3/4

This morning while at the gym, I was thinking about how much I normally love working out, and how much I hate being so fat and unable to do much physically when pregnant. But then I thought, hey! I'm 30 weeks along today! Only 10 more to go!! That's 3/4 of the way there! These last few months are always hard on me (mostly mentally) and I'm so negative about the way I look. But this time around in particular I seem to be growing at an exponential rate. Not the baby, just me. My love handles are averaging about the size of Texas, with my double chin and cheeks tagging along not too far behind. But the good news is it won't last much longer, and it's the sweetest reward at the end. I'm getting really excited and nervous (and a little stressed that we can't think of a name). But I have been very blessed with such good health, me and this little girl so I really have nothing to complain about.

Yesterday I had another Dr. appt. and of course have to take the kids along with me. Tyler always studies those posters and pictures they have up on the walls in the rooms and I wish he wouldn't haha. They're pretty graphic of female bodies for a 3 year old boy. But yesterday, several hours after we had been home he finally asked me the dreaded question...

Ty: How are you going to get the baby out? Cuz the baby is in your tummy, but your tummy is too small!
Me: (trying to joke it off...) my tummy isn't small, it's huge!
Ty: (obviously not satisfied with me dodging the question...) So how does the baby get out of there?
Me: Well I go to the hospital and they take it out.
Ty: But HOW?

So I explained it on a very simple level and he laughs and says, "Oh that's just crazy!!"
Hahaha. I sure love that boy.

A few main events

I love sleeping in a little later than planned, only because my bed is so nice and warm and my house was cold. Yes, I said cold. Yesterday it was rainy and really chilly and I loved it!! This week is supposed to be beautiful! Welcome, cooler temperatures.

Here's a few of the highlights of our week last week:

Monday: Kenny was actually home not only in time to see the kids before they went to bed, but for us to have FHE with him too!

Tuesday: Tyler had a playgroup thing that he goes to just once a month with a bunch of other kids and had a blast. It was dinosaur themed so they dug in the sand for little plastic dinos and painted, did a dinosaur craft, read a book and played on the playground.

Wednesday: Brynlee got her cast off! My friend Rochelle was so kind to let Tyler play at her house while we went. It all went so much smoother and faster than last time. Brynlee is an angel when it's just me and her. But she and Tyler are so competitive and he teases her so much and they just make quite the scene. Last time was one tantrum after another, and Tyler put stickers all over my legs, and I got a lot of "you've sure got your hands full" comments. This time, it was all so much better :). They did some more x-rays and still couldn't see enough bone growth that would indicate a fracture. But the doc said she still would have put the cast on, and I agree. Glad to have that over with.
That night I took the kids out for ice cream cuz Kenny had YM and I got a pumpkin/oreo shake. Cami--go to AC where the good stuff is and eat one of their pumpkin/oreo shakes for me. I miss them!!

Thursday: We went to the St. Louis Zoo with Terra and her son, Jacob. Jacob and Tyler are good buddies and we all had a great time, despite the heat.

Looking at the giraffes. Whenever Brynlee sees a giraffe she calls it a "long neck!"

Tyler also had Little Gym that night. We never got around to doing his preschool that day.

Friday was nothing too significant. Kenny came home at like 4:30 and it just makes the whole evening so much better when he's there. We had homemade pizza and went on a nice walk to the lake and watched the sun go down.

Saturday: Went to Aria Pearson's baptism. (My friend Rochelle's daughter.) It was a great chance for Tyler to really understand what they do and talk about what it means. Kenny went on another 50 mile bike ride. That evening we went to Lisa Bowerman's birthday celebration for a little while, before I took off to the Relief Society Broadcast. I loved it so much and I can't wait till General Conference this weekend. My parents and 2 youngest siblings are coming to our house for the first time since we moved here and I'm so giddy with excitement! I can't wait to see them!

I also read a book this week called The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. It was really good (I loved it even more because it was her story), and made me realize how blessed I am.

All in all it was a great week.

Beach Bum

Pardon my practicing. These are all pictures from the Weston Family Reunion that my SIL Jeni took. I'm just having fun playing around with a new editing program I found. Maybe I won't spend money on photoshop after all...??

The start of a great week

Just look at the sunrise this morning. I love the view from my front porch.
(There were even better pictures until I realized the memory card wasn't in the camera--don't you hate that? You know how fleeting sunrises/sunsets are. But I think I still caught it.)

Nothing out of the ordinary

I don't have anything exciting to update. It was pretty much just another week.

Last Sunday we had the missionaries over for dinner. I love Sundays and that they are a day of rest, and a family day. I don't know what I would do without them in my week.

Monday I had another dr. appt. and everything is still looking fine, my glucose test came back with no problems. I'm glad I don't have to do that again.

Tuesday I was SO grateful to be able to go to book club. It's just with our Relief Society, but I was planning on Kenny not being home on time again (it was at 7:00) so I thought about bringing the kids. But he did come home so I was very glad to have a night off. We read the book Devil's Food Cake by Josi S. Kilpack. It was a fun, easy read. Not exactly intellectualy stimulating, but it was real fun to do for a book club because it has some fantastic recipes in it (all her books are like that) and so we each made something different and brought it. I was lucky enough to make the actual devil's food cake and it was delicious. I am probably going to buy the book just for the recipes :). We didn't end up talking much about the book itself, but we did have fun talking and eating--2 of my favorite things.

Wednesday Kenny had Young Mens and I relished in free time again. I had put the kids to bed and so I spread out all my projects and sewed while watching Sleepless in Seattle. It was wonderful. I made a couple baby blankets and 2 tutu's for Bryn this week. I also did a fall table runner, and made a little thing to hang up Tyler's artwork and crafts in his room. I may or may not get around to taking pictures of those things and putting it on here. (Btw-I didn't make all of that in one day, just throughout the week.)

Thursday I had a presidency meeting in the morning, and Tyler had the Little Gym again that evening. Kenny even showed up to watch him for a lot of it which was SO fun for Tyler. I loved to see his face when Kenny showed up. He never pays much attention to me during class, but he looked over every few minutes to make sure his dad was still watching him.

Friday we wanted to go apple-picking but my to-do list was a mile long and a lot of it was stuff I needed Kenny around for. So we decided to make the most of his actually being home and we got a lot done this weekend.

Saturday was the same, just lots of "getting stuff done". It was a very productive, and tiring weekend. We've had a bad problem with spiders ands ants in our home so Kenny helped to take care of that problem, thank goodness. Oh and we also drove out to the hospital where we're planning on delivering this baby and took a little tour of it. It's a nice place, and it made me very excited and anxious about the whole thing.

I'm still doing Tyler's preschool every day with him and he loves it. He was begging me to do it with him on Saturday even. I'm so glad he loves it so much. It's really fun to watch him learn and his skills develop.

Desserts

I got a couple requests for the chocolate dream dessert recipe and I'm so glad because it is yummy and easy!

Chocolate Dream Dessert

1st layer: 1 c. flour
1 stick butter
1 c. chopped nuts (I use pecans)
Mix together and press in a 9 by 13 pan. Bake 20 min. at 350 degrees, then let cool.

2nd layer: 8 oz. cream cheese
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
½ to 1 c. cool whip or whip cream.
Cream together powd. sugar and vanilla and fold in whip cream. Spread over first layer.

3rd layer: 1 large package of chocolate pudding
2 ½ c. milk or 3 c.-follow directions on box
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat together and pour over 2nd layer.
Put it in the fridge to let the pudding set completely.

4th layer: Top with more cool whip.

Garnish with chocolate candies and/or nuts
Keep it in the fridge until ready to eat. You want it nice and cold. You can take all day to make it if you want, just be sure to keep it refrigerated in between each layer.

S'MORES:

A couple Sundays ago we made oven-baked s'mores for our treat. This time, instead of just using regular hershey's chocolate bars, we tried it with Reese's Peanut Buter Cups, and Rolos! It is delicious!! I can't take credit for it, I got it off of OurBestBites. But it is super yummy. Just ask my kids.

Air Show

Yesterday we went to the Air Show at the Scott Air Force Base. It was so cool!! We got there at the perfect time, no traffic, great seats, before the massive crowds, etc. It was really cloudy which made it nice for us, but it delayed the show for quite a while and made them change their schedules based on what the different airplanes needed to fly. But we got to see a lot of neat things, and the kids loved it! It was a great patriotic event as they talked about 9/11 and did a "tora! tora! tora!" show thing from Pearl Harbor, the first terrorist attack our country experienced. I felt very proud to be an American, and felt so much gratitude and pride in those that have served our great country. We saw the Golden Knights, those guys that drop out of the airplanes and parachute down. We didn't stay long enough to see the Blue Angels because the kids had had enough and we didn't want to push the limit. But we left at a great time too. So overall it was a great day and we're glad we went!

Tyler loved sitting in this little plane and pretending to fly. He's been pretending to be a pilot a lot since we got home.

Bryn's Boot/Kenny's Birthday

Wednesday, September 8th

So remember how I said before that Brynlee hurt her foot/ankle? Well it wasn't getting any better. They had said to call back on Tuesday if she wasn't improving. So that's what I did. They think she has what they call a "toddler fracture", (a tibia/fibula fracture) which doesn't usually show up until after the new bone grows in a few weeks later. So they told us to come in and they'd cast it for her. I felt SO much better about that. Now she will heal properly, and without so much pain walking around. So Wednesday morning was very long. The Children's Hospital was too busy to see us that day so we headed down to an orthopedics place that's clear out in Charleston, MO, past our temple. So it was a good hour away. Just me and the kids. They re-did the x-rays to make sure the other people hadn't missed something. Still no visible fracture, but they said it didn't matter--she was getting the boot anyway. Brynlee hated the x-rays this time since I couldn't go with her again (because I'm pregnant). But she was an angel for when they were actually putting on the boot and just sat real still. The first few hours after we got home she wasn't sure what to do with it. She tried to take it off a lot and would cry about it and roll around on the floor, or crawl, and it broke my heart. She kept saying"Off! Off!" But the wonderful thing about little kids is they are extremely adaptable and she figured it all out in no time at all. It hasn't slowed her down much and she still climbs things with the boot--she obviously didn't learn anything from this experience haha. As sad as it is to say this, she sure looks cute in it!



Wednesday was also Kenny's 27th birthday!! He requested chicken fettucine alfredo with asparagus and baby squash for dinner, and chocolate dream dessert instead of birthday cake.

No one gets more excited about a birthday than Mr. Tyler. He had so much fun helping me blow up balloons and wrap daddy's presents, and lick the spatulas as I made the dessert. Then he had even more fun when daddy let him blow out his candles and open his presents too! He loves birthdays and talks about his own on a regular basis.

Here's the kids helping Kenny blow out his candles over and over again. It's a Weston tradition that I swore we would not adopt. I think it's disgusting to have all that wax and spit covering the cake by the time you actually cut into it. But I'm afraid I don't get a say in this one. Kenny insists that it's the kids' favorite part so they re-light and blow out the candles several times. :)

The yummy chocolate dream dessert.

Dinner actually turned out to be a flop. Kenny works late a lot, but he said he would be home by 6:00. So I had dinner on the table and ready to be eaten at 6:00. I called Kenny and he still hadn't left the office, nor was he sure when he would be able to. I was crushed. I felt like I was working really hard to make everything a special day, and Brynlee cried a lot and wanted to be held the whole time I was cooking because she was frustrated about her boot. I was also missing my most favorite activity for RS of the year (volleyball) and I felt like he didn't care at all. Which, in part, is true because birthdays are a lot bigger deal to me than they are to him. Then the quote from Eliza R. Snow came back to me (that Sis. Beck repeated in her talk) about how women should be women and not babies who need petting and correction all the time. And how if we don't get all the thanks or attention we think we deserve, who cares? So I realized I was being a big selfish baby and that it was Kenny's birthday after all, not mine. So if he didn't care about re-heating his dinner, then neither should I. So I ate with the kids, not knowing how long it would be till he could come home. But thankfully he did make it home around 7 and we were able to have an enjoyable celebration for him.

I sure do love Kenny a lot and am grateful for everything he does for our family. He puts up with a lot from me, and I just think the world of him. Happy birthday sweetheart!

The Land of Lincoln

On Monday, which was also Labor Day, Kenny didn't have work so we decided to head up to Springfield, IL to check it out. Before we were even 3 minutes away from home Kenny says, do you know what a soy bean looks like? And I said no. He told me that was embarrassing, being his wife and all haha. So he pulls the car over (there's lots of soy bean fields around here) and we get out of the car to see one. He shows me the plant and points out some stuff, picks one, breaks open the shell/casing thing (they're enclosed like peas are) and makes me eat one! He can't help himself, he's a farmer.

Anyway, so we make it to Springfield, it's only about an hour away which is awesome. We stop at the Visitor's Center to get tickets for our tour of Lincoln's home and see what's there. We thought our tickets were pretty funny. They have characters on them from the Lincoln family, so we each got one. Kenny was Abe Lincoln, I was his wife, Mary. Tyler got to be one of the sons, Robert, and Brynlee was the dog Fido. We had a good laugh at that, as we looked over at her playing in the dirt next to us, we realized it was pretty fitting :).

Here we are in front of the Lincoln family's house. Brynlee was a monster during the tour and Kenny ended up leaving halfway through to take her outside, where we could still hear her screaming through some of it. She had woken up way too early that morning.

Thankfully she fell asleep in the car on the way to the beautiful Capitol building and slept through the entire tour here. Words cannot describe how gorgeous this building is. We got to see the Senate Gallery, and the House Gallery, and the first Supreme Court room, etc. The whole thing is magnificent and breathtaking.

This was closed for tours for the day, but we were fine with that. This is where Lincoln worked as a Lawyer for quite a while.

We have a thing with posing identically to the statues we see wherever we go. I will spare you of all the other ones, but this one was too cute to pass up. The building in the back left of this pic. is the old capitol building. Apparently the current one is the sixth one, crazy huh?

Our last stop was the Lincoln Presidential Museum. This place is so cool. They have a lot of really well-done exhibits and shows and we were all very impressed. This picture is us with the Lincoln family. They had 4 sons, and lost 3 at different times. (Does this picture freak anyone else out, even just a little bit? There's a lot of manaquins all over and sometimes it was scaring me thinking some guy was staring at me, till I realized he was fake.)

They even had a children's section with lots of dress-ups and toys. The kids were having a great time up until Brynlee fell into the corner of a chest, screamed like a demon, and got a nice mark on her head. I decided we can't take her anywhere. She is the most accident-prone girl I've ever met.

On the way home we stopped at the Farmer's Market in Hamel. It just so happened to be the last day of the season it was open, so everything was $1!! Kenny went a little crazy and got 17 jars of jams, salsas, and other unusual things like pickled watermelon rind and cauliflower, etc. I got a couple bags of Kettle corn :) Anyway we love finding great deals like that.

It was a great day, overall. We learned a lot and saw some really cool things. It was a much needed holiday.

Beautiful Sabbath Day

All the windows in my house are open right now, and they were open all day yesterday too. I could not even ask for a more beautiful weekend, we are having the most perfect weather! It's been a real busy week, with not much of Kenny around. So we're really enjoying this long Labor Day weekend together.

I started doing preschool with Tyler this week. Like real, structured, every-day, legit preschool. I bought a program through this company and we're giving it a shot this year. It only takes about an hour a day since it's only him, and I'm learning to find ways to challenge him more. He already knows a lot of the stuff I'm supposed to be "teaching" him. But it's still a great thing and he is loving it. We've added a few things like memorizing articles of faith or scriptures, and learning primary songs along with it. Brynlee is in and out while we do it, but it's mostly a great one-on-one teaching time with him.

Kenny worked late every day this week except Wednesday, because he went to YM that night, but at least he came home for dinner before he left so that was a nice surprise. I really can't remember what happened the first half of the week. (Is that a bad sign?) But Thursday Brynlee was climbing up to the kitchen table like she always does (she rarely lets us put her in her highchair anymore) but somehow managed to fall off and pull the kitchen chair on top of her too. It landed on her foot and really hurt her. She would barely even put pressure to stand on it for a while, but it wasn't swelling up or anything so I thought I'd wait the day and see. The next morning she was barely walking on it still, and resorted to crawling a lot. She would get off the couch, forgetting about her foot/ankle and then crumble to the ground once it hit because of the pain. I felt so bad for her. We took her in and got x-rays on it on Friday. Luckily there was no fracture, and it's slowly getting better. Kenny still calls her "hobbler", but I imagine it will heal just fine. I wish I could say it will teach her a lesson to stop climbing everything, but I know her better than that! :)

Friday we went out to eat together at Imo's Pizza. We have wanted to go there since we moved here and finally did. It was really good!! The crust was super thin so I was pretty skeptical because I like my pizza crust. But it was super yummy! Kenny and I downed a medium pizza all by ourselves which is both impressive and embarrassing at the same time--but did I mention how thin the crust was?

Saturday was super-productive, which are my favorite kind of Saturdays. I did a lot of cleaning inside while Kenny went on a 50 mile bike ride. He should have saved his energy for when he got home because I had a hefty honey-do list for him :). I went on a "throw it away or give it to goodwill" streak and it feels good to go through stuff. Mostly it was in the garage, which desperately needed to be re-organized. Now all my bins are nicely labeled and stacked and it makes me happy every time I go out there. I know I'm weird, and borderline OCD, but you should see my garage!

In the late afternoon we drove out to Fairview Heights to do some shopping. I needed some fabric for some projects I want to do, and we did some birthday shopping for Kenny. It still bothers me how far we have to go to get to any decent stores. But what can ya do.

I am so happy that fall is around the corner. They've started harvesting the corn and the fields will soon all be flat again (have I ever mentioned that we live in what has to be in the top 3 corn producing states? I don't know the statistics, but there's a lot of dang corn and soy beans around here). The geese have come back to the lake, and we are back to doing our Sunday walks as a family. I just love how we get 4 seasons here: a hot summer, a cool fall, a cold winter, and a warm spring. It makes you appreciate each one. Fall is my favorite though, so I'm a happy girl.

Rain

It rained off an on all day yesterday, and all night last night, and it still hasn't let up. I love it! It reminded me of this picture. We were in Adam-Ondi-Ahman, just beginning our tour for the day when it started raining pretty hard. We took shelter under a large tree, and Tyler started to cry because he is our worry wart who stresses out about everything, and the fact that we were outside in the rain was really getting to him. I was running out of ways to comfort my comfort-less child, when Kenny's dad saved the day. Grandpa Weston walks out from under the tree with his hands up and exclaims "Oh I love the rain!" Tyler watched with interest, and eventually decided to follow. So did Kenny and Bryn, and by the end Tyler was as happy (and as wet) as could be. Now whenever it rains he says "I like the rain, just like Grandpa!" That's a great memory for him, and for me.