Three, Two, One

{Three}

Sherwood baby number three is doing well. We got to take a little peek last week for my 20 week ultrasound and HE is growing a moving and all that just like he is supposed to. I am already fond of him as this has been a super easy pregnancy. I haven't been sick or anything like that. On some days I get really really tired. But that is the easiest symptom to remedy: take a nap. Or take a coma (a coma is one of those naps when you sleep so hard and drool and wake up disoriented). It seems that when I need a coma so does Asa. Perfect!

Unlike my pregnancies with Annabelle and Asa I haven't hit the 'eat gummis every single day' phase. I still like sweet things, but mostly just in moderation. I have noticed that I am more emotional. Yeah, that was unexpected. I fought back tears for the first 10 minutes of the 4th of July parade this year. I find myself feeling shoved to the side when I haven't been. At unexpected moments of slight difficulty I will suddenly become overwhelmed. It is a bit ridiculous, which is what I try to keep in mind. I just take my good friend's advice and tell myself "I'm just going through a stage right now".

Sometimes while in this stage I make lapses in nutritional judgement. Let's just say that is what happened the night I decided that we were going to have peach crepes with real whipping cream, powdered sugar and chocolate drizzled on top for dinner.

Back to our little number three. He is already fairly active. So far his little jabs and kicks have been fairly amusing. Asa loves to fall asleep laying on my chest/belly. Unknown to Asa, his little brother notices and makes sure to thump Asa several times to let him know that he is being squished.

This week at my appointment he was so active it took my RNC about 4 minutes to get his heart rate because every time she'd get him for a second he would move before she could get enough beats to get the rate. She exclaimed several times that he was a really active baby.

{Two}

This boy is my love. He is a real rascal but then he turns right around and has me wrapped around his finger again. He'll empty the recycling, climb up on the table, sneakily drop his dinner on the floor, turn the power strip for the computer off, try to get his hands in the toilet (or the 'yuck' as he calls it), throw toys down the stairs or imitate his sister when she is crying BUT most often when I scold him he'll give me a cheesy grin with a scrunched up nose so that I have to quickly turn away so that he won't see my smile. He'll snuggle up to me and bring me a book to read him. He'll remember to sign instead of grunt.

He has been picking up signs so quickly now. For a lot of them he does his own little variation but for now he is using: dog, cat, hat, telephone, book, fish, bird, eat, drink, please, thank you, help, more, again, snowman, flower, baby, and this week I have been trying to get him to say 'love'. He also shakes his head or nods to answer yes and no questions. We love being able to communicate! Of course there are always break downs (like last night when he didn't understand why I wouldn't let him eat the baby powder) but overall signing makes life so much easier.

Mike says it is time to cut his hair again. He is probably right, but if he gets really sweaty and it is humid out then he'll get curls like in this picture from the zoo.

{One}

Miss Annabelle has been in school for about a month now. Here in Arizona they start school a lot earlier in the year and most of the schools only offer full day kindergarten. I know - aren't you supposed to ease into it? For the mother's sake?

She likes going. There are ups and downs as far as having a stricter bed time or getting up in the morning goes but she is always happy about it on the way there. I was a little worried the first week because she told me "Mom, did you know that learning isn't fun?" Seriously, who let that one slip?

Since Asa and I miss her all day she is a bit of a celebrity in the afternoons. We sit and eat a snack with her, read books or play if she feels like it. Some days I think she is just ready for down time and she'll disappear into her room or watch a show.

She let slip last week that a boy at school was giving her kisses. I tried not to act too shocked so that she wouldn't get embarrassed and not tell me WHY he was kissing her. She explained that she had won candy three days in a row and that he got so excited for her that he just started kissing her cheeks and arms. Mike encouraged her to cover her face next time!

Highlights of Summer

'Highlights of summer?' you might ask. Yes, it is still 100 degrees outside but I feel like with the beginning of August, school starting and a few thunderstorms it feels like the perfect time for a good summer wrap up post. So here goes:

10 Great summer moments of 2010:

1. trip to Colorado for David & Clara's wedding reception: Of course their cute reception was only the beginning of the trip, but we enjoyed the next 10 days playing with grandma's, grandpas, Uncle Jake and cousins. The kids are in heaven when we are in Colorado. At my parent's house Annabelle watered the garden each morning, planted flowers and snuck treats. Asa watched intently at the walking trail out the window for dogs, conned people into taking him outside and practiced taking steps between grandma and grampster.

Every time we drove up the the Sherwood's house I would find Asa asleep in the backseat. I guess a car ride was his only downtime from all the fun :) Annabelle on the other hand would race down to the water feature in the front and eagerly agree to just get her feet wet. Yeah one soaked girl later we'd go on to the next activity of crafties, crazy Dr. Suess games, reading with Grandma, treasure hunts with cousins and so on. Asa loved the attention and outside time with Papa.

2. swimming: Annabelle took several weeks of swim lessons with friends. She can now swim underwater, come up for air and keep going. She learned a lot, but of course put her own spin on it. Instead of keeping her body stiff and straight, she would practice her 'dolphin' swim, in which she would shake her hips and bob her bum up and down. Hilarious.

We also enjoyed weekly swim play dates. Asa quickly warmed up to being in a pool and loved to 'splash' the other kids.

3. tuesday morning matinees: It was a sweet deal, $7 for a summer of movies. Annabelle looked forward to it every week. 'Mom, is it movie day yet?'

4. Asa learned to walk: he had been taking funny practice steps for about a month when all of the sudden one day he just decided he was done with crawling and started walking every where.

5. hearing a 'whoosh-whoosh' sound: I had a great Dr.'s appointment at the beginning of July and heard baby #3's sweet little heart beat. We're excited for the new addition. My official due date is 01/11/11! How cool is that?

6. celebrating the 4th of july in Prescott: we escaped the heat and the big city and enjoyed camping, watching a parade and getting rowdy at a rodeo as a family. Best family weekend of the summer for sure. Oh and Asa's first time camping. He was a champ. He just snuggled up to his momma and zonked out.

7. girls reunion: my best friend's from college and I got together for a much needed reunion/retreat in Utah for a couple of days. We went for a hike, outlet shopping, I got my first pedicure, ate junk food, laughed, stayed up way to late, reminisced and enjoyed a beautiful ride up the ski lift at sundance. It was just what I needed an more.

8. Mike & kids retreat in Utah: coincidence? I think not! Mike and the kids enjoyed time with family playing. They saw Mike's grandparents as well as his brother Sam and his family. From what I heard it was awesome, hiking, playing in the mountains and some quality cousin time for Annabelle and her hilarious cuz Isaac.

9. discovering the yummiest slush recipes to date: of course, I'll share it with you!

Blend together: 2 cups orange juice, 2 cups sherbet, 2 cups cold water, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup sugar and 3 cups of crushed ice. Enjoy!

10. family reunion: the 14 children of Mike's great grandfather have an awesome annual family reunion up in the White Mountains of Arizona. This was my first time going. It was green, beautiful, fun to meet all the other 'Arizona Sherwoods' and what is even better is that 7 of them came back to home with us for a week :)

April Flowers

Before May turns to June, I should continue with the update. April was highlighted with Easter, great weather here and a whirlwind weekend for a wedding.

In April Asa cut his seventh tooth. He also stopped eating and reverted back to nursing every couple of hours. Our first visit to the pediatrician revealed sores in his throat. It was suspected to be something viral and just to treat him for the pain. A week later, less sleep and even less eating we were back. The sores were so bad he was tested for strep throat, thankfully that came back negative and we were given some prescription pain killer and told it should be gone in a week. By the end of the month I was at wits end with a super cranky kid that was nursing 3 times at night and ornery the rest of the time, so we went back to the doctor. This time he had an ear infection, so armed with an antibiotic and reflux medicine we went home. Cue the applause! Within 20 minutes I had the happiest baby I had seen in weeks! Sweet wonderful medicine! His appetite returned and I am slowly getting him dependent on foods for nourishment - I'd love to begin sleeping through the night undisturbed. Whatever that feels like, I am pretty sure I like it.

One afternoon Annabelle came up to me and asked if I knew what reversible change was. "Uh, yeah I think so". She explained it was when something could go back to the way it was, "Like water turning into ice and then back into water." Normally my jaw would have dropped but I had a sneaking suspicion this had come from her Sid the Science kid cartoons. A few nights later I could hear Mike trying to convince Annabelle that she needed to remember to close her eyes when saying her night time prayers. She said she used to be good at that, but now that she had been keeping them open it was too hard. For some reason Mike went further into debate with her and explained that she had developed a habit of keeping her eyes open and that she could learn to keep them closed again and break the habit. I couldn't help but laugh when she argued back "It's not a habit Dad, it's called reversible change!"

Easter was a great day. I really enjoyed watching Asa try to eat every egg that he found. I hid these little freeze dried yogurt snacks in his eggs since he couldn't really handle candy. He loved them and popped them into his mouth one after the other all morning. And Annabelle of course made out like a bandit with her loot. I think her favorite thing was a magnifying glass in her basket. She immediately wanted to go outside and discover the backyard.

All month we looked forward to our trip up to Utah for David and Clara's wedding. David is my younger brother and we were excited for Clara to join our family. My older brother Adam also graduated with his masters in geology that weekend and so it was a fun packed weekend with great food and even better company. The wedding dinner was at The Lion House downtown Salt Lake. The historic building was beautiful and it was really fun getting to know Clara's family.

They were married in the Draper temple which was beautiful, we had never been before as it is so new. The morning started out cold but when we came out of the temple the winds stopped and the sun came out. Annabelle was thrilled to see Clara and all the flowers. She has quickly become attached to her new aunt. Their reception was great fun as well with flowers from my talented Aunt Julie and a cake made by Clara's sister in law.

Our pictures of that day aren't all that great but my old friend from Provo, Amy Bennion did a beautiful job with the professional pictures from that day. You can get a little taste of them on her photography blog, here. I love them. I wish I had known her before I got married! Maybe then I would have agreed to doing some bridals :) Amy even put us up for the weekend, not many photographers will do that for you! Thanks a million Amy, it was great seeing you and meeting your little Zac.

Oh yeah, back to the trip. It was so fun to spend time with my family. I think my little brother Jake was my hero of the trip. He almost always had a niece or nephew in his arms. Except of course when Mike convinced him to do a little climbing for the reception.

For those of you who know David and Clara they started their own little family blog. It is pretty funny, but private so you'll have to harass them to give you access.

Favorite photo of the month: Yes ladies, they're both mine.

March in a Minute

Yes, I realize that it is, uh, May. But for my sake I'd like to do a little catching up. It seems to be the theme for my blogging thus far this year. March is one of the most beautiful months in Arizona. I love the sunny warm (or as many here refer to it as, cool) weather. Great for hiking, play dates at the park, visiting the zoo and all of that.

Needless to say we spent a lot of time outside. The citrus fruit is also in season, which means many friends are looking to dump their excess fruit. I love making homemade lemonade and I think we perfected it this year and added puree strawberries.

In March Asa sped up his crawling and mastered going up the stairs. I have a gate at the top of the stairs but can't bring myself to get one for the bottom . . . seriously, can you imagine, having a baby on one hip, an armful of something else and trying to negotiate a gate, climb the stairs, negotiate another gate and then have to do it all again on the way down? Safety First? How about 2nd? I do put an ottoman at the bottom of the stairs to block him when I can't keep and eye on him. Teething, drooling and waving made up most of Asa's month. Take a look at those teeth in there, this kid's smile cracks me up!

Annabelle enjoyed her first field trip in April. Her preschool class went to a fire station. She talked about it for weeks and initially didn't want me to go with her, but a few days before said it would be alright if I came along after all. I might have embarrassed her with all the picture taking . . . she survived. Since the field trip and Safety Week at school, she has been more focused on safety. She asks WHEN our house will burn down, she notices wether or not bike riders are wearing their helmets, if firemen will come to our house, if girls can be firemen, when she'll be old enough to bathe Asa without me . . . I'm glad she has taken over as safety officer for me. I have to admit issues of safety don't cross my mind as often as they do Anna's.

A highlight for us in March is celebrating Mike's birthday. I had to steal this picture off of our friend Tacy's blog as she managed to remember to take a picture! Tacy and Mike share a birthday, exactly. Well I don't know what time they were born, but I love them both and so we got together and celebrated. Oh, and they both love cheesecake, so it works out perfectly. Later in the week they packed up and moved to Utah. It was a fun night, but a bitter sweet farewell as we'll miss them, but I know they'll enjoy being closer to family.

Mike got a new macro lens for his birthday and has been a mad man macro photographer ever since. He usually shares his favorite shots with his fellow Sherwood photographers on the family photography site, if you want to see what Mike's world looks like in macro take a peek through the archives.

Other March happenings deserve a post all of their own. I think the time is up on 'March in a Minute' but I couldn't help but post this last picture of Asa - - with all the crawling and disinterest in eating as of late he doesn't have quite this much chub anymore. Oh yeah, and I think this is evidence that he'll get some curl to his hair.

The 28 Days of February

1. I made cupcakes for the first time ever. Or at least the first time I can remember. They were Gingerbread Cupcakes with Caramelized Mango Buttercream. Recipe here. Warning: Intermediate rating on this website might be code for intense.

2. I've been crafting a little more, scrap booking and Valentine making.

3. Asa stopped rolling and squirming to get around. He started off this month by walking his hands out in front of him and then hopping and wiggling to get his knees up under his chest. Hilarious to watch.
4. Mike was called as the Young Men's president. He is pretty excited to go hiking and get to know the guys in our ward.
5. Annabelle started paying attention to commercials. She doesn't realize the intention of advertising and repeats lines from commercials when she thinks the particular product might improve our lives. For example Mike and I were discussing finances and she piped up "You should call them, they can lower you payments, maybe even cut them in half". My parents bought a new mattress and she asked if it was a sleep number bed "because if you have a bad bed you should get a sleep number bed, it is the best one". And of course when I got a migraine she suggested buying Nyquill.
6. Oh yeah, I got a migraine this month. Random.
7. During a storm this month a tree in our backyard blew over. I thought I'd have to go back there and cut it up and throw it out but super Mike went back there, pushed it back upright and tied it to the fence. How manly.
8. Asa cut two more teeth. He now has four teeth on top and two on the bottom.
9. Annabelle was really excited (as we all were) for Mike's parents and brother to come visit. Every night for a few weeks before their arrival she prayed that their plane wouldn't crash.
10. Asa became keenly interested in some dangerous/gross things around the house, namely, the electrical sockets, the chemical cupboard, the trash cans in the bathrooms, the power strip over by the computer and my mop bucket.
11. Mike's parents and brother Jake came to visit! They came for a long weekend and we enjoyed having them. They spoiled us and we loved seeing them. It was awesome to have them stay with us, see the new house and play.
12. Jake, Mike's brother just came home from his mission in Montana and Wyoming. He served in a lot of small towns and had some great experiences. We loved getting to see him, hear stories about his mission and he got to meet Asa.
13. We went on a hike while our family was in town. We drove out to Gold Canyon. Annabelle did a great job on the 3 miler and Asa enjoyed his first hike - being carried in the backpack of course.
14. We also went to a train park with the Sherwoods. Once again, great weather, great fun, a picnic lunch, a train ride and a carousel ride or two.
15. Annabelle really enjoyed her first Valentines party. Her preschool did a Valentines exchange. She brought nerds candy for her classmates and wrote her name on every single one.

16. I made Mike a Valentine this year (yes that is mentionable all by itself). We typically don't celebrate Valentines Day very much. But when I saw this I just had to try it. I enjoyed using a hammer, wire cutters, nails and a little elbow grease while crafting. I think Mike was impressed as well as surprised.

It reads"light of my life", which I didn't come up with, even though it is true.

17. Asa started crawling while Mike's parents were here. He figured out he whole alternating knee thing. Now he is pretty fast.
18. Asa had his first Oreo. Yum.

19. We had our friends the Woods and Stevens over for a cheese themed dinner. It is great to see friends from our old neighborhood. They were sweet enough to drive out here and hang out for a while. I'm sure there is an appropriate saying about old and new friends but I can't remember it.
20. We found another fun place for pictures: A free train museum in Chandler. So don't worry, we didn't set the kids on active train tracks for these pictures.
21. I'm a little crazy about Design Sponge. If I knew how to pull up statistics on my computer it would probably tell you that I checked it 200 times this month. Probably. There are all kinds of featured ideas and designers. Take a look at this Emily Hensen design. I love it. I just made my first bird house. Maybe one day I'll paint a tree on the wall in the play room.
22. I had friends over to be crafty a couple of times. It is so much more fun to create something when you've got a friend to chat with and the kids can entertain each other.
23. Asa has become a little bit of a pest since he learned to crawl. One day in particular he pulled our lamp over a handful of times, slowed dinner and lunch production by constantly opening the cupboards and can crawl at top speeds. We spent then next Saturday installing a gate at the top of the stairs, latches on the cupboards and anti-fray stuff on the edge of the carpet so that he would stop pulling out the threads and eating them. Have I mentioned Asa keeps my busy??!? But I can't get enough of that kid.
24. My nephew Jeremiah turned one. First birthdays are awesome to celebrate. We were sad to not live closer to them. I started the tradition of making my nieces and nephews an Alphabet book personalized with all the members of their extended family representing each letter. J my name is Jeremiah was fun to make and I hope it holds up to years of reading. Happy Birthday Jeremiah!
25. I found a new blog to follow, started by one of my good friend Rachel, and her two sisters. It is called Forced to Cook, and is a recipe blog for the lazy chef. I've submitted my favorite quick and delicious recipes. Who knows, maybe I'll be lucky enough to be featured.
26. It is highly likely that in the 28 days of February, that this is the only picture taken of our family photographer:

Sorry Mike! I'll be sure to take the camera out of your hands more often this month.

27. I'm sorry, these are getting a little desperate towards the end of the list. It rained. Fast fact: Arizona has had more rain this year than it had in all of last year. Fascinating, I know.
28. I have texting on my phone plan. Or at least I think I do.

The Rest of January

After returning from our trip it felt like we had been gone just about as long as we had lived in our new house. I felt like I had to get reacquainted and settle back into it. Even though we were all unpacked when we left, we hadn't really started any home improvement projects. I'm sure if I mapped it out we could do projects every weekend for a year, but we are taking it in stride and starting off slow. So we painted an accent wall in the living room, hung pictures, re caulked the bathrooms and pruned the bushes in the backyard.

I was pretty excited to do some painting, but Asa needed to be distracted and fed while the painting was going on, so I got bumped off the project and Mike and Annabelle did most of it. In case you didn't know my favorite color is green. So far I'm not sick of it. I'll have to remember to post some finished project pictures soon.

Another huge happening in the house in January was teething. Asa cut his top two teeth in January. Nothing like two little teeth to change the way a baby looks! He seems to be a pretty good teether. I think he only cried at night once. Mostly he is just a little moody and has a really runny nose. Asa enjoyed getting around the house more this month by rolling and shifting around. I couldn't always figure out how he was getting there but he did.

I moved Annabelle to a new preschool this month as well. I was getting tired of driving her all the way back and forth to her old one. We really like her new one. The program is much different. I feel like she is learning more and I am glad that she is making friends with some kids that live around here and some are even in our ward. Of course, her favorite time is recess, but she also seems to like that she gets to bring homework home once a week. Don't worry, it isn't mandatory, they are preschoolers after all!

One of the funnest things we did in January was thanks to Annabelle. She saw a commercial for the Glendale Glitter and Glow Block Party and asked if we could go. The event, parking and shuttle were free so we just had to go! Haha, but it was awesome. It is in a historic walking district in Glendale and they leave up the 1.5 million Christmas lights and then have 24 hot air balloons tethered in the streets lighting up every time they ignite their torches. Add live bands, street performers and awesome carnival food . . . we had a great time. We even got to watch them set up several of the balloons. I highly recommend it to anyone in AZ in mid January.

Another huge happening around here in January was rainstorms! We easily got more rain and flooding from these winter storms than we had last monsoon season. I liked it because it made it feel more wintery. But after a few days it would clear up and we could enjoy being outside again. Kinda the best of both worlds. Luckily, unlike in a lot of other parts of the state, we didn't suffer any damage from the storms. Because of the monsoon season at the end of the summer, there are a lot of runoff areas to accommodate all the rainwater. A lot of times they make these areas into grassy neighborhood parks. Here is one that Mike found serving it's purpose. There were even ducks swimming around in it.

At the end of the month we caught a warm day and went to the zoo with some friends. It was our last chance to use our zoo pass before it was going to expire and it was awesome. The only animal that Asa noticed was the elephant. He watched her sway and walk around. My friend distracted him enough to get him to look away for a second to get this picture.

Annabelle and her little friend stuck together, talked most of the time and tried to ditch the old ladies and babies a time or two (wether or not it was intentional or not is still up for debate). Anna's favorite animal was yet again, the diaper rash monkeys!

Well that was January, whew! I'll get caught up soon :)