A sort of update.

So this week was long. Really good but long. Chris was in London all week, so my adult contact was extremely limited. When he's there, and we're here, our schedules are so different. He calls right before he's going to bed, and that's usually around 3 or 4 our time (sometimes later) which is a very busy/cranky kid time. So while he's gone most days we barely get to talk for 5 minutes, and even then I usually have kids jumping on my head or someone wrapped around my legs crying. Can you guess which child would be jumping on my head, and which one would be around my legs crying? 

But on a positive note when he's gone I get so much done!! It's amazing! I probably shouldn't say Chris being gone is the entire reason I got anything done this week. This week was the first week since Christmas that I have had the energy and haven't been sick to actually get moving and get something other than just being a mom done. At the beginning of the week I was listening to Dave Ramsey talk about tackling one thing at a time because if you try and tackle everything at once you never accomplish anything. So I took that concept and applied it to an extremely messy house and mountains and mountains of laundry. When I tried to tackle everything in one day I never got anywhere and it was completely overwhelming. So I picked one chore a day to complete. First it was the kitchen. Then the rest of the down stairs, just picking up and vacuuming. Then, once that was done I polished the kitchen cabinets, cleaned the downstairs bathroom, cleaned my bedroom, cleaned my bathroom, cleaned the kids bedroom, dusted everything, cleaned the kid's bathroom, vacuumed the stairs and upstairs (except for Mary's old room) then I mopped and steam mopped the tile downstairs, then I spent 4 days on laundry. But I'm finally caught up, and I've been able to keep it spotless for over a week now. I'm seriously picking up and working all day, but it feels so nice to be getting stuff done instead of lying on the couch because you feel horrible or you barely have the energy to lift your arms. The second trimester is so much better than the first! Even the kids are getting into the habit of cleaning up one mess before they move onto another. And the other wonderful thing about having the house clean is that I'm such a better mom! It's kind of nice doing one chore and one load of laundry a day because sometimes when you start getting overwhelmed by everything you have to do, you just finish what you committed to do, and then you can turn whatever it is you're wanting to do into your chore tomorrow. Chris has been laughing at me because I've been on his case about every little thing he leaves out, but I remind him that he's less stressed when the house is clean and he does whatever it is with a smile on his face. 

He got home on friday and it is wonderful having him home. The kids miss him so much when he's gone, and I miss having a grown up to talk to. Plus I like being around him, and I sleep better when he's here so that plays a part in it too. 

Almost the entire last week was amazing outside!! We played outside almost all day, everyday! Then on friday it was cold and rainy/snowy. Then Saturday we woke up to two inches of snow on the ground. We were all so sad. It's hard being cooped up again after you've enjoyed sunlight and the park for a week. I'm really hoping this next week will be much better. 

Life here on the home front is basically the same. Boston LOVES the avengers right now, especially the Hulk. He carries around his hulk toy and spiderman pretty much all day, and he's taught maddie how to say "Hulk, SMASH!!" You guys are going to be blown away at how big Boston is getting! He's such a good helper! And he's super excited to have a new baby around. He is going to be an awesome big brother and a huge helper to me! Every week he asks to go to Babycenter.com and see the baby. They have videos of what the baby looks like and is doing at each week of development. He's convinced that it's a girl. But we won't know for a couple weeks and both Chris and I have absolutely no idea one way or the other. The other funny thing is if you hug him too tight he'll say "You have to be careful because I have a dragon in my tummy! So you can't hug me the tightest hug, or it will hurt the dragon!" He says the dragon's name is toothless, and that only boys can have dragons in their tummies. lol. It's so cute. He LOVES babies right now. Maddie loves carrying her dolls around and loves little babies, but we'll see how she responds to a new baby. The difference between the two of them is crazy. Boston is such a boy and Maddie is such a girl. Maddie flocks to anything pink/sparkly/glittery/flowery/or princessy, and Boston...well I saw him playing with Maddie's Rapunzel doll and Tinkerbell doll, and they were beating eachother up. I think Rapunzel won. Today in Church he made me draw the hulk, Ruby (an assassin on the avengers) Captain America and Iron Man. I'm not an artist, but I was actually impressed. He was sort of impressed. He mentioned that Iron man was wrong, but he was satisfied. lol. 

 Maddie's silly face

They LOVE this little table! 

Random

Here is Boston ready to defend the world with his sword, and whisk. :) 

 His new silly face! 

Maddie's crazy hair. I seriously LOVE it! 

Some awesome at home, no equipment workouts. 

 My mom and nephew celebrating their birthdays together. :) 

Not the most awesome post, but it's something, right? 

And for Pregnancy info: I'm 16.5 weeks along, due Aug. 22nd, but will schedule a c-section for the 15th, but I'm hoping for the 10th-12th so that my mom can help a little before school starts. 

I'm feeling good (other than fighting a cold for a month), and had to start wearing maternity clothes around 9 weeks!!!!!! I have been eating everything I can get my hands on, and it's showing. :) 

But life is good, and I can't complain. :) 

Ewwww gross!

This is probably not a post is you are easily grossed out. But in sharing.
So remember how a few months a go I posted about an elder on my mission who taught my companion and I how to halk (?) a loogie?
So tonight I thought I'd really give it a go to clean out some of this left over cold stuff that's floating around in my head.
Bad idea.
If you don't know how to halk a loogie and are pregnant at the same time it's not a time to begin.
Why you ask?
Three words:
Sensitive gag reflex

Yup. I tried it, and it was a FAIL. I ended up throwing up because it got caught.
 The only time I throw up during this pregnancy is all because I suck at being able to get glen out of my sinuses like a man.

I immediately went into the kitchen and used a nasal spray. I should have done that from the get go because it work like a charm and I didn't have to...well you know.

Just thought I'd share this lovely moment with everybody. :)

Hopefully now you all know if you're pregnant, use nasal spray and don't think you can get rid of flem like a man.

Warm weather, good friends and beautiful beaches!

While still on our amazing Maui vacation last year Chris decided that we were going to go on a cruise for our 6th anniversary. :) 

I didn't complain one bit...I mean who would? 

So we convinced some of our friends from Chris's work to come with us and headed off to the Carribean for 8 days. Then we thought, why not add an extra day in Orlando so we can play? Who doesn't like to play? 

We scored some free tickets to Universal studios and had so much fun on all the rides. 

 I was the camera woman for this ride. They were completely soaked and somebody had to take the picture right? 

Hogwarts! I'm such a Harry Potter nerd, so I had a blast! 

 Frozen Butterbeer. It was so yummy! Kind of tasted like Butterscotch candy in liquid form. :) 

 Luckily the lines for all the cool rides weren't too long. Especially since I had to wait for everybody else for the majority of them. 

Like this one. I couldn't go on. Chris chickened out. He said it looked like a throw up ride.  

Couldn't go on this one either. We all decided against it, because the wait was the longest in the whole park. 

 Kim and I sat out on this one. It was either ride this ride, or watch the parade. We chose the parade. It was an easy choice for me. Since pretty much 100% of the rides have this outside. 

Wait, Zoom in a little closer. 

 See it yet? 

No? Zoom in a little closer....

 Yup, that is why I was the photographer for the first ride, and hung out enjoying cauldron cakes, and basking in the sun for the other rides. Apparently once you find out if you're pregnant, rollercoasters of ANY kind are out. Especially if you are past 12 weeks, which I am. :D 

We are super excited, and I was happy to sit out on the rides for this particular reason!

On Sunday, Feb. 3rd (our Anniversary), we boarded the boat, and I called my kids to tell them goodbye for 10 days. I will admit, I cried when I heard their little voices. It was so hard to think I was going to have no contact with them for a week. It took me about 10 minutes to get myself back under control. 

But as the week went on, I somehow survived. Being in beautiful places and doing fun things with awesome people sure helped. 

Our first stop was Labidee (?) a private island off of Haiti. We got our own private cabana and it was incredible! We had sun chairs, cold water, a shaded couch and out own little swimming area. 

 The view

 Our cabana, and everybody getting lathered up because most of us are so white. 

Our next stop was Jamaica. We were a little nervous because we heard that Jamaicans don't like Americans at all. We decided just to do our excursion and go back to the ship. We were glad we did because a family on our ship got robbed by the cops while exploring. 

 The view from our room. 

 Ready for the ATV tour! 

 Our group with our guides. 

The next stop was Grand Cayman, and it was seriously INCREDIBLE!!!!! Everybody else went scuba diving, but since I can't Chris and I did our own thing. 

 Our ship.

 Our first stop was Snorkeling at the island's barrier reef. It was awesome! I normally don't care for  snorkeling, but I LOVED this! The water was so clear and you could see forever! 

 After Snorkeling we went over to this beautiful sandbar and swam with Sting rays. We got to hold them and feed them and pet them. They are so gentle and get so BIG! It was one of Chris's favorite things! 

This was one of our guides, he literally dove off the side of our little boat while headed back to shore to pick this up from the bottom of the sand bar. Awesome. 

 Then we had a few hours to kill, so we hung out at this beach. I could live at this beach for the rest of my life. It was so nice.

 We headed over to Cozumel the next day, and long story short, our original excursion plans fell through so we ended up swimming with Dolphins. Cross that off my bucket list. I LOVED it! 

I would have pics but they were $30 for ONE, and $400 for all. Lame. 

 These are the dolphins we were with. Lingo, and his girlfriend. They are expecting a baby later this year. :) 

 Finished up the week with some rock climbing and sun bathing. 

Vacations really are the best! 

The only thing that's much better is getting back home to my kids and them being beyond thrilled to see us! After hugs and kisses Maddie just kept grabbing our faces and looking at like "I can't believe you're back!" In the last three days I have lost count of the hugs and kisses she's given me, which is a big deal because she never gives kisses.
Boston just keeps hugging me and saying "I'm so happy we're together!" or "I'm so happy we're home!" 

They make this cold weather totally worth it. 

Advice

I need your advice. I'm not quite sure what to do. 

Boston will be 4 in May and it seems that everybody has their kids in preschool at this age...most since they were three. 

So I've started looking into some of the preschools around here and they range from $90 to $130 a month. FOR PRESCHOOL. 

My first car payment was $130. 

We've got some incredible preschool teachers with amazing preschools all with in three houses of where we live in one direction or the other. 

But I feel like that's a lot each month. So I'm debating on putting Boston in an actual preschool, or keeping him home and doing something like Joy School. 

I did Joy school when I was four and loved it. 

Joy School is a much smaller group of kids (5 or 6) and you rotate going to different kids houses each week. Along with numbers and letters you also have a theme each week like "your Body" or 

"Sharing Service". It's $140 fro the entire program, but once you have it, you always have it, and through out the year you only put as much into it ($ wise) as you would like. Usually you meet twice a week for a couple hours. 

What would you do? 

Venting

So I just saw a post on facebook that this sunday is LDS wear pants to Church for equality day.  And this is their reasoning and what their purpose is

LDS Women Unite: Wear pants to church in solidarity for women's equality. If you already wear pants to church (we're talking to you men!), we invite you to show your support by wearing a purple shirt, tie, socks, or ribbon, purple being a color historically associated with the suffrage movement. This is the first act of All Enlisted, a direct action group for Mormon women to advocate for equality within our faith. “The Church has not attempted to indicate just how long women’s or girls’ dresses shoul d be nor whether they should wear pant suits or other types of clothing.”--LDS Church Presidency (1971) We are feminists. We do not seek to eradicate the differences between women and men, but we do want the LDS church to acknowledge the similarities. We believe that much of the cultural, structural, and even doctrinal inequality that persists in the LDS church today stems from the church's reliance on – and enforcement of – rigid gender roles that bear no relationship to reality. We subscribe to the Book of Mormon teaching that “all are alike unto God,” and hope that our choice to wear pants to our Sunday worship services (a choice sanctioned by our spiritual leaders over 40 years ago!) reminds our families, congregations, and leaders that we have not forgotten this gospel truth. Please refer to this link for a comprehensive list of the doctrinally unnecessary gender inequities that exist within the church: http://www.ldswave.org/?p=402 I feel like these women are missing the bigger picture. Don't get me wrong, I don't care what you wear to church, you being there is the important part. However, I think there comes a point where you wear your Sunday best out of respect. Wear a dress, and if you are really, truly concerned with how other women feel (being left out or isolated) put your arm around them, get to know them, become their friend. 1:Church is not the place to make political stands. 2: The church may take a political stand (Gay marriage, abortion) but that's not something done inside of the actual three hour block. 3:The roles between men and women ARE DIFFERENT. Period. Some of the things are set up with the intention of having Priesthood holders lead, that's not going to change. And in the end you or the people following you may fall away from the church because they become blinded by things that don't matter. I don't know about you, but I have NEVER ONCE felt put down, or unequal as a woman in the Church. I have felt the opposite. When I think about it, I feel that the roles we have as women and men in the Church are divinely inspired to help us refine and use the qualities and traits we have/need to develop . I just don't understand why people get hung up on things that are so meaningless and/or things that are not going to change (Women giving blessings). Am I alone in thinking that this "protest" is disrespectful and walking that slippery slope?

Thanksgiving on Tuesday.

They don't have Thanksgiving in England (obviously) so we decided to take a trip over Thanksgiving and have the traditional meal on Tuesday instead of Thursday. It was my first attempt at doing the entire thing by myself, and when I say the entire thing, I mean the basics. 

I discovered Turkey is something that is a bit tricky to find here, but Thanks to Costco I found not only a turkey, one that was stuffed with stuffing already, and not so much the entire bird, as just the part you want to eat. Gotta love Costco! 

I also made garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, roasted asparagus, green beans,  brown sugar sweet potatoes with marshmallows and a pumpkin cake for dessert. 

And I did all of this with a screaming Maddie clinging to my legs the entire time. 

 

 We had Dallin over since Daniella went back to Utah a few days before. 

 They have a drink over here that we LOVE called J20. Boston drank three of them. 

 Maddie loved every bite of her meal! I can always count on her to make me feel good about my cooking.

 Not sure what this face is about. 

 When she eats it gets everywhere! Hair, ears, bottom of her pants, toes, seriously everywhere! 

 The potatoes were a hit! I used an entire bag, and we cleaned them up! To be fair, the potatoes are much smaller here so we were lucky that we had enough. 

 Here's the turkey with the stuffing. Normally I think stuffing is the worst part of the meal, but this was actually very good. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make a regular turkey after this one. 

Here we are completely satisfied and ridiculously full. We didn't even touch the pumpkin cake. Which worked out because I ate it for basically every meal for the next 48 hours. :) 

This Thanksgiving I'm incredibly thankful for all the usual stuff (family, gospel, etc.) but I'm incredibly thankful to be an American! I know it sounds cheesy, but it's completely true. I feel so blessed to have been born in America!