Our eventful church day.

Krystal introduced Maycee this past week to Dora the Explorer.  Maycee will sit through about 15 minutes and then she is done.  I didn't realize until today that the things she watches really sticks with her!

In the middle of sacrament meeting we were listening to a speaker talk about repentance.  Maycee was being quite cooperative.

The woman speaking said this line (I'm paraphrasing), "We all make mistakes and will put rocks in our own backpacks..."

To which Maycee perked up and said very loudly "BACKPACK!"

For those of you who have never seen Dora, let me explain.  Dora is a little girl who goes on adventures.  During her adventures she uses little things to help her along the way.  One thing that she uses is her 'backpack' full of treasures.  In order to get into her backpack she tells her audience (aka Maycee) to say "backpack".  To which Dora's sidekick, Boots says, "Say backpack, say backpack!"  There is a brief pause where the audience (aka Maycee) is supposed to yell "Backpack".  Maycee has never participated in this ritual until today during church.

I really was trying hard not to laugh.

It was hilarious.

Today was also a day of mourning...

MY BABY IS GROWING UP!!!

We let Maycee go to nursery today at the insistence of the nursery leader.  She told us that Maycee needed to get used to being away from Mom and Dad to be with other kids.

Stephen took Maycee to nursery and sat with her there for about 10 minutes and then walked back into our class.  He sat in nursery for so long because he was unwilling to resign himself to the fact that Maycee was fine without him.  He had a very lonely look on his face when he returned.

Ten minutes later the nursery leader walked into the classroom carrying a sobbing Maycee.  The leader explained that she was hit with a block and she couldn't console her.  I was a little distraught!  I did not think that Maycee would cry at all with us gone and I was surprised that something so little would throw her off.  She reached straight for me and wanted me to hold her.

That was a nice surprise.  She never does that.

Twenty minutes later Stephen took Maycee back to nursery during singing time and sat with her for the last 45 minutes.  I went to check on them in the middle of the class and when I peaked through the glass window I saw Maycee sitting in a little chair folding her arms with her puffy red eyes paying full attention to the song leader.  Stephen was sitting right next to her, very protective like, singing the songs.

What a good Daddy.

GNO

As mentioned in a previous post, Krystal and I auctioned off a girls night with fun and fondue.  Also attached to our evening of enchantment was free babysitting by the hubbies.

Our official girls night out was last night. 

It was SO much fun.  We had quiet an eclectic group of women.  I never would have put us all together for a "GNO", but we had a ton of fun just chatting it up and eating good food.  Our party began and 7pm and much to the consternation of Stephen and Shane, the party finally broke up at midnight.

As I realized how late is was, I quickly ran from Krystal's house to mine to send Shane back home.  As I opened the door I noticed the two babysittee's asleep with Shane on the couch and Stephen trying to hold his eyelids open while entertaining himself with the TV.

Thank you Stephen for letting me have a free night with the girls!

Latest Maycee

I love my little girl.

These are fun things that Maycee has been doing this week.

When she came back from the farm she seemed to be more attached to this little scooter.  I found out later that Karli pushed her all over the place in this thing.  So maybe it reminds her of Karli.

I found her one morning pushing the scooter with her bear in the drivers seat.  The bear was on it's tummy and kept falling off.  Maycee was getting frustrated.  I put the bear on it's bottom and tucked his legs underneath the handlebars.  He stayed pretty well!...most of the time.

Maycee also found a love of cooking.  I guess she must see me do this a lot because this was all her.

Maycee also found out that her toy box now holds toys.  I left her with the top open as she kept pulling toy after toy out of the box.  When I returned she was in they box.  I didn't think she was tall enough to get her legs over...I guess I was wrong.



What do you do when something is bugging you?

Maycee's sleeve was bugging her this morning.

This is how she solved her problem.

Puppies

While picking Maycee up from my parents we brought home some extra "cargo".

Krystal pimped out her dog, Dexter, and we brought back the results.  Three little Yorkie puppies.  Krystal is hopping to make it rich off of her little dog.

Stephen and Maycee both fell in love with the puppies instantly.  Personally, I think they are cute, but I am not about to have that mess in my house!  Especially when Stephen and I have our own second mess on its way!

Stephen begged me on the ride back to Boise to let him hold one of the puppies.  He rode back to Boise with his newly named friend on his lap.  R.J.  Short for Rat Junior.  When we took the puppies over to Krystals, we learned that the puppy Stephen had named RJ was the only female.  Sorry Krys, the name has stuck.

The weekend of all weekends

Maycee was gone.

From Friday at 6pm to Sunday at 4pm.

I didn't think having my child at my parents' house for the weekend was going to throw me so out of kilter.

For our anniversary, Stephen and I planned a trip to the Oregon coast.  To the most "romantic city on the ocean", Lincoln City.  That trip was canceled due to the rage that cycled through my body on the day of our actual anniversary.  Instead, we decided to spend a quiet weekend at home with Maycee spending the weekend on the farm.

We met my parents and the infamous favorite Aunt Karli in Wendell, ID on Friday night to do the swap.  As soon as Maycee saw Karli, she wanted nothing to do with Stephen or me.  We tried to leave with a kiss and a hug and she acted like an annoyed teenager as she acquiesced to our wishes before she could get to Karli.  Someday I will repay that girl...

Stephen and I ended up staying in Wendell to kick off our weekend in the local diner.  The Farmhouse Restaurant.  The name of the restaurant was enough to make us want to eat there.  Secretly, Stephen has been wanting to go to this diner ever since we have begun our frequent trips past this tiny town of Wendell.  We won't say why.

The food was surprisingly good!  It also seemed to be the local hangout for all of the "old" people in Wendell.  Everyone that walked in the door knew and said hello to everyone else in the restaurant.

Driving home felt weird without having a car seat or a jabbering toddler in the back.

That night I tossed and turned all night long and woke up at 6:30am and could not go back to sleep.  At 8am I finally got out of bed and went to the living room to read.  A while later Stephen came out to check on me.  I burst into tears.  I couldn't believe the reaction that I was having to missing my little girl.  I had never been away from her overnight!  ...Now I was going to have to do it twice.

Stephen called my parents to check on Maycee as tears were rolling down my cheeks.  As I heard Maycee in the background a fresh set welled up in my eyes and I knew I wasn't going to be able to talk.  It was so odd to hear her on the phone.  Normally I am the one letting people talk to Maycee on the phone.

After we hung up the phone with my parents I tried not to think about Maycee and we started our day.  It started with the garden.  We finally cleaned it out.  We then got ready for the rest of our "date day".

At 3pm we left to go to the Taco Bell arena to watch the Boise State Broncos play basketball.  Honestly, it was really fun to go and watch, but...they were awful.  We played Air Force and got our trash kicked.  I should have known that was going to happen from the very beginning when they were playing the National Anthem and the Boise State players were not even in a straight line and were slouched over.  The Air Force guys were clean cut, standing up straight, and in a straight line.  The final score was Broncos 59 and Air Force 74.  Air Force played really good ball.  The entire game I kept whispering over to Stephen that our guys were really slow.  They couldn't keep up! ...oh well.  It was still fun.

EXCEPT!!!....the security guard at the front took my water bottle!  He stole water from a pregnant lady and then lied by saying that he would give it back to me as soon as we walked back out.  ...We wandered around that stadium for 20 minutes looking for that water bottle after the game.  Ggggrrrrrrrr.  I'm still mad about that.  It just happened to be my special Boise OBGYN water bottle!

After the game, Stephen and I went to Cafe Ole.  Mexican Food is my favorite thing in the entire world.  Thank you for taking me Stephen!  We settled our dinner with blizzards at Dairy Queen and then watched a movie and went to sleep.

Sunday without Maycee wasn't as bad as Saturday.  I still felt out of kilter not having a little one in Sacrament Meeting.  I was much more aware of the other kids in the chapel.

We picked up Maycee later that evening and it felt like she had been gone for weeks!  I know, that sounds really dumb, but I felt like I had missed so much time with her.

Now everything is right.

We have Maycee and she is her normal toddler self.

I don't think that our house missed her...

Pull Toy

Remember those toys we had as kids that we pulled around?  They had the little string attached to some sort of toy.  The one that I remember the most was the smiley face phone that was in Toy Story 3.

Maycee was dragging our wii nunchuk around the living room so I decided to make her own little pull toy.  I tied her stuffed cat to the end of the nunchuk and she drug that around.

Stephen thought it was a little morbid.

I thought it was clever.

Shower Stories

Maycee is hilarious.

Ever since she has found a new habit of putting things in the shower while I am showering, I have started to shower while she is taking a nap.

Today, however, she was already awake before I had finally decided to drag myself off the couch to get underneath the shower.  I got in the shower and put away the appropriate things that Maycee plays with that is a "no no": the toilet paper and the toilet scrubber.  I got in the shower and I was ready.

Maycee was quiet for a while and then I heard something scrapping on the wall.  I thought she was rubbing her hand on the side of the wall next to the toilet, but then as I turned around I saw Maycee dump my black flip flop in the bath tub.

Crap.

I looked out of the shower curtain and noticed that Maycee had found a bucket and had filled it up with my shoes.  I could see that she was planning on dumping each of them in the appropriate spot.  The bathtub.  Yes, the shower was still on.

I grabbed the shoes that she had in the bucket and tossed them onto the counter where she couldn't reach and continued my shower.

Another minute later something else dropped in the tub and I turned to see my two extra tubes of toothpaste getting rained upon as I washed out my hair.  I picked up the toothpaste and threw it on the counter as well.  At this point I was racing to finish my shower as quickly as possible.  I was a little more leery of what other things I hadn't really thought of that were within her reach.

Thirty seconds later I heard Maycee creeping next to the shower curtain and so I looked outside to see what was next...Maycee had Stephen's white and brown leather shoes that were about to disappear into the shower.  In my sternest voice possible I looked at Maycee and said, "Maycee!  You go and put Daddy's shoes back in his closet...right now.

Maycee looked at me.  Then at the tub.  Then at the shoe.  She obediently carried the shoe back to Stephen's closet.

I was quite shocked that she listened to me!

Now I have to figure out how I did that.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

So...yesterday was Stephen and my anniversary.

4 years.

Stephen, being the amazing husband he is, made me breakfast in bed before he went to work.  Isn't he sweet!

When I was eating said breakfast, I noticed that my stomach was a little queasy and it was a little hard to finish off breakfast.  I should have figured right then that my luck had run out.

After Stephen had gone to work, I started to get things ready to clean the bathroom and Maycee woke up.  My body continued to deteriorate...by the afternoon I knew that I had something.  I had thrown up numerous times and Maycee was running around the house making a mess.  And I didn't even care.

My doctor figured that I have the stomach flu.

I've never had it before.

It is nasty.

No wonder people hate morning sickness so bad!

The weirdest thing, however, was having my stomach tossing and turning and then having my little boy kicking my churning stomach.  Blech.  He never stops kicking.

Again I say, happy anniversary to us.

2 Things

Thing 1:

Today I was told a story that I just have to repeat.  The story might not even be told correctly, but I like it the way I tell it.  So I shall.

According to Stephen, who heard it from Shane, Krystal was walking around church today carrying Maycee.  Someone commented to her, "You must be the favorite aunt."

Krystal replied, "Yep, I am!"

To which Shane laughed and interjected, "No you're not!  Karli is..."

I can't wait for the repercussion of this story...

Thing 2:

Today also marks the day of only having three more Sundays until Maycee goes to nursery.  Oh sweet nursery!

To be honest, I love Maycee at this age!  She is so much fun to interact with and talk to, but with all of her energy, three hours is a very long time to get a 17 month old to hold still.  Poor Maycee.

Everyone asks if Maycee will have a hard time going to nursery.  To that question I give an example.

When Stephen came into the Relief Society room today after church, he put Maycee down and said, "Go to Mama!" and set her loose.  Maycee ran in my direction and I picked her up, only to have her scramble to get away from me to be held by the person next to me...Sister Linda Miller.

Linda talked to her and carried her around for the next few minutes as she put things away.  I walked to the other side of the room and Maycee started to whine.  Linda, thinking that Maycee was nervous at being so far away from me said, "You're mama is on the other side of the room.  She didn't leave you!"

To which I replied, "Nope, she doesn't want me.  Jodi just walked into the room.  She wants to go to Jodi."

Linda put her down and she ran to Jodi.

According to Stephen, all during Elders Quorum Maycee runs from person to person depending upon who has the coolest electronic to offer her as a play toy.

To those people who question Maycee's ability to go to nursery I say, "No prob, Bob!"

Glucose

I hate taking the glucose test.

At around 30 weeks of pregnancy you have to have your blood tested for gestational diabetes.

Yesterday was my test for baby #2.

I've been stressing over it for a week.

Let me explain...when I went in for my test with Maycee, I had just gotten back from the Olive Garden with Krystal and my mom.  I had made sure not to eat any bread sticks, but I also made sure that Krystal stuffed her purse full of them so I could have some afterwards.

After drinking that nasty orange drink of death I wasn't sure how that stuff was going to hold in my stomach for 1 whole hour.  That stuff is disgusting and...I failed.  Even after I had deprived myself of those amazing sticks full of love!

After being on a VERY strict diet for 5 days I went back for my second test.  I had to drink twice as much of that vile orange drink.  After being in my stomach for 40 minutes, that drink came right back up.  Ggggrrrrrr!!!  So...I had to schedule a third time to take the test after being on my strict diet for another 5 days.

I was emotionally traumatized and a complete basket case at this time and therefore never wrote it on my blog for fear that I would have a meltdown while writing the story.  BUT I did pass my test the third time around and Stephen and I finally got to eat real food again.

Because of that long back story you can see my trepidation for taking my test with this little boy.

Prior to going in to take my test, I did not eat any sugar or unhealthy food for 3 days.  I was not going to risk anything.  And with it being right after Christmas we had plenty of good stuff lying around.  It was very difficult.  Anytime I wanted one of my Mini Dark Chocolate Milky Way Bars, I ate an apple.  It was a depressing 3 days.  I wouldn't let Stephen eat anything either...I think he was sinking into depression with all of this good stuff in our house.  We NEVER have this stuff in our house.

Before going in to my appointment I ate a grapefruit and oatmeal with cinnamon.  I was good.

As the nurse took me back to the checkout room, she asked how I was doing.  I told her I was paranoid for my glucose test today.  She stopped walking.

"Did you already take it this morning?"  She asked.

"No," was my reply.

THEY MESSED UP ON THE PAPER WORK AND DIDN'T EVEN HAVE ME SCHEDULED TO TAKE A GLUCOSE TEST!!!!

I thought I was going to lose it.  I felt like this was a sign.   AAHHHHH!!!  I could not fail this thing again!

They got things under control and I drank that foul cup of orange.

This morning I received a call from my midwife stating that I had passed.

HALLELUJAH!!

Not only did I pass, but I passed with flying colors.  The cut off for a normal blood sugar level is 140.  Mine was 115.  [Insert HUGE sigh of relief]

My hard working man.

There have been quite a few changes in our home lately.

The biggest one being Stephen's job.

After a lot of discussion and prayer, Stephen decided to go back to sales.  Yesterday was his first day back on the phones.  I could tell he was very stressed.

Tuesday, Stephen found out that he would be starting sales the next day.  We knew it would be a quick change once the decisions had been made.  He stayed at work until almost 7pm handing things over to Senior Management that he'd been working on.

Yesterday Stephen left for work at 5:30am and came home at 6:30pm.

Thank you Stephen for working so hard for our family!

We love you!...you are going to be awesome.