So I promised pictures of our fun weekend in Denver over Valentine's Day/President's Day Weekend. Thanks mom and dad, Mel and Suzie for making the trip! It was so good to spend some time with you!

I realized as I was going through the pictures that pretty much the only time we took pictures over the weekend was at the zoo. Saturday, the zoo was FREE! so we thought, why not? Denver has an awesome zoo and even though the plants were dead and most of the animals were inside, it was fun to see them (especially the monkeys!)

This was right after we got there - still looking chipper and...not exhausted. Let's be honest - that didn't last the whole time. It was a LOT of walking.
I LOVED this sign. Duh! :)

Monkey! There was one group of little tiny monkeys that had a little TINY baby monkey on the momma's back - I don't think any of us with cameras got a good picture of it, but it was SO cute! I told Nate I'm going to carry our little girl like that. :)

I don't see much of a difference between Mel and the Komodo Dragon - you? :)

If you know Nate, you know he's a HUGE fan of getting his picture taken (HA). The only way I could convince him to be in this picture was to tell him something about how he was as manly as this man lion...maybe that explains the face...he's MUCH more manly, after all.

See the exhaustion setting in? This is also a nice display of my tummy (as well as my water-retaining face - awesome).

Can you tell how much FUN we were having? We actually were having a good time, but the sun was a little bright and mom kinda caught us off guard. I'm really not angry or something...
And since mom was usually behind the camera and Nate & Dad are excellent at avoiding the camera, I had to throw in a couple of them, just to prove they were there!

Mom and Nate, looking at a map of Denver, so mom could orient herself with where we were in that big city (there's a little more to Denver than Bismarck :)

Here's one of the papa, outside the captial building in Downtown Denver. He loves getting his picture taken as much as Nate. :D

We went to Downtown Denver on Monday and shopped at the 16th Street Mall. The mall is all outside and you just walk along 16th Street into all the shops. It was a beautiful day (we saw a girl in daisy dukes and flip flops - in February!), so it was a good day to be walking outside. We went into The Children's Place to look at baby clothes and I found the CUTEST onesie that said "My Dad is a Superhero." but it was like $7, so I didn't buy it. :) But it's true!

Anyway, it was a fun weekend that made me even more excited to move to Denver next year! (pending everything working out for us to move there)...

We'll call this post "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"

The Good:

I feel the need to complain a little about pregnancy, but while I was thinking about complaining, I realized "I am so blessed to be pregnant and there are so many things I'm thankful for." So I figured if I'm going to post the "bad" I'd better post the good too! And first!

1. I am very lucky to be pregnant. I know of so many people who have tried for so long and any time I start to complain, I just remind myself that there are plenty of women who would give ANYTHING to "deal" with pregnancy.

2. I have had a VERY uneventful pregnancy. I didn't get awful sick - just a little queasy, I've had minimal amounts of pain (just the "normal" pain), and anything that HAS happened has been talked about in pregnancy books or my sisters knew, so it was easy to deal with.

3. I have an awesome husband who has been super supportive - letting me vent when I get emotional, laughing when I get irrational, and giving lots of feet and back rubs! Plus, it helps to see how excited he is for his little girl to come.

4. I'm surrounded by people who are always concerned about me. I know it kind of comes with pregnancy, but it's so nice to have that concern from so many. Even a lady in the airport told me not to lift my suitcase!

5. That little girl in there is a reason all her own. I say it all the time, but I LOVE feeling her move! I love knowing there's a little child of God in there that He's going to let me take care of! I love it.

The Bad:

1. This first "bad" thing is the reason I wanted to do this post in the first place: Heartburn. I have Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (kinda like Acid Reflux), so I've experienced heartburn before, but NOTHING like this. Last night, I was scared to lay down because I thought fiery acid was going to pour from my esophagus into my mouth. It hurts. And I'm buying Tums tonight.

2. Sciatic nerve = I can't feel my legs when I lay on my back. This has just started to affect me in the last few days, but I must say I'm not a fan. I really miss laying on my stomach, but dealt with it because I could still lay on my back. Now I ALWAYS have to lay on my side. That bugs.

3. I used to be able to lay down and fall asleep instantly. For about 3 weeks, I haven't been able to fall asleep for AT LEAST 20 minutes after I lay down. Luckily, most of the time I can sleep through the night without really waking up, but occasionally (like 2 nights ago) I'll wake up OVER and OVER. Preparing me for the years ahead I suppose....

4. I'm not a big fan of those occasional moments of panic: "I'm not ready for this!" "I need to go buy EVERYTHING I need for the baby!" "What if...?" Luckily, the rational part of my brain is still there enough to remind me that I'm just being...well...irrational! :)

The Ugly:

1. My pants don't fit anymore! I was really hoping I'd be one of those lucky women who got to wear her normal pants her whole pregnancy with just a belly band on to keep the top unbuttoned. Nope. Even my "loose" pants are getting snug now. At least I was able to wear my normal pants until I had just over 3 months left, right? Oh yeah, thinkin' positive now...

I was reading a post on CJane's Blog this morning and she talked about an article that came out, all about the Mormon blogging world. She talked about how many Mormon bloggers there are and why we all blog.

And it got me thinking.

I got started in the blogging world because a friend from North Dakota started a blog for all of us LDS North Dakotan friends to keep in touch. From there, we all kind of started our own blogs.

For the most part, I've only used my blog as a way to update family and friends on important events in our family and occasionally, my thoughts on certain issues - my Men/Women post and political opinions, for example. And I feel like I'm not blogging properly if I don't have a picture.

But lately, I've run into a couple of blogs that I've never seen a picture on and others that pictures are just the background to what is being written. I used to LOVE to write creatively and feel like I don't do it like I used to (maybe that one Dream post...)

So I'm going to start.

I'm sure I'll never read the level of wittiness or creativity CJane and Normal Mormon Husband have attained, but why not write what I'm thinking/feeling/etc/etc?

Now, this is a GOAL. Kind of like writing in my journal more often is a goal. Which means it just may not happen. And I have a feeling my perspective/priorities will change in about 77 days, which could throw this goal to the wind.

After all, "We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and in retrospection."

Right?

I used to harass my sisters for not posting pictures of their preggo bellies.

I will never do that again.

I promised, before I got pregnant (something I will never do again either - make a promise about what I will or won't do while pregnant) that I would be one of those people who posts pictures of her pregnancy, so friends and family who live far away could see the progression.

And I don't like to break promises, no matter how painful it is to me.

So there's my preface to my preggo picture, of which I am NOT a fan.
Oh - did I mention I took these myself?

The good news is, that little munchkin making me look like this, is AWESOME! I just can't get enough of her moving around and trying to figure out what body part is poking me at any given time.

Speaking of her, remind me never again to try to presume I know what my baby is before I get an ultrasound. I think I was SO convinced early on that I was having a boy, that my subconscious brain won't let go of the idea. Sure, before I knew what I was having I had a couple of dreams that I was having a boy.

You'd think that now that I KNOW it's a girl, I'd have dreams about a little girl.

Nope.

In the last 3 weeks, I've had 3 dreams that I was having a boy. THREE! Granted, in one of the dreams, the little boy turned into a girl midway through the dream (maybe my brain is finally processing the truth), but still...

So anyway, I have a whole buncha pictures from my fun weekend in Denver with Nate and my parents/little sisters, but they're all on Nate's computer to which I don't have access at the moment. As soon as I do, I promise I will post them. I know, you're just dying of anticipation. :)

100 DAYS TO GO!

I have been waiting for this very day for about 184 days (that's when I first made my little Lilypie countdown). See, for some reason 100 days doesn't sound too long. I'm sure in a couple of months when I can barely move, I'll regret saying that, but for now...

100 DAYS!

I have recently been accused of being a bad blogger.

I admit it.

You'd think with all this time I have on my hands in the evenings, I would just take tons of time to post, but here's what I've been doing instead of blogging (BTW, I still read all the blogs, so don't YOU become a slacker because I am):

Yay for my quilt that I FINALLY finished (I started this last summer)!

These are all T-shirts from high school (a couple of them may have been stolen from older siblings, since I wasn't IN high school in '99...)
That cute yellow shirt on the bottom right of this picture, is from my cousin and best friend Alta. She gave it to me when I was 10, after she had had it for awhile, so I'm pretty sure that shirts almost 15 years old. I wore it up until the day I started cutting the fabric for this quilt. :)

My favorites are the ones from homecoming when we played Dickinson, with their Midgets mascot. People must have thought I was SUCH a bad person for wearing those shirts around.

I just wanted a picture to show the border and the fabric I chose for the back. I haven't done the yarn part (the little knots that hold the quilt where it should be). And yes, I know I was supposed to to that BEFORE I sewed the back to the front, but my budget didn't cover the yarn at that point and I was too anxious to get it all sewed! :)

Aside from quilting (and watching movies while I did it), I have....

Been reading all the Harry Potter books!

I just started after Christmas and just finished The Goblet of Fire today. I know, I know, it's horrible that this is the first time I'm reading them, but I'm really glad I waited until they were all out. I don't think I could have handled having to wait until they came out each year. They're so addicting! (BTW, the Prisoner of Azkaban has been my favorite so far).

While I'm on the subject of books, I had to make a quick plug for...

I read these when I was like 7 and hadn't since then, so I thought I'd read them again. Nate is a HUGE fan of all things C.S. Lewis, so pretty much all of his books are on my list, but I figured these were easy reads, so I'd do them first.

I have to say, I was AMAZED at the symbolism in every single book. Honestly, I am in awe at Lewis' ability to understand things that even some members of the LDS church don't fully understand!

So what I'm saying is READ THEM. You won't regret it.

I'm not really sure this post could have been more random. Thanks for reading (if you still are...). And I haven't taken a belly pic lately for those of you who are sure to ask. I'll get one of those shortly since I'm getting pretty huge lately (I had a complete stranger comment on my being pregnant, so it MUST be obvious).

So there you go. No longer a bad blogger...right?

Christmas in Island Park, Idaho

I know I'm seriously delayed in posting these pictures, but at first I was busy and then I was lazy. So I'm finally making time. And no more excuses.

This was our beautiful tree (everyone kept calling it a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but with decorations you could barely tell there were spaces in the branches). We also raised it on a platform so we could fit the presents better - we had a lot of people...

Apparently in the few days we were there, Island Park got way more snow than it has in a long time. I think we got over 3 feet, maybe close to 4 feet of snow. Good thing we didn't have anywhere we HAD to be! I thoroughly enjoyed having an excuse to not leave. :)

This is what we looked out on basically every day. Lots of white.

Here's Connor, enjoying the snow. Nearly everyone went out for a little while on Christmas day. I think I was out there for about 7 minutes. The boys played football in the snow. I wished I'd gotten some pictures - they had a blast - I'm amazed they didn't lose the football in all that snow!

We'd like to thank Glenn for teaching Nate and me how to play Mexican Train over Thanksgiving, so we would have something to keep everyone busy for HOURS and HOURS. :) I think these guys played for 5 hours straight at one point. Nate was sure glad to get those dominoes for a Christmas present!
Another activity that took up PLENTY of time was this puzzle. It looks easy you say? Go jump in a lake. It was 2,000 pieces and took FOREVER. We stayed up super late the last night we were there trying to finish it. Those dolphins were the killer part. Whew.
Kippy got to lay the final piece since we're pretty sure she spent more time on it than anyone. Someday, I will have that kind of patience.

Until then...

This is how I felt when it was finally completed. I think this face is similar to the one I made when we spent like 5 hours trying to find the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. NOT worth it.
But everyone else was pretty thrilled we completed it!

And I had to throw one of Lindsey in there since A. she didn't get to be there when it was completed, B. because she also spent a TON of time on it and C. She's cute and pregnant, so why not!?
I think I've only made one or two gingerbread houses in my life, so I was pretty excited when Kippy told me we were having a Gingerbread House contest! These Frakes don't joke around with Gingerbread houses. The one above is mine and Nate's. We cut gumdrops in half and made bricks for the whole house. That was pretty awesome.
You may have noticed our Happy Little Joker. Totally Nate's idea of course.

Connor and Lindsey's house. They seemed more concerned with eating the candy, I think. :) Con had a good idea with the skier and the snowboarder on the roof though.
Here's a closeup of the skier and snowboarder.
Dan and Kippy's traditional gingerbread house. I thought it was perfect. The roof was pretty insane. You'd get quite the sugar high from lickin' that thing.
Jordan and Paige's psychadelic (sp?) Gingerbread house, complete with....
Rock climbers and a rock climing wall on the back (notice the climbers have harnesses and a rope...)

I didnt' get any pictures of Trav and Rachel's because they took FOREVER to finish it. :) They made a little jail on the front and a miniature Jack McCoy (from Law and Order) to go with it. Lots of work, for sure!

Speaking of Law and Order, I don't have pictures,but I'm pretty sure we watched about 20 episodes AT LEAST of that show. Frakes family favorite. If you haven't seen it you should. It's been on for 18 seasons, after all. It MUST be good!

Preface to the following pictures: We were supposed to leave Tuesday morning and Monday afternoon the wind started blowing like crazy, to the point that the roads were quickly becoming covered with snow. We quickly packed up most of our stuff, put it in the cars, and the boys drove them down to the main road. What we thought might take a couple of house, took more like SIX hours to do. They kept getting stuck and the snow kept piling up.
Here they are one of the times they were stuck (this is like 200 yards from the cabin - great start, wouldn't you say?). They were there for over 45 minutes, stuck in that one spot.
Here are the snowplows trying to get them out. Even with those two and later another couple of backhoes and tractors, it STILL took forever to get in. They ended up leaving Dan's car at the VERY helpful neighbors and they all came back on snowmobiles until the wind stopped and the snowplows could get the roads cleared.
This is what they all looked like when they came back inside. Trav may have been slightly redder than the rest, since he got knocked off the snowmobile. Pretty funny and sad at the same time. We girls spent the whole time watching out the windows and praying for them. We sure love those boys of ours!

So that was our holiday. We had a blast, for sure. It was fun to be with family and be lazy.

And since no post is complete without my tummy (and certain mothers and sisters of mine would be upset), here are a couple of the belly. This is about 21 1/2 weeks.
Nate insisted this shirt did not show the true size of my belly and I said it was fine, so we took one with this shirt...
And this one. You can be the judge of which one makes me look bigger.

And which ever one you say will probably not be worn again. :D I'm obviously showing more now since a woman at work two days ago said "Well, when did you start showing?" Apparently it's noticeable now.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

People like me should not be allowed to have live plants.

This was a full and very beautiful poinsettia a couple of weeks ago.

Can I tell you how much I love This Amazing Woman's Blog? She can make me laugh and cry and want to eat Greek food (which I hate) all in one post. Someday, I hope to be able to write like her.

Someday.

Top 5 reasons I KNOW I'm not making up this pregnancy thing:

5. Bathroom breaks are WAY more often than any normal human being. Let's just say I have a preferred stall in the bathroom at work because I know them all so well...

4. My belly button used to be at least twice as deep as it is now. And I should know. I love my belly button - and it's disappearing!

3. Leg cramps in the middle of the night. Awesome.

2. That breakdown I had before dinner. Long story, but let's just say Nate just looked at me like "why the HECK is this crazy woman in my wife's body crying (no, BAWLING) over Spaghetti?" (To his credit, he was very good about it - he just hugged me until I calmed down - while trying really hard not to laugh).

And #1 reason this is for real:

1. The 'lil poke, poke every now and then (I can just imagine that little guy/gal -- "Uh, mom? Could you please not lean forward like that?" Poke, poke.)

*Disclaimer: These are, by far, not the only fun, new things I'm experiencing. The others, however, most of you (or maybe all of you) would prefer NOT to hear about.

Promised update:

For Thanksgiving, we went to Chicago (technically Naperville, since we never actually went into Chicago - more on that) for the holiday to see my sister Shan and her family, as well as my sister AJ and her family who came down for the weekend. We had a BLAST! Granted, we probably didn't get as much sleep as normal (there were 4 kids ages 2 and under), but I got some good practice for the future! It was definitely worth the lack of sleep since we hadn't seen two of the nephews at all and it had been the longest since we'd seen these two families. While we would have preferred to have the WHOLE family together, I think we're all learning that when the family is as spread out as our's, we'll just have to see bits and pieces at a time.

While there, we spent most of the time just hangin' out at their apartment. We considered going downtown, but with 4 kids who need nourishment every 2+ hours and naps often, it would have been crazy. Honestly, I wasn't disappointed at all. I went to be with family and we had so much fun just being together, playing games, watching movies, laughing at silly two-year-olds, etc. etc. Here are some fun pictures/videos from the weekend.

This was a pretty common scene. Glenn, Josh, Nate and AJ played Mexican Train (with Dominoes), Monopoly and several other games. Shan joined in a few of the times as well, but I was content to hold babies and play with/deal with toddlers.
Here's one of AJ being a good mommy (as always). She always got interruped during games to take care of her little guy.

Here's Shan also being a good mommy (:D) and multitasking (taking pictures of the other munchkins).
I was sort of amazed that Xander looked at me since he was watching a movie. :) He really loves the Shrek movies and I think that's what was on at the time.
Also Stella watching a movie. I love this picture because she's SO focused (and in such an awkward movie watching pose).

I have a few videos of an absolutely silly 2 year old dancing queen, but my computer isn't letting me post it, so I'll have to do that separately. Stay tuned for that!


Usually, I like to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, but as I didn't get home until the following Monday, I had to wait a few days. I love putting up the Christmas tree (and hate taking it down - it's too bad I was thinking about how I would have to take it down as I put it up)! Here it is:

And finally, I keep getting requests for belly pictures (I guess that's what I get for dishing it out, huh?)

So here is one at 12 weeks:
One at 16 weeks:
And one at 17 weeks: (I think this one looks like I'm sticking my stomach out, but I promise, I was even trying to hold it in a little bit...)
So there you go! We had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a fun Christmas!

The Doghouse

Beware of the Doghouse

SO FUNNY!

I've either got a boxer or a soccer player residing inside me.

I'm a little worried about what the next 23 weeks hold for me if he's/she's already kicking/punching me with such vigor! I only started to feel any movement about a week ago and now this morning it almost hasn't stopped.

Maybe he/she is just making sure I know this is real.

As if I could forget.

I promise there are pictures coming of Thanksgiving (if I can figure out what the heck is wrong with my camera card) and a Twilight update and Christmas stuff, but until I get that done (and while I'm sitting here at work), I'm going to post another of those silly tags/surveys/whatever. (Let me just say right here, how awesome blogs are. Instead of getting forwards with these things in them and feeling bad for forwarding basically SPAM to family and friends, you can post it on your blog and people can read it if they want! Or not! Whatever!).

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? A glass of each! I actually drink hot chocolate all year long, so that's not really a representation of Christmas for me. But Egg Nog - oh yeah. You'd think I'd hate it since I had it forced down my throat when I was 10 and wasn't eating anything because of my surgery, but I still love it. However, I think Nate doesn't love it, so I probably don't drink it as much as I could (which is probably a good thing huh?).

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Actually, family puts wrapped presents under the tree. Santa puts presents by our stockings, which have been placed on couches and chair around the room.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White with colored ornaments! We always had colored lights growing up, but I think I like white for my tree. Oh, but I like colored lights for the house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. Don't need mistletoe to kiss my sweetie. :D

5. When do you put up your decorations? The day after Thanksgiving (or the soonest I'm home after Thanksgiving).

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Um...that's a good question. I don't think I have a "favorite" holiday dish. Oranges are SO Christmas to me though. Can I count that?

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Having my oldest sister Emily come wake us up at 5:00 AM to go look at our presents. Then running into my parents room to tell them EVERYTHING I got and wondering why they were always so tired. :)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? You mean the truth that Santa's a busy guy, so he needs moms and dads to be his helpers? Or the truth that he's a representation of the Spirit of Giving? Oh, sometime in the last few years.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nate's family opens one present (usually pajamas), but my family never did (except at the Cox Family Christmas Party).

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? White lights, colored Christmas balls, and our old ornaments (there's this really cute one of Nate as a snowman when he was like 5. I'll have to take a picture and post it), and candy canes.

12. Can you ice skate? Huh. Sort of. I end up in pain after (either from falling or the muscle strain of trying to keep from falling).

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't think I have a FAVORITE gift. I have MEMORABLE gifts, like the year I asked EVERY Santa I saw and wrote about 5 letters to Santa to ask for "Giggles and Go," the doll in a stroller who giggles when she hits into a wall in her stroller (she also giggles when you throw her at a wall or the ceiling, which Ben so kindly found out for me).

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? FAMILY! Also, being super lazy - just ask my poor in-laws who thought there was something wrong with me when I slept practically three days of the holiday 2 years ago.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Candy from my stocking.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? It used to be when we would drive from Roosevelt to Salt Lake for the Cox Family Christmas party, then drive back late on Christmas Eve and I'd watch for Santa's sleigh the whole drive. Now, it's probably the fact that we basically don't eat a meal on Christmas. We just kind of snack all day. Maybe eventually something will be made, but if not, that's okay!

17. What tops your tree? A big red bow.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? A little of both. I love seeing people's expressions when I got them something they wanted. On the other hand, who doesn't like getting new stuff! :)

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? The Christmas Song (does that sound boring or what?)

20. Candy Canes? I like the fruit flavored ones to eat. Peppermint ones are only good to eat in hot chocolate.

21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? I hate the fact that Christmas decorations start going up in stores on or even before Halloween. I hate that it gets away from the real reason we celebrate CHRISTmas. (There's actually a senator here in Utah trying to pass something for stores to start using "Merry Christmas" more instead of just "Happy Holidays" since we are a predominantly Christian nation. I thought that was kind of cool - let's get it back to the reason for the season!).