yep yep yep

So I am officially 18 weeks today! All my books say that makes me 5 months. I will go with that 

I was trying to look it up online and came across this awesome opinion:

I made the mistake during my first pregnancy of trying to guess how many “months along” I was. It seems simple, right? Nine months in a pregnancy.
But not everyone thinks that way. Some say ten. Some say nine. Some, like me, say too many.
Go to any pregnancy website or message board and there will be twenty women with twenty different responses to how far along you are.
You are four months, no wait, five. Well, actually, four and a half, unless you’re going by the Ancient Mayan Calendar, which then, you’re really in your fifth year. Also, it turns out that you’re carrying an elephant. Congrats!
The problem lies in the fact that not every month is four weeks long. Some people, like me, don’t really care about that fact and just “round up” to the next month along once you hit four weeks.

ANYWAY 18 weeks it is. I started to post some belly pics and changed my mind :)  I also did an entire post about our trip last weekend and decided against that also. hmmm. I am so odd. 

So here is my question of the day....... we are going to find out the sex of our baby on thursday the 5th!! is our baby a boy or girl? 

ANY GUESSES???

question

What should one do when smacked in the face by what seems like the most horrific adversity to grace your presence in a long time?

I will tell you what I am doing. 

Keeping my head up.  (except when I pray :))

Keeping my spirits up

Thinking positive

Being grateful

Crying if I need but make sure I throw a smile in from time to time

and just reminding myself: this too shall pass. I don't remember who told me this but I always remember it: when faced with something bad ask yourself, will this matter in 5 years? 

and I say NOPE

anyway. all will be well and we are safe from our trip and as usual I have pictures to post as well. for now, I am off to get ready for class.

have a lovely day oh and SMILE!

Finally!!

Friday is finally here! We are out of here as soon as Daniel gets off work, which was supposed to be at 2. But now he says he may get off real soon. Its 10 am how soon is soon?? sweet. We are so ready for this weekend. Daniel, Ireland and myself are so looking forward to this mini vacation. I just want to get out of Utah. We work hard, now its time to play!!

Less than 2 weeks until we find out what the baby is!! I am so stoked. I can't figure it out, I have no certain feelings that lean either way of what the sex of the baby is. We worry this may be our last baby :(  so we want a boy so we can have one of each. But we want a girl so ireland can have a sister. BUT its not our decision really is it?? :)  so excited. 

oh and to my sweet friend Kathy: I am SO happy for you! thanks for showing me the pics. What an angel you have on the way!! So tiny and perfect. makes me want to cry. 

can you tell its a good day? can you feel it? I am just smiling too much already. what a beautiful morning! Alright well I will have tons of pics when we get back. byyyyye!

Chaos. but I love it

I am in a crummy mood. Just had a root canal this morning- which to some would be no big deal, but I am terrified of the dentists office and do not deal well with pain. So That is my grumpy mood. I am so excited for this vacation on Friday! Although I am not sure how the 8 hour each way- car ride will go with a toddler...... we'll see!! 

Anyway, wow that was not even the reason for this post. The reason is.... we all know I watch kids and I have posted some of the messes and some of the fun. So here is just a tiny few of my favorite things that have happened to my home. (most of which was my own fault) :)

I promise there is not a billion pics! :)

Ireland loves to pull out anything and everything. well she IS one!
I will stand in it, then sit in it!

This is one of the many forts I have made. laugh if you must, the kids love it and I have zero club making skills. (check out the hair clips helping out ha ha ha ha)

One of Irelands faves. Dumping out the already un organized toy pile. In her pig jammies of course! can you see the tail??

Thanks for the idea kel! Parker and I decorated my yard. just food coloring+water= a super colorful snow-filled yard!

the one of hundreds (it seems anyway) chalk drawings in my driveway. click the picture to see more detail. the majority of the driveway is MY "artwork"  Parkers artwork is ON the house, the wall, the stairs and sidewalk. 
 That is just a few of our adventures. Now you can see why PATIENCE was #1 on my new years resolutions. 

have a lovely day

because they grow.....

I was looking back through my blog, clear back from the beginning. There were so many wonderful memories. And a TON of pictures, of course. but I do not take back any of them. I have said a few times how I use this blog to keep track of Irelands growth and things in our life. I was part happy and part sad to see my baby getting so big. I saw her trying to crawl and get teeth and walk, everything. It made my night!! 

My last few blog posts were kind of reflecting bad or silly things that have happened, but I want to go back and add more Ireland pictures to continue why I started this thing. 

I have made a small list of some of her favorite things.

Ireland LOVES watching Elmo. 

loves her friend Addison

loves dolls and patting their backs. She will be an awesome big sister!!

Loves dancing! Especially through  the reflection of our tv!

I could have cried. I had been working on this puzzle my sis gave me for Christmas. I was looking up something online for my sister just on my phone on the couch just feet away from THIS. How did I forget to push in the chair??? how did I not watch my kid??? ha ha ha ha. how sad. I actually was pretty far into it. :)  daniel tried to get her down. I was like NO I NEED PICTURES!!!! ha ha. good times

Loves going for walks. loves loves loves them!

Not sure why, but this reminds me of you Leilia!! ha ha she loves my beanie and puts it on and poses for pictures. 

loves smiling.   As I looked back through my blog, it is rare she isn't smiling for a picture. She is such a smiley happy kid. And she has a personality that always shines through

loves playing on daddy's computer. (he just unplugs the keyboard and she goes nuts!)

last but not least, playing in the mirror. She loves mirrors. check out the leg. ha ha. so adorable

WOOHOO

So, I am beyond excited!! my morning sickness is officially gone! I am truly grateful it did not last even HALF  as long as it did with Ireland. phew!! 

some more happy news: 

*I can feel the baby move! every day now. MUCH sooner than I felt Ireland

* we are going on vacation in 9 days

*its my good friend laura's birthday!! 

*I have my energy back and I am so happy and loving every minute of life. yippee :)  

have a wonderful day

Talking is for wimps

just kidding. But seriously. :) Daniel and I have officially started our sign language class tonight! its twice a week for 9 weeks....

We have always been into teaching Ireland signs. She caught on very very fast and can sign so many things, which is wonderful because instead of crying or whining she can just sign anything from banana to outside to go to sleep. It is wonderful. 

We are taking the class with daniel's mum and had fun tonight. Our teacher is hard of hearing and her boss who helped is deaf so you have to pay close attention to get it. So worth it. I highly recommend it to anyone. We started  signing to Ireland when she was a newborn just so she would see them and she knew almost every sign (that we knew) by 11 months. anyway, this probably was a super boring post, but I am only  here to entertain ME :) :) :)

have a lovely evening

I am not sorry that you don't understand.

Here is my vent. For the moment :)  people that just do not understand a simple voicemail message. Its really not so hard. Let me explain. I will NOT answer my phone if I do not know who it is unless I am expecting a call and  I just hope its them.

 I get some weird calls and I just don't like to talk to people I don't know :)   Anyway, if they leave a message that is rude, I will not call them back. Why would I want to? I am sure its not really a big deal but they don't have to be rude! Here is the most annoying: "Mandi, this is Darlene, you WILL return my phone call today by 5!"  I was on vacation and my message for my voicemail said so. I said I was out of town for a week and would return all phone calls on:  and I left the date. So how did she think I would call her back?

It got to the point where my message now says "leave your name and number. IF YOU ARE CALLING FROM A BUSINESS, TELL ME THE NAME OF THE BUSINESS IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO CALL YOU BACK."  No one gets that. they will be like hi this is Jim call me at ...... who are you Jim? so I erase it. That Darlene chick calls once a week. I am sorry but if you won't tell me why you are calling or your company I won't call you back. ESPECIALLY IF YOU DEMAND THAT I DO!!! nah. I'm good. :)

Ok I'm done. For now. 

have a lovely day

Are you kidding me?!

I swear only weird slash bad slash ridiculous things happen to me. This one is so random and dumb its actually funny. 

On Monday (or tuesday, I can't remember) my sister and her friend came over to watch a movie. It was so funny and we were having a good time. We pause the movie so Daniel and I could go put ireland to bed. We were in the middle of singing to her when the power went out. Ok, fine. we just kind of hung out waiting. The girls joined us in the room. we laughed and played and put Ireland to bed. we called the power company to find out a duck had flown into the power lines and burned the wires. it would be a while.... sigh. after so long the girls headed home. We would continue the movie another night. 

So with new years and all we FINALLY got together last night (friday) 

The girls say they are on their way. As I am waiting the power flickers. A few minutes later it flickers again. I told daniel, I would die if it went out when the girls are almost here! I go upstairs to tell my mother in law the power outage story and she said the power transformer up the street blew up. they saw blue light that filled all the windows and thats why it flickered. my father in law called 911 and within minutes the fire trucks and all were there fixing it. 

ANYWAY the girls come I tell them the story and we laugh at how BAD that would suck if it happened again. So...we are watching the movie. We actually started it ALL OVER so Daniel could watch it. Once again we stop to put Ireland to bed. I keep joking with the girls that the power will go out. Probably said it enough times to annoy them :)  

We are enjoying the movie, laughing our butts off and........................ THE POWER GOES OUT!!!!! I am not kidding. HOURS after the initial flicker. We are in shock. we play in the dark, laughing and being silly we decide to call the power company at midnight. Apparently when the transformer blew up it was from the other power company and their pole landed on our pole and hours later MAY have been the reason it went out. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! lol lol lol

this is too funny. What a joke. The girls visited then ended up going home around 2 because they (the power company) said it could still be 3 more hours. sigh. Guess the movie is cursed. :) :)

Mandi the Grouch

Hmmm. So, Christmas is over, it has been stress free and happy and wonderful. It all was bound to hit me sooner or later (the hormones I mean) Not sure what happened today. I just got a quick attitude and has lasted too many hours. Ever feel like that? where you are so sad and/or mad and you may know why or like me, don't really have a clue.

 I am starting to feel better and Daniel and I have spent hours taking down christmas and cleaning every inch of the living room/kitchen. Sure you could say all that cleaning is what got me upset. Actually that's probably it. I could have been just as content sitting on my butt watching court shows on tv and pigging out. LOL. that does sound funner than cleaning. Anyway my house looks and smells and feels clean, wonderful and when Ireland wakes up she will look around smiling proud at momma for working so hard. OR not even notice and go straight for the toys. either way I will feel better. maybe

Anyway there is this show "Follow That Bird" that we grew up to and love it and every single one of us including my parents know every word. There is this song sang by oscar the grouch at the beginning. my sister and I laugh to this day (yes we still watch it ) while we hear it. But it is how I feel today. Been my anthem for the whole day. so I have put it on here for you to enjoy. Have a lovely day

ps you will need to mute my music to the right side of my blog