The day of my mother's vengeance has come.

Today Maycee has done the unthinkable.

She broke my bowl.

Not just any bowl, but my really nice bowl that holds my decorative apples.  AND it made a dent in my kitchen floor.

I guess I should have listened to my mother when I was 10 years old and she yelled at me for breaking her things.

Mom's porcelain figurines are crying from the dust.  Literally.

How was I to know that when I was throwing a ball to my brother over the top of those figurines that one of us was going to throw awry and it would break a little praying porcelain girl.  I guess after we broke one of them the throwing would have stopped.

We broke all of them.

I think there were five of them.

None of my breakable things are going to survive.

Conference

The Relief Society General Broadcast was last night.

It is really hard for me to put down the feelings that I had as I sat and listened to these amazing women that were chosen by God to give us direction.  I have learned A LOT about Relief Society in the last three years.  I have learned by the example of women who live the motto of Relief Society, "Charity Never Faileth".  I love being a part of something that gives me the opportunity to honestly care about people.

A member of the First Presidency spoke last night as well.  President Dieter Uchtdorf spoke and gave amazing counsel.  I remember when he spoke three years ago and I felt uplifted by his message.  Last night was no different.

I just want to put down a few of the things that he said.  He spoke of a flower that had special meaning to him. This particular flower was small and sometimes overlooked because of the other large, beautiful, and exotic flowers that normally towered over them.  This flower was a very small blue flower called a 'Forget Me Not'.

President Uchtdorf than gave us five 'forget me nots' that we needed to remember as we go through life.

1. Forget not to be patient with yourself.
2. Forget not the difference between good sacrifices and bad sacrifices.
3. Forget not to be happy now.
4. Forget not the why of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
5. Forget not the Lord loves you.

President Uchtdorf went into detail about these five things.  If you want to read more, his talk will be posted on lds.org in a couple of weeks.

I am so grateful that we have a prophet of God that will speak to us next weekend.

Pears

Canning scares me.

The only time I've done it by myself was last year.  With Stephen.  So technically I didn't really do it by myself.  We canned tomatoes.

This year, I needed to have my hand held again.  We canned pears.

It took us four hours to can seven quarts of pears.

Technically it took me two and a half hours and Stephen four hours.

We started at 8pm after Maycee was in bed.  We washed bottles and lids.  Made the pear syrup.  Boiled the lids.  Peeled pears.  Cut pears.  Filled bottles.

All of the bottles were full and ready to be steamed at 10:30pm.  I fell asleep on the couch while Stephen waited for the steamer to "steam".

That thing took a lot longer to steam than we thought.

Stephen woke me up at midnight to put me to bed.

Seven quarts of pears...check.

Maycee-girl is finally walking.

It has finally happened.

Maycee has officially become a toddler.

Honestly, it has been so gradual that I don't even know if I can pinpoint a beginning.  She has been trying to walk for a few weeks now, but her fear was conquering her will.  Now her fear has disintegrated and been replaced by shear determination.

She still crawls when she wants to get somewhere quickly.  It is definitely the faster mode of transportation.  However, walking seems to be her favorite, for the time being.

Go Maycee, go!

Babies

Grandma Call called me on Saturday.  She wanted to inform me on the good news.  My cousin was engaged and would be married in December.  (Grandma was a little irritated that I already knew...)

She said, "This next year is looking very promising!"

I replied, "What are you talking about?"

Grandma, "Having more great-grand babies!  We have so many options for 2012...You are having a baby in March, Brigitte is having two babies in March, and there are a lot more that could have a baby next year.  Don Mark and Tana, Shane and Krystal, Kelsey and Nathan, Courtney and her now fiance..."

I'm sure that Grandma had a few more in there, but I can't remember.

I replied, "Grandma, you have very high expectations."

According to Krystal she not only won't have a baby in 2012, but will make it a goal to have one in 2021.

Grandma, you just keep praying.

Maybe you'll get what you ask for.

My New Trick

Maycee is very squiggly.

I can't get her to hold still for any longer than two seconds.

This presents a problem while trying to change diapers, but I learned a trick to solve this...VICK'S Vapor Rub!  I put this little bottle on top of her head and she giggles.  She loves to balance it on her head.

I'm going to hang on to this as long as I can.

Where's Maycee?

Stephen is the official babysitter of my "off" piano students.  Meaning that while they are not in lessons they are goofing off with Stephen.  The kids love him.  He is either building Lego towers, playing mancala, playing Uno, or anything else that they request.

Yesterday Stephen learned just how much the kids like him.  He couldn't be there due to craziness at work.  Therefore Maycee had a babysitter.

As the kids came into the house they both asked, "Where's Maycee"

I replied, "Maycee is at Krystal's house."

Kids, "Why did you take her over there?"

Me, "I didn't want her to distract you guys while we were doing lessons."

Kids, "We could take turns watching her."

Me, "Sorry guys, already done.  You know, Stephen's not here either."

...They didn't even say anything.  Apparently Maycee is more popular than Stephen.

Sorry hun!

Appointment with Midwife.

I LOVE my midwife.

Yesterday was my first appointment.

Sitting on that lovely little table with Stephen to my right as we had the beginning pregnant discussion, it brought back a flood of memories.  Hey!  I've done this before!  I almost feel like a groupie.

When I laid down and she put the little instrument on my tummy to hear the babies heartbeat I had deja vu.  EXCEPT last time the instant the instrument was on my tummy I heard a heartbeat.  This time it took A LOT longer.  I was really starting to get nervous.

Is something wrong?!

My heart started beating again as I heard the little heart beat.

It is so miraculous that I get to be a part of this again.  Heavenly Father is so amazing!  I can't believe that he allows us to do this.  It is beautiful.

Because of the new regulations at St. Al's, we had an ultrasound at this appointment.  We didn't do that with Maycee.  I waited a little longer than last time to set up an appointment, so the little baby on the screen was not a blob.  It had arms and legs and looked like a baby!  We are officially at 13 weeks!

Yeah for little baby!

I have a cold.

I've had a cold for three days.

It sucks.

Stephen has totally taken charge and I love him.

This is what Stephen's day looked like on Saturday:

He got up with Maycee in the morning. 
Made Maycee breakfast. 
Made me breakfast. 
Played with Maycee and took her for a walk. 
He then put Maycee down for her nap. 
Cleaned the kitchen. 
Did the dishes.
Swept the floor. 
Got Maycee up from her nap. 
Made Maycee lunch. 
Made me lunch.
Took Maycee out to run errands with him. 
Put Maycee down for her nap. 
Got Maycee up from her nap. 
Fed Maycee milk. 
Made Maycee dinner. 
Made me dinner. 
Went to pick up my pears that I purchased. 
Took Maycee to a family birthday party. 
Ran more errands.
Put Maycee to bed.
Put me to bed.
Stayed up all hours of the night to recoup his sanity...

My husband loves me.

I'm sorry to all of you single ladies who are looking for the perfect man because I already have him.

Cherry Tomatoes

This afternoon I went outside to pick green beans.  Maycee came along for the ride in the grass.  After a few minutes I crawled out of the mess to see what she was up to.  She was a little too quiet.

I found her right next to the cherry tomato plant pulling off tomatoes and popping them in her mouth.  The only problem was that the tomatoes that were closest to her were the green ones.

Gross.

I pulled off a few red ones for her and went back to picking beans.

She made a huge mess.

Maycee can talk...I swear!

Yesterday I noticed that Maycee repeats some of the words that I say.

I noticed that she said "thank you" right after me.  If I am doing a direct translation it sounded more like "kank ku".  It was almost the exact same!

She also said banana.  Directly translated was "nana".

Maycee can also say Dada, Mama, Dog, and Cracker.

My child is a genius.

Except she can't walk.

Go figure.

Big News

It is finally here.

I can tell.

Honestly, this secret was a lot easier to keep than the last one. I don't know why.

BUT, I am still excited to tell.

Stephen and I will have Baby Post #2 around March 20th!

Wahoo!

Labor Day Weekend 2011

This year we decided to visit Kory and Charisse for our long weekend. Half way through our 5 hour drive we realized that we forgot Maycee's blanket. This is when I learned Rule #1. At least it became Rule #1 after this trip.

DON'T FORGET MAYCEE'S BLANKET!!!

I didn't realize how attached she was to that thing until this trip. I felt like I had a newborn again. She didn't sleep all weekend. It was awful. Never again.

BUT on a happy note...we had a ton of fun with Kory and Charisse!

We drove into Logan at 11:00pm on Friday night.

We left our house at 4:15pm, ran a couple of errands, and we were on the interstate at 5:20, ready to cruise. Instead, we crawled on the interstate for an hour with the rest of the residents of Boise that had also decided to leave for the weekend.

Stupid Construction.

That's all I will say on the matter.

We stayed up chatting with Kory and Charisse for a bit and then headed off for bead.

On Saturday morning Stephen and Kory helped someone in their ward move. Kory and Charisse's long lost friends showed up and we all chatted for a while and then for the huge event for the day we arrived and the Logan Aquatic Center. The local pool.

I still cannot get over how much Maycee loves the water. She is in her element.

We didn't get any pictures of the swimming, but it was a lot of fun. I think Charisse got a little nervous when Kory used her work key to play 'diving for pennies'...he forgot his penny. Silver is a lot more difficult to see at the bottom of a pool than copper. Kory almost lost that key.

We tried out the slides and got a little rug burn. Those slides really needed to be put together a little more smoothly. It was very entertaining to watch as a huge man slid down one of the slides and pushed a wall of water that cascaded over a group of people congregating at the bottom.

Saturday night found me asleep at 9pm on the couch. Stephen was being introduced to his new TV addiction, Psych.

Sunday after church we went on a walk down a popular little walkway near a little stream. It was really pretty. We took some group pictures.

After our walk we went back to the house to play games. For the record, Stephen and I totally won. Phrase of the game said by Kory...Unusual Positions...don't ask.

Sunday night, again the Psych addiction, but this time it found Kory asleep on the couch at 9:30pm.

Monday Kory was so excited for the Wellsville Labor Day Parade. Apparently, Charisse is not a fan, but Kory felt that since he had visitors coming into town he could drag Charisse. We were at the end of the parade. Yeah, most of the "floats" threw their candy in the beginning. However, we still got some really good salt water taffy. I haven't had that stuff in forever!

As we got up at the finish of the parade, we realized it wasn't finished. We decided that we were. I overhead a man say as we passed, "This is the stupidest parade I have ever seen."

Apparently he didn't get any salt water taffy.

We got some cutie pictures of all of us at the parade!...By the way it was freezing!

After the parade we were super excited. We went to hit up the local infamous suit store.

Stephen really needs a suit.

THEY WERE CLOSED!

I was SO disappointed. I was excited to play dress up with Stephen. Ggrrrr. Until next time, I guess.

After our disappointment we went to a local sub shop and then headed for home.

Thanks Kory and Charisse for letting us crash your place for the weekend. We had fun!