A Fairly Chilly Fair

Cody wore this lovely hat.

We ate lots of chocolate cake.

And lots of cotton candy.

It was sunny and warm on Sunday. Cody and Justin Jourdan.

Connor working with Clayton, Don's cousin.

Connor, Taylor, Laura, Cayden and Caleb

Taylor rode the Bumblebees with Cayden.

This is the ride Caleb puked on.

This is Caleb pointing to the ride that he puked on.

Caleb, Cayden and Taylor on the Tilt-a-whirl.  I thought at first that Cayden was going to freak out and start crying when the ride started.  The look on his face was shear terror at first but he said it was fun.

The Fair this year was super cold and windy for 3 days of the 4.  We usually plan on atleast 1 bad day of weather but this year it was horrible.  We all were pretty busy though regardless of the weather.  Don was in town at a trade show until Thursday afternoon but the rest of us were there mostly from open until close.  I did come home and rest most afternoons and Cayden and I were home by 8:30 or 9 just because it was so cold and I was so tired.  We ate cotton candy and chocolate cake and lots of Polish Sausages.  Cody worked for the Fair running supplies and Pepsi around.  Connor worked hauling trash for Gma and Gpa and Caleb worked in the BBQ tent and a little bit with Gma and Gpa.  He had bigger ideas of work until he was actually working.  Cayden just wanted to be on the cart.  The kids did do the carnival atleast once a piece.  Thank goodness Laura and Taylor were there to take Cayden on some rides.  Caleb went too but the bigger the crew the better it seems.  Sunday ended up being the nicest day of the Fair but once the sun went down it was frigid.  I had on multiple layers and gloves but still cold.  The kids were cold too but reveled in the joy of the Fair rather than the misery of the cold.

Chocolate Milk

This is how we make chocolate milk when we are out of Nesquik-Slim Fast and a big mess.  No it does not taste very good or mix up well unless you use a blender.

Gardening 2011

Dad and Caleb planted our garden this year.  It was quite late getting in so we transplanted already growing zuchinni, yellow squash and tomatoes.  Hopefully they will survive!  We have had some major wind storms and it also got really cold but they are coming along nicely.  We planted 4 zuchinni, 4 yellow squash and 2 tomatoes.  We really need to get some more planted but the spring has gotten away from us it seems.

Never Too Many Flip Flops

 

I counted my flip flops one day and realized I had 24 pair.  I don't have yellow or green or purple but every other color almost.  I love flip flops.

Baby Mama Pics

Week 13

 This is a pic of the Beband, a stretchy band that you can wear over your unbuttoned jeans when they don't fit anymore.  I wore it for about 4 weeks before I broke down and started wearing maternity jeans.  I still wear it sometimes but have a few pair of maternity bottoms and stretchy top pants that I am wearing more and more.

Week 17.2

Look what happens in 4 weeks!

Skunks and Snakes and Cottonwood Trees and LittleTiny Bugs

Last week we opened the windows for the first time during the night and were awakened at 1:30am by our friendly neighborhood skunk posse.  This is the 4th or 5th time we have been skunked during the night.  Luckily our dog did not get it this time.

Today I went Visiting Teaching to a neighbor across the street.  I rang the doorbell and then heard a hissing noise.  I looked down and there was a snake about 2 feet from me all coiled up and hissing at me!  I screamed and ran back down the sidewalk as my neighbor opened the door.  I told there was a snake and she promptly called her husband to come and take care of it.  Then she told me to hurry in to which I declined and told her I would just wait until the snake was gone.  Then she promptly shut the door.  I waited for her husband to come around with a shovel and watched from almost the middle of the road as he inched the shovel toward the snake and the snake struck at him.  He then decided that the snake had to go bye bye if he was going to get violent.  I thought he needed to go bye bye regardless.  I had the willies all day long.  This is seriously what the snake looked like and this is a picture of a baby rattler.  I don't know for sure it was a rattler because I did not see the rattlers but AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH anyway!

No, this is not snow.  It is cotton off the cottonwood trees that bloom every spring and fall around here.  I vacuumed this rug this morning about 9:15 and this picture is at about 3:30.  The garage door is always kept shut after we pull in but this stuff inevitably gets in.  It is in the air and all over the garage floor.  When the wind is blowing it looks like snow blowing around.  I think I am allergic to it or whatever else is blooming out there.  Cayden is allergic to something blooming right now too.  He goes to bed and wakes up with a stuffy nose.  He says that he is sick and can't go to school.  Luckily there is Zyrtec for him and Claritin for me.  

And last but not least are these lovely little bugs that congregate in and around my kitchen sink and in and around my bathroom window and big tub.  The bug man only came last week and I bought bug spray yesterday and sprayed around the windows of both the kitchen and my bathroom inside and out.  I vacuum the windowsills, tub, sink and surrounding area atleast twice a day because I can't stand their little bodies dead or otherwise all over the place.  I really do love the green of spring and all the flowers that are blooming but along with the good comes the bad and these are definitely the bad.

Family Fun with the Gessel's

Uncle Chris, Aunt Anne and Lexi came down for a visit March 23-March 27 because Uncle Chris had Spring Break.  They came down on Wednesday and stayed through Sunday.  On Thursday even though the kids were in school I went with Chris, Anne and Lexi to Shark Reef and to Claimjumper.  We also made a stop at Costco to pick up some tasty steak to BBQ.  Don was out of town but Uncle Chris manned the grill quite well.  Friday our guests went to St. George to hang out with some of Anne's family.  On Saturday we all went to Vegas to PF Chang's, the Bellagio fountains and gardens and rode the monorail down the strip a bit to the MandM store and the CocaCola store.  We ate tasty crepes and chocoloate croissants from a delightful bakery in the Bellagio and witnessed quite a few "weddings".  My favorite was the iridescent blue/purple wedding dress that was long and looked more like a prom dress although it was long.  The bridesmaids had the same color dresses just shorter and sluttier.  WOW!!  Caleb was on a campout, and Connor was with Gma and Gpa so Cayden and Cody went with us.  Thanks for coming to visit  us Gessel family.

At PF Chang's for lunch.  This is a typical picture of Cayden with his cousins. I can't get him to look at me the same time the other kids do.

Yes, this is a typical face from my brother.

The Bellagio fountains.

The MandM store where you can get any color of MandM's for $12.95 a pound.

Twelth Night

Cody was awarded Best Actor and an "M" letter plus we gave him Diet Coke and Starbursts.

The Love Letter

Yellow stockings and green garters.

Cody and Ms. Dalley, the theater teacher.

Cody and Taylor

Cody, Sterling, Steven and Megan-good friends.

This is a photo from the newspaper.

Cody was in the Spring production of Tweflth Night at the high school.  It was March 29-31.  He played Malvolio and did a superb job as a creepy, smiley snob.  This was a hard play for all the kids because of it being Shakespeare.  They all worked really hard and did a great job.  Cody's cousin Taylor was in the show too.  I went all 3 nights which made things all come together after seeing it a few times.  There were two articles in the local paper about the play.  You can find them here and here. 

Hello Baby!

I saw my doctor for the 2nd time on March 21 and had my 12 week nuchal translucency ultrasound.   Don was super busy because he had been out of town the week before and since they would not be able to tell us much about whether the baby was a boy or a girl, he stayed home and worked.  I waited for about 40 minutes to do the ultrasound because the guy was running behind.  That took less than 10 minutes and then I had to wait to see the doctor then wait again to do my bloodwork.  I shouldn't complain though because in the past I would have to go to a different place for the labs and another place for the ultrasound but my doctor does everything all in his office so that makes it much easier.  The nuchal translucency  measured 1.6mm. The doctor said that was fine (abnormal is 2.5 and above) but because I am 35, the lab doing my blood work may come back and say abnormal because the chances for Down Syndrome go up after 35. He said not to worry about it. They also took 11 vials of blood-yes that number is correct- 11! I asked the woman doing the draw if I would be able to walk out of there on my own!  She said that I would be fine.  She did use a pediatric needle thing though because my veins are such crap!  It took longer to get all that blood but did not hurt as much.  The baby measured 59.7mm crown to rump length (crl). We got a good profile shot of the baby and so we decided to tell the kids. We brought the boys into the family room and had them sit on the couch.  Don told them that he needed them to start being more responsible and helping more around the house and doing their laundry and stuff like that.  They were a little perplexed until he got out the ultrasound picture and showed them why mom needed help.  Cayden started screaming "we have a baby sister" even though we won't know for another 5 weeks when we can do the 3/d 4/d u/s. Connor had about a million questions and had made lots of decisions in the 3 minutes-like I was not going to have the baby at the fair (in April), that he and his dad would not go hunting, and that their dad could not travel when it got close to time for the baby. He also said that he thought we were going to tell them that I had cancer or a tumor.  Apparently the word "pregnant" is fun to say for boys so we asked them to please say that "mom's expecting". They wanted to call all the grandparents, and aunts and uncles and said that they will be telling their teachers tomorrow. Cayden has been following me around non-stop and wants to keep touching my belly even though there is nothing there yet and he wants to talk to the baby. Atleast they are all excited.  Connor wants to have a family council to decide the baby's name-he likes Delilah-I told him no. Caleb likes Chloe and Lilly.  Cody is sort of non communicative on the whole thing. I did ask him if he saw the u/s pic and he said that he did and he thought it was a good one. So other than a 2 hour appointment, it was a good day. I was exhausted though! We sent this picture to Grandma Penny and she is sure that this is a female profile.  We will see!

There's Always Time for....

One of the very very limited times I baked during the first 13 weeks of this pregnancy.  I made them for my book club.

A Taste of Hawaii

When Don and I went to Hawaii many moons ago-ok 2 years ago-I ate the most delicious pancakes with strawberries, macadamia nuts and coconut syrup.  I ate that every morning at the restaurant in our hotel.  We found some coconut syrup at a store and brought it home.  We ran out a little while ago and as I was wanting to it again and they don't sell it in Logandale, I decided that I would make it.  I found a recipe on line and it was quite simple and quite tasty.  It was only sugar, butter and coconut extract.  A few weeks later when we were in Vegas we found an ABC store-just like the ABC stores in Hawaii-and they sold the same coconut syrup that we bought in Hawaii for about $7 a bottle and the bottle was the size of a hot sauce bottle.  I made mine for pennies and it was not processed or prepackaged!

Caydenisms

Cayden says the funniest things and I have to write them down or else I will forget them.
Today in the car he said 2 funny things one right after another.


Cayden:  Mom, I'm not going to college.

Mom:  Ok Cayden.  What are you going to do then?

Cayden:  Can I just get a job here in Logandale?

Mom:  Yes you can but if you don't go to college you can only get a job at McDonald's or the gas sstation.

Cayden:  I can get a job at the school.

Mom:  Well you  have to go to college to be a teacher.

Cayden:  Nuh -uh.  I can do it.  I have been practicing upstairs.  I just ask the kids what is 10 +10 and ask them what the little "a" says.  Then we can go outside for recess and if they are good we can just watch a movie.
 Mom:  Oh well that's a good plan but you still have to go to college to be a teacher.

Cayden:  I will just practice upstairs.


#2

Cayden:  mom, I don't want to run in PE tomorrow so you can just write a note that says Cayden can't run in PE because his 2 legs hurt.
Mom:  Well I don't think we will do that.
Cayden: Well you could wrap my leg and then you could write a note that said Cayden can't run because his leg is broken.
Mom:  Well that would not be the truth would it?
Cayden:  No but I don't want to run in PE so maybe we can get a cast for my leg.

"The Flu"

Well here is the reason why I  had the flu for 2 and a half weeks.  This is the 2nd Ultrasound pic that we had done on March 21 but I found out I was pregnant on February 12.  We went to St. George on that Saturday to go to Texas Roadhouse and get Cayden a much needed haircut.  I got a test when I ran into Target, took it and hid it in my purse hoping that it would not say what I was afraid it was going to say.  I told Don later that night after we got home. I took a second test Sunday morning to confirm the test from the night before.  It was quite the shocker but did explain "the flu" and the extreme exhaustion.