sprouts!

yeah!!

books, books, and more books

if you were to ask me what i am reading now, be ready for a long winded answer. i have picked up a bad habit from my mom, it is that i can't read just one book at a time. i always have at least 2 or 5 going at once. i mean, i never know what kind of mood i might be in so i have to have something ready. the other habit i have is that i can't sit down with a book without a highlighter. i have read many a good quotes in a great many a book and i want to remember them, so i highlight and dog-ear the pages. it is great fun to go back and read those same books much later and see what spoke to me while i was reading. and to see what is speaking to me now.

i do take very seriously what i read. i like to read a variety (at least i think) of books. i also love to get recommendations from friends and getting a great deal on the bargain shelf of my favorite local bookstore (Gift of Grace in Springville!) so, here is what i am reading now. how about you...


Keep a Quiet Heart by Elizabeth Elliot, a great devotional book. It has short chapters perfect for a morning quiet time. This is one of my mom's favorite authors. I have learned of many good authors and know what to look for when I hit the used bookstores.








A must read for each pregnancy. It has been seven years for me since I was pregnant, even though not much has changed, I have forgotten a lot.









The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy
I found this book when I was pregnant the first time around and love it. It is the book that tells you everything your doctors don't tell you about pregnancy. This is my third time reading it.








It seems as if my life revolves around food. My favorite channel is the Food Network, I just bought a new cookbook, and am in love with pie. I thought this would be just what I needed to help me eat better.








Baby Wise
Once again the third time reading this. A great book, it helped us with our other kids getting them on a schedule and sleeping better. The authors also have written some great parenting books.







The Gates of Zion
Gotta have a fiction. Picked up this based on a recommendation of a good reader friend. I am loving it. It is about Israel just after WW2.








I Married Adventure by Luci Swindoll
Found this one on the bargain table. Didn't know the book, but knew the author. I have read some of her other books and they were great. What I am learning right now from her book is to be happy where God has me. And enjoy this adventure. The perfect book for this season of my life. It is teaching me not to wait until things are better to enjoy life, but to have fun with this time. It was a God thing I found this book, I believe He does that for us. Brings books into our lives to teach us things. I have had several times when I have been sharing a struggle with a friend and they say, "I have the perfect book for you to read!" And it usually is. This is why I take my ready very seriously.

The first of the baby items is all set up. Ellyn had to put a stuffed animal in the bed since we don't have the baby yet. I am trying to enjoy this time more. I think the getting ready is so much fun, but it just makes me more ready to have our baby here. It seems we have so much to do, so many things to get and the time is going so fast.

Last night Steve and I were talking and he informed me that I have a time line of when I can deliver, based on his work availability. He wants to take a few days off and there are certain days that will work best for him. I told him, good luck with that!

All ready for summer dinner on the deck.

it's a...baby!

today we had our ultrasound. and it is a baby, just one, which is good. we don't know if it is a girl or a boy. we do know that all is well. as the doctor said, baby has all it's parts. we do know that it is a very active baby. but, i could have told him that. baby wouldn't cooperate with the dr. when the dr would need to see the heart, baby would flip. when he needed him to turn, baby would just sit there. i think this kid is going to fit in nicely with our kids.

i am still trying to understand something about pregnancy, why do some women just love it? to me it is just a means to an end. i am here to tell you i am ready to get this show on the road. let's have a baby already! my life gets put on hold for nearly 10 months, i am sick as a dog and so tired that i have to rest after walking up our stairs. pregnancies are very hard on my body, labor and delivery are another story. if i could have pregnancies like my deliveries, we might have more kids. but i don't. i really can't do much while i am pregnant. i also have very easy recoveries. i think it is because i have felt so lousy for 10 months that anything seems better to what it was.

i also just love being a mom. i think i do better as a mom, then a pregnant lady. i am now 20 weeks, which means i am half way there. in the home stretch. i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. i am so done.

tonight as i was tucking ellyn in bed she gave me a hug and gave my belly a hug and said "good night baby. i hope you are a girl."

Sew much fun

wish i could say this was my original idea, but it wasn't. i saw this on a blog and had to try it. well, had to have my mother in law try it. i don't even own a sewing machine, but i knew she would be able to help me out. and i am glad to say it was pretty easy and i love the way it turned out. i am having a hard time buying maternity close, but who doesn't. (if you didn't please tell me where you got your cute clothes.) i can find pants ok, but am having a hard time with shirts. i am short and all the maternity shirts are long, oh so long and they make me look even shorter. i also don't like the "tent" look. you know what i am talking about. i had seen this type of shirt at a store, but didn't want to pay that much for one shirt so i headed over to the ladies department and bought a normal shirt just two sizes larger, and then sewed an elastic in the side seam. i should be able to wear it for a while, i am hoping anyway not to get that big that fast.

the before shirt

sorry kathy, you made it into the blog. thanks for your sewing skills.the after shirt. love the gathers on the side.

don't let that cute face fool you...
behind those blue eyes and freckle nose beats the heart of a...
well, a six year old little girl who loves her cat and love to bug her bother more.

A little garden fun

We had pretty good luck last year with our garden. Tons of tomatoes, quite a few cucumbers and two really tall sunflowers. I had decided not to have a garden this year, too much to do I thought. But then I went to a gardening for small areas class with a friend of mine and became inspired and motivated! I went home and took a look at my little square foot garden, cleaned it out, stirred the dirt a bit and was ready to go. We already have our strawberry plant growing. I am going to use a topsy turvy tomato planter for our tomatoes and have everything else in our little box. We have some seeds started inside and some stronger ones are in the ground. After a little bit of reading and researching on the square foot garden I hope to grow plenty of fresh veggies for this season.

grow, grow oh please grow!

If pictures are worth a thousand words, then this one says it all about my pregnancy. Kids pulling on me, everyone needing me, housework calling and mom is just plain tired.

Family Fun Day

The kids just finished their chapter in science on Insects. And they loved it, even Ellyn, who normally doesn't like science. So, for our Family Fun Day we went to the Bean Museum at BYU. They had so much fun. I had printed off some scavenger hunt pages and we were in teams, boys vs the girls. Not sure who won but I know that Andy had the most fun. It was great to see him reading his paper and looking for the answers. When he couldn't find what he was looking for he had to ask one of the workers and they told him just what he needed to know. This was our first Family Fun Day in quite some time, and it was good to be out doing fun things together again. The goal is to have a Family Fun Day each week. I hope we can keep it up.

Ready for some fun at the Museum.

This was Andy's favorite thing there, the Liger.

EEWWW big bugs.

Cool snake, Ellyn wouldn't even go near it (neither would Steve.)

Andy working on his scavenger hunt page.

Ellyn and her page.

Thanks for the help dad! And the fun day.