February 2011

(left) our annual Valentine's dinner

(below) Suse and Nats on their way to gymnastics



This month, our main events were Tugs's 8th birthday and packing up our house and moving! We started out with a great 8 year-old birthday, where Lu had requested the American Girl, Ruthie, for her present. So,

she now has her two dolls, which is our limit. As much as we love those dolls, you can only play with so many of them :). It was a busy night on her birthday with Zelle's orchestra concert and Abby's indoor soccer practice. We had to squeeze the celebration in quick and early. I think birthdays will become more and more this way around here! Zelle is loving strings this year, and while I couldn't go to the concert, I heard it was fantastic. You could see that Zelle was feelin' it afterwards. It's a pretty amazing strings program, and she says she definitely wants to keep going in viola, so that's been a great experience. The next day, Lu had a little party after school at a little gelato cafe. So, each of the girls got to order gelato and then an art teacher came and gave them an art lesson, and they got to do a few projects. It was a really fun and easy birthday party, and lucky Lu had 2 cousins there - Claire and Emma!

The remainder of the month was mostly a packing, moving blur. I was feeling OK about our packing efforts, but Bec and some other nice ward people came the last week before the move and really helped ramp up our efforts. I didn't think I'd needed it, but it was actually a lifesaver! Moving is such a big job, and I'm sooo glad it's over. On move day, we had kids over at Leah's, Mom helping put things away to survive the first couple of days - like TP, paper plates, towels, etc., Bec taking girls to a movie, and we are so thankful! It took a village to move us and we are forever grateful. The movers were quick and mostly good - we've noticed a few botches since, but were overall good. I think we had a crew of 8 or so movers, and not a ton of furniture to move, so that helped. We were in the house and unloaded by 4 that afternoon, and a nice family from our new neighborhood brought dinner to us that night.

For the next week or so, I was obsessed with unpacking and settling in. I think it's natural anyway, but combined with the nesting instinct that takes over at the end of pregnancy, it was pretty intense. We've had a few heating/cooling bugs to work out, a smashed pipe that had to be replaced on the water main, some nasty flies in Suse's room (we're talking lots of them), and a few other things, but all in all we're pretty settled. I'm glad we've had the time that we have before the baby comes to work through these little bumps.

The girls are now on the 2nd week of their spring break, and are in St. George for a few days with Grandma and Grandpa Harris. It's been great to break it up for them, since I can't go and do the things I normally would with them, plus it's allowed us to get to the next level of putting away and organizing, which is always nice. We even have our garage and storage closets mostly done! So, next week, I know Mark is taking them skiing one day, and we're hoping to get together with cousins, but other than that, they'll just be enjoying free time at their new house.

I'm really excited to be nearing the end of bed rest. I'm up way more than I was at first, and am admittedly not lying down as much as I maybe should be, but I don't think I can do it anymore. I'm still careful and am mostly sitting, and make sure to lie down a few times a day, but I just have to do a few more things and so far, so good. I'm thrilled to be past 34 weeks now, and have scheduled my c-section for March 22. So, this baby's b-day will be 3/22/11, which is kinda cool...I feel really anxious when I think about the reality of another c-section and the delivery, but for now it's still far enough away that I can just push it to the back of my mind. There's always something about knowing the reality of something you've already done that is way different from when you've never done it. We are all healthy, happy and grateful, though, and send our love to all of you!