An end in sight. . .

We are on the down swing. There is an end in sight. I am in the second half of the pregnancy and the last part of the separation from Brian. Tax season is just 6 more weeks and we will finally be back to a semi normal life. We are so ready for the end of May to get here and so we can see Brian again. With my work schedule and his class schedule don't allow for much real communication, just a lot of text messages sent in a free second here and there. Tyler has started to rebel against me and my parents and most other leaders in his life. Connor on the other hand has started to calm down and be far more obedient than he has been in months. He was sick with croup and double ear infections but after healing from that, and my hours being cut back at work, he is doing much better.

This pregnancy is really starting to get to me. My back is out and staring at a computer screen at work is making my neck throb so from 4pm-10pm I am pretty uncomfortable but am planning to go to the chiropractor this weeks so hopefully I'll be able to cope with it soon. We finally started getting stuff for the baby in the last week. The baby now has bedding, a car seat and a stroller. Clothes are waiting for us to KNOW what we are having not just speculate at the gender though if you ask Tyler we know and have known for a long time and the baby really needs some clothes so it won't come home from the hospital naked. But hey it will at least have a blanket and a car seat to come home in. I get to do the glucose test next week and maybe sometime I will get another ultrasound so we know for sure what we're having but I'm not sure we will find out for sure what we're having until the baby actually comes.

Well I do have some pictures but they are all on my phone and I can't find the cord to download them so once again sorry.

WE ARE ALIVE!!

Tyler's preschool Christmas party Tyler would only sit on Santa's lap if Connor did it with him

Connor was more than a little excited and Tyler was more than a little leery to do this.

Sorry I have been so long between updates. My trip to Oklahoma worked out well and we had good weather for travel the entire time, just cold. We did get kicked out of the casino we were trying to eat in for taking a picture by the slot machines. We got lost a few times and had some interesting flights, like the smallest plane I've ever been on for an almost 3 hour flight, which is not the one that I got sick on oddly enough. We made it home and Tyler was REALLY excited to see his daddy, and after Connor warmed up to him again (10-15 minutes) he wouldn't leave his daddy's side.

We went to Jackson and spent the next 2 weeks just hanging around with Brian's family. There was so little snow that we couldn't snowmobile up the mountain to get a Christmas tree and so we used our fake tree and Brian's family wasn't too happy about it but since I am allergic to pine it was much nicer for me. We kept Christmas low key and minimal this year and yet still got totally spoiled so it was a good and relaxing Christmas over all.

Brian left on New Years Eve and flew on a late night flight to Georgia. Where he thought he would be processed and start school around the 11th of January. No such luck, he is still waiting for class to start but they think it will start this week. Which if he can leave the base as soon as the class gets over he will be home just in time for the reunion for his family I got put in charge of oh and within a week of my due date :)

Tyler came with me for my 20 week ultrasound and thought it was all really cool, even the blood draw though I told him multiple times not to watch that part. The baby would not roll over and was facing my back and so we aren't sure the gender but they are leaning toward girl and we have been pretty sure it was a girl the whole time so we have started buying pink and thinking of girl names but not agreeing on any.

I did take pictures at Brian's graduation but they didn't turn out and my camera had been left in the car and was still too cold to work on Christmas so I'm waiting on my mother-in-laws pictures to get to me. So I apologize for how few pictures this post has.

SO BUSY!!

Well to say we have been busy would be an understatement. I have had 2-3 classes a week for H&R Block in Idaho Falls and have had my nieces 2 days a week. We are also deep in preparations for Brian's return from Basic Training. The boys are more than ready to have daddy home for a couple weeks. I'm not sure they realize that it is only for a couple weeks before he leaves again but we are focusing on having fun while we are all together. I am getting everything ready for my trip to Oklahoma to Boot Camp graduation and the boys stay at my sister's house so Tyler can keep going to school next week and enjoy his Christmas projects and party. I have an H&R Block class Monday morning and then I catch a shuttle to Salt Lake to meet my travel partner at the airport and then camp out at her house until our flight Tuesday morning.

I went to my second baby appointment last week and Tyler really wanted to go with me. He got a really goofy grin on his face when we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat. He was really excited to tell daddy he had heard the heartbeat but Brian only had like 2 minutes to talk this week and so he didn't get to tell daddy yet. Tyler also really wants to go with me when I have the ultra sound next month to "see" the baby so he can call daddy and tell him what we are having since Brian will be back at training by the time I have my ultrasound. I am finally getting over my all day sickness. I have discovered a few tricks and haven't thrown up in about a week so that is serious progress!! The boys are enjoying being able to do things outside the house now that I am not so sick, but since it's been SO cold and now it's really snowy there isn't too much to do now that I'm finally up to doing stuff but we at least go shopping sometimes now which is an improvement.

We are excited for Christmas and time just to get to spend time together and not have any classes or school or things we HAVE to do.

Oh the things to come...

Tyler was playing with my camera the other night and this is the only picture that turned out, you can see how rosy Connor's cheeks are from his cold.

This is a picture Ty took after breakfast one morning a few weeks ago, notice the cinnamon sugar still on his face from breakfast.

Well the last month has been pretty crazy, we are 6 weeks into Brian's 10 week absence. We are all ready to be done. The boys miss him and ask regularly when he will be home, it's starting to feel like that is the only question they ask most days. I am really missing Brian, and he is really ready to come home and not have someone telling him when and how to do every thing in his life. I FINALLY booked my tickets to fly our for his Basic Training graduation. I am going with the wife of one of his Army friend. I will be meeting her for the first time when I stay at her house the night before we fly to Oklahoma together and get to see our husbands and then share a hotel and rental car with her and sit next to her on a plane and oh so many other things I'm a little worried to do with a total stranger. Our husbands spend pretty much every waking hour together, they even attend church together and are in the same Platoon and have decided that they want to be friends so their wives should be too. I am glad I am not traveling alone and at least if I get stuck somewhere or sick or something there will be someone with me.

In the next month I have many an online H&R Block class to do, at least 1 test to take after I finish those classes, many butt in the seat classes to endure and all so I can gain the privilege of working again come January. I work with my dad and he and I have discovered there will be few experienced preparers (basically, him, me and our boss who has little free time from the paperwork to do taxes, and honestly far less experience than me) who will be working this season. We have to have at least 1 of us in the office at all times. Our office is open 9-9 M-F and 9-5 on Saturday, that means I will be working WAY more hours than the 12-24 hours a week I worked last year. I will be working many nights, which I haven't done since I was pregnant with Tyler(he's 5 remember) so it should be an interesting adjustment for us all, as my mom will be covering the time I am at work or my brother in law who is in school will be when we are both at work yeah should be really interesting.


Connor has been sick this week so we got to stay home today and just relax while my parents took Tyler to church. He is doing better but we are trying to keep him out of the cold to avoid the Bronchitis that is ever present in my family.

I took Brian's car into the shop to discover it had a broken axle and the brakes were on too tight, both of which I've suspected for months, but Brian assured me were fine. $200 later it is doing fine, and that price was much lower than I had anticipated it would be. My Expedition has been acting up and so it gets to go into the shop tomorrow morning, hoping for a similar price to fix but I'm sure I can't get that lucky twice. And why did they both decided to need to be fixed at the same time, oh because I was actually going to put money in savings this month, silly me.

All in all we are all doing pretty well and are really looking forward to some time to relax over Thanksgiving and Christmas break, but mostly being together for Christmas.

Family Pictures

Thanks to my Brother in law, Ken we finally got some descent and recent family pictures. Which is even more miraculous if you know that Tyler had the flu, and I was getting it. Tyler didn't throw up for about 2 hours before and 3 hours after these pictures.

The boys faces crack me and up and the fact we got any when they were looking is almost miraculous. Tyler obviously wasn't too excited about the whole thing but we kept his barf bucket with us at all times and the ugly dog in the first picture was the only way he would even come. I got that dog from my Grandma when I was his age so he just loves it. It has had many a repair surgery, with more stuffing added each time but it let us get family pictures so can't complain.

Just Catchin up

Well the last month has been crazy busy. We had Tyler's birthday party, family visits, and lots and lots of getting ready for daddy to leave. Brian was able to have almost a week off before he left so he and the boys went to Jackson for my brother-in-law's birthday, I was going to go but woke up REALLY sick that morning so didn't go. I'm sure I caught it from Tyler who had been sick the day before, or Connor who had it the day before that. We tried to do something fun (for the boys) as often as possible before Brian left so we ate at Arctic Circle a lot, went to the parks, and of course went shopping to get just the right present for daddy to give the boys before he left. Which if you could guess was batman pajamas, like with capes and everything, which of course they love and want to sleep in EVERY night.

We took Brian down to the hotel in Salt Lake because it was conference weekend and all the flights the army tried to get him on for days surrounding the day he was supposed to be there were booked. We stopped to get some envelopes and saw the weirdest looking he/she clerk I've ever seen, Tyler just kept staring at her (I think it was a guy who really wanted to be a girl). Yeah interesting. Luckily my brother in law needed a ride home from the airport the same day Brian needed to be in Salt Lake so I didn't have to drive home since it was snowing part of the way.

It's been 10 days since he left and the boys keep asking when he'll be back. Tyler keeps asking how long 10 weeks can really take but they both really liked talking to him while he was processing last week and had phone privileges. He is supposed to be sending us letters so we can have his address soon so they can write to him. Tyler has been practicing his letters so he will be able to write a letter to daddy as soon as we get his address.

Well I am in the process of making Sugar cookies and the dough is cold so I'd better go start rolling them out or I'll never get done baking today...

Tyler's Birthday

Well I know this is really late but better late than never right? Tyler had his birthday party a couple weeks early so that Brian could be here for it. It worked out well because my brother and his family were here that weekend for a family sealing so we had even more cousins here for it than we had thought we would.

Tyler wanted a Batman birthday and once again, not a store around here carried anything Batman Birthday but the cake. So after a little on-line hunting we were able to get the decorations. We made houre derv's (or how ever you say the snacks you eat before dinner) and that's all we ate but since the party was at 3 in the afternoon it worked out well.

Here are a few of the many pictures we took...

Tyler playing with his new cars

So funny story, we bought cool star candles for the cake but the wicks were totally burnt off before we even got it to him to blow out and so he is supposed to look like he is blowing out the candles

The cars he is playing with in the above picture


The cool Batman blanket from his cousins, he LOVES it.

Once again thanks goes to Broulims for making a cool themed cake, because well I am not any good at cake decorating.

We had a lot of fun and had lots of family come that somehow only ended up in the back ground of the pictures.

For Tyler's real birthday we made goody bags for him to take to his friends at preschool. They were a big hit and we got lots of compliments, thanks Dollar Tree :) his teachers made him a crown with candy on it, which i did get a picture off but with my phone and the cord to my phone is at our house in Jackson. But believe me it was cute.