It's A....

It's time for an update!! Yesterday we had our ultrasound done, but you'll just have to wait till the end of the post to find out the sex of the baby, because once again I'm going to start with how everyone else is doing.

Robbie is doing really great. He has a new job at a construction place called Okland (which I guess is a fairly big company out west here). He really likes it and is glad to be doing work along the lines of what his degree is in. They don't mind him working part time when he starts school up full time again in January and they were really anxious to get him to work for them. Plus-good news for us all-they are paying him almost $2 more than he was being paid at his last job! He really likes it so far. Robbie is also going to school part time right now so between work (which might require him at some point to work overtime-he gets paid overtime though) and school he's very busy but found time to go fishing this past weekend and caught another big fish. He's also been such a big help with the girls as I get bigger.

I'm doing okay. I'm still tired fairly often, and I loose steam to get things done quickly, but I still manage to get things done (maybe not everything in one day) and find time to play with the girls and do something for myself. My calling has been fairly stressful lately to do the move and time switches and having to redo the nursery schedule, sharing time, and using the new nursery teaching manual. It's become harder within the last two weeks due to move ins (since school started, a lot of people moved into our ward) and instead of having 6-7 kids each week in nursery we now have 12-13. We are now talking about having to split the nursery which will be a huge thing in our ward since we have never had more than those 6-7 kids at once in nursery. They are so much fun though and full of love and it's so nice to get hugs and to see them taking in what you are trying to teach them...it makes the calling and all it's challenges so much more fun.

Gwen is doing really well. Although the potty training is still not going as planned, she is obviously learning at a fast rate in other areas. She is very very bright and curious and loves to know what things are and how things work. She is still, as my mom said, a corker. She was roaring the other day and I asked her if she was three different things-a lion, a tiger, or a fire. She said no to all three things and told me that she was "Gwenyss...Gwenyss Nancy." To top that off, this morning while I took care of some things in our bedroom, I put the girls in their room and put up the gate to block off the doorway. They were being really quiet and so I asked them what they were doing. Gwen's reply? "I picking my nose!" She is such a funny little thing but very loving and very helpful. She is also very very excited about Halloween-she will be a butterfly this year and we have all ready made Halloween sugar cookies on her request.

Gracie is also doing really well, apart from having a severe cold a week or so ago. She is growing up so fast and has become quite the stinker when it comes to getting into things she's not supposed to. Many of our drawers and doors are now rubber banded together or tied together so that she can no longer get into them. She has also learned how to climb very very well and is constantly testing the limits of that. She is also getting better at speaking. She still says new words here and there but the ones we can really pick out are shoes, down, and baby. She has a big shoe fetish right now so shoe has become her favorite word. She also gets very excited over baby doll and barbie commercials on tv. She still loves to dance and cuddle and is such a sweetheart. She will be Minnie Mouse for Halloween, like Gwen was last year.

Onto the baby. As most of you know by now, yes...it's another girl. So much for my intuition, huh? I'm just happy that the baby is very healthy and growing at the rate it's supposed to. The ultrasound showed that everything is going well with her growth (spine, brain, heart, organs...bones, everything) and because of her size they said I'm actually a day ahead of schedule, which would have moved my due date from the 22nd of January to the 21st, but because it was only a day they're not going to change it-she may just be a bigger girl at birth like gracie (although if she weighs more than grace-8 lbs- at birth, I'm not sure I'll be pleased). She moves a lot more now and I can feel her kicking and turning all the time. She was not shy about showing off what was between her legs, but I didn't really expect her to-Gwen and Grace weren't shy about it either. All in all everything is going well and we are excited. We are still in a debate about what to name her but when we figure that out we will let everyone know. I was so excited for another girl that I shopped some sales online and bought some things that'll make a really cute outfit for her to wear (although I think we'll still bring something in the preemie size along to the hospital just in case)-thank goodness we don't need to get a whole lot for this baby (although if you do want to know what we need, I would be happy to send you the list that I have...). At the next visit they'll do the test for gestational diabetes and some other blood work to check on iron and other things, so I will let you all know how that goes.

As for the ultrasound picture, that is the baby's profile (when they did a close look at her face to check for a cleft lip, I got a good look and her features reminded me a bit of grace's from her ultrasound). She is on her back with her arm at her side (the really bright white line) and yes, her legs are over her stomach and head-they are stretched out (they too look really bright and white). I guess she was a bit cramped at the moment, but it's only going to get worse.

That's about it from here. I will try to update more often and send pictures to everyone more often...I know I've slacked a bit on both this past month. I hope that everything is going well with everyone and just know that we love you and miss you all!!

Wanna watch a movie?

I thought I'd try this out...don't know if it'll work or not...this is from this morning.

How I Hate Spiders

So I finally got all the pictures that I wanted for this update on my computer...and had some excitement the past 2 days as well. To start with, Robbie is doing really well. He went fishing about 2 weeks ago and caught a 22 inch fish that we ended up having for dinner later that night (oh, it was so good). He was quite proud of it. He just finished up his last internship and will be going to school part time (to relieve the burden on his last two semesters of school) starting on Monday. Because of his school schedule he will still be working full time (and will still be getting up early to run in the mornings-he's amazing!!). He's doing really good and has been helping me out a lot too. He's such a great guy.

So my excitement, among other things, involves spiders...which I hate-I have nightmares about them. Yesterday I was about to get up off our sofa after eating lunch when I saw a Hobo spider (poisonous) dart out from under the same couch. I shook for about a half hour after having to kill the huge sucker before it took off for another hiding place. Then this morning Gracie handed me her sleepy blanket and her baby and wanted me to wrap her baby up. I went to and noticed a gray piece of fuzz on the inside of the blanket. I went to take it off and just before I grabbed it, it moved!! Robbie said I screamed really loud as I threw the blanket on the kitchen floor in his direction so he could kill it. Needless to say, Robbie spent his lunch hour spraying the inside and outside of our apartment to keep all the nasty creepy crawlies out. Other than that I have had a lot to do with the girls and my calling. We were just moved to a different building and having to rearrange everything plus find a new nursery singing time person has been keeping me busy. No real pic of me...sorry.

Gwen is still having a hard time with potty training, but she has become mommy's little helper. She loves to help cook, clean, do laundry and even do the dishes. She is completely off of the binkie now, which is good in some ways and bad in others (meaning she doesn't take naps any more). She wants every toy she sees on TV (Mommy, I want that...see Mommy, I want that!!), says "Yes ma'am" and "Ok honey." She even likes to talk to the baby. About a week ago she asked if she could talk to the baby and after playing "the belly game" (in which she bares my stomach to the world) she leaned over and told the baby "It's okay baby bruder...I love you" and also told the baby something about shutting doors. She still says that she's having a "baby bruder" and knows whats going on. She seems excited, especially when we see newborns on TV.

Gracie is such a funny little thing...well, I gues she's not so little. She's 13 months old now and while she doesn't understand what's going on with me, she is so smart about other things. She says ok and wow, says "ickle ickle" when tickling your feet and "eww" at messy diapers. She's learning how to say thank you but she does now say "shoes." She has also mastered climbing up onto the couch all by herself and new dance moves. She has also discovered her belly button and her favorite thing to do right now is lift up her shirt and poke herself in her belly button. At the beginning of August she became really sick with high fevers (the highest getting to be over 103) and absolute misery. Turns out she had an ear infection, red throat and swollen throat and tonsils. On top of that, she was teething two molars at the same time . My poor little baby...they put her on antibiotics for 10 days and happily she's back to her normal self. I'm so glad.

As for the new baby, I had a doctor's appointment on the 25th. Everything looks really good. My weight and blood pressure were very good and all the tests they did came back normal (which was a big relief). They actually found the baby's heartbeat this time and it sounded really good. I've been really worried about this one for some reason...that something was wrong. I hope it's just paranoia, but Robbie gave me a blessing that promised me that everything would be all right with the baby and my health through this pregnancy and that everything would go okay. What a blessing to have him around and for him to be worthy to give me a blessing. As soon as he set his hands on my head the spirit filled me and I knew that everything was going to be all right...that there wouldn't be any problems. His blessing was beautiful and reminded me of several things. It was awesome. We are very excited because in about 2 1/2 weeks (on the 22nd) we have the ultrasound where we can find out not only that everything is okay, but what the baby is going to be. I have an overwhelming certainty that it's a boy this time (and no, I haven't been influencing Gwen...I've only talked about this feeling when Gwen isn't around or isn't paying attention). Of course, there's a good chance that I'm wrong, but we'll see soon!! I can't wait, and we will let everyone know...I've already promised quite a few people that I would call them. If you would like to be added to that list instead of checking here, just let me know...oh, here's my little bulge.

That's about it for now. I will probably not blog again until we find out what the baby is...unless something exciting happens. Hope things are going well with all of you as they are here (oh, we got to meet Pres. Boyd K. Packer's son 2 Sundays ago...he was a very nice, very spiritual man). Keep looking out for updates...