Yay for Fall and craziness!

HAPPY FALL!

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I get so excited this time of year!!

I love the season and approaching holidays

Oh, and I had more crazy dreams.  I'll spare you all the details... let's just say it involved my old seminary class resolving a long time feud with that cast of Jersery Shore (though, never seeing the show, I have no clue what they look like) and then Gandolf the White approving.
Oh... and having our baby (who was perfectly healthy) at 30 weeks and then laughing at every little thing nonstop.

I think my nighttime craziness is rubbing off on Tyler.  Last night, as I was rolling over, I noticed Tyler stick his hand straight in the air, snap his fingers, and then he rolled over too.  Haha, I can't stop laughing about it.  Even though it woke him up, he has no clue why he snapped. 

So, that crazy dream...

Don't know if you care about my crazy dreams, but I wanted to record it, cause I thought it was funny.

(let's see if I can remember it all)

Well, it started off with my aunt and uncle receiving day passes to Disneyland from my parents, as some sort of thank you.  My aunt and uncle took the tickets, but, for some reason, when they got there the tickets didn't work so they decided to sneak onto a boat going to Salt Lake City instead.  (I want to know what boat goes from Anaheim to SLC!)  When they got to Salt Lake, they decided to work on Temple square as monasteries (no idea why they were called that), which were doctors that dressed up like birds  (think Disney's Robin Hood... when he dresses up like a bird) and stood on 3 legged stilts.  They got paid $3 an hour. 

Then the scene changed and I was at my elementary school field with a bunch of other people surrounding this weird clown guy.  The clown would say a riddle and once he finished until the time someone answered correctly, we all became zombie-like.  Then the person who answered correctly could leave. 
Well, the time came when I knew the answer to a riddle first. 
The clown asked, "Who is the most feeble?" 
Aha!  I answered, "babies, blondes, mothers, and wives of doctors!"  (????)
And I was right, so I got to go home.

I started heading home and my friend Sarah asked for a ride home too.  The whole time I was driving Sarah home, her baby sister, Krista, (who is now like 10 or something) was sitting on my steering wheel.  Krista was see through, so I could drive, but it was super distracting and there was a ton of traffic.  I kept getting honked at and Krista kept wiping Spaghettios all over my face. 

Then I woke up.

Dani, Dani, Dani the Explorer!

Dani's been on a Dora the Explorer kick lately.

I thought that maybe she had been watching it too much when Dani started quoting the show and pretending she's going to places like the Big, Tall Mountain.

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Then, I was pretty sure after she started holding out her hand (like Dora and Boots above) and saying "Dani, no swiping, Dani no swiping, Dani no swiping!..... ahh man!"

Tyler and I even have a song from Dora stuck in our head all the time. 
♪ ♫"...arriba, up.  abajo, down..."♪ ♫
(It's from an episode Danica calls, "Just Boots")

And now I'm convinced after calling Dani "Dora" today!!  Granted, they had just been calling Dora's name on the tv a moment before.  But yikes. 

Umm, I think it's time to say adios to Dora.

I've figured out what we're getting Dani for Christmas!....

A big, nice, expensive present for US!

One that will come in a big box with lots of packing inside.
...cause that's what makes her happy.

28 weeks! 84 days... 12 weeks!!

That just popped into my head and made me a little nervous (and I promise it actually makes sense... unlike a lot of things I think (oh I should share a crazy dream I had a little while ago, sometime). ). 

I looked at the little ticker on the right and realized I'm 28 weeks pregnant tomorrow (and I still haven't taken any belly pics)!  Then I saw I'd have 84 days left... well that number didn't look so bad.  Then I thought, wait... 28 weeks?  That means I have 12 weeks left!!

That's a little scary.  12 weeks does not seem long at all especially when I think how fast these next seasons go! 
It always seems to speed by with all the holidays, fun weather changes (I can say "fun" now because I'm not experiencing the snow yet), crafts to make, and making sure Danica enjoys the spirit of it all.

Yikes.  Another baby..... another kid. 

I often wonder how my mom had 6 kids (and did daycare) and stayed sane and cool through it all.  I know moms do it all the time and I should be able to too.  But yeah.

I was just thinking that maybe part of the reason having a second child seems so daunting (besides actually having to juggle take care of two kids) is I think about all the things we had to teach Dani in these two years of her life and it makes me glad she's at the stage she is now.  I feel the pressure of having to "start all over" with another kid.  But at the same time I think about how much we really enjoyed all those big and small moments Danica learned something new.

It'll be tough, but it'll be worth it. 
And there will be different enjoyable moments when I see our kids learning and interacting together.


I just told Tyler I should take a picture of my growing belly.  He laughed and said, "You've probably said that once a week for the last 5 weeks."  Oops.  I guess I'd better get on that!

Ippy Cider

(that's Dani's version of the Itsy Bitsy Spider)

I've got pictures of our place, but first I want to say...

Thank you so much for all the sweet comments for my birthday!  I'm glad I have friends and family like you.  I had no idea my wonderful husband did that and all of it made my day(s)  :)

Anyway... much awaited (for some of you) are the pictures of our new home.  Forever ago, Tyler actually took pictures of our empty place and he did a really good job (so there are a ton!). 

Maybe someday you'll see it all put together... but hey, we don't even have it all put together yet!  We weren't digging our last decor and decided to start all over here, but that takes money, so our walls are still bare.

Anyway, I finally took a moment to put all the pictures together
...and here they are (the pics were being all funky)...

                            walking in our front door                             turn left and you see a little bathroom

             

          our front door and bathroom door

 a peekaboo window into our kitchen

the kitchen

       the backdoor... we use this more than our front door
                (sometimes it feels like out front door)

 

                  

                    looking at our (actual) front door from the kitchen
... the peekaboo window on the right is our stairwell into our basement

                                                                                                          let's go into the basement

 once you're downstairs you see a door and it leads to our laundry room/ bathroom

 a view of the unfinished laundry room from the unfinished bathroom, the unfinished bathroom

 
the basement room
the hallway is where we just were (so that wall is shared with the laundry room)

 more views of the basement (and Harry Potter's old room)

 let's go back upstairs

follow that walkway and we'll go upstairs again

 view down from the top of the stairs

 nursery & nursery looking at door and closet

 hallway- looking at our linen closet, dani's room just to the left of that, the bathroom at the right, the nursery (out of view) to your left, and the hallway to the master at your right

 upstairs bathroom

 Danica's room

 same view of our hallway, with the linen closet open,  the hallway to the master

 the master

my closet....it's a walk-in!
... I think it would normally be a master bath, but right now I'm enjoying the closet space

 Tyler's closet

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!

For those who don't know, today is Emily's Birthday.

I thought I would take the time to make my triennial post and wish my lovely wife a Happy Birthday. Those who follow our blog know how creative Emily is, but some of you may not know how wonderful she is. She is a great wife and a loving mother. She's caring and always willing to help others. She is very in tune with the feelings of others and always looking for ways to serve. I am one lucky guy.

Emily, I love you!

Everyone, take a minute and wish Emily happy birthday!

Repurposed heels

I was looking through pictures and I had forgotten I had made these shoes....
well, repurposed, that is, with mod podge and fabric.

I decided I wanted to do it again because it was fun and simple (and CHEAP... these shoes cost me $1.50 at Goodwill), so I thought, why not share the idea with other people cause they might want to do it themselves too.

Modesty in style?

How I told Tyler I was pregnant

I realized recently that we never posted how I told Tyler I was pregnant. Well, at 24 weeks, I guess now's as good a time as any.

Tyler and I had been trying to have a baby so I already had some pregnancy tests on hand. I would normally take the test with Tyler at home with me, but I was pretty sure I was taking a test a little early, and for some reason decided to take it anyway... just in case.

Tyler believes I just like to pee on things (since I had taken preg. tests at random times... well, times I thought I might be experiencing a sign of pregnancy) though I try to convince him that's not true and it's still disappointing seeing a negative sign on a test... even when you're not actually hoping for a positive.

Anyway... I had just found out I was pregnant on my own, so I figured I'd play this to my advantage.

I texted Tyler and asked if he wanted to go to Red Robin that night for dinner... thinking this is one of his favorite places to eat, so he probably wont say no. Well Tyler said yes, even though he had just finished eating a big lunch at JCW's (a burger place), because he thought, Emily never asks to eat out at places, so even though I'm stuffed we'll go out because she wants to.

Happy Tyler said yes, I stopped by Red Robin earlier in the day and gave them this....

A decorated baby bottle.

I talked to the greeter, made sure she'd be there when we came back in, gave her the bottle, and asked if they could fill it up with whatever drink my husband orders.

Well, we arrive there and the greeter is not the same chick that I talked to earlier that day, so after we're seated I told Tyler I needed to change Dani's diaper, but while he wasn't looking, I found the previous greeter, explained my situation again, and she let our server know.... phew!

Alright, it was just time for us to wait for our drinks and for me to keep talking to Tyler so he wouldn't notice I hadn't taken off Dani's coat yet.

Luckily Tyler's back was to our server (and the 5 other workers that were watching our table) when he brought out our drinks. I waited silently and anxiously (so did all the employees) for Tyler's response.

He just looked at me and gave me a weird look. He thought I was just being dorky ol' Emily.
I had to tell him... "I'm pregnant." That's when it registered with him. Then I took off Dani's jacket and showed him this....

......

Tyler was then really happy!

.... that diminished briefly when he realized the drink in the baby bottle was actually my rootbeer and not the water he ordered. oops.