It's a Love/Hate Relationship

Recently Bryan and I have been looking for ways to save money. One of the ways we came up with is to switch from AT&T or Cingular (whatever it's called right now) to Sprint. We'd end up saving about $50/month. I REALLY don't want to switch though. Here's why- I LOVE my phone!! I have the Sony Ericsson Cyber Shot:

Only mine is silver. Anyway, it's a perfect phone for me! It does everything I want a phone to do (talk, text, and, even though I don't use it- it still makes me feel like someone would be able to find me if anything awful happened, GPS). AND it's an awesome camera!! That was my number one requirement for my phone. I wanted it to be able to be a basic phone, and have an amazing camera. This phone takes 8.1 mega-pixel pictures! It zooms, it does black and white, sepia, it does video and even has different modes (night time, action, portrait, etc.)! So I get GREAT pictures off of this phone. After I get them loaded onto the computer they're actually better then the pics I take with my regular camera. That's also where my problem comes in. I HATE loading pic from my pone to the computer! It's supposed to be able to do it automatically through snapfish, but that requires the internet and I don't pay for a media package. So I have to do it the old fashion way of uploading from my memory card. This is where the issue comes in. My phone uses an itsy-bitsy-teeny-tiny Sandisk M2. It doesn't fit into any printer or PC so you have to put it into a "converter" or "adapter" or whatever they're called! But for whatever reason mine never works! I always have to try 3 or 4 times to get it to fit into the computer right and then half the time the computer says that the memory card is blank! Yes, I have looked and looked for a cord or something that I can hook up straight from my phone to the computer. It doesn't exist.

So I LOVE my phone because it takes these awesome pics and does everything I want it to do, and I HATE my phone because I can't get the pics off of it!

...

Thanks for listening to my current rant of frustration!

Winnie the Pooh

Every since I was a little girl I have loved Pooh! Michelle also loves Pooh. Remember these pics?

She will sit and watch the whole hour long Pooh movie without getting up once. Then, when the movie is over, she'll come get me and ask me to play the "Eeyore show". (It's the Winnie the Pooh episode on the Bonus DVD about Eeyore's birthday.) And she'll sit through that too!

So I don't think she'll have a problem on June 15th...

We might have to wait till the 17th or 18th when Bryan can come with us, but with Michelle's birthday being on the 16th... it's like Disney released it just for her! (and me too!)

Baby Cami

Introducing the sweetest baby girl I have had the privilege to cuddle since Michelle! Meet Cameron Renea! She was born on June 6th, weighs 5lbs 12oz, and has the most beautiful blue eyes you've ever seen!

No, Cami isn't my baby, she's my niece! Although I wouldn't mind if my baby girl turns out just like her! This is Jessica's little bundle of joy. And I do mean little! Cami is so tiny! She really feels like a baby doll when you're holding her! She is absolutely perfect and I can't get enough of her!

Speaking of not getting enough of her, Michelle can't either! We went to visit her in the hospital (ok, we went to see Jess too, but mainly Cami!) this morning and after we left Michelle just about lost it! All she kept saying was "Go see baby Cami! Need to hold baby Cami!" It would have been really sweet if she hadn't been throwing a fit while she was saying it!

Having Cami here just makes me even more excited for my little girl to come! I really do hope she is a lot like Cami. I haven't heard her cry even once, and she lays there so still and content and just stares at her mommy- straight in the face. It's absolutely precious!

Baby Update

Tuesday was our last sono! We went in hoping to find out two things. First, we wanted to make sure the baby was growing ok. We have been a little worried because, even though I've felt the baby kicking and flipping, I haven't gained ANY weight! I'm halfway through this pregnancy and, according to the Dr.'s scale (cuz mine doesn't go this far into detail) I've gained a total of .2 pounds. So... yeah, we were a little worried about how this little one was growing.

It turns out that everything is perfect! Our little peanut weighs 12 oz and is measuring just a little smaller then the average 21 week old fetus. The original due date was October 11, but the measurements put the due date as October 16th. Not too far off. Plus, Bryan and I aren't exactly big people. Bryan's on the shorter side of average for a man, and I'm just short! lol! So our poor kids are kinda doomed to be small.

While we were looking around trying to get a profile picture (which we never were able to get!) Michelle started fussing about wanting to see the baby. The sonographer let Michelle come pretty close to the screen and was showing her all the little parts of her new sibling when we got this shot (above). I'm not sure how clearly you can see it, but the baby's arm is up next to the head. During the sonogram the arm kept waving back and forth. It was pretty sweet; like the baby was say "Hi everyone!! Here I am!"

And finally the announcement you've been waiting for...

Another girl!! I'm so excited for Michelle to have a sister! When she announced that it was a girl I was so mixed with emotion about it. I really am glad to have another girl because we already have all girl clothes, sisters are so sweet, Bryan is an AWESOME daddy to girls, and I would honestly be a little nervous to have a boy... they just seem a little too active for me right now! lol! But, at the same time, I did want to have a boy eventually, but I don't know for sure if I want to have more kids, plus I knew we were going to have a name issue!

Or at least I thought I knew that. As soon as the sono was over Bryan's face lit up and he said "So... it's **** then!" Completely out of the blue, like he just knew that was her name. And then Michelle repeated him with "Baby sister, ****!" So we're pretty sure that will be the name we're using. I've already told a few family members and I think Bryan has told a select few people at work, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to publicly share the name yet. We got some pretty nasty comments about Michelle's name and I'm not sure that I'm confident enough yet with this name to say "I don't care what you think" to those kind of comments yet. Maybe in a week or two... we'll see!

I'm going there someday!

Bryan and I were talking the other night, discussing childhood memories, and it was pointed out that some memories that we make as children stay with us for the rest of our lives. I want my children to remember important things. Not just sitting at home watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or chalking on the back porch. So, I've decided that in a few years (like 2 or 3) I'm going to plan a family road trip. We are going to make two stops. First, to the most important place, and a place that I have very vivid childhood memories of...

I want to take my family to Temple Square in Salt Lake. I remember going there when I was little, during the winter months. They had all the trees light up, there was snow on the ground, and it was SO beautiful! I remember walking with my mom and dad and being amazed at how gorgeous the temple was. I want Michelle and our new baby to have those same memories!

I also have pretty magical memories about this place...

When I was young we lived pretty close to Disneyland. We got to go there pretty often and, while I don't remember exactly how old I was, I do remember having a BLAST on the tea cups! And running to the Dumbo ride as soon as it came into sight. And, even though I think it's pretty annoying now, I remember LOVING It's a Small World. So I must have been young enough to be able to ride those rides without having to worry about "Am I too tall or too old for this ride?" I know the most recent time I went I was no longer allowed to ride Dumbo unless I was the adult escorting a child on the ride. Michelle is just the right age now that she is old enough to know who Pooh and Mickey are, and she loves them. Lol! She even gives them hugs while they are on the TV. If we lived closer we might schedule a trip sooner, just so she could go and experience those things now. But, we aren't close, and we have a baby on the way. Plus, Michelle will still be excited abut Disney things when she is 5 and at that point she might even be old enough to remember some of it!

So I'm thinking we'll schedule a road trip to go to both of these places sometime around 2015. That way Michelle will be old enough, but not too old, and her little sister/brother (we find out Tuesday!!!) will be just old enough to be excited about it too. Let the count down begin!

Supervised V.S. Not

The past few days, when it's not raining, have been really nice outside. SO Michelle and I usually spend the majority of our afternoons outside chalking, chasing Jack, "digging" the grass, and going on walks. Michelle has gotten into a little bit of a bossy mood lately and, instead of drawing things herself, she'll tell me what to draw, and in what color to do it. The results turn out looking something like this:

Right now she's obsessed with "party hats" and "birthday balloons" thus the girl with a pointy hat and the multi-colored balloons! She is also really good at her shapes (circle, square, triangle, diamond, heart, star, and she's still learning rectangle) and has known her colors for a while now (everything from red, blue, yellow, to purple, pink, gold, and silver).

These past few days, as well as being beautiful days, have also been pretty stressful for me. I'm giving a talk on Sunday and didn't have a whole lot of notice to prepare this talk. So, unfortunately, many or our mornings have consisted of me turning on Mickey Mouse, or a movie for Michelle while I sit at the computer and try to focus on things like general conference talks, personal stories, and scripture meanings. Don't get me wrong- I love reading and studying them, but I just wish I didn't feel so hurried to do it. I feel, very much, like a horrible mom for using the TV as a babysitter while I work. The other day I turned around to check on Michelle and found that she wasn't in the living room with me. I figured she must have gotten bored with TV and moved on to her room to play. When I went into her room this is what I found:

She loaded up her crib with every doll/stuffed animal she could find, and all of her books, and balls! I guess that's what I get for not supervising my little girl!

P.S.- Isn't she too cute?! I honestly couldn't be mad at her after seeing how funny she thought it was!

Simple Kitchen Wall

So I decided to tackle my kitchen wall. I had big plans for a big clock on that wall. Here's the idea of what the plan was...

I found this idea off of someone else's blog and pretty much loved it. But it's a really bold thing to do. And I'm not sure I'm ready to decorate like that. I wanted to replace the art work with family photos so it would be kinda like a picture wall. I might end up doing it at some point in the future. For now though...I think the idea is really neat. If anyone out there is brave enough to do it pleas post pics! I would LOVE to see how it turns out!

So I stuck with my usual type of decorating instead and kept it simple. Here's how it turned out:

Not nearly as cool, but it's functional and has the family photos that I wanted. And it's something that feels "safe" to me. Plus it was super easy to do! lol!

I still need to print out a "Menu" to go on the cork board. I'm also going to find some decorative things to hang on the coat hooks. Next month I would put some sort of Birthday-crafty-thing since it's Michelle's Birthday Month. Then for July I would go patriotic, August would be all about Summer and Swimming, and so on. I just haven't gotten quite that far yet.

So there is it! My super simple, but totally "my style" kitchen wall.