Yellowstone falling into place!

I have wanted to go to Yellowstone for a long time, and we are finally taking that opportunity! We are leaving later this month to go to a dinosaur museum in Glendive and then stay overnight in Miles City. I am excited because I booked the hotel tonight (with a free breakfast and the all-important POOL) at 15% off because I searched for a deal on the hotel's website. (BTW, why are hotels in the middle-of-nowhere-Montana so dang expensive?! Wait, it's probably the oil boom. Dang oil! We should at least get cheap gas out of that, right?) The next day, we will head to Nye, MT to meet up with 13 other Hostetlers on Kristen's land (too bad she and her hubby won't be there--they are fighting fires in Alaska). Kristen & John live in a camper on their land and just finished building a yert that they will be moving into this winter. I think it's funny that they snowbird to Montana for the winters, but hey, what do I know about living in Alaska?

Kristen's yert in Nye, MT

The following day, we will head into Yellowstone to stay at our awesome vacation rental!
http://www.brooktroutinn.com/brooktrouthome.html
It sleeps 18 in 6 bedrooms and is 3450 sq. ft. I am super pumped to get together and see everyone. It's been since October--I just wish Kristen could make it, too! We will spend the days at Yellowstone seeing the sights and the evenings here hanging out together for some family QT. After that, we will probably go to Wyoming for a few days before heading back to Minot. This is my last trip before the baby, by the way!

Speaking of the baby, she is doing great! She was head down at my appointment last week, although I assume she can still easily move around. She does move a lot, but I mostly notice it when I'm still, which isn't often. A couple of times, Salem has patted my belly and said, "Bebe!", and Adora loves to feel her move. We are working on picking out a name, but haven't found the one yet. I took my glucose test the other day to screen for gestational diabetes, and I didn't get a call saying I needed to take another test, so I assume I passed that.

The basement is coming along well. The electrical inspection today went well--Jake has to fix a couple of things, but it doesn't sound like a really big deal. Plumbing is going ok. It is actually really frustrating sometimes, but it is getting done, which is the main thing. We still need to run cable and insulate and then, hopefully, Lutheran Disaster Response will come over to help hang sheetrock. Baby will be born in 3 months, and I feel like we're making good progress! Almost every night, Jake and I are down there working after the kids go to sleep. It's good to see it paying off.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Jake took Adora to the Daddy Daughter Dance out at the base tonight (Adora laughed so hard when I called it the Father Daughter Dance). She had a great time. They decorated balloons and wands, got tiaras to wear, had a big overstuffed chair to take professional pictures in, and danced the night away. Oh yeah, and they had rolls, mac & cheese, and chicken fingers for dinner. Plus TWO different kinds of cookies for dessert.

Adora wanted this headband and all these clips in her hair.

Here she is posing before the dance in her beautiful dress.

Look at my big skirt!

Daddy on just an hour and a half of sleep. He is working 10:30 p. m.-11:00 a. m. with no sleep. He came home and had to finish the electrical because we had an inspection on it today. He got to sleep an hour and a half before the dance and now he is sleeping another hour before he has to go back to work.

Sweet kiss!

Adora at the dance with the wand she made and the tiara and corsage they gave her.

Her favorite part was the crafts :)

Being silly with Daddy at the dance!

Jake told me that at some point, she was spinning and spinning and crashed into the tables :) For some reason, blogger won't let me upload a video of them dancing.

Adora's 4-year checkup

I am setting an alarm when I nap during the day because I am so stressed out with our house that I need to spend some of nap time organizing stuff or I will go crazy. Literally! So I have been waking up while the kids are napping or having quiet time to go through some papers and sorting them and filing them and that kind of stuff. I ran across the paperwork from Adora's 4-year checkup. I wanted to record her weight and height so I can put it in her 4-year photobook, whenever I get around to doing THAT (it'd better be before the baby's born!). Anyway, she was 33 lbs. and 39.75" tall. The kids are both doing great! Salem is recovering from a stomach virus. She got a molar, too, so now she has five teeth on top and two on bottom.

Dentist

The girls both had dentist appointments today, and they both did great. Adora even got x-rays! Weird. I was unprepared for that. I hate exposing her to radiation--did she really need it? I don't know. It showed her front top four adult teeth forming over her baby teeth. Adult teeth are twice as big as baby teeth! So the dentist said all her spaces are good :) The two adult teeth on the sides are forming sideways, but he said they should straighten out as her mouth grows and creates more room. She has no cavities and has 100% overbite. It may be causing her bottom teeth to bump against the roof of her mouth (or something) and chip. If it does it with her adult teeth, she will probably have to go to the orthodontist when she is 8 or 9. Salem did great, with her six teeth. Her molars are really close to coming in, as are the two teeth just on the outside of the bottom middle. She also has no cavities. Her thumb sucking has caused mild damage to her top teeth, pulling them out a little. The dentist said not to try to stop her thumb sucking until she is about 3, though. He also said that once some kids with severe damage stop sucking their thumbs around age 3, their mouths go back to normal in about six months! So that is cool. They will both be in the newspaper for the no cavity club. I love this dentist way better than the Kool Smiles dentist because I got way more information and they had different flavors of flouride (which they didn't call candy, like they do at KS), so Adora didn't hate the flouride so much.

Update on Salem's sleeping--she is doing much better. If she had her own room, I think she would sleep through the night most of the time. As it is, Adora wakes her up when she goes to bed about 50-75% of the time. Salem still wakes up around 5:00 sometimes and needs someone to go in and hold her a minute before she goes back to sleep. That is a pain, but not nearly as bad as it used to be. It mostly is bad when she wakes up Adora before 6:00 because then I have two cranky kids for the morning. I feel a lot better now that Salem is sleeping better, but I still enjoy having an afternoon nap.

Lutheran Disaster Relief called me Tuesday morning to let me know that a crew was on their way! I had spoken to someone from LDR the day before who told me that they had a crew who could probalby install our kitchen floor this week, so once I got the call, we rushed to get our floor completely cleaned and prepped for the crew. When they got here, though, they told us they were going to frame up our basement! Even better! After three days of work, the framing down there is 80% complete. What a huge relief! It looks so great. Our room is going to be so much bigger, and we are going to have a huge closet where Adora's old room was. The bathroom will also be bigger, and Jake thinks we can even fit a tub in there. The family room was once two rooms and will now be one--much better because you couldn't really do anything with the two little rooms before. I am also excited to soon have an enclosed laundry room, because the washer and dryer are so loud echoing in that huge basement. The girls and I are going to visit their new cousins tomorrow, so Jake will have another week where we are gone, and I hope that he can get lots done while we are gone. The volunteers that were here are going back home to Michigan tomorrow, but I hope that LDR will send us another crew. Who knows. They even have a master electrician to wire, but I don't know how far down the list we are for that. Jake is planning on just getting his self-wiring permit and starting it himself because we can't just wait around for the help when we have a baby coming in four-and-a-half months.

I think the kids are asleep, and I need to finish packing for our trip!

New Baby Girl!

Sucking her left thumb! The weird-looking stuff by her head is uterus or placenta or something like that. I probably won't comment a whole lot on these because they are mostly labeled.

You can see her left eye lens in this photo!

You can faintly see her left hand up by her face in this one, close to her nose.

I am so excited to have a new baby girl on the way! Girls are awesome. I don't really know what I'd do with a boy, although I'm sure I'd figure it out. I will get to reuse all our girl stuff, which is neat, because it's so fun to see Salem in an outfit that I remember Adora wearing. The only pitfall is trying to pick out another girl name since my favorite two are already taken :) Anyway, my ultrasound was really cool. They clicked on the 3D so we could see really neat pictures and videos of baby girl doing cool things like sucking her thumb and twirling her hair (well, probably not really twirling her hair, but her right hand was up by her head just like Salem does when she sucks her left thumb!). So now, you get to see them, too :)

Thumb sucking in action! I can't believe she still has like 20 more weeks until birth! She looks ready to come out already and soothe herself :)

This baby already weighs 10 oz. and measured 19 weeks and 3 days (I was 20 weeks and 3 days at my ultrasound). That, to me, puts her right on par to be born about a week late--like my other two! So I anticipate a birthday of around 09/10/12!

Easter Dresses

I like this one even though Adora's eyes are squinty because you can see Salem smiling through her thumb. I am so excited that our new baby girl is a thumb sucker, too!

Sweet picture of my two big girls.

Salem running toward Daddy to get the camera.

Kids didn't wear their Easter dresses on Easter Sunday because they were sick. Neither went to church anyway--Jake and I split up. He went to the vigil Saturday night, and I went Sunday morning. Anyway, they did wear them this last Sunday, and we got pictures and videos.

Today, Adora was in the bathroom. She sometimes gets really into teaching Salem how to do things. So Salem was in there helping out. Adora was trying to get Salem to give her some toilet paper. Long story short, next thing I know, I hear Adora saying, "Ok, Salem, now come wipe my bottom!" I obviously had to intervene so Salem didn't get messy, ha!

We had a fun day today. I bought a Minot Area coupon book thing a couple of weeks ago and used four coupons from it today, haha. There are lots that you can use monthly, and I wanted to get the April ones checked off before we leave for our trip! So I ran into the grocery store to get a free muffin (and picked up two pounds of strawberries b/c they were on sale). Then, we went to Tutti Fruitti, a frozen yogurt place where you get to pick your flavor of yogurt and then pile on whatever toppings you want (you pay by the ounce). I had a buy one get one free there. Then, we went to the bowling alley, where I had a free game of bowling (and I paid for shoes for me and Adora and her game of bowling). After that, we stopped by the gas station to pick up a free 20-oz. Coke for Jake. It all cost me about $17, which saved us about $11. Plus, we got out of the house on a rainy day and did some fun stuff. After all of that, we went to church and played in the playroom before mass. The bishop was here to do a mass for the flood survivors and volunteers. They had a free pizza dinner after church! So it was a fun, busy afternoon. Jake is flying his pre-checkride, so he is still not home, so it helped fill up the time.

Here is a video of the kids dancing with their dresses on. We have a longer, better one, but it takes too long to upload. Adora's tag is still on her cardigan because I had to figure out if she liked how the sweater felt before I took it off.

Eli, Eli

Jake often tells me certain things I should post on the blog. I think I have followed his advice once. The main problem is that I just don't post often enough, and when I do, I don't think to post what he wanted me to post. He just told me to post this, though, and since he left for church and both kids are asleep, I am going to do it.

The other night, he was reading Adora the Bible before bed, as we usually do. She has a really great children's Bible that she got for her birthday. Anyway, he was reading her, "My God, my God, why hast though forsaken me?" and Adora said, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!" Jake just about had a heart attack because she was apparently translating English into Syro-Chaldaic. He recovered enough to ask her how she knew that, and she reminded him of the Tajci concert he took her to last Sunday when they had said the phrase in English AND Syro-Chaldaic. She is smart, but not that smart, apparently :)

Bismarck Zoo--That's How God Made Them

Here is Salem hanging out in the stroller at the Bismarck Zoo. A couple of weeks ago, we went to Bismarck for the day for a rally for religious freedom and then went to the zoo afterward. Salem, of course, napped on the drive up there (not her normal nap time) and then opted to stay awake all afternoon. So she was resting a little bit in the stroller. She has been trying to strap herself into stuff now, which is super cute except that I'm afraid her little fingers will get pinched when she helps me do it.

The tiger came up and walked by Salem pretty closely and took a good look at her, but of course this is all we got with the camera.

I did explain to her, off camera, that camels use can use their hump(s) for energy and water if they can't get to food or drink :)

Hair Donation

I am donating my hair again. I actually got it cut in January but haven't sent it in yet. I am getting it together today so Jake can take it to the post office tomorrow, along with a couple of other packages and even some letters since we are completely out of stamps. I am donating to Pantene Beautiful Lengths instead of Locks of Love because they provide wigs for free to cancer patients (LoL relies on a sliding pay scale). I asked for 8" cut off, but in typical hair-donation fashion, they cut an extra 2.5" just for kicks. So this is the shortest my hair has been in awhile. I just took this picture tonight, so it has grown out a little bit, but I also got another 1/2" cut off last week when Adora & I went to get hair cuts (side note: I really miss Kids Hair Safari from Wichita Falls. There is no kids' hair cutting place here.)

Confession

I have a confession to make. I use my $72/month YMCA membership mostly to be able to take a shower. Yes, I pay $72/month (plus $4.50 childcare each time I go!) to be able to take a shower. I somehow haven't mastered the art of showering during the day with the kids home. When I shower at home, it is usually after they go to bed, which is scary because the shower backs up to their bedroom, and then I have wet hair all night, too. In order to justify the shower at the Y, though, I force myself to workout before. The class that I usually go to is from 9:15-10:30, but I always cut out at 10:15. I figure an hour of cardio is enough for a pregnant lady (I take a bathroom break mid-way through, too, haha), and I want to make sure I have enough time to get my shower in before I have to pick up the kids from the childcare (they can only be in there 2 hours), plus, if I stay the whole time, they get REALLY HUNGRY and whine for lunch when I pick them up. I have a feeling that as this pregnancy progresses, I might start using my membership mostly for the hot tub and the shower--maybe I will skip the working out part.

Another great thing about our super-expensive gym membership is that you get discounts on classes and camps for the kids. I say this is good, but I haven't ever used this benefit. I tried to sign up Adora for swim lessons, but although they supposedly have signups for 5 days or so, they apparently fill up within the first hour. I think there is only one more session before the summer (and I'm not sure they have swim classes in the summer--it's an indoor pool), and I don't know if we'll get her in. I feel kind of bad about it since Jake really wanted her to take swim lessons over the winter (oops) to keep up her swimming skills so she will really improve in the summer time. I don't know that she will really swim any more here in the summer than in the winter, though. There is no spray park like there is in Wichita Falls. The lake is ice cold (actually, she probably wouldn't care about that) and is like 30 or 45 minutes away. They also have an Itty Bitty Sports class that sounds pretty cute. It's for five weeks, and they do a different sport each time to introduce the kids to different sports. I have a friend whose kid is in it, and she said it's neat to see which sports her kid likes and which she doesn't. That sounds great, rather than committing to a sport for a season only to find out your kid hates it. Anyway, we are going to be gone for a week of the session, so I am debating on whether or not to put Adora in it. I will probably do it, though, since I don't know that she will get another chance to do it since she starts preschool (again) in the fall. The camps are a week long, and Adora wants to do the Summer Fun camp. It is in the last part of July and the first part of August. I know she will love it, but I bet she will also get exhausted since it goes until 2 p. m.

I am also planning on taking Adora to a figure skating show. I am really excited about it! Adora told me she is going to be really mad at the end when she doesn't get to go ice skate. She can have such an attitude! I told her that maybe I wouldn't take her then because I am afraid she is going to throw a fit. So we will have to see how this plays out. It helps her to talk in advance about what my expectations of her are and to pose scenarios to get her to plan her behavior. For example:

Me: Adora, I don't know if we will go to this ice skating show because I think you might throw a fit afterward.
Adora: I won't throw a fit!
Me: Even if you feel angry that you don't get to ice skate?
Adora: I will be very good even if I don't get to ice skate.

Then, I remind her of it when the event is about to occur, and she usually does a pretty good job of following through with my expection. This technique requires me to think through every situation and potential emotion in advance, though, which I don't always get to do. She has gotten much better with her behavior since she turned four, though. Her twos were not so terrible, but the threes were extremely challenging. I'm glad she's four now.