Happy New Year!

I didn't realize how much I love the "new year" holiday. There is just something about a day designated to start a whole new year and you feel like you can start fresh with habits and routines in a way (even though it is just like any other day). Its just that the excitement gives one a new energy and zest for life! My resolution is to treat my body better this year: Get enough sleep, eat well, exercise.  Now that I'm pregnant it feels even more important to do so. I'm starting the new year with a fetus the size of a grape and 9 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Its exciting to have new life in the new year. I have even been thinking it wouldn't be so bad if the baby was born on my birthday. I used to think that having that occur would suck but I would enjoy it maybe...

Well to update we had a lovely Christmas here in our home. My mom, dad, and Megan came to join us for the holiday. Of course when they come there is a lot of DIing and games. I was so excited for the food side of Christmas but about a week before it approached I had major nausea kick in. It almost put me in a panic. I was hungry always which made me nauseous always coupled with nothing sounding good. I can't meal plan at all. I don't like meat. Sugar makes me sick. Chocolate and a  few other things give me heart burn. Milk bothers my lactose intolerancy even more than it used to. I remembered loving being pregnant. I'm currently hating the symptoms but not the pregnancy of course. Its all for a good cause. I would do anything for Grant's happiness and comfort so why not give up myself completely to this new addition? Luckily the last 3 days or so it seems to have eased up or I have figured it all out or something. I feel a lot better than I did. I was super grouchy and tired and a bum. I'm still a bum sometimes but I feel more confident about being a housewife again when Megan leaves and Perry starts school. Megan has been so helpful with Grant and food and cleaning the kitchen. Perry has been making all the meals that my heart desires and has even been making a couple "pregnant" craving runs. He is very understanding and sympathetic.

Anyway, we had a good Sabbath Christmas. Things are somewhat of a blur but I remember enjoying my family's companionship. Then when my family left, except for Megan, Perry's family came to town. It was great to see them and reconnect with my in-laws. I love all of them. They are so energetic and fun! They have left now and Meg is still around. She leaves tomorrow. Perry goes back to work full-time tomorrow for two days and then back to the school-work schedule. I pray that I won't be in shock with out any one to hang with me all day. Then I have my first prenatal appointment on Tuesday morning. Perry wants to come. I hope to schedule an ultrasound and maybe they will let me do it the same day! That would be ideal!

To celebrate the new year, we worked on a puzzle, played killer bunnies, and did our very own countdown. Perry and Meg looked at their phones to watch the year change. Then we said "Happy New Year", I kissed Perry on the lips and Meg on the cheek. Then we got on the roof to check the several firework shows in every direction. It was simple and fun.

Happy New Year!

Pregnancy Thoughts.

So I'm 8 weeks along today as you can see above on the ticker. So I guess that means I'm 2 months pregnant. However technically the baby has only been growing for 6 weeks.  I haven't really wanted to blog about pregnancy lately because I'm feeling a bit crummy. Not really as bad as some other people I know but still... its worse than my pregnancy with Grant. I'm nauseous. Maybe its the same and school kept me distracted last time. I just feel sick all day and I eat my meals and my snacks and a short time later I'm hungry again. I tried the eating more during meals to counter the quickly thereafter hunger but it didn't seem to change it.
I have to keep reminding myself that nausea is a blessing when pregnant because its supposed to be good sign of the baby's health. Well I can't wait until after January 26th because supposedly my second trimester will be great. It was fabulous with Grant's. I just really hope the nausea goes away. At least its about a month away. So as far as looking forward to things, of course I'm not in any rush to have a newborn around, but excited for the baby to come, I will look forward to the no nausea milestone. I'm sorry to all you ladies out there who stay nauseous the entire pregnancy. You are strong and amazing. Anyway, enough of this rant.
 I think I will go read my book "The Work and the Glory" series number 3. My family is coming into town as we speak! So exciting. Christmas is here basically. Grant is about an hour and a half into  his nap but he is yelling "Hi! Bye!" and playing with his stuffed animals and soft books. Looks like its either going to be a no nap day or a late nap day. No big deal either way. I'm just glad he is happy sitting in there for the time being.

Merry Christmas from the Stotts!

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I'm Pregnant!

     Round two folks! Here we go! So I have a long shpeal about how this pregnancy came about. Stick around if you want to know the details (I promise they aren't super personal, unless you are afraid of the word period). So I have had 6 periods since Grant was born. They started when he was 15 months old. My whole life my periods were so irregular. But the ones I had been having recently were all relatively predictable. It was nice but that meant more frequent periods than I was ever used to. I just always told myself in the midst of them that this just means I would probably be ovulating and be able to plan our next pregnancy well.
    Some history: Grant's pregnancy took 9 months to get pregnant. I had insulin resistance which caused me to not ovulate. Insulin resistance was set on from eating too many carbs and having too little exercise. Sounds like everyone I know who likes chocolate. Once I was put on a low carb diet while taking metformin, and exercising regularly, I got pregnant within a month. Amazing! When I was a teen my periods were irregular for probably the exact opposite reasons. I worked out a ton! However I still ate whatever I wanted.
     Originally we planned on Grant being 2 1/2 for when we had our next kid. I thought December would be the best month as to not get pregnant before that. But then Perry and I decided it would at least take 2-3 months to get pregnant due to the last attempt with Grant. I guess I was more fertile than I thought and we started trying the beginning of November just for the heck it. Well first time worked. It shocked and baffled me. I was in such disbelief I still don't really think I'm pregnant.
    Another reason I was shocked was with Grant's pregnancy I threw up (felt pregnant) 6 days after conception. That's ridiculous. Hardly anyone feels pregnant that early. This time I still don't feel pregnant and I found out about 28 days after conception. I have small cramps in my uterus and I'm somewhat tired but thats about it. Last time the only reason I took a test was because I threw up and it was almost on a whim. This time I took a test because I was on day 46 and expected to have a period around day 35. I almost waited until day 50 or 60. But my curiosity got the best of me as well as a ton of friends and family are pregnant and I really wanted to join the clan, plus we obviously wanted to get pregnant due to it just being the right timing.
   Grant and I went to the dollar tree and bought a test. Yes their tests are legit and cheap! I thought I would take the test in the morning because it is the recommended time of day to take one due to concentrated urine and higher percentage of the HcG hormone present in a woman's body only when pregnant. I was tossing and turning in bed for about 3 hours with the word "pregnant" taunting me and driving me nuts. It was 1am on Friday morning December 9. I sat up. All of a sudden I felt like I had to pee. Perfect. I ran upstairs and took the test. It said to only put 4 drops of pee. I put 4 drops. The second pink line faintly showed up but the whole "screen" was pink. I panicked so I put like 20 more drops in. I waited...3 minutes. Voila! Pregnant. I was anxious immediately. I was excited! I was shocked. I was wired!
    I looked online to see how big the baby was supposedly from my last menstrual period. A sweet pea. I looked for a sweet pea in the house so I could show Perry.  Couldn't find one. I noticed my due date was probably July 30, 2012 and that I was 6 weeks and 3 days along! Wow. Way farther along than my last pregnancy reveal.
     So I woke Perry and said, "Your baby is the size of a pea!" He was excited and slightly wired too. We discussed it. I called my mom. I wrote a few things down that I would need if the baby was a boy (I already have most of the stuff). Plus I may need new clothes because this time around I started the pregnancy weighing 17 pounds less than the last one. I would be a size Medium in tops and bottoms maternity. Then I just sat there. I decided it would be best to get some sleep and cruise the internet the next day. Yeah I slept maybe 2 hours. So tired the next day. Perry was worried that one could get a false positive by putting too much pee on the test. He researched a bit and found that it might cause a false negative! HA! But not a false positive. Awesome! So I really am pregnant.
    So that is the story. I'm pregnant. Baby Stotts #2 will be 7 weeks tomorrow and the size of a blueberry. Wahoo! I almost waited until 12 weeks to reveal but I'm such a sap for excitement I had to tell everyone!

All these things shall give thee experience.

So we had a little family experience that I don't feel like blogging about it because I'm trying to put it behind me but there were a lot of positives that came from it as well. More positives than negatives. There are a lot of details and blessings that I won't tell because they are too personal or sacred.  So here's the story:

We were driving home from visiting my parent's in Henderson, NV and about 30 miles north of St. George we heard a noise and the car felt like a flat tire had occurred. I pulled over. Perry looked at what he could see (it was completely dark) and couldn't see anything. I noticed the wheel was bent in. I called Geico. We got a tow back to Washington, UT (basically St. George) and got a hotel. We stayed in the hotel for 2 days. No car. It was being fixed. The cars wheel bearing ran out of grease and wore out and broke. The mechanic said that normally if this happens on the freeway the wheel would come completely off and the car should've flipped. Blessing number one. Several more blessings transpired. One of which was they didn't charge us as much as they should of for the work and parts they put into the car. People were so generous. There are just too many blessings to say.

 I can say for sure that I was emotionally stable through the entire event until we got home and I looked at our bank account. But yet again I prayed to feel like things would be alright and I immediately felt at peace. Everyday something new happens that continues to bless us during this experience. I'm grateful that God watches out for us and answers our prays if we are listening or watching for things to be grateful for!

Thanksgiving Break and Red Rock

So this Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to be able to visit my family in Henderson, NV. Mom, Dad, and Megan were there. We drove down Wednesday evening and stayed until Sunday afternoon. The first day we of course cooked all day long and enjoyed each other's company. Perry was happy to be able to practice some music since he wasn't bogged down with his studies, I cooked with Mom, Grant enjoyed the new array of toys at his disposal, dad slept, and Megan slept due to working all night.

Later Grant has a silly face photo shoot

He discovered the boat and loved to pretend to drive it.

Oh and outside was fun too. But he was enjoying an apple in this picture.

The second day in Henderson we went to Ethel's Chocolate factory and Cactus gardens to pass time. Oh and we can't forget we stood at the airplane viewing area. Grant thought it was quite fascinating to watch all the planes land!

The third day we ventured over to Red Rock Canyon. We visited the visitors center which is really cool but somehow I didn't get any of those pics onto my computer. And we did a simple hike that even Grant could do into some of the really big RED rocks. It was Calico trails I think. 

He is a great hiker and has enjoyed a few so far!

Meg.

Just had to climb into the cubby.

It was an absolutely perfect day to hike. Great temperature and no wind!

Grandma Flora supervised a lot of the younger climbers endeavors!

Group photo.

Rocks rocks and more rocks. Something Grant forgot he loved as a younger baby. 

Got to have the jumping photos. 

I know my hiking outfit isn't the most flattering.

Yay we both were in the air finally.

Needed a picture of him actually using the pack sense I lugged it to our destination.

We attended a great church meeting where Meg sang How Great Thou Art  in front of the congregation and  then we had lunch and left.  Next post will describe the crazy adventure that happened while on the road! If you want more photos or videos of these adventures during Thanksgiving break visit Meg's blog here.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Natural Homemade Cleaning

So I'm basically obsessed with natural cleaning alternatives. This isn't because I have an allergy or get headaches from regular cleaners but its actually just more convenient to use what is so simple and basic and works for everything. The three products are vinegar, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide. I use a 1:1 ratio of vinegar and water to clean everything from the whole bathroom to handles, mirrors, dusting, carpet cleaning, sanitizing toys...etc. Peroxide is usually just something I spritz on everything that I cleaned with vinegar to help sterilize it. You let it air dry. Baking soda is used when cleaning carpets (mix a paste with vinegar), scrubbing surfaces that would normally need a rough scrubber (stove bowls), but this does the trick without scratching (uses less energy too!). I also use baking soda and vinegar to sanitize my drain that doesn't have a disposal (put a wash cloth over the hole immediately for 10 minutes). I use all three things in my laundry as well. Baking soda deodorizes, vinegar is a fabric softener, and peroxide sterilizes/sanitizes. Win Win! I'm sure there are millions of other uses, not to mention how great vinegar is with helping bread rise and how peroxide is a natural teeth whitener. How baking soda and vinegar can replace shampoo, and baking soda has long been used in toothpaste.  The list goes on. I love these three products. I never have to buy other cleaners again. So simple!