Halloween and 30 Weeks

Well the thirty week marker was only one day after halloween and since Dan did not go and get the camera as promised we have VERY few halloween pics. SO, I am grouping this post together.

We had a lot of fun for halloween. I figure since there is really only one day a year that it is socially acceptable to dress up all day long that I would gladly let Alice do so. I gave her the two options for her halloween costume and she excitedly picked Alice in Wonderland over Cinderella. That was until she saw an ad. A walmart ad advertising last minute discounts on halloween costumes - one costume in particular caught her eye. A sleeping beauty costume. We heard all morning about how she wanted the dress: "with the crown like this, the shoes that go right here and sleeves down to here and a round thing that goes round and round with a picture of sleeping beauty." We had originaly planed to let her dress up as Sleeping Beauty for halloween, we had a friend who thought they might have a costume in her size, and someone had volunteered to make her own for her brithday. But when both arrangments fell through and her interest switched th being Alice inWonderland for halloween we purchased the dress up dress of Sleeping beauty as one of her three christmas presents. All was going well with this plot until the day of halloween and the ad. Alice WANTED it. its not very often that she WANTS something so it highly entertaiing when she does. She counted out her Disney coins, all 25 she would need to purchase the dress, and we were off to the store. Mostly to look for the crown. s luck would have it it was good we had purchased the dress previously as there was no Sleeping Beauty dress to be found. After we left the store, Dan removed it from the trunk and presented it to her. She still has not stopped thanking him for it.
So Alice was sleeping beauty for halloween, with two pairs of tight a white under dress and a white long sleeved shirt underneath to keep her warm. Luckily it was actually a very nice and warm night. Surprsing for Utah.
We went to Grandma Blaisdells to Trick or Treat and say hello and thento Grandma and Grnadpa Ethingtons to meet up with Aunt and Cousins for Trick Or Treating. We should have gone home to get the camera though as everyone else was late and now I have no pictures.
Alice has been looking forward to trick or treating for months, so I was surprised when she had a hard time at first. For some reason she had decided to be afraid of one of her aunts friends and was terrified to go up to doors until we moved ahead of the group. I wish she hadn't pitched a fit though, we missed out on some group pictures, adding more to my frustration that Dan refused to get the camera.
Once we did find Alices groove though she was running from house to house on her own. And her and her cousin Ian ended up being the last two out, mind you it is important to not they were the youngest two out trick or treating.
Alice got a preety big haul. She elected to choose for peices of her candy and trade it in for atoy. She chose A sleeping beauty dress up set compleate with earings and a crown. Thanks to that we were Halloween candy free only two days after halloween - go me!!

As for the pregnancy. I am officially 30 weeks, meaning I have anywhere from 8-12 weeks left. In a few weeks I will have to open a betting pool as to when the baby will be born and all that. I am strangely excited and nervous that it is so close, and will quite literally be hear before I know it!!

I celebrated by taking yet another crazy belly picture, this one decked out in paint. I found it hid the stretch marks very well, and everyone had fun, so that was good.

There was a complication with the midwife appointment and me not having a car and so after some juggling on both sides H just ended up coming to our house on her way home from her Salt Lake Appointmnents. I love my midwife. I am still measuring ahead, but only by two weeks this times, and we actually got a decent reading on the heart beat this time as the bugger saw fit not to wiggle to much lol (it came in at about 14-145)

S/he is already head down and evrything is fine and right on target. We talked about the contractions, but ultimatly decided they were nothing to worry about right now.

Let the ultimate countdown begin!

THE INTERNATIONAL SHEEP DOG EXPO

It has to be in caps, because with a title like that it needs a deep booming announers voice. That it was we did last weekend, kind of for our anniversary - kind of not. Dan mentioned that he would like to go, that it would be fun - so we packed up and went. And I will say that it was fun, but EXTREAMLY overpriced, I don't think I can bring myself to remind me how much we spent, so we deffinatly won't be doing that again.
First we went to see the Splash Dogs.

It is quite litterally an event where dogs run off a dock into a ginat swimming pool into water and compeate to see how far they can jump.

Alice absolutly loved it. They were doing heats to qualify the dogs for the finals that were to be on sunday. It actually was extreamly entertaining. There were golden retreivers who would book it down the dock and then simply fall in at the end, to the over excited dowgs that would inch themselves forward from a sit-stay in desperation to get the toy and be in the water. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard while pregnant, its an odd sensation.

Of coure after the heat when they went back into practice Alice had to go up and stand right by the pool to watch the dogs.

She got spalashed quite a few times and absolutly loved it. Dan was a big trooper to stang there with her and get covered in dog water as well.

After wards we went down to see the rest of the sites. It really was a perfect day to go to this thing. The temperrature was mild and the clouds stayed compleatly overcast all day. we even had a few microbursts of rain, which was fun. The sheep dog competition was actually reall entertaining. You know how in the movie babe they have this tiny course that the dog has to go throuhg? Not so in acual competition my friend. This is the course:

What you mean you can't see the dog? Or the sheep? Well lets try a different perspective

See theres the dog.. can't you see the sheep - - way up on the hill... the teeny tiny white dots? Hmmm... well anyway the dog has to run up the hill find the sheep on his own, bring them down, around that pole back up the hill through another set of gates over t the other side of the hill through another set of gates then back down into a circle where the dog has to line them up and seperate them and then finally has to put them in the pen... all within the 13 minute time frame. And yes, it can be done. I was impressed. Anna would just try to play with the sheep.

They also had scary pony rides and a petting zoo there. I say scary pony rides because the lady who was running them was kind of frightening, the hourses didn't seem too well taken care of and the entire opporation was all around mahem. This, of course, was what alice chose to spend her disney coins on for the trip.

I will have to explain what disney coins are in another post, they are kind of complicasted.
We also got to pet a camel, a feat for which Dan needed photgenic proof.

And they were just so cute together that I just couldn't resist

Alice also got to try her hand at a hula-hoop which she went crazxy over and had a lot of fun!!

So all in all - fun. Not worth what we spent but fun. In alot of ways it was our last summer fling. The mounains on the drive up to souldier hollow reminded us -alot- that summer is over.

And thus ends another post without one picture of me... I really need tot ach dan to take a picture every once in a while :)

more wet, more mold - thats it! I am outa here!!

Looking back, this place is a blessing but also a disaster waiting to happen. Yes it is great in alot of ways. Its huge, the rent is right, and the landlord is ok. He jus has one major flaw. He' cheap. Something breaks he asks the tenants to fix it.
When we moved in the bathroom had lots of mold - but it wasn't the scary mold from what we could tell. We worked out a deal with the landlord to let us fix the bathroom and he would take it off of our rent. Its nothing new to him, he did it with previous tenants who fixed the kitchen. And he is currently doing it with the man upstairs who is redoing his bathroom. Nothing new. But before we have a chance to start work on the bathroom, the leaks begin. The closet in alices bedroom leaks - almost every day, and the area under the window in the office is damp. The landlord sens over a plumber he does some stuff and declares the leak in Alices bedroom fixed. So we gut the bathroom in december and compleatly re-do it. Plumbers, construction workers and anyone who hs experience from our ward came to help. And when it was done it worked great!
The floor in the office is still damp, butwe figured it was because it was winter and we removed the tape from the window to open it because we need some air. SO we closed the window, retaped it and figured that would do the trick, and no leaks from alice's closet. Then someone new moves in upstairs and the leaks begin again - great torrents of water that seap through dans freshly finished dryway and soak the closet and the floor. the guy upstairs comes to look at it, says he will fix it.
Then yucky brown water starts dripping through the ceailing fan onto the toilet - turns out the toilet upstaris is broken and that water, was from the sewage line. Dan has to rip out a ton of the dry wall he put up only a few months before so that we can look at the problem. And, we have to use an umbrella to use the facilities. At this point the guy upstairs starts demo on his bathroom - we want to warn him, "don't trust the landlord".

Oh wait - - didn't I tell you ...

The landlord with all his "i pay you to the do the work' crap didn't even refund us all the money WE spent on HIS bathroom. Shorted us about a thousand dollars actually, and stopped paying Dan for labor when he was about half done. Apperently bathrooms can't cost more that 1,500.00 dollars. But anyway...

So the bathroom upsairs is getting demolished - should be the end of our problems right? Wrong. The storage room starts leaking - gallons of water pouring down adn soaking our belongings. Christams tree, car seat, crib, the last of the dry wall. It smells like laundry water. The landlord doesn't beleive us. It happens again and he rushes over - sure enough water everywhere. Inches of it on the floor, in our suitcases, pooled in the car seat. I don't lie. The guy upstairs comes down, says he will fix it.

The bathroom upstairs gets done, he runs the water and tons of it once again comes through Alice's closet and coaks the dry wall, the wood, the floor.

I am getting tired of this.

Fast forward less then a month (yes, less than a month) to sunday. A damp spot once again appears n the floor in the office, the same place it was when we moved in. I grab a towel and put it on it, I want to see how much water there is... we get home from a sunday mountain trip and the towek is soaked. We begin moving furniture. Dan removed the box to our camera - a once white box. It is lack and fuzzy. He removed a spare peice to the computer desk - it is green and black and fuzzy and plyable. He moves out the filing cabinet. The carpet underneath it is soaked and the bottom four inches of the cabinet is green and black and fuzzy. We take out the files, the inside is black and fuzzy. At this point the smell begins, it slightly noxious, burns your nose and throat. Dan pics a picture up that had fallen a few weeks before - you can't even tell what it was. We move the computer desk out - - the floor is soaked. the floor boards are mouldy and have holes in them where the mold has eaten through. the dry wall is soaked. I begin to bawl.

I mean I an over -emotional pregnant woman its what I do.

We need to move that much is certain, but with no where to go we have to stay hear until November.
What happens in november you ask? Well if all goes to plan we will be moving into our own house. Yes, we get one of those snazzy death contracts and we move into our own place. As of now finiancing and everything is looking good, down payment looking good (we may be able to use the tax credit, if not we go rural) The only problem - we have no earnest money. We will - toward sthe end of Noember - when its too late to make any of this work. So we have to borrow it from somewhere. The sad thing is is that no more than three weeks ago we had that much in the savings account.. where did it go you ask? Oh you know... speeding tickets, school fees... I only have about 500 of it left... My grandfather used to say something, still does. Things go wrong when your heading in the right direction. Well as %&$##* as this is - we must be going in the right direction. So say a prayer for us that we can find/borrow/ come up with a thousand dollars to get out of here. We need this, we can't stay here. Its too bad borrowing money is such a tough subject... saying 'we will pay you back in november' simply doesn't work anymore...

Wish us luck... this timing is going to be awfull. If we find the earnest money we will move in two months before baby comes. If we don't we have to wait for the check in november and move into something else the first of december - mere weaks from my Due date...

But we have to move.. that much is certain.

Peter Pan

Well, our chapter book reading has begun. Say good bye to picture books before bed Alice has moved on.
Actually it was really her own decision. Which I think is awesome. Dan and I had been talking about starting the chapter books around her third birthday anyway but were having trouble deciding which one to start with. In my search for guidance I actually came across a blog of someone who says the first chapter book her parents read to her was The Hobbit at the right old age of three. While a great book I have not been much up to the challenge. Which brings us to Peter Pan.
I always have had the rule of 'Alice has to read Harry Potter before she can watch it.' Harry Potter often comes up in our chapter book discussions because we inevitably get into the topic of when will she be old enough to read HP and how do we keep the movies away from her until then. So while driving we were having this normal conversation and I mentioned how it should be that way for every movie, Alice in Wonderland, James and Giant Peach, Peter Pan. That's when Alice perked up:
"I want to watch Peter Pan."
"You have to read the book first."
"Where is the book? Can we read it?"
"We don't own it, we would have to rent it from the library."
"Oooooo Kaaaay" Mind you this is said very dejectedly.
Well she has never seen Peter Pan its not on her normal repertoire. So I looked up abridged, illustrated copies of Peter Pan (The full version is great, but figured best not to push it) to see what was available and then kind of forgot about it.
Alice did not.
Our next visit to the library proved this. She walked in sat right down at the computer and asked me what letter peter pan started with. I told her P and helped her find it, and all the other letters until 'Peter Pan' was typed into the computer. Luckily our tiny branch had a copy on hand and Alice happily went home with it.
She begged to read it when we got home. Had to wait until bedtime and then sat silently as she listened to the story, asking questions as we went. She insists on reading it every night and tries really hard to convince me to do so in the middle of the day.
She now goes around ticking and tocking as the crocodile in search of captain hook.

But now I have a problem. We are half way done with Peter Pan. What book do we read next?

Up Next: The letter A

Lagoon!!

So, we bought Lagoon season passports as it seemed pretty unlikely we were going to take any vacations this year. We have already been about 6 times. Talk about getting your moneys worth.
But anyway. The first time we went Alice had a traumatic experience. First we went on the kiddy boats and a fly landed on the searing wheel, which I guess was pretty terrifying. Then she went on the space ship ride which was the worst experience in the world. Between those two experiences we could not get her to go on anything else for weeks.
Well over memorial day weekend a miracle happened and she went on everything. It started because we brought Canary Yellow, who is a good friend of Rainbow Brite and Rainbow Brite says "I Will". It started on the snake boats.. ummm I mean Rattle Snake Rapids, which she had been on previously and loves.

But for some reason she didn't want to change her clothes this time. Talk about unusual, Alice hates to be unnecessarily wet. So we took a chance and talked her onto a kiddie ride, The DragonFly. Aunt Wendi could sit with her and Canary Yellow really wanted to go. And it worked, and she loved it.

It was good we had Aunt Wendi with us and Alice and I barely fit in the seat together (we tried it later) and I needed to take the pictures anyway.


With such an amazing success under our sleeves, we tried the impossible. The OdySea. We have been trying to get her on this ride since the first day we came. Mostly she just screams. But with the promise of a few games of Skee Ball ofter her ride and Canary Yellow By her side it was yet another spectacular success.

The OdySea is now her favorite ride. And she asks to go on it non stop. Luckily the lines have not been too bad so far.

From there Alice dragged her ultra accommodating Uncle Stuart into the water fountain.

Where the promptly got drenched

And Alice asked for a new pair of clothes.

And then in some freak act of amazing bravery,

Alice went on the dragon fly by herself

She then went on the boats. And with no traumatising fly to land on her steering wheel, this was also a great time.

And then came the ultimate test, the cars. She has been begging to go on this ride. We keep telling her no because she would have to go alone and there is a cute house in the middle of the ride that we are pretty sure she wants to go play in. So after a few pep talks and ground rules about the cute house we risked it.

And low and behold she did great! She waved at the house, didn't panic and enjoyed the ride.

Now our problem is keeping her off the rides, she has to wait for a friend or a cousin to go with her for most of them, and she is a tad bit impatient!

Yay! Lagoon is a success!

Woops

I have let this slide again. But, I have a reason. I have been sick and tired, literally. Silly first trimester hormones. It was so bad yesterday that absolutely nothing stayed down. But my midwife, thanks goodness I have her, gave me some wonderful suggestions and what do you know - they have worked! I drank a lot of chicken broth yesterday so that my body would stop sending excess bile to my stomach and now I have to eat about every two hours. But I am not vomiting. I still feel like I am going to vomit all the time, which is why the two hour thing is working great, I can't seem to eat more than a handful of food at each time.
But the good part to this is that I have never been this sick durring pregnancy. That gives a nice hopefull boost that everything is ok and we have a nice sticky bean in there. Of corse that also has dan singing the praises of a boy - but we have to wait until september to find out about that one!
So that's that. We bought a new camera so I will have lots of beautiful pictures soon, I promise!

SUPPLIES!!!

Due January 10th 2010

Picture Update

Aww... A picture update. Sweet clean and yet helps me get up to dat on everything. Bonus! And now, we begin.

Alice painting an ape mask for 'A' day.

Alice took this picture.
"It's my coat"

We made doughnuts


And got a little messy by doing it

But made it all up by being cute

And then had a flour fight

Alice on her first day being cast free, in an outfit she put together herself. I love my little fashionista.

Go Fly a Kite!

And so, that is what we did. Or at least tried to anyway. We went to the park on a nice windy overcast day, a storm was comming but the cold hadn't shown up yet: just the wind. But, Alice was addament that we try to fly a kit and so we did. I pulled one out of the two pack we had gotten from the dollar store and Alice and I put it together. After a short walk to the park we then spent 40 miutes trying to get the darn thing flying. As a good sign to how absorbed Alice was with the activity, durring the 40 minutes she did not once go to or look at the playground. It was only when I claimed defeat that she saddly jogged toward slides and swings.
We tried running to get it up,

Throwing to get it up,

We tried telling the kite to go up (Alice's idea :) )

We tried everything, and possibly even everything.

And we had fun, even if this was all we had to show for our attempts.

Oh well, we still have some good spring storms to come, now if it would only stop snowing....

Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful easter, or spring solstice, or passover or whatever you choose to celebrate! Ours was wonderful! We spent the day with Dan's Siblings at his sister Crystals house, had an egg hunt and a bar-b-que. And because of all the going ons this post will have alot of pictures!
We started the day with church, Dan and I decided that it is better to do the worship first so as to focus on the meaning of the day, and then move to the crazy socital way of doing things.

So after afternoon nap Alice woke up to her easter basket, and the gift of yet another of my Rainbow Brite Dolls, this one is canary Yellow. I bought he Mint in Box for 45 dollars about 4 years ago.

I did not give alice the box nor the sprite. But even without those, she LOVED it. Canary Yellow has now gone with her every where and is planning on taking the trip with us to Lagoon the next time we go lol.

Alice was even nice enought to share her easter candy.
From there we went to cousins, and had an egg hunt.

Alice went crazy this year looking for eggs,

and she barely left her couin, Vanias side.
She loves Vania, I think it because they are the only two female cousins (out here anyway) and so alice clings to her.

She even started the "I don't want to go" stage early and we have been haing to plan our departures with Mike and Katia's.

After the egg hunt it was time to play,

and play,

and play,

until it got to cold and we all went inside. Watched a movie, went home and slept. All in all A very good day.