Christmas Time

Christmas is my favourite time of year. I love the lights and the decorations. I love shopping for gifts, wrapping, baking. I love the music and the spirit that fills our home as we celebrate the birth of the Saviour. Christmas is in full swing around here. I am having so much fun with Rory as she explores all the festive traditions all over again. The stockings are up by the fireplace and Rory tells me multiple times a day that we need to bring them with us to Grandma's house so that Santa can fill hers with toys and ponies and princesses. She helped me shop and wrap the presents which are all under the tree. We also put a lot of focus on the real meaning and purpose of the holiday. I bought Rory a wooden nativity set and Rory loves to play with it. She knows the different people and when we read the story in the scriptures she picks up each  person as we talk about them. I'm so happy to see her so interested in the birth of our Saviour. 

For Family Home Evening this past week we decorated gingerbread cookies (or cookie monsters as Rory calls them). Rory was over the moon excited about this and talked about it all day. She kept asking when we would colour the cookies and I told her we had to wait for Daddy to get home from work and then we had to eat dinner. The second we finished she was on us to decorate. We are going to decorate more cookies tomorrow night as it was such a fun thing to do as a family.

 Rory with her decorated cookie.

 Rory and her daddy.

Now you see it, now you don't!

Yesterday we went to our ward Christmas party. It is always a great night and this year was no different. The food was Amazing! A full turkey dinner with all the fixings. I had two helpings of almost everything. (I can get away with that, being 30 weeks preggers and all.) The gym was decorated beautifully (Matt and Rory and I helped decorate, so I'm a bit biased.). The program was nice, and short, and then Santa came! Rory was soooooo excited to see Santa. She'd been talking about it all week. I told her she had to tell Santa what she wanted in her stocking so he would know what to get her. So she told him.

 Rory with Santa at the 2nd Ward Christmas party.

Rory was so excited to see Santa. 

Following the Santa visit, there was a dance and Rory had a great time shaking it with all her friends. On the way home from the party, Rory said: "Santa went back home. He's going to get me my toys and ponies and princesses and go to Gramma's house and put them in my stocking for me to have for Christmas. Right?" I'm not going to lie, I'm just as excited about Christmas as she is, quite possibly more so. Having a kid who understands the excitement of the season just makes me so excited!

Rory and me at 30 weeks.

Rory tells me daily that I have a really big tummy. 

Well that's it for us for now. We are off to Cardston this week and then Edmonton the week after to spend some quality time with both of our families. This will probably be our last time visiting before the much awaited arrival of our precious little bundle of baby. We are going to enjoy relaxing and hanging out with family. A great time to recharge for what is sure to be a very busy new year!

Merry Christmas to you from the Beazers! 

Giving Thanks

This past weekend we went down to Cardston to visit with Matt's family and celebrate American Thanksgiving. It is our tradition to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with the Hudson family and American Thanksgiving with the Beazers. We had a nice weekend and were able to visit with all of Matt's siblings as well as some of his extended family. Celebrating Thanksgiving twice really gives a person the opportunity to think about her blessings, and I am truly blessed. 

I am grateful for many things, but most importantly I am thankful for my family, Hudson and Beazer, and for the love and support I receive from them. Rory and Matt are my life. I would be no where and no one with out them in my life. I am also grateful for my pregnancy, though I don't alway enjoy the actual being pregnant part. We had a bit of a scare with this pregnancy. At an ultrasound, I was told that my placenta was in a position that could make having a natural delivery dangerous. It is referred to as marginal previa. Though the ultrasound showed that the baby was healthy as could be, the placenta placement worried me as did all the potential issues that could develop as my pregnancy progressed. The idea of bed rest with a two year old was frightening as was the prospect of a c-section, not to mention the fact that my history with preterm labour could complicate things even further.

Last week, after 6 weeks of waiting, with nothing to do but fast and pray and hold our breaths, we went in for an ultrasound to see if the placenta placement had changed. To our great relief it had! I am now out of danger and should be able to have a natural delivery.  

I am so grateful for family who kept us in their thoughts and prayers. And I am so grateful for the blessings of motherhood and am eagerly awaiting the healthy arrival of our precious little boy or girl.

An updated picture of our bundle of joy.

Meeting Mila

On the weekend we had the chance to go up to Edmonton and visit family. It was a good visit and we got to meet the cutest little baby girl! Her name is Mila. Rory loves her and talks about her all the time. She is my cousin Chelsea's daughter and the first baby to be born on my side of the family since Rory (I do have a cousin who is a couple months younger than Rory, but he is technically my generation not Rory's). It was fun to see Rory interact with little Mila, especially because she will be spending a lot of time around our own little baby soon.

Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

So I have felt very uninspired lately when it comes to blogging. I can't think of any cute or clever things to say. Maybe "baby brain" is a real thing. More likely its just "lack of sleep brain" which I KNOW is a really thing. Having a kid teaches you that one fast. Lately Rory has been up at all hours of the night, which is very uncommon for her. Usually she sleeps well at night and rises a bit earlier than I would care for. But lately she has been reminding her father and I what it is like to have a baby in the house. Something we really don't need reminding of. Our memories are not that bad. And with the next little Beazer on the way, I'd rather focus on all the positives, like the cuddles and the baby yawns, the tiny toes and little clothes, not the discomfort of nursing, lack of sleep, exploding diapers and such that accompany all the lovely moments and memories. 

So to make this post worth the time and effort of reading it, I've decided to upload a bunch of cute pictures of Rory from our adventures in the past little while. Hopefully they will fill in the details of the tales where my words seem to have failed. 

 My little ninja. Always kicking away. Always!!

 Every General Conference we take a picture of Rory with the Prophet (or "President Prophet Monson" as she calls him). We have one every six months since she was born. She is growing up too fast!

 So Rory has a LOT of hair and I refuse to cut it. Matt and I thought this was so funny!

Rory did NOT agree!

 Matt surprised us by coming home early from his church meetings one Sunday and driving to church with us. She loves her daddy and he is wrapped around her finger. This picture says everything!

 On our way to go dress shopping in Utah. Believe me at the end of the week long car trip, Rory was not so happy to be in her carseat.

 Chilling in the hotel watching a show.

 Talking to my hubby. We don't spend much time apart. Thank goodness for technology. It's what kept me sane!

 Rory at the aquarium.

 That's one big penguin!

She is a cutie!

 On the marry-go-round with Steph. (Notice Steph's super cute baby bump!)

 Rory picked this horse because it was "Princess Aurora's Sleeping Beauty Horse".

On a train ride with Grandma.

 Trying to find some others kids to play with in Utah.

Chilling at Hobby Lobby.

I obviously don't have any pictures of Hannah in her wedding dress, but that was the reason for the trip down to Utah. It was so fun to be there with her as she tried on all these pretty dresses and to see the way she lit up when we found the perfect one. Congrats to my sister (in-law, but I don't think of it that way)! I am so happy for you and Dean and can't wait for the big day!

I previously posted pictures of us as family in our Halloween "get up". But here are a couple of Rory on Halloween night. 

Trick or treating with her friend Connor.

Rory and all her loot.

It's been a good month. We have been busy but have enjoyed ourselves as well. November looks to be just as crazy. We have trips planned to visit our family in Edmonton and Cardston this month. Plus getting ready for Christmas. I love this time of year!

Happy Halloween!

I've been too busy to blog lately and this is going to be a short post because there are trick-or-treaters at the door. 

I love Halloween. It must be the dramatic in me that loves dressing up in different costumes. Rory had three different ones this year alone. The best one was Woof and was for our ward halloween party on Saturday night. This morning she went to Zumba childcare (while I shook my prego butt at Zumba) dressed at a butterfly complete with pink face paint. And tonight she is out on the town with her buddy Connor as a polar bear. (Woof costume minus the hat, shirt, tail and glasses)

As you can see I go a bit over the top. (I bought six boxes of candy for tonight! No sense only having one kind!)

Though I don't have time to make a real post with details of all our adventures in the month of October (there were so many!) I will leave you with some pictures of the Where's Waldo gang at our Saturday night party. Enjoy!

 Happy Halloween!!!

Where did September go?

No surprise, September has been a busy month for us. Two weekends ago we help organize the ward corn bust. It was a fun night! Most of the planning was already done, so we just had to set up and decorate (which I got to do. So fun!) It was a great night and between yummy food and treats and a bouncy house, Rory had a blast!

Rory with her huge cotton candy!  

This past weekend we drove up to Edmonton to visit my family. It was a fun but short trip. We hung out at Lisha and Matt's and Rory got to play with Harper (Lisha and Matt's niece on the other side). Harper is three months older than Rory and is hilarious! Once when she was talking to Matt (Rory's dad, there are two Matt's) Rory went up to her and yelled "That's MY daddy!" We will have to work on that! After all, she is going to have to share her daddy pretty soon.

The next day, Grandma and Grandpa took us all to the park to play and then Lisha and Matt took all of us to a party put on by their realtor. It was a super hot day, but it was fun. There was a lady there who made the most AMAZING balloon creations I've ever seen. We asked if she could make Rory a Princess Aurora ballon and she did! It was so cool!

The lady who made the awesome balloon!

Unfortunately we had to back in our own ward for church on Sunday so it was a pretty short trip, but we will be back up there in a couple weeks for Thanksgiving.

Kids say the Darndest Things

Rory is at that stage in life where she says the funniest things! I feel it is my duty as her mother to write them down for the future, and to give you all a good laugh now. Here are a couple things Rory said today:

When getting ready for the day:

Rory: "Mommy! Where's my hairbrush? I know! A mouse-ka-tool will help me!"

On our way to the zoo: 

Rory: "Where we going Mommy?"

Me: "It's a surprise"

Rory: "Oh! A surprise? Happy Birthday Mommy!!" (Breaks into song) 

Driving home from the zoo we passed the Downtown Calgary skyline:

Rory: "Look Mommy! It's a tower!" (in reference to the Calgary Tower)

Me: "That's the Calgary Tower."

Rory: "No Mommy! It's Rapunzel's Princess Tower!"

At home, watching Tangled:

Rory: "Look Mommy! It's Rapunzel's princess tower! Where's Rory's princess tower?"

Me: "Is that Rory's princess tower?" (pointing to the tower in the movie)

Rory: "No Mom! Rory's Princess Tower is the Temple!"

And that was all before nap time. 


Tonight we were watching an episode of Super Why, where they tell the story of the three little pigs:
Rory: Oh no! The wolf falled down the pigs' house!!
Me :That's not cool.
Rory: That wolf needs a time out!


Classic!! I LOVE this kid!! I can't get enough of the funny things she says!

A Time for Change

Looking outside you can tell that its that time of year. The time when summer leaves us and changes into fall. The leaves on the trees are changing colours and the weather has started to cool off, making it easier to sleep at night. It's also the time to go back to school, but in our house we have a couple years before we have to worry about that. Despite our reprieve from the world of higher learning, we are going through some serious changes in our household as well. 

First off, after two years serving as a tri-ward cub akela (cub leader) and a primary teacher, Matt was released on Sunday. Many of the cubs' moms let him know how sad they are to see him go. On Sunday, he was called and sustained to be the ward Elder's Quorum president, which will be a big responsibility for him and one that Rory and I will support him in, however we can.

Rory is also going through a lot of changes. She is getting older and more grown up by the minute. Recently she has started saying funny phrases like "I do! I do!" instead of just "yes". She can go to the potty by herself (without needing my assistance.) She has technically been potty trained for months but recently she has started doing it all by herself! I even taught her to sing the ABCs while she washed her hands! (to make sure she does it for an adequate length of time). 

She had her first experience with face painting on Saturday at our realtor's family bbq. They had a bunch of pictures to chose from. I tried to convince Rory to get a nice little butterfly or flower but she wanted a tiger or "cat" as she called it. So she sat there, with me holding her head to keep it still, while the nice lady gave her a tiger face. At the end, she picked up a mirror and showed Rory her new face and Rory started crying. She quickly got used to it and spent the day saying to me, "Mommy, my happy face is a cat. I'm Rory da Kitty. Roar!" At bed time, after her face had been washed, she looked up at me and said "Mommy, my happy face is no cat. Kitty all gone." I told her she could get a kitty face another day. Sunday morning, she woke up and the first words out of her mouth were "Mommy, I get kitty face now?" I had to explain to her that kids with kitty faces couldn't go to nursery. Once she knew that she was fine to have a normal "Rory" face again. 

 Roar!

Rory just keeps getting bigger and bigger! It's so hard to believe she's not my little tiny baby anymore! It hurts my heart sometimes to see her grow. Fortunately, we are going to have a new baby in our family soon!! So I will be able to get all my baby snuggles again!! Rory is very excited about the baby and is understanding it more and more every day. Yesterday she asked me if the baby was feeling okay and then patted my tummy. In the past week, she has asked me if she can cuddle the baby and then hugs my tummy. She also regularly pats my tummy and says "Hi baby! I'm your big sister." I am so excited for her! She is going to be an awesome big sister!

These pictures aren't the greatest. The top one is the day we found out! And the bottom one is me at 16 weeks. The camera made a weird shadow, so we will work on figuring that out for future baby bump shots.

So I am 16 weeks pregnant! And am due on February 29th (It's a leap year baby!). I am just starting to feel better after months and months of sick! (but am too scared to go of my morning sickness meds. I tried a couple weeks ago and spent the morning with my head in the toilet!) 

We are thrilled to FINALLY be pregnant again! Conceiving this time was not as easy as we had expected it to be. After a year of trying, lots of prayers and a miscarriage, we are happy and healthy and can't believe our family of three will be growing so soon. (Technically its growing now, or at least I am!)

To cut you off before you ask, No, we are not finding out the gender of this one. We didn't with Rory and we won't this time either. I know most people tend to be very strongly opinionated one way or the other. I personally feel it wrecks the magic to know in advance. It starts with the gender and then the name slips out and when the baby is born all you can ask is how much did s/he weigh? I know people disagree with me and think its practical to know, that you can be better prepared. I also know people who can't stand the suspense. I like the surprise. I like spending the entire pregnancy guessing and bouncing back and forth between names. (And No, I won't tell you the names either. They are top secret classified until the final name is chosen and the birth certificate is signed!) Yes, I would be thrilled with a second girl and I would be equally thrilled to have a boy (I know Matt wants a boy at some point for sure). 

So with all these changes, we were happy to have some time together this weekend to enjoy our little family of three and the weather while it was still nice. We are looking forward to the fall and winter (though not the cold) and all the exciting changes they have in store for us!

Knock Knock

I am sitting at the table having breakfast this morning with Rory and her two friends (18 months and 3 years old) who I babysit part time. As we eat, the kids decide to tell me some knock knock jokes. The joke is always the same and it goes like this:

Kids: Knock Knock!!

Me: Who's there?

Kids: peels of laughter

And thats it. And they told it over and over for about half an hour. Oh they thought they were so funny. I love kids!

Family Home Evening

We are not the best at having Family Home Evening every Monday night. I understand how important it is to set that time aside and spend it together as a family, but we still seem to skip more weeks than we should. We have been putting a conscious effort in to being better at this, and to make it easy and convenient for us, we tend to have FHE while sitting at the dinner table. That way Rory can't run away.

Our Bishop has given us counsel as a ward to memorize all thirteen Articles of Faith this year. Matt and I know all of them but sometimes forget the order. So we have been dedicating FHE as a time to learn about and memorize the Articles of Faith as a family. Today we learned about the 8th Article of Faith, which according to Rory goes something like this:

"We believe the Burger to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.

We also believe the Boogie Moron to be the word of God."

If you are not familiar with our doctrine, it should say "Bible" and "Book of Mormon".

For those of you wondering, NO Rory does not have the Articles of Faith memorized. She was just repeating after Matt, like she does when she prays. I thought it was funny that she pronounced translated correctly but not Bible!

We ended the evening with a family bike ride, well Matt and Rory did. I don't have a bike yet.

 Rory's new helmet.

 First bike ride!

Montana

A couple weeks ago, we went on a spontaneous trip to Kalispell and Whitefish Montana. It was a nice trip, with great weather and lots to do. The boys (Matt and his Dad) went golfing a couple of times and the girls shopped. The shopping was actually pretty disappointing. There wasn't a lot of selection and the shelves were picked clean. Back to school shopping, I guess.

Rory really enjoyed the swimming pool at the hotel and played there as often as possible. She loved going down the slide with her dad and jumping into the pool. I'm glad that she is getting more and more comfortable in the water, especially since we don't spend that much time in it.

Loving swimming!

Rory always plugged her nose at the beginning, but not at the end.

Jumping in the pool.

When we go to Kalispell, we always stop in the park on Sunday afternoon and feed the ducks. Rory was asking about it all weekend and really enjoyed sharing her bread with them (some of it, not all). She also really enjoys the playground in the park as well.

 Giving bread to the ducks.

 Eating the bread.

 Playing in the park.

We also went to whitefish lake and played in the sand. Rory loves playing in the sand!

Burying Daddy in the sand.