First day of preschool!

                          

Aftyn was so excited and nervous for her preschool. I'm in a mommy group preschool with 3 other little girls. 

Bronwyn's first day of mommy preschool. She insisted on a bag and picture just like Aftyn and it is rather nice to have her own supplies for our preschool. I love her excited grin!

My 4 Year Old Cried Herself to Sleep..... And Other Facts About My Life

You want some honest truths? Good, because tonight I am all about honest truths.

For example, Aftyn crying herself to sleep. Why? Because she wants to move back to Massachusetts.
She brought this up to me earlier today. And cried then too. I had simply asked her why she kept switching chairs in primary today during singing and sharing time. (I just got a calling to be a teacher in Jr. primary so I sit a few rows behind her class.) She told me she couldn't see our chorister because of the visitors she had in her class and how next week she just wanted it to be the normal number of kids in her class (3 in total). Not sure why the visitors bothered her but I'm just guessing that she's having a hard time with change right now. My parents who we are currently staying with are out of town helping some of my siblings. Could that be part of the problem? I don't know but I'm sensing that could be part of it. I can't help but feel a little guilty that in some way I have perpetuated that and will continue to do so as our family is about to change in the next 10 weeks. I'm hoping that starting preschool in 2 days will help her to have a normally scheduled activity just for her that will help her find a sense of belonging in this life we now lead.

Moving forward, more truths. Reed just accepted a new position at work. Because of this we may be moving a few weeks after this baby comes. And we don't know where yet because we actually have a few choices of cities we could live. Aftyn is going to hate moving again and even worse it's not back to Massachusetts.

This baby is coming too fast and also entirely too slow all at the same time. I haven't decided yet what my getting through labor plan is yet. I would like to do the Bradley method again, but haven't had ANY time to go to my in-laws house to find my book and then spend HOURS of time reviewing and re-reading and practicing all the skills I need to make that happen. That makes me very anxious about this impending birth. I'm really trying HARD to look forward instead to seeing this cute little girly who makes my belly wiggle and squirm.

I am getting to the point in pregnancy where I just feel huge. I'm not in too much pain, thankfully, just a few aches and pains here and there for which I am grateful.Still sleeping well.  So I'm huge, I feel like it will take me forever to get back to being skinny and I'm discouraged because I still have 7 1/2 weeks before I'm full term and I wish it was more like 4. I know, waa waa waa. I should be grateful it's not longer!
I sound like a real whine-fest tonight.

Bronwyn and Aftyn are growing and changing so much. Aftyn loves now to use her imagination in play with dollies and animals and all kinds of things. It's so much fun to watch! She is constantly telling me how much she loves me as she wraps her arms around me for a hug. She is such a good example and always strives to do the right thing as long as she knows what  that is. :) Currently she likes to "wrestle" with Bronwyn which drives me nuts because she basically lays on Bronwyn and squishes her and then Bronwyn squeals because it hurts. But I think Bronwyn is encouraging her when we're not looking so it's really her fault. Siblings. They are just so fun. ;)

Bronwyn is at that age where kids just say the funniest things without meaning to be funny so you have to hide your smiles and laughter while giving them the impression you're taking them completely serious. She still takes 2-3 hour naps every afternoon and even ASKS to take them! I feel so spoiled and lucky. Also, she is a much happier girl because of those long hours of rest. And she still manages to go to bed by 8-8:30. She is so affectionate and loving, if you say something is hurting, she will come up and kiss it even if you didn't ask her to! She is so considerate and caring and mindful of others.  She L-O-V-E-S fruit. She hasn't found one she doesn't love and she is a much more adventurous eater than Aftyn.  Aftyn is getting MUCH better about trying food. Recently we discovered cucumbers make her throw up. LOL. But at least she tried it!

I am in the middle of sewing blankets for our newest girly, a blessing dress for her and a new diaper bag. I'm trying to hurry and get it all done but my swelling ankles aren't helping and my faltering energy stores certainly don't make me all that productive some days. But my goal is to get us all settled in over the next week before my parents come back so that we are as prepared as can be until our Baby Patience is born. It'll happen. Because the alternative is too awful to think about.

Our New Life

Reed's been back at his job for 4 weeks now. We have all been living in my parents house for 2 weeks. I will be 26 weeks pregnant this week. And well, life just keeps on moving.

I have acquired a new (to us) double stroller, and a new (to us) car seat for our baby. I think I'm beginning my nesting stage. In the ways that I can. I can't find my sewing notions but I have come up with an idea for the blanket I want to make for this baby. I also have a good idea of what I want to do for her blessing dress. I'm fighting all that's in me not to pull out all my newborn clothes, or to get out my bassinet and get it all prepared for this little girly. I'm not wanting to pull out clothes or get furniture set up yet because I'm hoping we can find a way to have our own space aka our own apartment or house before we have this baby. And then I will get to go into full nesting mode getting a whole household set up. For some reason right now, that sounds heavenly. :) All this nesting energy needs to go into something!! LOL

We are grateful for all the love and kindness we have received from our families at this time in our lives. We hope that sometime soon we'll be able to get back on our feet but until then we're grateful for all the service we're the recipients of.

Perspective

Yesterday around 3 am, Aftyn woke up with a fever. And continued to not feel well the rest of the day. I started feeling sick around 2 pm and continued not feeling well the rest of the day. Bronwyn thankfully was patient with the 2 of us and sat around while we watched movies from my bed until Reed finally made it home around 9:45, just in time for me to already have put the girls to bed and to have missed most of the sickness as I was beginning to feel better.
 It was a hard day, it was a tiring day. But guess what it showed me?! I can do hard things. I can get through our present hardships and our kids will help. We can live with parents and we can stick together. My kids have my back. My husband has my back. We have kind parents who give us what we can't afford to give ourselves right now and who are willing to help us.
 Heavenly Father knew what he was doing in letting me feel awful yesterday. I am so grateful it was just a 24 hour bug and I now have my normal amount of energy and strength to keep up with my girls and do the things that need doing. I can do this. I've got this.

Look! No Net!!

Sorry for no pictures, but well, that's life right now.

Since coming back to Idaho, life feels like a precarious balancing act.
We are so grateful for parents who kindly take us in and let us live with them, we are so grateful for Reed's job that is slowly but surely helping us get back on our feet but we know that that is going to take us a while
at this pace.

We are precariously hanging on to the tiny tidbits of the familiarities of the life we knew before.
 It feels like if we let go of our old ways of doing things, of our habitual rituals that we might topple over into some scrambled pile of rubble with so many body parts and no one quite sure which ones belong to them. This is a tough time for us.
 We are trying to make a home life for our family in someone else's home.
We are so grateful to have the home but still hard to find the balance of doing things their way and losing our own ways.
 Bronwyn seems to be manifesting the most problems with all this change.
 Poor thing is on day 3 of digestive issues that we can't seem to quite get under control.
And no, it's not the stomach flu because no one else has gotten it.
 We are mindful of our blessings.
We are so grateful for our health and our happiness, so grateful for work and for our baby on the way, we just feel very uncertain about what Heavenly Father has in store for us in the future.
And what we're supposed to be doing in the meantime.
Have you ever felt that way?
 I just can't seem to figure out what our path is supposed to be right now.
 This whole outcome has been so totally out of the blue that we haven't known or figured out what's next. Hopefully we will soon.
 If nothing else, in about 4 months we'll have a new little person to brave this unexpected journey with. Hopefully she's cute.
 That might make up for all of this, just a little. ;)

Little Pieces of Life and Our Travel Log

Last time I wrote, I left you with the good news of our new little girl!  We are still so excited to be expecting our 3rd little girl. I've taken to calling her baby Patience. She has had to be so patient for us to have the time to think about her and begin to look forward to her impending arrival in a few months. We have never had such a stressful time of life as now and I'm sure it's only going to be getting busier.
 Reed and I did indeed move come July 1st. We had been all set up to move on the 29th of June but after measuring out our trailer space in our apartment and trying to fit boxes and things into it quickly decided that that trailer would surely not be big enough. After reserving a bigger trailer for the following Monday and waiting all day Sunday to receive a confirmation e-mail for Monday, Reed decided to call UHaul Monday morning to find out what was going on. When he called he was informed our reservation had been changed to the next day and even then, the location we thought we would pick our trailer up from did NOT have our trailer. And would not have our trailer. Reed called around, found the right size trailer 35 miles away, drove there, discovered his drivers license had expired 4 months earlier, drove back and picked myself and the girls up so I could pick up the trailer with my unexpired drivers license. In the meantime, we had to re-arrange our moving schedule with all the guys from our ward until later in the afternoon when we would have the trailer. Oh my goodness I was so frustrated. It was probably not my most favorite day ever in my life.
    BUT  we managed to pack it all up, finish cleaning our apartment and get out of there by 1. AM. LOL.
Yes, that's right, we packed ourselves and our girls into the car carrying the trailer at 1 am Tuesday morning mostly because 1) we had told our rental company we would be out by Monday and 2) we didn't want to have to sleep on the floor with only our pillows and a few lap blankets we had managed to keep out for ourselves to travel with.
    I drove for about 1.5 hours before I couldn't keep my eyes open. We made it to Ludlow, Ma. and stayed in the Holiday Inn Express. I have to HIGHLY recommend that motel to EVERYONE! Seriously. Best breakfast, best room, best pillows, best service and happiest workers I have seen. Ever. We were out of there mid-morning and drove to Bowling Green, Ohio. We arrived there at 3:45 am. Only because we had a motel reservation that allowed us to stay there for free. It was torture to drive so long and completely wore poor Reed and I out BUT in spite of having no air conditioning in the car had such great cloud cover and rain most of the day that we were never really hot all day! What a blessing!
    The 2nd day we drove to Des Moines, Iowa. Another cool, rainy day. What a blessing. We arrived at a much more reasonable time probably around midnight.
     Day 3, the 4th of July. We drove to Ogalalla, Ne and stopped there in spite of wanting to make it to Cheyenne, Wyoming because Reed thought he noticed our car dripping anti-freeze at a pretty heavy rate and he didn't want to chance having problems in the dark of night with our car and not many big cities in between Ogalalla and Cheyenne. In hindsight, it was a smart call on his part. It was SO. HOT. THE. WHOLE. DAY. We spent the night in the Days Inn. My poor pregnant ankles resembled elephant feet, and I'm not joking.  That night as we were driving, Aftyn LOVED seeing all the fireworks. She just oohed and aahed over them all. What a little sweetheart and she was so game about getting/having to see them from the car. Bronwyn was already asleep by the time we started seeing them.
   Day 4 was the day we had hoped would be our last day driving. (It had been pretty hot, but we had been getting some good cloud cover that helped to cool us off.)  As we finally made it to Cheyenne and stopped for lunch, we had no idea what lay ahead of us. 20 miles after leaving Cheyenne, going up a fairly steep hill, our car completely overheated and we knew we weren't going any farther that day. After lots of help from my dad and brother, we got a tow back to Cheyenne and our cheap and very interesting Motel 6. It was too late by the time we were towed to make it to any kind of mechanic and boy were we worried since it was Friday night that we could potentially be stuck there all weekend until Monday when most mechanic shops opened back up.  Thanks to Reed, our insurance and Midas (who we have nothing but GREAT things to say about) we were fixed up by Saturday evening at 5 pm. I could have kissed those mechanics sweaty feet since it meant we could finally finish our long long drive on Sunday.
  Sunday we woke up at 5:30 and managed to hit the road by 7:30. Go us! We made it home to my parents house around 11 pm. I was never so glad to be done driving. Also, Sunday was Reed's and my 6th anniversary. Good way to show your level of commitment, driving 15 hours and just being grateful to almost be done.  I'm not sure I ever want to take another road trip across the U.S. in the summertime. Even with air conditioning. Maybe if I could relax and just enjoy and stop whenever I found something interesting to go look at. But not anytime soon, hopefully.
Reed started back to work last Tuesday with his old employer, Total Scales. We are grateful for his job and ability to begin making money so quickly for us. We will be living with my parents in the meantime until we have an idea of how long we may be here. We are so grateful for both of our parents in hosting us in their homes on and off while we're here. We really miss Massachusetts and hope that someday we can go back and see more than we saw in our year and a half there. We will miss our old ward and friends there. But we are looking to settle in here and make the best of things right now. I like to scare Reed sometimes so I remind him how swiftly our little girly could be here. It's amazing how fast this pregnancy has gone thus far. She will be here sooner than we can even comprehend. We are grateful for her addition to our family. We are grateful for our blessings as a family right now. And that's all I've got tonight.

Telling Our Kids The Good News

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