i. am. huge.

Tonight my back hurts, my belly is stretched to its limit, and I'm swollen and exhausted. But, I don't feel like I'm going to throw up, and the headaches have died down. So I try not to complain, except for when I do.

I'm officially huge. Today a 1-year-old boy was mesmerized by my enormous belly. He couldn't take his eyes off of it and reached his little pointer finger out to touch it about ten times. Then tonight, a 5-year-old boy looked at me and said, "What's that great big thing?" I said, "It's my belly." He still didn't believe it and said, "No, I mean that," pointing at my belly.

Will has taken to lovingly calling me his "big, fat mama."

How can I possibly grow for 2 more months?

easter retrospective

I know it was a while ago, but I needed to post a little bit about it. We had the annual Easter egg hunt in the cold this year. But, the kids always love it anyway.




Make this next picture bigger and check out Will's facial expression when he saw the egg in the grass:



We decorated eggs and made a peep tree. I didn't take pictures. The camera I know how to operate is not working. So, I'm at Brandon's mercy for a little while. You'll just have to trust me that they were amazingly cute. Ha ha.

We watched General Conference, colored, did puzzles, and folded origami. And, we had Brandon's whole family over for dinner. Once again, no pictures.

The Easter bunny found his way in the snow. Elsa asked a few days before Easter if the Easter bunny was a real bunny or just a person dressed up like a bunny. I like to defer tough questions, so I asked her what she thought. She thinks it's a person dressed up like a bunny.

Enjoying the Easter bunny's gifts:



My favorite Easter conversation:
Henry: What do eggs have to do with Easter?
Me: Eggs are a symbol of life because life comes from eggs, and at Easter we celebrate the resurrection and that we'll live again. Blah blah blah.
Henry: What does candy have to do with Easter?
Me: I think the candy's just for fun.
Elsa: I know what candy has to do with Easter. When you eat a lot of candy, you get sick. And sometimes when you get sick, you die. So that helps us think about the resurrection.

Happy late Easter!

9 years ago . . .

(plus almost 2 months) Henry was born. He came into the world kicking and screaming. In fact, one of the nurses outside our room said, "I wouldn't want to take that one home." But, his amazing smile always helped make up for whatever trouble he caused. And, he's turned into a pretty great kid.

He suddenly seems so much older to me--he's an inch or so shy of 5 feet tall, he likes to go in and buy the hot 'n ready pizza all by himself, he's even getting a little bit of adolescent moodiness. But, sometimes it seems like he's really not that old after all. When I drop him off for school, he won't go in without blowing me a kiss. And, he still can't always restrain himself from leaping with joy and flapping/clapping when he's really excited.

There's just so much goodness and brightness and lovingness and helpfulness in Henry. I sure hope he doesn't outgrow any of that, even while he's growing so fast. I wish I could keep him small and innocent forever.

Somehow we didn't take any pictures of his birthday, even though we had a family gathering for him and a party with his friends. He wanted an Avatar: The Last Airbender birthday party, so we did activities for the 4 elements--made tea bag rockets and water bottle whirlpools, and blew up balloons without using our mouths, and played a game. Henry loves science and games. But alas, no pictures, just video. And, I don't know how to upload videos--that's Brandon's specialty.

Anyway,
Happy Birthday, Henry! We love you, and we're so glad we got to "take that one home."

it's a big, six-toed . . .

GIRL!

I know that to many of you this is old news. But, for those of you who are far away, we had the ultrasound a while back, and it's official. We are thrilled to be having a girl. In fact, we wanted a girl so much we were afraid we would jinx it. In retrospect, I think it's more that I just didn't want another colicky baby, and Elsa was our only colic-free baby. I realize now that this baby will probably prove my prejudice wrong and be a really colicky girl. But, we're excited anyway.

She doesn't really have 6 toes, but it looked like it to us from the ultrasound. And, she looked 9 days bigger than her expected due date. I'm trying not to get my hopes up about her coming early, since I'm pretty sure being huge and swollen in July in Utah is going to be miserable. Oh well. HOORAY for another girl!

work

I have a lot of updating to do, but last night I was helping Henry practice his vocabulary words. I explained to him what a motto was, and then he looked at me and said, "Your motto would be 'I will work for truth.'"

I laughed and asked him why. He said, "Because you're always working."

It reminded me of a prayer he said a while ago, where he decided to be very specific in his gratitude. He said, "Thank you for a little brother who is funny, a little sister who is fun to play with, a dad who is my best friend, and a mom who is workful."

It's a little sad when that's your defining characteristic.

Happy Birthday Kara!

I had to wait to post this until kara spilled the beans about the our forthcoming little one. Otherwise, how could I write about how she couldn't stand the thought of a birthday cake? Instead we had birthday nachos. Yes, with candles. Sorry, no pictures. Despite the birthday, December was not a very fun month for Kara. So sick, and such bizarre cravings: breadsticks, kool-aid, Twilight novels... But she's been a champion through it all.

Bless you, Kara, for going through this three times previously for our three goofy children, and still being willing to go through it again. You rock my world.

lest you think i've vanished off the face of the earth . . .

Here's Will's take on what has been going on for the last few months:

First, you eat a baby. Then, it goes in your tummy and makes you sick like this--aauuugh, aauuugh, aauuugh (vomiting sounds).