Hello everyone. I bet you all thought that I did not know how to blog, but ha, I prove you wrong. Today has been really fun for me! I think I am getting my mums bug for bargain shopping. To explain, Heather and I go garage saling every Saturday. Today we found an amazing deal that we just could not pass up. We bought a really nice kitchen table. I know. It is my domestic self coming out to rule the world again, but this is AWESOME. It is cherry and was completely handcrafted. The workmanship on this is amazing. And then to make the day even better, I got some new toys!! Drills!!!! My old drill died and so I have been needing a new one and I finally got it!!!!! It is nothing special, but I finally have an impact driver. For those of you like my wife who have no idea what that is, it is a fancy drill. Well that is my life right now. I know sooooo exciting.

Saving Money

I figured this post could probably help someone...... so if you're interested take a look at some of the websites below. I consider coupons to be free cash so having them emailed to me is like a dream.

Coupon Web Sites:

www.coupons.com
www.flamingoworld.com
www.couponcabin.com
www.couponmom.com
www.couponmountain.com
www.thecouponclippers.com
www.savingsmania.com
deals.yahoo.com/coupons/
www.retailmenot.com
www.couponchief.com
www.dealcatcher.com
www.swapbabygoods.com
www.momsview.com
www.clevermoms.com
www.freeshipping.org


Price Comparison Sites:

www.bizrate.com
www.shopwiki.com
www.google.com/products

My Monotonous Life....

So I haven't posted anything in a while for two reasons: I am going through some sort of weird "mommy depression" because I can't believe that Lily's going to be 1 on the 24th and also because my life is pretty much the same day after another. I get up, take care of Lily, often have some kind of doctor's appointment, walk Lily around the neighborhood, cook, clean, snack on chocolate while trying to quickly forget about it so I don't feel guilty, and yardsale on Saturdays. So not too much to really report about..... luckilly Ben's parents came up to visit last weekend and his mum sent me pictures that she took. Enjoy!

Clap clap!

Lily's paparazzi pose.....ooooorrr..... Lily just trying to break grandmum's camera.....

We bought a bunch of new books at a yardsale and Lily just loves them! Lily cuddles with books as if they're stuffed animals..... but then again she also chews on them.... baby love is an interesting thing.....

Fun with Pop Pop

In the middle of a yawn.....

Well I'm now in my 32nd week of pregnancy #2. Ben keeps joking that we should just have all of our kids now while I keep joking that after Skyler is born we're DONE having kids. I'm just sooooo tired of being pregnant and I feel so bad that Ben has had to have a pregnant wife for 17 months out of the 24 we've been married. Poor guy. He seriously deserves some kind of award for this......

I guess it runs in the family.....

Sorry for the lack of pictures once again.... I really need to get better at taking them.


So I've decided that being smart must run in our little family...... now don't go shaking your head and think, "that is QUITE the statement. Someone must have a big head." We're (well I guess more like Lily and Ben) smart in a different way. For example, this past Saturday we got up early to go yardsaling (even though we'd been out until 1:30ish the night before) and I was pretty tired. I came home and for some reason was in a cleaning mood. Now when this happens I take advantage of it because the cleaning bug doesn't hit me everyday even though I love having a clean home. When Ben had seen me cleaning for a while he just said, "I thought you were tired and wanted a nap." To which I replied, "don't you like having a clean apartment?" This was his reply (now husbands, start taking notes here): "I would rather have a well-rested wife than a clean apartment." Now that may sound all good and sweet but he had a somewhat terrified look on his face when he said it..... like I said.... he's a smart guy when his wife's pregnant......


So why is Lily so smart? Well, really, Lily's just smart like every other baby is. This past week Lily has learned how to take apart speakers. Not little speakers like for a computer, she's taking apart our surround sound speakers. So what does this mean? New entertainment center!!!! Ben is now busying himself building a new entertainment center that will be too tall and deep for Lily to get into expensive electronics. I will take a picture of it when it's done as I did when he built the changing table. I'm grateful that Ben has amazing woodworking skills because it has saved us TONS of money in our marriage.

Gummy Worms, the Temple, and Grass

Yes, that's right--warm weather is finally here!!!! (Lily is very excited, can't you tell?)

Sunday after church we set up a blanket outside our apartment and just relaxed and ate gummy worms. It was wwwwooooonnnnnnddddeeerrrrffffuuuulllll.........

So we have discovered Lily's first fear (DUM DUM DUM): grass. It is such a relief to go outside because I can't keep up with her all the time inside. All I have to do is put out a blanket and she won't even try to leave the blanket. If you look closely in the pictures you'll see we put the candy and other things in the grass so she wouldn't even try to steal them... Ben has been trying to work on getting her over this but I say let her be scared of grass for as long as possible!!!!! Call me an evil mom but it's my one break!!!!!

Lily always crosses her ankles like a little lady. She does this EVERYWHERE! She does it in church, the car, bathtub, wherever....

"I love juice when I've just come inside!!!!"

Lily and I spent Monday afternoon on the temple grounds. I thought I'd take her around and let her look at all the plants (and, of course, the temple) but it seemed like she led the tour so I just followed....

This is what happens when it's bright outside and she's trying her very best to smile... :)

Bye temple! We'll be back soon enough....

My Mommy's Day

Instead of just celebrating on Sunday, I was a little spoiled the whole weekend. I usually get up with Lily on Saturdays (because it's Ben's one day to sleep in and he gets up with her every other day....) so I woke up with her as usual. I put her back in bed and somehow was able to sleep in until 10:30 after that. I can't even remember the last time I did that. Later Ben and I went grocery shopping (this is embarassing to admit, but I LLLOOOOOVVVVEEE grocery shopping when I'm pregnant and I guess when I'm not pregnant, too, but whatever........) and so I was able to make myself a chocolate cheesecake with strawberry syrup. I would post a picture of it except I didn't take a picture before we started eating it and I'm not about to take one now and show how much I HAVE eaten..... So on Sunday we went to church as usual and my one Mother's Day request was that Ben take Lily the third hour of church because I never get to listen to all of Relief Society. Then we came home and I was able to get an UNINTERRUPTED nap. Maybe there's something sacred about Mother's Day or something because that never happens...... then Ben made me the best roast dinner ever (he's an AMAZING cook to those of you who don't know him.... he pretty much can do everything, and he does. I'm sooooo lucky.) He also gave me a present and I'll take a picture of it when it's totally completed. Then we just played a couple of card games and fell asleep in the living room. It was a pretty awesome day......



Here are some pictures and movies of our Lilybug. On Friday I went to DI to find a temple dress that would fit me for my entire pregnancy so I don't have to rent one every time I go, and I found this little dress in the process. Bless you DI for having so many cute things for a dollar or two.

Lily's weird crawling

Our little talker

I hope that everyone had an AWESOME mother's day. I know that Ben and I are extremely grateful for our mothers. They have been such wonderful examples to us and I can't imagine life without them.

I Believe in Miracles

As you all know, last month I found out that my pregnancy took a turn for the better and that my OB/GYN just said that I needed to be doing bloodwork often so they could keep an eye on the antibodies in my blood. Well I walked into my OB/GYN's office yesterday morning expecting the typical visit: weight, blood pressure, urine sample, baby's heartbeat, bloodwork, questions, leave. Well at first I thought it was going to be a bad visit because they forgot to tell me at the last visit that I'm due for my glucose test (ggggaaaaggggg me) today. But things got better once my Doctor said I'd just be doing it next week instead. But the really good news came next: in my last antibody screening they weren't able to find ANY antibodies. They've been keeping a close eye on my blood just to make sure my antibody level doesn't get to a certain point, but now, all of a sudden, there are none. My doctor just had a confused look on his face and said that he'd never seen this happen because technically it's just not possible for antibodies to disappear. It's possible to control how many are added to or maintained in your blood, but not possible to just get rid of them. He happilly told me that now I'm not considered a high-risk pregnancy and neither are my future pregnancies (since I would have to be doing blood work all the time in those, too, and I would still have to have special attention because of this weirdness).

I believe that when life just doesn't seem to be anywhere close to perfect and we are doing the best we can, the Lord blesses us in ways that we wouldn't expect. This was the most perfect timing for this news. I needed it right now. I also can say that I have been given the best first Mother's Day present ever--to know that I will be able to be a mother again at some point without any worry.

Well I'm pretty sure my sister, Becca, would kill me if I did another post without baby pictures..... so here are a couple of new pictures... (sorry they're not amazing, Becca. We just took them last minute so you wouldn't lecture me again.... oh and I wasn't able to get a movie of Lily doing her new weird crawl but I'll try to soon....)

Sadly, this is Lily's new favorite toy. She just likes banging on the keyboard and hearing all of the beeps..... what a funny little one.....