A Peter Pan Date

Sadie and I had a special date last weekend to see Peter Pan, the play. I had to specify to Sadie several times that it was not the movie and it would be different. 

We dressed up and went to Kneaders for dinner. I thought there would be crowds on a Saturday night, but it was completely deserted. We got done eating quickly and played I spy for a good 20 minutes. Sadie told me every thing I picked was easy for her, even when she didn't figure it out. We also had some serious talks about how she is excited for Kindergarten and her birthday, about her friends and favorite colors.

When we got to the theater we were still too early so we took some selfies in the car.

 They finally opened the doors and we settled into our front row seats. Sadie was getting bored so we took a few more pictures.

 The Hale Theatre in Orem is much smaller than the one in West Valley and Sadie was excited she could take pictures on the stage before the show started. The Hale is a theater with the stage in the middle and the audience is very close to the actors. Several of the actors touched Sadie on their way on and off stage, which she loved. We agreed that our favorite character was Captain Hook. He is hilarious in the play. Sadie's biggest disappointment was that no one actually played Tinkerbell; she was just a green light that danced around.

Sadie noticed advertisements for Cinderella, a play put on by kids, in July. We definitely plan on going to that this summer. Maybe we'll even bring Elise.

Easter

Last Saturday we spent most of the day down at the Faucette's house for an egg hunt, BBQ, and just general fun. We had planned on going back to our neighborhood for another Easter party, but we ended up just staying down in Mapleton all day.

I love this picture of the egg hunt participants. There were also 2 babies. If you count our upcoming arrival there were 8 kids between the 3 families, with Hunter being the oldest at 5 years old. 

 

Elise needed some prodding to go find eggs but then she was off. Sadie and Hunter ran around the front of the house for the "big kid" hunt.

 And then of course, there was the obligatory inspection of--and pigging out on-- candy. The kids ate very little of the delicious lunch we made.

 I almost completely forgot about Easter baskets on Sunday. I had bought the stuff for them 3 weeks earlier. We kept things pretty simple. The girls had already gotten candy from Nana and Papa and the hunt the day before so I only gave them a few peanut butter cups. Sadie got a game and Elise got some puzzles. We considered doing a small egg hunt but never got around to it.

 Our Easter dinner was equally simple. We ate a frozen meal my mom had made for us when she was here in February. 

It was a nice, simple Easter.

Big Girls

Last weekend we all went to dinner with Daniel and his team, who were hosting a recruit and her parents. Daniel could tell I needed to get out of the house so he generously invited us to come, even though our kids have the potential to ruin any nice dinner. 

The girls and I arrived at the Riverwoods an hour before dinner and hung out at our favorite toy store, Blickenstaff's. The horse was broken, but that didn't stop my girls from playing on it for 20 minutes.

Dinner ended up being great. Maybe we should put more trust in our kids, since they recently have repeatedly proven they can handle themselves in public.

A side thought- after I took this picture I couldn't believe how big my girls look. I may have even gotten a little choked up about it. Not because it makes me sad; I just can't believe it. It helps that my kids have been mostly well-behaved lately, which of course, makes me love them more, as it should. 

I am really interested to see how they respond to the new baby. 

Pregnancy Perk

My feet haven't been swelling much this pregnancy, or so I thought. 

The other day I wore boots all day and when I took them off, this is what I found. The socks and boots had kept the extra fluid from running to my feet, but my lower legs were not spared. You can see a clear mark where they are ballooned out. 

I am ready to be done growing this baby now. Thanks.

Special Dates

In the past few weeks we have been making an effort to spend one-on-one time with the girls, especially Sadie. We call them special dates. I suspect they will be even more important after the baby comes.

One Saturday Sadie got to spend the morning with Daniel and his team with a recruit. They went to breakfast and spent a few hours on BYU campus. Sadie adores the players on the team and thinks they are all legitimately her friends. She has invited most of them to her 5th birthday party (at the end of July). She insisted on a picture with the Cosmobile.

Last week it was my turn with Sadie. First we went shopping at the Lehi outlets and got her two new dresses. We even went to the dressing room and had her try them on, which is a first for her. Sadie loved every second of it and she wanted to get everything. I should have taken a picture of her admiring herself in the dressing room mirror. 

After that we went to a nail salon to get pedicures. I am a once-every-5-years pedicure kind of person, so I just called a random salon and set up an appointment. I had no idea what they would do with a 4-year-old in terms of soaking/scrubbing her feet. Sadie was pretty adorable about everything. Even picking out her polish color was super exciting. She settled on sparkly orange for her and a mint green for me.

 She patiently waited as my feet were soaked/scrubbed/clipped. Then they dipped my feet in paraffin wax, which felt super weird but left my feet amazingly soft.

 While my wax was drying he had Sadie hop up in a chair. He rinsed her feet quickly and buffed them slightly. Then he had her pick another color for her finger nails (she picked the same color I was doing on my toes) and he painted both her fingers and toes. I was nervous that I hadn't communicated well enough that we just wanted pedicures, but I thought since Sadie was loving it, it was okay.

She felt so special as her hands and feet dried.

 

 She sat incredibly still as they finished my toes and then we were on our way. When we went to pay they only charged me $8 for Sadie's stuff, which was smart of them, because it guarantees we will probably go there again for another special date this summer.

And bonus, now my toes are cute for labor. That is super important.

Sadie and I have one more special date planned for Saturday night and then hopefully this baby will come Sunday morning!

Diary of a Mad Pregnant Woman

 

A very unflattering 36 week photo

My recent thoughts/feelings related to pregnancy (most of them whiny):

-Less than 3 weeks until my due date! Wait, that means I am taking care of a newborn in less then 3 weeks, and most likely 2 weeks, since my doctor is wanting me to be "induced" like I was with Elise at 39 weeks.  Never can decide which is harder for me- last 4 weeks of pregnancy, or first 4 weeks with baby. I am leaning towards wanting to be done with this pregnancy. Terrible pregnancy side effects have appeared recently and I am excited to meet the baby.

-I am tired of discussing my body with random strangers and co-workers. I know they mean well, but I don't really want to discuss other people's observations of how my body looks. It's weird.

-All the pain/body issue complaints put together so you can skip it: The area under my right rib feels like it is on fire at most times. And just recently laying down doesn't help much. Hit the stage where I have to get up in the night to pee. How do any of you who have that throughout pregnancy do it? One night I couldn't roll myself over to get out of bed to pee. Daniel had to help me get out of bed. Speaking of sleep....the other night laid down for bed and couldn't fall asleep for over 2 hours. Just couldn't get comfortable. That has never happened to me before. Experienced heartburn for the first time (and second, third and fourth). Man, that is awful! My hips and round ligaments are killing me. Feet swell up occasionally. And much, much more! Pregnancy is a joy!

-I need to organize everything in our house and wash everything for the baby. But first I am just going to lay down and read.

-I am angry for no reason most of the time

-Contractions feel weird. I haven't really had them in my other 2 pregnancies, but this time I am getting them frequently. Most of them are just basic Braxton Hicks I think, but I have had a few that definitely hurt a bit. I wonder if I will have more of a conventional labor and delivery this time.Yesterday we almost headed to the hospital because they were coming every few minutes for a couple hours. I texted other people asking if/when I should go since I have never had active labor like that.

-Everyone should plan a family fun week for when they are 37 weeks. It makes me really not want the baby to come yet, no matter how uncomfortable I am. We kicked it off with a date yesterday to see Les Miserables at the Hale Center Theatre in West Valley. I loved it (even while having contractions all through it) and Daniel fell asleep. Tonight we have Daniel's team banquet, which he is in charge of, so he really really didn't want the baby to come yesterday. I have some stuff I want to get done Thursday and Friday. Saturday will include a neighborhood Easter party and a special date for me and Sadie to see Peter Pan at the Hale Center Theatre in Orem. Sadie has been talking about it for weeks so I really want to be able to go with her.

-My body seems to be preparing/progressing in a similar way and time frame to my previous deliveries. So that hopefully means this little girl will come a little early and without too much difficulty- like her sisters. I really want her to be born in like a week and a half, so she will probably just do what I want, right?

Other

A few other notable items recently....

Elise still naps most days. And she still sleeps in a crib. Will she be 3 in less than a month? Yes. On this afternoon I had to wake her up to go somewhere and I found her snuggled up to her Flynn Rider doll. This girl loves to snuggle. 

 My belly is growing daily. Here I am at 35.5 weeks. The girls and I had just gotten back from a walk using our new triple (!) stroller. Do we need a triple stroller? Probably not. But Elise loves riding in strollers and Sadie has decided if Elise is in a stroller she wants a ride too. I decided to get a double stroller with a sit-n-stand shelf on the back. So far I really like it. After this walk I had Braxton Hicks contractions for 3 hours straight. That has never happened to me before.

 Sadie is an expert sign maker. She uses signs to express her emotions. Kind of like I used my childhood journals. The other day she drew this masterpiece after a confrontation with Elise. On the left you will see Dad and Mom. I am apparently saying "Elise?" (according to Sadie). Front and center is Sadie crying. On the right you have angry Elise. Properly titled "Elise Hit Me".  I love her signs because a)they keep her distracted when she is sad/mad about something and b)she practices sounding out words. I am continually astounded at her ability to read and write.

Finally, you have creepy Louie. We got a new video monitor to use with the new baby, but we set it up to watch Lou for now. Mostly because it is really entertaining. I frequently just sit and watch her after I put her to bed. Technically it is a security camera. You set it up and then download an app on your phone to watch/listen to it. You can take pictures and save them to your phone. Here is one of my favorite still shots. It was like she knew I was watching her.

Sweet Sixteen

When Daniel left for Lincoln, Nebraska, to go to the Sweet 16 I was just hoping his team would play alright and not get embarrassed by UConn (whose average margin of victory going into the game was 35 points). I seriously considered going with the team, and even got cleared by my doctor, but the flight cost (when the NCAA is paying, no one extra rides for free) and the logistics of what to do with our kids made it too complicated. 

So I pretty much had no hope for BYU, but I was super anxious to get the game over with. In the NCAA tournament they fly the teams to the game location a couple days before so they can do media stuff. It felt like Daniel had been gone a while when game day finally came on Saturday and I just wanted it to be game time. 

The girls and I were up and going by 7:30 AM. We went to Kneaders for french toast. The morning was just dragging on so we went to Orem to look at a used stroller. We decided to have a park picnic down there (the parks in Orem are way better than AF) and invited the Sullivans to join us. 

After 2 1/2 hours at the park it was finally time to head home for the game.  Sadie made this sign for BYU. It was her first attempt at block lettering. She would write the words and then just color over them in an attempt to make them block letters. I think the sign said GO BYU and then also said "No Huskies" with some pictures of Cosmo and the UConn Huskie (who Sadie thought looked like a polar bear) as well.

 When the game finally got going BYU played amazingly well. They got up by 6 points at one point in the first half. The ESPN announcers were shocked. No one thought BYU would put up a real fight. They are the only team this season to hold a lead on UConn in the second half. I was on the verge of laughter and tears at all moments. I was so proud of them. I still am proud of them.

Unfortunately, with a team like UConn, you can't have any cold spells, and BYU did just that in the second half. They couldn't hit a shot and UConn started hitting theirs. BYU cut the lead down to 6 at one point, but couldn't close the gap.

Both Daniel's parents and the John family drove to Lincoln for the game. Daniel got to hang out with them for a few hours afterwards. Neither of them live conveniently close to attend the game so it meant a lot to Daniel that they would drive so far.

Of course we would have loved it if BYU had won, but I am glad to have Daniel's crazy travel schedule done for the season.

Babysitter Texts

Our babysitters frequently text me some of the funny things the girls say when they are watching them. Here are some recent ones:

-Elise just randomly said, "my mom is cool" and Sadie said, "yeah!"
-Sadie and Elise have insisted on putting on their bathing suits and pretending to swim. Although randomly Elise forgets its pretend and she comes up to me and says "we're ready to go to the pooool"
-When do you think you will be back? The girls are upset and demanding veggie straws.
-we were playing dance class at the park and Sadie says, "the teacher needs help on the balance beam because I have a baby in my tummy. It keeps kicking and I can barely move
-We were playing hide and go seek and when I found Elise she grinned and said, "I'm so glad you found me!"
-Elise told me repeatedly today, "My mom married the temple. My mom married the temple"
-When we went to get Sadie from school Elise sat down and refused to leave. She said, "I go school now"
-Elise kept yelling "My name Cinderella" at the top of her lungs from the top of the play structure
-Elise is yelling "meow" and insisting on wearing a bathing suit and Sadie is doing her best patient mom impression, using a lot of hand motions.
-It's so funny how Sadie thinks that one orange sweater looks like a singer. She always puts on the same shoes of yours and same sweater to do her shows. Right now she is singing about the difference between jumping and leaping.
-Sadie just asked, "Why are we driving so slow" I explained school zone rules. She said, "My mom drives fast, she goes 80"
-A conversation between Jenna and Elise: J: Elise, do you know I love you? E: yeah J: Do you love me? Elise: yeah!
-Elise is walking around singing, "We will, we will, rock you" Definitely the daughter of a coach!