dying eggs

Abi and I dyed some eggs today… it was really fun! Don’t mind the bare bum… it helps us make it to the potty on time

 

march madness

What a nutty month we have had! And it is almost over! You will have to forgive me not posting to my blog for a while… my hard drive crashed on my lappy. That has caused some strife in ways of my lap top being my life! Thankfully some friends of ours in the ward took me under their wing and took care of getting all the files off of it. I had a backup but not a recent one… it was such a blessing to have all my stuff saved.

So we have not had a way to transfer our photos to a computer since my lappy has the card reader… so without further ado – Abigail.

I think out of all the fun things about Abi lately is that her prayers have become QUITE detailed as of late. Here are a few excerpts from some prayers this week-

• Thank you that I am cowboy
• Thank you that the BYU game is on and that Cosmo is there at the game (so much fun watching games with Abi as she learns to understand what basketball is… sadly BYU lost)
• Thank you for the yucky food
• Thank you that I could talk to mom’s flowers (pictured below)
• Thank you for all my energies
• And lots of Thank you for helping me go in the potty

Don’t you love her legs on the table in these?

This darling skirt was made by my aunt! Abi loves her blue skirt because it matches BYU blue as she calls it.

Abi has been potty training in the past three weeks! She has done amazingly well for a beginner. We rarely have any accidents. Normally she is naked on the bottom half while we are in the house, but we had to get modest for this photo for Banka’s birthday. She is still a little iffy about restrooms not in our house, but I have to say, she has stayed dry on most of our outings! She LOVES telling everyone of her accomplishments of going potty… even the cashier at wal-mart.

These are photos from yesterday. We got about 10 minutes of sun and it just happened to be right before church. I made this dress for Abi 2 years ago and have been waiting for her to get big enough to wear it. Still a bit big, but she LOVES that is twirls.

We were really blessed this week by having friends move! It sounds really bad, but because they moved, we were gifted a dishwasher and a glider rocker that I have SO wanted for this next little one. Abi has become obsessed with “Baby Abi” and that she will be able to rock Baby Abi in the rocker.

I am so excited to have a dishwasher! It makes my kitchen look clean even when my dishes aren’t… so wonderful!

On Sunday we were talking about faith and I asked Abi if she had ever seen Jesus and she said yeah and pointed to all the photos we have of him in the house. I got smarter and asked if she had ever hugged Jesus. She replied JUST like this, “Um… no, but I WILL! He will get in his car and drive to our house and give us hugs because He loves us!” Then she told everyone at church Jesus was coming.

and came home with a first place medal

Abi and I went to Dancesport Nationals this weekend! It was so much fun just being able to watch this year and not be so stressed and so crazy running around dancing! I loved seeing all my friends and surprising them with my tummy… most people didn’t know I am pregnant. They all did so well dancing too!

Abi was SUCH a good girl! We lasted for 8 hours! She danced in and on everything! I cannot wait to get her in some dance classes this coming fall.

We sat with the Moe’s who have been not only our good friends but were Dan and my ballroom teachers/coaches back in the day! They are in charge of one of the BYU youth teams and won first place which we were so excited for them… but they happened to have an extra medal… so Abigail received first place medal for her stunning dancing in the aisles!

That made her day!

enjoy this movie

while I am watching the BYU basketball game and shoving my face full of M&M’s I hope you enjoy these movies of Abi dancing at my mom’s house to Just Dance on the Wii.

Sunday at the Hospital

Well, life doesn’t always go to plan does it? Especially when you have to spend your Sunday in the hospital. It is a pathetic story… at least to me.

To preface this post – I work out. I work out hard. I work out hard 5 days a week. I work out hard 5 days a week for an hour each time. I am 25 weeks pregnant. This is a feat! When I work out, I do either swimming or an elliptical. Swimming feels good with my belly and the elliptical gives me a good work out for my arms and legs while being good on my joints.

I worked out 5 days last week. So yesterday, it was beautiful weather and I felt like I could do 6 days. I was feeling the need to get out of the house. So we drove to the park and I walked around the trails for 2 miles with Abi in my jogger. I walked at a fairly good pace and was pleased with myself even though I knew I didn’t take a full workout like normal. It felt good to be active. We finished about 5:30pm.

Around 7 pm I wasn’t feeling really great. I started having pain in my girly area. I decided to take a bath to help ease some of the pain. After a 20 minute soak, I couldn’t get out of the tub. I had to slither out like a snake and then I could get to my room. Then, I couldn’t get dressed. At this time, I knew something was wrong. I called Dan to get some reassurance and to inform him what was going on. He just said I needed to get some rest… which I felt I also needed to try.

I wrapped up in a blanket and Abi and I came downstairs to watch a movie since it wasn’t her bedtime yet. We watched about half an hour and then decided to go to bed. It took me about 25 minutes to get up my 14 stairs. The pain was getting worse. I called Dan in tears because I couldn’t crawl, walk, bend, or roll into bed. Plus, I had to get Abi into bed (on my floor) and she requires a decent amount of work.

I slept fitfully! I couldn’t turn from side to side, I couldn’t get Abi comforted with all her night terrors (usually 3 to 6 a night), and the pain kept getting worse. I prayed for the night to end quickly. I wanted to call Dan around 6 am but couldn’t reach my phone and needed Abi to help me. So at 8 when she woke up that was the first thing I had her do was get my phone off the dresser. I could not get out of bed. It was scary. It was like someone took a baseball bat to my girly area and whacked it 42 times… maybe 56 times. Dan said he would make some phone calls to some friends to come and help. He had Abi go downstairs and get us bananas off the counter to eat for breakfast. He also had her help me get some clothes on. That was interesting and I laughed. Just so grateful that I have her.

After that she “helped” me get to the restroom and then down the stairs to unlock the door. It was so painful and so tough. I kept feeling like, “if I can make it down the stairs, I should be able to get us breakfast and shower and get ourselves to church.” It was really discouraging for me. Especially for being alone.

We had friends come over and give me a priesthood blessing, dress and take care of Abi, and get us breakfast. Even through all the pain during the night I knew that our baby was okay. I never questioned her safety. I knew that it was my body and not something wrong with her. I know that the spirit was with me and comforting me through this reassurance. I also knew that I was cared for by the 5 people who showed up to help me! Talk about humble pie for me.

Then my mother-in-law came over and we headed to the hospital. I had called my Doc and he said that he really wanted to make sure that I was okay and that the baby was. So we packed up and drove over. They hooked me up to the monitors. The baby was kicking and moving so much they couldn’t find the heartbeat. It worried me for a minute but because she was moving so much, I felt again, that reassurance that she was okay. She kicked from 8 am until 2 pm nonstop. I don’t know of any baby in the womb to move that much… seriously, non stop. I think that it was a tender mercy of the Lord to make her so active.

After evaluating the baby and myself for a couple of hours the conclusion was that I just over did it! Walking over did it for me?!? For how hard I work out, I was really frustrated with my body. This is where I think it is pathetic! Walking! Just a different movement than what I have been doing. Just the way the baby is sitting in my tummy has put a severe pressure on my pubic bone and has caused muscle strain or bruising to it.

Thankfully the baby is healthy just like I knew she was and all my vitals were good too.

So here I sit… in pain. I am banned from lifting anything and exercising for a couple of days. Although, I am so tempted to get myself to the gym tomorrow. I heavily rely on that physical movement to boost my spirit each day. And it isn’t like I can go out and walk around the block slowly. Just nuts!!! I am still in major pain and getting more and more discouraged as I can’t do normal things… like take a full gallon of milk out of the fridge and sitting on the ground to change Abi’s diaper.

However, I have some of the best of friends and family who have offered to help me in the simple ways they can. I am so grateful for Abigail too. She has been my light through today. She has been such a little nurturer to help me as best she can.

When I had those good moments with Abigail today, I remembered the time I was driving home from the hospital in New York after a Dr. appointment and I had a reassurance from the spirit that having a girl first was what Heavenly Father planned for us. I was told that on that drive that she would be my friend when my husband was gone. And here I am seeing that come to pass. Just so grateful.

So here’s to my To Do list waiting for a couple more days while I rest. What am I ever going to do?

gymnastics

So Abi and I went out on a $1.00 date last night to BYU to see the Women’s Gymnastics. We took her last week and she was glued so I just thought it would be great to take her again. And again, she was glued! She loved that both teams were pink too.

 

She just had to tell everyone we saw yesterday where we were going to go. When we were talking to my mom Abi proceeded to explain to Mima that there was not one, but two bars. One low which they put their feet on and one high that they sometimes fall off of. I was pretty impressed that she remembered that much from a week ago.

When we talked to Dan on our way over, she told him that her favorite rotation was the “jelly bean” or the beam in our language. That cracked us up! All night that is what she called it. She also told Dan that Cosmo’s (a cougar mascot) favorite was the floor… and that she liked Cosmo’s tail.

Abi was doing floor routines here… but also would do “jelly bean” routines on the benches… kicking all spectators nearby, but they were good sports about it!

At one point in the night she was dancing with all the students and out of the sky fell a pink t-shirt from one of the Gymnasts. Abi was ecstatic… however, it is MY size and I think that the t-shirt was mean for me :) But all the students let her get it and even helped her open it. Man, to be so wanted :) I am doomed with girls!!!

Sorry about the sideways movie…

 

Just some other journaling stories about Abigail lately-

• Being pregnant really has it’s disadvantages. I normally sweat in my underarms and always have. In high school I would take two of the same shirt to school and change halfway through the day because it was just so bad. I have always had issues. Well, even when I am not pregnant, I start sweating around 2 or 3pm each day. SO WIERD but my body just switches gear. Sadly, this happens to be the same time that we have relied society on Sunday. Last month when I taught, I was not only nervous, hot from being pregnant, but then had this three o’clock issue! I tried to wear something that wouldn’t show my sweat, but it was REALLY bad! I am going to have to take water next time. Anyway, we get home from church and Abi starts saying, “mom, you dripped water on yours shirt.” I kept telling her I had no idea what she was talking about. After a couple more times and some more clarifying questions, I realized that she was talking about my sweat marks in my underarms!!! How embarrassing when even my daughter notices! Then she kept talking about not spilling on her clothes like mommy does.

• I work out at the gym 5 or 6 days a week. Abi just goes into the little care center that is AWESOME! They are always doing really fun things and when we go at night, she is sometimes the only one there with three or four adults to dote on her. They all know her by name and just think she is wonderful! (They all tell me they can’t wait to watch our next little one because of Abi). Anyway, like I said in my last post, Abigail insists on wearing a dress, skirt and pink everyday. I will usually pull out two things to choose from in her closet and she picks. These ladies at the care center know Abi so well that they are to a point that they can’t wait to see what she wears. She does a pretty good job pulling outfits together with tights and such. I am just trying to make it without buying new tights… we’ll see about that. I will have to post photos of all the cute skirts we have planned to make next week. (notice that she is in a dress above too)

• Lastly is something that Dan has taught Abi. Dan is in a crazy habit of taking a bite of your food before he gives it to you. Usually on something sweet. But, you know, Abi asks for us to get all her snacks and food and so he does this to her ALL THE TIME. Dan calls this “taxing.” So he takes a bite and says, “Taxed.” This morning I was cutting Abi some strawberries and took a bite of one and said, “taxed.” Abi looks at me and said, “No taxing mom! I will tax my own food.” She takes her strawberries and taxed them. I was laughing so hard! What a goose!

and I ask again?

Angel or Devil? We all know the answer but boy is she funny!

She completely took advantage of Dan and I being held up by some friends one night and came into the kitchen to explore. I love Dan’s face in these!!!

Second is Abigail being a “kitty”. Oh man, she is one character! If you ask her for loves she says, “No, you have to ask the kitty.” Then she will come up and caress you with her face just like a kitty does. Sometimes I get sick of it, but hey, I will take love however Abi wants to give it.

Don’t they look so much alike?

I wanted to see if I could get Abi’s hair off her cute little neck this past week. It was so cute on her! I wish she would hold still everyday for something like this!

 

Then we have Abigail helping me make laundry soap yesterday. She was being so sweet and silly. She kept looking at herself in the reflection of the oven.

Notice how everything she wears is either A- a skirt/dress or B- Pink? I am doomed! I finally pulled out a bunch of my bigger scraps of fabric so I could whip together a plethora of skirts for this coming spring/summer. It has sure limited her wardrobe right now though.

Lots of projects are on the list for me in the next while. Dan headed back this week for work. We had such a wonderful time with him and will miss him greatly again until he returns.