First Blog Post of the New Year!

Why, hello 2011! You are looking quite lovely this snowy afternoon...

Update for us. The biggest one I think is that of Jason's promotion! He was asked to become a CMT (Certified Med Tech) for his work! He will have to pass a test which is basically equivalent to a GED test, take a 6 (I think) week training course and pass the test for the class and he's in! The class is in the mornings and he'll keep his normal work schedule for the evenings so it'll be long days until the class is over, BUT he gets paid to go to class, paid to do his clinical hours and will get a pay raise when it's all said and done. Needless to say we are absolutely thrilled and SO thankful for this blessing! Jason's been worn out of doing CNA work and I've been hoping and praying for a solution for him. We're very excited that there's an end date in sight! The class, from what we've heard so far, is scheduled to start in April and will then end in mid May.

David is SUCH a big boy!!! He is currently in 3T clothes and will be out of them shortly I'm afraid... The biggest news for him is that we are potty training! He's doing very well! We bought him big boy undies yesterday and he wore them all morning without an accident!! Sometimes he'll tell us when he needs to go potty but it's mostly us asking him or reminding him when he should go. It's kind of early as far as "boy potty training standards" go, but it's still early. Jason is hoping to have him potty trained by the time Ainzley arrive (less than 7 weeks ish) but I'm thinking probably summer time at the earliest. Other than that, he LOVES going to Nursery at church! His favorite TV show is a toss up between The Office and Backyardigans. He now sits at the table with us to eat as opposed to in his high chair and he sure loves his baby sister! Well, when he doesn't get confused between my tummy and daddy's, lol. He loves to give the tummy kisses and when he covers my tummy back up with my shirt he'll wave and say "Bye Baby Sister!" - it is adorable! Of course, he'll do the same to Jason's tummy if he's laying on the floor.

Ainzley seems to be doing well. The tummy is growing and she is kicking constantly so I say she's doing great! We can't ever really get an accurate tummy measurement as she loves putting her back in my right side which distorts my uterus and gives us a crazy measurement. She's been measuring either right on, or on the small side the whole time until my last appointment... we couldn't get her to move so she was in her funky position making the measurement close to 34 weeks when I was 31, lol. Jason is CRAZY excited to meet her and absolutely can't wait!

I am doing well. I have ridiculous hip and back pain this pregnancy which I've found is the main reason why I don't sleep well... well, that and not being able to breathe, but hey, it's pregnancy! I've got right between 7 and 6 weeks left and am so anxious! I've been sewing her blessing dress bit by bit over the past 2 weeks and it's really coming together. I have to put the trim on the waistline and make some final design decisions for the skirt (then do those, of course) and I'll be done! I've sewn plenty of formal dresses before, but this has probably been my most challenging task just because of the size - it's teeny! Not to mention I am an absolute perfectionist is if it's not 100% correct, I'll take it apart and redo the whole thing... good thing I started early! Other than sewing, I've been spring cleaning our apartment 1 room a day. So far, I've only finished our bathroom and the dining room, but I only started 2 days ago, so I'm right on target! ;) I have to wait to do the main rooms (kitchen, living room, bedrooms) until Jason has a day off so he can help either me or watch David. This is yet another project I am hoping to finish before Ainzley arrives.

I suppose that's all I have for now. We've been keeping pretty busy and enjoying our family time. School just restarted for Jason (I'm taking the semester off for obvious reasons). He's taking online courses this time (a first for him) but they're basic classes that I've already taken so hopefully I'll be able to keep him on track and answer questions he may have. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the SNOW!

Oh how I miss thee!

I'm talking about sleep... I haven't had a decent night's sleep in over a week! This story dates back to the summer I was first pregnant with David. We saved some money and bought a new, pillow top mattress - it was awesome.... in the store anyway. A year later, we had to contact the manufacturer due to warranty issues. Mainly the body impressions and the pillow top was "gathering" in random areas. For a mattress that was 1 year old, it was completely unacceptable. The company replaced it under warranty and let us pay just a little more to upgrade to a king size which was amazing!

A year and a few months later (now), the king sized mattress we had gotten to replace our other worn out mattress had the same problem! Since we now live over 300 miles from the store we bought it from, replacing it under warranty would have been a big hassle so we sold it instead. The day before we sold it, we bought a new Tempur-pedic! We are so excited for our new bed... but it's taking FOREVER to get here! We ordered it last Monday and it won't be delivered to our house until Thursday or Friday of this week. In the mean time, we are sleeping on our queen sized air mattress... what. a. joke. I haven't slept well in days! I have constant headaches from not sleeping. I can't even take a nap because all I have to nap on is the air mattress! I can't even sleep on the couch because when I lay on it, I can't breathe. Yep, I'm exhausted! Please forgive the many grammatical errors that are sure to be found throughout this post as I can barely see my computer, lol

Christmas blessings

This year, it has seemed nearly impossible for me to get into the Christmas spirit. I always look forward to it and love having our own little family Christmas but it seems like Christmas came so quickly this year and I didn't have time to "get used" to the idea, I guess. Anyway, today I decided to reflect back on our year (actually, our entire marriage, lol) and to pick out the unbelievable ways we've been blessed. We have been blessed with an eternal temple marriage. We are so lucky to get to not only spend our lives together, but ETERNITY together. We have an AMAZING son... no really. I look at him in amazement everyday. He is everything we could have asked for. We will be welcoming a daughter in the Spring. Though we haven't met Ainzley yet, I feel like I've known her for so long! We were blessed to get pregnant with her right away (through extreme inspiration). She is active and loves to appease her daddy with kicks when he puts his hand on my tummy. She is loved by her brother who loves to snuggle my tummy and give "her" kisses. We are so fortunate to be able to pay our bills. Our testimonies of tithing have gotten us through the tough times and keeps us mindful during the times when we can be a little less frugal. Jason has a terrific job. Though it drives him crazy sometimes, he's happy to be working in the medical field and to be progressing toward his goal of becoming a nurse. Though there are many more, we are most thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. To have such a loving Heavenly Father and elder brother (Jesus Christ) to provide a plan for us and to be our savior. We are very happy in our church and out callings and hope to be able to continue to serve in the future.

Today I had to run out to WalMart to get one last gift for Jason. I absolutely loathe WalMart. Everyone always seems to be in a crabby mood and it's always busy. Today was no exception. I had to wait FOREVER for an employee to help me with Jason's gift and noticed so many upset people. I couldn't help but smile. Looking back on everything we have to be thankful for really made it hard for me to be "down". After getting Jason's gift, I had a few last minute things to pick up for Christmas dinner and after waiting in a LONG line, I realized I forgot to get something for dinner! I had to get out of line to run back and get a frozen pizza. Normally, this would have just made me livid, but today, I could have cared less. Today, I am grateful for my many blessings which will always trump my many earthly trials.

This Christmas, though our trials may be great, let's remember all the wonderful things we have to be grateful for and help others to realize their blessings as well. Merry Christmas!

It's kind of amazing

So, I recently reported about having to put a certain family member in time out. So far, no changes on their end but it's amazing the difference I feel. I really do feel liberated! I don't dislike this person and still think about them every day, but I no longer feel like I'm on edge constantly worrying about what's coming next or what they think. I always used to worry about what they would think about how I do things and now I just don't care. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm putting my self and my family first rather than this person's judgments. I don't care what they think of how I'm doing in school. I don't care what they think of me having Ainzley at home with a midwife. For a long time I've been able to have this attitude with other people but I've never had the back bone to do so towards this person. I've had so many people compliment me on my decision to be a grown up about the situation (minus calling it a "time out", lol) and sticking up for myself.... It feels good.

I hope hope hope that this time out doesn't have to last long. I miss the time I used to spend with this person before things got bad. I want them to be a part of our lives, but they need to know they way they are acting is not ok. After verbalizing this to them many times, I found I needed a way for them to easily understand just how serious about this I am... Fingers crossed that it sticks!

Preview **Updated**

We got our Christmas pictures yesterday! It was kind of rough since David didn't have patience, but we still got some cute shots. Here are our favs:

Our week

It has been a long week... and it's not over yet!

Firstly, Jason had to work 6 days this week which makes for a family longing for time with Daddy. David really and truly will hug and not let go when he sees his daddy. It's adorable and makes me sad for him - he so obviously misses his dad! At least next week is finals week at school so we'll have every morning together. Secondly, we're all FINALLY getting over being sick! We still have runny noses, but no more cough or fevers.

Our Christmas party is on Sunday and we are so excited! There's a lot of work leading up to it, though. I got a good deal of house cleaning done today (in addition to a HUGE final project for Psychology and a test for Anthropology) and I'm just about half way through my Christmas baking. I love feeling accomplished!

Lately, I've been thinking about the holidays and all that goes along with it... mainly family. After Thanksgiving, I'm glad we're having our own Christmas again this year. I have always loved being around family for the holidays but it's just gotten too difficult emotionally for me. It's no secret that I haven't had the best relationship with my family over the past few years and I've finally had enough. I'm just tired of being walked all over and being neglected at the same time. Someone's getting a time out!!! I've been trying and trying (for three years) and haven't felt the same effort from others... hopefully having us absent for awhile will help get my point across. I feel like I've tried everything else and am sad that it's come to this :(

On a happier note, Ainzley seems to be doing well. She is growing and is soooo active! She's way more active than David was. Next week, we're getting our family/Christmas pictures done and I'm getting some maternity shots - I am so excited! I never even thought about maternity pics when I was pregnant with David and I wish I had. It's such a special time and it should be documented.

Anyway, I guess that's all I've got for now. Hope everyone had a good week! And yes, I did give up on the 30 day blog challenge, lol

Thanksgiving trip

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!! Ours was pretty good and very eventful. We left Springfield Wednesday morning headed for St. Louis and it was a pretty easy trip. We gave some friends of ours a ride to Troy so they could spend Thanksgiving with their family in Hannibal, MO. It definitely helped the drive go faster and David was pretty content because he LOVES these particular friends - he's always sad when they leave! Once we got to Troy, we had to pick up my little brother from his friend's house then went and hung out at my parents' house. Since Wednesday was our anniversary, Jason and I went out to dinner and saw the new Harry Potter movie (thanks to my dad for watching David for us!!). We got home in the midst of tornado warnings which thankfully missed us!

Thursday was great. Well, the worst part was David waking up at 4:30ish and jumping in his pack n play... he wasn't making noise or anything... just jumping, lol. So he did that until about 6:45 (taking a few breaks of course) which is when I decided we needed to just get up. So we got up, lounged around for a little while and decided to get some breakfast and head to WalMart for some last minute things - including a news paper so we could get the Black Friday ads! We came home, got ready and headed to Jason's family get together around 11. It was a pretty good gathering though his grandma seemed pretty worried/confused with so many people over all at once. There were some rough times, but overall she seemed to enjoy seeing everyone. We headed over to my brother's house to see my family and it was great. My brother was dealing with an unfortunate personal issue and wasn't able to participate much, but it was nice of him to still let everyone come over. Mom did most of the cooking and everything was delicious. It was awesome to see all my family! Thanksgiving is really the only time I get to see ALL of my family so Jason and I try to spend as much time as we can with them. We really enjoyed our time there.

Friday was filled with Black Friday shopping and Jason got to participate in cleaning the sheep barn... yuck. David loved chasing the sheep, though! As a matter of fact, he loved all the animals! LOL My parents have two Golden Retrievers - one named Ginger and One named Buck. David likes Buck the best. Buck lives in the basement outside the room we always stay in when we visit. The first thing out of David's mouth when he wakes up is "BUH!!!" (his rendition of "Buck"). He just can't wait to see that dog! He'll peek his head out the door, say BUH! then giggle as he runs back into the bedroom. He'll then go put his face against Buck's cage to get kisses... the boy just loves that dog!!! Now when he hears our neighbor's dog barking, he'll get all excited and scream "BBUUUUUHHHH!!!"

We came home Saturday morning. I was so thankful that I cleaned the house before we left because when we got home, I was so sick! My allergies had been driving me crazy while we were at my parents' house since they have inside dogs and once we got home, my allergies turned into head cold/ stomach flu. Thankfully my stomach is now fine and I'm just dealing with the cold part... which is still difficult. At least my house is clean and I managed to get the laundry done yesterday :)

Overall it was a fun trip. We'll be going up to visit the week before Christmas since Jason has to work on Christmas again. At least he only has to work for his home care assistance guy - so far, he's not scheduled to work Christmas for his full time job. This year, they decided to let employees volunteer for the holidays which is great! He obviously got off Thanksgiving, will hopefully get off Christmas and volunteered to work New Years day. Anyway, I think our Christmas trip will be our last trip up to St. Louis before Ainzley is born but things are always subject to change.