The Diagnosis

We found out about our car yesterday... $1,500!! And we won't get it back until Wednesday evening. Aparently there was some problem with the thingymajig that controls the throttle. I don't get exactly what it all does but the part alone costs $600! There were some other labor intesive issues that combined just really add up. If you want to know more detail you would have to ask Scott... Anyway, the "good news" is that our little camping trip and off-roading adventure did NOT cause the problems - they would have happened anyway and we are sooooo blessed that they didn't show up until AFTER we got home from the camping trip. It would have been such a nightmare to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere!

Engine Power Reduced??

This is not a sight you like to see, especially when it is YOUR car they are taking away... Unfortunately, we had to have our car towed to the dealership because it has something very wrong with it!

We came home from our camping trip on Saturday and spent the afternoon resting and putting all of the gear away. Later that evening we decided to go and get some subs for dinner and then we were going to watch a movie with my family. We all piled into the car and when Scott turned it on the little display computer in the car said "Engine Power Reduced." Sure enough, the car gave a shudder and then sounded like a lawn mower engine - small and weak. We tried to drive it and when Scott pushed the gas pedal to the floor we were going 20 mph. Needless to say we did not leave the neighborhood. Scott checked out the engine and could not figure out what was causing the problem, then we noticed the smoke coming out of the engine. Great!! So, of course being Saturday night we had to wait until today to do anything about it! My mom brought over one of their cars for us to borrow until ours is fixed. Hopefully it will not cost too much but we don't have our hopes up...

We don't know if our weekend adventure caused the car problems. We made it home with absolutely no trouble from the car so it seems unlikely...

Only time will tell...I feel like a member of the family is sick and we are waiting to hear the bad news...

Queen Valley

I am now 33 weeks pregnant! How did we celebrate this milestone?

I know what you are thinking...pedicure...chocolate...foot rub...a movie...

No no, we decided to go...

CAMPING!!!

Our good friends, Kesseli and Jon, invited us to go camping with them on Friday afternoon and we decided it would be fun to take Stephen for his first camping trip. I know - I was asking for a rough night's sleep, but hey you are only youngish once so why not?

Here is a picture of Queen Valley, the area we camped in... I LOVE this part of Arizona at this time of year!

Here are the bathroom facilities...yes, even I had to use the bushes...don't ask...although there is a funny story here. Stephen was a really good bathroom coach for me - when I would go in the bushes he would say "good job mommy! you did it mommy!"

Kesseli, Jon, and their son Anden...their other little guy, Brecker, was asleep in the tent already. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire. I love S'mores. I think that might be the main reason I was willing to go...

Here we are in the tent - it fit a queen sized air mattress which the three of us shared. It started out ok, but it turned into one of the worst nights for all three of us. My back hurt sooooo bad and Tylenol did nothing to help. (I have sciatic nerve pain so I don't generally sleep very well at home either.) Also, every time I would start to doze Stephen would try to steam roll me so I would have to push him back to Scott's side and he would then push Steve back to my side. The poor kid kept saying "stop pushing me!" Luckily he is a heavy sleeper...

Stephen was absolutely thrilled with sleeping in the tent until the sun came up in the morning. He sleeps until about 9:00 at home and I think it got light at about 7:00. When the sun started to light up the tent he rolled over and started to whine, "turn off the light!" He was VERY mad about waking up.

Here are Stephen and Anden throwing rocks into a stream the next morning. They would have done this all day long if we let them. They were slowly getting wetter and wetter so we had to stop though. The boys also enjoyed running around in the dark with flashlights and Stephen was especially disappointed the next morning to discover that the flashlight just wasn't quite the same in full day light!

This is Stephen in the car on the way home. He was eating a sucker and still managed to fall asleep. The pictures do not fully convey how incredibly dirty he was!

The biggest adventure for the adults was the road we traveled to get to this camping spot. It wasn't really far but the road was not designed for a Chevy Malibu. We bottomed out several times and the only vehicles we passed coming and going were trucks or ATVs. We got a lot of funny looks and one guy even stopped to ask us how we were taking the road in our car. Every time it would be particularly rough or harzardous I would have to close my eyes until it was over. Our car is now the weekend warrior!! (Except for the major car problems that we now have as of Saturday evening...another post will have to explain that one).Overall, it was a fun trip and we had a lot of fun bonding as a little family and spending time with friends. The next time we go we are going to need a bigger tent and a truck!

Pregnancy Update

Today I am really dragging because my body decided to have a little workout last night from 12 until 3 am. I was having all of these contractions and they really kind of hurt! I can only assume that they are Braxton Hicks because after awhile they went away but I do not remember feeling these when I was pregnant with Stephen! This is the second time that I have had these in the middle of the night within the last week but this time they lasted much longer. In any case, it made it difficult to sleep very well...

I went in for my 32 week doctor appointment yesterday. I have been contemplating attempting a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) with this baby. I had my mind made up to go for it because c-sections stink!! Then, after talking with the doctor yesterday about all of the risks to me and the baby (exploding uterus, neurological damage to the baby, possible hysterectomy) I am a little freaked out. The odds of these things happening are very very tiny but they DO happen and SOMEONE has to make up that small percentage of people. So I am not sure what to decide.

Anyway, there are a lot of things that would have to happen perfectly for this to be successful. I have to go into labor on my own (no induction) and progress through labor at a good rate. If at any time the labor stalls they would do a c-section. Also, they will be measuring the baby and if he is too big (bigger than Stephen was - 9lbs 9oz) they would not let me attempt the VBAC. (Not that I would want to push out a baby that big anyway!!)

Even though my due date is still 8 weeks away there is a good possibility that the baby will be born (by c-section) in 7 weeks because one of my doctors said that she wouldn't let me go past that point. BUT the other doctor said I could wait for labor to start all of the way up until my due date. We will see what I feel like when I get to that point. I might be so miserable that I won't want to wait for labor and may opt for the c-section after all!

Note: Ideally, this post would contain a picture of me with a big pregnant belly but I must refer back to the first paragraph which details my lack of sleep...basically, I am too tired to bother right now!

Stephen Sampler

I have been having a hard time keeping up with my little guy lately. I am not sure if it is him being more active and requiring more work or if I am just slowing down due to my increasing size... Probably it is a combination of the two. I find myself exhausted half way through the day and wondering how I will ever handle a two year old and a newborn at the same time! I am sure that somehow we will make it work - people do it all the time - right??

These pictures were taken when Stephen came down with some weird rash two weeks ago - the doctor said it was Scarlett Fever -??? He took antibiotics and after the rash turned his skin into sandpaper it is finally starting to clear up. He looked awful for several days though - his face was all puffy and red. He never had any other weird symptoms except for a slight fever one night.

Stephen has been doing very well with potty training. He has many days without any accidents and is getting better and better at actually telling us when he needs to go. He loves getting stickers on his chart and m&ms. He gets really excited about the prizes he earns - the favorite rewards include trips to the park, Matchbox cars, movies, Wendy's for dinner, and the latest - bubble bath. (I realized that we have never bought real bubble bath and filled the tub up with bubbles for him - it was a BIG hit!)

Here is Stephen chillin' with some of his potty training prize cars.

Nursery is still really fun for Stephen. He can hardly wait until Sacrament meeting is over to go to nursery. When we sing a rest hymn it really confuses him and he thinks that the next speaker is saying the closing prayer. He always is happy to go and start playing and sometimes isn't ready to go home when we come to pick him up. One week I showed up and they hadn't done the bubbles yet so he told me "no mommy! go away!" I wasn't offended - bubbles are pretty special!

These pictures are from a fun party we went to at our friends' house a week ago. They had a pinata and as you can see, Stephen was a big fan of it! My favorite picture is where he is stuffing his pockets with candy. Yes, I still need to figure out how to make these pictures turn the right way!

One long ultrasound...

I went in for a routine ultrasound today and the tech was having waaaaay too much fun! My doctor's office just got in these new machines that can do 3D and 4D ultrasounds, as well as the good old 2D. My question was what the difference between 3 and 4 D is. Apparently, the 4D ultrasound is in real time or something. Anyway, she seriously spent the first 20 minutes getting "cute" pictures and making a DVD movie of the ultrasound as well as a CD of still images. I also scored about 20 printed pictures! Then, after the fun part, she did all of the measurements and that took another 20 minutes! (In case you were curious the estimate of his weight at this point was 4 lbs 1 oz). I was feeling pretty gross from laying on my back for 40 minutes - I couldn't breathe and felt light headed. I had to take several "breaks" and lay on my side. It was so funny - I really couldn't believe how long it was taking! The whole time, the baby kept moving all over the place - he had the hiccups for a while and was just extremely active throughout the entire ultrasound. It is pretty cool to see what my little guy looks like - I think he looks a little like Stephen. :) Before this experience I was so worried that I wasn't being a good mommy because I didn't bring in my VHS to record all of my ultrasounds like I did with Stephen! This little guy definately got the sweeter set up!

What can I say? So much fun!

My good friend and former roommate, Tina, came for a visit this past weekend. She called me out of the blue one day and said that she wanted to come to Arizona to see me and our other friend, Ashley, who just moved to Gilbert. The next thing I knew Tina was hopping a flight from Salt Lake to Phoenix! She stayed at my humble abode for four days and we played the whole time she was here.

Then...

Now

There were a total of four of us girls who lived together our sophomore and junior years at BYU - Tina, me, Ashley, and Ashley. We were best friends and as close as you can be - for me, my roommates became my temporary family and were an amazing support when I was away from home. I still consider those years as some of the most fun I have experienced! We were crazy and weird and would eat junk all of the time somehow never gaining weight - why doesn't it work that way now?

Some of our fun activities this weekend included:

eating jell-o cake and grahm crackers with frosting

walking around the mall (where does a single hottie, big fat preggo lady (me), and a cute new mommy go to shop that is fun for all of us? the answer is that it doesn't matter we were just gabbing the whole time anyway!)

going to the temple

getting a pedicure - LOVED IT!

talking

playing games

watching movies

talking

more talking

reminicing about BYU days

lots of laughing

going to the Salt River to talk and eat more grahm crackers with frosting - such beautiful weather!

eating at Oregano's

It is hard to return to normal life now...

I have to elaborate on our trip to the Salt River because it demonstrates what a FABULOUS husband I have. Scott, Stephen, Tina, and I drove in one car to meet up with Ashley and her little baby, Taylor at a gas station on the way to the park. Our plan was to take both vehicles but then we realized that if we crammed we could fit both car seats as well as all 3 of us girls in Ashley's truck and then Scott could drive us. So, Scott spent about 20 minutes getting the car seats strapped in (there was a weird seat belt giving us crap) and then we all piled in and were off!

As we were going down the road, Tina looked over and saw a man laughing at us. He must have found it amusing to see one man, three women (one big and pregnant) a baby and a toddler all crammed into a truck together. Who knows what he was thinking but we must have been a sight! This guy was seriously still smirking at us as we passed him up on the road. We were all just laughing and laughing! Scott was such a good sport about the whole thing.

Our original plan was to go to Usery Pass park but somehow we were talking too much and missed some of the turns so we ended up on a road that took us near the Salt River. We just laughed and decided to stop at a picnic area there instead of trying to find our way back to Usery Pass Park.
It was a really pretty spot and we just sat and talked while enjoying the beautiful scenery and weather. Scott took pictures for us and kept Stephen entertained. I love my hubby!

You'll have to turn your head sideways for this one!

By the way - Stephen said he needed to go potty while we were there so rather than brave the nasty bathrooms we decided to have him pee in the bushes. I make my boy pee sitting down so he has never tried it standing up yet. He refused to pee when daddy took him, but when mommy showed him the bush to aim for he did the job perfectly! I was proud but felt that maybe Scott missed out on some manly bonding with his son... :)

It was so fun to see Tina and get to spend time with her and Ashley. I have the best husband in the world. He watched Stephen pretty much the entire day on Friday while I was at the temple and getting a pedicure. Also, my family was fabulous for watching Stephen while Scott and I went on a real date on Saturday night!

After Tina left on Sunday, we were driving to church and I mentioned that I felt sad. Stephen said, "you ok mommy, you ok." So sweet! We miss you already Tina!