January 18, 2008
Ruth has just stepped up one more rung on the ladder to womanhood. She can now wrap her wet hair in a towel (or dish towel).

Field Trip to 'Udder Delights'

1-15-2009
Neil and his class have been learning about things and places that are cold (and animals that live in the cold) so as a close to the unit they went on a field trip to an ice cream parlour to learn everything about ice cream.
They got to go in the big walk in refrigerator and check out where all the cream, milk, fresh fruit, eggs etc. is kept...I missed the picture of them checking out the ice cream maker, Liam was feeling clingy, but here they are looking at the huge tubs of fresh made ice cream in one of their giant freezers. And at the end of the store tour they got to pick out ice cream to taste, Neil got cotton candy with sprinkles and whipped cream, and Liam got the ice cream that was mistakenly scooped, vanilla birthday cake with gummy bears.

They were supposed to be listening to the lady from Superstition cow farm talk about the different cows, their udders, how much milk they produce, and each animal’s temperament. She was pretty boring, I'm not sure how much the kids retained, I obviously tuned her out a bit, but they had fun. I ordered myself a strawberry ice-cream (that I of course paid for later) and we went home.
Speaking of paying for it later, Marcus and I went to the Perinatologist on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure she advised me to get the surgery during my 2nd trimester; you know Dr.'s, they always have to cover their tails. So now were on to round 3 with meeting with the general surgeon and then probably back to my OB who will yet again advise me against it and send me to talk with another sort of specialist. *Sigh* It's a good thing gas prices are still relatively low; I just feel bad having to find people to watch my boys for the never quick appts.

January 13, 2009
Ruth is the student star of the week, so we got to make her a lovely poster showing who she is. She told me it was bigger than any of the other posters and probably wouldn't fit on the board. I tentatively asked her if she minded that hers was bigger and a bit fancier than the other kids'. For now she doesn't mind having an almost over the top school project. I remember the projects we made with moms help were always spectacular. Sometimes I was almost embarrassed to take them to school because they were so fabulous. I guess I have a little bit of that 'all or nothing' attitude my mom had towards projects. If only I had applied that towards math as well...


Oh yeah...and Liam eats dirt.
This is actually sand, he was totally crunching it like it was pop rocks.
So Gross.

January 10, 2009
As most of you already know, and if you haven’t already figured out by the baby ticker, Marcus and I are expecting baby #4 at the end of July. Aside from the fact that I have gallstones, this is the easiest pregnancy thus far. I went and saw a general surgeon about my gallbladder on the 5th (yes, our anniversary, no, I didn’t make the appt.) and to my surprise he said it was the perfect time to operate, that it didn’t look like my symptoms were getting better, and he would advise me to have my gallbladder removed. I was a little apprehensive, I was expecting him to say for me to control it with diet (*tbbhhhhh*) (that's a raspberry sound) and have it removed after delivery, that's what my OB and the ER Dr. told me. They scheduled my surgery for the 23rd @ 5am. (!)
I had my 2nd OB check up yesterday and My Dr. thought I was saying my surgery was scheduled 2 weeks after I had the baby and was not happy when he learned it was for January 23rd. He called his good friend & general surgeon, who just happens to be my general surgeons boss, and made an appt. for me to go talk with him. Basically he told me that 14-17 weeks was IDEAL for surgery on a pregnant mom. But he didn't advise surgery on a generally healthy young woman who was perfectly capable of controlling her pain with correct diet and a little exercise. He then told me that the risks of doing the surgery were quite low because it was laparoscopic and up so high on the abdomen. He told me that in the 3rd trimester you don’t want to do any surgery, but if I started getting a fever, signaling infection, they would have to do the big surgery, a 3 or 4 inch cut to remove it. But it was really and unnecessary risk to have the surgery now and that I should really just try to control it with diet and have regular check ups since I was so close to the hospital (?). I told him about my mom being a LDRN and how she said they take gallbladders out of prego ladies where she works all the time, and how I also know that my Dr. who I also know and trust was telling me he really doesn’t recommend it so I was feeling pulled in both directions. He told me I would have to decide for myself but he really didn’t recommend it either. Basically I was super confused when I left and now feel quite depressed. Do I want to have the surgery now because im selfish and don’t want to have added unconfortable-ness during my last trimester? Or because I don’t want to add another 4 inch scar to my person and have to possibly recover from major surgery with a 2 year old twice in just a few months? Or should I stick it out and deal with it, I do have great pain killers after all. *sigh* Why do I always have to have unnecessary drama during my pregnancies?
Anyway, I have an appointment to go see a perinatologist next Wednesday, we'll see how it goes. Marcus is going with me this time so I can get the questions asked that need asking instead of me sitting there nodding my head with my eyes burning, my throat swollen and my nose dangerously close to running.

January 10, 2009
After sleeping in a taco mattress for a few years, we finally decided it was time to buy a new one...

I don't recommend taking kids, even if your just going to buy the mattress you've finally decided on, after only a week of comparing prices, (amazing if you know my husband who likes to make really sure he is getting the best product for the best price at just the right time and making absolutely positive he will have no regrets.) They wanted to test every bed. I drew the line at jumping.

Luckily they had this little beauty tucked away that kept them busy for the bulk of the time we were completing our transaction. I'm proud to say we are now the proud owners of a "Top of the line" Sealy Posturepedic 17" thick luxury pillow top mattress with posuretech Plus coils for ultimate back support; antibacterial fabric & natural fibers; Pressure relieving memory foam & latex; foam encased for edge support. I'm not sure why its called the trailblazer (?), and I didn't ask, but I'm sure excited to sleep on it tonight.

Hillarie got her old PlayStation out the other day and Neil is in video game heaven. He loves playing Crash Bandi(something-or-other). It’s not like he hasn't played video games before, he plays XBox with Marcus, Tetris on the game boy and the Wii at the kids club at Fry's, but there is just something about this game that really has him hooked. I'm get a little worried sometimes. Then I remind myself, he is a boy...and it all makes sense. We just need to teach him that running right to the room the video game is in before even saying hello to anyone once we get to Grandma's house is bad manners.

January 2, 2009
What a fun day we had! We decided last minute to go up to the snow on Friday and we had a great time. We didn't have any show shoes for Ruth so we went out and checked a few thrift stores without any luck. I ended up sucking it up and buying new my first article of children's snow paraphernalia. The smallest size was a 4 though so I told her she had to wear them for at least 3 hopefully 4 years to make the price worth it. Shouldn't be too much of a problem since she is a size 1 1/2.
We stopped in Payson to eat, I had to have Taco Bell, along with everyone else visiting the snow that day. I spilled my water cup twice, I'm sure the man at the table next to us thought I was retarded, Oh well, it gave Neil a good laugh.
We were going to just go to the gravel pits, but it was insane how many people were there so we pulled off where Marcus and Ruth had Daddy Daughters and it was the best spot ever, with only one other family there. It was a really long run, not too steep, but Marcus bought us a super fast sled so it was perfect. The kids were in heaven and Marcus got quite the work out. Then the other Family left and let us take over their fire and Ruth got an idea of how she sounds when she is being bratty. A man and his two girls about 12 and 15 came, they were dressed quite ridiculously in Jammie pants sweatshirts and canvas shoes so I knew they wouldn't stay long. The girl was just being so snotty saying how cold it was and if this was the only hill they were going to be on and then that she was going first. Ruth was watching and said "That girl is not talking nice to her dad...I would never talk to my dad like that, especially going on a fun snow trip." I had to gently remind her about the fit she threw about her snow pants giving her a snuggy , the two socks I made her wear to make up for the huge size of the boots and how I tried to get her to put on some of the big adult size gloves because Liam didn't have any. She would not do it, and decided cotton mittens were preferable to to big water proof ones. (she changed her mind, extolling the virtues of the big ones about 1/2 hour in.) After that she was very nice still talking about how rude that girl was to her dad, hopefully she will remember that long into her teen years. *fingers crossed*
We stopped in Payson again, this time for dinner at Chili's. The kids watched A Bee Movie on the way home, I got car sick but made it home without embarrassing myself. That means I only have to throw up once more and I'm good for the rest of this pregnancy! Good times, I thought it was funny how Liam was wearing the same snow suit he wore last year. It's a size 3 so maybe one more year?
This is last year when we went to the snow!

Liam's Birthday party was a great success, well I think, we missed a few people who weren't in town :(Buffalo Evans', New Mexico Brother, Brother Visiting New Mexico Brother, Border Patrol Brother, Missionaries): *sigh* (though when you see my cupcakes, you will be glad you missed it)(that's a bit later on...)

We had yummy Pizza! Say CHEESE! Everyone loves Cheese right? I have been craving it like crazy, (Not as much now though, when you see my cupcakes you will understand)

Presents! Liam got some really great things, the highlights though I think were From His Granparents. Grandma Evans got him: I got him one of these at a thrift store, but we could never find a car that would go all the way down it, I'm wondering if they made it that way on purpose... so he was excited to get one with cars because he REALLY liked it.
From Grandma Holly he got a remote control car:

SO Stinkin' cute. Both the car and my baby.
Now the cake; I was going to make a square cake with the Wall-e eyes, but decided cupcakes would be easier so went with them. that part was fine, my frosting was not. Oh sure it tasted fine, but while I was spreading it on I kept thinking, 'what does this look like? i know it looks like something...' when I had frosted about a dozen i figured it out! Velveeta! Isn't that revolting?!? the small ones look like cheeseburger sliders ready for the top bun! I seriously couldn't bring myself to try one, I put a few more drops of red food coloring in the rest of the frosting but they didn't look any better. Lukie liked them though. Thanks Luke for making me feel better! Actually he had one of the redder ones, it kind of looks like carrot mash on his face. *Bleh*
It was a good night, Thanks to everyone who came, Liam told me later on how much he enjoyed spending the evening with each and every one of you. He said it made turning two much easier to have spent his special day with those he loves. :) Hoppy birthday Liam!

On New Years Eve (aka Liam's Birthday) we decided to celebrate by going out to eat and to a movie. We ate at Chick-fil-a... What? You want me to smile? No Thanks... (We were sitting in the booth by the kids play area)
...and then saw The Tale of Despereaux. 'Oh wow, that was annoying! That lady down there just took a picture in the movie theatre.' I'm sure that's what people were thinking, however...would you rather someone blind you with a flash once, or be serenaded with a crying baby every 10 minutes like when I went to see Twilight? Probably neither huh?
Anyway, it was a pretty good movie, we all enjoyed it, Neil only got scared once, Ruth was 2 seats down so I'm not sure how she did though.

Later on we went to Grandma and Grandpas to ring in the New Year after seeing Grandma Holly off to work. Our kids had no problem staying awake, they are really good at being silly. Neil thought it would be a good idea to leave the house today with no shoes on, so he had to borrow Grandpas. Happy New Year everyone! I don't know where Ruth gets it, but at about 20 minutes after midnight when we were finally coming in from watching Grandpa and Dad set off fire crackers, Ruth suddenly felt an urgent need to have made some noise outside so she organized bells for them all to take out and they made a fine ruckus. Why this didn't dawn on her when everyone else was outside making noise I will never know.