Long overdue

The post right before this one was one I apparently had typed before Thanksgiving... I'm a blogging slacker. I will try to do better! I would like to blame some of it on not having a functioning computer for awhile- my laptop caught some nasty bug and I had to reload everything back onto it. Audrey isn't so fond of computers if she's not the one pushing the buttons, so it took me about a week to get things fully back up to normal. So much is going on up here! Let me play catch up a little bit...

Christmas was amazing and wonderful and WARM. We got to go down to AZ to visit our families and to enjoy wearing short sleeves when leaving the house. We actually wished for shorts a couple times while we were down there. We loved getting to see all our family and many friends! If we missed you we are sorry but time was so short. We got to take Audrey outside to play! Hooray! I know she misses it. She loves to sit in the window and watch the snow fall... we are looking forward to spring! We've actually had a very mild winter- very warm and very dry for Rexburg. They are getting kind of concerned about the summer because of how dry it will be- especially over in Yellowstone. I personally don't mind not having a ton of snow around my house, or having to deal with shoveling 5 times a day. :) I would love to have time to post pictures and details of our AZ escapades, but I think I will save that for another post. I want to catch up on things first... naptime is only so long!

We made it back up to Rexburg and settled into the semester nicely- this is Thomas' last semester here! He graduates on April 10th and he is definitely struggling with a major case of senioritis. In one sense it makes me worry more for him, but in another it's kind of liberating to see him more relaxed than last semester. I figure it will start going away as the projects start to pile up... but we will see. We are still tenatively planning on staying in Rexburg after graduation, but we have discussed other options and we aren't quite sure what will happen exactly. There are still several things that are up in the air and who knows what opportunities will come our way. Thomas' latest pet project is putting all that web design practice he got last semester into building MissionShoe a new website. It's coming along nicely and he is really excited about it. MissionShoe is doing very well- he is looking at establishing another account with a company in Utah that is very interested in carrying his shoes. He also wants to do some spiffing up of the display he currently has in the BYU-I bookstore. We did an inventory/organizing of all his shoes on Saturday and realized he has a lot of shoes. He will probably be moving some of them into a storage unit by the next shipment, and definitely before May so we have a little extra space for more baby stuff.

I don't know if I ever actually announced it here- we are expecting a baby boy on May 9th or thereabouts! We are very excited and are doing well. Audrey doesn't understand why we keep telling her Mommy's tummy has a baby in it- she looks at it like "you can't fool me, I know that's not what a baby looks like". We are excited for her to be a big sister! She is growing ever faster and is getting to be a pro at feeding herself with her own little dishes and forks and things. She is totally off the bottle now and drinks milk totally fine from a sippy. I had had such a hard time getting her to drink it from a sippy, but one day she just decided she would do it. I've found with her the hardest part of teaching her something like that is that she is set on doing things her way until she decides differently. It's taught me a lot of patience. She still loves climbing and pushing buttons but she is learning what is ok and not ok for her to play with. She is getting better at listening and getting better at not listening. She is definitely in the "tantrum" phase which has been interesting to deal with. She is still a Daddy's girl and talks about him all day long, and when he is home, she thinks he should do nothing but play with her.

I am getting better at managing a toddler and keeping the house in order. It seems like every time I have something figured out, life changes and I have re-adapt. I expect to feel like this for most of my mothering life. My calling is going wonderfully- I truly love it and while I still feel very overwhelmed much of the time (blame it on the hormones) I am so excited to be where I am. I finally found out today that they have found other leaders to take over the Webelos so I don't have to do that anymore. I am planning on going to Den meeting today to hand off my book and things to the other ladies, and I think I'm still invited to the Blue and Gold Banquet in two weeks but other than that, I am done with Cub Scouts for now. Lots of relief but also sad because I did love working with the boys, and we had such wonderful leaders to work with also. I am excited to have a little more brain to focus on Primary though.

This pregnancy has been good to me- I felt a ton better at around 14 or 15 weeks so no more morning sickness! Hallelujiah! I do get horrible round ligament pain most days, and I also seem especially prone to sinus infections this time around (working on #4 right now) but I really can't complain. It is SO amazing to be able to feel normal and forget I'm pregnant! I really have enjoyed this second trimester- it was such a relief that I wasn't sick the whole time. I wonder if it's a gender thing or if it's just luck of the draw. I'm starting to wind down the second trimester- my last few weeks here, and I realized as I woke up to the little guy pummeling on my full bladder this morning that I'm reaching the end of my "forgetting I'm pregnant" days. He is getting a lot stronger every day and I'm starting to feel a lot larger. I knew it couldn't last forever... but time really does seem like it's flying. Hard to believe that in just over 3 1/2 months, Thomas will be graduated and we will have a newborn in the house!

I was grateful to not have lost any information when my computer got sick- which means all my pictures are safe! Hooray! I will try and put some pictures on here later today or tonight- for now I am going to catch a quick snooze while the child still sleepeth!