him.

But back to the main reason of this post, I wonder if there are others that read my blog and are to ashamed to admit it. I really don't care, it would help me justify the time I spend thinking about how I could write about the funny things in my life, the things that leave an impression on me and the random things that come to mind.

Oh, and if you do follow my blog, and I don't know, and you live near me, and are lookin for a boat, we are trying to sell our boat so you should buy it.

Cha-Ching!!

Remember how a few weeks ago my husband hit a deer? Well, last week, we were out at his parents and it was dark and rainy and we hit a stump. Pretty bad luck considering we were hoping to sell this car or trade it in on a new one that would be able to get us out to Utah.

Well, I was talking to my mom the other day and she said we should just make some claims and since the car is paid off, we can get a check written out to us instead of written out to an autobody shop. We followed her advice and now are anxiously awaiting a check for $1700 that will go into our Moving to Utah Fund.

This is pretty much the exact amount we will need to be able to rent a truck and trailer to move myself, son and daughter out about a month earlier than my husband so that I will be able to take a CNA course and hopefully be pretty close to having a job when my husband comes out.

Hooray for answered prayers!!

Random Thoughts for a Random Day

I love Christmastime. When I see Christmas decorations go up for sale in the stores before Halloween, it takes all I have to wait for Thanksgiving to put up my tree.

On a similar note, I think I am going to make it a tradition to put the Christmas Tree up for Family Home Evening the Monday before Thanksgiving and every ornament we put up, we have to name something we are thankful for. That way I can get my tree up earlier, tie in the two holidays and keep Christmas from stealing Thanksgiving's thunder.

I don't know if it's just me, but dead batteries feel lighter and more hollow than brand new batteries. I wonder if it is actually that way, or if I am just making it all up.

Recently my husband and I have had separate conversations with our mothers about memories we have of things that happened when we were younger and when we actually found out when it happened, it's when we were like two or three years old. Realizing this, and seeing as how my son is almost two years old, the things he remembers now or soon, he could potentially remember for the rest of his life. Which makes me think; what things am I doing now that I want to change before my son remembers me doing it? Do I want him to remember me sitting at the computer on Facebook while he is eating breakfast? Is that really such a big deal? I haven't decided yet.

I'm going to be moving across country in a few months. Any suggestions on how to keep a two year old and a four month old occupied for a possibly four day trip? Especially if I move out there before my husband to go to school.

It is so heartwarming to see my son try to be like his Daddy. He will stand next to him and prop his foot up and then check to make sure he's doing it just right. He will pretend to shave. He will act tough and speak with a booming voice. But my favorite is when he drinks his milk from a soda can, pretend to belch and then say "smee me" (excuse me) in a really sheepish way.

Two Months Old

I have officially joined the ranks of "Can you belive my child is already _____ old?!" With my son I felt every second of his growing up because I was growing every second of it as well. I was a first-time stay-at-home mom and was overwhelmed, baby blued, awestruck and so happy all at once. Every thing he did was a huge accomplishment on my part, as if I had something to do with it. So when people would talk about how fast he was growing, I knew that to them, it was amazing how fast he was growing, but I saw him every second of the day and two months felt like two months.

Not this time around.

My daughter sleeps like an angel which gives me a lot of time to play with my son and read blogs... I mean, do stuff around my house. When Monday came around and it was time for her two month check up, I was truly amazed that two months have come and gone already. Definitely put things into perspective since I will be moving in two months, give or ... well, just give a little.

She is growing fantastically. She was 23" long - 85th percentile and weighed 11 lbs 13.2 ounces which is about the 75th percentile. I am slowly realizing how dainty my little girl is, if 75th percentile is dainty in the real world. In this family, it is the daintiest of the daintiest. She was 15 days early and my son was 9 days late. She was 8 lbs at birth, my son was 9 lbs 13 oz. She was 11 lbs 13.2 ounces at two months, my son was 12 lbs 1 ounce at two weeks.

I love having a little girl. I have gone a little crazy lately buying headbands and the such for her and I've looked at buying patterns to make little girl booties and repurposed sweater dresses and the sort. (I just happened upon this blog and fell in love immediately: makeitandloveit.blogspot.com) I made her a tutu to go with her Halloween costume. I look forward to being able to paint her nails. The girly girl in me is coming out with her. I was never one to paint my nails or do my hair in any way other than a ponytail, every once in a while I'd go crazy and put it in a french braid but now I am just waiting for the day when I can sit and style her hair. I love playing with my son. I love wrestling with him and talking in monster voices with him, but I really think I am going to love accessorizing with my daughter. Anyone who knows me must think I'm kinda crazy hearing all this stuff because rarely do I even wear jewelery other than my wedding and CTR ring, but I am itching for her to be old enough to want to be a princess and play dress-up.
For all I know, she will be exactly like me when I was growing up and watch Batman and Ninja Turtles and hope the bad guy wins. And if she does watch the girly Disney movies like Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, she'll only do it to make fun of it.

Stake Young Women Presidency

I was recently called into the Stake Young Women Presidency as Secretary. I have no experience in Young Women except for when I was last in Young Women, five years ago. Which brings up another Why-Am-I-The-One-Called-For-This? point. If I had lived here five years ago, I would have been in Young Women with the Laurels that I am indirectly in charge of. They would have been Beehives when I was a Laurel.
I am very excited and look forward to see what is in store for me. It must be pretty important that I do this while I am still here for some reason and I'm anxious to see what reason that is. I have a whole laundry list of reasons why I could see why I wouldn't have been called to this, the least of which includes me moving in a few short months to Utah, my husband being a Police Officer that has to work every other Sunday and having two children under the age of two, but I am not one to turn down a calling that is extended to me.

For those of you who are not LDS: Young Women is an organization of well, young women, from the ages of 12-18. They participate in group activities and have Sunday School together in their wards or congregations. So many wards belong to a Stake. For instance, there are 8 wards in our Stake. My role as Stake Young Women Secretary pretty much means I will be taking notes and emailing the necessary people for the Stake Young Women President when we travel to the different wards to meet with them to assess their needs.

The Deer in My Freezer

A few weeks ago, we were driving out to Nana and Pop-Pop's right as the sun was setting. Thomas and I were just talking our drive away when out of no where we heard a giant thunk. I had no idea what we had hit, but he had seen a deer run out in front of the car. It was so quick that he didn't even have time to take his foot off the gas, much less hit the brakes. He immediately turned around and we found it on the side of the road. We had hit the very back of it's leg and it's shin (do deer have shins?) was broken. All the damage we had to the car was a small dent on the edge of our hood that is easily fixed by ourselves, a cracked headlight, and a broken bulb. We have a spare bulb in our car (who knew?) so a after measely $35 for a new headlight front he scrap yard, we are back to normal. We are extremely fortunate it wasn't anymore than that.

He called his brother to come out and bring his truck so we could take it home and cut it up to freeze. Then we heard it grunting at my husband. Apparently, we didn't kill it.

So my husband, the hunter that he is, took his pistol, trekked into the woods, following the trail the deer left (all six feet of it into the trees), hunted it down and then shot it in the head, trying to put it out of it's misery. That didn't work. It was still alive for a little while after that, but it wasn't going anywhere. Sorry, Bambi.

After a trial run in cutting a deer, we now have 15 beer 'n cheddar flavored sausage links, 5 lbs of breakfast pan sausage, 3 lbs of general seasoned pan sausage, 1.5 lbs of italian pan sausage, and a bunch of roasts and back straps and whatnot. I'd say that's a pretty good deal for $35.00.

Not too bad for the first day of gun season.

My Life As I Know It Is Over..

Aiden has figured out that the zippers on his toys work the same as all zippers. No longer am I able to zip up my purse and not have to worry about my checks, debit cards, sunglasses, etc. being strewn all over the place.

Nothing is safe anymore... My sanity included.

But on the good side: I have found a place to put my purse that is out of reach of Aiden and now I am forced to put it there. So no longer will I be running around the house trying to find my purse when I was supposed to be out the door five minutes ago. Maybe this will be a good thing.

Appointments for Celia

She had her one month check up last Wednesday. She weighed 10 lb 1 oz - 75% and was 22 inches long - 90%. She is doing wonderfully. She's very alert and has started to follow objects around the room and she has started to smile! Hooray! I love the first smiles when she's still trying to figure it all out.
We were having trouble nursing on the right side, so I came back today to see the Nursing Guru of the pediatrician office. Apparently she has a high palate which causes her to lose suction and make a clicking sound. The Nurse Practitioner told me that the best way to stop this is to feed her upside down. I am supposed to lie down and have her stomach in front of my face and feed her like that. We'll see how well that goes with a son that loves to help. I have a feeling I'll only use that during nap and at night. I'm not too worried about her intake seeing as how in the past five days she has gained 9 ounces. It just hurts on my end of things but that will heal in time.

It's funny what is said in the middle of a C-Section

I figured when I had my C-section with my son, it was just a funny happenstance that they were talking about weird things that were completely and utterly unrelated to them cutting my abdomen open, but after going through a second one, and having listened to another completely unrelated to the procedure conversation, I guess it's more common than one would think. I guess if you do it all the time, you can talk about other things while stitching one's uterus.

With my son, I listened to conversations about:
The Daytona 500

People who had puked while getting a C-section

My son being the Miami Dolphins next Linebacker (He was a big baby.)

and lastly, the numerous jokes that my anesthesiologist was making which I, regrettaly, can't remember the majority of due to the drugs I was on. Stupid Demerol.



But I would have to say the comments made during my daugher's C-section takes the cake.

They talked about cooties. My doctor was recently pulled over and he kept trying to hit on her, but his name was Sgt. Cootie and she said that no matter how enamored she could be with him, she couldn't bring herself to be Dr. Cootie.

She talked about how it was so hard to stitch up floppy skin. (Thanks, Dr. Greene)

But the best part was what she was singing while the nurses counted off the instruments. During surgery, every five or ten minutes, the nurses have to count off the instruments to make sure they are all accounted for and while she was rambling off "Scalpel: one, two, three, four, five. Clamps: one, two, three, four, five in use, six in use..." so on and so on, my doctor was singing this:

No longer tongue-tied!

Celia got her tongue clipped yesterday. It was real quick. She didn't cry any harder than if she were hungry or gassy and only bled for about an hour. Nursing doesn't seem to bother her and it feels better on my end, as far as I can tell from a few feedings and the pain doesn't seem to bother her because she doesn't cry more than normal and she slept through the night like normal last night.
She keeps sticking her tongue out which looks funny to me because she hasn't been able to do that before today and she is doing it all the time.
I'm glad we did it, despite the doctor not using any pain killers. Just a pair of scizzors and snip, snip, snip she was clipped.

Halloween!

This year was a total cop out again, but much to my pleasure, my son had no idea he was missing out.

Friday night we went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat where Aiden ran around like a maniac dressed up as a nerd (his underlying costume clothing was super nerdy, but you weren't supposed to see that because he was supposed to be stoked to wear his costume... that didn't happen) and Cecilia was adored by the other mommies in the ward. My goal with her costume was to try to get as many people bit by the baby bug as possible. :) Actually, we thought it would be funny if she were a frog and then a few weeks later I realized that with just the costume, people would think she was a boy, so I added a flower to the cap of the costume and made a little frilly tutu, and voila! She was worthy of inducing bites by the baby bug.

Saturday we stayed at home because we are actually in a place that people will come to your house to trick or treat, my husband was working to keep all the bad guys off the streets and I was stuck nursing every hour or two. Granted my mom could have taken Aiden out but that is just full of downsides. One, she could have gotten lost because she doesn't know the area very well, two, I would have missed Aiden's first Trick or Treating, and three, there would have been that time that I would have to nurse and kids would be at the door. Now in this situation, I could do one of two things: I could ignore them and not answer the door, but you can see my nursing chair from the front door, so they would know someone was home and then I'd be that person, or two, I would answer the door while nursing and somehow I don't think the parents of the children would appreciate that too much.

Good thing Aiden had no idea what he was missing. He thought it was great when someone would ring the door bell, making the dog bark and then to answer the door only to see a group of crazy kids there. Then we'd pass out the candy, and he'd yell goodbye and slam the door shut. He loved it! Ignorance is truly bliss.

So there we go. I don't think we will be able to get out of next year, but really, who wants to? Halloween was one of my favorite holidays growing up with all the fretting over what you were going to wear and then the preparation, the chance to wear make-up before I was allowed and not get in trouble for it going around the neighborhood multiple times, making sure to hit the jackpot houses time and time again and then the diligent sorting of the candy afterwards.

I can't wait!

Now feast yourselves on the cuteness of my children in their costumes:
This was the underlying clothing of Aiden's SpongeBob costume. The part you weren't supposed to see.


Cecilia as a girly, frilly frog. I definitely think I'm going to like girls costumes. They're fun.


And my masterpiece: Aiden's homemade SpongeBob costume!! I think it's adorable, even if you can't get a good look at it because he is smooshing it up.

Happy Birth Day, Little Lady!

Our sweet daughter made her first appearance Wednesday, 7 October 2009.
Monday before I started having a lot of Braxton-Hicks and that evening we went over to Thomas' brother's house to have dinner and while I was cooking, the contractions went from just tightening of my stomach muscles to front to back cramping. They continued throughout the night and in the morning they were 15-25 minutes apart, lasting anywhere between 30 and 50 seconds. I called my midwife and she said that since they were still that far apart, and I had an appointment that afternoon at 3.00, just to wait until the appointment, unless they get closer. After lunchtime, we decided that we were going to drop Aiden off at Robbie and Michelle's and Thomas would go with me to the appointment in case they wanted me to stay and monitor me for a little bit. With all the running around of getting a nursing bra, just in case, and dropping Aiden off, my contractions jumped to 7-10 minutes apart.
At my appointment, I was taken back, and had an internal. She said that I definitely had dropped and I was effaced, but hadn't dilated any, but she would talk to the doctor to see what they thought was best. A few minutes later, she comes back into the room and tells us to go to the hospital because I will be having a C-section in two and a half hours.
We rush over to the hospital and get dressed in the flowy gown, we take a "last day pregnant" picture and Thomas gives me a blessing that everything would go well with the delivery and that Mommy and baby would be safe.
We get all ready, and then the nurse comes in and tells us that the doctor called and decided we would have the C-section performed in the morning, instead of that night. She wasn't sure of the reason behind this because she wasn't there when the doctor called, but I suspect it was so it'd be easier to monitor me if I did, in fact, have placenta accreta and have a lot of hemorrhaging. I'd rather be monitored during the day by more nurses and doctors than through the night when staff is at a minimum. So the longest night ever started.
The bed was terrible and plastic and hot. I was strapped up to lots of monitors and couldn't really fidget as much as I wanted and/or needed because it would make the monitors stop working. At 5 a.m. I gave up trying to sleep and just started getting ready for the day.
We got ready and they took me back to the Operating Room. Most everything went fine during the surgery. I threw up, which was a hard and difficult thing to do. I had no stomach muscles to push it out, so it kind of just dripped out of my mouth and down the side of my face the first time. After that, I spit it into the little bowl Thomas was holding for me, but some of it overshot the bowl and got all over Thomas' hand. Oh, the things you do for love.
While they were cutting me open, Cecilia's head was pressed up right against the uterine wall, and they cut her head a little bit. It was very superficial and stopped bleeding with just the pressure of gauze and the little hat's babies get from the hospital.
Afterwards, they took me back to the recovery room and I was able to hold Celia and nurse her right away. She latched on immediately and we were on our way.
The rest of our hospital stay went by fairly quickly. I was in much better shape this C-section than last and was even able to walk to my new room just 12 hours after surgery. It was slow going, but I did it.
I am so grateful our little girl is here and I am excited to finally be able to get to know the person who so tormented me from inside for the past eight and a half months.

Happy Birthday, Old Man!

My husband's birthday was yesterday.

He started his birthday celebrations Saturday morning with a trip down to Tampa, Florida so he could go see Metallica with his three brothers. I'm really glad he was able to do this, he has never been to a concert with any of them and to have all three of them there with him, seeing their favorite band, is awesome. Also, they had a lot of time to just hang out before and after the concert without the worries of wives and kids.
He said it was probably the best concert he's ever been to and considering all the concerts he has attended, that's really saying something. But when you're seeing Metallica, can you really expect anything less?
He spent the night in Tampa Saturday night and came home Sunday morning. Afterwards we went out to his parents to hang out with his family for dinner and to listen to the Miami Dolphins game, which they won. Go Dolphins! Aiden was being a royal pain in the behind, hoarding the fried okra from the other kids and trying to beat them up if they came too close to "his precious". (Like the Lord of the Rings reference there? Yeah.. I'm a nerd.) But eventually we just went outside to brave the mosquitoes and to hang out with the menfolk.
Then we came home, put Aiden to bed and then spent a wonderful evening together before calling it quits and going to bed.

Here's to one more year!

It's Good, Momma, I Promise!

There is no doubt in my mind that my son is 100%, absolutely, through and through all boy. He is disgusting and dirty and a dork all at once.

Never when I make a nice meal does he eat it and say, "Mmmmm, Good!" Or rather, to spell it phonetically correct with his 20 month old accent, "Ummm, goo-eh!" It's always when he is eating the dog's food or drinking milk that's been sitting in his sippy cup all day long that he saves the "Mmmm, Good!" declaration.

Tonight, another one reached the ranks of the "Mmmm, Good!" Hall of Fame. We have seasonal allergies and along with those come funny boogers. The boogers that you can't really blow but drive you crazy all day long. I understand that sometimes with funny boogers you have no choice but to pick your nose, especially when you are a disgusting, dirty, dorky little boy that just found out that your finger is a perfect fit in your nostril. So he was picking his nose and after getting a big, honking booger out of his nose, he proceeded to try to eat it. I stopped him and told him it was yucky and as I was trying to wipe it off the tip of his finger he pops it into his mouth with lightning speed and declares that it is "Mmmm, Good!" I tried to tell him it was yucky, yucky, yucky but he just kept trying to tell me that it was good.

Well, tonight as I was putting him to bed, we read our scripture stories, turned out the lights and then said our prayers and then while I was singing him a song, he was using the darkness of his room to pick and lick his boogers because he said "Mmmm, Good!" one more time and then tried to shove a booger into my mouth. Apparently, I am missing out on something amazing in this world, and it is his mission to open up my eyes.

At least he was trying to share.

Doctor, Doctor, Doctor

If you guys couldn't tell, I'm pregnant. Wasn't sure if you were getting that vibe from my recent posts or not, just thought I'd make that clear.

I went to my OB again. Nothing changed. Not my weight (still at 23# total pregnant weight gain), not my fundus height (still at 36 cm), not Celia's heartbeat (still in the low 140's). All the same. I was in and out in a flash. I signed in, they took me back immediately just to get my vitals, but turned out the doctor (not my midwife) could see me right then, so I peed super fast into a Dixie Cup, she checked out my bare belly, gave me some candy, made me laugh a lot while she was trying to hear the baby's heartbeat, which is completely counter productive, but she just kept carrying on with the jokes, so it's her fault, then I made myself decent again and was on my way.

Next appointment is Tuesday, maybe I'll have some more information as far as pre-op and whatnot goes. I should also get an internal exam - fun! At least I'll have some more stats as far as effacement, dialation, station of the baby and whatnot.

We'll see, we'll see.

Pregnancy Cravings

I've officially reached the point where I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore. Mostly because I cannot sleep at night. I toss and turn all night long, although that actually makes it sound like it is a fast process. I'm more like a steamroller. I eventually turn over, but it's a slow, exhausting act to try to flip over to the other side. Luckily, I have the most hideous, fantastic pajama bottoms in the world. They are nice and slippery to make it easier to turn over in bed, but nice and stretchy to accommodate my still-growing belly. Fortunately, they are just pajamas, because they are absolutely the most hideous things I have ever seen in my life, but I love them and I hope they last throughout the rest of my pregnancies.
Through all these steamrolling sessions, I have found that recently I have had the most off-the-wall cravings. Luckily for my weight gain, I would never have that combination in my house on a normal day and my husband is on night shift so I can't go run to the store real quick because no matter how bad these cravings are, they are not worth waking up my 20-month-old, teething son. For example, last night, I woke up at 1:34 a.m. wanting to eat beef jerky with cheese whiz. Can't explain it, I have no idea why that sounded good to me, even now it kinda makes my stomach writhe, but in my sleepy stupor, that was the most amazing sounding snack I could have ever thought of.
With my son, I can't say that I really had any strong cravings. There were certainly times that a particular dinner sounded really good, but it was a normal thing, like steak and fries, and I really could have done without it if I had to, it just sounded really good.
But this pregnancy is entirely different.
I have had a new craving almost on a monthly basis. Most of them were fairly normal things, I just had to have them all the time. The first trimester I ate a lot of quesadillas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and loaded hot dogs. That is mostly because those are the only things that didn't make me want to vomit at the thought of it. Then it moved on to spaghetti or macaroni and tomatoes. After that was apples sliced up and dipped in peanut butter. Then it was Twizzlers. Most of the time when my husband and I go grocery shopping, we would get Twizzlers for our son because it's a fairly un-messy snack, and I would always end up eating 3/4 of the package. I've even come to the point where I pass the 4 pound bucket of twizzlers down the candy aisle and ultimately decide not to get it because I don't need to eat that many pounds of Twizzlers in one sitting. I can almost guarantee that is what would happen. Right now I am in a Buffalo Wing state of craving. In the last week, we have had wings at least 4 times.
I wonder if anything else will pop up in the next 16 days.

As a kind of related side note, I am officially done being pregnant because my belly button has popped out. It's like the thing you put in Turkey's, when it pops, it's done.

The Day Shift/Night Shift Debate

My husband and I continually butt heads over his work schedule. There's nothing we can do about it, it changes on a monthly basis most of the time, but I am a big fan of day shift and he is very much a fan of night shift.
I wish I could be fair and balanced in this, but since Thomas doesn't blog, and I do, I have a feeling this will be a little one sided.
I can understand that night shift as a cop is much more interesting because that's when you get to deal with the underbelly of society instead of monotonous traffic tickets and accidents which equates to lots of paperwork and traffic court. I understand that, especially for a night person, 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. goes a lot slower than the flip side of that. I understand that during Florida summers, driving around in a patrol car, wearing a polyester uniform with a bullet proof vest while sitting on pretty much plastic seats is extremely hot and quickly drains any energy you have.
Despite all that, I prefer day shift and love that it has to come around once in a while. I love the days he has off and the mornings we spend together. Actually wondering what I will make for breakfast because when it's just my 20 month old son who eats disgusting stuff on a regular basis, and myself, why make anything fancier than a bowl of cereal? If I do feel fancy that day, I'll cut up a banana and throw it in the cereal, but when Thomas has a day off, I can dream of breakfast of French Toast or Waffles or even a delicious breakfast burrito because it's worth the effort to do that for my husband. I love that when he is on day shift I can lay in bed when I hear Aiden wake up and be able to say, "It's your turn to get him", so I can lie in bed a little bit longer without the guilt of leaving my adorable son in his crib while I am trying to find motivation to lug my giant, pregnant belly out of bed and immediately to the bathroom because I have a bad case of pregnant-lady-stand-up-pee's. I love that I have an entire day with him on his days off, as opposed to just the afternoon hours because he is sleeping all morning long. I love that, even on the days he works, I can look forward to having lunch and dinner with him instead of making him lunch when he wakes up, two hours after I have eaten my lunch, and making him dinner while trying to get Aiden ready for bed, two hours after I have eaten dinner. I frequently have PB&J or a ham sandwich for dinner when he is on night shift because I get tired of making so many individual meals throughout the day which adds up to a lot of dishes to do everyday.
Most of all, I love day shift because he has normal sleeping hours, which means I don't have to fight my son all morning long from waking up Daddy. I don't have to try to explain to my toddler that Daddy needs his sleep and you can't play with him right now, no matter how pathetic his cries. I love that Daddy is his best friend and he so desperately yearns to be with him and play with him, but it breaks my heart when I have to pull him away from our bedroom door every 30, 15, 2 minutes to try to explain to him that Daddy can't wrestle or make him fly or throw him onto the bed, but he will after nap time.

How in the world do you accomplish that? Maybe someday I will have the motivation to actually get out of the house and play at the park or go for a walk to kill some of the long morning hours, but as of right now, Florida is just too humid and too hot and I am too pregnant to even entertain the idea of going someplace outside to kill some time. I guess I am just a glutton for punishment.

I Saw My Baby Doctor Again Today

Ya know, my baby doctor, as opposed to my baby daddy.

Anyways.

I am measuring right at 36 weeks, which I will be tomorrow. Heartbeat was the same: in the 140's. I gained another three pounds in the past three weeks which puts me to a total pregnancy gain of 23 lbs. I'm hoping to keep it at 25, so I can only gain two pounds in the next three weeks, I think I can do it because I had a salty dinner last night so I was retaining water today.

My C-section is set to be scheduled on October 16, 2009 at 0730, which means I will need to be there at like 5.00 am to get signed in and get my blood work done and all the other stuff you do when you go to the hospital to be cut open. They will let me know what I need to do as far as having a pre-op appointment and whatnot at my next appointment which next Wednesday, Sept 30.

Things are going along smoothly and I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore.

Rosetta Stone

Thomas and I finally got a bonafide copy of Rosetta Stone Latin America Spanish in the mail today. We set a goal probably about six months ago to get one and then we finally saved up enough money to buy one, only to find out that it was a bootleg copy, so the next go around we were more careful. We bought it and it finally came in the mail today!
Yay!
So hopefully soon Thomas and I, but more Thomas because he wants to be able to use it for work, will be speaking Spanish kinda fluently.
Or maybe at least choppily.

Pictures from Utah

Aiden's adorable blanket that my mom and Tracy have been working on. I kinda helped when I went out in May and a little bit this time, but mostly it was just them two. I can't really take any of the credit other than helping pick out the fabric and making some of the nine-piece squares.



And Cecilia's blanket.



Sunday evening it had rained pretty hard at Tracy's house, and the wind blew a bunch of the rainwater onto the carpeted part of the porch. Aiden found the puddles and splashed in them, and then found that if he put his forehead in the puddle, when he stood up, it would drip down his face.


Tracy's kids found that the gutter at the adjoining street was continually flooded because there was a drain from a retention pond at the top of the hill. The kids had fun walking through it, sending boats and Barbie's down it and creating "super tsunami's" by holding the water back by sitting in it and then letting it all flow down to create a huge rush. Aiden had tons of fun walking through it and throwing rocks in the flow to see them go down the little river.

OB Again.

I had another appointment with my OB yesterday and can you believe I was in and out in 40 minutes?! Incredible. That even included time figuring out a bill I had received.
From the ultrasound they still couldn't rule out Placenta Accreta (Placenta implanting itself in the uterine wall), but if I do have it, it is just a mild case. I will be having a C-section and the tentative date is October 16. Only 6 weeks away! It's not set in stone yet because as the date gets closer, we have to look at the doctor's surgery schedule, but it seems that'll be the date.
The heartbeat was in the low 140's, the fundus height was 34 cm, and I have only gained 18 lbs this pregnancy and was commended for how well I was doing. Huge pat on the back for me.
My next appointment is in three weeks and then after that I will start my weekly visits until the baby is born. I absolutely cannot wait!

Impromptu Trip to Utah

Aiden and I just got back from our quick trip to Utah and it was fantastic.
I was super nervous about flying without Thomas, 7 months pregnant with a 19 month old boy, but apparently those circumstances make most everybody pity you and hook you up with good seats. :)
We had a layover in Atlanta, Denver and then were in Salt Lake by 4.00 pm on Saturday. We had good seats that gave time to let Aiden be entertained or have the space he needed in his own seat. When we got to the airport, we sat there for an hour before my mom finally asked the information desk if she could find out if a passenger had landed. The information desk then told her that she was in the wrong terminal. Thank goodness that was it. I spent that hour calling my siblings over and over and trying to come up with a logical explanation as to why my mom wouldn't be there but kept coming up short and freaking out thinking she was in an accident. It's times like this that I wish she had a cell phone. (Hint, hint!!!)
That evening, and the next three and a half days, I spent at Tracy-Ann's house just hanging out. Sunday I was able to go to the Oquirrh Mountain LDS Temple Dedication, and despite the heat in the cultural hall of the church, it was absolutely and amazingly beautiful.
We were able to work on the blankets my mom and Tracy have been making for Aiden and Cecilia, make me a huge, pregnant-lady apron in hopes that my clothes will be a little less stained and just spend time together while her daughters smothered Aiden with their every action. Brenna also came up on Tuesday and hung out with us for the day and even spent the night, so we had a big sleep over on the couch in the basement.
I was going to go up to Montana with my parents Monday through Wednesday, but at the last minute decided to stay home because Aiden wasn't taking naps and was still on Florida time despite my putting him to bed on Utah time, so he was losing a good 3-4 hours of sleep a day and I didn't think he would make the 10 hour drive to Montana to turn around and do it again a couple days later to turn around and fly home a couple days later. I also didn't think my pregnant body would be able to handle it as well as I had been hoping.
Wednesday I went home with my parents and then spent Thursday shopping with my mom for a few things here and there and then went up to Dennie and Hillary's for the evening.
My mom and I took Dennie's girls and Aiden to a softball game Dennie was playing in and then it was time for bed.
Friday I had one last farewell with everyone at Golden Corral and then it was off to the airport.
My first flight was delayed 30 minutes because the crew was doing the security checks and when I landed in Denver, they were holding the plane for myself and one other guy, so we ran to the next door gate to barely catch our breath before it was time to take off again.
Luckily, again, people took pity on me and Aiden and I had three seats to ourselves and the plane had TV's on the back of every seat so Aiden was entertained with Nickelodeon and looking out the window.
Our last flight was delayed by 30-40 minutes because the flight crew was caught up with their previous flight. They had a medical emergency while in flight and had to take care of the passenger and then fill in the people you fill in when you land. So finally at 12:35 a.m. technically Saturday morning, I arrived in Jacksonville. Super long day.
I am so glad I was able to spend time with my family one last time before the baby is born and look forward to seeing my mom in a few weeks! :)

Thank you, Thomas, for being so willing to let me go.

I'm Homeward Bound!!

Thomas and I obviously fly quite a bit to see my family and because we do, we frequently get emails from Travelocity letting us know of good deals on flights. Well, today Thomas got an email with low fares from Jacksonville to Salt Lake City. Thomas checked them out, and we found that I could fly home before the baby was born for $250, but womp, womp, it was too close for my due date.

So we checked for flights leaving this weekend and hooray! We found one that was cheap enough, so Aiden and I will be flying out to Utah this Saturday and coming back the following Friday. I am super ecstatic because I get especially homesick when I am pregnant. Crazy hormones. I can't wait!

Time to go do laundry!! :D :D :D

Say Please, Zelda!

The other day I was in the living room folding laundry and Aiden was driving me crazy with his "helping" so I sent him away. He went into the kitchen and I heard him rummaging through there and I thought to myself, "Good, he's getting himself some snacks, that'll keep him occupied for a little bit."
Then I heard him saying "pweease" over and over and I wondered why he would be doing that if he were feeding himself.
I turned the corner and I found him sitting in his high chair eating crackers, but holding one right in front of Zelda saying "pweease" and when she would go to eat it, he'd pull it back and say "pweease" again but in a more serious tone.

He was trying to make her say please before she could have a cracker.

Sweet Whisperings of the Spirit

I love my sweet little son. I especially love how aware and sensitive he is becoming to things of a spiritual nature. The other day he was playing with his toy cars, making them vroom and go fast across the room and he stops playing, stands up, folds his arms and bows his head, mumbles for a few seconds then says, "'men!" and continues playing. He did this about 10 times in a 5 minute span. It is amazing to me that at such a young age, he can recognize those things.
Also, he has become a big fan of pictures of Jesus. Every night I read him scripture stories and right now we are in the New Testament. Every time he sees a picture of Jesus (there's like 2 on every page, at least) he will point to it and say "Jesus!!" well, it comes out more like "Gee-ya" and then proceed to tickle Him. Apparently, Jesus is ticklish. :) He will also point out pictures of Jesus as we are walking through church or if he sees the one we have hanging in our house.
It makes my heart swell to see his precious spirit coming out and I am so grateful I am blessed with such a wonderful child. It absolutely makes up for the irrational terrible two tantrums that have started to rear its ugly head.

OB yet again.

Sorry I'm so behind. I get on here almost daily to read the blogs of others and to update my own with cute litte stories of Aiden that I know I'll forget, but by the time I am done reading all the other blogs, I go on to reading the news and forget all about posting my own.
My last OB appointment was on July 28. I had an ultrasound beforehand to see where the placenta was. I had thought they were checking to see if I just had an anterior placenta (placenta in the front of the uterus instead of the top) but what they were actually checking was to see if I had Placenta Accreta. My midwife had explained it to me in layman's terms, and I took those layman terms to find the medical term and came up with the wrong one. Placenta Accreta is where the placenta actually implants itself in the uterus wall and when I deliver, either the placenta won't come out, or it'll tear, causing hemmoraging, which if bad enough, could lead to a hysterectomy. Very unlikely, absolute worst case scenario but possible. You can imagine the nightmares that I had after that. The rest of that week went by very, very slowly because everytime I fell asleep I'd have terrible dreams of hemmoraging and whatnot, but I am okay with it now. If I do have it, I am just that much more likely to have a C-section (I know I'll have one, I just always have that little hope in the back of my mind that I won't have to go through that again because it was quite possibly the one of the worst times in my life). If they perform a C-section, they will be able to cut it out instead of having it tear out and they can better control the bleeding.
But I'm not even sure I have it, I will find out at my next appointment at the end of August.
The baby is still a girl and she looks perfectly healthy. She is 2 lbs, 11 oz +/- 6 oz. So essentially right on track, just a tad bit bigger than average, but that'll happen. I measured 29 weeks, one week ahead, so everything looks fine. I'm doing much better with my weight this go around. I'm sure the incredible amounts of sweating I do throughout the day in this Florida humidity and heat help with that. Also the fact that I lost like 5-10 lbs my first trimester helps keep the overall weight gain down, as well.
I do have to take iron pills because I am "slightly anemic", but that's it. I will find out more at my next appointment, which I believe will be with the doctor that will be performing the C-section instead of with my midwife.

Beauty and the Beast

So I have been so excited for this past Thursday to come for the past couple of weeks. Brad and his girlfriend, Brandi, invited Thomas and I to see Beauty and the Beast in Jacksonville. I had everything all planned out and we get all ready to go, Thomas takes Aiden out to Robbie and Michelle's and while he is gone, our little window A/C unit falls out of the window and breaks, so Thomas comes back and is all upset that he has to deal with this while in his nice, dressy clothes. Luckily we had one in the shed that we could use in the meantime in our bedroom because there's just no sleeping in there without an A/C, but as he is carrying it inside, all the water drips down onto his clothes, but we noticed quickly and it was all the clean water that got on him, so he didn't have stained clothes or anything.
So we get that in, and they come and we drive out to Jacksonville. We finally get out there and as we are walking around The Landing, trying to find someplace to eat, I start having terrible contractions. I was walking in heels, it was hot and humid, and I hadn't had enough water to drink that afternoon. All the things that you are supposed to avoid doing if you don't want to deal with Braxton-Hicks. Also, keep in mind that I just had a straight C-section with Aiden. Never started labor, never was induced, just cut open. So this is the first time I've felt contractions like this. It sucked. A lot!
So we eat at a nice restaurant and then it's time to walk to the Times Union Theater just a couple blocks away. Entire time I'm fighting through contractions. We get there and there is no one there. Period. No. One. Brad knocks on the door and a security guard answers and it's obvious he's had to deal with this all night because he tells us that it's not at this theater, but the FCCJ South Campus twenty minutes away.
Fantastic.
The website we bought the tickets from gave us directions to the Times Union Theater. Not the FCCJ Theater. So we decide that we're just going to miss the play because by the time I walked (ever so slowly) back to the truck and got in, drove there, found a parking place, it would probably had been 45-60 minutes later and then we wouldn't be let in until intermission and we would have missed half the show.
So we went to Orange Park and saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince again. It was awesome, again, but more awesome this time because it was a nice theater and the tickets were only 5 dollars! Hooray!
Then by the time we got home, it was about midnight, so we decided to leave Aiden at Robbie and Michelle's and I would pick him up the next day. It was very disconcerning. It wasn't like he wasn't well taken-care of, he absolutely was in very capable hands, it was just weird to have my house so empty. Who knew that the absence of 28 pounds could make a house feel so barren?
All in all, it was a fantastic night, despite stupid websites.

My Crazy Colorful House

I have tried to explain to my family just how colorful this house is, but I have a feeling that it is lost on them. So here are pictures.
These are the colors that were here when we moved in. Jeannie, Thomas' aunt, lived her before us and she is very much a painter and this is very much her taste. She pulls it off amazingly well and I loved it when they lived here, but I'm afraid that I'm just not able to pull off the things that she is able to with such ease. Wall colors included. But I'm afraid they will stay these colors because I can't paint because I'm pregnant and Thomas has to work all the time and really, who wants to paint on your days off? Especially in this gross Florida humidity that would take forever to have the paint dry.

This is our entryway (pink) looking into our kitchen (yellow with blue floors) looking into our guest room (painter's tape blue).

This is our living room (purple) looking into our office area/Aiden's play area (mint green with copper tile accents and a retro corner).

This is Aiden's room. Pink, very pink, with one green wall. This will change as soon as I am able to paint.

This is our guest bathroom that is painted either school bus yellow or road line yellow.

This is our front door. Very purple. It is this color on the outside as well. When we moved in, I was telling the phone company where my house was and told them they couldn't miss it because it was a pink house with a purple door and turquoise shutters and the lady just laughed and after a pause said, "You're serious." Yes, yes, I am serious. But, it is a subtle pink, not in your face pink, so it's okay.

Our retro corner in the office area/Aiden's play area.

Our guest bedroom with the painter's tape blue on the top half and on the bottom the purple. One wall is entirely that purple with a forest green bookshelf built in. Looking into our yellow kitchen with blue floors.

Somehow I missed our room, the "dressing room" and our bathroom. Thomas was probably getting ready for work or something when I took these pictures. Or more likely, it was just really messy and I didn't want to take pictures of that.

Just cute pictures.

Aiden absolutely loves his "goggie" and gives her hugs all the time. I love that they are becoming such good friends and play together all the time.


Aiden frequently sits on Zelda and then tries to sing the Bonanza Theme Song while bouncing up and down like he is riding a horse. Zelda sits there patiently and when he's done, she'll give him a big kiss on the face and then walk off. She's a really good dog.








Aiden loves to have his picture taken and has a new crazy face when he smiles. I love it.

Fourth of July Weekend

So for the Fourth of July, we went out to the "compound" (the property where the family lives, and we used to live) and had a nice BBQ. We were going to go to neighboring cities to see fireworks, but decided last minute that it wasn't worth it for the three of us seeing as how Aiden probably wouldn't even remember it in the morning. So, we went out on the boat on the Suwannee River. This was my first time on the boat and it was pretty awesome. Aiden was very hesitant at first but as it turns out, he has much better sea legs than I do. But honestly, who's that surprised?
We were out with Pop-pop, Daddy, his cousin Zach, Aiden and myself and it was fantastic to just ride along with the wind blowing in our faces. Aiden especially loved that and would stick his tongue out like a dog when we would be going fast.
I wish I could say I took pictures the entire time, but I was way too much of a nervous Nelly and was busy making sure Aiden wasn't in the way of the fishermen and I was also the official cutter of hot dogs for the boys because I couldn't fish because I don't have an up-to-date fishing license, but here are some pictures when we stopped at a beach near the end so Aiden could play in the water.
And just so you know, the water is supposed to look like that. At least, it always does because of the tanic acid created from all the leaves that fall in it. It's essentially a tea river.