Pregnancy Update

Well, hopefully this isn't too much information for anyone, but if you get squeamish about pregnancy details, maybe you shouldn't read this one. I had a doctor's appointment today, and I'm actually making progress. Last week, I wasn't dilated, and I was hardly effaced. Today, I'm a little past a "1" and I'm 75% effaced. That's the most effaced I've been before going into labor, so who knows what that means. Don't hold your breath, though, I don't have a history of going early, so I probably still have a little more time. I'm full-term today though, so I guess you never know. Just thought I'd keep you updated.
P.S. is anyone else really starting to hate the snow?

Bunk Beds for the Boys!

Well, we finally did it, we got the boys bunk beds. We thought it was probably time to move Ethan to a "real" bed, and we thought it would be fun and save space to get bunk beds for them.
After looking around at local stores, we took a risk and ordered the bed from an ebay store. We got a great deal on it, but I have to say that I was really nervous that it would get here and be a piece of junk. The store had 100% positive feedback record over the last seven years, so we just crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. Luckily, the bed is surprisingly nice and one of the more solid ones that we've come across. We're pretty happy with them, and the boys love them, too! The only drawback was that it took us over 3 hours to put together...it wasn't our fault. The beds came with NOTHING pre-assembled (besides the headboards and footboards) and a HUGE bag of hardware. The instructions were a little confusing, and the pictures were too small to be of much help. We think that if we had to do it again, it might only take us an hour. James wasn't complaining too much, though, because he got to use his new power drill that he got for Christmas...he loves it, by the way.

Matthew loves being able to sleep on the top bunk. I thought that it might scare him, but he thinks it's the coolest thing ever. We have to keep telling him it's a bed, not a toy...we'll see if he ends up listening to us. For right now, he definitely thinks it's a toy...hopefully we don't have ER visits and broken bones in our future!

All smiles from Ethan...he's just a tiny bit excited.

Matthew's favorite part about the bed is that he gets to climb a ladder. Who needs the playground when your bed is this fun?

Ethan loves kickin' back on his new bed. He thinks he's pretty cool and a big boy, just like Matthew.

The Cheesecake Factory and Other Stuff

Last weekend was pretty eventful...at least for two boring people like me and James. On Friday night, we went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. James took me to a Cheesecake Factory in Southern CA the day that he proposed to me, so it's kind of a special restaurant for us. We haven't had one in this area, but one opened up a couple of months ago near Salt Lake. We've been really excited to try it out and decided to give it a go to celebrate James' promotion and bonus at work. We got to the restaurant at around 5:30pm. There was a line backed up all the way to the front doors that you had to wait in just to put your name on the waiting list. We knew it would be busy, but we didn't know that it would be that busy. However, we probably should have known...James and I have come to the conclusion that whenever we have an idea to do something, everyone else has the same idea...or it could just be that we live in a relatively densely populated area, and people here like to spend money! So anyways, there we were, waiting in line, to put our name on the waiting list, and this guy comes up to James and asks if it's just the two of us that are together. James says yes, and the man hands him the buzzer the restaurant gave him and explained that his wife was pregnant and that she couldn't wait any longer to eat. Then he told us that the reservation was under the name Juan. We thought that was funny...wondering if James could really pass for a Juan or not. He does speak Spanish, so I guess it's at least half-way believable. Then the man tells us that they've been waiting for at least 20 minutes and probably have at least 60 more to go. James and I were glad to be able to skip the waiting list line, because we had been standing in it for awhile, and it hadn't moved that much. Well, there we were, buzzer in hand, but no place to sit, and hardly any place left to stand. We squeezed ourselves behind a giant potted palm, and tried to settle in for our wait. We thought about going somewhere else, but we had both been looking forward to eating there, and thought that the Cheesecake Factory would always be packed, so tonight was as good a time as any. One of the funny things was that all the people that were standing while waiting, were watching the people that were sitting on the padded benches while waiting like hawks. As soon as someone's buzzer went off, and lit up, it was like a mad dash free-for-all rush to the benches to fill the vacancy...I'm not even kidding. There was one time, that I made my way over to an open spot only to be ousted by a rather rotund lady with a cane. I'm wondering if she even really needed the cane because she proved to be pretty quick and nimble when she came and butted me out of the spot. Come on, I'm 8 months pregnant...have a little sympathy. I told James that she's lucky she had a cane, otherwise I wouldn't have let her push me around! Eventually, we were able to snag some seats, and it's a good thing, too, because it was getting to the point where I couldn't stand anymore (I even tried sitting right on the floor, but that proved to be more uncomfortable than standing) and we probably would have given up and left. Finally, at 7 pm, "Juan" and I were buzzed and taken to our seats, and handed what the server called "the novel"...aka the menu. Seriously, it was SEVERAL pages long, and proved to be difficult to make our way through. You would turn the page and then forget what was on the previous page, so picking something to eat turned out to be more of a challenge than originally expected. We both ordered, and when the food came, were shocked at the portion size. They didn't use plates, they used PLATTERS to serve your dinner. You, have to remember, we only ate there for lunch before, so we were new to how things worked for dinner. The food was really good, and I'm happy to say that I had plenty left over for a hearty lunch the next day. Then, it was on to the main event - the Cheesecake! We had to ask for menus again so that we could look over the page-and-a-half of choices...James ordered the Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake (good choice), and I ordered a little slice of heaven known as the Dutch Apple topped with Struesel and Carmel Cheesecake. Imagine, my two absolute favorite desserts (apple pie and cheesecake) combined into one delectable culinary masterpiece. I think it may be the best thing I have ever put in my mouth, and since I am 8 months pregnant, and have quite a voracious appetite, I was able to enjoy every bite to the fullest. Amazing. The cheesecake made the wait worth it. The only down-side was that since the restaurant took so long, we had to forgo seeing National Treasure like we had originally planned. The movie started at 7:30 pm and we weren't done until a little after 8 pm, so we just decided to call it a night (yeah, we're that boring!) I'm hoping that the babysitter wasn't too disappointed because she only got paid half as much since we came home a couple of hours sooner than expected...oh well.
On Saturday, we went to the car show with James' parents. We've gone every year with them (or at least James' dad) for the last three years (Lisa and Blaine usually come, too, but due to Lisa's bed rest, they had to throw us a "no" this year). We always have fun looking at the latest and greatest cars, sitting in them, and then being shocked by the sticker price. I always enjoy trying out the new Mustangs. This year, they had a white one with a pink stripe along the bottom. It had a black leather interior with pink top-stitching...pretty much my dream car. Too bad James said no. He said that if we got one (which, sadly, we probably never will), he would want to drive it too, and that one was too girly or something...I don't know what he was talking about.
In past years, leaving the car show has been really depressing. After sitting in shiny new cars, crawling into our beater of a car that we just hoped would start every time was less than thrilling. This year, we were happy to be driving away in the car that we could only dream about last year. (Yes, we've been really blessed this year, in many many ways and are VERY thankful)
And that was pretty much our weekend.
At the end of next week, I'll be considered full-term, even though my due-date will still be three weeks away...exciting!!

What a Couple of Goofballs!!

So, for the last couple of days, Matthew and Ethan have been walking around the house, arching their backs with their hands on their stomachs, all the while making weird faces and strange groaning and grumbling sounds. It's been pretty funny to watch, because they both think that it's hilarious and end up laughing like little maniacs. Finally, this morning, after one of these episodes, I asked Matthew what they were doing. He said "we're doing you, mama". Oh, great, is that how my boys see me?! What has my life come to when my 3 year old and 18 month old mock me in my own home? They must take after their dad...

Having Fun(?) in the Snow

About a week ago, we woke up to LOTS of snow. Matthew was so excited because he's been begging to play in the snow for a long time, and I kept saying that there wasn't enough.
That morning, when he looked outside and saw almost a foot of snow, we both knew that I couldn't use that as my excuse anymore. So, we all got bundled up and about 45 minutes later (yeah, it took that long) we headed out to brave the snow. Matthew loved it...Ethan wasn't so sure. As you can see, he kept taking off his mittens, and his hands turned purple, which he was less than thrilled about. Matthew had fun...until it was time to go in. After Ethan's hands were so cold that they hurt and he started crying, we went in, which made Matthew cry. Not to sound like a total stick-in-the-mud or anything, but I don't think that

it was worth 45 minutes of getting ready just to go play for about 15 minutes and end up with two crying boys in the end. Hopefully the snow melts soon so that I don't have to keep coming up with excuses not to go outside to play. Plus, as entertaining as it must be for the neighbors to see 8-month pregnant me try to waddle around in a foot of snow, it's really not that fun. What can I say? I like the sun and WARMTH!!

Happy new year!

Well, Christmas is over, the decorations are put away, and it's time to move on to a brand new year. I always get a little sad the day after Christmas, and this may seem weird, but the thing that makes me feel better is packing up the decorations as soon as possible. For some reason, having Christmas decorations up past Christmas seems sad to me. I like to get everything packed up, get my house organized, and prepare for the new year. This year, my main resolution is to get REALLY organized so that it will be easier to keep my house clean. I try so hard to be a good housekeeper, and I feel like I fall short so often...so, I keep setting it as a goal, and maybe one of these years I'll accomplish it!

As for the family, Matthew and Ethan have been fighting colds, but they seem to be doing better now. Ethan got sick first. It started with a cough, then a runny nose, and then he had a fever for five days, so we took him in to the doctor's on New Year's (what a way to spend the holiday, right?) It turned out to be an ear infection, (his first) which was a relief...I was just glad that it wasn't pneumonia or something. I didn't think that his cough sounded bad enough, but you never know. Then, Matthew got the cough, runny nose, and fever. Thankfully, his fever, though pretty high, only lasted a day, so they're both on the mend, which is good. James kept thinking that he was coming down with something, but he hasn't, so I guess he dodged the bullet.

In other news, James and I are Sunbeam teachers this year, so we have Matthew in our class, which should be a lot of fun. They split his age group into two classes, so each class only has 4 kids in it. On Sunday, it looked like Matthew was going to be the only one from our class to come...that would have been funny, James and I with just Matthew all during class. But then, another girl came, so that was good. We made crowns, and Matthew loves his. He wears it all day everyday...he's pretty proud of it.

It's been snowing quite a bit here. It's the snowiest winter we've had in awhile. Well, when you start talking about the weather, that usually means you don't have anything left to talk about, so I guess I'll go.
Take care, and happy new year!