What a difference 2 months make

I can't believe my baby is 2 months old. Not only is she rounder, longer and just bigger in general, she is so alert, smiley, and fun to be with.

0 and 1,758

We were lucky enough to spend Christmas in California with our families. The video is Ella rocking out with Grandma Joan's dancing/singing reindeer. I think we listened to this song for a total of 28 hours on our trip (okay maybe only 24). The kids had such a great time, and if I had stuck to my goal of not making a single one of my family members cry, I would have had a great time too. I almost made it the whole trip! Oh well, there's always next year.
We made our annual Christmas trip to Disneyland, which the kids were ecstatic about. It rained the whole morning, but after our annual buying of new wardrobes for wet kids, we enjoyed the lack of people in the park. Olivia was a real trouper and got to experience Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Jungle Cruise, to name a few. If any of you go with babies, check out the Baby Care Center. It is the best kept secret in Disneyland. There are private areas to nurse or pump, a great changing area, a stocked kitchen, and the nicest ladies in the world to help you. GOOOOO Disney!!!
Here we are waiting for the Christmas parade to start. It's amazing that in all the years of going to Disneyland I avoided parades and the Tiki Room. Having little kids makes you do things you thought you would never do, but just seeing their joy makes it fun (almost). Ella's face when Princess Aurora waved to her made sitting on the cold ground worth it.
We were also so lucky that we could bless Livi with our Dads and brothers. Olivia Love Stott was official blessed on Christmas Eve. She cried through the whole thing, I peaked and the guys were bouncing her to no avail. Eric could barely think, but it was still beautiful.
Christmas morning was awesome. Here we all are (except Dad) in our new pajamas. Santa came, and brought exactly what we all wanted, and the kids were spoiled beyond belief from Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, and us. That wasn't the best part though. The best part was talking to our brothers on missions, James and Kyle. Kyle comes home on January 2nd, and it was fun to get to say hi knowing we would see him soon. James was his usual fun self and it was cool that his girlfriend, Jes, came to stay with us after Christmas. She is such a neat person and I loved getting to know her better. Hopefully she doesn't Dear John him after spending time with us (we can be a little...overwhelming, when we are all together).
All in all it was a great trip, and hopefully I'll be able to have a new record of not making a family member cry and get to 1 and 1,758 next year.

Meet Baby Olivia

We are proud to re-announce (most of you got emails with pictures already) the birth of our precious daughter, Olivia Love Stott. We've had a lot of weird looks at the middle name, so I think I will explain. I really wanted to name this baby after my Grandpa Bud, since his real name is Harrison, and I love that name. Unfortunately naming a girl Harrison is something that even I wont do, but his mother, whom he adored, had the maiden name "Love." I will never get to use Harrison, but I did get to honor a man I truly love and admire. Plus "Love" is just cool, so there. I'm still recovering from the C-section so this will be very brief. I just wanted to put up a few pictures (one, of course, is Livi in her going home outfit that I knitted) I'll fix red eye later and replace pics, but for now I'll justs add as is. The kids are very sweet to the baby and want to help feed and hold her. In the hospital they seemed to enjoy being at the hospital, and eating there, more than seeing me or Olivia. Oh well. As soon as I figure out how to add video I have a great one to post. Joan got us a great new camera as a baby gift and it is simply fabulous. It does everything, and does it well. Hopefully I'll figure that out before Livi's 1st birthday. I'm going to go shower and try and feel human again. My love to everyone.

Ode to a Fabulous Mother-in-Law

I am a lucky girl, in that I love my in laws. I know I got lucky, and the last few days have proved it. Eric's mom, Joan, came out to help with the baby and has been totally fabulous! I am still sick, and she has just picked up the slack and asked what else she can do. It is great to have her here!

Look What I Did!

So we are at the mad dash to the finish line with this baby. I have a list with about 30 things that I felt needed to be done before she arrived. Then I got sick. Not just a little wimpy cough; full blown cold with hacking cough, lost voice, and 24 hour stomach flu on top. Basically I have been laid out all week on the couch wishing I was no longer breathing because then I couldn't cough anymore. At least laying on the couch afforded me the time to finish 1 of the projects on my list. I finished knitting the outfit I am going to bring the baby home in. It's my first project besides blankets for stuffed animals, scarfs, and hats. It was actually really, really fun, but not the easiest thing to do when you are self taught. As long as no one looks too closely it looks pretty good. Hopefully I don't have a gigantic baby (like Eric's brothers) and the baby will fit in it for the trip home at least.
So the door may not be hung in the baby's room, the bassinet is still out in the garage, and the changing table is still wrapped up, but heck, my baby will look stylish coming home. We all have to have priorities, I guess.
Last night we had our church trunk or treat. In Lincoln it was this major production that took hours and the kids bags were filled with horrible goodies that I would eventually end up eating. Cars were decorated, there was a carnival inside, and a chili contest for the adults. It's a little different here in Scottsbluff. The kids made the rounds in about 10 minutes and then we went to eat chili and cinnamon rolls inside. I felt pretty sick still, but since I will be missing trick-or-treating this year I thought I would go to this so I had a Halloween memory with the kids. We showed up at 6 and left at 7. It was AWESOME. All church activities should be like that. You go and enjoy things and then you go home, no stress. Anyways I have some cute pics of the kids in their costumes and since I probably wont get around to Halloween pics until mid-March I thought I'd post these instead.Ella thouroughly enjoying just the icing from one of the cinnamon rolls. Poor Eric got to eat the rest.The kids getting ready with Dad. Ella is, of course, Pincess Aurora, and Ethan is the black power ranger, who, as everyone who is anyone knows, is the coolest of power rangers.
A little bit blurry, but you get the idea. Ella felt beautiful and wanted to pose for every picture. Ethan I guess felt like the bad guy on Scream, but he makes this face now in every pictures. Future girlfriends will think he had a spastic muscle disorder for an entire year of his life. Oh well.

"You can't get much bigger."

That was one of the wonderful comments I received on Sunday at church. I am a little sick of insensitive comments that are all directly related to how big I am. Yup, I'm big. I'm 37 weeks pregnant, what do they expect. One man in the ward came up and said "Sister Stott, I lost a bet because of you. I thought you wouldn't be here this Sunday because you are so big, I thought you would have the baby by now." Another great comment was "Wow, you're big and low." From now on I would like everyone to know that we pregnant women do not need these comments. Here are some alternatives: "I bet you're baby is going to be just as pretty as you." "When are you due? (response in here) How exciting." Never, never, never say in response to the due date "Wow, you've got a ways to go," or "You're pretty big for being that far along." (I've had both of these responses and they are very demoralizing)
So on to happier things. I just realized I didn't have a single picture of my grotesque belly for this pregnancy, so today after my haircut I made Eric take some pictures. You can all see how big I am now, and can make responses to people at home (or me if they are appropriate, see above).
The kids wanted to be in the pictures really badly and I think the picture speaks volumes about their personalities. Ella wanted to be in the picture to hug the baby, and Ethan wanted to be in the picture to make a silly face. Silly kids.

Chasing Girls

Oh how quickly they grow up, especially in public school. The picture on the left is at our zoo on a trip we took with some friends. From left to right is Ella, Ethan, Caleb, and Madi. Luckily our kids are all within months of each other, and have become best friends. Ethan and Caleb are in the same kindergarten class and play every recess together (Ella and Madi are in the same preschool class too). The boys had been engaged in digging holes in the sand in an effort to reach the magma under the Earth's crust in order to start a fire on the bundle of sticks they have waiting. It was always fun to hear of their progress in digging down to the fire they knew they would reach.
Today I was shaken as Eric asked if they were still trying to start a fire and Ethan said no. When asked what he did at recess he answered "Chase girls." I guess he and Caleb have been chasing girls at recess for the last couple of days, and he seems to think this is REALLY fun. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I thought I would have a least a couple of years before this awareness of girls began. It wouldn't scare me so much except one little girls that he chases seems to have glomed onto him. What is a mother to do. Home school kids are too weird.

P.S. on a weird side note, yes I do know our kids are tall. Poor Caleb is the same height as Ella.

Could I Be Any More Jealous?!??

My mom is a very lucky lady. For last Christmas my dad got her appointments with Nick Arrojo and Carmendi from "What Not To Wear" to get her hair and makeup done. I guess they have to schedule way in advance since they are in high demand. Yesterday, after 4 hours in the salon my mother came out with the cutest hair (the hair style I have always wanted, but have way too much hair for). I just wanted to post a before and after for those of you that know my mom.















They are both cell phone pics, but I think you can get the jist of it. The one on the bottom with the very happy face is obviously the new hair. You look great Mom!

Trying Hard, but not quite getting it.

Well, trying to limit carbs is....well...hard. I'm not so slowly going insane. In an effort to try and break the monotony I bought a diabetic cookbook and tried a brownie recipe. Let me warn you all that brownies made mostly of eggs and Splenda are pretty gaggie. I think Ella said it best "The bottom is icky, I only want to eat the top" (the recipe called for sprinkling the top with real chocolate chips). The pictures are of Ethan thoroughly enjoying just the top part of the gross brownies. Ella had already been cleaned up from picking at the top, but luckily I was able to snap these beauties before Ethan wiped up and got out of his Spiderman costume from 2 years ago.

EXTRAcurricular Activities

Well the kids have started school, and with the start of school comes all the extras that are available. I let the kids pick one activity to be involved with and they both picked ballet. Eric nixed this idea and so Ethan is doing soccer again, and Eric is coaching his team once again. Ethan is a good sport, but I don't think his heart is in it. Like his mom, Ethan cannot see the joy in running back and forth, over and over and over again, just to swarm around a little ball and hopefully touch it with your toe. He said he would like to try T-ball next time, since it has less running. He is actually a good runner, I think he just doesn't like the contact aspect of soccer. Ella started ballet, and seems to like it, but I doubt I am going to be able to live my dancing dreams through her. She is actually a better soccer player than Ethan (sorry, but true). She can dribble faster and kick harder than any of the boys on his team. She seems to take after her Aunt Cheryl. I guess next year Eric can coach her team. Ella does like dancing, but is impatient with not doing turns and leaps yet. She loves tapping her tap shoes and making noise. Oh well, maybe this next baby will provide me with the dancer I crave.
Eric is a great coach and is so patient with the boys. We have one little boy that runs once across the field and immediately collapses in a heap. Needless to say he is a bit of a trial, but Eric never looses his cool. He is also the scoutmaster for the 11 year old scouts, and so far they haven't once played basketball (GO Eric!).
I, meanwhile, am slowly going crazy. We all know when I was pregnant with Ethan I had to eat 5 grams of fat or less a day because of my gallbladder. With Ella I gave up all dairy (most breads are made with milk). With this baby I thought it would be easy, but I was mistaken. Because I hadn't tried this particular diet yet my body thought it would be fun to have gestational diabetes. The only risk factor I have for diabetes is family history (two grandparents with diabetes, no one with gestational) and I am over 25. So anyways, I get to eat about 45 grams of carbohydrates a meal. Look at the package on any food and you will soon see how crappy this is. If any of you know of any yummy diabetic friendly meals let me know. Since I can't think of another restrictive diet I can go on I guess we are done having children. There wouldn't be a challenge in it.Ella about to start dance walks across the room. The little brunette next to her is her friend Maddi, who is 2 months older than Ella.

Ethan playing soccer. This green player number 2 is his best friend Caleb (Maddi's brother). He is 4 months older than Ethan. I guess we have tall kids!

First Scary Post

AGGGGHHHH, I've been sucked in by the blogging borg. The computer can now declare "All your bases is belong to us." I feel like I was the last hold out to this impersonal form of communication, but I've come to love reading everyone elses as a way of keeping up to date with their families. So with baby number 3 rumbling away in my tummy, I've decided to jump on board and set up a blog so that when I only have a few minutes, or some cute pictures to share I have an easier way to "talk" to everyone.

A few ground rules: 1. I cannot spell, and my grammar is atrocious. I know this. I have been sadly aware of this fact for as long as I can remember. After years of therapy and self help books, I have come to accept that bad spelling does not mean stupid. I hope you can all help me not feel stupid as I write for everyone to see. 2. That's it. That was the only thing I was worried about. Oh wait, no making fun of how much weight I have gained this pregnancy. I mean it, not even to your husband when you think I can't hear. I CAN hear you. 3. Now that really is it.

So, enjoy my cute kids, my rambling, and the updates on our family.

p.s. the picture is from the kids first day of school. It was their first full day away from each other, and I thought this reunion was pretty sweet.