Events

Here's what has been going on lately.

We went to the temple last weekend. I tried to take cute pictures of Sam since it was around his birthday, but he never really gave me the smile I was going for.

Especially after he fell down some stairs and hit his head...

We FINALLY finished touching up the stripes we painted in Sam's new room. (Note to those who are painting: DO NOT try to paint stripes on textured walls unless you have totally awesome tape. Otherwise you'll spend 20+ hours touching up your stripes.)

Notice how when I'm not trying hard to get Sam to smile, he totally hams it up for me and says "CHEESE!" We also put up bunk beds, but kept them separate.

(Showing off one of our curtain options. We went w/ the red ones.)

Yesterday we went to the children's museum.

Me at 27 weeks. When taking my picture, Dan always tells me to "be sassy." That's the best I can do.

A Tribute

This week, a man named Drew bought our subaru. It was a bittersweet day for me. I was glad to see her go so that our neighbors would stop secretly hating us for having it parked on the street for so long. The mailman also hated it because it blocked our mailbox. He put a note in our box asking us to move it. We moved it forward a few feet, but that's the best we could do. I'll bet he did a major happy dance when he saw it was gone.

I have some great memories of that car, though.

*When Dad brought it home, I thought it was so cool looking.
*When Mom used to drive me and Candice around, Candice would crank up the volume on her favorite songs and I could never hear anything Mom was saying in the front. Mom would make Candice turn it down to "volume 7". That was the rule. Mom had to remind Candice constantly.
*Mom driving me to seminary in the mornings. One morning we saw a UFO. No one believes us to this day. Sure, it just happened to appear right near the airport, but so what?
*Eventually I got to drive it to seminary and school. Driving home from seminary, we ALWAYS ended up behind an electric blue Tracker with a license plate that said CN DBL. One day we followed them to find out where they lived. We wondered if they were twins or what. I think we got scared that they might find out we followed them so we never got to the bottom of that one.

*Thinking that I should win the senior class superlative for "Best set of wheels." They gave it to a girl named Kelly who drove a red SUV. Her license plate said "Smile". Give me a break.

*I had to drive on a date once because my date was using crutches. Right when I went to accelerate onto the freeway, his crutch put the stick in neutral and I was revving it up wondering why it wasn't going. I thought we were going to get hit.

*Dan and I inherited the car when we got married and when we picked it up in Virginia, we drove it back to Utah, and then up to Washington and back to Utah. I love roadtrips w/ Dan. That first roadtrip we heard "This Love" by Maroon 5 a million times. Now whenever we go on a roadtrip, Dan waits anxiously hoping to hear that song.

*Driving to my parents' house every Thursday night during law school.

*Driving Sam out to my parents' house during the days while Dan studied for the bar. Mom and I would scrapbook.

*Getting lost many times in Houston.

I just love that car. I hope her new owner will love her as much as I did.

Seven years ago today...

Seven years ago today, Dan and I kissed for the first time. In honor of that fateful day, I'm going to post a list of qualities I was looking for in my future spouse. I just found it today while cleaning the craft room. I think I wrote it when I was 15 in a young women's class at church.

"Characteristics of my marriage partner"

• Attractive
• Honest
• Fun
• Smart
• Kind
• Likes kids
• Happy
• Taller than me
• Worthy to go to the temple
• Return missionary
• Takes his share of responsibility
• Communicates (TALK and listen)
• Good at compromise
• Has same goals
• Loves the Lord
• Feels the Spirit
• Prays
• Patient
• Enjoys service
• Slow to anger
• Pure
• Respects me
• Dresses modestly
• High standards
• Nice teeth
• Muscular --Dan added that one

I'm happy to say that Dan fit the bill then, and he does now. I love you, Dan! Thanks for kissing me on that tire swing 7 years ago.

Sam's stats

Weight: 31.8 pounds (85th percentile)
Height: 36 3/4 inches (95th percentile)
Head: 52 cm (above 95th percentile) The highest they go is 95%. So Sam's head is off the charts!

Sam is also slightly anemic (which we could have guessed since he hardly eats anything) so he'll have to start taking a children's multivitamin. That's all.

Sam is TWO!

(I wrote the majority of this yesterday but it has the wrong date at the top. His b-day was yesterday.)

Today is Sam's birthday. I can't believe he is already two. Well, sometimes I think he still acts like a baby, and other times I think he is such a big boy. So today is a bittersweet one for me. I watched the video I made for him on his first birthday with pictures of him from when he was born. Then I looked at his pictures from last birthday and he still looked so little. It makes me sad to think that he's growing up so fast. And he has no idea how much his life is going to change once Appleseed (our temporary name for #2) comes into the scene! I am also happy and grateful to have such a wonderful son. He is so good most of the time and is such a sweetheart. He is very obedient and he makes really funny faces. I just love my little man.

Here's how the day went: (Mostly so that I can remember to write this in his journal.)

Woke up asking for milk and Yo Gabba Gabba.

Ate a breakfast of applesauce and frozen corn. (No, I am not making that up. He is such a random/picky eater!)

Went to church playgroup which happened to be at the splashpad down the street.

Took a bath.

Ate pasta for lunch.

Took a 2 hour nap. (Darn! I was hoping for his usual 3. Especially since I spent 95% of his nap working on his ghetto-looking train cake.)

Hung out at home waiting for Dan to get home.

Showing off his next matchbox car.

Ate dinner, had cake, and opened presents.

(Please notice how my "train" looks like a boat. I swear I followed Betty Crocker's how-to video! Oh, well. At least Sam recognized what it was supposed to be. He called it "choo choo cake." And I was too cheap to buy all the candy you're supposed to use like Oreos for the wheels... At least I know not to be so ambitious next time. And at least it tasted good.)

He was so spoiled this birthday. We bought him a train table on craigslist and he LOVES it. That was by far his favorite present.

Drought

Sorry for the dry spell. We've really been just relaxing and doing the same old stuff these past few weeks.

Our cable offers free video-on-demand kid shows and Sam has recently been OBSSESSED with Yo Gabba Gabba. It's a really fun show where weird characters dance and sing such wonderful songs as "Party in My Tummy" and "Family." The only downside is that video-on-demand only offers 4 shows at a time, so we've watched the same Yo Gabba Gabba shows over and over and over. Sam likes to watch them while he drinks his milk (3 times/day).

It's over 90 degrees here each day now so other than going to the pool a few times a week, we stay inside after like 10 a.m.

My pregnancy has been going really well for the most part. I feel pretty good most of the time. I think I've put a stop to the rapid weight gain I experienced in Florida. I'm shedding hair like a beast this pregnancy and that didn't happen with Sam. The doctor said it's normal, but I still hate pulling hair off my clothes all the time!

I frequently have crazy pregnancy dreams. Last night I dreamt that Dan and I were laying on a beautiful beach having a grand time. Then, out of nowhere, Topanga (from Boy Meets World), apparently one of Dan's vengeful ex-girlfriends, came along and started yelling at him and going off for some reason.

She may look cute and cuddly, but I'm here to tell you, she's not!

We are family!

Last week we drove over to Destin, Florida to attend the Kevin Cheney family reunion. It was so much fun! My parents rented a beach-side condo and we spent the whole week soaking up the sun, playing in the water, playing nightly games, and eating WAY WAY WAY too much food. (If you don't believe me, I went to my 23-week appointment yesterday and I had gained 9 pounds in 5 weeks. I owe it all to the donuts and ice cream in Florida. Before that, I can't remember the last time I had a donut. Or 6.)

I love just spending time with my family. Prepare for picture overload.

Sam really loved the water most of the time. He'd run up to it and want us to hold him so that he could go deeper. He wasn't as fond of the pool as he was the ocean.

He also loved playing w/ a dump truck in the sand.

We went bowling one day. Dan let Sam bowl all of his second shots. They got the highest score for our group. Go figure.

We also went mini-golfing. Afterwards, Dan and Sam rode the train. Sam LOVES trains. I got the worst score of my life. Dan won.

Dan catching a wave from the sand bar.

Candice and Craig love to take jumping pictures, but I never got a picture of Candice actually leaving the ground! I'm sure she did, though.

Mom and Dad lovebirds.

All of the girls in the family (minus Mom) are pregnant. Here we are lined up by due date.

We had SO much fun! Next time we see everyone, there will be four new babies. Crazy!

Is this not the coolest birthday cake a husband ever made for his wife? I am so lucky. Dan is funny. And creative. He makes me smile. Did you notice how the boy bird is giving the girl bird a balloon? Just wanted to point that out.

Thanks, everyone, for the birthday messages - both on facebook and in real life. I appreciated them so much! I had a great birthday. Sam and I met Dan downtown so that we could go out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Going downtown reminds us of how much we like NOT living downtown. Too much traffic. Dinner was really good, other than the slow waiter and the other waiter spilling sauce all over Dan's shirt and his shoes. I got the usual chicken costoletta. AMAZING. I love it every time.

We came home and opened some presents. Here's Sam showing off the spoonrest he got me.

All my wonderful presents.

Me and Sam showing off our bellies. (How's that for a belly, Kirk? But please keep in mind, I'd just had the world's largest entree plus a piece of cheesecake.)

It was a great day!

Back in Business!

FINALLY! My life as a nomad has come to an end. Not that I really missed anything by not having a computer during the day - in fact, I was more productive. But just THINKING that I was missing something was annoying. Now it's going to take me lightyears to figure out this new computer. It's too high-tech for me, makes funny sounds I'm not used to, and some of the buttons are in different spots.

We also got a new (well, new to us) car. A 2009 Ford Fusion. Dan likes it. Especially the ambient lighting all throughout the interior. Even though he has yet to drive it at night. We've got the subaru up on craigslist and have had a few nibbles, but no bites yet. Hopefully this weekend or next someone will come and take it off our hands.

Here are some pictures that I hadn't been able to post before now:

A cute picture of Sam from Easter.

Dan and Sam at the Arboretum.

Sam and me at the Arboretum.

My growing belly. And a nasty burn on my arm from the oven. I hope it doesn't scar. Dan directed my awkward hand placement in this picture. He thought it showed the bump better.

Computerless

Well, the subaru died, as you know. We don't have a replacement yet. And now the computer is dead, too. Looks like it may take about 2 weeks to get another one. That's why it's so quiet around here.

We're having a...

GIRL!

Yesterday we went in for the anatomy ultrasound. The baby looks healthy and the tech said everything looked great! She asked if we wanted to know the gender. We said yes. At the very end of the ultrasound, after she'd looked at all the important stuff, she got a good shot and said, "Looks like someone's going to have to have a garage sale!" (I had mentioned that we already have a boy.) I was kind of confused, but Dan picked up on it right away. She then wrote "GIRL" on the image and I got what she meant. Blame it on the pregnancy brain...

Dan had guessed we were having a boy. I'd guessed girl and had been calling it a "she" for the past few days. Too bad we didn't have a bet going! We're excited to add a girl to the family. Now I need to start learning how to do hair.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! This morning started off with Sam's first Easter egg hunt. Dan The Easter bunny hid the eggs perfectly. Sam had a fun time finding one, opening it, dumping the egg and candy into the basket, and moving on to the next egg.

As you can tell from these pictures, he's got a new "surprised" face that he likes to make. A lot.

And here he is with his basket. He was afraid of the flash so he didn't give me a good smile.

After the hunt, we went to a church member's house for a delicious breakfast and then came home to enjoy general conference. It has been very nice and relaxing... unlike yesterday when our dear, trusty old subaru (lovingly called Soobie) finally kicked the bucket. We hope you all had a great Easter, too!