What A Day

Yesterday was a crazy, crazy day. It started out like any other one. I took Livi to the library for story time, then we hit up the grocery store for a few items and headed home so Livi could take a nap. Sometime between leaving the grocery store and arriving home I started to have a really sharp pain near my sternum. I tried to brush it off, but every time I tried to take a deep breath, cough (which I have been doing for the past two weeks) or basically move my body at all, I would get this mind numbing pain in my chest. I called Phil and my mom to complain and they both were clueless as to what it could be, but Phil came home from work early to help me out. By about 5 it was unbearable. We weren't going to the ER by any means, but I was miserable. I was sitting down watching TV while Phil finished dinner and was cleaning up the kitchen. Side note: Phil has finals this week and he doted on me hand and foot last night instead of doing some much needed studying. I felt guilty the whole time, but there wasn't much I could do. He's a keeper.

Anyway, I'm watching TV and start to notice that I am having quite a few contractions. Not painful by any means, but they are pretty consistent. I mentioned it to Phil and so he starts timing them. They are coming every two minutes almost like clockwork. I figure they are just Braxton Hicks so we stopped timing them after a while. A little after 7 I realize that it's been an hour and they are still coming on just as frequently, again, not painful, but really consistent. I decide to call my Dr's office and speak to the Dr. on call. She tells me that I better come into the hospital just to be safe. I have obviously not packed a bag or anything at this point because I still have 10 weeks to go. We (Phil) hurry and throw a bag together of some stuff I might need in case I have to spend the night. So at 7:30 we head to the hospital. I change into the robe and the nurse gets some samples, checks out my cervix (really fun) and hooks me up to some monitors. One of the tests they ran can basically determine if you are going to be having a baby in the next two weeks. Thankfully that came back negative, I wasn't dilating at all, and the baby looked great on the monitor. The Dr came in and told me that I was probably contracting so much because I hadn't drank enough water. I felt really stupid. Then she checked out my rib/sternum which was a little swollen at this point, and said that I either had a small fracture or the ligament connecting my rib to my sternum was inflamed. Both of which have no treatment other than time. So my best friends for the next few weeks are going to be Tylenol and a heating pad. We got home at nearly 11 beyond exhausted. Unfortunately, any position but sitting feels like someone is jabbing a hot poker into my chest so I ended up going in Livi's bed (she was in our bed due to our sheer exhaustion) and stacking up a bunch of pillows behind me trying to be as upright as possible. I probably got 3 or 4 hours of sleep last night. It was hell, seriously.

But I do have wonderful news! On a previous ultrasound Jack was measuring small so my Dr ordered another ultrasound just to be safe. This freaked me out, mostly because my Dr. is one of the most relaxed people ever, basically nothing phases her. So the fact that she was concerned about his size made me really concerned. So I had another ultrasound a few weeks ago and today at my check up my Dr. told me Jack is exactly where he is supposed to be now! He is actually in the 76th percentile! I am so happy I almost don't feel the intense pain in my chest! (I wish)

Yesterday did give me a preview into what a little gem Livi is and how wonderful she is going to be once Jack does arrive. At the hospital I was trying to get back into the bed but was having a really hard time due to the searing pain in my chest, so Livi runs over and starts lifting my legs onto the bed for me. She then covered me up with the sheet. She helps me get off the couch and gets me anything I need. Basically she is a nearly perfect child and I adore her.

Thanksgiving and Trees!

Best friends

28 weeks!

not sure why Livi is surrounded by an aura. I know Phil was playing with the camera.

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with the Rickers up in The Woodlands. Thank goodness for good friends when family is so far away! I have become really horrible at taking pictures so I don't have any photos of the food or the table or even our hosts, bummer. I did manage to capture Livi and Sam and Phil and me. I pretty much took weekly belly shots when I was pregnant with Livi, but with this pregnancy I think I have only taken 3. Livi was in hog heaven that she got to spend so much time with her BFF Sam. It's so nice when they have someone to play with, you barely have to watch them! :-)

And because I couldn't wait any longer, we picked out our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and I immediately went about decorating. Livi was LOVING it and it made it that much more enjoyable for me. Every box I would open she would get a huge grin on her face and say, "I'm so excited, are you so excited?!" or "that is such a pretty box!" She especially loves the little Christmas village. She is not such a fan of the lights on the Christmas tree. She will unplug the tree through out the day and say she doesn't like it. Silly goose. I'm still trying to find the perfect Christmas tree topper. So far, I haven't had much luck. I think I'm making this much harder than it has to be.

We are all super duper excited for Christmas around here. Everything is so much more fun with little kids!

Family Time

Phil, Livi and I just got back from Utah. I feel like I was just there. But I'm not complaining, I love going home and seeing everyone. This time we made the trip for Phil's brothers wedding. We flew into Las Vegas because the wedding was in St. George. Phil's grandma flew in a few hours after us so while we waited for her we walked around a little bit and saw some sights. Side note: I really don't get the appeal of Las Vegas. Anywhoo, after we picked up Phil's grandma we made the trek up to Loa to spend the weekend. I was a little concerned about how she would fare in Wayne County. Of course she LOVED it and her and my mom got along like BFFs. Then we headed up to my Dad's in Lindon where everyone got together for a pre-Thanksgiving while we were in town. I was bummed I only got to see my siblings for a few hours, but it was a blast while it lasted. The next day we took mom mom (Phil's grandma) to SLC to visit temple square and see the sights. We got a tour of the Conference center, saw an organ concert in the tabernacle and ate lunch in the Garden Restaurant at the Joseph Smith building (I think that's what it was called). We had an awesome and hilarious dinner with Cecilia and James that night. Then Wednesday morning we headed back down to St. George for the wedding on Thursday. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and I can't believe I didn't bring my camera. Ashley and Jason are a beautiful couple and I'm so excited to have another girl in the Arias family! We left right after the dinner to drive back to Vegas and we hopped on a 1am flight back to Houston. We got home at 6:30am and went straight to bed until noon. Phil had class that evening, hence the flying in the middle of the night. We are finally caught up on sleep, I think.

Yesterday was also Phil's birthday. He was feeling sick so instead of his requested coconut shrimp, I made chicken noodle soup. He still enjoyed his coconut lime cheesecake though. :-)

can you believe they charge $18.99 a pound for these m&ms?! The most ridiculous part? There were hundreds of people buying them!!!

dressing up at grandma's house. These are my grandmas old glasses and some antique costume jewelry.

a sweet valor jump suit from Phil's parents.

Thanksgiving with her favorite cousin Evie.

Conference Center

The tabernacle was even more amazing then I remembered. The organ concert was also phenomenal.

top of the Joseph Smith building

Halloween

Halloween lived up to all of my expectations. Livi loved her costume and was so excited to put it on. I couldn't believe that she actually left the hat on the whole time. We went "trunk or treating" at the church Saturday night and got loaded up with goodies. Then Sunday we hit up a street a few blocks away that a friend lives on. We knocked a couple of doors there and quickly decided to go somewhere else. There were a bazilion people who all thought they would park their cars and trick or treat that street as well and it was way too chaotic. So we found another street a few blocks away with equally impressive houses and hardly a soul trick or treating, we hit the jackpot. Just about every door we knocked on would give us fistfuls of candy because it was getting late and there were so few trick or treaters. Maybe everyone decided to pull a Utah and not trick or treat on Sunday, but I'm thinking there are just too many streets with massive houses to choose from and we got lucky enough to choose an empty one. Speaking of Utah...can I just say I literally felt like I was in the twilight zone Friday and Saturday? All of these facebook status' were saying, "can't wait to go trick or treating on Saturday!" or "getting our costumes on to go trick or treating!" Something along those lines, and I was seriously confused. I actually googled "when is Halloween 2010" because I thought I must have been mistaken. Halloween was Sunday right? I called my mom and she clarified for me that everyone was celebrating on Saturday. I'm still slightly baffled. How did everyone know to go trick or treating on Saturday? What if someone isn't LDS? Did they go on Sunday? I think it's great that it worked out that way, but I would LOVE it if someone could tell me how that was pulled off.

Anyway, we had a fabulous time and Livi even began to say "trick or treat" by the time we left! I can't wait for next year!

My camera died after the trunk or treat on Saturday so all of the pictures of our "stash" are on Phil's camera.

I LOVE Halloween!

I really don't remember the last time I was this excited for Halloween. Maybe it's because I haven't been trick or treating in I don't know how many years, or the fact that Livi is old enough to get excited about it, but I am seriously counting the hours until Sunday night when we take Livi trick or treating. The candy. Oh sweet candy. There are some seriously wealthy neighborhoods around us and we could potentially make out like bandits. I really should lay off of the sweets, given that I had gained 7 pounds at my last dr. appointment, but it only comes once a year!

I love that Livi is able/wants to participate in activities this year. It makes it so much more fun. She was really excited about carving a pumpkin and even more excited to make caramel apples. So the other night we did both of those things. We rolled the apples in crushed butterfingers and they were pretty dang tasty. We carved the pumpkin that we picked out at the pumpkin patch, and I accidentally started carving over the 2 that was written on it. So if you're wondering what that black streak is in between the pumpkins face, it cost $2.

24 weeks!

She didn't want me to take anymore pictures of her. See what I mean about hardly ever wearing pants Tiffany? :-)

Utlrasound #2

I had to go back and get another ultrasound because they weren't able to get a full shot of his spine the first time. Luckily, this time they were able to get all of the pictures they needed. I'm really glad I got to get some more pictures! The first set of pictures weren't very good, you couldn't really tell what anything was. These ones, I think, are pretty easy to read though. These are both profile shots with his arm and fist above his head. The bottom picture is Jack with his mouth open. The arrow is pointing to his lower lip/chin. I'm not sure why his mouth looks so ginormous, and a quite scary. It was really cool to see him open and close his mouth during the ultrasound. We're getting SO excited to meet him! I can't believe I still have three whole months! It's killing me.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend Livi and I headed over to a pumpkin patch. It's actually a non profit organization that gives horse riding lessons to children with special needs. In October they also make it a pumpkin patch, and petting zoo. They take you on a tractor pulled hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where there were lots of adorable miniature horses, there was a little bunny, some chicks and chickens, goats, and baby calves. Of all of these wonderful things to choose from, Livi enjoyed the little house that was on the property the most. On the tractor ride back to the car she turned to me and said, "that was so much fun mommy!"

I also must note a break through. She has always had a hard time when we drop her off at nursery. She'll cry for a minute, but the teacher says she always calms down as soon as we walk away. This past Sunday after sacrament meeting as we were walking to nursery she turned to me and said, "I'm so excited mommy! You so excited mommy?" Then she walked right in, gave me a hug and kiss and said bye. That is SO much easier then walking away to her begging me to stay!

cutest little horses. You can actually pay a measly $3 bucks and ride one, but Livi was not quite ready for that.

The house that I couldn't get her to leave.

Out and About

This semester has been pretty crazy for Phil. He basically works, studies, eats and sleeps. That means that Livi and I have a lot of time on our hands. I've been trying to take her to do fun things, not only for her benefit, but to keep myself busy as well. Luckily, now that we live so close to downtown there is never a shortage of fun activities. The other weekend all of the museums in Houston were free for a day. We took the opportunity to go to the Children's Museum, where Livi was absolutely in heaven. It was beyond packed, but it was still really fun. Then last weekend we went to the zoo. We ended up getting a year long membership because it was so cheap, and it's a perfect place to go and walk around now that it's cooled down. We packed a lunch and walked around for a few hours then sat by the duck pond and had a nice lunch. It was seriously wonderful. The only thing that could have made it better was if Phil had been there. Even though it really stinks that Phil rarely has time to do fun things with us (but I'm so grateful he is such a hard worker), I'm also so grateful that I've had so much time with Livi. She is the best little girl anyone could ask for!

she played with this door forever. She would lock it, unlock it, open it, laugh at herself in the mirror and do it all over again.

her second favorite activity. I think I need to buy this girl a tea set.

Enjoying a popsicle on the way to the car.

She won't go anywhere without sunglasses. Seriously

this amazing little tunnel at the zoo.