Happy Birthday Addie !!!!!

Addison turned the big #8 on Sun. Feb. 21st! I can't believe how big she is now! This is the 2nd year in a row that she has not been sick on her birthday-hooray! Unfortunately, the rest of us have been battling colds, so maybe it's just that she's already caught everything.

Addie started out her birthday with a special breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and bacon. Leftover pizza that she had picked out the night before was for lunch. Dinner was a special request of her favorite meal which was chicken and dumpling soup.

I let the kids pick out a special cake they want me to make for their birthday. This year Addie liked 2 cakes, a purse and flip flops. I went ahead and made them both, since I wasn't sure how much cake the end result would make. It ended up being just about right with a little leftover.

Our cousins Sara, Rachel, Peter, and friend Emily were able to join us for the festivities. Also, my brother Glen, his wife Rachel, and more cousins Jaron and Noah were able to come. We had a fun time eating all that cake and icecream and visiting.

Addie loved all the gifts she received as well. She got her special card and birthday money from Grandma and Grandad Black, a very pretty sparkly, blue CTR ring from Grandma and Grandpa Fox, a princess dress, necklace, baptism book, & twirly doo-hickey from Grandma and Grandpa Beebe, and a stuffed dog, little pet shops, pet shop socks, & a doll named "Addison" from Mom & Dad.

We love Addie very much and are so blessed to have her as part of our family! She is a very sweet and special girl, Happy Birthday Addie!!!

Addie attempting to blow out all the candles.

Special Birthday Cakes

Purse cake, looking a little saggy.

Flip Flops Cake

Addie excitedly opening her first gift.

Addie and her Addison doll.

Addie and her new dog "Brownie" and pet shop stuff.

Princess dress and twirly doo-hickey.

Irish Step Dance

Bailey and Addie had their first performance as Irish Step Dancers on Thurs. night. They performed at a nursing home in Provo. They were very excited and did very well, although I wish it had been longer. I thought they were going to do 2 dances, but ended up only doing one. This is the beginner's costume they both have on. They both are wearing poodle socks and Bailey is wearing the traditional Irish soft shoe called Ghillies (I'm not sure if I spelled that right). They are supposed to have tight curly hair, but I failed miserably in trying to curl the girls' hair. Most Irish dancers wear special wigs, but they are very expensive, which we won't be purchasing for a long time, and only if they stick with it. In the video clip I have posted you can probably see some of the other girls with curly hair. Cam is also taking Irish Dance this semester, but as he just started, he was not ready to perform with the others. The kids love Irish Dance and enjoyed performing for the first time, even though it was very short.

The Roof

My handsome hubby and a very pregnant me at The Roof.

We got some cash back on our American Express card, so Chase decided to arrange something special for us. Feb. 14th is Valentine's Day of course, but it's also our half anniversary, and we wanted to go out one more time before the baby is born. Chase made reservations (Feb. 15th,Valentine's was on Sun.) for The Roof which is at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Temple Square in Salt Lake. We love eating there for the food, view, and atmosphere. They have an awesome dinner and dessert buffet and salad bar. I think we enjoy the dessert bar the most. They also have someone playing the piano while you eat and the view is awesome of the temple. We had an enjoyable time, which went by way too fast. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it again sometime.

View from our table, you can probably see my reflection in the window.

Me with the menu and the temple behind us.

Chase and his very pregnant and swollen wife just outside the roof overlooking the temple, which you can see poking out from behind us a little.

Daddy & Emery

Emery and Chase

Chase making a lovely face with our cute little booger.

So, the other day I came up the stairs to find Emery all snuggled up against Chase contentedly watching T.V. together. It was so cute, I couldn't resist taking some pictures!

Sara's Mission Call

Rachel, Chase, Addie, Cam, Emery, Anna, Bailey, Inga, Ken, & Sara

Bailey, Cam, Anna, Emery, & Addie being silly.

Cute Cousins!

Chase's cousin Sara got her mission call to Hong Kong and went through the temple a couple weeks back. So, Chase's Uncle Ken, Aunt Inga, and cousin Anna, drove out to UT to go through the temple with Sara. Rachel(Sara's sister) lives in Draper and some other family relatives live close by also, so we got together for lunch after the temple. Ken and Inga were nice to invite us to Tucano's which is one of our most favorite restaurants, which is also where the pictures were taken. It was nice to see our family from OR that we rarely get to see and miss! Anna is probably our kids' most favorite cousin and it's always fun to get them together as you can tell from the pictures. Sara goes into the MTC on April 23rd I think and she will make an awesome missionary!

Bailey's Science Fair Project

Bailey's science fair was Feb. 3rd I believe. She did a fantastic job of growing some bean plants from seeds in the window sill and documenting their growth and the effects of sugar water. She hypothesized that the sugar water would help the plants grow better, but concluded that the sugar water actually stunted the plants' growth and inhibited growth completely with the extra sugar water. Bailey got a purple ribbon for her project and we are very proud of our little budding scientist.

Bailey's Pioneer Day Dance

The 4th grade had a special pioneer day where they dressed up and participated in several pioneer activities throughout the day including a dance they had been practicing for. I had worked the night before so I told Chase to have the kids wear their boots if it snowed, because I had heard it was supposed to snow. When I woke up later the next day it hadn't snowed, but Chase had the kids wear their boots because that's what I had said, and I guess he didn't remember me saying only if it snowed. I remembered Bailey had her dance that day and I couldn't imagine her performing her dance in her boots. I left a little early with her shoes and caught her lined up in the hallway ready to go in and perform, but she didn't want her shoes and was determined to keep her boots on. I went in and found a seat right by her group and watched her and the other kids perform their pioneer dances. One of the dances was the Virginia Reel, and I'm not sure what the other one was called.

When she first found out she had to dance with a boy she was upset, but soon realized it wasn't that bad and had a fun time. She was supposed to dress up in pioneer garb and found an old foofy dress of mine and decided to wear it. When I came to watch her dance I realized that a button was missing in the back and her dress would occasionally pop open and it had a big rip in the sleeve. I'm sure people were wondering who the mother of this girl in boots and hobo garb was. I think it's funny that she thought my childhood dress would make for a great pioneer outfit, I guess that makes me really old.

Bailey performed really well and had a lot of fun. I recorded her dances and will try to include at least one of them, but just a warning, they are pretty long. I don't know how to edit the video and I'm at work right now, or I'd have Chase do it for me. Anyway, when the kids got done dancing I got a surprise. They wanted all the parents to come up and dance with their student. So, here I was 8 months pregnant dancing with my daughter in a cafeteria full of onlookers. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but it was fun. I kept bumping into people, because it was crowded and I'm big. It was fun, even though I'd rather Chase had been the one there dancing. Anyway, enjoy the dancing sensations of Bailey in true pioneer form.

Surprise Lunch Dates with Mommy

I decided to spend some one on one time with each of the kids before the baby comes. On Tuesday I went and got Bailey out of class just before lunch time. She was very confused, especially since her sister wasn't also being excused. She was afraid I had come to take her to the dentist or doctor and kept asking me what we were doing. I told her I was kidnapping her and that we were on our way to Canada. She didn't believe me, although I thought I was pretty convincing. When we pulled up to the Carl's Jr. I told her we needed to eat something first because it was a long drive. After our food came she proceeded to question me and finally asked, "Is this a Mommy/Bailey Day?" I came clean and said yes, and that I wanted to spend some time with her before the baby came because it would probably be a while before the next Mommy/Bailey Day. She was thrilled and enjoyed playing in the play area, eating, and talking with mom. Afterwards, we drove to Arctic Circle and got a shake and then I took her back to school. I swore her to secrecy from the other kids as it was supposed to be a surprise for each of them.

So, today it was Addie's turn. She came around the corner and saw me in the office and just threw up her arms asking what was going on. I took her out to the car and explained I was kidnapping her to Canada as well. I asked if she had gone to the bathroom recently, because it was going to be a long trip. Addie didn't believe me either. This time we drove to Del Taco and as we pulled up Addie asked, "Are we eating here?" . I told her yes, and explained that we needed to eat something before our long trip. She still didn't believe me, I guess I'm not very convincing after all. So, we went inside and ordered our food and she was absolutely excited! She had the whole play area to herself and loved the food. I explained to her what we were doing and she agreed to keep it a secret, too. It was a lot of fun, except for the moment I realized I had misplaced my keys and about had a heart attack, until I finally found them. I thought I had maybe dropped them, left them on the counter, or thrown them away with the food. I have no brain cells left at all! As we walked out to the car, Addie told me that this was the best Addie/Mommy Day ever! Well, then we drove back and instead of taking her to school I drove to the Macey's. She asked me, "Is this the way to school?", and then excitedly asked, "Are we going to get an icecream?" . I told her I wasn't done kidnapping her yet, so, we went inside and I got her a small soft serve twist cone. This time as we walked back to the car, she told me, "This is awesomer than Disneyland!" . Wow, I wish I had known that a couple of years ago, we wouldn't have wasted money on Disneyland and gone to Del Taco and Macey's for ice cream instead.

It has been fun spending time with each of the kids by themselves and appreciating their little individual personalities. Tomorrow, it will be Cam's turn, and then Emery. I will keep you posted on our adventures, and let you know if we ever make it to Canada :).

Baby Update

Well, I went in for my 5th "full" ultrasound today. I've had many other ultrasounds checking my fluid twice a week as well when I go in for non stress tests on the baby. Anyway, the baby is measuring at 6 lbs. 11 oz. already and they told me to expect her to keep gaining about 1/2 lb per week which will put the baby at 8-9 lbs. if I keep my scheduled induction date for Feb. 26th. The doctor said that weight was fine since the baby would still be one of my smallest and I seem to have no problem delivering them big.

I really liked the maternal fetal medicine doctor I saw today, whom I hadn't seen yet. She actually explained to me some things I hadn't previously been told. She mentioned that they don't want me going past 39 weeks because gestational diabetic babies risk being stillborn, which freaked me out. Also, she told me that if my sugar levels get all crazy like they did with Emery then I also may still have to get an amnio done and deliver the baby even earlier. She said that they would rather risk delivering the baby early without fully developed lungs than have a stillborn. She said, they can fix undeveloped lungs in the NICU. She also said there is a risk that after the baby is born the baby starts producing her own insulin in addition to what she got from me and her sugar levels could bottom out and she could go into a seizure. So, I'm a little paranoid now, if I wasn't before. I kind of wish I didn't know all this new information. I appreciated the doctor being up front with me, she was very personable and informative, even though it was scary to hear. She also basically told me I was made to have "little fatties" I guess, which lightened the mood a little.

After my ultrasound and NST I met with the nurse from the diabetic clinic and she said my sugar levels were great and that they wouldn't be changing anything I did this week. This was a miracle, because every week I have had to change my meal plan, or up my insulin, or something. I expressed concern though because I would eat basically the exact same meal all week long and be fine except for the last two days I spiked way high after eating. Then, before lunch, my sugars would drop way low and would physically affect me. They said not to worry about it and that as long as I was averaging 150 for the day and not consecutively getting high readings that I should be ok. It has been frustrating to be doing what they tell me and still get weird results. They told me that it's normal and that sometimes the placenta will just produce more, or I could be stressed, or not feel good, or exercise too much and that would create my weird readings. So, basically I sometimes have no control over my sugar levels. They told me that is why I have to see them so much in the last trimester because gestational diabetes is the worst then. I'm hoping to keep things as normal as I can and hopefully make it 4 more weeks and that everything is ok with the baby.

Hope I did not bore you to tears with stuff you didn't understand or didn't want to know. This blog is also my journal, so sometimes you may have to suffer through a post now and then like this one.