Three Year Interview

Ella and Emery turned three right after Christmas. I've been trying to get them to answer these questions for a month now...

Ella

What do you want to be when you grow up? 

"I don't want to grow up. Not me. I don't want to grow up."

Who's your favorite princess?
"Anna."

What's your favorite color?
"Blue."

What's your favorite show?
"Diego."

What's your favorite song?
"Twinkle Twinkle"

What's your favorite book?
"Simba."

What's your favorite toy?
"Kristoff and Sven." (Although she says his name as "Spin.")

What's your favorite food?
"Beans. Piggy. Ranch. Avacado. Any food."

What's your favorite fruit?
"Enchiladas!" (It's really clementines...or strawberries...or bananas...or apples...really any fruit.)

What's your favorite animal?
"Lions."

Who's your best friend?
"Isabelle."

Where is your favorite place to go?
"Grandma's house."

What's your favorite drink?
"Milk."

What's your favorite dinner?
"Enchiladas."


Emery
What do you want to be when you grow up?
"A horse girl."

Who's your favorite princess?
"Anna."

What's your favorite color?
"Um. Pink!"

What's your favorite show?
"Dora."

What's your favorite song?
"Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?"

What's your favorite book?
"Sofia."

What's your favorite toy?
"Frozen dolls."

What's your favorite food?
"Avocado."

What's your favorite fruit?
"Apples."

What's your favorite animal?
"Tiger."

Who's your best friend?
"Isabelle."

Where is your favorite place to go?
"The park."

What's your favorite drink?
"Milk. Pink Slush."

What's your favorite dinner?
"Enchiladas."

As you can tell...my girls are a little obsessed with Frozen...

29 Weeks

I have not been recording this pregnancy so well... I guess that's the curse of the fourth child.

I'm officially 29 weeks now.

Things are progressing. We're in the third trimester and have less than three months till my due date. I'm getting more and more anxious for my due date, which is good since the majority of this pregnancy has found me not actually being excited to start over and have a newborn.

Here's some things about what's going on at 29 weeks:

• The baby is so super high. My babies love my right rib, and he is no exception. 
• He moves all the time. A lot. He is extremely active...but all three of mine have been too.
• You've been able to see the movement in my belly for at least three weeks now.
• The heart burn is really really bad. Probably worse than I had with my other pregnancies even.
• The top of my belly hurts pretty bad cause he's so high and so close to the surface. I feel like he's trying to come out the opposite way he is supposed to. I think one of the reasons it hurts so bad is cause of all the stretch marks I already have are irritated and stretched causing more pain...
• I guess you can say I'm nesting. I don't really feel like it's nesting specifically, just a desire to have it done...but I want everything in our house clean, unpacked and organized. I'm trying to get projects finished and in general, just get things done that I know I won't have time to do once he joins our family.
• I crave cake all the time. Which is different than my girls. With my girls, I craved veggies. This time...sweets. 
• I'm very claustrophobic. The girls kill me with this as all the sudden Emery and Isabelle want to cuddle me all the time. Often times, I don't even sit with my arms at my side, but propped up on the backs of chairs to get them away from my body. 
• I'm tired all the time. 
• I'm super anemic...and can definitely feel it. I have a hard time standing for very long and I can't hold my arms up over my head. And I want ice all the time. 
• Any pressure on my belly is really painful. 
• My back hurts. 
• I started having Braxton Hicks contractions at 24 weeks. While they aren't painful, they are uncomfortable and make my heart race and it hard to breathe. Moving too fast, hitting my belly, having the girls not be careful around me all trigger one. 
• The ligaments in the bottom of my belly are extremely easy to pull. There will be times when I am literally stuck on the couch laying down and I can't move without an extreme ripping feeling and pain if I move my legs at all or try and get up. There have been times that Curt has come home from work and I will have been laying there for an hour and a half unable to move, waiting for him to come home and move my legs for me and help me up. This isn't the only situation this happens in. The other night I lifted my leg up to get on the bed and it happened and I couldn't get on the bed without Curt lifting me into bed and getting me on my side to sleep. Then I couldn't move out of that position for a while either. 
• I haven't thrown up since Christmas Eve...wahoo...a whole month. Yay. However I'm now big enough that when I do throw up, it is extremely painful. It feels like fire burning through my c-section incisions. It feels like I'm two days postpartum and throwing up instead of three years. The pain is the worst when I'm throwing up, but it's the same when I cough or sneeze without bending over and holding my incision. Even then it still hurts a little. 
• The Charley horses have started.
• I've only gained 9.5 pounds. Wahoo.
• I itch like crazy. It is truly one of the worst symptoms I have. Which may be crazy to some considering 17 weeks of nausea and bad heart burn and a cracked pelvic bone, etc. However, the itching makes me insane. It's all over my body and it makes it hard to sleep or stay still...as that's when it's the worst cause nothing is distracting me. As it turns out I have a condition that is causing this. It's called Cholestasis. It's "not good" (doctor's words...). Hopefully, everything will turn out fine, but this condition can cause fetal distress, preterm birth or even still birth. I'm on medicine but I don't have an appointment till the 11th to talk to the doctor about it or find out anything more than the little info available in my What To Expect... book.

Sunbeams

We're having some technical difficulties with pictures, as we no longer have a camera and my sister's computer crashed so we can't get pictures from her either...so some blog posts that are started and big and important are kind of at a stand still. Our iPhones are our only source of pictures right now, so I'll move on and just blog from those...

Emery and Ella turned three just after Christmas. This means we get to transition them from Nursery to Sunbeam class at church. It's something I've been dreading for months and months...or the whole year since Isabelle's transition just 12 ago was horrible. Horrible, as in, it took six months and moving wards before she was okay with Sunbeams and didn't throw a fit and freak out if she couldn't see me at all times. I had to stand outside her door so she could see me through the window while she was in class and I had to sit in the back of the Primary room during singing and sharing time. Even to leave to change a diaper produced huge meltdowns and it was...hard.

Back to Emery and Ella though. One reason I was so nervous is because Emery had never really taken to Nursery. While Isabelle really struggled in our last ward, so did Emery. Which was kind of ridiculous since her aunt was one of the leaders. Moving helped. Our current Nursery has play-doh time and the girls love that and it has really really really helped Emery be okay with Nursery. She still had her weeks though and had even been kicked out of Nursery because she was so irreverent. Another reason I was so nervous is because they turned three 3 days before the cut off. So they are so young!

The evening before their first day in Sunbeams, Curt and I received an email with our new assignment as Primary teachers. We were assigned to the Sunbeams. At first, I was really upset. I mean, I guess I shouldn't have been such a worrier, right? Mostly though, I just really didn't want Emery and Ella to have us be their teachers. I wanted them to experience someone else. On the flip side...I didn't really want to be their teacher either...or any three year old's teacher. I spend all day, everyday with this age group. I mean the previous week, Isabelle was a Sunbeam and now Em and Ella were both Sunbeams...don't I deserve the once a week, two hour break from my kids and their age group?? I'll admit it...I cried on Curt's shoulder. For about 30 seconds. However, then some thoughts came to my mind.

From October to December, our Primary assignment had been the seven year old class. While it wasn't awful or anything...it was hard on us. It's an age that you can't really print out coloring sheets to entertain them after the lesson. It's also an age that most of the kids would rather be talking about very irreverent topics, with the purpose of distracting everyone and derailing the lesson. We struggled to keep order and reverence in the room. Curt and I just don't have the experience with seven year olds that we felt confident to know how to handle them in some situations. Therefore, our call to Sunbeams was a relief in some ways. I am good at getting small projects together for that age group and I know more what to expect with this age too. Plus, now Emery and Ella won't torture some other innocent teachers.

After their first Sunbeams class...seriously by far the best picture they would let us get. 

In the end...having Emery and Ella in our class has been the absolute hardest part. They really do like to be difficult. I totally see now why Emery's been sent out of Nursery class for being so irreverent. If she doesn't get what she wants (like being chosen to say the prayer) she stands there and screams at the top of her lungs over and over. It's something we really struggle with at home too...but obviously even more annoying in class. About 80% of the time in our classroom, one of us is spending just taking care of either Emery and Ella or even both. It's rough. 

Our class has 14 students in it. All of which are active...but we still have only had 12 at a time with someone being absent each week. It's a lot. To say the least... We usually feel like we've ran a marathon after church. 

Two weeks ago, Curt and I spoke in church. My topic was church callings. Ha. While this calling is not easy, I know that this is where Curt and I are meant to be serving. After researching for my talk, I looked at the assignment a little differently. I was okay with the assignment before and felt like the assignment was for us too, but I can really see and definitely know this is where the Lord wants us to serve. 

I just really wish our church was not at 1:00. I blame a lot of the kid's grouchiness and tiredness on the fact that we have them from 2:15 - 4:00 in the afternoon. :/