Let the Holidays Begin!

I just LOVE this time of year! Halloween marks the beginning of the holiday season and I get so excited for all the different things coming up. We had a wonderful Halloween this year. Of course we had the Witches Night Out, then carving pumpkins as a family, Trunk or Treat/ward party, and Trick-or-Treating. Hallie thought carving pumpkins was great. She especially loved the guts and made sure to get her hands in as much of that as possible.

Devin and I are no professionals at the pumpkin carving. He has much more skill than I do, and given time could probably come up with something pretty awesome, but we were sort of on a time crunch. I am sure you can tell which one is his anyway...
Hallie is really into looking at herself on the camera, so its pretty easy to convince her to pose for pictures so that she can look at them. I told her to put her head by the pumpkin and she did so, quite literally, repeatedly for each picture.

Again...posing with the pumpkin on the porch. She woke up during the night that night and wanted to check on the pumpkins outside. Don't worry, I put her right back to bed. She checked on them first thing in the morning though.

We celebrated Halloween yesterday. She loved her puppy costume that my mom got her, though she didn't want to keep the hood on at all times. Oh well.

She also insisted upon wearing a black and white necklace that I have because it matches. I don't know too many Dalmatians who wear jewelry, but we went with it anyway.
Our first activity was to go with some ward members to trick or treat down-town. Hals is a hit with all their kids so she ran with them the whole time and I got stuck pushing the empty stroller. Awesome. We had a great time. Little did I know that Provo does this...but some places give away some pretty awesome candy! The jewelry store gives full size candy bars plus a coupon for the moms for something from the store. Ours is $50 off. Some the other kids got were free watch batteries, etc. We will have to hit that up again next year!
Next, we attended the ward party and Trunk or Treat. They had all sorts of activities for kids and since it was pouring outside, the Trunk or Treat consisted of classrooms decorated and people handing out candy in doorways. Works for me.
Devin was working this whole time, but soon came home and was able to take Hallie to about 5 houses across the street from us Trick or Treating just so he could have some fun with her too. We only had maybe 10 trick or treaters, which is really lame because I bought two huge bags of candy, thinking I would get rid of it all easily. NOT! Guess who is eating it all now??


I was a pirate if you can't tell. :) The rest of my costume is not visible, but it was all homemade and items around the house, so you can imagine how amazing it was. Devin was a soccer player/basketball player/some sports star. He had to dress up for work and that is what he came up with. Super creative, I know.
Here are Hallie and Dev headed down the driveway for their few houses of Trick or Treating.

Happy Halloween everyone! We hope it was fun and safe! And yay for the next few months of continued holiday goodness.

Witches Night Out

We had a fabulous time this year again at Gardner Village, though we chose to forego the Witchapalooza show. I think we will go again next year...a bit more organized and we won't have to wait three hours for our dinner! The other lame thing was that no one dressed up except me and Carlie, Hallie, and Ryen. Lame family, lame. Anyway, enjoy some pictures from our time. Hallie was the hit of the place- everyone had to comment on her pink hair. She thought it was pretty awesome too.

Such is Life These Days...

Life is going pretty well for us, despite the occasional mishaps that are bound to happen. Here is what we have each been up to:

Devin:
-Devin is in his second to last semester of school (can I get a hallelujah from the choir?)

-He is quite interested in "sports turf". I know this sounds funny, but he may make a career out of taking care of a golf course, baseball field, or soccer field. Rough life, eh? We will see where we end up once he graduates in April.

-Dev is still working at good ol' Smiths and loving every minute of it (that's some sarcasm if you didn't catch it). I don't mind the job at all, grocery discounts, great insurance, cheaper gas. I can't complain. But easy for me to say, right?

-Devin is still a great daddy. He loves Hallie and is so good with her. He can calm her better than I can most of the time and is happy that she is now old enough to "rough house."

Kim:
-I have been very busy at work these days. Between a quickie hospital placement and another birth mom who delivered 6 weeks early, I have been basically living at the hospital. Between these wonderful experiences, I have also had a few embarrassing ones on the job lately...1) wrecking the agency car in the hospital parking lot (it was not my fault but its still not good to be known as the one who wrecked the car) and 2) meeting with a new client with pretty severe mental health issues, I had the clinical director sit in with me. I went to stand up to get some paperwork and my leg was completely and unexpectedly asleep. I ended up tripping as I stood up, but luckily didn't face plant it. It took me a good minute to get my foot back awake and to clear my head (I got that I-stood-up-too-fast-and-I-am-going-to-pass-out feeling) and only then did I realize that I had a death grip on the director's knee. No wonder he was looking at me quite awkwardly. What can I say? I am champ of awkward experiences like that. Anyone remember the time I fell asleep on the random man's lap on a flight to Virginia when I was 14? Yeah, I remember that too. I am still upset with those "friends" I was with who did not wake me up...(Just kidding ladies, I am over it)

-I went to Idaho over the weekend with Hals for two bridal showers for my soon to be sister-in-law Lara. She is crazy enough to be marrying my brother Mikey. We are excited to have her in the fam! Hals and I had a great time and ate way way way too much. We are excited for the wedding in a few weeks in Oakland. The only thing that is not exciting about it is that we fly out the day after Hallie's birthday, which means we had to buy her a ticket. Boo.

Hallie:
-Hallie got her first concussion today. Super sad, I know. It was traumatizing for both of us. We were at the doctor's office where she was having a well check and I was having a baby check. She thought it would be fun to climb up on the table while I was up there and ended up launching off and landing on her head on the hard floor. Good thing we were at the doctor's office. He sprang into action while she and I both sat there and cried (yeah, I think the doctor thinks I am a nut job because I have cried in front of him so many times). It took her a few hours to act fine and it really scared me. She was totally lethargic and wouldn't speak. She kept trying to fall asleep, which is totally not like her at 10 am. She also threw up repeatedly on the drive home. Rough. I was afraid I had scarred her for life. She was fine the rest of the day, though and I am so glad.

-We are beginning potty training more earnestly. We have gotten her interested in the potty in the past and she really likes to wear underwear. We want her to be potty trained by the time the baby comes (crossing our fingers). Two kids in diapers just doesn't sound fun. She does great for the most part. She knows when she needs to "go" and will tell us so, but the problem so far has been that she is afraid of the potty. She sits up there for a while until she gets the courage to actually go. She gets one smartie for going, so that keeps her motivated. We will see how it goes!

-Also being the big girl that she is, she is moving on up to a regular bed! Heaven help us. I like having her be trapped in a crib (particularly in the morning when she wakes up too early), but sooner or later we knew she would need to move to a bed so the baby can have the crib. We have two twin beds, so we just moved one up to her room. This is the first night, so I really don't know how it will go, though I did just go up there and snap her picture and she was asleep in the bed.

Baby:
-I know it is unfortunate that we must call him "baby", but we have ZERO name possibilities at this point. Why are boy names so much harder than girl names??? I don't remember when we had Hallie's name picked out, but it was well in advance of her coming. We will work on it...

-He is measuring large. Very large. At the ultrasound, he was basically 3 or 4 days bigger than my due date. Now, not even two weeks later, I am measuring a full two weeks larger than I should be. I asked the doctor if I should be worried and he said no, just that I will likely have a 9 pound or larger baby if I go full term. Should I start re-thinking my plan to go overdue at this point???? I think so...

-So far, he is much more mild than Hallie was in the womb. I feel him move, but not as much as Hallie did and not nearly so rough-ish. She was all over the place all the time. He still has time, but so far, I think he is more mild.

Well, I know none of that was thrilling, but there is the update!

Newborn Hallie...Again

Hallie's favorite phrase right now is "I rock a minute!" This means that whichever parent is nearest must stop whatever we are doing to rock with her in her rocking chair. This is fine except for when it is in the middle of the night and she starts wailing "I rock a minute??" in such a sad, sad voice that I can't help but get up and rock her, even though I know that if I leave her alone, she will go back to sleep shortly on her own.

Anyway, imagine her shock and excitement when we got back her old bouncy chair from Devin's sister who has been borrowing it. It was like Christmas! She "rocked a minute" on her own for almost the entire rest of the night that night before bed time. Yesterday, she hauled it out again and did the same thing while watching a movie. It's great! Now she can "rock a minute" whenever she likes and she can do it on her own! I am just hoping that her weight does not exceed the limit on the chair and that it doesn't break. Even though it is pink, it might be nice to have for the next baby.
Hurray for old toys re-emerging into new-found ways to occupy her time!

The Results Are IN

Well, here are the results of the poll:
14 of you think the baby is a girl (35%)
25 of you think the baby is a boy (64%)
(Interestingly enough, these are nearly the same percentages that we got on our first poll with Hallie. 38% thought girl then and 61% thought boy)
Thank you for participating! I always think it is fun to see what other people think. So without further ado...
My Week 19 pregnancy belly. I have such mixed feelings about posting these pictures, but I did it with Hallie, so I think its only fair that I do it with this one too.

So what is it? The baby is a BOY!

We are thrilled. I was so nervous at the ultrasound, I have no idea why. But everything looks healthy and the baby is growing normally at this point. He is breech but has plenty of time to move. He is measuring a bit big for how far along I am...but Devin was a 9 1/2 pound baby, so maybe he will be too (let's hope not!). The due date is March 8 though we are looking to have him come a few days later because we have a hospital insurance policy that kicks in on the 11th. If not, oh well, but it would be nice to have the extra cash. Ask me when I am 9 months along if I still want him to come late and the answer will probably be different!

So...as little bit of my thoughts on the subject of pregnancy. I am not sure how to adequately express myself well on this subject, but I'll try. I didn't want to announce the pregnancy right away because it seems like there are so many miscarriages and people losing their children even past the first trimester for one reason or another. Second, I also want to be sensitive, like I said before, because I know so well that there are many people out there suffering and crying countless tears over their empty wombs and empty arms. I know a lot of these people personally and it has changed my perspective and appreciation of the miracle of carrying a child. I want to be grateful for the blessing that I have, but not come across as "look what I have and you don't" if that makes sense. Anyway, I am very grateful to be welcoming another little spirit into our home. I will post updates periodically as I did with Hallie along with pictures. I thought about not saying much about the pregnancy at all on the blog, but then it would be really weird to all the sudden be posting pictures of the little man when he arrives, right?

Well that's it for now! more later.

Dev's Birthday

I really wanted to do a 25 years of greatness post for Devin too, but unfortunately I wasn't around for his childhood and such, so it would be really hard to recall events from then to write about and he refuses to collaborate with me, so alas, we will just have a standard birthday recap for him. I do have to say though that if I were to write a 25 years of greatness for Dev, it would be pure greatness, none of the sarcastic crap that I had to write about. He is just quality like that.

Anyway, we celebrated Devin's birthday yesterday. He took the day off work, which is such a rare event that it made it special. The morning was pretty standard except that he got to take Hallie to class with him, which is not standard. I went to court to finalize an adoption for another caseworker's couple and while there (while I was on the stand actually) the power went out in the entire building. It was odd. The judge didn't want to proceed in the pitch black (weird huh?), so we postponed for a while. We were in limbo for a while deciding what would happen, so I just went into work and Devin kept Hallie. My co-worker was able to go back to court later with her couple, so it all worked out fine. But I am sure that was a highlight for Dev on his birthday, taking his child to class and all.

That afternoon, we went to the Hee Haw's farm. Our mortgage company rents it out annually for a fun filled family night. Free fun? Sign me up! Highlights included:

Shooting corn out of a cannon...
Pedaling our hearts out on these little tractors (okay Devin pedaling his heart out. I legitimately could not move my machine. I am that weak.)...
Giving up on pedaling and just pushing Hallie around instead...
Big slides...
Mini-mazes (no left turns allowed. Harder than you think)...
. An actual corn maze (do forgive the frizzy hair, I have inherited it from my mom who we affectionately call "poofy spice". It had been raining, which never helps)...
A hay ride complete with costume clad people throwing candy at the kids in the field...
and of course taking stock of said candy in the famous purse.

We came home for dinner and cake & ice cream. Of course we had to open some presents too.
I think Dev is excited about his guitar? I mentioned to my mom that I wanted to get Devin a guitar and she immediately insisted that she and Dave head this up as apparently no one trusts my judgement. Dave takes matters like this VERY seriously and spent days scouring the town trying out every guitar before deciding on the perfect one. We think he did a pretty great job! Sneaking it down here without Devin's knowledge and keeping it hidden from him in our small house was another story, but we succeeded!
All in all, I would say it was a great day. Hallie and I sure love and appreciate all Devin does for us. I don't know how I got so blessed to have a near-perfect husband, but I did and I am grateful. Happy 25th Babe!

Hallie-isms

*Hallie has taken to calling Devin "honey" all the time because that is what I call him. Today, for example, she felt she needed something, so she called down the stairs to him, "honey! HONEY!! honey!?" Hmmm...not sure where she has seen that before? (the best part is that Devin responds to it. haha)

*One day, Hallie had sleepy seeds in her eyes (is that what we call them?) so she kept trying to get them out all while saying, "boogers in my eyes. boogers in my eyes."

*She also calls EVERYONE mom these days from the 10 year old babysitter, to Devin, to my cousin, to me. She knows that Devin is not her mom, but perhaps she has figured out that when she uses "mom" attached to a sentence, she gets something faster? I don't know.

*Hallie still talks to herself a lot in her crib, particularly when she wakes up in the morning. The other morning, she was saying "mom, I pretty" over and over again. Glad she has a healthy sense of self-esteem!

*Her newest favorite phrases are "I want it" and "I don't want it". Half the time she doesn't even know what she wants or what she doesn't want, she just likes to say it.

*She is really into narrating things now. Her favorite thing is to put her baby doll to sleep on the vent in our bedroom with a blanket, shut the door, and tell us "shhhhh....baby's sleeping!" She tells me when daddy is sleeping and awake, when I am eating, when she is getting dressed, etc.

*The other day my cousin Sarah had her for a little bit more than an hour. When I got back, Sarah told me that Hallie might not be hungry for dinner. Apparently, she had stated over and over in her whiniest voice, "I hungry!" until Sarah fed her. The result? Two cups of applesauce, a brownie, and some chex cereal. I was so embarrassed. I am sure Sarah thought I don't feed her at all, but the truth is the girl is a manipulator! She knew that Sarah wouldn't know better and would just have to feed her, especially with those big blue eyes staring at her, begging for food. Yeah. Manipulation.

*Her newest request is always "carry you!" which really means "carry me!" So Devin and I gladly agree to let her carry us all the time. She doesn't think its funny.

*One last funny story. Hallie never really was a binky baby. However, in recent months, she has taken a liking to the only binky we have in the house- a binky thermometer. We keep it up high in her closet so she can't get to it. The other day I was driving in the car and looked back just in time to see her pulling the binky thermometer from her purse (yes, she insists upon carrying a purse) and putting it in her mouth. She sucked on it until we got to our destination. How in the world she got it I have no idea. And the fact that she was storing it in her purse, waiting for the most convenient time to pull it out (in the car when I couldn't really reach back to get it from her) made it all the more ridiculous.

Silly silly silly. Looking forward to the terrible two's that are upon us!

P.S. What will baby #2 be? Please vote on the poll on the side to tell us what you think. There are a lot of reasons why I haven't posted anything on the blog about this pregnancy and I planned on waiting until after the ultrasound, but we did a poll before we found out what Hallie was and I want to do the same for this baby. A lot of people know about the pregnancy, but it is something that I also want to try to be sensitive about on the blog. More later. We have our ultrasound next Saturday, the 9th, so there is one week to vote. :0