obligatory baby bump photo

pregnant with jonathan, 30 weeks along

every pregnancy, i tell myself that i am going to take a picture each week of my pregnancy so that i can look back and see how my belly grew over the months. and every pregnancy, i get one or two photos of myself showcasing my stomach.

because, when it comes down to it, i don't want to be in front of the camera when i am pregnant. or really, in general. but certainly not right now.

but for posterity's sake, and for my mother-in-law, who hasn't seen me since thanksgiving, when i was much smaller, here is one of the two pictures i will take this pregnancy. 

snow day

we got a flurry of snow the other night and the girls woke up in the morning, ready to go out in it. by the time we got out there, it was pretty crunchy and not much fun to play in, but they still had fun.

i taught madeleine how to make snow angels, but it didn't make much of a dent in the hard snow.

diane making her own snow angels.

randy even joined us outside for a while. diane kept trying to get him to eat the snow off of her gloves.

madeleine started hopping around in the snow to make deep footprints and diane wanted to hop around too, but couldn't do it on her own. randy helped her and then started chasing madeleine with a hopping diane. both kids thought it was pretty much the best thing in the world.

crying

fact one: madeleine was overtired yesterday and consequently, cried a lot throughout the day.
fact two: madeleine loves to give us a constant and very detailed commentary on her life. she is very honest in her depictions. for instance, i will pick her up from my sister's house and ask her what she did. she will say something like this: "we played with toys and i had three time outs because i was being mean to rachel." it's actually kind of nice and i hope that her honesty will continue through her teenage years.

yesterday, we had the following conversations with madeleine:

over dinner, while madeleine was giving randy the rundown on her day
madeleine: and then, bruce came and picked rachel up and i was crying a lot.
me: why were you crying?
madeleine: because i have lots of problems.

while madeleine and i were reading the scriptures, we came across a part where jesus was weeping out of joy.
madeleine: why is jesus crying?
me: because he was so happy. sometimes, when we are really happy, it makes us cry.
madeleine: yeah, but i wasn't happy today, i was MAD.

losing my mind

i always complain that i can't remember a thing while i am pregnant and that i become a complete airhead. i hate being an airhead. randy openly acknowledges that my IQ probably dips a few points when i am pregnant. sadly, i am pretty sure that i never fully recover from this decline.

concrete example:

we arrived at church yesterday and we were actually ten minutes early, but randy was playing the organ, so we were kind of running late. randy ran inside and i started to unload the girls when i looked down and realized that i had never changed out of my slippers and into my sunday shoes. in my defense, my slippers look like (really beat up) leather moccassins and have a full sole, so it's not like i walked out of the house with fuzzy bunnies on my feet.

i debated whether or not to go home and get my shoes, but i had already unloaded the girls and i hate getting them in and out of their car seats, especially when i am pregnant. plus, i probably would have been late by the time i went and changed them and came back. and, i spend half of church with a bunch of non-judgmental one and two year olds, so i decided to just go inside with my slippers on.

when i decided this, i didn't calculate in that we sit on the second row and i have a child that just learned to go to the bathroom. i had to dash in and out of the chapel several times and for some reason (once again, i blame it on pregnancy) decided that it would be better to kick off my slippers and run out barefoot each time rather than leave my slippers on.

such is the irrationality of my pregnant mind.

out of diapers

it's official. both of my children are potty-trained. three months off before i've got to start buying diapers again.

potty training diane was leaps and bounds better than potty training madeleine. i think it was less them than me though. i was much better prepared this time, both physically and emotionally. diane had tons of accidents for two days and then almost exactly forty-eight hours after i started, it clicked and she's been dry except for wetting the bed once last night. it's nice to have it done a few months before the baby arrives this time, rather than two weeks before, which is what i did with madeleine.

i was actually a little worried about how madeleine would do during the whole process but she has been great. extremely supportive and helpful and i think that helped a lot. it helps that she's been getting treats too.

here's to no major relapses.

cold and hot

we spent last week up at my mom's house. my sister's family was in town and we got to spend some time playing with them.

on wednesday, the zoo had a free day, so we loaded up the kids and headed out into the freezing cold. my brother-in-law is a superb biologist and educator, so i learned all sorts of new things. my nephews kept saying, "yeah, dad, i know that." and i kept telling them to be quiet because i didn't know it yet.

we lasted a couple hours before madeleine said she wanted to go home. i didn't blame her, i was pretty cold myself. this is why i don't have more pictures. i was way too cold to think about taking out my camera to snap pictures. luckily, my brother-in-law belongs in the arctic and took these. he and his children stayed for a couple hours after we left.

funny story: this morning, madeleine said, "where does santa live?" i said, "at the north pole, at the top of the earth, where it is very cold." she said, "at the zoo?" apparently she equates the zoo with cold.

my girls also got some time in the hot tub with randy this week and loved it. i forgot what little fish they are. 

more (happier) christmas and birthday pictures

i'm not going to change my mind that this was the worst christmas ever, but after we all recovered from being sick, we did some more birthday celebrations. here are the rest of the pictures from the festivities that i didn't post last week.

the picture above is of madeleine checking out her birthday balloons from santa. 

about five minutes before eruption at my parents house on christmas day.

diane in her new christmas pajamas from my parents.

rachel and elizabeth in theirs.

trying to get a picture with all of the grandkids. madeleine refused to put her pajamas on. looking back, i realize that some of it may be because she wasn't feeling well. but some of it may have been that she was feeling stubborn.

bruce (who diane is very comfortable with) tried to move diane into the line and she wasn't having it. thus yet another year with a parent-less christmas picture evades us.

there may have been a slightly better shot from someone else's camera, but this was the best that i had.

new flashlights from pa'a. the kids loved these. i think that they're pretty sweet too. they have a charger that also serves as a nightlight.

 

opening birthday presents on monday.

art supplies from grammy.

a new doll from the swenson pecks.

new ballet shoes from mommy and daddy. madeleine has been pretending that a pair of her mary jane shoes are her dance shoes for months, so we decided to get her some actual ballet slippers. she loves them. she immediately put them on and asked me to turn on a song so that she could dance.

in the background of this picture, you can see diane with her slippers on. she didn't want to be left out.

even more birthday on tuesday up at my mom's (still holding her new doll and wearing her ballet shoes).

ready to help.

madeline for madeleine.
 

this is the cake that my sister made for madeleine on sunday and that she didn't even get to eat or see madeleine blow out the candles on. madeleine wanted a pink and purple cake with a butterfly on it. it was perfect. 

eating the cake with her cousins and sister. happy late birthday, madeleine!