We're headed to Texas!

Monday we leave for that great state of Texas to visit my family for the week. We can't wait to go swimming, hang out with my family, and relax around the house. My parents have planned a special week for us, and we can't believe that time has come for our trip. We have been telling Leah the past week that we get to see Nana and Papa, and she is excited too.

Our one hope will be to get over the sicknesses that have plagued us this past week. Leah got a runny nose last Tuesday, and it has moved into a cough that she can't seem to shake. Logan got the runny nose and sore throat part, and I only ended up with the sore throat. So we hope that we all can have a good night's rest tonight in preparation for our trip and leave the sickness in Utah.

I'll try to blog in Texas but I don't know if I will have much time. But I will certainly take pictures to post when we come back.

Here are two pictures of Leah this week. In the first one she is making her "surprised" face with her big on her head (her new thing to do at meal times). The second is a picture of my latest and favorite hair do. I think her hair is finally getting long enough that I might need to get it trimmed, and it would be her first hair cut. Awwww, my little girl is growing up so fast.

Making apricot jam

Earlier this week the second counselor in our bishopric knocked on our door with some apricots from his tree. He actually was giving them to our neighbors but knocked on our door accidentally. He said that he had plenty of apricots left and he could bring us back some in a few minutes. Our neighbor was going to make jam with all the apricots, so we thought we would do the same thing with our batch. The first couple of days Leah ate about three or four of them each day, and I actually had to tell her no a few times because I didn't want her to have diarrhea later that day.

We started making the jam a couple of nights ago right before Leah's bedtime. And we had to make a couple of trips to the store to buy extra containers and pectin. We didn't realize that the apricots we had would make so much jam. Logan did most of the process since I was trying to get Leah to stay in her bed and go to sleep. I think he actually enjoyed himself too. And when I was done putting her to bed, I came back to help him and asked him to take a picture to document our freezer jam project. But I don't want to take the credit since Logan did it almost all himself.

We let the jam sit for 24 hours like the pectin box tells you to do, and the result has been wonderful. The jam is so tasty, and Logan suggested that we spread it over his homemade pancakes for breakfast. Hmmm, I can't wait for that. I'm so glad that our counselor (Brother Vernon) accidentally knocked on our door and gave us some apricots.

Sleeping in a "big girl" bed

Just last week we decided it was time for Leah to move from her crib to a "big girl" bed. She has never climbed out of the crib, but we just wanted to move her in enough time before our next baby comes. Logan's parents brought us an extra twin bed from when Logan was younger, and we set it up for her last Thursday. Since she's a big fan of monkeys, we bought her some monkey sheets to put on her new bed. She loves them. When we first put them on her bed, she just wanted to sit there and read her books.

We're all still adjusting to this new sleeping arrangement, but so far she has done pretty well. If we don't keep her door shut all the way, she comes out of her room at 6:30 a.m. every morning to wake us up. So now I don't really hear her until 7:15 a.m. which gives me a little extra time to sleep. She knocks on her bedroom door and says "Mama, out, out! Out, mama, out!" We'll have to do something different to the door knob once she learns to turn it and open it herself.

I just can't believe that she is almost two and making so many steps to being more independent. She loves to eat her meals by herself with a spoon, and she loves to dress herself. But also with this independence comes more tantrums when we tell her no or try to get her ready in a hurry.

One more month of summer

Here is a photo of me just as I'm about to be 24 weeks pregnant (which translates into about six months). I thought I would use the timer on our camera to catch a shot of myself and my growing belly. You get a whole new perspective of what you look like during pregnancy when you see a yourself in a photo. And you wonder "Was I this big when I was pregnant with my first?"

I also wanted to brag about these miracle pregnancy jeans that I found over the weekend. We were just looking around Ross on Saturday, and I stumbled upon these $13 jeans that fit me like a glove and have room for a growing stomach. They make me look a lot skinnier than I really am.

I actually got to wear them yesterday because we had some really great weather. It was cloudy all day and stayed in the low 80's. Now the temperatures are back up, and it a little muggy outside today. But at least I got to sport my new jeans. It makes me excited for the cool fall weather coming up. I can't wait to put the hot summer behind me. At least I'm not about to give birth like some of my friends.

Ewww. Don't touch that.

Here's a funny little story that happened to me and Leah the other day.

I took her to Petsmart after I dropped Logan off at work because she was whining in the car and I thought it would cheer her up. I noticed when we got out of the car that her shorts were wet in the front but I thought it might just be from the water she was drinking in the car.

As we got inside the store, I didn't pay much more attention to her bottom because I was on the phone with my mom (bad mom I know). Then we went down the fish aisle, and she had bent over to play with something. I went over to see what it was, and it was two little balls of poop.

I said, "Ewww. Don't touch that. It could be dog poop." I then took her over to sanitize both of our hands and see the kitties. When we were in there with the cats, (I was off the phone by now) Leah said she had some "ick" meaning poop in her diaper. I went to check it and one of her diaper tabs had come off and her poop had escaped through the side. I laughed and cringed to think that we had been looking at her own poop over in the fish aisle. Luckily it was only a little bit and I took her straight to the car for a change.

No wonder her pants were wet. The diaper wasn't catching anything. I guess it will teach me to pay more attention while I'm on the phone and in the pet store.

P.S. the reason why this post is formatted over a bit is because I took it from a instant chat message that I had with Logan. I can't figure out how to make it go back to the left side.

Our new piano

Well, it's not exactly new as in we just bought it, but it was just given to us by a family friend. Logan's mom has a friend from church whose mother passed away and was looking for someone that might want a piano. So we agreed, and Logan's parents brought it down to us last night. It took about four guys to bring it down our front stairs and into our living room, but it finally made it. In the process, however, one of the front legs broke off and will need some special glue to put it back on. Logan's dad said he will help us to repair it since he builds and fixes things around the house.

We are excited to have our first piano (and maybe last) that our family will be able to use and enjoy. I might have to brush up on my hymns now that we have a piano in the our living room. We gave Logan's keyboard to his sister Kelcy so she will have something to practice on for church calling as pianist. Leah loves pushing the keys already but has pinched her finger on the front cover that comes down over the keys. So we'll have to watch her from now on.

Logan's parents also brought us a twin bed that on of his siblings used when they were kids. We hope to move her into the "big bed" in the next month before our next baby arrives. We hope it goes well.