Almost there

I haven't posted much about this pregnancy, and now it's almost done. Here I was at 26 weeks:

 

And here's 36 weeks ( a week and a half ago.) What a difference 10 weeks makes, eh? And in another 10 weeks I'll have a sweet little 6 week old baby!

 

I'm getting more and more excited about this little boy. We still don't have a name picked out, but hopefully we'll know when we see him. I'm pretty much ready as far as preparing for the little guy goes, and I'm definitely ready to stop being pregnant! I dream about labor almost every night and wake up disappointed that it's still weeks away. But in the meantime, I'm trying to focus on my other baby

Daphne will be 17 months old this week. She is such a joy and a treasure (mostly.) In the last few weeks she got 5 new teeth all at once, and we finally weened her from the bottle. She has been such a fun little companion as she learns new words, forms opinions and asserts her personality.

 She started our her life as the most un-cuddly, un-affectionate child, but she's growing into those characteristics more and more every day. At night and naptimes she likes a good snuggle before I lay her down, she works so hard to arrange herself around my huge tummy and then hold on for dear life. It's pretty funny. She also likes to pat my tummy and poke my belly button, but I'm afraid the poor dear has no idea what she's in for.

 She loves to put on her coat and get in the car. She likes to take everything out of mommy's wallet and pretend to talk on the phone. Her favorite toy is whatever item I happen to be using. She likes to brush her hair and mine with whatever she can find that resembles a hairbrush, i.e. doll brush, bottle brush, toilet brush. And yes, she is getting some hair. But only in one strip right on top of her head. Mohawk? Yep.

Planning a career in bank robbery to help pay off dad's student loans.

 She loves babies and I'm so excited for her to be a big sister. I just hope and pray that I will be able to give her everything she needs while I'm juggling a newborn. Bryce has been so amazing getting up with her early in the morning and taking over when he gets home, not to mention listening to me complain about various aches, heartburn, hormones, etc. I constantly remind him that he has no idea what it's like to be pregnant and he should count himself lucky to be male. But the truth is, I definitely wouldn't put up with me, or someone acting like me for so long. My kids have the best dad!

Bath time is her favorite. It's only my favorite when she doesn't poop.

So here's some catch-up:

Daphne broke our camera the week after Halloween, so I pretty much haven't taken any pictures since then.

Yesterday Daphne turned 16 months. She has 8 teeth, is finally starting to get some hair. It appears as though it is going to be brown and curly. She had learned to give kisses, can say 5 or 6 words and is just more delightful everyday. She loves to dance and spin and tap her feet. She's pretty into talking on the phone, climbing everywhere and thank heaven, she finally learned to go down the stairs on her own.

We spent three weeks in Spokane for Christmas. We got completely spoiled by both sets of parents and got to go out for lots of baby-free time. Several of our siblings came home as well and we had a beautiful, relaxing time. Daphne was so loved and had so much attention paid to her by her grandparents, cousin and aunts and uncles that she was pretty bored once we got home. But we're all glad to be back in our own house now.

Bryce passed his national board exams. YAY! Now just a few more hurdles before graduation in May.

We put our house on the market March 1st. Hopefully it will sell quickly. And my due date is March 2nd, so yeah, it's gonna be a crazy month. I've been cleaning and decluttering like crazy. Thank goodness for all the crazy nesting energy.

Baby boy is due to arrive in 6 weeks. We still don't have a name picked out because so far we can't agree. Since we'll be moving soon I'm not going to the trouble of doing a nursery, and that is kind of a bummer, but I still have a couple of little sewing projects to do before he arrives. 

This pregnancy has gone by in a flash. I'm still feeling pretty great except for exhausted. I imagine that's partly due to having a toddler. It's very different from my last pregnancy, and aside from different discomforts I enjoy how much more relaxed about everything I am now that I've been through it before. I imagine this little baby looking just like his sister, I'm so excited to see him.

That's all the news with us. hopefully we'll get that camera fixed soon, at least before baby boy comes!

Goodbye October

 Halloween was pretty low-key for us this year. The big event was the Murder Mystery party we threw a few weeks ago. We were partied out after that. We didn't even get around to carving our pumpkins.

We did really enjoy Zoo Boo with some friends. All the decorations were so fun and amazing

 Daphne had her first trick-or-treat experience

making the discovery that good things appear in the bucket

Wrappers are no obstacle. She just ate right through those.

We also went to the ward trunk-or-treat, but the Little Destroyer has put our camera out of commission, so no pictures of that.

We only get about 15 trick-or-treaters each year, which is fine with me. All in all, another great Halloween. We're excited for next year when we will have a family of 4 to outfit!

Bucket List

Everyone has a bucket list. This is a condensed version of mine:

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details. 


1- ride in a hot air balloon
2- step foot on all 7 continents
3- complete a half marathon
4-be fluent in a second language
5- star in a play
6-have grandchildren
7-get another degree in something I am passionate about
8-write a book (even if it isn't published and is just for me)
9-have a beautiful flower garden
10-take a cooking class
11-visit all the major league baseball stadiums with my husband
12-swim with dolphins
13-have a home library with big comfy chairs and walls of books (and good lighting)
14-learn to play piano
15-travel, travel, travel. Just my travel bucket list is about 35 lines right now.


What's on your list?

Spooktastic

A couple of great October reads:

2 books I read this month. Both sufficiently chilling to get me in a Halloween mood. The Hangman's Daughter, a fictional account of a real person, an executioner in medieval Germany.Lots of mystery and witchcraft. Portrait of a Killer, supposedly is forensic evidence presentation of who the real Jack the Ripper was. It was a little far fetched, but still a great book for a dark October night.

Happy Halloween

Duck Tales

 Last weekend Bryce and some buddies went duck hunting on the season's opening day. Between the four of them they got a pretty good number of birds, and lucky me, Bryce brought home a sack full of them.

The group shot down about 15 all together.

Getting up at 3 in the morning to go stand around in the freezing early air, waiting for ducks to fly by is not my idea of fun. Daphne and I had a sleepover with our friends Jenna and Macy and then went out for a yummy brunch. But I'm glad Bryce enjoyed it.

We're not food prudes, so we decided to cook the poor things. This is the duck cassoulet we made with the five birds he brought home.  It was surprisingly yummy, as long as I didn't dwell on where they came from.

I felt kind of proud of my hunter/gatherer for bringing home the bacon...or duck.

Fall break

She loved taking a nap in this hammock.

 For Bryce's Fall Break we went camping down in beautiful Brown County. The trees were probably a little better the weekend before, but it was still pretty amazing. The weather was great the days we were there and the ground was dry so Daphne's rolling around in the leaves wasn't a problem. We were joined by our new friends the Dawsons, and had a really fun evening with them. Even though our darling girl decided none of us should get any sleep that night, it was still a good time. We didn't hike this time around, but we drove to some of the good vantage points, played with leaves and sticks and enjoyed the beauty of fall.

 On the way home we stopped at a pretty fantastic pumpkin patch. It was just on the side of the road, there was no hay ride or hike to get your gourd. Just plenty of beautiful, (and beautifully priced) pumpkins right there to choose from.

check out all those colors!

 

We also hit up Zaharakos Ice Cream parlor for lunch and made a stop at the outlets. I continue to be disappointed in the options for baby boy clothes. Every time I go shopping for little brother I come home with a new wardrobe for Daf.