Just a Funny Story

I'm loving having a "blog journal" and this is just a funny story from the other week that I'd like to add to it.

So, I was trying to tidy up the house and started tackling the sink full of dishes I had neglected from the night before. Not long after starting, I realized my tummy was starting to feel quite warm and a little wet. Kind of like it was being washed too...

It was at that moment I realized I might be getting too large for my standard wardrobe. I continued my regular tasks for the day and tried my best to keep covered. But the hard part was that I couldn't even see around my belly to know when the shirt had ridden up. I learned my lesson and put the black shirt away for now and into my Post Pregnancy bin.

I now have a much deeper appreciation for shirts that cover, and much more sympathy for little Chancho. It's tough being exposed like that.

Yes! I have a Belly

28 weeks and 3 days along. We've worked hard for this belly. Here are candid and less candid shots for proof.

Sweet Sweet baby

So at our last ultrasound, they found some potential brain and heart abnormalities in little man. He had a choroid cyst in his brain and his little heart ventricles were at the very upper limits of normal. The doctor was awesome and bluntly explained that these could be indicative of Trisomy 18 or 21, or it could indicate learning disability or potential heart defects. The chances were really low, around .25% or something like that, but they wanted to do a follow up just to see where he was at. We knew we would love our baby regardless, but we did want the heads up if he needed special care immediately after birth. Yesterday was our follow up, and he is looking great. He's still at the upper limits of normal for his heart and there is a little bit of variation in brain tissue, but nothing to be worried about. He's been quite active and has wiggled himself into the head down position already. I just love the little profile shots we got of him.

He was stretching and arching his back in this one:



This one can be hard to see, but it's my favorite. Look at it more like a 3D image on his face, and you can see the shadows showing his eyes, nose and little cheeks:

Pregnancy is going great! My biggest complaint is that he LOVES moving at night, and during church. I've learned to just stretch out as much as I can when we starts kicking up towards my ribs and moving his head and hands excessively. Stretching helps. But I love it when he moves too. I guess I'll add that to my list of bitter-sweets in life :)

Visitors!

Mama and Papa Southwick came last week and it was absolutely wonderful. On Friday, Tyler and Taylor took time off from work and school to come see the Bloch exhibit at the Museum of Art on campus. BYU transported a collection of original alter paintings from Denmark to display at BYU. I had seen his work many times, but the beauty, size, and attention to detail in the originals was astounding. Here are a few of my favorites from the exhibit:





These pictures are borrowed from LDS Church News and some of them show the audio/ipad system they had set up for visitors to learn even more about the paintings.

Tyler and I loved seeing the paint globs, the brush strokes, the cracking paint, and flawlessness of detail in every shadow, expression, and bulging vein. It was also great practice as Tyler volunteered to carry little Nellie around with us in her car seat.

Sunday was another incredible day. It was an "ah ha" day in many ways. We started with Dallas and Jessica's baby blessing for little Kayla at 8:30. Tyler, Taylor, and a few of their friends from Anacortes were able to stand in for the blessing. Then we went to Taylor and Martha's blessing of little Nellie at 11, where quite a few pews were filled with Southwick family and friends. Both Kayla and Nellie were absolutely beautiful and so very loved. Listening to the blessings, sitting with family, sitting with friends, and knowing I have a husband who has lived his life in a way that he could stand in for those beautiful blessings and offer the blessing of our little boy when he comes, was wonderful. It was a reminder of my Heavenly Father's love as I realized how much I loved the people I was surrounded by. It was a reminder of the inherent and divine strength of families. It was a reminder of how happy I am to have an incredible husband and baby on the way to teach me how to love more purely.

Mama Jana then came with Tyler and me to our ward at 2 to help teach our primary class. Our little five year olds were extra reverent and attentive when they learned Tyler's mom had heard how good they were and wanted to come and see them. Tyler thought of an awesome lesson plan to teach the importance of prophets and the priesthood in Christ's church both anciently and today. We took plastic cups and built a "tower" or "castle" depending on which of our boys you asked. Each cup was a component of Christ's church as we see in the bible and what we have today. After building the cup building, we talked about how the people weren't so good after Jesus and his disciples died, so they no longer had prophets or the power of the priesthood on the earth. We let two boys pull the cups labeled "priesthood" and "prophets" out from the foundation of our structure and the kids loved watching the whole building crumble. We also tried to show them that there were still good things on the earth, like the Bible and the ability to Choose The Right and do good things, but a lot of other important things were lost. Then as the lesson went on we talked about how all of those components were restored and rebuilt our building cup by cup. It felt so good to feel like we had a productive lesson that kept their attention (mostly) for the hour that we had them.


We ended the day with dinner at Taylor and Martha's with lots of Nellie holding. We were sad to say goodbye to Scott and Jana, but so so happy they came. We're excited for them to go see the Jason and Leah family in Florida and for them to be there for Ollie's blessing.

The Sad Truth

Tyler loves Christmas time. He starts listening to Christmas music after his birthday. His birthday is September 14th. This last Thanksgiving, Jana and I went to Martha's baby shower and came home to find Tyler and Scott on the roof putting up Christmas lights. Tyler was SO excited! They had found some colored lights and an adapter that twists into the existing porch light, allowing us to turn on the Christmas lights with the flip of a switch from inside. Our colorful lights were on every night. Until the sad truth was revealed.

I had been struggling the decision of how long into the year we should keep our Christmas lights on. I took note as one by one, our neighbors' beautiful yards reverted back to their pre-Christmas states. Most ceased to sport their lights within a week of Christmas: and only the stalwart few remained after the snow melted. When I realized ours was the only house with lights remaining, I suggested that maybe our season of Christmas Light Cheer had come to an end. Tyler was visibly heartbroken, but still switched our plug-in adapter for the traditional energy saving bulb. This was last week, the first week of February...