The Week of Christmas

We left for Boise on Friday, the 21st, but unfortunately forgot our camera. Thank goodness my Mom took some pictures, so as soon as she emails them to me, I will post some pictures of the kids.

We had such a great time in Boise! On Saturday I went out to lunch with Karen who was visiting from Hawaii and my friend Rachel who moved from Saratoga Springs to Meridian. We went to my favorite place ever, Miss Tami's (formerly known as Cottage Expressions). It's this cute little tea room that has the best Monte Cristo sandwich and Cheddar Cauliflower Soup you will ever taste. It's in Meridian and I highly recommend it!

After the tea room, I picked up Ben and the kids and we went to Rachel's house to celebrate her daughter Brooklyn's birthday. Hyrum and Ella miss their friends so much and were so happy to see them again.

Right after the birthday party, my dad drove Ben and I up to this lodge place by Bogus Basin for our Christmas present. My parents got us this sleigh ride and dinner thing up in this cute little cabin in the woods. I've never been on a sleigh ride before. It was cold, but so beautiful. At the cabin they served everyone this amazing dinner. We had soup in bread bowls, steak, shrimp, potatoes, carrots, and cobbler. Then this hilarious guy did jokes and poetry. It was so fun.

Sunday we did a huge turkey dinner with the family. It was so good!

On Monday, we went out to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. The only other time I had been there was in Hawaii, so I was excited to go. Then we did our traditional Christmas Eve stuff, make cookies for Santa, look at lights, and open some PJ's.

Tuesday was so fun, but tiring. The kids got soooooooooooo much stuff. We had to take the backseat out of our van just to fit it all there and back. After we opened presents we had our traditional egg mcmuffin breakfast and got ready to go to dinner with the whole extended Braden Family at the church. I can't believe how much we've all grown. There were a million kids and our kids had fun meeting all their 2nd cousins.

We were supposed to leave on Wednesday, but it was snowing in Boise and Utah and we were all so tired, so we stayed another day. We still ended up staying up late playing games and eating pizza, but it was so fun. I was excited because I found this cute Christmas store that was selling everything for 75% off so I bought a million fancy stockings that will hopefully last for our current and future family.

We finally left on Thursday, thanks to the good weather. We were so sad to go, but happy to be home. The house just seems so empty now without everyone. Fortunately, all the kids million toys fill up some of the gaps :)

The Christmas Spirit

I've lost almost all feeling in my left shoulder due to the unprecedented amount of shopping I did on Saturday. Payday was on Friday so I went on Saturday to finish all the last minute shopping I had. I had the kids stuff pretty much done already, but no one else. So I headed to the mall since I would be able to hit a lot of stores in one place. What a nightmare! It was shoulder to shoulder shopping. I had to wait 30 minutes in line at the Disney store! It took me 5 hours to get everything I needed, but I'm done!

The interesting thing was everyone was still really nice. Christmas time brings out the charitable kind side in people, but it also has the tendency to bring out the ravenous rude shopping side as well. Everyone was all "please" and "excuse me" and people were very kind to pick stuff up for me whenever I dropped something, since I'm the size of a whale. So even though I was totally exhausted and sick of shopping (which is a first for me), I still came home with a renewed hope for the human race.

18 Weeks and Expanding

I've been fighting for some time now to remain in my regular sized clothes, but alas I finally lost the battle. I decided to wash and iron all my maternity clothes this week, thinking I could make it another week or two, but I only made it another day or two.

It's not that I don't like my maternity clothes, most of them are pretty cute. It's the acceptance that I am expanding. Now for alot of women that I know that's no big deal because they are out jogging 2 days after the baby is born and back to their size 2's after 2 weeks (this is no exaggeration). That's not my story. Every inch and pound I gain, although caused by the baby, does not leave with the baby.

I try to eat somewhat good and only gain about 25 pounds, yet those pounds just haunt me after the baby is born. I have to stay in maternity clothes for 2 months after the baby is born and I'm not back to my regular size (and when I say regular I'm not talking size 2 kind of regular) until 18 months after the baby is born! So how is it then that I have friends that gain 45-60 pounds during their pregnancy and are able to pop down to 100 pounds only weeks after having a baby?

I didn't mind so much with Hyrum, and I was doing o.k. with Ella, but this time around I am just dreading trying to get all those pounds off. I seriously broke down crying at the mall the other day, passing all those clothing stores full of clothes that I can't fit into now, and won't be able to fit into for another 2 years. It's not like I can diet or anything right now and you can't diet when you are breastfeeding either. And unfortunately, due to my herniated disc and my high risk factor, I can't do anything more strenuous than yoga.

So, that's my dilemma right now. I realize I am only getting bigger because I am pregnant, and I realize that I don't even gain that much weight; I'm just struggling with the afterwards. Maybe I just need to get fatter friends?

Thanksgiving and Other Stuff

I realize I haven't written in a long time, but I have 2 very good reasons. The first is we were in Ohio from November 17-27th. The other reason is we were transferring all our info. onto our new computer. That's right, the first new computer we have ever owned and the best part was it was free. Ben won it at a game they played at his work Christmas party. So we got a $600 Dell Computer absolutely free. The crazy thing was that all the gifts there were way nice. They had flat screen t.v's, video camera's, ipods, you name it. It was awesome. Anyways, here's the readers digest version of the last couple of weeks, that is if I can even remember anything.

Saturday 17th: Fly non-stop to Ohio. Less than 3 hours. I love non-stop flights and have officially been ruined forever. We even managed to arrive with all our luggage. I also discovered that it is nice to fly in the afternoon instead of the crack of dawn.

Sunday 18th: Church and ice cream at grandma's house. A very nice Rohrbach tradition.

Monday 19th: Go clean out grandma's food storage and garage (there was stuff in there from the beginning of time) and have a pizza party. Later go back to Ben's parents and watch I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which turned out to be pretty gross and disappointing (sorry for picking it out guys)

Tuesday 20th: Ben's Big Surprise! Ben had arranged to wisk me away for a night of shopping and dinner and that night stay in a bed and breakfast. It was the first night we had ever been away from the kid's so it was a much appreciated surprise. Plus I've never been to a bed and breakfast. This one was so cute!

Wednesday 21st: Kind of a blur, but I remember watching Hairspray and hanging out with family.

Thursday 22rd: Thanksgiving Day! Tons of food, tons of people, tons of fun!

Friday 23rd: Have dinner with Ben's friends. Laugh at Hyrum asking one of the little girls to dance with him.

Saturday 24th: Go to the Air Force Museum. Get stopped on the way by an accident. Everyone hops out (except me who stays in the car with the kids). to help a guy on the side of the road who is clearly going into shock and apparently still has 2 kids in the car. Fortunately, Ben's mom is an EMT and is able to help the guy and the woman who was driving the other car. After an hour later, and a million fire trucks (Ben's brother was driving one) and police cars we finally get to the museum. After the museum we went to a friends house and got to watch the BYU-Utah game which was awesome. Then we head back to Ben's parents house and sang karaoke on the top of our lungs until the wee hours of morning.

Sunday 25th: No voice from singing like crazy. Ice cream night at grandma's

Monday 26th: Do some holiday shopping. Have a girl's night out and see Enchanted. Very Cute!

Tuesday 27th: Come home!

The rest of the week was a blur of cleaning and unpacking, because my parents came for a visit on Saturday. Oh and Ben's work Christmas party. We were even able to get our tree up before my parents pulled in.

So that's what we've been up to the last couple of weeks. Busy, busy, busy! But so fun when it's with friends and family.

Happy 30th Birthday Ben!

Yesterday, we celebrated Ben's 30th Birthday. Birthdays, aren't a very big deal to Ben, but my Mom always made birthdays special for us, so they are a big deal to me. Naturally I love it when birthdays roll around. I love being sneaky and planning little surprises.

Hyrum insisted that we get balloons, party hats, and streamers. I started to decorate the house the night before and realized I couldn't reach the ceiling without a chair, which I knew Ben would be mad if he saw me climbing on chairs when I was pregnant, and I always have trouble blowing up balloons, especially when I'm pregnant. So, I had a bit of a dilemma since I knew Hyrum would be expecting to see the decorations he picked out. Ben therefore insisted that he put most the decorations up, despite my protesting. So, Ben decorated the house for his own birthday.

I tried to redeem myself a little bit though, by getting up early and popping some cinnamon rolls in the oven for breakfast.

I love surprises, but surprising Ben is really hard to do. He's just too darn observant. However, I totally got him this year. The day before his birthday I had made 3 loaves of pumpkin bread to bring to his work. When he got home, he asked what all the bread was for and I just lied and said it was for the people I visit taught (convenient since I visit teach 3 women.) He was so surprised when we showed up at his work yesterday morning with the bread. Needless to say, everyone liked the bread. Ben admitted to eating half a loaf by himself.

After work, we had another surprise, Ella was running a temperature, so we had to run her to the instacare and sure enough she had an ear infection (we had taken Hyrum just the day before for an ear infection and pink eye). Fortunately, we were still able to go to dinner and gorge ourselves with chinese food. Afterwards, we came home and opened presents.

Again, it's really hard to surprise Ben. He'd been asking for the Transformers Movie since he first saw it in the theater, but I didn't just want to wrap up the DVD or he totally would know what it was. So I was sneaky and put it in a shoe box. He had no idea what it was.

I also was able to get him his favorite game, Risk, but it was actually a Transformers addition, so he totally loved it. Now I just have to avoid him asking me to play.

The last present was a little unusual. A bunch of guys at work have nerf guns and they are always sneaking around and shooting people. So I got him the biggest one I could find. He looked like a little boy on Christmas. He was going around the house like a maniac shooting everything. I may have to take the toy away and hide it.

After presents we had one of Ben's favorite desserts, homemade apple pie. All I can say is he better love me, because pie's take forever to make.

Hopefully, it was a special day for Ben. We just can't show him enough how much we love and appreciate him. Happy Birthday Ben!

Another Side of Hyrum

Best Friend Babies

We are so excited because Ben's best friend in Ohio called yesterday to tell us that they were expecting their second child. The funny part was Ben hadn't told him that we were pregnant, because we were going to surprise them next week when we go to visit. So Ben decided he should probably just say something and was like "oh yeah, Arin is 13 weeks pregnant." Of course his friend thought he was totally joking and was so surprised when Ben finally convinced him he was being serious.

The coolest part is that this same thing happened when we were pregnant with Ella. Ben's friend called to tell us they were pregnant and then like 2 weeks later we found out we were pregnant. Since I have my babies so early, Ella was actually born first and their daughter Mallory was born 4 days later.

I just think it's so cool that you and your best friend would have kids almost exactly the same ages. Hyrum, unfortunately, is the lone ranger. We are hoping for a boy so that he isn't too out numbered. Ben's best friend has one daughter and his other best friend has 2, so Hyrum is definitely out numbered when we go visit. He doesn't seem to mind too much though. I'm sure he'll appreciate those kind of odds about 12 years from now.

More Baby Pictures

I had my second doctor visit today and it was a little nerve racking at first because they couldn't find the baby's heartbeat. Now granted, that was typical of both my other children at this phase, but it still worries me every time. My kids just kind of burrow down and hide until they get to big to play that game. Anyways, the doctor sent me over to get an ultrasound just to make sure and the baby was doing fine.

It is so weird to see how much the baby has changed in just over a month. The last picture was just a blob with some arm and leg buds, but now I could see fingers and toes and a nose and mouth, and the baby was just kicking and stretching away. It was so amazing!

I just think it's crazy that by 12 weeks, all the baby's major structures are formed! The skeletal system now has centers of bone formation. Fingers and toes have separated and nails are growing. Bits of hair are appearing on the body. External genitalia are beginning to show. (although I didn't see anything) The digestive system produces contractions and can absorb glucose. The brain is beginning to make hormones. It's just so cool! I'm looking forward to when I can actually feel the baby, although I'm not too excited to jump into maternity clothes again.

Halloween

I love Halloween! It's been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. I love any reason to dress up and pretend to be someone else. Maybe that's why I love theater so much? Although, it isn't always comfortable when you have a million layers of petticoats, lace, and a corset, and then are expected to sing a dance. But just dressing up to stand around and look pretty is fun.

My kids have been looking forward to Halloween for a long time. Probably because I decorate the house the first day of October and then talk about it nonstop. This year my kids' costumes actually got worn more than a few hours. Someone actually asked me if I made them. Ha, ha, ha. I would have to be one amazing seamstress to get it to look that good, not to mention I would actually have to know how to sew. So my kid's can thank Grandma and the Disney Store for their costumes.

Last Saturday, Hyrum had his sunbeam party. It was so cute! They had all the fun games I remember playing like bobbing for apples, a fishing pond, and decorating Halloween cookies.

Then on Monday, Ben's work did a trick or treat thing at his office and the kids got tons of candy. It was kind of nice to just go around to cubicles inside a warm office and get candy.

Wednesday was a busy day! Hyrum had his pre-school party where he got more candy! Then our ward had trick or treating and games at the church from 5-7. So we hurried over there and let the kids get even more candy and play some games. Then we headed home for some homemade chili, and re-dressed the kids for the 3rd time in their Halloween costumes to go trick or treating.

We decided to go up to our old ward in Springville, since there wasn't a soul outside in our neighborhood. WOW! It was like a full out carnival. Every single house had over the top decorations like, actual graves dug out, moving monsters, flame torches, gigantic screens showing movies, you name it. I think the kids enjoyed looking at the houses as much as they did collecting candy. The really nice thing is our old ward had really small boundaries, 3 streets actually, so it only took us an hour to walk around and say hi to everyone.

Then we came home and let the kids pig out while we watched Hocus Pocus. We watch that movie every year on Halloween. I totally passed out on the coach, but Hyrum stayed up and watched the whole thing. Now is the sad part when I have to take stuff down. It's sad, because I don't really have any Thanksgiving stuff to decorate with , which means I have to wait until Christmas to decorate the house. I tell you, I just love dressing things up.

( I actually convinced the kids to dump all their candy into the treasure box. Now I can just put it up high somewhere and use it as bribery!)

Leaves!

Ella's Birthday

My little baby officially turned 2 yesterday! Since her birthday fell on a Sunday, we decided to celebrate it on Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa Braden even came down for the occasion, so the kids were excited.

Our original plan was to go to Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point, but if you caught the BYU football game you'll understand why we changed our minds. SNOW! Instead we spent the afternoon at hyperactive central, Chucky Cheese! The pizza was surprisingly not that bad, and the kids had a ton of fun riding the rides and playing games. Even Ben and my Dad got in the fun and ended up winning 200 tickets at just one game. (I don't think they expected 30-50 year old guys to be playing).


Here's Ella on some kind of space thing. She actually wasn't too thrilled about this one.

After Chucky Cheese, we went home so Ella could get a nap and watched the BYU game together, while eating enormous amounts of chips, salsa, and guacamole from Los Hermanos.

When we were done with dinner we had Ella open presents, and boy did it feel like Christmas. I attached a few pictures here, but you can check my facebook site for the complete album.


Ella is all girl, so we got her a hatbox full of jewelry and dress up clothes.


Here she has on the wings that go to her Tinkerbell costume that Grandma and Grandpa Braden got her for Halloween. I couldn't get her to try on the whole thing.

Another part of the dress up was 6 pairs of the cheezy plastic high heel shoes. She already can run around the house in them, despite the fact that they are too big and extremely awkward.

Ella had no warm clothes for winter, so Grandma and Grandpa Rohrbach sent some money to get some adorable clothes.

Here she is with the dolly Grandma and Grandpa Braden got her and the stroller mommy and daddy got for her.


Isn't this pack and play so cute. She tucks the baby in every night and gives kisses.


Later we did the whole cake and candles thing. Ben did an awesome job decorating the cake! I'm so glad he's good at making desserts, because just watching him frost it, made me tired.

Overall it was a great day and even though Ella won't remember any of it, I know I will! I'm still laughing at the image of her walking around with enough jewelry to impress Mr. T, in her hot pink glitter high heels, trying to push the stroller. Classic!

Marriage

The other day when we were making cupcakes, Hyrum was just rambling on about marriage. He was just being so funny, so I decided to join his conversation and this is what he said:

Mommy: Why did I get married?
Hyrum: Because you needed a daddy!

Mommy: What did Daddy say when he asked Mommy to marry him?
Hyrum: Please!

Mommy: What did Mommy say?
Hyrum: (in an exasperated tone) o.k.

Mommy: Why do we have kids?
Hyrum: So we have someone to play with.

Oh, well that clears everything up doesn't it. I love kids!

Treats and Preschool

Our ward has been so good to us this last month, in taking our kids every morning, and bringing in meals. Yesterday, we decided to bake a little fall thank you treat. The kids did more tasting than actual helping, but they had alot of fun delivering the plates to all their friends.

Today, we are still trying to catch up on everything and return to our regular schedule. I wanted to get a picture of Hyrum on his first day of pre-school, but unfortunately that was the day I was getting checked for kidney stones. He's been going for about 2 weeks, but I still wanted to get some pictures.

We were so lucky to get into the Baby Bulldog Pre-School that Provo High School runs. They have an amazing facility and there are tons of student helpers to give the kids attention. Hyrum goes Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 12:50-3:00 p.m. and the best part of all is it's only $70 a semester (which is October to mid December and February to mid April). He has had so much fun going to pre-school, and mom has really enjoyed being able to spend some time alone with Ella and just some time for herself.

This is one half of the facilty. The dress up center, the art center, the science center, and the exploring station.

Here's the other half. The reading center, the writing center,the creative station, and the bathrooms. They also have a playground outside, but it was freezing, so I didn't get a picture.

Hyrum, about 2 seconds after we got there.

I couldn't get him to even look up and smile.

Dinosaur Museum

I was feeling well enough that we were able to go to Thanksgiving Point for family home evening last night. We have had a pass for several months now, but I've never remembered to bring a camera. It was pumpkin night at the Dinosaur Museum so the kids had fun hunting around for hidden pumpins.

For those of you who haven't been up to the Dinosaur Museum, it's very different from traditional museums. It's a very interactive, hands on, kind of place. This is a picture of Hyrum hiding in one of the caves. If you look really close you can see one of the pumpkins next to the dino bones. Ella would not go near the cave.

This is where the kids learn about erosion. Can you tell who doesn't like to touch wet sand?

Can you guess who does?

This is the kids using paint brushes to uncover dinosaur bones.

Apparently dry sand is completely fine.

It was so fun to be able to be up and about and actually get out of the house for family home evening. The kids loved hunting for pumpkins and digging in the sand. Afterwards we stopped for some ice cream. Hopefully we'll be coming back to Thanksgiving Point for the Barnyard Boo at Farm Country this weekend for Ella's birthday.

10 Weeks

As of Sunday, I finally hit 10 weeks! This week my baby is about 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 inches and weighs .18 oz. Small! And baby is about the size of a small plum. Ten weeks is nice because most of the major organs have formed at this point and the baby no longer looks like a tadpole (which Hyrum was really relieved to know).

Ten weeks is also nice, because I'm finally starting to feel a little better. I still have the nausea and all the yucky pregnancy stuff, but I'm at least out of bed. Saturday, I did a little test run to see if I could drive by myself and go shopping by myself. Oh the healing powers of the mall! It was alot of fun to get out. I was even able to go to church on Sunday, although I was totally out of it because I woke up at 2:30 in the morning and could not get back to sleep. After lunch on Sunday we went for a drive on the Alpine Loop and it was so pretty! I was bummed that we didn't bring our camera. I got a little car sick, but it was worth it.

Today was the first day in over 3 weeks that I was able to watch the kids by myself. Ben still came home at lunch to help, but I did pretty good. I even cleaned out our fridge that has been accumulating moldy food for the last month. Hopefully I'll feel good enough to take the kids to Thanksgiving Point for family home evening tonight. I'll try to remember to bring the camera.

I'm adding some cute pictures we took of the kids before church on Sunday. It was the first time in over a month that they actually had on matching clothes, teeth brushed and hair done for church. God bless daddy, but he just can't do pigtails like mommy.

Ella looking cute!

And a little devious!

The ta-da pose!


Big Smooch!

Missing in Action

Well I've been M.I.A for the past three weeks and I've really missed posting on my blog. I'll give you a little clue as to what I've been up to. . . .

That's right, I'm having a baby! Well not today, but it is on it's way. The due date is May 18th and since none of my babies have made it past 36 weeks, you can probably count on an April baby. Thanks goodness the technitian added little arrows, because I never know what the heck I'm looking at. So here is our first picture of our little bean baby. The baby seems quite content, but has been causing me quite a bit of trouble.

About three weeks ago I caught some horrific virus that more or less just makes you feel like you want to die. I couldn't eat a thing and I had diareah like nobodys business. The doctors were trying to figure out if it was the pregnancy making me feel so darn awful or something else. So a million tests later, a couple of stool samples, and we still had no answers. So they sent me home with some Zofran and I had to go in to get an I.V. put in because I was so dehyrated. It only took them about a million pokes, because my veins kept collapsing.

A week or so later I started having these back/abdominal attacks that were so bad I would black out. I was already so weak because I couldn't even eat saltines, so we went in to get an ultra sound to make sure I wasn't having a molar pregnancy (the baby stops developing, but you don't miscarry) or a multiple pregnancy. Fortunately, it was neither of those options and the baby was doing just fine, but the doctors were still baffled as to where the pain was coming from. They ran some more tests and discovered blood in my urine. So I was carted off to the urologist to test for kidney stones.

They weren't able to run the regular cat scan due to the fact that I was 8 weeks pregnant at the time so their only option was an ultra sound, which unfortunately isn't very accurate. They didn't discover any stones, but my left kidney was slightly enlarged, which indicates there is a high probability I have a kidney stone.

This week has just been so fun waiting for that stone to pass, and lucky me, it's decided to just take up permanent residency inside. If it doesn't pass real soon it means I might have to go in for a surgery to try and remove it (not something I'm looking forward to). So now we are just in the waiting game.

It's been especially hard because I haven't been able to take care of my kids. Fortunately the ladies in my ward have been taking them every morning, but I really miss my kids company and just being the one who can take care of them. They really miss it too! Daddy's been sick this last week as well, so I think they kind of feel lost about who to turn to for a parent.

Yesterday, however, I actually got dressed and went and ate a hamburger, so I think that must be a good sign. I was starting to go crazy being stuck in my bed for three weeks. So hopefully, I'll start feeling better soon and can rejoin the human race. I'm currently 9 weeks pregnant and I'm really hoping to be up and moving soon because in the late 20 weeks I go back on bed rest, so I better have some time where I can enjoy the joys of motherhood. Or is that when the kids go off to college?