Thank Heaven...

...for little girls! Yes it's true, a third one will be making her debut in the spring. It's funny how I've been saying this pregnancy has been SOOO different (which it has), like how I've been way more fatigued this pregnancy but was totally over the nausea at 12 weeks which I didn't believe could actually be possible before now, and how I've only thrown up 3 times this pregnancy which is also something miraculous. So I've been calling "boy" all along. But when we found out it was another girl, I went back and reread my post about announcing that Scarlett was a girl and I went on and on about how that pregnancy was SOOO different and how I swore it was a boy. Then I felt dumb. I'm done calling the gender. Done! I know there are some women who are more sick with one and not the other, (my mother-in-law only threw up with boys. 3 boys and 4 girls folks, so it's not like she just had one of each.) But each pregnancy is wildly different for me, so I think I'll go ahead and expect girls from here on out, because we are pretty good at making girls if I do say so myself. When we found out it was a girl I was initially shocked, but then imagined another one of my newborn baby girls in my arms and was immediately swooning and smitten all over again. We're excited! Lucy was funny. She'd been saying it's a boy the entire time and that we're gonna name him Jared. She's been saying, "I already have a sister. We need a boy." and then when she found out it was a girl, her chin quivered a bit and she said, "Oh no. I want a boy, like baby Jesus." haha it was cute.

*The one commonality between the three pregnancies is that I hate my husband while the first trimester does it's worst to me. And he hates me. And says things like, What has gotten into you lately?!?! in exasperation. And then I tell him I'm going to start chopping off body parts if he asks me that idiotic question again. But then we always patch things up and decide we really are in love and we should stay together once I start feeling better. You'd think we should just be prepared for that part of it by now, but the disdain is no less startling each time. Hmm.*

It's funny how once you get to three of one gender, people start giving condolences. And by funny I mean weird and annoying. The ultrasound technician told us immediately after, It took me three girls to finally get my boy so there's still hope! Don't give up hope! I was perplexed. And then like, Look lady, does this guy look like Henry the 8th or somethin'? Because he has two adoring daddy's girls that dote on his every move, I can assure you, you're not destroying our hope in life by telling us it's another girl. Or how about when we told Jason's family it was another girl and how I was thinking boy the whole time and how Jason said, "I bet it's another girl," and one of our brothers said, It's because Jason's always pessimistic. People are so funny! Like, side-splitting hilarious. It's been a week since we've known it's a girl and I am happy to report I'm already slightly chilling out with my defensiveness for this unborn daughter because I keep being told, "that's just what people say with lots of the same sex". Someday, of course we would love the experience of raising a boy. But we're okay that today is not that day.

Let's hear it for more ribbons and curls! I'm envisioning Little Women in my house. And I love every second of that vision. Except, with the dad in the picture and not off at war. But everything else the same, especially the wardrobes and lack of electricity.

So, Thanksgiving was fabulous this year. We went up to my parents house in Idaho Falls and while none of the other members of my immediate family could come, we did have an uncle and friends and cousins galore. We were up in Idaho for 4 days an unfortunately took like 3 pictures.

Ahem:

Papa and Jason standing in the kitchen before our feast no doubt discussing college football junk:

I think Scarlett might outweigh Lucy pretty soon. She does rock a good Benjamin Franklin hairdo though.

Parenting these two is a constant source of entertainment in this house. I made lasagna for lunch today and told Lucy I made it for her with wide eyes, all excited. When I showed it to her she started to whimper and said, No I don't want that kind of lasagna! I want the other kind! so I said, What other kind? Show me. And so logically she went and got a stash of gummy bears and said, I want this kind of lasagna for lunch. It's my favorite. Perfect Lucy. How silly of my not to know what you were referring to.

And Scarlett is 19 months and sassier every day. But has been somewhat of a miracle child with going to bed and down for naps. We'll be reading a story before bed in her rocking chair and she'll point to her crib and say, "bed". And today she said, "night night" at around her naptime. Like, she asked me if she could go to bed. So I took her up and put her in bed. And that was that.

Okay fine, we got four pictures in Idaho. I'm sorry I don't have more photos to share, but I go into major lazy arse mode when I'm at my parents place. We also went to two movies, Jason and I went on a hot date to Breaking Dawn, (he acted like I dragged him there kicking and screaming but secretly liked it). He's been putting his hand on my belly and saying, What was that? You love me? ever since. Then the next day we all went to Hugo, which was sortof disappointing... none of us really liked all too much. I wish I could tell you it blew our minds. But it didn't. However, Jason did look over at me when Jacob imprinted on Renesmee and his eyes were bugging right out of his head, right there in that Edwards cinema. I could tell that did blow his mind. He didn't read the fourth book you see, he had no way of seeing that coming.

That's all for today kids! Loves and hugs and tushy squeezes all around!

Cancun 2011.

I can't believe it's November 18th. I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving already. I can't believe that the Christmas season is basically upon us. I can't believe we'll celebrate 5 years of marriage in 3 weeks and that we'll shortly be the parents of three kids. I can't believe I've lost the ability to get a tan. And as I've reviewed the pics from this trip, I can't believe how awful a photographer my husband has become, but only when shooting pictures of me. My life is full of denial.

But the holidays are indeed upon us, folks. And we are having another baby. I am 16 weeks and this past week I've been feeling this little itty pounding and head-banging away in there. The nausea is basically gone and has been since week 12. Shock! (I used to think that was a rumor, that there was no way someone could only be sick until 12 weeks. I was sick lots longer with my first two pregnancies.) It's getting to the fun stage. We find out if this round is blue or pink on Tuesday! I'm still not quite looking like I have a baby in there; more of a beer gut, but the fun stage is beginning to set in. I feel good.

We didn't go on a cruise this year with NorthStar. Instead we stayed at an all inclusive resort in Cancun for four nights. We left our babies with my sister Bethany. (Oh sister! Thank you so much!) And we loved every second of this vacay. Except I'm still getting over a little stomach bug I picked up there... so this post won't be one of many words. Mostly pics.

A little afternoon yoga to loosen up. This is right before Jason tripped over his own feet and accidentally sent that lady in front of him sprawling in to the swimming pool.

A day excursion to the Chichen Itza ruins; el cenote sagrado de las virgenes... o algo asi. The sacred pool of the virgins? Where they used to sacrifice children and virgins to the gods. Too bad male virginity earned you nothing back then.

Remember how I talked about the kind of photographer my husband has become? This is the great shot he got of me in front of the temple. No cropping involved. And he doesn't believe in the 123 cheese anymore. It takes away from his artistic expression. Isn't this some kind of masterpiece? We're blowing it up and hanging it over our mantle. P.S. Vanessa just looked at this and said, "You kinda look like Dwight Shroot in this picture..." And that my friends, is the highest compliment any woman can receive in life. Sad thing is I can sortof see it.

This swimming hole was really sweet. I don't think I have anything else to say about it.

A good shot of Jason doing a little "cliff diving". It wasn't really a cliff. But I like to compare this scene to that part in New Moon when Bella is really stupid and dramatic and cliff dives on her own. Pretty much the same thing happening here. Jason was even having haunting hallucinations of me telling him, Please don't do this. And Just turn around and walk away. But him and Bella are like two peas in a pod. He didn't listen either.

My favorite night of the trip, at a restaurant called, La Parrilla. Totally recommend it. AWESOME food. And if this mariachi band is there, you're in for a real treat. We loved these guys. Wasn't long before we were all sloshed together, telling each other our deepest secrets and desires. Just kidding. But you can imagine what it would have been like if we did.

And I may or may not have had a love affair with this little lover. Jason still hasn't forgiven me. Tres Leches. Loved it. Love. That's a lot of love in the description of this one little pic.

And the view from our balcony. The weather was balmy pretty much the whole time but I might have preferred it like this. It was simply lovely.

Glad to have a get-away. I have a huge renewed crush on my husband every time we have one of these little jaunts. I missed my girls so much but they sapped every ounce of those feelings right outta me on our flight home from picking them up from Arizona (I flew home alone with them because Jason had to go to NC on business). That's a story for a different blog post, but I can sum it up by telling you there were spontaneous, simultaneous melt-downs on the part of both children and by saying that two separate individuals came up to me at the baggage claim telling me they have no idea how I have the kind of patience I have; no idea how I held it together like that. I told them, I didn't hold it together, I ugly face cried the last 20 minutes of the flight. But I wasn't beating anyone, including you. So I guess we're all winners today. Which was completely true. If you're tempted to say that to someone after they've had a hellish flight with their kids, maybe don't do it. I think it might be best to just let them be. Let them believe no one else really noticed. But we are home and trying to adjust again to normalcy.

Viva Cancun! Viva para siempre!

Pumpkin patch through Hallow's Eve. 2011.

Lot's o' pictures comin' your way in this here post. I mean, this blog here is also our family history. So I have to talk about... our family history. I mean how would my posterity feel reading about great great grandma's bushy brow if that's all I wrote about here? Maybe they won't think it's that great. Maybe I'll have some great great grandkids who are real sticks in the mud. So I have to be versatile in my posts you see. Hey now, hey now, don't go gettin' all upset and panicky on me. I do indeed still plan to update you on the eyebrow situation. Just calm down! And sit back down while you're at it! I know just now you got up from your computer in outrage and started throwing things when you thought maybe I wouldn't talk about my eyebrows anymore. And I love you so much for it!

I LOVE Autumn. It is my favorite. I love the smells. I love being in scarves and sweaters and boots. I love the colors. I love being inside all day looking that the balmy skies without feeling guilty about it. (I always feel guilty about being inside all day folding laundry during the summer). I love butternut squash soup and bread bowls. I love hot chocolate more than just about anything, and I make a mean hot cocoa. I love the anticipation of the holidays. The anticipation of the holidays might even be better than the actual holidays themselves. But either way, I love it all.

First we'll start off with some pics from a couple weeks ago when we went down for an afternoon at the pumpkin patch.

Pretty sure something like this happens every time we tell Lucy to "give Scarlett a hug".

I love Utah. Indeed.

And then a few days later, when we got to carvin' these babies up. I haven't done this for some time; it's been longer than since last Halloween. And I don't know if it was the pregnancy or what but gutting these pumpkins was making me dry heave repeatedly. Pulling out all the seeds and muck and stringy wet goop. And then when we got into a pumpkin gut fight and started hucking it at each other's faces, lots more dry heaving ensued.

Another favorite part was when Jason finished off carving two pumpkins by the time I was half-way through with mine, he turned and gave me his little switchblade he'd been using and said, "Here, use this knife for the rest of yours, it cuts WAY easier and it's so much easier to maneuver." I felt like Harry when Lloyd revealed he had two pairs of gloves the entire time. I think I said something like, It makes sense that you didn't offer this to me earlier and that you've been watching me with my sweaty brow trying to carve this pumpkin with this butter knife, since I'm a lot physically stronger than you anyway.

And here's our happy pumpkin family! Minus Scarlett. Her little baby pumpkin never got carved. She never even asked about it either. I promise yours will make a showing next Halloween.

Halloween Day:

Need I say more? Okay, well we needed to say more to just about everyone we ran into, so if you can't tell, we are Alice and Jasper Cullen. No, we're not Twilight obsessors but it was just an easy thing to throw together. In fact, it may have been the easiest "costume" I've ever had; I just threw in some contacts and put on a little pale make-up. So we were sortof lazy this year. Jason got all ready and went to work all day as Jasper on Friday:

And I couldn't stop taking pictures of him. I just love him a lot. Because he's not too cool for school. I mean, he is too cool for some things, like being unfaithful to his wife and squandering our family savings, but the things that really matter, like looking silly for the sake of a holiday? Not too cool for school at all. Except someone in his office asked if he was Edward, and that threw him off his Jasper game a little. Now, we took no offense at this and don't feel any attachment to Edward or need to defend his perfectly messy bronzey-brown hair, but even Jason was like, What?! Edward? You gotta be kiddin' me?! and he brushed his golden locks right outta his face, turned around and strutted away. I think it happened just like that.

At the office partay:

Love our little pirate and moo cow more than anything on earth.

Look at these munchkins. Edible.

Lucy was set on being a princess actually, had been talking about it for months. But she has princess dresses and can dress up as Cinderella whenever she wants. So we tweaked it. And it turned out being a princess pirate really was what made all her dreams comes true. She was yelling, Aarrrrgg! Ahoy mateys!!! all day long. Scarlett was slightly less ambitious, but you tell me where would we be in this world without dairy cows? She knows she really matters and that a lot of people depend on her.

So there I was doing my motherly and wifely duty and taking lots of pictures of daddy and his girls in their Halloween costumes so I gave the camera to Jason and asked him to take a few of me and the girls. "Here Jason, take a pic of me and Scarlett together."

Photo 1:

And photo 2:

I was delighted to see that these two shots were the final product of my photoshoot with my little cow. He handed the camera back to me and said, Yeah I got some good ones of you two! Glad that daddy got some really good mommy/daughter shots. I'm being serious. I cropped this second picture NONE.

Scarlett kept getting really confused and hugging onto random men's legs thinking they were here dad's. This is the second time it happened actually. Hopefully not something that happens when she's 18. That little moo cow was stunned and shocked every time upon realization of her grave error.

And trick or treating. I have a feeling this is going to get more and more fun as we have more munchkins.

We ended the night heading over to our friends Dave and Allyson's for their annual Halloween bash. The kids were already pretty tuckered out but they were close and we knew we couldn't miss out on their homemade root beer, cream soda and ginger ale. Um let's not forget homemade donuts. I was already pretty full when we got there so I requested a donut hole instead of an entire donut, but I must have ended up eating me about 16 donut holes. All in all, I felt like they were less caloric. I want some more now, too. Yum. You Frankmans are amazing!

It was a fabulous day. One of the real highlights for me was a guy I met at the party wanting to analyze Alice's character with me every time I'd turn around. So you're the one who has the futuristic premonitions... I mean it's not like she sees for certain what exactly is going to happen... the premonitions are conditional on other factors, right? or, So it that your real skin complexion? What about your hair? Or So you're a vegetarian vampire, that why your eyes aren't red... I had to quickly clarify that I wasn't a Twilight crazy... but that didn't deter him much. Hubby and I had a good laugh about it on our way home.

Today is rainy and cold. So it's consisted of mostly rooting through Halloween candy and pilfering the good stuff. Have you had a blue raspberry ring-pop lately? It's simply delicious. No wonder Scarlett threw a fit when I took it out of her mouth and put it in mine. I mean, I thought she was just being stingy.

Whew. That was a long post. Loves to all and happy fall! Give me a call! Let's go to a ball! Okay I'm done... ya'll. I can't stop. at all.