A Touch Of Tyrell

It's been pouring for days! Sometimes we like to sit outside and watch it rain and rain and rain. And then Everett puts his hand on my leg and says: "tut-ties! tut-ties!" He wanted me to make some cookies.  He is such a funny kid.  So he sat outside in his Cars camp chair while I made some whole wheat & oatmeal raisin cookies. He came inside just in time to eat spoonfuls of tut-tie dough.  But the fun didn't stop there... It's been fun but we are anxious for the sun to come back... especially because we have visitors from the Seattle area who were supposed to be on a vacation from the rain. Oh the irony!

Everett is talking a little big more and it's the sweetest thing.  He really loves this hand-me-down book that my mom gave us called Blue Hat , Green Hat.  After we read it to him the first several times he started to laugh and think it was funny. Now he likes to read it to us. It's adorable.  Most of the book goes something like this: and it always ends with the "oops" turkey.  He knows his colors and can say them, but he usually just points to each color/animal and makes a noise and then says "oops" and laughs when he gets to the turkey. It's fantastic.  Most likely he'll still go to speech therapy preschool once he turns three, but these little successes along the way are so cute and I'm loving every new word he tries to say!

I finished decorating the nursery a few weeks ago... so I made a blanket out of the left over scraps.  I'm pretty sure it's my most favorite handmade blanket ever.  It was my first attempt at a 'quilt' and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out {although I would love to learn how to do the fancy embroidery stuff someday (instead of just the straight lines)}.  I doubt the blanket will actually be used for warmth until next winter, but until then she can look cute playing on top of it!

I would have never imagined all of the things I've learned about the human body before becoming a mother.  In the past 3+ years of being pregnant and raising a little guy, I've learned a lot about the body and how it functions (especially how your bottom works, lol!).   Everett was sick during Christmas with a runny nose, fever, weird red blister bumps, two days later he threw up for the very first time (ever) and he was just a sad sight. It's always hard to see your child sick.  But he got better.  Then we noticed a large bump behind his ear/on his neck.  And it wasn't going away.  We did a lot of research and reading via the Internet (which is NOT always a reliable source, but still had good information) and called the 1-800 nurse line attached to our health insurance plan.  His lymph nodes/glands behind his ear were swollen (most likely from his Christmas sickness). They were very big and not going away. Th...

Everett really wanted to buy a watermelon at the store the other day so I let him pick one out. I put my apron on him to save his white shirt from watermelon juice and he looked so cute... a little too cute! Speaking of watermelons, I'm growing one. About 8 months ago I swallowed a watermelon seed and it has grown quite large.  We took a hospital tour on Saturday and I feel a whole lot better about harvesting this watermelon. Of course I'm nervous and excited and I have no idea how things are going to work out but my mind is a little more at ease... especially because the field hospital in only 2 blocks away.  I talked with my farmer  doctor this morning. We'll do a third ultrasound at 37 weeks to see if my watermelon is big or super big. If it's super big then we might just have to cut it out of there since my last watermelon had some troubles getting out and he was big too. (I might be a little embarrassed if my watermelon is just a tiny little t...

I usually post things based on the pictures I take... but I haven't been taking very many pictures lately so tonight I looked back at the pictures I look last January. I smiled when these were the first two pictures that popped up.  Everett and I were both so much smaller last January! He didn't even have all of his teeth yet!  So much can change in a year.  So I looked up pictures from exactly a year ago and this is what I found... Ironically, these are the two pictures I took this afternoon... How great is that! It truly is amazing how much can change in a year's time and I'm so grateful for that change. By next January we'll have a 10 month old girl and a 3 1/2 year old boy, we'll be living in a different house in a different town (same state, lol), and hopefully I'll have a new body... (let's just hope I won't be 7 months pregnant again!) 

This week I have really been missing the Coatneys and our Sunday night fondue. I can almost hear our kids crying/laughing/fighting in the background as we dip brownies, pound cake, bananas, strawberries and marshmallows into melted chocolate. I miss having late night girls nights at Heidi's and talking with friends about our motherly adventures. I miss playing games with the Webbs and planning vacations together. And today I was really missing Megan painting my toenails because I was too pregnant to do so myself.  But all is well.  I am full of gratitude for my new friends here. Our neighbor and three others have offered to take care of Everett when the time come to have this baby. It's funny how you worry for months and months about how the labor and delivery will go but you have almost no say in the matter... so for so many people to offer their services, it's been a big relief.  I am amazed at the kindness and generosity of others and it just makes me...

You know when you're a kid and you go swimming all day in the chlorine water and you're having way too much fun swimming and swallowing pool water that you don't eat lunch or take a break until it's time to go home. And then when you get home you realize that you're totally exhausted and you actually feel sick from swimming all day? Well, that's the closest I can get to explaining how I feel as a pregnant woman (except for the too much fun part). I am seriously so extremely exhausted and I feel sick every day until about noon or 1 o'clock. And then I feel okay, but still exhausted... like I've been at the pool all day. I honestly can't even walk around the house without my stomach getting tight and feeling short of breath. (If this is any indication of how it feels to be old, than I'm not sure I want to get old!) My eyesight is getting really bad. I have to stand at the sink sideways because my belly is way too big and has been ...

Ever since we moved here I can't remember what month it is. This is why... I took this picture yesterday and it's JANUARY!! Not September or October... January. Our driveway is littered with fallen leaves, it's windy and chilly but sunny. Everything is telling me that it's Fall except the calendar! But honestly, even if I can't keep my months straight right now, I'm more grateful than ever that it's January and that 2012 is done. I would hate to have to re-live 2012 even though it was packed full of blessings and good things. It was just super crazy and hard too.  2013 is bound to be another challenging year as we welcome our second child (and sleep even less than we do now!), move for the 9,000th time in July/August when our lease is up (Jake's office is currently 30 miles away), and work hard to build a new career (that means long days for both Jake and myself). But again, I know the blessings will be great and our year will be full of...

 Jake turned 29 on the 30th.  It would be so great if I could post pictures of his cake, gifts, and all of the activities we did... but we didn't have a cake, he opened his birthday gifts on Christmas (cologne and 3 new dress shirts), and I didn't take a single picture on his birthday.  However, we spent Saturday together as a family, fed Jake Costco pizza for lunch (his most favorite pizza), Everett took a 4 hour nap so Jake could clean out the garage (one of his favorite activities), and then we took Jake out for sushi (his favorite). Jake is a sushi man and had 4 rolls and some nigiri. Lucky for me they had a vegetarian roll and a deep fried roll so I got to eat sushi too (you know, because pregnant ladies can't eat raw fish). I have no doubt that we will go back because they have all-you-can-eat sushi and those two things make Jake a very happy man! Since I don't have any pictures of his day, I'll post some pictures of his special outing with ...