Thinking of having kids??

Do This 10 Step Program First

Lesson 1

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline
2. Lack of patience
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels
4. Allowing their children to run wild
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 2

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approx. 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10pm, put the bag down gently, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at midnight and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1am.
4. Set alarm for 3am.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45.
7. Get up at 3am when alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4am.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive.)
Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 3

Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 4

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus in the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this- all morning.

Lesson 5

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle Cheerios all over the floor, them smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 6

Go to the grocery store. Take the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 7

1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a 9 month-old baby.

Lesson 8

Learn the names of every character from all shows on PBS, the Disney Channel and Noggin. Watch nothing else on TV but shows from these channels for at least 5 years. (I know, you're thinking "what is Noggin?") Exactly the point.

Lesson 9

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 10

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from lesson 9 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

But somehow at the end of the day a smile and a peanut buttery messy kiss makes it all worth it!

Cute for a Cause

My friend Heather who I oddly enough know from babycenter.com. I got to know her when I was pregnant with Aven. She has the cutest little girl named Brynlee who is Aven's age. She is such a sweet girl. We seem to have alot in common. Not only is her daughter the same age as Aven but her husband is also a Marine :)

She started a company called http://www.cuteforacause.org. I ordered some stuff for Berlyn/Alexa/or whatever her name is going to be from her. ha She does such an awesome job with the quality of all her stuff and it's cheap too! If you have a little girl or know a little girl head on over and take a look.

Here are just a few of the things I got in the mail for our little girl the other day. So excited!!

I tried to get a picture of Aven wearing one of the bows to show you all what our future daughter might look like but he wanted none of it and ripped it out right away. I guess I am happy about that :)

Crib Bedding

I'm so excited I've made my first big purchase for the baby today! I had been looking ALL over for bedding to match the colors I'm doing her room in and have had the hardest time. Today I found the perfect one! Lets just hope that it is still a girl or he will have a really cute room. ha It's finally starting to hit me that we will have another baby in about 14 more weeks!!! Better get hot on finishing the room.

Names..Please Vote

Well I found a couple names that I like but would like your input. I have added a poll ---> to the side of my blog with the two names that I like. You might not like them cause I tend to have a weird taste. I am still open for suggestions if you simply hate both of those names :)

Why?

”Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge Him,

and He will make your paths straight”

Proverbs 3:5-6

It's so hard sometimes to understand why bad things happen to good people. The past few months have been pretty hard. I have at times questioned why God would chose for certain people to go through things or bear the burden of so much at one time. The past few months have brought some horrible news from a few of our loved ones. I haven't said much cause I really didn't know what to say or how to say it. I am not a good writer by any means but if you know me well enough I do have a big heart and I tend to let things bother me emotionally. I hate to see anyone hurting or in pain. I remember as a kid we would be driving somewhere and if I happened to see an animal dead in the road I would cry and feel so bad. Although I don't cry anymore when I see an animal dead in the street, that still child like heart comes out when I hear or see bad things happening and I have a hard time dealing. I feel like I need to be there and try and fix everything . I guess I got that from my Mothers side of the family.

What do you say to a family going through so much all at one time. Why would God chose this family to go through so much and not me? Why would he allow me to have a healthy baby, and yet not someone else? Why would he chose for my husbands father to have cancer and not mine? I don't have the answer for these tuff questions.

I do know that God allows things to happen for HIS reasons, whether or not we understand them. Above all, however, we must remember that God is good, just, loving and merciful. Often things happen to us that we simply can't and understand. Instead of doubting God's goodness, our reaction should be to trust him. Not just say you trust him but REALLY trust him. I think alot of times when your not the one going through trials it's pretty easy to say that you trust God, but when your the one in despair and your world is rocked it's alot easier to doubt that trust.

After this week I remembered a video that I saw about a year ago that really made me think and really encouraged me. Although I have never had to go through anything like this in my life it was very uplifting to watch. I'm sure some of you are familiar with this story and may have already seen this video. For anyone who hasn't I recommend watching it.

It is long, but I recommend taking the time to watch it. It will cause you to live differently. You will hug your kids differently. You will love your spouse differently. You will trust God differently.

Smith Family Story from Cross Point Church on Vimeo.

To read more about their story you can visit Angie's blog here.

I would like to ask you to pray for me. Pray for our friends who are going through so much and for the long journey ahead. Pray for them to find the strength to get through this bump in their lives. Pray for them and their child to have peace and a fighting spirit. If God was able to create this child he is also able to heal this child.

Please also pray for my father in law who is also battling. Please pray that when he goes back in December for his results that we get good news.

Thanks to all of you who actually read down this far :)

Nice Surprise

A little bit ago I decided to take my lunch break (I work from home so it's not really a break) I usually take this time to get things done around the house or usually get ready for the day. ha Today I needed to get some chores done around the house and wasn't looking forward to it cause I'm in pain.

I sucked it up and began my duties. Shortly after the door bell rang. The UPS man was here! I love when he comes. I opened the door to find a big huge box from Target. Hmmm I know I didn't order anything from Target so I was even more excited. Anything from Target is always a plus. It had my husbands name on it so I thought oh great...he finally ordered the warming toilet seat for himself. jk

Much to my surprise it wasn't anything for him. It was for MEEE!! My oh so thoughtful husband had sent me a gift and it's not even my birthday yet!

I have been mentioning how I need to get a baby book for our little girl on the way for sometime but have been putting it off. So he took it upon himself to order one for me. He did such a good job I really like it. Can't wait to start filling it all out. Hopefully I can pick a name soon.


The next item in the box was this lovely pregnancy pillow. I'm sure he has taken a hint every time I'm in bed complaining how I don't have enough pillows and end up stealing his. I'm sure he's hoping he will actually be able to get some sleep and not have to hear his wife moan and groan like she's in labor already. I'm sure if that doesn't work he can just put it over my face and not be able to hear me complain. haha

Thank you honey for the lovely gifts. Sure made my day! Love you!!

Pumpkin Patch

Last night we took Aven to a pumpkin patch near our house. We thought about doing the big huge pumpkin patch at Cal Poly like we did last year but since I pretty much can only waddle around for a few minutes without being in pain we thought we'd keep it a little more simple. It was cool though we were the only ones at the whole patch. ha

Aven was excited and confused. So many pumpkins to chose from.

Hmm Daddy I think this one looks good...what do you think?? Maybe you can put me on top and see if this is the one I like.

Yeah, I think this one might be be too big for me Dad.

I think these ones are more my size.

This one looks good!

Dad, do you need help pushing these to the car?

Do the Monster Mash...or something.

Well for awhile now I have wanted to decorate Aven's bathroom but didn't know what I wanted to do with it. Then when I found out I was pregnant again I figured I better get going on it soon. I couldn't think of anything that would be good for a boy and girl bathroom so I kept putting it off. I finally found something that I thought was different and figured I could do something cute with it. So even though I can barely walk I managed to get the bathroom done. I have a few minor things left to do but it's almost done.

My sister Brenda came over and helped me paint. Thanks Brenda :)

I painted a growth chart behind the door to track the growing kids.

Pregnancy Brain

I really do hate to admit that I am capable of doing such stupid stuff sometimes when I'm pregnant but I am guilty.
It's kinda scary knowing I have a 15 month old child that I am responsible for. :)

24 weeks (-2 days)

Alot of people have been asking me to post pictures of my belly. It's actually pretty sad I probably have only a few pictures of my belly this pregnancy. I'm not sure why. With Aven I bought a book and took a picture of my belly every single week. I guess it's because I don't really think I have a cute pregnant belly right now. Looks more like I drank too many beers and cinnamon rolls (although I am guilty of the cinnamon roll part). I need to get in the habit of taking more pictures. You never know this could be my last pregnancy :/

(yes I am still wearing my comfy pajama pants at 3:30 in the afternoon. Don't judge me)

This pregnancy has been alot different than with Aven. If I hadn't gained 40 lbs and got big huge cankles and snausage feet I would have never known I was pregnant. I never got any morning sickness or headaches. This one I've had headaches all the time. I've been sick two times. I have also been dealing with a new issue the past few months called Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD)

The past week I have been in alot of pain. It hurts to walk, hurts to climb the stairs, hurts when I try to carry Aven anywhere. It's really is driving me crazy. Sometimes at night I'm almost in tears just trying to flip over. I feel like a beached whale and I'm not even to the end yet! I really don't think my husband understand how much pain I really am in. I'm sure he thinks I'm trying to milk this pregnancy for all it's worth. Which in some cases I might be, this is not one of them. :)

My OB basically told me that it is not uncommon for pregnant women to experience this and that I basically need to just deal with it nothing can be done. I really have no idea what I would do if I actually had a job that required any manual labor or being on my feet.

The good news is that I happened to be sitting next to a Physical Therapist at dinner one night a few weeks ago and we got on the subject of my pregnancy and he told me that he specializes in my issue and actually works with one of the top doctors of the hospital I'll be delivering at. I was so happy to finally talk to someone who says they have an answer. I was feeling like I was getting no where. Of course my insurance doesn't cover me going to a specialist like this. He basically told me that is why my doctor was playing dumb and didn't suggest a specialist. So I will have to pay it out of pocket. The guy was so sweet and told me he will treat me for super cheap. He felt really bad for me and told me that his wife who has 5 kids had the same issue. He said that some days the pain was so bad she couldn't even stand up.

I will be meeting with him on Saturday and will hopefully start to feel some relief. If not, I will be one of the ladies who rides around in the free motorized carts at walmart when I need to go grocery shopping.

Besides all that everything is going good. The baby is growing and loves to kick me in my bladder lately. She still doesn't have a name and if I don't do something soon I have a feeling I will be choosing from the list Faith gave me a few weeks ago.

Made me Smile

I'm sure most of you that read my blog know my sister and know that her and her family will soon be picking up and hitting the road soon to travel around the United States. Although I know I will miss all them terribly I am happy to see all the fun memories that are in store for them. We are a really close family and the thought of someone in the family leaving terrifies everyone. We all know they will be back soon enough but being so close it's gonna be hard.


Everyone keeps emailing me or asking me how I feel about them leaving cause they all know how close we are. Of course I am sad but I know it's only temporary.


This morning I got a text message from my sister which brought a smile to my face. My niece Faith has been calling me and asking me all the time when she can come over and spend the night and hang out. I tell her she is always welcomed here. Anyway, my sister said that she had this note posted on the fridge. :)

Funniest Show ever!

Last night I was flipping through the tv channels and happened to come across this show. It's called Whatever, Martha. I think it's probably the only show that I have actually sat and laughed at constantly. I think I found it so funny cause I think they have my dry sense of humor.

It's actually the daughter of Martha Stewart and her friend and they basically make fun of Martha Stewart. Hope you find it as funny as I did. Here is one of the clips I found on youtube.

Ridin Dirty

Sorry I have nothing else to say today so I will leave you with these two pictures. :)

I'm back...sorta

Well I am back or I should say have a little burst of energy for the moment. Wednesday during the day I started to get a really bad headache, which hasn't been that unusual for this pregnancy so I figured it was just another one of my headaches. After a few hours I started to feel worse and Johnny said I felt like I had a fever. He took my temp and it was 100.8 which didn't really scare me that bad so I took some Tylenol and waited a little bit longer. Well after about 2 hours it got worse and went up to 101.4. By this time my lovely husband who WAS WORRIED SICK ABOUT HIS PREGNANT WIFE fell asleep and was snoring in bed. I called my doctor and they suggested I get to the ER as soon as possible and get tested for influenza. I called my Mom and asked her if she could come and watch Aven. After once again trying to wake my husband to take his miserable pregnant wife to the ER with no luck. He said I didn't seem to sick if I was able to yell at him like I was. Boy does he still have alot to learn about me :) Instead of ripping off his head, like a pregnant hormonal wife with a fever should have done. I decided to just leave and have my Mom take me instead. (Yes, this is my anger still talking please forgive me. I really do love my husband.)

After sitting there for awhile and having them shove two cotton swabs up to get samples of what felt like my brain. I was told that they were going to send it off to the county and test it for swine flu but since I am 22 weeks pregnant and most of the test for swine flu are coming back with false positives they were going to treat me for it as if I have it.

We finally got home around 3 in the morning and I have been pretty much in bed ever since. I got a slight burst of energy this evening. That or I was just disgusted from sleeping in a nasty swine flu infested bed and got up and sanitized the entire room.

My husband has been really trying hard to make up for his stupitidy the other night but I don't know if I'm quite ready to let it go just yet :) Makes me worried I'm gonna have to call a cab when I need him to take me when I'm in labor.