Halloween 2018

Halloween is such a fun time of year! Unfortunately, I was just not very into it (again) this year. I really wanted to decorate, but I just had no energy to actually pull out our decorations. I also really didn't want to put them up just to take them out when I'm so close to the end of my pregnancy. I originally wanted to get costumes for us (we were going to be Monsters Inc. characters since Cara loves saying Kitty), but decided since we aren't taking Cara out trick-or-treating or anything why spend the money on the costumes? So no costumes, no decorations, but I DID hold strong on having pumpkins and carving them (which we waited until the weekend before to do). I chose a Monster's Inc monster face (Mike) and Larry chose Jack Skellington and they turned out fantastic!

I also made sure we went to ONE family farm that had pumpkins and everything and we recycled old costumes so that Cara could be a kitty (kind of) this year with some fun makeup and cute little ear barrettes in. We also got big candy bars for the trick-or-treaters so we knew they'd have fun with that at the very least.

For the actual day, I got home around 6:30 (which is almost an hour later than normal...stupid traffic!) and Larry seemed to be in a bit of a chaotic "everything is going on right now" sort of mood. We had decided pizza for dinner would be best so that we could camp out by the front door instead of cooking and make it easier to hand out candy (the last two years has taught us we definitely don't get a lot of time between kids coming). Larry had the pizza, but hadn't fed Cara or himself yet, he said the kids started coming around 5:45 which was earlier than he was expecting, Cara also wasn't in her costume (and badly needed a diaper change), and the candy was spread sporadically on the table by the front door haha.

So I hurried and got Cara changed and into her costume, attempted to do kitty makeup (not as easy with her hands flailing around), put my costume on, and then we tried to take our usual family pic. I was only able to get one semi-decent one, but it was more close up than I wanted. I wanted to include my belly to have the whole "family" in the picture, but Cara kept trying to take Larry's sunglasses off and just wouldn't sit still (plus I was starving haha). Luckily I did have my midwife appointment with the ultrasound today so I did get a pic of her to include in my post, just not like I was hoping for.

Yeah...this is the best picture I got of us. I wanted on with my belly to include
Our little Minion, but...

This picture will have to do for now

We ended up having a ton of kids come over that all LOVED that they got big candy bars (with an air head with it so they were excited to get TWO big candy bars haha). We ended up running out of our king size candy around 8 and even though we had some bags of M&Ms left, we decided to call it quits. It was time to get Cara ready for bed and all so we figured we were good at that point.

Overall it was a pretty good Halloween. I wish I had the energy or motivation to be better with it. Hopefully next year (although I swear I've said that before and very recently). I want to have the fun house that has fun decorations all over, but I think that's going to have to wait a couple years when I have a budget for something like that.

Anyways, Happy Halloween! So glad next year we'll have a new little one to celebrate with (and we'll probably let Cara go out to get candy next year too...EESH!)

Cara Loves Bugs!

How many kids out there don't actually like bugs? I bet that number is way smaller than the ones who do like bugs. So I'm not sure why it took me so long to think of showing Cara bugs.

It's hard to see, but there is a potato bug here

 We're still working on getting our back yard all finished. We obviously can't do too much since it's getting colder and the ground is getting more solid, but we do what we can when it's not too cold. Anyways, Larry was getting rid of the grass he dug up and found a lady bug. He was bringing it over to show Cara, but it flew away. Then he found a potato bug and brought that over. She of course LOVED watching it crawl on his hand. Against me pointing out it would be a bad idea, he then let her hold the bug. Surprisingly, she didn't squish it like I assumed - no what she did was much worse. She actually put the bug into her mouth!!! Luckily we were able to get it out and the bug didn't die...though I'm sure it was very scarred. But as I like to think, it'll probably have some cool stories when it goes back to it's friends haha.

After that experience we now watch her closely with bugs, but she definitely loves to watch them crawl (either on her, on us, or on the ground, she's not picky). And now we found a fun new thing to introducer her to...slowly and safely of course :)

8 Months (Weeks 32 - 35)

Compare/Contrast: Well the discomfort is still in full swing this month. Minion is still wiggling like crazy, still feels different than with Cara haha. It's funny because with Cara I could tell when she grew based on her movement patterns, but this baby, I can tell it's every Thursday that she grows. I just get more uncomfortable and my belly feels tighter. Luckily I haven't had any more contraction-like pain, but have all the other pains: back pain, acid reflux/heartburn (both of those I get every single day now), leg cramps, and belly tightness pains after too long.

Having the slight nausea return has been a battle. I also have to eat right as I get up or I get really lightheaded. Sunday mornings I make a bigger breakfast so I got to the point where I almost have to not sleep in so I can hurry and make the breakfast before the dizziness kicks in. I also am having even more of a hard time getting around. Poor Larry - I plan so many things for the weekend (the holidays are starting and I don't want to miss out on fun stuff), but I get an hour into the first activity and I'm done for the day and he gets stuck chasing Cara around while I have to sit. I think he's more ready for me to not be pregnant that I am haha. It's so hard when just standing starts to get me winded (no joke!).

The hormones this time feel crazier. I feel way more annoyed and irritable this time around. I feel like with Cara I was floating on cloud 9 most of the time, this time I'm ready to be done and get back into the swing of things. I am enjoying the movements (and people holding doors open for me and whatnot), don't get me wrong, but I'll be surprised if I have any friends left over after this one haha.

One incredible difference is how much better and more prepared I feel for the postpartum phase, which I know I've mentioned, but I'm really feeling pumped about it. I made my official goals list (here) to keep in mind. Also, I know that I couldn't have known what to expect with Cara and I know this one could be very different, considering it's two different babies and I have one toddler running around this time, and it's a different season I'll be in, but I'm feeling so ready to tackle the PP monster this time :) I think it's just great that I am usually happiest around Christmas time so I feel like that happiness is going to consume any anxieties I might have.

Also, my cravings have been a bit different this time. I've been craving BLTs like mad lately. I'm usually not a big bacon fan, in fact I'd prefer not to have it at all usually, but not this time. I could eat anything with bacon in it, but I always want a sandwich so it's either BLTs or Tuna. I remember at this point with Cara it was mostly ice cream and root beer (but not necessarily root beer floats). And while ice cream sounds good and I'm always up for a root beer, I'd still rather have the BLTs haha.

Best Moments This Month: I got my T-Dap shot at the 32 week appointment. It hurt for a couple days after, but I'm glad it's done and over with. I get to look forward to the Group Strep B test at my 36 week appointment...that's not one you really enjoy, but it's for a good reason so whatever.

I got my new pump ordered and delivered! This one I'm excited for because I went for a better quality one so I'm hoping that helps me if I have to exclusively pump again (but I do still hope this one will nurse better than Cara did). Along with that, I ordered our 3 month tracking journal (which was REALLY helpful with Cara) and some breast milk storage bags.

We got all of Cara's newborn and 0-3 clothes out that we can re-use. Luckily she was gifted a ton of pants that she never wore so those are basically brand new for Minion. Although we have bought so many other outfits that she's got a good wardrobe started up already. Also packed away that I'll be planning on using again are my belly wraps to help my abs get back into shape. I think I'm going to bring those to the hospital so I can try and get them on as soon as possible.

I've gotten a lot of cleaning (well...purging) done so far. I still need to do an all over cleaning, but that'll be closer to the due date. I've picked about 3 rooms a week that I go through and just clear out the junk we don't need. I'd love to buy new organizers, but I'm working on saving money right now (on top of everything else), but I'm sure making a nice list of things to save for ;)

I've got the hospital bag list mostly made up, but I do need to print it and get that ready, but I'll probably wait for November to do that.

We additionally have signed up for all our new memberships so I can take Cara to some fun places while on maternity leave and once this little minion is a bit older I can bring her to these places (once I'm not as afraid of her getting sick from being around so many people...or learn to juggle being alone with 2 kids, whichever happens first haha). 

One of my proudest moments that might be pregnancy related, but I hope not, is I feel I really re-wired my brain with my sweets cravings. I might have to do a post all on it's own about this HUGE accomplishment, but I don't have my cravings like I used to. Again, there is a likelihood that this is pregnancy related and once I give birth and my hormones change they could all come flooding back, but I sincerely hope not.

What I'm Looking Forward To: I was supposed to get an ultrasound at my 32 week appointment, but that didn't happen. Then when I brought it up they said it would be the next appointment - 34 weeks since I'm finally down to every other week (YAY!) - but that didn't happen. They told me I'm supposed to make that appointment separate. But I did make sure to make it for my next appointment, but that's not till Halloween. So I'm really looking forward to that now, we'll get to see if she is breech like Cara too or not.

Side story: at 32 weeks they said she was, but they barely felt around so I wasn't sure if I should trust it. Then at 34 weeks a different midwife said she wasn't breech and she really did feel around, but again, you can't trust just feeling. They felt around a lot with Cara, but until they checked an ultrasound they really weren't too sure. I want an official confirmation if she is or not.

Seeing this girlie already! I'm trying to be patient, but some days are so hard! I watch Cara and try and get a picture of what this new baby will look and be like, but I can tell they are already so different that I can't get a good enough picture in my head. I'm so excited to see them interact and if they'll get along.

And finally, I'm looking forward to getting the Group Strep B swab done with haha.

Using Our Memberships

So now that we have our memberships to Thanksgiving Point and the Aquarium nightly planning has become so much better!

For example, earlier this week I was trying to figure out a fun thing to do for Friday night since it was going to be iffy weather. Then I thought, why not go to the Curiosity Museum? Cara LOVES it and Larry has yet to see the place. Even if we only spent half an hour there it would be totally find and wouldn't feel like a waste of money. We only saw 2 areas (kind of), one was finishing up a game night, but had music on so Cara ran into it to dance around and play with some of the Halloween decorations/toys they had. Even though it was a quick visit I was glad we could squeeze it in and I look forward to a few more nights like that during the week.

We went to the Aquarium today since we didn't really have anything else planned. It was fun to just let Cara wander around. Which I let her do that the last time we went, but this time it was better because, again, if we didn't see everything we could go back anytime we wanted. Cara sure loved the fun little animals she could climb on...even if she did slide off quicker than she could get on. She also seemed pretty intrigued by the shark tank (which is my favorite part). She kept touching the glass like she didn't understand how they were in there and not where we were haha.

After a little while we ended up finding the kiddie area for her to play around in. I had heard of it, but had no idea what or where it actually was so it was nice to kind of stumble upon it. Cara started climbing immediately, of course, but got kind of scared of all the other kids and how energetic they were. After that I finally saw the younger area for her and we took her over there, but she was already too scared so we decided to call it a day at that point. I'm excited to go back and take her to the right area. It had a slide and she loves slides so I think it'll be fun for her when she isn't traumatized from the other kids haha.

So overall I'm so glad we're getting use out of our memberships and I'm excited to take Cara while I'm on maternity leave and eventually little minion can tag along with us. Or maybe I'll just wait until January and take both of them with me to see how I handle two against one :)

14 Years - Anniversary Weekend

So for our anniversary this year. The weekend started with going to Evans Family Farms (you can see the details of that on this post though). After that we were feeling pretty lazy so we just hung around the house. We did decide to go up and visit Marie for a bit after Cara's nap. She offered to watch Cara for us while we went out to dinner together. We had chosen to go to Marie Calendar's since I hadn't had in ages. To be honest, it wasn't the best food. Marie mentioned a different dinner place, and in hindsight I think she was warning us of Marie Calendars haha. But it was nice to say we got to have a meal alone before minion comes.

After we took our time at dinner (without a child it's funny how you suddenly have a lot more time to talk about random topics and suddenly the service seems slower haha) we went back to pick up Cara and head home. It was nice to have a meal out, but I feel bad that I didn't really get dressed up or anything. In fact I was probably very dressed down for having such a date night.




Some silly videos I got from the weekend. Cara is being so silly seeing herself in the camera haha.

Sunday morning we got up to our usual routine: big Sunday breakfast (french toast), groceries, laundry, and relax until the Skype call at 4. While I was putting the grocery list together Larry surprised me with more anniversary gifts! To clarify: we agreed a few months ago that I just wanted a 2019 planner (so I can get a head start on planning at least through January now before the baby comes) and I'd get him these cool auto feeders for the fish (to make being away in the hospital or on any trips easier for us to make sure the fish are actually get fed as much as we normally feed them). I did get my planner, but Larry also always gets me something that's meaningful to the year we are celebrating. This year was 14 and I guess that's Ivory, so he surprised me with this pretty lace dress, a cute ivory long sleeve cardigan, and a pretty necklace (it was a nest with 3 eggs, but I asked and the eggs don't really represent anything, it was just ivory and he knows I like necklaces). So of course I felt guilty I just got him the fish feeders. Even if it was agreed upon, I feel like we're that lame couple from Beetlejuice that we don't really surprise each other...only it's just me. Larry is always surprising me. I owe him one haha.

When we went to the grocery store I decided we needed to get our pumpkins so we found a couple good ones and put them up with Cara to hang out with...I think she liked it:

I also decided we needed to have some wassail made! It is such a great cooler weather drink and I've been dying to make it for a few years. Why not do it this year? I wasn't doing much in the way of Halloween stuff so I could at least make a new recipe. It also turns out I've been mispronouncing that name this whole time. I thought it was pronounced like wah-sigh, but it's like wah-sail and now I feel all silly saying the wrong name for SO long haha.

So other than that we just enjoyed the weekend and had lots of fun. I'm definitely getting drained of energy so it might have been our last eventful weekend until after this baby is born. So until I do have anything blog worthy...Happy Anniversary to us!

Evans Family Farms

So one of my biggest goals was to visit a pumpkin patch/farm area for Fall this year. I'm not sure why it became so important, but I thought it would be a fun little tradition to incorporate. I wanted to find one that had a petting zoo and when I found one that had that PLUS a train and pony rides and seemed to be fairly budget friendly (like $3 per adult and kids were free friendly!) I was SO excited. Yes, I did find one that was free, but it was further away, where as this one (Evans Family Farm) was just down the street so it worked to fit in one morning before lunch/Cara's nap. I was so excited to go and see Cara with all the animals.

We really lucked out because we got there really early and no one was there to collect money. There were some little girls in this booth by the entrance, but when I asked if that's where we pay they just said "I don't know" and walked away. We didn't see adults until we were close to leaving, but no one checked for tickets so...EFF if you are reading this, I guess we owe you $6? But I'm guessing if little girls were in the booth maybe it's not that big of a deal?

This family farm was so cute and small, but perfect for us! Cara loved the animals (she really could only pet the horse and the pig, but she still loved seeing all the different "kitties" as she calls animals). She really loved going through the tunnel and walking around the jumping pit area. But her favorite part? By far the train ride! She got to ride it all on her own (talk about feeling like she's growing up so fast!) and when it was done she wanted to go again. As much as I wanted to let her, we didn't technically pay for it so I felt one was enough of a ride, plus they went in the same circle twice so that was enough. We did also let her walk around the hay maze too and she seemed to have fun with that. It was so cute watching her navigate through the whole place and the maze, she is such a little adventurer!

There was a bonus that they also had little kitties and puppies that didn't mind kids and so she got to pet them as well (the puppies were really young and energetic and smaller than any of our cats so Cara was really excited about them). Unfortunately, there wasn't pony rides, but since we got in for free I figured we got our money's worth. We didn't pick any of the pumpkins since I wasn't ready to get them this early in the month, but they did have a great selection!

Overall, I'd totally recommend this farm! Even if we did pay. They are in Lehi so they are really close to us, it is pretty small, but they definitely had enough to keep kids entertained and Cara had such a fun time, which is my favorite part!

And now for the cute train video:

Silliest Night Games

So this has become one of our favorite little night games. Larry does "scary daddy"/monster noises and Cara has learned that I am safe and he can't get her if she gets to me first. It's really funny how much she gets into it and how excited she gets. I finally caught it on video one night and just had to share the adorable-ness:

New Memberships

So we got some unfortunate news after we got home from our Georgia trip: tumbling class is no more. I'm pretty sad about this for a few reasons:

1. We only got to take her to 3 classes! We had to miss one from our trip and then the one after our trip was already planned to be off for fall break (or something). I was hoping to at least make it up to November before maybe pulling her out IF we were going to do that (depending on how I handled childbirth round 2 and how things were adjusting with two kids, etc. etc.).
2. It was doing exactly what we wanted! Cara was socializing so well within the 3 classes she had. She was feeling more comfortable with strangers, she was getting used to the routine. By the last class she went to she only complained during stretching time, but she was so used to doing the rest AND was learning how to go up a play slide and down it all on her own. I was seeing the progress I really wanted and hoped for with this.
3. I bought maternity workout clothes...I don't work out while pregnant so I probably won't use these again and so now I'm out the money for those and only got 2 uses out of them (I ordered them after our first class). Such a bummer

Now the reason it got cancelled was because we were the only ones who were staying in the Saturday class, everyone else moved to the Tuesday morning class. So in the business sense I get why it got cancelled, but we can't make it to the Tuesday morning class so there goes that. Even though I was telling Larry that I wasn't sure how many more classes I'd be able to make it through with how tired (and bigger) I've been getting lately, I still didn't want to quit and take Cara out of that environment, so I did some brainstorming and decided maybe we needed to look at some memberships at some other fun places. Namely, Thanksgiving Point and the Living Planet Aquarium. Both would be GREAT for winter when we have two kids that need to get out and have fun, both were decently priced (only 6 visits to each and they pay for themselves), and with one of them we could leave the girls with a grandparent and let them take it and they could use the membership and get in for free! Plus they both have fun kid areas to help that socialization part, and with Thanksgiving Point they have outdoor and indoor areas so it works year round when I feel they need outdoor area. I figured if we went to each one once a month, then within a year it's perfect. Plus both offer such great learning opportunities and discounts on food and the gift shop too!

Overall, I'm sad there's no more tumbling because it was working so well, however, I'm really excited to have these memberships and to take Cara there to run around and eventually our little minion will get to enjoy these visits as well!

Cara and Puppies

So my grandma was having issues connecting to her Skype account and we were having difficulties getting her on it so I volunteered my brilliant computer hubby to help her get it figured out (we had done this once, but she was still having issues so we figured this time we really had to get it figured out for her). Luckily the weather was pretty good so we were able to let Cara run around quite a bit outside AND inside grandma's.

Well grandma has a few dogs running around and since Cara isn't quite used to them I found it very entertaining watching her with them:



Isn't it funny how excited but nervous she is. We've found if they are her size or smaller she's much better with them. If they are bigger than her she's a bit more nervous and will just keep her distance.