My big behind and pregnant running

The other day out of the blue Carter tells me:

“Mom, when I get bigger, then I can have a bigger bum like you!”

And he said it with such enthusiasm, too.

Not many people could get away with implying I have BIG BUM . . . I laughed so hard.

SOOOO speaking of getting bigger.

Following up on my running while pregnant, YES I am still running while pregnant!

How’s it going?

You know, just picture strapping a soccer ball to your belly, fill it with water, then stick a foot-long 1.5 pound wiggly, kicking thing in there. NOW RUN and see how it goes!!!

So running has actually gone really well. Around 21 weeks I knocked the 3 milers down to 2 milers. So for the past month I've been bouncing this belly for 2 miles, 3 days a week. Not much, but it makes me feel good enough to keep on lacing up my running shoes and heading out to the trails looking something like this:


YES! I look EXACTLY like her, except make that smile into a grimace and make that tank an old T-shirt and add some flab to the arms and love handles to the waist and make that stride a bit shorter and double that chest (come on if you are pregnant why are you not wearing a sport's bra, woman!) and that is TOTALLY me.

But I HAVE felt really really good and having great runs. I mean I must or I wouldn't still be running.

EXCEPT FOR this last week. Yeah my last 3 runs have NOT been good. Yeah it’s making me mad why all of a sudden it got so uncomfortable. I’ve had to stop and walk for a bit during my measly 2 miles because of side stitches and some lower back pain. I don’t know if the baby is chilling in a different position or what it is about this 25 week mark. I did go to the doctor on Monday, and apparently I had a huge growth spurt since last time (THE SCALE DOES NOT LIE) so maybe that’s it. I did ask my doctor about running still and he said oh sure it’s totally fine as long as I am comfortable and going slow. SOOOO I don’t know how long I can do this. If my next couple runs continue to be NOT FUN then I certainly won't torture myself and I will be done. We shall see.

Or who knows, maybe all I need is one of these sexy things.


RARRRHH!!!! My question is: Does the leotard COME WITH it? Cause that is a must.

Oh and the REALLY GOOD NEWS!! Throughout running while prego, I can proudly say I have not, I repeat, NOT once peed my pants!

Yet.

Yeah the pressure on the bladder is definitely a downside.

Wow I must REALLY like running. I've been thinking about this lately, and will save my in-depth thoughts on how I came to run and why I like it so much and how it has changed me and my past emotional issues for another time!

In the meantime, my big bum and me are off to bed!

Just one of those poop stories

Two days ago when I went to get Logan up from his nap, he was sitting there playing in a crib full of poop.

Okay not FULL, but you know, all over the sheets, blankets, his clothes, not to mention his nose, forehead, fingers, and hair.

YUCKY YUCKY YUCKY!!!!!! COME ON!!!!!!!

Both Jenna and Carter had at least one incident where they took off their icky diapers while in their crib. Logan’s was actually still hanging on for dear life. It was just too much for that lil diaper I guess.

I think every mom has a good poop story. Probably loads of them.

You know going into being a mom you’re gonna change diapers. You just don’t quite realize there are going to be those OTHER lovely stories outside the realm of a mere diaper changing.

I think my favorite one, since we’re on the subject (LUCKY YOU!) is when Jenna was around 7 months old. My grandpa passed away, and so we had taken the loooong drive to Arizona for the funeral. Jenna was like Golden Child there and back. She was amazing. Except for one incident on our way back when we stopped to get food one night.

We were tired and hungry. We carried her carseat into the KFC and in the bright lights saw something horrifying. Yeah that’s right her diaper had exploded I MEAN EXPLODED LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN all over her carseat. I still remember her binky, sitting there covered in it. (Went straight to the garbage.) After staring at it in shock and awe, I gathered my wits about me and told Nate I’d take care of it.

I took her carseat into the tiny little icky bathroom of KFC, where NOT ONLY was there no changing table, there was no COUNTER either. I took her into the handicap stall and laid her right on the floor on a changing mat I had. I proceeded to strip off all her icky clothes and clean her up, using EVERY LAST WIPE I had with me in the process. Then, while she was naked, she peed all over the floor.

IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!!! I had to leave her there on the floor, go grab some wet paper towels and mop everything up. I ended up actually scooping up my completely naked child and bringing her to the ONE sink and splashing her with water. Lucky me, the bathroom had been empty the whole time. . . UNTIL THAT MOMENT. AND I am not even kidding, this trucker-looking lady walks in, sees what I am doing, stops and walks right back out. Sorry, lady. . .

Anyway I cleaned out the carseat as much as I could and finally got out of there. Turns out, Nate was worried sick about me cause I had taken soooooo long. He thought I was kidnapped or something. He even walked around the building looking for me. (Nate, like, where would I go???) It was quite a night.

Oh yeah, and to top off this wonderful poop story, after eating at KFC that night, I threw up on the side of the road several times on our way home.

SEE wasn’t that a fun one!

Sigh. So anyway. Back to Logan. I tried not to think about how he probably tried to eat it and cleaned him up as best as I could with wipes, then decided a bath was really the only way to go, only I didn’t want to wake up Jenna and Carter who were BOTH napping, so I took him to the kitchen sink. Yep, I did.

He seemed to enjoy himself.

RANDOM thoughts of the day

So 1 episode of "Biggest Loser" totally highlighted this cereal:



Totally worked on me. I kept thinking about it, and how horrible my cereal habits are. I. LOVE. CEREAL. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! I blogged about it once (here.) THE ONLY PROB IS I mostly eat sugary cereals. So I was like, I am totally going to change my bad cereal habits and wean myself off Corn Pops, Cocoa Puffs, Trix and eat HEALTHY for breakfast. I was like, THIS IS IT! I WILL CHANGE!

And I bought some Fiber One. (i try not to spend over $2 on a box of cereal, so this hurt, but I was like it will be worth it.)

I ate ONE BOWL. It was Fiber YUCK. EVEN with the tons of sugar that I piled on top.

Maybe some of the other kinds are good but that kind wasn't. So much for my new lifestyle change. FRUIT LOOPS IT IS!!!! Unless somebody knows a YUMMY healthy cereal. A cereal I could eat without having to add sugar. Cause you know, I'm a huge fan of Grape Nuts and THEY'RE healthy. I just add like a cup of sugar is all. . .

I was thinking about something else. How much I love Macaroni & Cheese. I love it WAY more than my kids do. And it is SO easy. And probably SO unhealthy. :) And I'm not picky, either, give me any brand. In fact, I prefer Walmart brand to Kraft. When I was little I used to stick a noodle on each of the fork prongs and eat it that way. I used to eat it with hot dogs cut up in it, too. Mostly though, I eat it just the way it is. I even like the leftovers. Oh and any homemade kind, like the kind my mother-in-law makes, is THE BEST!!!!! YUM YUM MAC&CHEESE!

As you can see I am not hard to please when it comes to food.

See? This IS random!

When the kids wake up they usually play for awhile until they really start begging me for breakfast (their sugary cereal, and yes I do feel like a bad mom for it. BUT IT'S FORTIFIED!) so when I wake up it's fun to see what they've been doing to entertain themselves till then. The other morning I woke up and saw this.


I just thought it was so funny.

And I'm really glad this next baby is a girl, cause while Carter has been the victim, I mean, uh Jenna's best pal who gets to dress up like a girl, I have found Logan like this lately.





Poor guy.

Speaking of Logan, lately he feels it is his life's mission to throw any object within reach down the stairs. His favorite things to toss are shoes and DVDs. He even managed to throw a small tricycle down. It's getting dangerous. Especially cause he can't throw too far so all these toys get piled up on the first couple steps so I about break my neck if I don't check first.

Also under the highchair is a nightmare. AHHHH!!! I HATE encrusted food stuck to the floor!!! Yet there is a tradeoff: letting Logan feed himself is faster and easier. Yet WAY more mess to clean up. And how come he cannot keep his sippy cup ON the tray? How come he has to throw it off 8 times? And how many times can Jenna and Carter spill their drinks?? Will my kitchen table and chairs and floor EVER be food-encrustment-free??? Like, at what age do kids grow out of touching everything with their messy hands? How many years will it be until I have clean floors that last more than 1 meal? These are questions I ponder deeply.

All right I'm done procrastinating transcription, I shall go right back to work now.

The violent demise of a TV and a toilet

Yes it was a beautiful, beautiful day for smashing things.

First up was a huge monster of a TV that has been sitting in our basement for 2 1/2 years. We bought it off KSL and a month later it went all screwy. And since people nearly died getting it downstairs in the first place, we thought it just might be here forever. UNTIL TODAY. WHA HA HA HA HA!!!

We finally got a trailer and some willing family members to come help us get it out. They tried to get the 10,000 pound piece of junk up the stairs, but quickly decided they valued their lives. No, the BEST way to approach the problem? Hit it with a hammer over and over!

It was so entertaining. The most entertainment that TV managed to provide since we bought it, I think. . .

I'm surprised we all made it out alive with those TV chunks flying through the air, though. Here is just the beginning of the destruction.



This is what the inside looked like, AWESOME HUH!


The TV was slowly dismembered until it at last gave out and collapsed.



SIGH good TIMES!

AND NEXT UP to go head to head with the HAMMER would be. . . that darn toilet.

I mean, this story is from AGES ago. SIGH okay as a refresher, cause I know everyone just loves toilet stories, last AUGUST, Carter flushed some toys down the toilet. Clogged it. My dad came over to help fix it. We plunged it. We snaked it. We put it in the tub and flushed water through it. A BALL CAME OUT! WAHOO WE DID IT! Reinstalled the toilet. STILL CLOGGED! Like what the heck, I know! So we repeated everything we had just done. We stuck a hanger in it and it came out both ends. I mean, seriously WHAT WAS IN THERE? We finally got a new toilet for Christmas MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US! and the old toilet has been sitting in our tub since then. Yep. It was a mystery. A mystery that AT LAST CAME TO AN END TODAY!!!!!


And with ONE crack at that porcelain we knew what made us get a whole new toilet.


YES THAT'S RIGHT A PLASTIC ORANGE.

I AM happy to report Carter has not since flushed anything down the toilet.


I have, however, caught Logan throwing objects in the toilet TWICE now and I'm really scared for our future toilet adventures.

Anywho, it was a good day. We got rid of not ONE, but TWO Big-Honkin-Huge-Old-Big-Screen TVs today. Yes, we had one sitting in our basement taking up space and ANOTHER one in our garage that Nate bought in high school. Here is Nate being sad to see that one go.


And here he is being happy to get rid of JUNK!


Good-bye 4 TVs, (OH YEAH I said FOUR. 2 big-screens and yes we were storing 2 small TVs in our house, I KNOW WHAT IS THE DEAL we were starting a collection or something), old broken vacuum, old broken lawnmower, trundle bed we never used, broken bicycle trailer, and toilet.

I had no idea this day would create this in depth of a blog post, and yet, there you have it.

Happy birthday Carter!

I am behind! So, it was Carter’s birthday last week! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARTER! 3 years old!! So glad we can put those terrible two’s behind us!!! (ha ha ha ha. . . )


Love this little man. OHHH gosh he can be such a stinker and yet he is a sweetheart. He’s my mama’s boy. He tells me all day long, “I love you, mom” and likes to climb on my lap while I am at the computer. He talks so well and has since he was young, and he says such funny things. The other day he told me, as nicely as possible, that I could go on the LITTLE slide at the park "when your toes get littler." Nice way of telling me I am apparently too big.

This is NOT unique to any kid Carter’s age, but I have to make note of it anyway. He LOVES TRAINS!!!! Sometimes I think his brain runs on one big loop of “Trains. Trains. Trains. Trains.” Some days he can’t stop talking about them. And at bedtime, he tells Nate and I that we need to sing “Train” songs, so we make up a different one every night. (It’s getting old.)

Carter is so weird and likes sleeping in his clothes. I don’t even protest anymore. I mean, if he wants to sleep in JEANS when he has way cute comfy jammies, whatever.

Carter is the BEST eater EVER!!!! Jenna is MISS PICKY but Carter will try anything. Beats me why he is still small for his age.

So this is one quirk that just makes me laugh. He LOVES being “handsome.” Sigh. He loves to comb his own hair. He wets it down and everything, and then says, “Mom I need Pomeade.” Seriously. The funny part is, he does NOT do a very good job, and when I try to fix it he gets soooo mad at me. He says, “NO you’re messing up my handsome!” Even when I get him out of the tub and try to dry off his wet hair he freaks out that I am ruining his hair. Sensitive little guy. ONCE in a while he will let me do his hair. He’ll say, “Mom, make me handsome.” Isn’t that the cutest thing.



For his birthday we took him to Chuck-E Cheese. The kids had a blast!!!!!!




For me it was like dying a slow and painful death.

Spring break=IT WAS A ZOO.

I was like, “HOW MANY TOKENS DO WE HAVE LEFT TILL WE CAN GET OUT OF THIS RAT-HOLE!”

Who knew Chuck-E Cheese could cause me to feel such anger.

But I put a smile on my face for the sake of the children. THE CHILDREN. EVERYWHERE!!!!! It was CRAZY!!!!

Okay I’m done.

Happy birthday Buddy Boy.

Happy Easter and all that stuff

We had fun playing in the April snow.

(So we had trouble finding gloves.)

Can you see our little snowman.

Luckily it melted in time for a couple of Easter egg hunts.

Here is a close-up of Carter's smile. Because it makes me laugh.


Check out my sister-in-law's yummy talent... and YES it tasted AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS! Thanks Kristin.



I love love love General Conference. It comes around just when I need something to motivate me to be better. It's kind of a tradition for my mom, sister, and I to paint our toenails during it. It's already getting hard for me with this growing belly, so Nate took over. He's never painted my toenails before. He learned a lot.


Speaking of my growing belly. Sigh. Okay here is me, 5 months pregnant.


I specifically wore that shirt so that you could see what happens in your 4th pregnancy: THIS is me in the SAME shirt, at the SAME point (22 weeks), with baby #1, Jenna.


I'm still attemping to run, but I will blog about that later.

I just tell myself the shirt shrunk.