I just LOVE waiting...

... on this baby. Ok, that might not be true, but I did love being able to celebrate Valentines Day with my love on Friday. (Figured we better get it in early with baby supposedly coming) I bought a Groupon last week for a place called Tapas Toro Bar, thinking it was an authentic Spanish restaurant (and too expensive for us... hence the Groupon!). Well it turns out that the menu wasn't so much Spanish food, except for the Paella, which we ordered. The waitress assured us it was a LOT of food and we'd definitely be taking some home. Nope! We were slightly embarrassed as she cleared our empty plates and commented that we must have really liked it. It was ok... we just like to eat....

Which is something I can't say for our kid! Abrupt change of topic.... I need some parenting help. I thought the current child was supposed to get ornery AFTER the new baby came, not before. He has been about all I can handle lately. He is the pickiest eater. Even foods that I know he likes, he won't touch. I dread dinner time. All we do is bribe, coerce and beg him to eat. I guess that goes for all meals. I used to watch parents do this and think, what's the big deal?! So they don't want to eat.... don't make them! They'll eat when they're hungry. But the thing is, that means they want to snack all day on crackers and junk and never eat {real} food. He also contradicts himself all the time. We were at Sam's Club yesterday and got a free sample. I tried to give him some multiple times but he wanted nothing to do with it. That is, until I threw it away. Then he went berserk, screaming and reaching for the garabage can. What am I missing here?

He is also big on {hitting}. When he gets mad, he hits. When he's not mad, he hits. On Saturday, he took a swipe at Gavin and I when I said, "don't hit", he looked at me with a smirk on his face and then hit him again! Time out isn't doing the trick. Saying sorry and giving hugs doesn't do it either. I find myself repressing a spanking most times. I mean how would that be effective. "Don't hit!" ... and now I'm going to hit YOU. Still.... it's tempting. And I suspect most will say it's just a phase. They will grow out of it. It may be true, but I still don't like that answer. Soooo, any good parenting books out there that are MUST READS?! I obviously don't know what I'm doing. And I just hate waiting on phases to end.... :)

 And I'm also getting slightly impatient on waiting for this baby.... Not that that's a surprise. I had an appt. yesterday but he didn't check me. Can't say I'm sad about that. The {checking} ritual is already getting old. If I don't have him this week I have to go in for another ultrasound to check fluids and such. I'm pretty sure I'll be making that ultrasound. :(

On the plus side, I'm getting more odds and ends things out of the way. Including this gem of a craft! Rachel found something similar online and we decided to copy. We made them whilst watching the Bachelor last night and I LoVe the way it turned out. :) I also made a couple little hats for him yesterday since the hospital ones are so dreary. And I can't complain that I get to make it to Bunco tonight! So I'll just keep thinkin' on the postive while I wait and wait and......

Nesting

Well the nesting bug finally hit me a couple weeks ago and I've been plugging through {the list} ever since. It just seems that with every thing I cross off, I think of 2 more I could add on. And of course the laundry and cleaning and cooking never end. Why can't all that be put on hold? I would love to have a sparkling bathroom and kitchen floor and no clothes in the hamper the night I go into labor. Right. I have a feeling that once I feel my first contraction, I'll be making a mad dash for the mop bucket. As it is, I feel pretty good about what I've gotten done so far...

1. Go through all the baby clothes, separate, organize, and store appropriately (this included dumping numerous grocery bags out and actually folding and storing everything neatly in bins)

2. Wash all covers of carseats, swings, seats, and bassinet.

3. Set up pack 'n play and bassinet in room along with changing table. (This turned into completely rearranging our bedroom and moving all furniture within)

4. Buy diapers, changing pad cover, and baby book (still need the book)

5. Fill out and mail pre-registration hospital form

6. Clean!! Everything. Including dusting cob webs from 2 years build up, dusting, vacuuming, de-junking, and the like.

7. Clean and organize/file the office. I should have taken a {before} picture. The office is the place that gets dumped on. I had a filing pile from 6 months of mail. I HATE looking at it. Getting that done was a big sigh of relief. And as I was adding to our ever increasing pile of loan statements, I couldn't help but be amazed. Do you think that Direct Loans is afraid we'll forget that we owe them our lives? And this isn't even all of them. I just started saving them a year and half ago. We'll get three at a time. I think the Postal Service could stay in business just thanks to DL.

 8. Make car seat cover.

 9. Finish Valentines Day craft.

This bugger took at least 4 hours to complete. It was cheap, but tedious. And no, it wasn't on the original nesting list, but was one of those extras that I wanted to fit in. My V-day decor is seriously lacking.

And really, the list goes on and on. I was happy to cross off visiting teaching, grocery shopping, mending temple dress, registering for the Family Room and paying some bills, but I still need to cut Trav's hair, reapply for insurance, pack a hospital bag, possibly prepare another SS lesson, and do a new round of cleaning. And if I don't have the baby this week I'll be able to fit in Book Club, celebrating Valentine's Day early with Trav on Friday, a get together with friends on Saturday and having over some friends for dinner on Sunday. I'm not even due until next Saturday, but this dumb dilation thing has me all ready for an early delivery. And now that my back starts aching on cue at 4pm and I've reached 3 potty breaks now during bedtime, and I can only fit into my larger sized garment bottoms, and a new stretch mark appeared yesterday, and I seem to be selling crack every time I bend over because my pants won't fit any higher, I think I'm ready for a baby! :)

I do wonder how and when he will come and how it will affect this guy and his school....

He's been doing lab work at home a couple different times, and of course I had to take a picture since it sort of fascinates me.

And as I've already said, I keep wondering how all this change will affect THIS guy!

Each day that I don't have a baby, I think I treasure just a bit more, knowing it's one of my last with just {me and him}. He is getting pretty good at saying Weston and likes to pat my stomach. He is also getting good at imitating my exasperated "Uggggggghhhhh!" when I've had it with him. He's right on cue... when I finish my grunt, he starts his. He's probably as fed up with me as I am with him at those points anyway. :) But at the end of the day I don't know what I'd do without my Collinator.

GiRL's NiGhT!

This past weekend was a fun getaway... no boys allowed :) Destination: Toronto!

3 of the 4 pictured here are pregnant (which ones??!) and with me due in two weeks, we knew we needed to make this trip a reality before more babies entered the world. I had a doctor's appt. right before we left and he told me I was dilated the same. When I told him about our trip he raised his eyebrows and said I better turn the car around quick if my water broke or I started having contractions. I'll admit that the farther away we drove, the more secretly anxious I became. We joked that at least we had 2 nurses in the car that totally knew how to clamp an umbilical cord and my only real concern would be the mess left in Rachel's car. Yuck. Well, I'm happy to report that no fetus's became newborns and we had a great time :)

We pulled in to Toronto around 8pm and had dinner at a nice restaurant called Casey's Bar and Grill. Then we checked into our hotel before going to the theater to see The Dilemma. It was a comedy with Vince Vaughn and was really pretty funny. Unfortunately for Megan, she must have caught some sort of bug earlier, and missed the last 15 min. of the show, generously giving her dinner back to the bathroom. Poor Meg! :(

 We went back to the hotel after the movie to binge on treats (ok, so maybe only Rach and I were the oinkers :) and what else... talk! Many a {Truth} question was asked and answered....

 ... and some pillows were thrown. (We had to continue the cliches, right?) 

And even sweet Megan stayed up with us until nearly 4am. She deserved some sort of award.

 The next day we slept in, then went to the Toronto temple. None of us had been there before so it was fun to be at a new temple! It's a "big" one so it was nice to have many session times to choose from, although our session was very small and there didn't seem to be many workers around. We were completely by ourselves in the Celestial room for like 20 minutes! Then we had to wander around until we found the dressing room again. I remembered a story about my parents being out of town and at a temple, and my dad being embarrassed because my mom decided to help herself to her own tour. So my mom! :) Of course she was hounded down and  reprimanded by the workers for being where she shouldn't be. I felt like we could have easily gotten away with doing just that!

 This is the closest IKEA to where we live, so we had to stop in and do some shopping! We are such moms though.... the majority of what we bought was for our munchkins.

 Driving into downtown, we saw the Hockey Hall of Fame and I rolled my eyes.... why would anyone care about that?!! Then it dawned on me where we were.... Canada. Duh, Stephanie... obviously a very important structure. :)

 This massive mall is the Eaton Centre. Dummies close at 7pm and charge $8 for parking! Not impressed.

Crescent was looking for some jeans and I think she found the perfect pair at H&M! :) I don't think this picture fully portrays the nasty {80'sness} of this denim number. 

 On the way home I tried to take a picture of the CN Tower but this was the best I could do. On their website they claim to be the tallest building in the world, but I thought some building in Dubai held that record. Upon further research it seems that title is subject to very specific definitions which vary by organization.. highest observation deck... % of useable floor space, etc. Lame. But according to the Guiness Book of World Records's definiton, they hold the title of Highest Building in the World.

 It was my white trash idea to go see the Monster Trucks at Roger's Centre that night, but by 7pm we were all yawning and it was snowing pretty bad so we decided it was best to head home. I do think it would have been quite memorable for all those classy citizens to see 3 pregnant ladies cheering on the Grave Digger. (Apparently I was the only one even familiar with this famous truck). Darn. Maybe another time! :) We saw lots of cars spun out on the side of the road on our drive home, but thankfully we made it safely to Buffalo and our sweet hubbies who had held down the forts while we were away. My only regret is that we haven't done this more often over the past couple years! The 4 of us have been wanting to do this for a while now, so I'm glad we finally got her done! :)I'm so thankful to have such great friends. It was a trip to remember.
(Apologies to Rachel for all the many bathroom breaks we had to take... blame the pregnant girls!:)



Pencil Grip

Yesterday, while Collin was busy coloring, I happened to glance down and notice he had switched from {cave man grip} to quite a decent pencil grip! I have to be honest, the teacher in me was overflowing with pride. :)

On a different note, Collin cracked me up last night. When Travis gets home from school and we hear him at the door, Collin usually jumps up and runs to greet him, excitedly shouting "Dadas!" along the way. Well, Trav's brother, Marcus, has been staying with us since last Wednesday and Collin says his name perfectly. Probably better than any other word he can say. Well, last night when I heard Travis at the door, I turned to Collin and said "Oh! Who's at the door?!", expecting the usual routine. His eyes lit up as he jumped off the couch and yelled, "Marcus, Marcus!!", running at full speed to the door. I died. It looks like you've been replaced, Trav. 

Prego Update

If he doesn't have enough hair on top of his head, how about a goatee? :)

I love the look he's giving the camera. I get this look frequently throughout the day. He's quite a tease. And really hit the jackpot on desserts today... nothin' wrong with a chocolate cupcake before bed, right?

So it may not be too much longer before this little munchin has a little brother!

I'm due Feb. 5, but have been mentally preparing myself for another baby who wants to cook well past his expected arrival. I knew I didn't want to start the {nesting} phase until after Christmas, but have still found myself dragging my feet with getting things in order. I guess I figured once the nesting was over, the impatience would begin! WELL, I went in for a doctor's appt. today and while he was checking me, he raised his eyebrows and said that the baby was low... VERY low- his head was in position and I was dialated to a 2 or 3! Then he told me I better not leave town. Now I know that some girls will sit at a 3 for a month, and that could very well happen to me, but I just can't believe it! I didn't dialate 1 stinkin' cm with Collin until I was in labor. And now when I'm really not ready for a baby, mentally or otherwise... it seems he could be making an early appearance. What gives? And now that I'm stressing about it, I'll bet he doesn't come til after his due date. He's just messing with me and he hasn't even been born! I think I might even NEED him to be late because I'm quite nervous about 2 kids. The more I pull out widdle baby clothes, the  more my stomach turns in knots. Am I ready to start a no-sleep lifestyle again? How will Collin react to the new addition? Will this kid be a good nurser? Will he be healthy? Will I end up with a C-section? Will I go fast and not have time for an epideral? (I kinda secretly hope so). I'm starting to have abnormal fears about Collin not feeling loved enough once the baby comes. That I'll be cranky and tired and not a good mom. And just as I'm about to lose it all to panic, I berate myself for being so paranoid about two children when girls my age have 3, 4, or 5! I think I'll just start my deep breathing exercises now. :)

Not Sledding

Today, playgroup was meeting to go sledding. Since I've yet to do any {fun} snow activities with Collin, I thought we'd give it a whirl. We were 1/2 hour late (had to get snow boots at Wal-Mart) and by the time we showed up, the two other girls were loading up their cars to leave! It was snowing and blowing and the kids were crying. Well I didn't spend 20 min. getting both of us all bundled up for nothing so we had our fun snow day in the driveway. He couldn't hold anything with his mittens on, so we touched the snow, kicked the snow, and hated the snow when it started blowing in our face!

 A little 4 wheelin' down the tire tracks of the driveway. Fun on the way down... not fun on the way up with the snow blowing in our face!

 All was better when we came in for a sweet treat.. snow doused in Juicy Juice. I was enjoying it as much as Collin! Who knew snow had the most delectable texture? :)

I love this picture... it's like he's licking his lips and closing his eyes in shear pleasure. Ahhhh.

 On the third cup, his poor body started shivering, and even this pile of blankets didn't cure it, so I figured some hot chocolate was in order. Yin and yang. He seemed pleased with the day's activities. I just hope he doesn't remember all this and want to do it again tomorrow!

Footnote: Yes, the poor boy got a hair cut. It had been well over a month and hair over the ears drives me BANANAS. His last two haircuts have been over the top dramatic. He screams and cries and you'd literally think he was being dismembered, so I thought I'd go short and save myself the headache of doing it again very soon. Well now I regret it! I call him bald baby. It's so sad. I keep telling myself, hair grows, hair grows. HAIR, GROW!

And the fun keeps comin'!

GiRLs DaY!

My sisters, mom, and I will usually go to lunch when I'm in town, but this time my mom suggested doing something a bit more exciting. We decided a day in Scottsdale was needed! Oo la la! I was so excited about it, that Jefferson had to tease me for looking out the window mulitple times while waiting for Shelley to pull up!

Wonder of wonders, as we were walking into the restaurant, we noticed little puffs of snow falling out of the sky. We couldn't believe it was snow, so we had to stop and examine it. Yup, snow in Scottsdale. I just can't get away from it!

We {dined} at the Grand Lux, thoroughly enjoying our fare, prefaced with a plate of french fries dipped in their yummy ranch. We kept asking for refills on our ranch which our waiter was intrigued by. We topped it off with a molten chocolate cake and I decided right then and there I could die a happy girl. Shelley and I were most pleased by the waiter's surprise that we were married with kids! He told us we looked so young and told us to tell our husbands they were lucky men. Haha... perhaps a padded tip was being sought. :)

Then we went shopping at Scottsdale Mall.... not a place we usually go to since the average store is Barneys, Jimmy Choo, and Gucci. We drooled at the overpriced merchandise in Anthropology, then did more serious looking in H&M and Forever 21. We also decided to be our mom's fashion advisors as we picked out outfits for her to try on in Ann Taylor. She lost 30 lbs this year and is one hot mama! :) I found the cutest, pink coat at Nordstrom and I think we all walked away pleased with our purchases. Spanks DaD! :)

Well you can't leave Scottdale without a trip to SpRiNkLeS! $36 for a dozen cupcakes is reasonable, right? They were divine.... especially the naughty mocha ones :)

This day topped the {favorite} charts. It was soooo fun to be out with the girls. I love my mom and sisters!

AMaZiNg JaKeS

Two years ago, we got a gift card to Amazing Jakes (think Chuckie Cheese on steroids) from Trav's parents and this year we actually got to use it!

They have a pretty decent buffet that we filled up on, then it was off to the games and rides. Well, Collin saw this miniature basketball hoop and was hooked. Too bad it only cost $0.25 a game and we had over $10 on our game card!

Just look at that follow through... :)

We coerced him into riding the Carousel, which he LOVED, until the second he got off..... then it was, "Balls, balls, balls, balls".

Same story with the train ride....

It's fun now that he's old enough to enjoy places like this. Wish they had one in the Buff!

JuSt DaNcE!

My parents bought a Wii for Christmas, so we spent some quality time Just Dancing! So fun. I think everyone gave it a try (Casey too! Even if it was only his arm moving :) Trav and David were tearin' it up, but I think my Dad should keep his day job.... oh wait. :) There was some jumping and booty shakin' in one dance I was doing and I think everyone was ready for a baby to pop out. Not bad exercise.... we were sweatin' up a storm. 

SuShi NiGhT!

Sometimes I really just crave a California Roll. And it's good times making your own. It was a hands-on night for making dinner. Don't forget lots of Wasabi! :)

Collin preferred the homemade Panda Express orange chicken.

We are grateful for fun cousins to play with! My twin sister has two boys and Collin is right between them in age. Collin would follow Lane to the ends of the earth.... and nearly did on New Year's Eve when he followed him out into the street! Shelley had to pluck him out of the road as a car approached.

The pecking order is in full swing with those three also. One night I watched as Lane took the toy that Collin was playing with. Collin got a look of consternation on his face as he realized he wouldn't be able to get it back, so he looked to his left and sees innocent Rusty standing there, and pushed him over, with a shove of misplaced revenge. It will be interesting to see what trouble those 3 Amigos stir up as they get older.

With late nights happening more frequently, Lane and Collin had fun taking baths together at Grandma's house.

Rusty joined in a couple times too, but the bather we weren't expecting was David! On their last night, David got that well known, mischievious look on his face and off he raced down the hall toward the bathroom. We sure are grateful the shorts stayed on, and that the intrusion only lasted 30 seconds... long enough for a picture. I should have posted the pic where Rusty has a sheer look of terror on his face though. Not kosher David, not kosher.

While playing outside one day, my dad suggested starting up Craig's motorcycle and taking Collin for a spin. Oh boy, he wasn't having ANY of that! I don't know how, but after some time, he finally gave it a whirl and Trav said he didn't stop making a "vrrroom, vrroom" sound the entire time. Please no.... I don't know if I can handle sons that are as addicted to dirt bikes as my brothers!

How about that fall weather, huh?! :)

My parent's are still loving being nursery leaders in their ward so it was a treat for Collin to go to nursery with Grandma and Grandpa! Here he is with my cousin's little girl, Macy.

Here we are headed into Costa Vida on our last night in town. Sniff sniff. I believe we got to all our favorite places... Gecko Grill, Cafe Rio, Costa Vida, Neds, Panda Express, Pei Wei and In'n'Out Burger, although sadly, Sonic was missed.

I was so mad I forgot my camera on the morning we went to the Phoenix Childrens Museum! My mom was helping out with the Cub Scouts on their day trip there and invited us to come along. It was perfect! I wish they had one close to our house. Collin had a ball and didn't mind the chocolate milk and Doritos he got afterward when he was hungry and pitching a fit. We are such good parents.

My mom was so nice and kept shooing us off to be on our own so she could watch Collin. Thanks to her, we were able to spend one morning in the temple, then go out to lunch and another morning finally seeing Harry Potter #7 and then yes... going out to lunch. We also went to see Tangled with the family one night for FHE and finally saw Inception, but just at home. I'm sure I'm forgetting other fun adventures, but I guess that's to be expected when every day brought something fun! I'm not sure how I forced my legs to board the plane {home}, because it couldn't have been a better vacation. I think the only thing I wasn't sad to leave behind was the Earth First toilet paper my mom buys now :) Thank you again Mom and Dad.... it was perfect!