3 years for Blake

Poor Blake... once a harvest baby, always a harvest birthday, which just happens to be the busiest time of year for our little family. Blake turned the big 3 on October 14th and we found a few spare moments to celebrate his day. Blake played with Grandma VO while I worked in the morning and then we headed home to bake a birthday cake and wait for Doug to get home from school. We had birthday dinner at McDonalds and then headed out to Grandma and Grandpas for a birthday party. Blake wanted a "pumpkin frosting cake" and thats we had. We lit 3 candles and when we started singing, he got up and started dancing. This kid always cracks me up! We opened presents and enjoyed cake and ice cream with all his Grandparents and some of his aunts and uncles that live close. Thanks to all of them for celebrating with us! He got a few clothes, puzzles, toys, a game and as always, he was spoiled like crazy. I lost the pictures of him blowing out candles so i'll have to track some down from Sheila and post them later, but here's one of him enjoying his happy meal. :)

I thought I would post just a few things we love about this little boy and his latest habits and favorite acitivites.

Blake loves animals and can't wait to be a Tiger for Halloween. He wears his costume every day and loved pretending to scare us as a tiger, lion, or t-rex.

He is learning to count objects and counts anything he can, from smarties to his fingers, and anything else. Puzzles are his latest favorite activity and his mechanical skills are always being challenged with getting the pieces all in the right spot.

Blake loves being my helper and is great to help with his simple chores like putting his own dishes in the sink, putting things in the garbage for me, or putting his own clothes away in his dresser.

His vocabulary seems to grow every day and my latest favorites are: seriously, actually, ingredients, and when he says that something is "freaking me out." He never ceases to make Doug and I laugh and we are so glad that harvest is over so that we can enjoy a little more one on one time with him. He is so grown up and we can hardly believe we have a 3 year old. We love you Blake, and are so glad you are in our family!

October Update

Thought i'd give you all a quick update on things. Harvest is still in full swing, with all the potatoes out of the ground, we've moved on to sugar beets. We're hoping to be finished around the 26th, only a couple weeks to go.


Doug is staying very busy his classes and his new calling, and has been trying to fit in a few hours on the farm here and there as well. Blake is getting so big and is so stubborn. His latest hobby is arguing with everything we say, i love it! Haha! Today is his Birthday, and we're getting ready for a party with family later tonight. (I'll post more on his birthday another time.)



As for me, still driving truck and starting to feel like a whale! 5 1/2 weeks to go and i'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I went to the dr. last week and here's my stats, along with a belly shot. Enjoy! Dr. says i'm boring (i guess thats a good thing, right) and wants to see me back at 36 weeks.


34 Weeks
Belly measures: 33 cm
Total Weight Gain: 15 pounds

Some call it harvest, we call it chaos...

Thats right... harvest is in full swing, and that means our lives have been turned upside down and anything relatively close to our "normal lives" has been tossed out the window! I'm driving truck again this year and am enjoying being a small part of the whole harvest operation. Blake gets dragged out of bed very early every day and gets to go play with one of his grandmas. Could life get any better for a 2 year old? I hop in the truck, drive all day, and sometimes I get a glimpse of Doug while I'm unloading at the cellar. Doug jumps back and forth between school and work, as he's in class 2 mornings and 2 afternoons a week. We eat out of coolers, and when we're home we switch laundry, and thats our choatic life, only 5 weeks to go!

As for other news, Doug was set apart in a new calling last sunday. He has been called as the new Elder's quorum president of our ward. We were both totally overwhelmed by the calling, but know he'll be able to accomplish what needs to be done with the help of our Heavenly Father.

I also had my 7 month check up last week. Here's my stats from the visit:

31 Weeks/ 7 months

Stomach Measures: 30 cm

Total weight gain: 12 lbs.

Heartbeat sounds good and Dr. says baby is head down and should stay there from here on out. Before we left, he told Blake and I not to forget to go get some ice cream, and said he wants me back in 3 weeks. Here's a belly shot, we took yesterday after church, 31 weeks!

Kinda Sorta, Not So Terrible 2's

Blake must have known that I was extremely frustrated with him. After lunch, I told him to go downstairs and put himself down for a nap. For the first time today, he actually listed to me... he turned and headed for the stairs and its been silent for the last hour and a half! He has redeemed himself! And for that, I have to post just a few of my recent favorites about this 2 year old...

1. His favorite movie is Narnia: the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. Not even kidding.

2. He will eat raisin bran or oatmeal over captain crunch any morning.

3. He can turn anything into a sword: most often its the vacuum extension.

4. When telling stories, he speaks in run on sentences that include every detail he can remember.

I can't believe the 2's are coming to the end, but he's so ready to be 3! I think the potty training has boosted his self esteem. He tells me all the time that he's a big boy, I just don't want to believe it...

6 down, 3 to go...

I had a check-up yesterday to end my 2nd trimester, which means we have exactly 3 months/1 trimester/ 13 weeks/ 92 days to go.... but who's counting right?

27 weeks/6 months

Stomach Measures: 26 cm (up 5 cm in 4 weeks)

Total Weight Gain: 7 lbs.

Dr. says everything looks great from the ultrasound we had a few weeks ago. Says baby is average size and my belly is growing nicely. I'll see him again in 4 weeks. Here's a few pics from the ultrasound we had a while back. I just bought some of the fabric for the crib set yesterday and I need to pick up a little today and i'll be set to get sewing. Pictures to come when it's finished!

On another note, I've been trying to help mom get Grandpa Tyler's house ready for him to come home from the hospital next Monday. We been working on wiping walls, cleaning carpets and today we'll pick up the new beds and get them set up and ready. We saw him yesterday and he looked great and was taking a stroll with his walker. He still has a long recovery ahead of him, but he's making great progress from his broken femur/hip replacement injury and surgery.

Doug has been busy on the farm the last few weeks cutting grain like crazy. They finished last night and he said they were the first to finish. He starts school next tuesday and things will get totally crazy when we start digging spuds in less than 3 weeks!

Potty Training

Warning: This post may have too much information for some. Read at your own risk.... haha!

I'm afraid to say it outloud for fear that lightning will strike and all will be reversed but, BLAKE IS POTTY TRAINED! Wahoo! I blocked out my schedule for 2 weeks, hardly going anywhere so we could potty train. Our method...

Week 1: Blake ran around either totally naked or just in undies for most of the week. I confined him to the kitchen, living room and bathroom so we wouldn't have to deal with accidents on the carpet. I put him in diapers for naps and bedtime and we had a handful of accidents, but he was catching on. At the beginning of the week we switched the reward for going potty from 2 mike and ike candies to doing the potty dance. Every time he went, we would do the potty dance (simply Blake and I sing the word potty over and over and dancing all crazy :) ) Worked great! I still put him in a diaper for church though, and when we went to walmart....

Week 2: Since Blake did awesome the first week, I got him dressed in sweats and he could play anywhere upstairs. He wanted to wear undies for naptime and he stayed dry the week before during naptime, so I let him. Diapers were only for bedtime. He was in a diaper all day Tueday while we went school shopping with Curtis, but besides that, he was in undies all week and only had 2 accidents! By Sunday we had been to Walmart, Keslers, Hong Kong, Church and both Grandma's houses without any accidents. He is still in diapers at night, although the last 3 nights he has woken up totally dry in the morning. If this continues for the rest of the week, i'll probably let him wear undies to bed- he wants to so bad!

Thank heavens for cool dinosaur undies and the potty dance (got that idea from babycenter.com by the way)! We made it! Now let's just hope he doesn't regress when baby #2 shows up.... hmmm.....

Speaking of number 2, here's a belly shot from yesterday after church, 26 weeks/6 months along. Blake and Doug set up the crib on Satrday night while I was helping in the kitchen at a wedding for my newest step-cousin Melissa. Things are slowly starting to come together for the baby. Crib, dresser and clothes are ready to go. Still need to sew the crib set and get a few wall hangings done for his room. We're starting to dig spuds in less than 4 weeks, so the clock is ticking... I go back to the Dr. again on Thursday, so i'll have an update on the baby later this week!

Baby Update 23 Weeks

I went to my 5 month check up this morning and thought i ought to update everyone of the little soccer player inside of me....

23 Weeks/5 months
Stomach Measures: 21 cm
Total Weight Gain: 4 pounds
Complaints: Heartburn, heatburn, heartburn...
Concerns: "I'm okay to go tanning, right?"

Doc says everything appears normal, and we scheduled the big ultrasound at the hospital for Monday. I'm excited to have another look, hopefully we can get a good picture or two this time. Its so weird to have so many ultrasounds, I only have two with Blake and this will be the fourth with this pregnancy. I guess all Dr.'s do things differently, and I don't mind taking a look at him again and again. Here's a few approximations from my favorite website, babycenter.com.

Height/Length: 11 inches
Weight: around 1 pound
They also say that he can hear loud noises (louder than my heart beat) and his lungs are developing, preparing to breathe on their own. I only feel him kick first thing in the morning and then again when i settle down at night. I assume i'm just too active during the day to notice. I don't feel "active" but i'm always ready to crash with Blake with he goes down for an afternoon nap. Let's just say i'm enjoying the peace and quiet before it disappears in a few months! :)

I'd post a belly shot, but i'd really rather wait until I look like I have a cantalope under my shirt. Right now it just looks like i have a bunch on butter attached to my front :( Hope you enjoy the update. If we get some good pics on Monday, i'll post them next week!