Very, very clear confirmation at 20 weeks

Well, the sonogram technician didn't even need to tell us what we are having. It was VERY clearly a boy from the very first picture that popped up on the screen. And the name game begins.  Now we just need 2 more for a basketball team or 3 more for a hockey team (including the goalie).

It was fun to have the sonogram nearly a month after we normally do because there was so much more detail and the baby looked so much bigger!  He was 1 lb. 1 oz. at this point.

I'll spare you the generic ultrasound photo.

I am a child of God

A couple weeks ago Walt was in his room with the ukelele and started singing his favorite church song, I am a Child of God.  Of course when I pull out the camera he stops and has to be coaxed into singing it.  It was cute nonetheless.

Last night I went to the General Relief Society Broadcast.  It was an amazing conference for the women of our church. The first three talks were good, but I have to admit that it was the last talk that really hit home for me.

Here are my notes from it:
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf began talking of the tiny blue flowers called forgetmenots and then created a metaphor for its 5 petals.

1. Forget not to be patient with your self.

• God is fully aware that we aren't perfect.
• He is also aware that those we think are perfect are not
• Don't compare your weaknesses to others' strengths
• Eventually we will all be able to turn our weaknesses into strengths with Christ's help. It's okay that we're not there yet. Stop punishing yourself.
• Be thankful for small successes in the home.

2. Forget not the difference between foolish sacrifice and worthy sacrifice.

• Am I committing my time and energy to those things that matter most?
• It might be good to sacrifice a little sleep to read and study for a class you are going to teach in church.
• It might not be good to sacrifice your sleep to stitch the theme of your lesson onto a potholder for every woman in your class.

3. Forget not to be happy now.

• Are we too worried to find a golden ticket instead of enjoying the candy bar?
• Don't put your happiness on hold while you are waiting for something else (perfect marriage, perfect kids, bigger house, less debt, etc.) to appear.
• The Golden ticket may never appear.
• If we spend our days waiting for roses, we may miss the wonders of the tiny forgetmenots.
• Don't close your eyes and hearts to each day's everyday-moment-wonders.

4. Forget not the why of the gospel.

• The gospel is not just a long list of tasks we must somehow fit into our already busy schedules.
• The gospel of Christ is not an obligation, it is a pathway. It's a light that illuminates the road before us.
• The gospel ceases to become a burden and becomes a light.
• What and how mark the way, but the why sanctifies our actions.

5. Forget not that the Lord loves you.

• YOU are not forgotten.  You are NOT forgotten.
• No matter how dark it may seem or how insignificant you feel, God, the King of infinite space and time is your Father and has not forgotten you.  God loves you even though you make mistakes. Allow His divine love in your life.

Every bit of his talk resonated with me and I felt (as many other people have expressed as well) that it was exactly what I needed to hear at this point in my life and motherhood. I can't wait till it comes out in frint so I can read it again.

Yes. I am a child of God, the King of infinite space and time. And I know that he loves me.

"I have been dreaming..."

Dean has a couple of new phrases he employes a lot recently.

One is, "I really would love...

• to fly on an airplane
• to go to New York
• to stay with you in nursery (said while hysterically sobbing. Matt took Walt and Dean home from church early last week since Walt was sick. They both fell asleep on the drive home!)

Another is, "I have been dreaming..."  (Or I really have been dreaming...)

• of making a circle of pillows around me (he said that this morning on my bed...)
• of making the kind of cookies you can frost with red frosting and yellow frosting and blue frosting (etc.)

These are just a few of the examples I can think of in the last few days. He uses them a lot thought. It's pretty funny.

I couldn't resist and we did end up making the cookies. I basically hate using food coloring with the boys at the stage that they're at because it seems to get EVERYWHERE!!! But, it's worth it in the end. Walter ate as much cookie dough as he could get in his mouth. And probably just as much frosting by itself. I don't make sweets with them often, so when I do I TRY and chill out a little about my sugar freakishness. They had fun.

I got the recipe from a friend. It's kind of a soft, pillowy sugar cookie that makes me think of the Granny B's sugar cookies with pink frosting. The best thing about the recipe was that the dough was not hard to work with at all and I didn't have to chill it.  The boys had a lot of fun and though it was messy, I was able to keep up with it without it getting too out of control (though Walter's face and hands may say otherwise...)

Big, Soft Sugar cookies:
Combine
3 C flour (original calls for 3 1/4, but it seemed pretty floury so I used the last 1/4 to dust the table)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

In a large bowl combine and mix for 2 min.:
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter
1/2 C. sour cream

Combine wet with dry ingredients, roll out (not too, too thin) and cut shapes. Bake on greased baking sheet at 375* for 7-9 min. (Done, but NOT brown.)

Cool and frost

Her frosting recipe was as follows:
1 pound powdered sugar
1/3 C. evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick melted butter (mine was very soft, but not melted)

Baby 3 Belly @ 18 weeks

I kind of feel like I exploded the last couple of weeks. I am now in maternity tops (or maternity tanks under regular shirts at the very least).  I put away most of my regular shirts, two of my regular shorts, and got out all my maternity wear.  All of the maternity bottoms are HUGE, but I had forgotten I had put some of my old "fatter" pants and shorts in with my maternity wear, and those are still a little big but will work for now. 

Up until last Sat. I could jog 6 mi. at about 10.5 min/mile pace, but my running partner is doing her marathon this weekend, and I think she'll be doing recovery walking after that. So I'll probably just switch over to that soon. Maybe some jalking (walking and jogging) for awhile. This week I'm painting the last room in our house, so I better go get that all taped off so I can get it done in a timely manner.

Tonight at Home Depot I turned around after getting a cart and an employee was kind of looking at me funny. He then explained, "From the back you look so tiny, and then when you turn around...well, you're still tiny but pregnant! You carry your baby well." haha. I had someone at a yard sale on Sat. tell me almost the same exact thing. "Oh my goodness I didn't realize you were pregnant until you turned around. You carry your baby well."  So, that makes me feel good at least even though I'm looking 24 weeks pregnant at 18 weeks. =)


Dean told me to make silly faces, so this is what I came up with.  He said, "good job mom!" when I was done. I think I only wrote it on FB, so I figured I'd write it here as well since I actually print this out. The other day my stomach was growling a lot at breakfast and Dean said, "Is that the baby talking?" hahaha. Love it.

I was supposed to have my 18 week check up today, but had to reschedule for next week. We haven't had our "official" ultrasound yet to confirm the 12 week ultrasound results as to the baby's sex.

Here's what I looked like at 20 weeks my last two pregnancies to get kind of an idea of how I progressed each time.

Helping Daddy

Matt removed the last of the vinyl in our house last Saturday. Yippee!  Walter absolutely loves, loves, loves tools and loves to help out around the house, so he wanted in on the action.

Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

Play with your food!

My kids traditionally don't love eggs, but I make them about once every one to two weeks just because I think they need an opportunity to get used to them. The other day I saw a post on facebook about doing a "quick dye" to boiled eggs to make it more colorful and appealing to kids. I thought that was a good idea, but I tweaked it for my kids and my temperament. I boiled eggs (usually the kids only eat about 1-2 bites of a boiled egg) and gave them markers. Dean didn't want to peal his artwork off, but I promised him that I'd take a picture of it and that sufficed. The kids LOVED drawing on their food. The real test was would they eat it? YES! Dean ate his WHOLE egg and Walt got through about 3/4 of his!!! Crazy.

"No, that's a daddy"

Tonight I was reading the boys a Halloween book with flaps. Each page was a door you opened to find different trick or treaters in costume. On one page it said, "Who's behind the door?...A mummy!"

Walter replied, "No, that's not a mummy! That's a daddy!" hahahahaha. Cracked me up.

"I changed my name to David"

This morning when I picked Dean up from Preschool, Ms. Marie (the office manager) said, "Dean told me he wished his name was David." I knew exactly where that came from, but I thought it was funny he was still hanging on to it. Last Thursday he had a "getting to know you" sheet that asked his full name and why he was named that. Then the last question was, "If you could change your name, what name would you choose?" He immediately came up with David. (I think it's because his cousin had a mii on our wii that Dean used to play pretty regularly.)

I didn't say anything about it to Dean, but later this afternoon he said, "Ms. Marie didn't want to call me David." "Well, your name is Dean, not David." "No. I changed my name to David."

HAHA.

Caught napping

Since I've been 1. pregnant and 2. getting up to run around 5 am 4 days a week, I basically have to lay down for about an hour every day or I can barely scrape through.  Walt's always asleep for his own nap, and Dean usually just plays on the computer, wii, or watches a little TV.  When I woke up from my nap today, I came out to find him like this:

He usually doesn't nap, but the last 2 weeks or so, he's fallen asleep more than the last 6 months combined. He hasn't gotten enough sleep this summer in my opinion (the boy cannot sleep past 6 am and without naps and a slightly later bed time for summer...), and with me out of the equation, he finds himself bored enough to actually fall asleep. I almost dread it, though, because like now, as I type, he generally wakes up crying inconsolably and has a horrible time recovering from the nap unless it's 3 hours long!

Dean's first week of Preschool

While I did a co-op preschool last year for Dean, I didn't think I'd have the energy or the gumption to do it again this year with a new baby coming early next semester.

He started this past Tuesday at Little Saints. The first day he was crying when I came to pick him up, not because he'd had a hard time being away from me, but because he wanted to stay and eat lunch with the two boys who do extended day in his class!  He was sad again today he couldn't stay for lunch.


The first day Walter was sooo sad Dean wasn't here. He kept asking where Dean was and he threw a lot of fits. Today was much better. He asked a couple of times where Dean was, but his behavior and attitude were improved. Before we left for school, Walt came up to me and said, "I go to preschool with Dean today?" It was so precious. Dean actually had asked if he could come with him "And just go to the 2 year old class."

Both days after school when both Matt and I asked him what he did at school, he said, "I don't know!" Sheesh. I'm going to have to pry info out of this kid!  It sure starts young. =) 

Dean really wanted to take a picture, so here's one he took of Walt.