More and more pictures

Zoe is signing "hat" in this picture.  I don't know the sign for "bunny ears" and she doesn't either, apparently.

I can't get my cursor to go above that picture so I'll just start typing here.  I've got more pictures and things to blog about, but I've also got all these pictures I want to post, so I'll get these up first and then the two other posts I have in mind will soon (it's a relative term) follow.

 A trip to Target is never easy.  We always have to stop and play with the big red balls out front.

 Decisions, decisions, decisions.

 She loves the flowers in our back yard.

 How Zoe entertains herself while I shower.

 Why get one Pillow Pet, when you can get two?  Let me also mention that she already has the above Puppy Pillow Pet at home.

 On a walk to the park with her Elton John glasses.

 Playing at the park with Daddy.

 Crazy hair day!  That's everyday for this girl.

 And she loves the balls at Walmart too.

 St. Patrick's Day and 7 months pregnant.

 Bath time with cousin Kira.

 Excuse me sir, would you like to buy some apples?

 Blurry family photo.

 Vacuuming her Dora couch.

 Just chillin'.

 Her shower hat.

 Oh, and she loves the balls at DI too.  

 I'll get you my pretty!

 Mommy and me!

Do these glasses make my face look fat?

Flying Solo

We continue to love our new place.  Our landlords are sweet people and continue to bring us over citrus from their trees.  I have about 32 oz. of juiced grapefruit in my freezer and yesterday morning Ryan and I finished off our gallon of freshly squeezed (squozen is not a word for those of you who still think it is) orange juice.  I made some pretty amazing creamy lemon bars last week with some fresh lemons.  I love citrus!  I'm so excited for the fruits and vegetables coming up in the next couple weeks.

Ryan is out of town this week.  He's getting training for his new job.  While this job is indeed a blessing, it's always hard to have him gone.  I have plenty of unpacking to continue doing here, but I can only take so much of that and Zoe can only take so much of her signing videos too.  She is learning so much and communicating to us so well also.  I think she's had her first full on sentence as well: "I want two."  She has this little quirk where if you give her one piece of orange, she has to have one for the other hand as well.  She does that will all things: carrots, licorice, string cheese, etc.  She is developing into quite a little person.  She ate asparagus tonight on her own too.  I was surprised to see that.  What a joy she is to our family.  Ok, look at some pictures and I'll meet you further down.

Dancing on Mommy and Daddy's bed.

Look at those eyes!

She loves to get messy!

Walking in the snow with Daddy.

Christmas morning.

These are the YW I taught in Idaho.  I didn't realize, when uploading this picture that this was our "silly shot."  Ok, so only half of us are making silly faces.  I miss these girls and hope they're doing well.

Playing in the puddle in her Jedi outfit.

I guess, from looking at this picture and noting the gender-neutral shirt, I can understand why some people ask if she's  a boy or a girl.  Maybe this gives us an idea of what Nickel #2 will look like.

Playland somewhere.

Zoe loves flowers!

More flowers!

Playdate with our friend Kate.

My pregnancy continues to go well.  I feel so blessed to have such enjoyable pregnancies.  I've talked to a few women lately who are sick throughout their entire pregnancies.  I feel so blessed.  Ryan and I have recently gone back to the gym and one thing we do at the gym is go swimming.  The gym we go to has an outdoor pool and it's kind of cool to be there in the morning, before the sun comes up, and just enjoy the serenity in the pool.  We went everyday this past week and now this coming week neither of us will be going because Ryan is out of town.  We go early in the mornings and no one will be here with the toaster if I go, so we're taking this week off.  I want to make sure we get back on schedule though because I know that the better shape I'm in, the better my delivery and recovery will go.

We LOVE our new ward at church.  It has been such a welcoming new ward.  Heck, the first Sunday there we got a box of boy clothes from a sweet mother who was on her last kid and having a girl!  We continue to meet wonderful people and just appreciate how welcoming and friendly everyone has been.  We met with our bishop today and he seems like a wonderful man also.  One of my new friends has even offered to throw me a baby shower!  Yay!

We were supposed to have gone to visit Ryan's family this weekend.  His grandmother is not doing well and his mom has been taking care of her and Ryan's dad who recently tore a ligament that holds the quad and the shin together.  Ouch.  We were going to take the train down this time and have just a kick back time.  However, due to the parking ticket machine at the train station, we were late missing our bus which was taking us to meet our train.  Bummer.  I was looking forward to seeing my in-laws.  They are such great people.  We determined though that things worked out better this way because we were able to spend some quality time together before Ryan went off for his week of training.  Heavenly Father has a plan for everything!

Well, it's time to take care of other things.  Ta ta for now.

Moving on

We moved!  Yay!  A little over a week ago we moved into a wonderful townhouse that I found on craigslist.  I love craigslist.  It's got its share of scammers, but for the most part, all of my craigslist dealings have been good.  Add this one to the list.  We'd found a condo previous to this place, but the landlord was a little uptight and seemed to want the perfect tenants with the perfect credit history.  Now, we come pretty close to perfect tenants, but there's not a whole lot we can do about our credit history.  We said adios to him and continued to look for housing and prayed about it too.  Then I found an ad for this townhouse and called up the landlord and once I saw it, I knew that this was for us.  The landlords are a sweet older couple and have only had family living in here so they're taking a risk in renting to strangers.  I personally think it was Zoe that got us this place.  She is such a doll.  Anyway, we love our new place and love our new ward at church.  Everyone has been so welcoming.  We even got a huge box of boy clothes our first Sunday there!  A lady that is now a friend of mine has had all boys but is now pregnant with a girl (she's due a couple days after me too!) and this is their last baby so she was more than happy to give us those clothes.  I was more than happy to take them too.  And that kind of leads me into a question....

This baby is my 2nd baby, but it's my first boy.  Should I have a baby shower?  I've got toys and books and baby stuff galore.  All I need is clothing.  I want to have a baby shower, but I don't know if it's tacky.  Any thoughts on that one?  I'm 7 months along now and am starting to feel the weight of this baby.  It's harder for me to get up and down.  We did get signed up with a gym last week and I'm so glad to be back to regular exercising.  It'd been almost 7 months since I'd really exercised.  Our gym has a pool and I love that.  I want to be in better shape for when Benson does come along and I know it'll help me have a quicker recovery too.

Zoe and Ryan are doing great.  I'm sure a lot of moms feel this way, but I just can't get over how cute my own daughter is!  She is talking so much now and actually starting to say some real words: ball, tree, cheese, dog.  She's signing more too.  She really does surprise me with how much she knows.  Ryan is enjoying his job and getting back into a routine.  It sure is nice to have him working just 7 minutes away.  He gets to come home for lunch everyday and that is a blessing.  We're excited to be expanding our family.

And here's a cute video for you to watch.

No complaints here

It's February 6.  I'm sitting in what was once my older sister's bedroom, wearing shorts and a t-shirt and I have the window open.  Man, I love California.  We have had some super nice weather these past couple days.  I actually ran the A/C in my car today.  I think we're due for a tiny bit of cooling down, but I'm not complaining.  I love sleeping with the window open especially when there's a breeze.  Idaho, I don't miss you.

Ryan is going to begin his second week of work and he's loving his job.  How grateful I am that 1) he has a job and 2) that he likes his job.  I bore my testimony in church today of how Heavenly Father knows what challenges we need, as well as what blessings we need, and he provides them to us as he sees fit.  We have recently been on the receiving end of some great blessings.  We have had some dark times, but the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to show.  We've had kind of an odd thing happen lately too.  We recently found a condo in Sac that we want to rent.  It's huge and at a good price and will also let us do a month-to-month payment instead of committing to a year long lease.  We like the landlord and he likes us too.  We filled out the application so the landlord could run our credit report to determine if we're gonna be bums or not.  Guess what?  Apparently we don't exist.  After running our info, he got information back that our names and socials don't match up.  What the?  We have no idea what is going on.  I've got credit cards and plenty of debt so I know I've got some sort of credit score.  The landlord even checked for us on Facebook to make sure we're who we say we are.  It's just so odd that nothing is coming back for neither Ryan nor I.  It's holding up our chance to move in too.  This condo is available immediately and we'd hate to have someone else snatch it up.  I'm only a LITTLE anxious to get out of my parents house and get to nesting.  And speaking of baby, this little dude is moving around so much!  I'm entering my 6th month and already feel like I'm waddling and having to plan my movements in bed so that I can turn from one side to the other in less than 20 seconds.  I've gained about 20 lbs. already which isn't terrible, but I've still got a little ways to go and I know more weight is going to be put on.  I just hope I don't have to deal with the terrible swelling and stretch marks on my feet like I did with Zoe.  And speaking of our lil' Toaster, there's some pictures below of her.  She's blabbing all the time and is really into her Signing Time videos.  We love signing with her. 

 Her first time on a moving sidewalk.  We were at Phoenix airport and about to embark on what was the worst plane ride of my life.  I hate Pattie the stewardess.

 One of the toys at the mall.

 Hiding behind the blanket drapes.

 Climbing on the furniture at the library.

Loves ketchup, just like her mama!

Valentine's Day is coming up and I'm getting Ryan a surprise that he isn't going to believe.  I doubt he'll be reading this before V-day, but I can't risk putting on here, now, what the surprise is.  I'll be sure to let you know after the cat is out of the bag.  

Wish us luck in getting this condo!  

Just blabbering

So we are living with my parents.  This certainly isn't going to be a bragging post.  It seems that once you are in a certain situation in life, you find that there are lots of others who have been through what you've been through.  Example: You stub your toe getting out of bed which causes you to stumble and hit your eye on the door handle as you try to catch your balance.  The next day at church, you find that that same thing has happened to someone else!  Ok, not that that specific scenario has happened (thank goodness), but I hope you get my point.  Maybe being 30 with a family and living with parents (or in-laws) is something that is more common than I think.  I know in different cultures it is more of the norm to live with your family for a long time.  I'm sure there are benefits to that, but right now, in my circumstances, it's hard to think of any.  I don't mind being close to family, but living with them is sometimes a little too close.

Ryan has, thankfully, been offered two jobs in the last two days.  Both are great looking opportunities and now it's just a matter of deciding which one he wants to do.  Both are in the sales arena, an area in which he excels, and would get us living back in Sac-town.  We are certainly grateful for this blessing.

The pregnancy is going well, although I've been feeling a little sick to my stomach this evening.  I look at myself in the mirror and don't think that I'm that big, but boy do I already feel like I'm waddling around and having a hard time getting up and down.  I'm hoping that the swelling and cankles that plagued me with Zoe will stay at bay for a couple more months.  It's too early for all that.  I'm also hoping that with this little boy due in May, that the lack of sweltering CA summer heat will help me to not be as swollen.  That was not fun.  We're also going to have to move pretty soon because the bigger I get, the harder it's going to be to move and unpack.

We have a lot to be grateful for and know that Heavenly Father is aware of us and our needs.  There is great comfort to be found in that.

A new year

After having a phone conversation with a non-Facebook friend (anyone have one of those?), I realized that I hadn't posted on here that we found out the gender of our new baby.  I'm pretty regular about posting on Facebook and just assume that everyone I know is on it.  I was reminded that that is simply not the case. 

So, for those of you that don't keep up with our news via Facebook, we are having a boy!  He's due May 19 and yes, we already have a name picked out: Benson Samuel.  We couldn't be more excited.  

California or bust

          

I prefer to not bust.  So, we're moving back to California.  We moved out here to Idaho in July.  There were a few reasons we moved out here in the first place, you can pick your favorite: 1)needed a bigger place to live 2) we could live in a house 3) we wanted to be on our own as a family and fly a little (in the figurative sense) 4) we felt this would be a nicer/cleaner place to raise our family 5) insert your own reason here.  Seriously, there were a few reasons we moved here and we felt that our Heavenly Father was guiding us to come here although we weren't exactly sure why.  Since the beginning of the year we'd talked about moving to Idaho and whether or not we were actually going to do it varied on a month to month basis.  Ryan lived here in Idaho when we met and he's always had a fondness for it and a desire to return.  So the right time for us to move came during the summer.  Ryan got a job up here, moved up here, and before too long, Zoe and I followed.  We got the renters out of the house (a house that Ryan bought in 2005 due to their failure to comply with the contract terms, and although it wasn't a pretty sight, they did eventually leave. We were so excited to have a big house with lots of space, a yard, and a garage.  The weather was beautiful for the first couple months we were here.  

Now it's cold.  It's icy.  It's snowy.  But the weather isn't the reason we're moving back.  We sold the house.  Ryan has a friend that has been interested in buying this house for  a little while now and he's finally committed to buying it.  It's a blessing for us because we'll be able to get away from this house which has started to become a bit of a strain on us.  Ryan has been blessed with employment up here, but it's nothing to stay up here for.  To be honest, we both would like to be in a bit warmer climate and we'd also like to be closer to family.  I never really knew my grandparents when I was growing up, and I want to make sure that our kids know their grandparents.  Both of our families live in California and they're just thrilled that we'll be closer to home.  

Moving up here was a test of our faith and moving back to California is going to be yet another test of our faith.  We feel that it's the right thing for us to do, though probably confusing to some.  We're not sure right now exactly where we'll end up, but when you follow the promptings you receive from Heavenly Father, you can't go wrong.  That's not to say that it's going to be easy and that everything will fall into place (although that is what we're praying for), but we're comforted in knowing that our Heavenly Father is aware of us and watchful over us.  He doesn't want us to struggle any more than we want to struggle.  We just need to be willing to do His will.

So there it is.  We're moving back to California.  We'll be back there right after Christmas.  Wish us luck!