3 VERY GOOD THINGS!

My mom got here on Tuesday night and we are having so much fun. Sterling Henry cannot get enough of her and wants her to do everything with him!


Today is my due date... obviously.

AND... I am being induced tomorrow! Little baby Dellin will be here soon. We can't wait to meet him.
(I love how my baby countdown thing says, "It's go time!)

BETTER THAN CHRISTMAS MORNING

You may or may not remember my post about Christmas morning and how little Sterling Henry threw up after opening his first gift. It sort of made the whole morning seem a little weird. We sort of recreated Christmas morning this morning only the reaction was AWESOME! It might have helped that the gift we got Sterling Henry was way cooler than the gifts Santa brought. (I guess we know him better!)

Ever since we went to train exhibit over the holidays Sterling Henry has been absolutely obsessed with trains. All he had was a three pack from Ikea and he LOVED them. He carried them everywhere and even slept holding at least one of them. We played with the idea of getting him a train set but felt like it was too close to Christmas and didn't want to SPOIL him.

I went to the temple yesterday morning and the boys stayed home and played. When I got home, Sterling asked me if I ever get bored of the toys we have and wondered if maybe I wanted to get something new to play with. How kind of him right?!? He wanted to make sure I didn't get bored playing with the little man all day. The next thing I knew, we were buying the coolest train set. Sterling had done lots of research and we decided to go with the Melissa and Doug set. It helped that it was on a killer sale. Anyway, we carried it out to the car and put it in the trunk and Sterling Henry threw a fit. Dad saved the day and put it on the seat next to him so he could touch the box the whole way home.

We got home late last night after hanging out with friends but set it up anyway. When he got up this morning it was the BEST! The reaction was everything I had hoped for and more. Here is a little video of how happy he is with his new choo choo!

*I will try the video again later. It is not working for now.


CHOO CHOO!


This picture is far and away my favorite. He looks so delighted in this picture. He has been this happy all day! I have to admit that this was the look I was hoping for on Christmas morning. Instead, we got it a month later.
Totally worth the wait!

39 WEEKS... REALLY?

I sort of hate these kinds of pictures but I never want to take pictures at night when Sterling is home so this is going to have to do for now. I snapped this just minutes ago if you couldn't tell.

I thought I would do a pregnancy/feelings post.

How am I feeling? GREAT! This pregnancy has flown by and I cannot believe that my due date is 7 days from now. Yes I am tired and having a hard time sleeping and completely uncomfortable. All things considered, I feel great.

I have gotten all sorts of comments and questions from people when they find/found out that I was pregnant again so quick. Are you excited? How old will Sterling Henry again? Did you plan that? How close will they be? Wow, that is going to be crazy huh? We did plan it and we have been THRILLED since day one.

I have always wanted to have lots of kids and have them really close. Getting married at 25 was later than I imagined (not old by any means). Sterling Henry didn't join us till I was 28 and after our 3rd anniversary which was WAY longer than we had wanted. But after three years of wondering if we would have kids, we were ecstatic when Sterling Henry joined our family . So the thought of waiting was not something we wanted to risk. We were lucky enough to get pregnant again so fast and cannot believe we are going to have our second baby.

I get so excited just thinking about the new little cub who will be joining us shortly. Will he be like Sterling Henry? What will he look like? Will he be a champion sleeper? What will he weigh? How will my labor go? How will Sterling Henry handle having a new little brother?

In just over a week, most of those questions will be answered and we will have kids. Not just a kid, but kids. Our lives will be crazy and hectic and I cannot wait. That is what I always thought being a mom would be like. Motherhood is the most amazing thing. I absolutely LOVE it and cannot imagine anything else I would rather be doing.

There you have it, in case you wanted it. Seven days and counting...

BABY CELEBRATION

One of the best things about where we live is definitely the friends we have made. We have been lucky enough to meet amazing people while living out here. I have the best group of girlfriends. They are the type of girls that you can count on for ANYTHING!

Two of my best friends wanted to have a little party for baby Dellin (yes, that is going to be his name). They went above and beyond. The food was delicious. They really went all out!

YUMMINESS!

There was a train theme which I loved. This train cake was adorable!

These were the cute little train cookies that they gave out as favors. The detail on them is unbelievable.

For as much as I hang out with these two, you would think I would have more pictures but I don't. This is from when I was pregnant with Sterling Henry but I pretty much look the same.

Thank you so much Taryn and Jessica (and everyone else who helped and came). You two really are the best!

15 MONTHS ALREADY???

I really can't believe that our Little Man is 15 months already. We went to his check-up and here are his latest stats.

Weight: 25 lbs. 12 oz (75%)
Height: 34 inches (97%)

Sterling Henry is constantly on the move these days. He doesn't like to pose for pictures anymore so here you go. (I had to buy him some sweats, they remind me of my little brother Josh and I couldn't resist!)

Here is the latest with Sterling Henry...
He is all over the place.
He always tries jumping out of my arms when we are going up the stairs now.
He LOVES to walk up them, which sounds great but is tough to do when I have the diaper bag, and the million other things I carry up the stairs so as to not make more than one trip.
When I do help him, he likes to take two at a time!
He has 12 teeth.
He is still sleeping like a champ (except for last night).
He loves friends! He likes to play with kids and usually ends up loving them a little too much.
He loves to wrestle with dad.
He LOVES anything with dad actually and follows him around like a little shadow. I love it.
He sings all the time and even dances to music.
He has turned into such a little chatter box. His favorites words are dada, baba, mama, soos (shoes), no, no no no (not sure how cute that one is), yes, ball, and many other noises that no one would understand but us.
He LOVES balls, trains, cars, Legos, shoes, and anything that makes noise.
He also is very good and fetching things for you. I don't take advantage of this too much!
He loves to give kisses, especially to mommy.

He still manages to melt our hearts everyday. We love our Little Man so much and cannot imagine a second without him. Which, is probably why we still take him everywhere with us and have not been out on a date (other than the temple), since he has been born. We know things are going to get a little crazy around here when baby boy #2 arrives, but we know Sterling Henry will love his little brother!

WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE WINTERTIME?

It has been FREEZING here. We pretty much look like this when we leave the house.

Two things are helping us enjoy staying indoors. Thanks to homemade yummy pizza

and Legos, we are surviving the cold weather. (And of course friends.)



Seriously though, how could we not have fun when dad is making the coolest Lego creations for us to play with. We might just need to buy MORE Legos so that we can have even MORE fun. Oh and have dad stay home from work because mom does not have the Lego vision that dad does.

I never would have thought to make a Lego robot or guitar.

MORE TRAINS PLEASE

Every year the National Botanical Gardens has a HUGE train display for Christmas. We had never been until this year. We didn't make it before Christmas and decided last minute to go yesterday. We met up with some friends and had a great time.

Sterling Henry LOVED the trains. I have to admit that I was more than thrilled. It just seems like a huge milestone in a boy's life to love trains. (Yes, I am a gender enforcer in case you were wondering.)

Waiting in line to see the trains.


They had the trains going in and out of all these little scenes set up that were made of wood. This one was the three little pigs.


We have a lot of pictures with Sterling Henry's back to the camera. There was no chance he was going to look at the camera when one of the trains was going by.

Sterling Henry has LOVED having his dad around more over the holidays. This picture pretty much describes it all.

We did manage to get one good picture (thanks Jessica) with a train in the background and Sterling Henry actually looking at the camera. I look super hot in this picture with my two chins!!!

Another sweet shot of Sterling loving the trains.

I think the next step is going to be getting some trains for the house. That will be the perfect gift for our Little Man to help entertain him when the new baby comes!

BORN YESTERDAY???

Do you ever feel like you were born yesterday??? I hate that feeling but unfortunately it happens a lot while I am prego.

Sterling Henry was not a huge spit-up baby. I always felt like I could get his spit-up out of most things pretty well. However on Christmas morning after opening up his first present, he threw up big time. I thought maybe he was just overly excited about all the gifts, but no, it happened again about 20 minutes later. My fabulous husband started cleaning it up and asked me what would be best and I realized that I had no idea what would work best. He scrubbed our floor like crazy with the "products" that we had. When it all dried, there were big huge stains on our carpet. We both wanted to throw it out. I went to the store and came home with these two products. They have basically changed my life. I HIGHLY recommend them. They are easy to use, they actually work, AND they smell amazing! I even used them on a couple old stains and they worked.





















(I may or may not be getting a kick-back from both of these companies for writing this!)

I am sure that most of you already have been using these for years but it you haven't, I recommend buying them today for your next big spill.

Can I also just say how amazing my husband is for cleaning up puke all weekend?!? He really is the best!

CHRISTMAS 2009

We have had such a wonderful Christmas holiday this year. Since we have our new little man coming in a month, we stayed here this year and we have had a lot of fun. Although we are missing our family like crazy, we feel truly blessed to have lots of friends that we are sharing this Christmas season with.

On Christmas Eve during the day we got to tour the Supreme Court. (Thanks Tyler!)


The kids loved the candy bowl in Justice Thomas' office.


After touring the Supreme Court, we went over to the National Tree. This is near the white house, and they have trees decorated from each state. It was FREEZING! (Some of the problem might have been that I did not think about the fact that my coat wouldn't button over my belly.)

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Here are our stockings.

The tree had lots of gifts. Sterling Henry was the best behaved this year so naturally he had the most.

Sterling Henry received lots of Fisher Price toys this year. It has been a lot of fun to give him toys that we had growing up. He LOVES his push popper.

Here is a video of him with the same adorable phone we had growing up. Thanks Grandma Fillmore!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Sterling has a wonderful job. We have been blessed with good health. We have an adorable little boy and one on the way. Most importantly, we have the knowledge that our Savior Jesus Christ lives. We hope your holidays were filled with joy and happiness. We love and miss you all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVE!

Sterling got these slippers in Peru before we got married. They finally fit our Little Man and just in time since it is freezing!

WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

Every year when they predict snow in the DC area, everyone starts getting nervous. Usually when it snows, we only get 2-6 inches. In the past, we have had church canceled and public schools are usually canceled as well. Plow trucks are few and far between here so it takes a while to get everything cleared. Not to mention the amount of ice that builds up on the streets.

All week last week they were predicting an EPIC snowstorm to hit the east coast. I didn't take it too serious since in the past they haven't been very bad. On Friday, I headed to Costco to pick up my usual things. When I pulled into the parking lot, they had police helping with traffic. First thing I thought of was it must be because it is the weekend before Christmas. As I was walking in and saw people leaving with 8-9 gallons of milk I remember the snowstorm. As I cruised through the store, I was tempted to load up but remembered that we do have food storage if we needed it. Many stores in the area ran out of milk, bread, eggs, toilet paper (the last thing anyone wants to run out of), flour, and any other basic thing you might need. Sterling ran to Home Depot on Friday night for some unrelated things, and people were leaving the store with multiple snow shovels and BAGS of ice melter and many other survival mode items.

The snow started Friday night and didn't stop till Sunday morning. It was EPIC! We got over 2 feet of snow and it looks like a beautiful winter wonderland outside. We didn't even leave the house all day on Saturday and only ventured out for an hour yesterday (Sunday) to deliver treats to some families in the ward. On our way to the 4th house we got completely stuck and had to have neighbors push us out. I have NEVER seen anything like this before. I LOVE IT! What a better way to get in the Christmas spirit.

Sterling Henry LOVED the snow.

My hair is a bit wild in this picture.

Our car after Sterling cleared the 2 feet of snow off it.

Probably one of my favorite things ever about storms in Virginia. Everyone puts their wipers up so they don't get frozen.

Public schools are still canceled for today and I am sure many people are staying home from work. This really has been an EPIC snowstorm, and I am happy to report that we have survived. I wish the best of luck to all our friends whose flights have been delayed and are trying to fly out of here to see loved ones.

I did finish three quilt tops and we managed to watch 6 movies over the weekend. In all, we loved out snowed-in weekend!

OUR LATEST

We've been shut-ins lately and haven't been doing much. There are many reasons why, but mostly because I've been pretty tired lately. Here are a few random pictures from our day-to-day.

Yesterday Sterling Henry refused to fall asleep in his crib during nap time, which rarely ever happens. (He is usually such a great little sleeper.) He did fall asleep however on the couch 30 minutes later standing up!


As you can see, is will not be long until he figures this one out. Good thing we have that huge deadbolt and chain above our doorknob!

Everyday we drive dad to and from work. Sometimes there is traffic, but most of the time it's pretty quick. We call it "family bonding". As much fun as this is, sometimes Sterling Henry gets a little tired of the car. I have resorted to letting him play with my cell phone. He loves it and makes lots of calls. Unfortunately he doesn't understand that Arizona and California are 3 hours behind us and has made a few early morning calls... SORRY!

He figured out how to make the ring tone repeat "Girls just want to have fun" and was very proud of himself here.

As much as I know my son loves me, there is no doubt who is number one is his eyes. Everyday when we pick dad up, he goes nuts when he sees him come towards the car. I had to get it on film because it's just too cute!

Luckily it's the weekend and dad is home to entertain us both. There's supposed to be the biggest snowstorm in history coming through tomorrow, so wish us luck that our food storage will pull us through if we are stuck in our apartment for the next week!

4 REASONS WHY WE LOVE DECEMBER

FIRST. Little man gets to wear his "Christmas clothes" each week to church. This outfit was much needed considering that we couldn't button his other church pants.



SECOND. Coats and hats are a must lately with the chilly weather we have been having. I love putting hats on Sterling Henry even though he is always trying to rip them off. Luckily this one buttons under his chin.

THIRD. Holiday PJ's. Last year I waited for him to wear these on Christmas eve but this year we are going to enjoy them all month long. (Too many pictures today.)


FOURTH. Our baby boy is FINALLY walking. It all started today when I was over at a friend's house and he just started walking all over the place. He pretty much thinks he is big time now and so do we. We are so proud of our little man.

With this many exciting things already happening in December, I can't wait to see what else we have to look forward too!

IT'S SNOWING

We are not going home for Christmas this year since the airlines don't want me to go into labor in the air. We are very excited to stay here and do our own thing. There are some things in Utah that I am going to miss like crazy. Family, friends, family traditions, showing off Sterling Henry, FAMILY, Cafe Rio, and spending time with my family are the main things. But there is another big one... SNOW. I LOVE snow! I love everything about it.

I have been feeling a tiny bit homesick lately about not going home but this morning helped me feel better. It is SNOWING. It will not last long and sure everyone here will be freaking out and the drivers are HORRIBLE but it has put a big smile on my face.

Thank you, snow!

H2O

We store a lot of water under our bed just in case the big one hits. I had to move it all the other day to clean under there and it ended up in these laundry baskets for a few days. Who knew that two laundry baskets full of bottled water could equal hours of entertainment for our little man???

He especially likes moving them back and forth.




We are thinking about getting him a weight set for Christmas since he loves moving and pushing really heavy things!

PS. Only 8 weeks till our new little cub arrives. We are really excited!