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!