Thank You, Thank You!

We are so lucky to have families that are so supportive of us. Thanks to Mom Church for all of your help the last few days and thanks to Dad Church for lending her to us :) Fisher had a blast and as you could see, he was so sad to see everyone leave. We appreciate and love you guys!

Fisher, Shower & Grandma Church's visit

(2nd post today)

I haven't taken any pictures lately since I had to send my camera out to be looked at. I did not know what was wrong with it and we did not want to mess around too much so that it affected our warranty. I will be so happy when it is back. This weekend I was able to borrow Mom Church's to take a few pictures .

My mom arranged a shower by mail for us. It was a fun surprise considering I never planned on having one since I am having another boy. Thank you to everyone who participated- we appreciate everything! The one thing that stunk is that I did not have my camera and Todd's mom's camera ran out of batteries right as we started to open everything.

Fisher opened almost all of the presents (until he opened the package from Jean & Jane with the packing popcorn...after that nothing compared :) He had been dying to open them as they came in the mail and I kept telling him he would have to wait until Saturday. I might as well have been crushing all of his hopes and dreams for how upset he was.


As I mentioned before, there was not an abundance of pictures. We received some great summer clothes, fresh sleepers, pacifiers, blankets, bibs, burp cloths, wash cloths, towels, a crib sheet, ties, dress clothes, diaper holders and I am sure I have left some stuff out. Thank you so much again to everyone! Opening the packages made reality set in a little more. We really are having another baby!


The spoils of a "shower-by-mail."

And this is what the house looked like after Fisher finished opening everything.

Mom Church came down this weekend to visit/help out with Fisher. He has been in heaven. (And Mom- Fisher insisted on wearing his Fourth of July shirt the second he opened the package. He wore it the rest of the day and as we went out and about I felt like I had a little redneck for a son :)

Thanks to Mom Church for helping out. Todd has been really busy studying for his Board exams and so it has made for really long days with Fisher. The two of us have been having a good time- especially since I have consciously been trying to enjoy this time with him before the baby comes. Despite enjoying my time with him, the extra attention from Grandma towards Fisher has been nice. :) We had a little bit of a rough week as Fisher had a break out of canker sores in his mouth. I think it was something to do with exhaustion and his little body just breaking down. He did more napping this week than this whole past year combined. And when he wasn't napping he was crying and in pain, unable to eat anything. So sad :( Thankfully his mouth is finally feeling better and our normal little wild child is back.

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Some of Fisher's quotes/incidents of the week I want to remember:

-Todd had given Fisher a blessing for the canker sores. Later on Todd and I knelt by Fisher's bed to say prayers with him while Fisher was in his bed. As Todd was praying, Fisher laid his hands on Todd's head for the entire prayer.

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-During sacrament today Todd had his head down while he was praying and Fisher, very loudly, said "Dad! Wake up!"

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-Tonight while we were reading scriptures Fisher jumped out of his bed and went to Grandma Church and said "I just have to tell Grandma a secret." Since his whispering abilities still leave something to be desired Todd and I proceeded to hear him "whisper" the following secret. "Did you know Jesus got baptized and swam away?" She then asked, "How old are we when we get baptized?," to which he responded "You get baptized and then you get "ate."

At least we know he has been listening, even if he has the context wrong. :)

37.5 Weeks. I'm at that point where people ask me how long I have left and are always shocked when I tell them 2 1/2 more weeks until my due date. I am so tired of being pregnant.

The evolution of Jr's room

The baby's room was a spare bedroom/Todd's study room/storage room in one. After I started clearing Fisher's room of all the baby stuff it became nothing but one giant mess.

Mess continued.

Eventually I was able to make some progress on cleaning out the room.

I have always wanted to do a room based on frogs but the green was horrendous. The picture doesn't do the color justice for just how bright it was. I couldn't find fabric that seemed fun and little boyish enough that matched the wall.

I finally found fabric that I loved that completely clashed with the green I painted on the wall.

So there was a change in plans and we now have another blue room. But I like my blue room :)

I have been able to use all of my colorful frogs, which makes me happy.

It will be nice to have everything done. We still need to pull out all of the baby stuff to get everything ready. Although I am ready to have this baby there is still so much to do so I guess it is just as well that I haven't progressed at all.

Junior's latest picture.

Here is the ultrasound picture from last week. The cord is in the way of his mouth and I always think that the pictures look a little creepy but this proves I really have a baby living inside of me just in case my hippo sized stomach was not enough proof. My fluid levels are as they should be this time around so hopefully we won't have the complications that I had with delivering Fisher. The little guy still has no name. In fact, I think we are moving further and further away from deciding on one the closer the due date is. He could potentially enter this world three weeks from yesterday depending on my doctor's schedule and whether or not we choose to induce right after Todd's Board Exams. Some days we think we should just let him come, but if I go even a day after my due date I think I would die. Todd is tired of hearing it, but I will say it on here: I am tired of being pregnant!

Four more weeks?

This week I have a 36 week ultrasound. I am excited to see how big our little guy is because he feels huge. It would be nice to have an idea of what I am going to be dealing with. We still do not have a name. Let me scratch that. We do not have one name...we have about 20. There is one we have been talking about the past few days (and no one has heard us mention it before) but it is one that I worry would be used in the "Banana fanna fo fanna..." game and will quickly become a favorite. We'll have to think on it. I could possibly be having this baby in exactly four weeks depending on my doctor's schedule. That sounds so far away when I think about how horrible I am sleeping, but then when I think of everything I still have to do to get ready then it seems like not nearly enough time. Funny how that works. As long as he will wait until June 13th then we are good to go.

31 1/2 wks
I posted both of these pictures to show how much I have grown in the last month but it is not as noticeable as it feels, I guess.

35 1/2 wks

See that big black spot on the left side? Hard to miss. I did something to my camera and I don't have a clue as to what it was. Does anyone know anything about Canons? It stinks because we have to ship it out to get fixed- I don't want to touch anymore buttons and do more damage. We are hoping it will be fast considering there is a nameless little boy coming into the world soon.

On a happier note...

"There's no monsters under my bed.
I killed them.

I stepped on them with my shoes."

A Sad Day.

Thirteen and a half years ago Chula, a blue and gold macaw, joined my family. She was a year-and-a-half old, feisty as can be and beautiful. My parents wanted something to occupy my time and my dad wanted an excuse to get a bird :) We set out looking for the perfect bird to join our family. The condition I had was that I had to keep my room clean for a week straight (hence the "my dad wanted an excuse," although it was rather difficult for me to keep my room clean.)

The first day we had her she bit my right upper arm and took a chunk of skin that was quite impressive- I still have the scar from it to this day. I told my dad I did not want her anymore and to take her back. I am glad that he convinced me to give her a little bit of time.

I think the only word she could say when we first bought her was "hello" in a generic intonation. The first word she learned at our house was "OUCH!" They learn words by hearing them over and over so that tells you how the first few weeks went.

She later learned to say hello when the phone would ring using a fake voice that we all use to answer the phone. She also said "goodbye" (when we put her away in her cage), "no," "let go" (although I have not heard that one for years now that I think about it). She would whisper "I love you," "How are you?", and she would often throw "Chulabird" onto the ends of these such as " How are you, Chulabird?" She still yells "Meagan!" even after I have been gone for all of these years. The one thing she would never say is "I'm smart." My dad tried for years and years to help her learn that. In the mornings when he would be down lifting weights (sometimes with her keeping him company on the bench press bar) he would repeat it over and over but she refused to catch on to that one.

Bath time for Chula consisted of a spray bottle, which she hated, and then being blow dried, which she loved.

One of the funniest things she did was to burp a very genuine sounding burp. She would jut out her beak and would burp. You can tell she lived in a house with a dad, three brothers and one sister who could burp just as well as any of them :) I think my mom was the only one who did not contribute to this particular habit.

When I still lived at home I would take her on walks to the park. She terrified dogs and cats. She went to church BBQs, would take rides with us in the car to the grocery store, and would hang out in the back yard for a little bit of sunshine. The wind always made her a little nervous. She loved human food. Bagels, bananas (and just about any fruit), ice cream...she was always willing to give our food a try and would make a cute little noise when she was eating on our shoulders in the kitchen. When I was still living at home and spending a lot of time with her she would eat from my mouth. She also loved when I would share my drinks with her.

When I left for college and returned the first couple of times, she copped a little bit of attitude with me showing me she was not happy . That eventually passed and we could pick up just fine when I would come back to visit. She hated Todd when she first met him and not until recent years has she been even remotely nice to him. They seemed to develop a mutual respect for each other. One of the deals when Todd asked to marry me was that he had to understand that I was a package deal with my blankie and Chula (once I had room to accommodate her) so he had no choice but to learn to love her since he was going to be stuck with her forever.

Last summer there was a bad accident and Chula was attacked by a raccoon or some sort of large cat. She came very close to dying. Thankfully my brother and sister-in-law were visiting and heard the attack so that she was able to receive immediate attention. Under her right wing (left from this view) you can see one of the wounds she received. It was a scary time not knowing if she was going to make it or not.

Another picture of some of the damage she received. She was finally out of life threatening danger but unfortunately she suffered some mental wounds. We think she suffered a case of post traumatic stress disorder from the accident.

It has lead to a life of plucking. She plucks whenever any of her new feathers come in and she does it to the point that she bleeds. It was making my dad sad to see her this way and although he still spent time with her, she was needing more attention than he had time to give . It was lonely for her after all of us moved out of the house. It broke my heart not to be able to have her come live with us but our house is too small at the moment, we live on the other side of the country and we will be moving around with the Air Force for a few years after Todd graduates.

My dad found a breeder that was recommended and today my parents took her to her new home. I guess she seemed happy to be around birds. Hopefully she will find friends and good company and will be successful at making cute little baby blue and golds. I am going to miss her. I never thought there would be a time where she wasn't around so this will take some getting used to. I hope that she will get better and will be happy in her new life.

I love you and will miss you, pretty girl.

Catching Caterpillars

Todd and Fisher found some caterpillars in the back yard.

And while one caterpillar is good, two is even better.

Although Fisher was fairly gentle with them, I am sure these caterpillars wished they were anywhere but where they were. I would have if I were them.

After dropping them numerous times we finally convinced him it was time for them to go home to eat their dinner.

Farewell my tiny, furry friends.

Who knew that caterpillars were capable of letting out sighs of relief? Home free at last.

We're singing in the rain...

I love the rain and I love the green. It makes me so happy when the backyard turns green and beautiful.

Fisher Indulgence

These are nothing more than a bunch of Fisher pictures.

He finally fits into his "Future Fisherman" hat. Fisher is actually named after the sport of fishing. Todd loves to fly fish and I finally agreed to the name. Baby #2 is still nameless and will probably continue to be so until he is born. We have a middle and last name- it is just the first name that seems to evade us.

He loves to be helpful however he can. Todd was spraying weeds one day and Fisher wanted to help so we gave him a water bottle to help spray with. This was actually the day of Thunder Over Louisville which we once again did not attend. We still have two more before we leave Louisville so we figure we will make it to at least one of them. For those of you not familiar with Thunder it is the kick off event for the Kentucky Derby which includes an all day air show and the largest fireworks display in North America which takes place off one of the bridges over the Ohio River.

We've enjoyed the beautiful weather that spring has brought us this year. Too bad summer is approaching. As I have mentioned about a gazillion times on this blog- I do not do Louisville summers. I hate humidity.

Fisher insisted on sleeping in his crown one night. This week he has woken up in the 6:00 hour about four times. Not cool.

Helping out in the kitchen as he loves to do.

Thank you Erin!

I have been looking for a way to organize my earrings for the longest time. They have been living, unhappily, in a plastic bag, beating up on each other every time I reach in to grab a pair. Thankfully my sister-in-law had a great idea- one that I was more than wiling to copy :) Thanks Erin!