The animals at the farm

On Monday, I met my college buddy Steph for a belated birthday lunch. Our birthday's are just a day (and a year) apart, so it is always fun to have a reason to get together. We had a wonderful lunch at Applebee's and then I figured that since I was so close to Thanksgiving Point, I would take the girls to The Farm to see all the animals. The Barnyard Boo didn't start until 4:00 and we got there at about 2:30. But I figured that if I didn't tell Amelia about the Barnyard Boo activities, she wouldn't know that she was missing anything. Right when we got there, Amelia spotted the ponies and wanted a ride. I was hoping that we could put that one activity in the middle of our visit, but she kept asking about it and so we went over for our ride. And I figured that since I had a ticket, Ashley may as well ride too. Luckily, there was a really little pony for her to ride but I was still really nervous that she was going to slip right off the horse. We had a great time walking around and seeing all the animals and then we went around again to feed them some corn. I tried to get Amelia to let the goats eat the corn right out of her hand but she preferred throwing it to them. I'm glad that the weather is staying warm for now so that we can enjoy a few more outside activities before the snow comes.

Amelia and her horse Nina

Ashley on a pony for the first time

Amelia feeding the turkeys

This goat was really hungry and kept following us around

It's over and I can breathe again

This past weekend was the big primary program. On Saturday afternoon, we had our practice and it went really well. The biggest hitch of the day was when our piano player didn't show up and so our music director called her mother to come and fill in for us. I was amazed at how many kids had their parts memorized and ready to go. Afterwards, we had ice cream to congratulate the kids on all their hard work.

Sunday morning, I got up extra early so that I could get to church and set up chairs for primary and then head to the chapel to make sure that everything was ready for our program. Since I had gone so early, Guy was in charge of getting the girls ready and then bringing them to church. As the chapel started to fill up and the meeting started, I knew that Guy was going to be late. I wasn't too worried though since there were so many people there that I knew that passing the sacrament was going to take a little longer and so he would have a little bit of extra time to get there. However, once the sacrament was over and the bishop announced that it was time for all the primary kids to come up and Guy still wasn't there, I was a little bit worried. All the kids got seated and we started the program and still no Guy. And then, when the first group of kids were doing their parts, in walked Guy with the girls. He later described the feeling as he walked into the chapel to the dream that you have where you show up at graduation without actually having completed all our course work. Amelia quickly came up to the stand and I had to scramble to find a place for her to sit since all the seats in front were taken. She had her part about 90% memorized and just needed a few little cues from me to get it all out. The biggest chuckle from the congregation came a few minutes later when this cute little Sunbeam stood up at the pulpit and scratched his ear for at least a minute and then said that he would do his part tomorrow. It was too cute. The program went really well and we were told later by the stake that we were the only ward that they had been to so far that sang all the verses to all the songs. Too cool! I'm glad that it is all over but I feel like there won't be much of a break since next year's outline requires you to choose two songs that fit with the theme. And since our music director is super organized, I wouldn't want to leave her hanging until the last minute.

Busy, busy, busy!

This past week, I have been getting ready for our primary program coming up on the 26th. We had our first run-through this last Sunday and it seemed to go pretty well. I will be so happy when it is all over and my life can get back to normal.

Guy and I also took the girls on a little camping trip this past weekend. One of Guy's co-workers, Courtney, family has a cabin up Fairview Canyon near Skyline drive. It was a ton of fun to spend time with and get to know some of the people that Guy works with and their families a little better. Amelia was the oldest, Shane is 3, Emma is 2 1/2, then Ashley at 2 1/4, Olivia is 7 months, and Max is 2 months. The kids all got along fairly well together. I took Amelia's art box with us that had finger paints, markers with coloring books, and Play-doh. Amber also brought an assortment of activities for the kids to do like bubbles and Fruit Loop necklaces. We didn't have any running water which made tasks like flushing the toilet and doing dishes a little bit difficult but we got by. Luckily, Amber also brought a portable DVD player so the kids were able to take a little break while we played a game called San Juan. It took Guy and I a little while to catch on to how to play the game but it was really a lot of fun. Courtney and Amber apparently play this game all the time and totally could have really whooped us, but they were kind to us and only beat us by 2 points. It was a really fun weekend, but I was really glad to get home and get a shower. Ashley was so exhausted that she fell asleep right after she was buckled to go home even though we didn't leave for about another half hour. Amelia fell asleep as soon as we started moving and they both slept through our trip to T-Cee's in Fairview for some piccidillies and a shake. Next year maybe we will have to go in the summer so all the water lines aren't frozen.

A New Job for Guy

About a month ago, Guy applied for a new engineering job within the same company. We finally found out yesterday that he is the newest Senior R&D Engineer for corporate engineering. Yeah! This switch will mean that he actually gets to do more designing which is something that he really loves to do. So, congrats Guy, on all your hard work!

Napping?

Since Ashley started sleeping in her big girl bed, naps have been a little bit interesting. I know that there are days that she climbs out of bed to get a different toy or book and then climbs back in. But yesterday when I went to wake her up from her nap, I looked in her bed and she wasn't there. Instead, she was on the floor, fast asleep, surrounded by books. It was so cute. By the time I got back with the camera, she had woken up but she was still lying among the books. And this picture doesn't even show half of the books that she had pulled down. Too cute!

Transitions

It has been almost a month since we moved Ashley into Amelia's room and into a big girl bed. I wanted there to be plenty of time for her to get used to sleeping in a bed and of course I didn't want her to feel kicked out of the crib when the new baby comes. So I figured that 3 months would be plenty of transition time for her.

To get ready for the girls to share a room, I washed all the walls and cleaned the carpets and we hung an additional closet rod so that the girl's clothes wouldn't be too smooshed. Half of the closet are shelves that I use mostly for linens so the extra closet rod was really needed. Ashley was so excited for her new bed that she started to climb up on it before we even finished putting it together. But then once we told her "good night", it was a whole new story. She climbed out of bed and then climbed in with Amelia. Amelia tried to tell her to go back to her bed and Ashley said, "No." The first few nights, it took us about 45 minutes of putting Ashley back in bed before she finally gave up and went to sleep. Now, she just babbles in bed for about the same amount of time and Amelia just sleeps right through it. Overall, I think that the transition has gone really smoothly. Hopefully once my life slows down a little bit, I will be able to wash the walls in the baby's room to get ready to paint. Then wash the carpet and maybe rearrange the furniture to give the room a new look.

And here is a baby update just in case you are curious. I am now 28 weeks along but I measure bigger than that because the baby is lying across my belly instead of up and down. I went to the hospital for my Rho-gam shot and glucose test a couple of days ago and everything is looking great there. Except for the gigantic bruise that I have on the inside of my arm from where they drew blood, but hopefully that will go away soon.