Yet Another Thing to Love About Utah

This is the Utah state income tax form. Lest you think this is another one of my weird accountant quirks, it's not anything about the taxes/doing the taxes that I love. Look closely at lines 39 & 42. What other state puts happy and frowny faces on their official state forms. Seriously. Even if you have to pay taxes, doesn't it make you feel a little better that there's an icon there that empathizes?

Really REALLY small

So, all of my maternity clothes are summer clothes. Since the weather here has been anything but summer-ish, I have been making due with the regular long sleeve shirts & have and putting layer shirts under them to make them longer so they can cover my belly....hopefully this can last until the weather warms up and I can just use my regular maternity clothes.

Well, this morning I put on this three quarter sleeve black shirt with white hearts. I always ask Bart how my outfits look in the morning and today was no exception, but his response surprised me. He looked at me very alarmed and said, "Rebecca, that shirt looks REALLY REALLY small."

I was surprised at the extreme reaction and ran to the mirror to see if it looked any different than my normal shirts. It didn't really, so I was kind of confused. I could understand a "kind of small," since I am 6 months pregnant and pretty much any normal shirt I wear is going to be small, but yesterday, according to him, I looked, "Fine" and that outfit didn't look much different than the one I had on.

I wasn't sure why the reaction had changed so much. I asked, "Really, I don't think it looks that bad?" He goes, "Are those sleeves supposed to be long sleeved?" I just about died laughing! Yeah, if my three-quarter sleeves were supposed to be long sleeves, then the shirt did look REALLY REALLY small. I was like, "Okay, your opinion has just been invalidated."

Silly boy.

Yard Work

Can I just say, there is something so unbelivably satisfying about yard work! I know I have said it before, but every time I work in our yard, I am just blown away with how wonderful it is.


Saturday was an AWESOME day! We woke up early, got an oil change in our car, went grocery shopping, got Addison a dress for Sam & Holly's wedding...which by the way is the cutest dress in the WORLD...got Bart a new book to start reading, and began organizing our pantry. ALL BEFORE 11:00 a.m.!!!


At that point I teased Bart about his excuses for not pruning our trees (something I'm not sure we've really done since we moved into this house). When it's cold outside, he doesn't want to because it's too cold (something I totally empathasize with), so today when I suggested it'd be a great day to prune (it had to be in the 50s) he said it was too warm and that he wasn't sure it was good for the trees to do it on such a warm day. I laughed and pointed out that if we didn't do it because it was too cold and we didn't do it because it was too warm, we'd never get it done. Well, he took the initiative, grabbed the pruning shears/saw, and headed outside. I worked in the pantry for a little while longer, went upstairs and put Addison down for a nap, grabbed the baby monitor and headed outside to help.


He cut the branches off the tree, and then I cut them into a more managable size, and moved them into a pile on the cement. We're going to save some for possible firewood when we go camping (something we always talk about but never actually seem to do) and throw the rest away as soon as the trash man comes (our trash is rather full at the moment....although today is trash day, so maybe it's not full at the moment.)


Addison kept talking to herself on the monitor, so we finally just went up and got her up. We knew she'd enjoy being outside, and would probably even help.


So Addison and I moved sticks to the piles and daddy cut the branches on the tree. It doesn't sound like much, but it took us a LONG time!


Atmitedly, we took several bubble breaks. While we were grocery shopping Bart saw this GIANT bubble...thing...I don't know what they're called...bubble maker...but it's not automatic, just the big stick with a hole in it and buble solution. Addison absolutely LOVES bubbles, so he couldn't resist buying it for her...especially since it was only $1! We had a lot of fun watching her run after the bubbles laughing. It was awesome.


We didn't cut too many branches off the apricot tree...we could see buds starting to form, so we thought it might be too late in the season to really prune it, so we just cut off a few branches that really needed to go. Next year we'll have to really prune it down.


We once again didn't touch the cherry tree because there were definately buds on it, so we were scared (and we have no idea how to prune a cherry tree...well, really any tree, but especially a cherry tree). Now that I think about it, it's kind of ironic because the Cherry tree has really never produced. Last year I think we got 7 or 8 cherries, but that's the most we've ever gotten. It's not like we might prune it wrogn and get less. And if we do, who cares! 7 or 8 cherries. Really, we might as well have none.


Bart just BUTCHERED our apple tree. In a good way. There were no buds on it, so no reservations. It had a ton of branches that had just shot straigth up and were rediculously high. Those are now gone. With the way the tree looks now, we should have no problem getting apples anywhere on it with our little ladder. Yay!


I guess we'll really see how good of a job we did when we see whether or not the trees actually produce this year. Keep your fingers crossed for us.


And by the end of the day, I had even finished organizing the pantry! What a wonderful day!


And I must say, for not knowing what the heck we were doing, our trees...especially the apple tree...look great!

Beautiful

Okay, I just have to rave about my husband for a minute. I love him SOOOOOO much! I swear, he just makes me feel so BEAUTIFUL!!!


It doesn't matter if I'm 9 months pregnant with swollen feet, hands, and face, or if I'm in my first trimester when I'm green because EVERYTHING I think of makes me want to puke and I'm getting all that stupid fat around my stomach...which blows my mind because I KNOW the baby is like the size of like a grape AT THE MOST and I'm losing weight, so I don't know how I'm getting MORE fat on my stomach! AND my skin looks like a teenager because I brake out for my ENTIRE pregnancy!


Even with all of that, I will catch him just staring at me with this look on his face like he thinks I'm the most beautiful thing on Earth! I caught him the other day and called him on it. He laughed and said, "But you ARE beautiful!" And you know what, I think he believes it! Sometimes I think he thinks I'm even more beautiful when I'm pregnant than I am when I'm not, and much skinnier with clear skin, and enough energy to actually do my hair in the morning. Te he he. I love my husband!


Thanks Babe! For always thinking I'm beautiful. I love you!

Daddy's favorite

So Addison LOVES to dance. Whenever there is music on, she is dancing. Lately, in the car, she's been demanding, "Turn the music on mom!" To which I generally oblige. A few weeks ago she requested I turn the music on. I did so and The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" was playing. Bart absolutely loves this song. He says it just makes him happy when he hears it. I share the sentiment, so I thought for sure Addison would love it. Nope. She said, "No mommy, I don't like this song."

Surprised, I said, "Okay." And moved to our next pre-set station which, much to Bart's dismay, is a country station. I can't remember the song that was playing, but Addison said, "Yeah mommy, this is a good one, it's Daddy's favorite!" I just burst out laughing. I knew Bart would be horrified! She went from one of his favorite songs to his least favorite genera, exclaiming, "It's daddy's favorite!" Maybe my husband is a closet country music fan...I doubt it. Te he he.

I LOVE Valentine's day

I have always LOVED valentine's Day. What an awesome holiday! A holiday to celebrate love and all the people you love. So wonderful!

Admittedly, with Addison's sickness, it was a bit muted this year, but it was still wonderful.

On Friday Bart came home from school with a half a dozen deep red roses for me. SOOO sweet! That night we had Amy Babysit Addison (thanks Amy!) and Bart & I went to an Indian restaurant, and then to the mall. The original plan was to go throw pots at his school afterward, but we were both so stuffed we didn't really want to do anything that required effort...or clean up. ;o)

But man! It was so fun! We had masala at the restaurant, and it totally reminded both of us of Africa. We had so much fun just talking and being together.

Then Saturday I got up and made him breakfast in bed. He actually hates breakfast in bed, so I took it up to him to show him what it was and then told him he could come downstairs to eat it. I was pretty proud of myself. My mom used to make us red heart shaped pancakes every valentines day with red milk and red anything else that she happened to make. I always loved them, even though I'm not a big fan of pancakes. They were the best.

Unfortunately Bart doesn't really like pancakes either (with the exception of the Ihop carrot cake pancakes, but despite my best web surfing efforts, I couldn't find the recipe) so I had to improvise. I made him eggs in a basket (another one of his favorite breakfasts). It's basically fried toast with an hole cut in the middle where you cook an egg. But I made the hole a heart shaped hole. I was pretty proud of myself. Addison doesn't really like eggs in a basket, so I made her red heart shaped french toast. Te he he, it was way fun. I admit I didn't make the milk red. Although I love it, it grosses Bart out. Once our kids are older, I will make their milk red. :)

The rest of the day we mostly lounged around. We did take Addison to the doctor again, as I mentioned in my last post, but other than that we just had nice family time. It was wonderful.

I seriously love my husband so much! He's so much fun! I just love being around him. Every time I sit down next to him on the couch or snuggle next to him in bed, it's just so great. I feel so lucky to have him! He's just so wonderful! We have so much fun together. We get along so well. We laugh, we have fun, we love talking, it's just great. Like seriously. I just feel so lucky! He's just perfect for me! We have SUCH a great relationship! I am convinced that it is not normal. I really think that we have something so special. I know how disgustingly cheesy that sounds, but I really do. I'm just so grateful for him. Is or relationship perfect? No. We're both working on it constantly, and we both do stupid things from time to time, but it's still just so great! I love it! And I love him! And I love valentine's day!

Today some of Bart's family came over for Sunday dinner. In keeping with the red theme I made raspberry lemonade and a raspberry bunt cake. I let Bart pick the dinner and he chose pecan crusted chicken...something we hadn't had before, so it was fun to experiment. It ended up being pretty good. It has been fun visiting and just enjoying family! I love it! Life is wonderful!

The Three Dreaded Letters

So on Monday Addison got a fever and started throwing up. We kept her home Tuesday, and Tuesday night, in one of the many times I got up with her she vaguely waved her hand by her ear and said, "My ear." It really wasn't alarming at all, but it was enough for me. The next day I took her to the doctor's.

I always feel guilty going to the doctors when she's just throwing up (but still keeping liquids down) and only has a mild fever. I always want to go, but when we get there, they basically say, "There's nothing we can do, just make sure she keeps having wet diapers, if not, bring her back." But now that there was a chance that she had an ear infection (something I doubted because she never really complained of pain and wasn't really fussy) I had an excuse to go.

When the doctor looked in her ear she literally gasped. She was absolutely shocked that Addison wasn't screaming in pain because her ear infection was so bad! My poor brave little girl.

The doctor also heard wheezing in her chest. RSV has been going around lately, so she checked her for it and she tested positive!!! I couldn't believe it! I thought RSV was just something little babies got! Fortunately, since she's older it wasn't as dangerous. But still, it was scarry!

We did have to get a nebulizer, and gave her albuterol every four hours for three days (including at night). Saturday she hadn't improved at all, and was even sounding worse. I hadn't heard the wheezing before, but I was hearing it from time to time now. The doctor had told us that if this happened to bring her back in to make sure she hadn't developed pneumonia. Fortunately she didn't.

We also mentioned that the nebulizer didn't really seem to be doing anything. The doctor said that a lot of times it won't really do anything unless the person has asthma, so we didn't have to give it to her as frequently any more. We've still been giving it to her right before she goes to bed, but I'm not sure that we even need to do that...it doesn't seem to be making any difference.

Her fever is gone and she hasn't been throwing up, so she seems to be doing better. The worst part of it all was that her cousin McKenna who is a year younger than her was supposed to come up with her parents to stay with us. Since Addison had RSV, she couldn't be around ANY kids younger than her! So we had to call them and tell them to stay somewhere else. I felt so horrible.

While she was sick before we went to the doctor, whenever Addison seemed to be having a hard time, I'd tell her McKenna was coming to visit, and she got so excited. Then she couldn't even come! And, on top of that, Charles & Heather's baby, Andrew, was born on Thursday. So we haven't been able to see him either! Dreaded sickness. Oh well. She will get better and we'll be able to see them soon. But man, what a crazy week!

My Little Artist

Okay, time for me to brag a little. So Addison colored this picture of a princess today at day care.
I was talking to Robin and Nyla and they were telling me that this coloring is actually very advanced for her age. Most kids her age don't even consider the lines on the paper and just make big broad marks all over the paper. As you can see, she had colored in little localized patches. You can even tell that she was coloring the lips one color and the face/eyes another color. On the tower to the right of the princess, she colored the roof a different color than the rest of the building, and she stayed in the lines really well. This apparently shows really good hand eye coordination. I'm so proud of my baby.

Pee too!

So Sunday night I was giving Addison a bath. I was getting ready to take her out and she stood up and said, "Mom! Popos!" I was like, "Ah Crap!" And yelled downstairs to Bart to bring the little potty upstairs to the bathroom I was giving her a bath in.

While he was getting it, I held her dripping, and shivering over the big toilet. When he brought it in, I set her down on her little potty. The poor thing was shivering a ton, so I tried to wrap towels around her without getting them in the danger zone.

She insisted I go out of the bathroom. I was very hesitant to do so, picturing a towel soaked with pee or smeared with poop, but she finally coaxed me out. Shortly after that she told me to come back in. She had peed in her potty (with no damage to the towel...thank goodness)! True, she didn't poop, but at least she's realizing when she needs to go.

After that I tried to get her to lay down to put her diaper on, but she wouldn't have it. She took the diaper from me, and, standing up, tried to put it between her legs and secure it around her waist...a very difficult task for a two year old. After a few frustrated attempts, she looked at me exasperated and said, "Mommy, I need pull ups!" It was so funny!

The next day we went and got her pull ups. She's very excited to use them...although that was the first, it was also the last time since then that she has initiated sitting on the potty. She has gone since then, but I have to coax her to sit on the potty. At day care there are several other kids that are being potty trained, so every two hours they have everyone go to the potty. She's pretty excited to be a big girl like her friends...if only I could get her to initiate it at home. Oh well, she will learn.