Pictures of last weekend

So as I said I would, here's some pictures from our weekend up in IF with our new little niece Natalie. And here's picture of both of us on our way to church (my mom loves taking a gazillion pictures when ever we're there). I figured rather than always posting shots of just me to show my growing belly I'd include this one with Lance because I like these pictures of both of us better! Kind of hard to see with the dress but I think you can. This great dress I found at Old Navy (not in their maternity section) and I think I'll be able to wear it for quite a while. We shall see. This last picture is from today. My sis and Natalie stopped by for a little visit today. I was sitting indian style with Natalie on her tummy on my leg and she ended up looking back behind me. It was cute. At one point when I was holding Natalie I mentioned to her that she has some good veins. I guess she didn't like that very much and started crying (Not that she's had any experience with IVs). It was funny. Yes I am weird but I guarantee you if you ever see me holding a newborn I will often "check-out" their veins. Not because I'm planning on poking them but it's a habit. And it's good practice for me to see if I can find some that I think I would be able to hit. Overall when it comes to IVs I'd rather have some tiny preemie anyday than term chubby kids! The chub hids all their veins and since preemies skin is so much thinner it's way easier to see them. However the down side is that they are often more fragile and blow easier but it still seems to me that I'm a lot more successful with getting an IV on the tiny ones. Just a random little tid bit there for you.

Baby Boy's face

So here's a picture of our little guy's face from our ultra-sound today. It's kind of a profile shot. He has his hand up by his mouth. Everything looked great and he's measuring just where he should be. He's weighing in at one pound now.

Weekend in IF

We went to see most of my family (all but my oldest brother and his fam) this past weekend. We got to meet our new little niece. I forgot to take pictures of her on my camera so I'll be posting those later when I get them from my mom. It was so fun getting to see our other little niece Kalyn because we haven't seen her in a while. She is one of the cutest little girls! And she absolutely loved the dogs which was fun to watch. Ace mostly ignored her but every once in a while when he was walking by her he'd sneak a few licks in. We took Ace over to the river to swim one evening. Last summer he absolutely refused to get in the water but this summer he has decided he likes it. He takes a minute the first time trying to figure out how to get down (whining the whole time in typical Ace style) but then he gets the hang of it. It is a great way for him to burn off some energy! My dad has these doors that are a little too small for Ace to go through coming out of one of the doors from the garage. Ace figured out only his head would fit through but would keep sticking it through because mean ol' us wanted to get a picture of it and kept calling him. :) We though he looked so funny! Almost like his head was mounted or something. In case you're wondering the purpose of this small door, at one point, back in the day, they were for birds. My dad use to have an aviary that he raised parakeets and canaries. Now the door is used by my parents cat. One the way back home we stopped to see Lance's sisters and their fams and his parents who were bringing our trailer to us. We took another picture of the three pregos (uh-hem Jami you still need to send me that picture) and I snapped this one of Syd giving her baby a drink. It was too cute! We had such a fun weekend!

And the fence is down

So the fence is down. There was quite a pile of lumber in the yard. Lance is loading it up to haul it away to the dump. The next morning was the fluke snow storm. Ace is still doing very well about staying in our backyard even with the fence down. The only time he has trouble is if our neighbors are in their backyard. Today I opened the door to see where he was only to discover he wasn't in our backyard. I stepped out and our neighbors were in there backyard and soon enough I saw Ace's ears pop up from behind a bush. When I called his name he just looked at me like, "what?!" Luckily they are great neighbors and have a little chihuahua of their own and they like Ace, however their chihuahua doesn't care to much for Ace as she seems to think she's tougher than Ace (which she probably is) and doesn't pay him much mind. The lumber should be getting delivered in a couple days so hopefully the weather cooperates so Lance can get the fence up.

New Niece

So here is our new niece, Natalie Marie born last night. Natalie weighed 8lbs 12oz. I can't believe my little sis is a mommy! They're both doing well.

A First for Lance

So this morning was the first time Lance was able to feel the baby moving. I've been able to feel him some since about 15 weeks. Now that I'm nearing on 20 weeks I can definitely feel him more often. This morning he was being particularly active and kept hitting/kicking/bonking his head (whatever he was doing) right in the same spot (the strongest I've felt him up to this point I might add) up in the top of his current living quarters near my belly button. So I asked Lance if he wanted to see if he could feel him. At first he could just get my pulse but soon enough the little guy decided to move around some more so dad could feel. Our little guy seems to be more active at night. It doesn't wake me up, at this point, but I notice him a whole lot more when I'm at work than when I'm sitting around and doing things during the day. Hopefully he doesn't continue through his life this schedule of activeness at night. I guess he just takes after his mom's work schedule, so maybe it's my own fault for working nights! I'd say I'm more active at work since I'm moving around all the time so hopefully once he gets out into this world he'll resume a more normal wake/sleep schedule unlike his mom does. I find it very funny that he doesn't like it too much when I'm holding other babies when I'm feeding them and such at work. I've learned I have to keep them a little farther away from me so they're not against my little baby or else he starts squirming all around. It definitely is an odd feeling having this little thing moving around inside of you and getting to know his usual spots where he resides. I have to say it makes me think of those movies when there's an alien or something crawling around inside of somebody. I'm just glad that this little baby won't be ripping through my abdomen anytime soon to get out!

Nice weather = a busy Lance

So last year we were debating about which project outside we wanted to do first, redo the fence or put new shingles on the roof (and when I say we, it will be Lance doing all the work I'm sure). We have decided to go with the fence since every time there's a big wind storm parts of it keep falling down. For the first round we might just get the back fence and the worst one of the sides down, since it's so stinkin expensive. So Lance has been around looking at prices and all that fun stuff. We had a few really nice days at the beginning of the week and nice days always make Lance want to work outside and be productive (not that I mind, it just makes me realize that he works a whole lot harder than I do! And I'm ok with that) So he informed me he was going to start tearing down the back fence so once we get our trailer back this weekend he can get all the old wood cleared out. So off he went on his project. Now the whole back fence is down. I'm so glad that Lance is so handy and enjoys doing stuff like this! This video would be what Ace was busy doing while Lance was working. He spends his days doing similar things while he's "at work" with dad. It's so funny that he'll only play like this when you're out there with him or around where he can see you. If we put him in the back yard by himself he won't touch the ball. I know some of our nieces and nephews enjoy watching videos of Ace, so this is mainly for them. For those who remember the video from last year of Ace with the basketball, pushing it all around the yard, he's found a new way to try and move it. He looks so ridiculous now as he drags it around the yard with his front paws and usually gets to fast for himself and he manages to shoot it past both sets of legs and then he has to figure out where it went. Silly dog! I do have to say that even though Ace has some things about him we're not so fond of (i.e. his weak stomach and his whining) he really is a good dog! Lance has left him home with me a few of the days this week and he has been very good while he's been out in the backyard by himself. He'll just wander around our yard and then usually sit up by the door watching everything. We weren't sure how he'd handle the fence being down along the back, even though he's never been one to run or wander off too much (I think he's afraid we'll leave him or he'll miss something). He hasn't tried going out of the yard once which I know is more than a lot of people can say about their dogs. I guess it's a good thing we have a home-body for a dog who's loves us to much to wander very far.

Freezer Jam

So yesterday I decided to be ambitious and try my first attempt at making strawberry freezer jam. When Lance's parents still lived near by when we were dating and engaged I use to love going to their house because my MIL would have fresh bread and freezer jam all the time (I still have yet to attempt the fresh bread thing but my goal is sometime in the next few months). I of course liked going for other reasons to see them too but this is when I really grew to love strawberry freezer jam. So I decided to just follow the recipe that came in the fruit pectin box and I'm starting to get worried that maybe it isn't turning out right. I said to let it set up in the fridge for no longer than 24 hours (it's been ~19hours) and it still seems really liquidy to me. Having never made this I'm not sure if this is what it's suppose to be doing. I still have most the package of strawberries left but I don't really want to make more if I don't know what I'm doing and it's not going to turn out. I guess we'll see later on tonight how it turns out. If anybody has fail proof easy recipes for freezer jam they use, please share. Or really good bread recipes so when I feel ambitious enough to attempt that I can. :)

Great Mormon Ad

So my friend Sharon sent me this video a while ago (thanks Shar!) and being conference weekend I was reminded about it since in the program between sessions they were playing some mormon ads. Honestly, who doesn't love them?! Oh the joys of little boys and big boys too! Does anybody know if the church has them all online somewhere?