The Soon-To-Be Big Sister

Cumorah knows where the baby is. When we ask her where the baby is, she pats my tummy and laughs. She even goes so far as to point to babies at church, at the store and in pictures in her books, and then she pats my tummy. So there is definitely some sort of connection between babies and Mommy's silly big tummy. She knows where the baby's bed is. She knows the baby's name. She even does better in her attempt to say her sister's name than she does to say her own name. Sometimes it comes out sounding kinda like "wibi". That all said, she really has no idea what is coming her way.








Cumorah does love babies. She doesn't seem to be jealous if I hold one. I think that she'll handle this change pretty well, at least I really hope she does.















So Cumorah has been practicing taking care of a baby like a loving big sister.
















Rivers will have so much fun playing peek-a-boo with her big sister.







Cumorah says, "Baby Rivers, we'll be best friends. We'll go everywhere together."

It's Official, we're NOT in the Navy

So after more than a year of applying and debating and considering we are NOT signing up with the US Navy (or the Army which was the first branch we applied for). Nor are we signing up with any other branch of the military, including the Canadian Mounties which I suggested after Brian said that maybe we should apply for the Air Force as well. Brian let our recruiter know that we would not be joining earlier this week, so the decision is official and final. If any couple has thoroughly researched, weighed the pros and cons, and considered the possible outcomes of the decision to join the military, it would be us. I feel bad for our poor recruiter. We really made him work with all the questions we asked. We felt good about it sometimes and very nervous at other times. There are reasons to join and reasons not to. We have decided not to. So now we have to work harder at minimalizing the amount of money we borrow and preparing to deal with all the debt we're going to be in. Things will work out. We feel good about our decision.

Success with Socks

Yeah! She did it!


Cumorah has been trying for weeks to put her socks on all by herself. She's mastered putting on her own hats, but the socks have been a challenge. She's been trying on Mommy and Daddy's socks a lot, too. She has often managed to get our socks on because they are so big, though pulling them up all the way hasn't always worked. She tries dirty socks on in the laundry room when we're doing laundry. She takes my socks away from me in the morning and tries to put them on my feet for me. She really has been into socks.

This morning, she finally got her own socks on all by herself. She was concentrating really hard for quite a while trying to get all her toes in the sock. And she got it. She's been taking her socks on and off ever since. I'm super proud, even if she does get the non-skid sole on the top of her foot more often than the bottom.

Family Home Evening with the ducks

Even though Brian ALWAYS has to study (it's like he's in med school or something), we always have Family Home Evening on Monday nights. Even if it is very short. I really appreciate Brian's dedication to our family night. Life is always going to be busy, I'm glad we're in the habit of setting aside time for the family.

Tonight's FHE was a very special treat. After we were finished eating dinner I told Brian that we needed to get up and go. We were going to go feed the ducks for 15 minutes at the pond in the cemetery near our house. So Brian started the dishes, Cumorah and I started searching for her socks (one was in the kitchen, the other in her room), and we managed to get ready and in the car with our half loaf of old bread in not too much time.

Cumorah was pretty excited about seeing the ducks. She has a sound that is her attempt to say "duck" or "quack", I'm not sure which. Up to this point she only has had the opportunity to say it in reference to her rubber duckies in the bath, pictures in her books and the ducks on one of her bibs. We had a lovely time.






But we soon discovered that there were a great number of geese there, several different kinds. Feeding the geese is not as fun as feeding the ducks. The geese always seem to want to eat the babies, not so much the bread.








Fortunately we were able to keep Cumorah safe from the attacks of the killer geese.















With practice, Cumorah got pretty good at tossing the bread at (not so much to) the ducks.














After Cumorah started shivering from the cold we walked back to the car and turned the heater on full blast to warm her up enough for eating ice cream. On our short drive from the pond to Snookies, the ice cream shop down the street from our house, we had the first half of our FHE lesson. We all enjoyed our ice cream very much. Snookies closes for the winter and just reopened earlier this month. It's exciting that the little ice cream shops are opening up, that means that winter really is over. It will be more exciting when it is warm enough for us to walk there some evening. On the drive home we had the second half of our lesson. Then it was time for jammies, a quick toy clean up, family prayer and bed. Super nice FHE.

Finished

I'm not ready yet, but I'm definitely finished. That is what I decided today. Truthfully, even with all it's uncomfortableness and what not, I really love being pregnant. I do. I think it is a miracle and just such a beautiful thing. But I guess I've reached the point where I'm done with the pregnant belly. Pretty much nothing will cover the belly up completely anymore. It's really depressing trying to find something to wear in the morning. I remembered that I have maternity overalls that have been hanging in the closet all this time. I got them out this morning, super excited that I wouldn't have to worry about whether or not my shirt was covering my belly up. They don't fit. Too small. The belly is humongazoid, gargantuan, ginormous. I have a little under three weeks left. But for the record, I am finished. Now I have to get ready. Well, I guess I won't ever really be ready. Now I have to pack my hospital bag, at least.

I can't see my toes!

Bubbles

I told Brian Saturday night that this Sunday would probably be the last Sunday I was up to having anyone over for dinner for a while. He thought it would be great to have someone over, so I opened the freezer and took out our last hunk of pork loin to thaw overnight and drop in the crockpot with a jar of salsa verde in the morning. We ended up having Dan and Jacobi Steiler and two of our ward's four missionaries over. Good dinner, good company, good conversation, good dessert, good time, etc. But the highlight of the evening was definitely the bubbles.

Spring has finally come to Iowa. (I almost lost it when it snowed a week or so ago.) It was 60 something degrees outside, a beautiful sunny evening. I handed the missionaries Cumorah's new bubble wand and instructed them to go outside on the back deck and blow bubbles for her. That was fun, but then Dan remembered that he and Jacobi just happened to have big bubble making contraptions in their trunk. So out they came. Directions were read, I just so happened to have the right kind of dishwashing soap to make proper bubble juice, and Brian remembered his ginormous bubble making contraption that Amy gave him for some special occasion quite a long time ago. So in not much time at all, we had several grown up boys out on the back lawn around a mop bucket of bubble juice making VERY LARGE bubbles and enjoying themselves thoroughly. Alas, I have no pictures of them in the warm light of the fading day, looking like they were twelve again with soapy dripping hands and excited smiles. Our neighbor to the north, who was out on her back driveway with her bbq, made the comment, "I can tell this is going to be a fun summer with you as neighbors."



We read that bubble juice gets better with age. As a result, Monday evening when Brian came home from school, the bucket of bubble juice sat on the back porch still, waiting for an empty milk jug. Cumorah had gone out to meet him and I informed him that dinner still had 20 minutes in the oven. So, of course, he and Cumorah played with the bubbles again. This time I got pictures. Very fun.

The First

So...here we are. This is my very first post on a blog. Wow. My good friend Aupreille has been telling me that I should start a blog ever since I've known her actually, since before she even really had hers up and going. Her blog is very much up and going now though. So I finally set up a blog, oh I don't know, about a month ago or so. But I haven't posted anything until today. We'll see how much of a blogger I become. I do think it could really be a fun way to share with family and friends what adventures we are having (especially since we are far away in some foreign land called Iowa) provided family and friends ever bother looking at our blog. Well, here it goes... the beginning of our blogging adventure...