Everyday Joys

Upon recommendation from my in-laws, I got Anna a bunch of little cheap toys to play with during her "Mommy's-currently-attached-to-baby-and-can't-play-right-now" time. They worked for about the first two days, and then she found something significantly more entertaining to do during that time. She reorganizes the pantry! As you can see, she stands on one of the cans so she can reach the second shelf. That is why almost everything is shoved onto the third shelf... I'm just waiting to see when she'll learn to stack two cans on top of each other to get even higher. At least she puts it all back when she's done throwing it out into the kitchen. I love that little kid. She has been so great.


I also love little baby butts. They truly must be the cutest thing on earth (when they are neatly packaged, of course...) Here is the one I get to enjoy each day!




Here is what the front looks like...since some of you may want to see that too...
Different day, similar position. She loves to stare out our bright bedroom window and dream of who knows what. Doesn't she just look like she's contemplating something pretty spectacular? :)



P.S. The bloodshot part of her eye is supposed to go away within another week. She was born with quite a few broken vessels on her face too, but they are pretty much gone now. Apparently delivery can be stressful. (Ya think?)

She's He-e-e-ere!

Well, first off, this post is a week late. I've felt naked all week without internet and we finally got it set up today. Enough about that, here are all the wonderful and exciting things regarding our newest addition to the Gardner family!



Emily Irish Gardner was born 01/01/10 (cool b-day, huh) at 10:21 am. We were even on the morning news because she was a New Year baby! I won't go into detail about the labor, just because not everyone wants to know that info...but everything went very fast and smoothly! She was 8lbs 3oz, 21 and 1/2 inches long, and was feeding within the first two minutes of birth.



Since then, she has proven to be the easiest baby on earth! She is already on a four-hour schedule, sleeps through the night, and gives us little smiles all the time (probably because she tooted, but still...)

Anna is doing so well with the transition, and loves to give Emily kisses. She's very gentle and likes to also point out all her body parts. :)



Our house finalized just before Christmas, so we were able to have a home for a week before Emily arrived. Thank goodness - everything has worked out beautifully!!

Anyway, now that we have internet, I'm sure you'll hear from us more often! We're no longer off the grid!

The Talented Miss Gardner

I've been posting a lot lately, and I think it is because I have the sneaky suspicion that I'm about to disappear off the face of the earth for a few months...
Anyway, Anna was cracking me up today. First, while I was reading her a few books this morning, she randomly pointed at my belly and said, "Ball!". Yes, if it weren't for all the moving around taking place inside, I would think that's what it was, too. However, this is the first sign she has shown that she notices something, so I guess that's cool!
Later today, she was quiet for a while playing in her room and I stopped doing dishes to investigate. She was sitting quietly working with some of her "small toys". I have a separate tupperware in her toy box that is just for pretty small pieces of random things. She had pulled it out, and came out to show me after a while what she had been working on:

She put all five fake witch fingernails on by herself! I was impressed; those things aren't easy to get on! She seemed very proud of herself as well:

Anyway, just lovin' this little girl! Can't wait to have her meet her sister and vice verse!

And The Race Is On...

Which will it be???? Baby or house? Baby or house? Which one will win the race?

I can't believe how long it has been that I've been saying, "Yeah, we are supposed to close next week!" There are just too many individuals involved in purchasing a home - especially when it is a HUD home - this whole process is just taking forever! Of course, I'm sure I'm not being one bit impatient, considering that I'm not sure if I will or will not have a place for our baby to sleep when she comes! It is just frustrating; anything requested on our end has taken less than an hour to deliver to the right hands. We do everything right away, and then it takes "a week or so" to complete whatever stage our title company, or lender, or underwriter, or HUD agent is in. I also hate being in the dark so much. Why is it that the purchasers can't just call up the sellers and ask what stage they are in, or how much longer they expect things to take? Okay, I know the answer to that, but it is still frustrating that we can't talk to certain people without going through the proper channels. Blah Blah Blah - I just want to be home!!

P.S. Yes, that is our actual house, but not our actual baby. In case you were wondering...

A Time for Thanks

I am so glad that we got married during this season of Thanksgiving! It reminds me every time how thankful I am for such an amazing husband! Jared, you are everything to me, and I had no idea how many wonderful things would come from saying, "Yes" to you 7 years ago! You are the most kind, understanding and giving individual I've ever met, and each day I am surprised to find you still love me despite all my faults and shortcomings!

You have given our family such strength and character with all your determination and dedication to finishing school. You are an idealistic father to Anna, and already one to our little girl on the way - just by taking such good care of me! You have seen us through thick and thin, and I feel so blessed to have you in my life! I love you, sweetie and Happy Anniversary!

Little Angel

For anyone that knows me pretty well, the title of this post may come as a surprise. Not because Anna isn't a cute little angel or anything like that, but mainly because I'm not one for sissy pet names. However, I just wanted to share that I really did have a little angel on my hands today as I "caught" Anna saying prayer several times. I would walk into her room, and she'd have her chubby little arms folded as best they could be, her head sort of bowed, and she'd be whispering incoherent words for a second before abruptly stopping and clapping for herself! I'll have to admit that I clapped for her when we first learned prayers because she did so good, but now she claps after every one... it's cute enough that I'm not going to curb it. I wish I could get into her head to know what she is thinking, or what she is saying.
Also, as if to further solidify my opinion of my little angel, while writing this post, she came up to me wanting me to read her "I am a Child of God" book. She has all of her books fully accessible, and that is the one she picks, bringing it to me, pointing at the cover art and saying, "Shesus, Shesus."
She must be having a spiritual day...
Here is a recent picture that just makes me smile; I love my little girl. :)

Okay, Here You Go...

Ugh, for some reason I have really not wanted to post my pregnant picture this go-around. Last time, even though I gained about double the weight, I think I felt more excited about experiencing it all for the first time and thus didn't care what I looked like. This time, for some reason, I haven't been able to make myself post anything. But, Jared made me take a couple pictures just so we'd have a record, and I decided that I may as well indulge the curiosity of blog followers. It has also been fun creating this post because every time Anna runs behind me as she plays, she points and says, "Mama!"

Anyway, in this picture, I am at 33 weeks and explaining to PJ how the birds and the bees work... Of course, he's already had 7 kids, so I'm not really sure why he was asking. Sorry about the completely blank backdrop, we are still planning to close end of November, and thus have mostly everything packed already. Enjoy.

Cock-A-Doodle-BOO!

Happy Halloween everyone! Here are some pictures from our adventures! Jared was working so he missed out on the fun, but the girls had a great night. First, I briefly considered dressing her up as a mad scientist:


But then went with our original plan of a rooster...that plays piano...



Anna had lots of fun running around chasing balloons at the ward's trunk-or-treat. She wasn't very social, but liked the decorations, pumpkins and lights. I kept having to shed her layers underneath her costume as the night progressed - that thing was hot!



I just loved the yellow and orange striped legs!



By the time we made it to Grandma and Grandpa's roost, she was super pooped. We didn't stay for long, and she ended up going to bed before 7! Anyway, we had a great time, and can't wait until next year when she really will understand what is going on! :)

Anna's Moon

Anna was given a balloon the other day while Jared, she and I were walking the mall. She instantly fell in love with it and has played with it while the helium lasted. The only problem is that she is now confused about the difference between a balloon and a moon. She just officially learned 'moon' the other day, so introducing another round thing that floats in the sky, that happens to sound actually similar to 'moon' is very confusing. Every morning now, when she gets up for breakfast, she sees her 'moon' floating in the dining room and identifies it. I really don't know how to explain it to her. I guess she doesn't care anyway. :) See how much fun she has with it in this video.

Cravings

Since I have had two pregnancies quite close together, it has made for easy comparisons. For example, with Anna, I didn't ever get any crazy cravings. I only got strange sensations when brushing my teeth. I can't explain it, and I know it sounds weird, but I loved brushing everything in my mouth because it felt so nice! That went away immediately after Anna's birth, but don't worry, I continued brushing anyway...
With this one, I have had just a few cravings, the occasional cheeseburger or whatever, but it seems like I have basically gone through three nutritional phases; one for each trimester. The first trimester was avocados. I think I had one by itself at least once a week. They were delicious. There was even one night that I ate a whole one, but wanted another. It was pretty late, so the grocery stores were closed, but I knew of a Taco Bell that was open 24 hours. Well, to my great disappointment, they didn't actually carry avocados. I got some weird ranch-avocado sauce that was entirely unsatisfying instead. It was like experiencing Disneyland as an adult instead of a child - that kind of disappointment.
The second trimester was milk. MMMMMilk. I chugged milk like there was no tomorrow, and I usually am a 2% kind of gal, but 1% was completely satisfying and much more healthy, I'm sure. Anyway, I think I even made a couple of meals with the appetizer, entree and dessert being milk!
This trimester has been all about carrots. Ask me not if I want avocados or milk, they have had their day, but put some carrots in front of me now, and I will devour them! I finished off two bags of organic baby carrots last week, and am only writing this now because I am in the mood for some tonight, but don't have any! They are just so delicious and cold and crisp and refreshing; just irresistible! My favorite carrots are the type that have that slight mud taste to them, you know what I mean. The type that taste like you just plucked them from the ground, rinsed them off with a hose, and took a bite. Those are my favorite, which reminds me: Since the smell of rain and mud are some of my favorite smells, I've noticed that the monsoon season this year has been quite a let-down. Honestly, I think it has only rained really hard twice since we got pregnant - what the heck!?
With rain comes mud and faster growing grass which leads to my other favorite smell - freshly cut grass! I feel like I got robbed this summer of my favorite scents which could be so much more enjoyed with the intensified senses of pregnancy! :)
Oh well, I'm off to get some carrots...