Our little bookworm

I think Tali has actually figured something out about bedtime/naptime. She has figured out that as long as she's quietly playing or reading a book Mommy and Daddy won't keep telling her to go to bed. We figured this out one evening before going to bed ourselves. When we had gone in to check on her and cover her up and found her cuddled up to not just one book, but at least three. Along with her books, she also had her stuffed monkey and a bunny her aunt Julie had given her in bed with her. It was actually quite humorous.

Tali absolutely LOVES her books. Her favorite ones to look at are either potty books or the illustrated scripture stories. I have also found her on many occasions looking through mine or Brian's scriptures (which makes us a little nervous considering the pages are very delicate and easy to rip). I love the fact that she loves reading. I just hope she still likes reading them as much when she's actually in school.

I am the CHAMPION!

This Sunday we went over to my in-laws for dinner. My mother-in-law got my father-in-law a Nintendo Wii for Christmas. My father-in-law got my mother-in-law the Wii Fit. Anyway, we had checked our Wii Fit age (I will never tell what my Wii Fit age is) as well as played some of the fun games that are on there. My favorite games we played were the bowling as well as the Hula Hoop games.

I had finally beaten my hubby at the bowling, but Ma totally kicked all our butts. She's quite the bowler.

While I was playing the hula hoop game I noticed I came in 1st place on the regular hula hoop with a whopping 305 spins. On the super hula hoop game, I also came in first place with 721 spins! WHOO HOO! Go me! Not too shabby for a fat prego laday eh? I AM THE MONSON HULA HOOP CHAMPION (for now anyway)!!!! Sorry. I had to brag. It doesn't happen very often. Although when I was little I did win a hula hoop contest at Smith's and got a six pack of rootbeer, reese's peanut butter cups and I think some movie tickets or something like that. I didn't think it would be much of a work out, but boy was I wrong! I was getting winded and had to get some water. It was freakin awesome! I feel pretty good now, but I'm sure come tomorrow morning I will be sore.

Fever

I have recently discovered that I have caught THE fever.....Spring fever that is. It's not due to any warmth in the climate (although that would be nice), but I think it's more so because I have been getting planting magazines (from Burpees as well as Burgess- two very good magazines for your planting needs) in the mail along with emails from Springhill Nursery. I've been trying to plan out what fun things we can do to our yard this year.

This photo was taken last year when all our tulips were in full bloom. Oh how I love to see warmth and color and life! Oh and lets not forget the sweet smells of Spring flowers! Ahhhh!

This year we are planning on planting a scarlet red maple tree in our front yard (only $5 or so from Burgess and it will already be 3-4ft tall when we get it) as well as some ground cover and other nice plants for when the spring flowers quit blooming. We've also got some fun yummy things planned to grow in our garden this year! I CANNOT WAIT!!! Spring cannot come soon enough!

So for now, I have no choice but to wait 3-4 months for my favorite time of year.

Oh happy day!

Last night was my last official meeting on our HOA board! Whoo hoo! I was serving as the secretary. Once I became pregnant, Brian and I thought it would be best for me to resign in order to avoid more stress so I can take it easy. It was also getting difficult to find time to complete the meeting minutes when Tali wanted every bit of my attention.

I think we made some pretty good progress though. At our community's annual meeting last night, we announced to the homeowners that we were going to be getting a new fence for the community. Right now it is a really ugly ghetto pepto-bismol pink fence that is in a zig-zag shape. I know. It is hideous! The new fence will be a really pretty tan colored fence (it's not going to be vinyl, but it will be made of a material that is a little more sturdier than vinyl) that has kind of a rock look to it. Of course right now, anything is better than the hideous fence. NO MORE UGLY FENCE!!!

In other news, Tali has been becoming little miss independent. She is learning so much. Recently, she has learned to turn her potty into a step stool and turn the light on in the bathroom. The other day when I was getting ready to give her a bath, she had figured out how to take off her diaper all by herself. Luckily it was dry and not messy. She also dresses and undresses herself with little help from me or Brian. She has also been talking a lot more too! When I was playing with her the other night, she was trying to hide from me and I said "I see you!" She then repeated "see you!" She did the same thing when I told her I was going to get her. She said "get you!" It was so darn cute!

Tali has also been getting more interested in the "potty." I'm getting really excited to start potty training her! I've been reading this book that my sister-in-law Libby suggested to me for potty training. It was called Toilet Training In Less Than A Day by Nathan H Azrin and Richard M Foxx. I highly recommend it! We went to the library on Saturday and picked up some little kid books about potty training for Tali so she could basically get the idea of the potty. She really loves them!
Let's just hope she stays interested in them.

Now that's sexy!

Being pregnant really makes you realize how unsexy you really are....or at least feel. I realized this watching Scrubs tonight. I could totally sympathize. There was this very pregnant woman trying to catch the attention of her doctor husband who was being seduced by some "hot" chick (Heather Locklear). This very pregnant wife was trying to copy the moves of this "sexy" woman by jumping up on the counter and crossing her legs in front of the doctor. The wife kept trying to get up on the counter, but couldn't due to the swollen baby bump. It was freaking hilarious! It then showed Heather Locklear eating seductively then panned over to the pregnant wife taking a bite of a burger and getting sauce all over her mouth. I couldn't help but let out a good hearty laugh. Luckily my daughter stayed asleep. Whew!

As I start to notice my waistline slowly getting larger, the feelings of being less desirable start to creep into my head despite my best efforts of trying to be "sexy" for my hubby. I'm sure all you mothers have felt the same during your pregnancies. I think the most difficult part of pregnancy is the awkward stage of just looking fat. I don't really consider myself a vain person, but at the same time I cannot wait to get back to my pre-baby body once it is born. For now, I will gladly put on the pounds to have a healthy baby and give up on the whole idea of trying to look sexy. I guess it's a good thing my hubby didn't marry me for my looks! :)

I've got a secret!

The last couple months I've been DYING to tell all of you some exciting news.....

Brian is pregnant! Ha ha ha. Just kidding. We're expecting our second child! So far I am 12 weeks along! I didn't want to say anything until I was at least 12 weeks for obvious reasons.

Here is how I told Brian. I kind of did something similar to last time I found out I was pregnant. I had gone to the theater the day and bought tons of candy (not really thinking about being pregnant). When I found out I was pregnant (on November 20th) I used some of the candy that I didn't open as part of this little announcement. Luckily they worked perfectly!

When Brian came home from work, this is what he found in the bathroom.

This is the little announcement that I had taped to the back of Tali's potty (don't worry, she's never used it). I then put little Milk Duds in the toilet. I had some help with this idea from my good pal Lynette. Thanks Netty!

When we told my mom and Brian's parents we had made up our own Christmas cards specifically for them. Again, the idea came from my friend Lynette.

I made this myself on my computer. Yes, I was very proud.

This was the inside of the card.

We are really excited because this time we are going to find out the gender! Our due date is July 24th, but when I saw my doctor this last week, on the ultrasound it read July 20th. I have a feeling this summer will be a long one!

This pregnancy is completely different from when I was pregnant with Tali. With Tali, I wasn't sick or anything at all other than having heartburn. This time, I've been very nauseous (luckily no vomiting), moody, and just so tired. I do feel so incredibly blessed though! We were a little nervous about things ending up like they did the last time, but we are confident that things will be okay with this baby.

Tali has been really cute with the whole thing. When we ask where the baby is, she'll pat my belly and then kiss it. She's also been seen on more than one occasion carrying around her baby doll patting it's back or whenever she sees a picture of a baby, she feels the need to kiss it. I think and hope that she will be a great big sister! Now if only Tali could learn to share and be potty trained before the baby comes.....

What a day!

Today started off at around 9 am for us. Ughh! This morning we had to go to court to dispute a ticket Brian had received around Christmas time for supposedly running a red light. Long story short, it was icy conditions and the light wasn't green long enough for one vehicle to get through the intersection on a good day. It was only 10 seconds long going from red light to red light. So, we decided to dispute it because he had already entered the intersection by the time the light had turned. Anyway, lucky for us, it was dismissed. YAY! We would have had to pay $105 if it wasn't dismissed. Yikes!

When we finally got home from running errands, we heard a loud beeping sound as we pulled into the driveway. We were thinking maybe one of the neighbors phones were being paged to find or something. When we opened our front door, our smoke/carbon monoxide detectors were going off with the light blinking indicating carbon monoxide was detected. This freaked both Brian and me out! We've NEVER had that happen before. We had just changed the batteries to both detectors about a month ago so we knew that wasn't it. We then wondered if maybe we just needed new detectors. So we went up to Lowe's and picked up a couple which we really couldn't afford, but decided our safety was worth it.

After Brian installed them, he wanted me to call the gas company and have them come out and check the house to make sure everything was now safe. Our alarms were going off, but we'd rather be safe than sorry.

When the man from the gas company got here, he couldn't detect anything that would have caused a detection of CO (carbon monoxide). He did however say there was a small gas leak in one of the tubes to our water heater which he was able to fix by tightening something. Thank goodness! Now we're just hoping and praying that we will be safe. Neither one of us have had any symptoms of CO poisoning so that's good.

Ironically, we found out the man from the gas company knew Brian's brother. Apparently, he was the first councilor in the Bishopric in their ward Small world!

What a day! What a day!

Closer

For those of you who don't know, Brian is going to school to major in Biology. I am so proud of him. He is getting so close to graduating. We can see an end in sight.

This semester was particularly difficult for him with BioChem and Organic Chem. He was certain he would fail his BioChem class due to tests that would cover only minor parts of lectures and the professor wouldn't get things posted on time. We were pleasantly surprised when we were finally able to see his grades that he passed! We were so ecstatic! He now has only one more BioChem class until he receives his minor in Chemistry.

We were figuring if he were to take 7 credit hours each semester, he would finish his Bachelor's degree in about a year! WHOO HOO! He has been working so hard to complete his schooling. He's been getting really excited to plan his next few semesters....and his graduation.