Wrapping up February.

Elna playing in her crib post-nap.  Her latest thing is to yell for Mom or Dad and then when we come in she insists on playing in her crib for up to 30 minutes sometimes.  She also insists that we stay in the room until she’s ready to come out.

I took this picture right after cutting Elna’s hair and before cutting Brian’s.  I’m grateful for the money we save by me cutting these two heads of hair!

Wanting to copy Dad who had a Biore strip on his nose, so Brian put a piece of tissue on her nose.

Post-bath girlie, getting ready for bed.

Coloring.

Watching for the school bus.

And some pictures from my phone—we recently switched to smart phones and taking phone pictures has sure been convenient sometimes:

testing out the camera

Elna likes to sit on this little heater (when it isn’t on of course) and uses it as a little chair.

35+ weeks.

E & Sadez in nursery.  Elna LOVES nursery!  She loves her leaders, her friends, and she has never cried when we drop her off.  Yay!

Before church started, she’s pointing at one of her nursery leaders who was giving a talk that day.

Tiny tots at the library—popping bubbles and listening to a story on the felt board.

I only have my phone pictures that I took on V-day—somehow I lost all of the ones I took on my real camera (which were cute!) of Elna helping me make sugar cookies. Sad---

Brian surprised me with some beautiful flowers that were in the kitchen when I woke up.  And I put some fun things in a valentine mailbox for Elna throughout the day.  She loved the chapstick the most!

We also went to Tiny Tots at the library on V-day.  Elna loves Tiny Tots!

V-day night, Brian and I went out to a cute movie and picked up some pizza to eat in while Barbara watched Elna—that girl LOVES her Grandma so she had a great time!

Following Dad around Home Depot.  They (and sometimes me too) go to HD a lot and this is usually how she looks on a Saturday morning—still in her jammies.

Such a little helper and so independent.

Brian was putting child safety latches on the drawers in E’s big girl room and Elna thought she would take advantage of the drawers being out.

I can’t resist peeking through the glass window into Elna’s nursery class each week—it simply amazes me how well-behaved she is.

Elna has been sick since Thursday—with a croupy cough and runny nose.  Elna is not a cuddler, so when she wouldn’t leave my side the first few days I knew she must really be miserable.  Poor baby!  Unfortunately she only cuddled the first few days—now she’s still miserable, but she manifests it through lots of crying, whining, not sleeping, and not eating.  We’re ready for a healthy girl!

Our fun weekend.

Brian had last Friday off because he was between jobs—he got a new job as a Senior Portfolio Tax Analyst in Hood River, OR!  Thursday was his last day at the accounting firm he has worked at for 3 years.  We are happy to be done with accounting!  Especially since our baby is due right in the middle of tax busy season.  He started his new job on Monday and is enjoying it so far. 

Friday we went out to Hood River to look at houses.  Yes, houses!  We have gone back and forth on whether or not we want to move.  Hood River is small—like 7,500 people small.  It’s the windsurfing capital of the world (read: windy!  Troutdale is crazy windy, so it’s hard to imagine a place being possibly windier).  It is about 45 minutes up I-84—a beautiful drive and is basically the next city after Troutdale when you head east along the Columbia River.  We have gone to the ward, which was surprisingly big.  The biggest pro to moving would be that we would see Brian more without a 45 min. commute on both ends.  The cons are that we would be 45 minutes further from family that we love and that Elna adores seeing as often as possible, 45 minutes further from Costco, Winco, the temple, and the airport.  Also the housing is quite expensive—way more than Troutdale and way more than White Salmon which is right across the river from Hood River, and it is a small town—too small?  I don’t know.  How isolated would we feel?  Luckily, we won’t be able to sell our house right away, so we have plenty of time to make the decision. 

Blaine Franger Photography.  The city of Hood River, Oregon with Mount Hood in the background as seen looking south from the Washington side of the Columbia River.  (I took this from the internet, because I have forgotten to take pictures every time we have gone)  It’s beautiful, huh?

Later that day we went to see horses compete at the equestrian center.  Elna LOVES horses now!  She says “nee” all the time now, and drags us toward the door, hoping to get to go again.  We had such a fun time!  Elna makes even simple things really seem so exciting!

Elna’s face on the right it what she looked like about half of the time on the first day we went—a little worried.

This is the smile we get these days when we say “smile, Elna.”  Funny girl.

So brave of Elna—she usually got very nervous if she were any closer than 5 feet away from the horse, but she finally touched this horse, Kyla, a horse that belongs to one of my Young Women, Lindsey.

The next day we went again:

This was the first picture I took her that day, right as she got out of the car—ready to explode with excitement.

And then she was off and running!:

Pointing to the baby.

This is Elna just moments before telling her it was time to go.

And this is Elna when we took her to go home.

Saturday evening we headed to one of our favorite restaurants, Veggie Grill.  Yum!

Elna eats there just for the ketchup.  She loves dipping and if we’d let her she would eat ketchup it by the spoonful.

We also worked on this project—a ruler/growth chart to hang on our wall.

It was originally a me project, which quickly evolved into an us project, and finally into a Brian project—somehow I did nothing on the project except for come up with the idea—and even that I got from pinterest.com.

Here is the finished growth chart:

And some pictures of getting it up on the wall:

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Elna putting clothes on over her clothes while Dad was busy—she loves dressing herself.

I love it!!!   And I love how handy my husband is—and how cute my little girl is!  I love that my husband is no longer working as a tax accountant!  I love 3-day weekends!  Our life is good!  I’m such a lucky girl!

On pregnancy.

Ten thoughts on this pregnancy:

1—It is zooming by and I’m just barely starting to feel the panic of not being prepared.  My to-do list is very long!  The bulk of the list is getting Elna’s big girl room ready.  We were going to just keep her in the crib and put the baby in the other room in a pack-n-play, but Elna climbed out of her crib today for the first time, so we will be making the move sooner than we thought we would.  Any suggestions for transitioning toddlers to a bed?

2—I haven’t taken as many pictures of my prego belly this time as I did with Elna’s pregnancy.  I hope that isn’t a reflection of how many pictures I will take of this next child.  I’ve tried to make up for it this week by taking pictures every time I actually get ready.

3—My legs are retaining water just like they have in my other pregnancies.  Why oh why?

4—My hips are not hurting when I sleep nearly as much as they have with other pregnancies.  Yay!

5—I also have had no migraines! 

6—I (the baby?) mostly want carbs and sugar—oatmeal, bread, bagels, desserts always sound good.  Savory, specifically tomato soup, salsa, guacamole, Chipotle (shocker!)—not so much.  

7—I am running out of clothes to wear—especially on Sundays to church. 

8—We are really really hoping this little one is born early for two big reasons.  One—Elna was over 10 lbs. and only 2 days late.  I really wouldn’t mind a more average-sized baby and having it early would surely help with that.  Two—the baby is due March 19th and my mom can’t come until April 1st.  Brian’s parents are in Hawaii from the 21st until April, so having the baby between March 21 and April would mean we would be on our own for a few weeks.  I’m most worried about Elna during that time—specifically when we are at the hospital.  I think the transition for Elna would be smoothest if she was with her Grandma and Papa while we are at the hospital, rather than being shipped to someone else’s house.  March 10, 11, 12th…any time around there would be great!  Any ideas for inducing labor that actually work?

9—Is it normal to be more terrified of labor/delivery the second/third time around than the first?  With Elna I was all psyched thinking I would breathe her out (remember how I thought that would happen…) and feel minimal amounts of pain.  That didn’t happen—I hurt more than I knew I could hurt!  So, now that I know what’s coming my way in less than 6 weeks (hopefully!) I’m panicking just a bit. 

10—What I will miss about being pregnant:

-feeling the baby move around—this is my very favorite part of pregnancy—love it!  And sometimes I miss it after even though I have a baby to hold.  It is magical to me!

-my rock hard (though huge) tummy.  I do not look forward to the squish that comes after.

-nesting—I’m obsessed with organizing, cleaning, and creating.  I’m sure that will go away after the baby is born, as well as the time and ability to do it.

-the anticipation—I can hardly wait to meet this new little person and have him/her be part of our little family.  What will he/she look like?  How will Elna react to the new addition? 

We are beyond excited for this baby to arrive in 6 weeks!  Or 4 weeks if I get my way!

And a bonus with cute Elna in it!