Get on the Potty Train!

Operation Potty Training has fully commenced! And we are so excited for Katelyn. It all started about a month ago. I was talking with two friends and the potty training subject came up. One of them said that this summer she was just going to do "diaper-less" training with her son. Let him run around in the backyard, etc. Well a couple days later, Katelyn had just had a bath and had no clothes on. I noticed that after a while she was kind of grabbing herself and asking me for a diaper. All of the sudden, it clicked. She knows that she needs to pee! So from that point I decided that while we are at home we will try the diaper-less training too. She does awesome! She knows exactly when she needs to go. So today we moved on to the next step. That's right! She went poo! All on her own will. It was awesome. Sorry Crystyne, I didn't take a picture. The smell was too much for my very sensitive gag reflex at the present time. I didn't want to mess up my 3-day streak of being heave-free. Anyway, hopefully six more months of this will mean that we won't need to buy diapers for two kids!
NEXT:
So, three days ago I was at my wits end with being sick. The night before I had thrown up something so acidic that I literally burned my throat, soft palate and tongue. Not to mention I probably lost some of the enamel on my teeth. It was awful. The next day I could barely eat or drink. I have never been so sick in my life as I have these past six weeks, and was at the point where I wanted to just go into the ER for an IV. I decided I didn't want an ER bill, so I just fought out the day, but asked Justin if he could give me a blessing. He got someone to come over and help and since that night I haven't gotten sick once and my nausea has really improved. Coincidence? I don't think so. I am just very, very thankful for that blessing and I am praying that it continues to get better as I start into the second trimester.

Precious Moments

Don't you just love when your little one falls asleep in your arms?

It is amazing how fast these little children grow up. We love Katelyn so much and feel very blessed to have her in our family. We often tell Katelyn that she is beautiful and she has also learned that mommy is "gorgeous" and daddy is "handsome". If you tell her that mommy is beautiful, she says, "no, mommy gorgeous, aiklyn beauful". We definitely both cannot be beautiful.

Pleasure Cuffs?

Last night we went to an Awards Banquet for Justin's work. It was actually pretty fun and we enjoyed ourselves. They had a TON of door prizes and as people kept winning, I was secretly hoping that Justin would win a prize too! And what do you know? He won! Justin was the lucky recipient of a lovely pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs, satin mask, and a bottle of "Liquid Love" warming massage oil. You have to admit, it is pretty funny. Everybody got a good laugh out of that one. I guess cops have a weird sense of humor.

My Quilt!

Here is a picture of the very first quilt I ever made. I took a beginner's quilting class almost 2 years ago, when I didn't even own or know how to operate a sewing machine. I just always wanted to learn how to quilt. I was very intimidated at first when there was all this quilt-lingo flying around. I had no idea what the term "seam allowance" meant. Anyway, I pressed forward and with the help of a great teacher (Roxanne Eneroth), I fell in love with quilting. So I have had this quilt for nearly two years and finally got around to taking it to a local quilt shop to have it professionally quilted. I didn't want to attempt to do it myself, because I am a perfectionist and I wanted this to actually look good.

I had them do the "trailing stars" pattern, which I am trying to show you here. I thought that would be fitting since the fabric has stars all over it. All I need to do now is get the binding on and then I can display it. I was thrilled with how it turned out. I will probably end up posting a final picture once that happens.

Rantings of an Insomniac

In general, I have a hard time sleeping at night. I'm not totally sure the reason for this, but I know it has been this way for several years now. Now that we live in an apartment it is an even greater challenge. The person next door to us snores...ALL NIGHT LONG! It drives me crazy! The irony is that I also snore...all night long. In fact, last weekend I stayed overnight with my sister and I snored so badly that I snored her right out of her own bed. So I guess it isn't totally fair to be upset at the neighbor. So with the neighbors snoring, an overactive bladder, restless leg syndrome and a gnawing stomach, sleep is hard to come by. I even had to sleep on the couch once because Justin's breath was bothering me. (*disclaimer: Justin usually has very good breath-almost always. It's just a pregnancy thing). Anyway, most nights I don't sleep well until I go out and sleep on the couch. Good thing the couch is comfortable. And thank goodness for NAPS!

This week

The past week has been a bad and good one. Last Sunday I felt really awful after church. There was something really weird about the dinner we ate and I think it set me off in a bad way. I got sick several times throughout the night and just felt awful on Monday. Deanne G rescued me for a couple of hours on Monday by having Katelyn over to play with her girls. Katelyn was so excited! I got sick a couple of times that morning and then that evening it got even worse. I could barely keep crackers and water down. I just kept throwing up. It hurts so bad to throw up like that. I called my Drs office desperate for some anti-nausea medication and they wanted me to try some over the counter products first. So I did, and it helped a little, but I wanted more dangit! Tuesday I still felt pretty nasty, but I had stopped throwing up. I called the Doctor again and it took all day, but I was able to finally get some medication. I was feeling pretty miserable, so I asked Justin if we could go to Spokane when he got off work that night. He was nice enough to oblige. I just needed some relief and for Katelyn to have some better care. We stayed a couple nights with Justin's parents and when he drove back home to work for the weekend, I went to my mom's. Armed with my prescription drugs and a whole lotta over the counter remedies I started to feel better towards the end of the week. Happily, the nausea has really subsided and as long as I eat about every hour I seem to be able to keep it at bay. In exchange for more mild nausea came a real bout of constipation, but I will save the details on that one. Luckily, things are getting better in that department as well. Thanks to a little cocktail of Magnesium Citrate. (I hope none of you ever have to drink this).

I am really glad we came up to Spokane for the week. Katelyn has been so happy to be with her grandparents and cousins. I felt really bad for her when we were at home and all I was doing was laying around in bed or on the couch all day. While we were here, Justin made a trip to Newport to pick up some things from our house and I had him get the stroller. I really want to start going on walks now that I am feeling better. I need to get this body moving. I had a goal to not gain any weight during my first trimester and so far I have succeeded. I would like to do a lot of walking during the second and third trimester to make sure I don't become as big as a house and to hopefully help out in the labor and delivery department. I have my first doctors appointment this Tuesday and I am looking forward to getting in and seeing what they have to say. All in all the weeks are going by fairly quickly and for that I am very thankful. When you feel like death, it is hard to not be whiny and complain, but I told Justin that I wanted to try and be less whiny with this pregnancy. (I thought I was pretty bad with Katelyn). So far I think I am doing ok. I know people care, but I also know people don't want to hear about how awful I feel all the time. I also sometimes feel like I am being ungrateful if I complain too much. Feeling lousy really is a small sacrifice on my part to bring a child into the world. It really is a labor of love. And we are really looking forward to having another addition to our family. Katelyn says she wants a baby "sisser" and to name her "Audrey".

Another fun thing is that after I found out I was pregnant, my sister found out she is pregnant (has been trying for 8 years to conceive) and is due about 2 weeks after me. Then to make it even better, one of my very best friends is pregnant too (tyring to conceive for 3 years, I think) and due a week after me. It just made our news even better.

Katelyn got to meet her newest cousin, Lillyanne this week. She was born on Christmas day. She likes to hold her. I wish I could find the picture of them together.

bows & quilts

This is a little quilt I threw together the other day.

It's small, for a baby quilt. I just need to finish

putting all of it together. If anyone wants to buy it,

let me know.

Here are some of the bows I have made recently.

The one on the very top left, Sarah made for Kate.

Last weekend while we were in Spokane, we made a

side trip up to Colville for our newest Nephew, Isaac's

blessing. He was born Dec. 2nd. This is a picture of

he and his older sister Sophie. What cuties!

Tabetha, Travis (Justin's younger brother),

Isaac and Sophie.

Thursday we got to visit with Corey (Justin's next older

brother), Sarah, Ezra and their newest Audrey.

Katelyn learned all about breastfeeding and after

the all left today, she decided that she too wanted

to feed her baby.

I was very excited to have them visit for a

couple of days. We stayed with them for 2 weeks

awaiting the arrival of Audrey back in October and I

got very, very sick with Bronchitis. I was there for

about a week before Audrey decided to make her

grand appearance and I was hoping to be over my

sickness for when she was born, but I was still fighting

it pretty hard. I was sad that I couldn't hold and

kiss her like I wanted to at the time. Needless to say,

I got in lots of snuggles and smooches all over

those adorable, squishy cheeks of hers.

Sarah and I had fun trying our hand at making

bows and headbands for Audrey and Katelyn.

Ezra and Katelyn wanted to help with the dishes.

Sharing a moment.

Kate and Ezra have been best buds

since they were born. Kate is about 4 1/2 months

older than Ezra and they also lived in Newport with us

so we got to see lots and lots of them over the past two years.

We were happy to see that they picked up playing like they

had never been apart. There was unfortunately one

biting incident today. I guess Kate had had enough and

she took a bite out of poor Ezra's cheek. Not the first time.

Luckily, Ezra is so sweet that he quickly forgave his cousin.

Beautiful Miss Audrey




Oh yeah!

I printed out this picture and had Justin open it Christmas Day.

I have pretty good feelings that this one will go well.

Due: September 3rd

christmas pics

Our stockings were still in Newport, so we

had to improvise with regular socks this year.

Katelyn enjoyed getting into her stocking

and eating the goodies that Daddy left for her.

Baby doll from Grandpa and Granny B-Patsfield.

Katelyn named her baby "Audrey"

Just like her baby girl cousin that was born in October.

Katelyn is all about wearing dresses and

she wanted to wear this "Christmas dress".



The day after Christmas we drove to Spokane to
visit with our families. First stop was G & G Peterson's.
Katelyn got another tiny baby doll and this My Little Pony
set. A DVD "Pinkie Pie's Special Day" and a "Pinkie Pie" pony.
She loves this present.



I will have to come back later and add more pictures.
I have been trying to upload pictures for literally hours!
I have gotten a lot done in the meantime, but still...
Dial up really bites!

Christmas Crafts

Here are some of the "crafts" I made this year for Christmas gifts.

"Mrs. Perkins" (giraffe)

I have never made anything like this before

and it was definitely a challenge. I am

just hoping it doesn't fall apart too soon.

I also made a monkey ("Magoo") that I wasn't

quite as thrilled about. It was a lot harder for me.

vinyl wall hanging (really easy and fun)

This is a quilted/ragged 12 days of Christmas wall hanging.

Inside each pocket is an activity to do during the

Christmas season.

This is a magnetic board I made for my 15 year

old niece, Alura. I also made magnets that spelled out her name.

This is something she can hang in her locker.