Blessings

Been awhile since my last post. Imagine that...

I loved, loved, loved General Conference! So many great talks and reminders about where we can improve. Also, lots of encouraging and comforting words which I feel pregnant women are particularly fond of. At least I know this one is. President Monson is just such a fantastic man. Love him! What a blessing to hear from amazing leaders who give us direction straight from Heavenly Father. I felt like every talk had something so specific for me to learn. And it was amazing to get to hear from Dallas' mission president, Jose L. Alonso. We spent some time with Jared's family that weekend which is always fun. And of course, I enjoyed all of the extra time with my boys.

So as I posted earlier we are having a girl. Yay! And we've had her name picked out since I was pregnant with Jack. She'll be named Olive Effie Hughes after two of her great-great-grandmothers: Jared's great-grandma Olive Monson and my great-grandma Mary Effie Walters. We realize that those names are not what one might call popular or mainstream but that's why we like them and *bonus* they are family names which makes them extra special. Another exciting thing about those names: both grandmothers were born February 24th (which is also Jared's birthday) and our little Olive Effie is due February 27th. Greatness.

I'm 20 weeks so I guess we can call this the halfway point. I'm feeling lots of movement now which is so much fun. Jared has even felt her move a little bit too.

I think it's safe to say that I am totally over the morning sickness but this weekend led to some unfortunate vomiting anyway since we were struck by a horrendous case of stomach flu at our house. Jack threw up first on Friday night which led to a very messy, sleepless night. (First of many to follow I'm sure thanks to the wonder of parenthood.) Saturday things seemed to be going well. Jack was acting much better. He had a bad case of diarrhea but he was eating and drinking just fine so we thought we were out of the woods. WRONG! Jared started with it on Sunday morning and I followed suit on Sunday afternoon. Then Jack started throwing up again Monday morning. Joy. It was pretty much the worst I've ever felt in my entire life. Horrible, and I mean horrible, body aches, chills, fever, vomiting, diarrhea...which led to all of us being very dehydrated and unbelievably miserable. The following is a somewhat inappropriate but also extremely amusing bit of information regarding our weekend. As I mentioned before Jack had terrible diarrhea which was also surprisingly loud considering his size. Every time he filled his pants this weekend we knew it right away no matter which room he was in. We would hear a gastrointestinal symphony followed by Jack's disgusted, little voice, "EWWWWWW." It was tough not to laugh. 

In spite of the trauma of feeling the most sick I've ever felt in my entire life there is a silver lining to this story. We had two guys from our ward come over to give us blessings. It was such a great reminder of the power of the priesthood. In Jared's blessing Brother Paulson reminded us that we are given sickness and disease to help us appreciate times of health. For some reason that part of the blessing really resonated with me. It was a really powerful reminder that there must be opposition in all things. And Jared gave me a few extra blessings to help me get through the night and alleviate my worries about what all of this would do to Olive. Priesthood blessings are the best.

This month Jack learned to climb out of his crib. Or perhaps I should say, hurl himself out of his crib. My response the first time this happened, "Ummm...really?!?!". After the first time it happened I flipped his crib around so the shorter side was against the wall. Then I patted myself on the back for being such a genius and keeping him in his crib just a little longer. (Go ahead and laugh. You know I'll end up eating those words later in this post.) I know the toddler bed is a big step and should be looked at as an exciting milestone. But let's be honest, I'm terrified about losing nap time and I see that being a very real possibility without the crib. But alas, even with my stroke of brilliance Jack has once again proved to me that it's impossible to expect everything to go as planned when a kiddo is involved. Last night he hurled himself out of the crib five times. He refused to sleep on his mattress when it was on the floor and basically stood and screamed at his door. He also knocked a few times which was kind of cute in spite of the irritating nature of the situation. I tried everything I could think of but he resisted every attempt I had so he finally fell asleep in bed with us (which is an extremely rare occurrence) at 11:00 pm because we are all SO exhausted. We moved him into his crib around 1:00 this morning and then at 8:00 I heard a thud and then a knock on his door.

It looks like we're upgrading his bed whether we want to or not.

But all things considered life is good. We are so blessed.