June 23, 2006

Wow how the time flies!  First the big news—I am pregnant again!  I am 20 weeks along and the baby is due Nov 8^th.  We are so excited for the new addition to our family!  The first 12 weeks were pretty rough—my all time throwing up record was 10 times in one day.  But the dr got me on some medicine that has helped a bit.  I don’t feel great, but at least I don’t throw up much anymore.  The baby has started to kick around inside me, and Rusty got to feel it for the first time on his birthday!  My tummy is big enough now that Halle always comes up and pats or tickles the baby.  It’s pretty cute.  She insists that we are having a sister—but if it’s a brother it has to be a pink brother.  She has been a little angel through all my sickness.  I really couldn’t ask for more.  (and she loved all the extra TV time!!)

Rusty is still enjoying his calling as Venture Crew adviser.  He is on a backpacking/camping trip this weekend.  I am sure glad he has this calling to satisfy his need to be in the great outdoors! He is playing tennis with the BTA once or twice a week as well.  He also just got promoted at work to an engineer II.  We are so proud of him—only one year under his belt and he all ready has a promotion.

Halle’s biggest news is that she is on the road to potty training.  She gets a sucker every time she goes on the potty and she loves it.  She runs around after she is finished saying, “I so proud of you, Halle!”  We get a big kick out of that.  She also knows all the sounds of the alphabet and can spell out words on the keyboard if we tell her the sounds.  Smart little thing!  We are enjoying swimming at our pool this summer and still doing the superbus.  Halle and I also get to go to Maryland in a few weeks to visit Brady and Christy.  Christy is also pregnant with her second so it will be fun to go see them.

Then in Aug my little baby sister Carlie is getting married! I will write more about that after the fact.  We are all excited and a little nervous for her.  I’m not sure she knows just what she’s in for—moving out, starting college, and getting married all in the same week.  I’ll do another update once we find out the sex of the baby!

Sept 24^th, 2006

Well—It’s a BOY!!  We are so excited for little Joshua to join our family.  I am now just about 34 weeks—only 6 to go!!  Rusty is so excited to have a little boy, and even Halle has decided it will be a pretty neat thing to have a brother.  She always sticks out her tummy as far as she can and says—I’m a big sister.  She will come nuzzle my belly and say, “I love baby Joshua.”  It is the sweetest thing.  We have the nursery all done, and are now just playing the waiting game.  I’m still hoping for an Oct baby, but I guess we’ll see!

Halle is all potty trained!  We are so proud of her.  It took a lot of bribing with suckers and chocolate, but she has got it down.  She loves to choose her underwear everyday and especially loves her My little Pony pairs.  Halle still loves to read books, and is especially interested in nursery rhymes lately.  Her favorite is Ba Ba Black Sheep.  Grandma Banks sent her a book of nursery rhymes with a CD that goes with it.  She LOVES it.  Debe Patton and I have started doing a biweekly babysitting trade where I take the kids one day a week and then the next week she takes them.  It is awesome to have some free time to shop, run errands, etc, without Halle.  We are so blessed to have such great neighbors.

Halle and I have also just started MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)  It is so much fun!  Halle goes to a nursery class where the do crafts, play outside, have a snack, etc, and all the moms come and have a big breakfast buffet, listen to a speaker talk about motherhood, and sometimes do a little craft.  It is wonderful to associate with so many Christian women facing the same issues in trying to raise happy, healthy, faithful preschoolers.

Carlie’s wedding turned out just perfect.  Their temple ceremony was so sweet—the were both bawling their eyes out, and afterwards, they hugged for what seemed like about 10 min.  Danny’s grandpa sealed them, and while they were hugging he kept asking if they would like to exchange rings, but finally gave up and said—well—I guess we’ll give you a min.  We also had a good little vacation—we left Halle with Alan and Sharon and Rusty and I went to Snowbird for our 4^th anniversary.  We had a good time—we went on a little walk, rode the tram, did the alpine slide and Rusty did the bungy trampoline.  It was nice to get away by ourselves for a couple of days.