Hello, How Are Ya?!

^^^The blurry result of trying to take a family selfie with a DSLR. Nicole was confused.

Well hello there, September! I love September because it means that my favorite month is up next. Eeeee, October! But that's a whole month away, and the first official day of fall is still 3 weeks away, so instead of obsessing over fall-related things let's use this first day of a new month to do a little "How are ya?" post! Just a quick update on each member of the family.

DOUG

Did I ever mention on here that Doug's whole company received notice of termination back in May? Yeah. That happened. And right after we'd purchased a house, of course.

Fortunately, he was able to land a great job fairly quickly. He started his new job at the beginning of August and loves it! We all love it! It's a less-than-10-minute drive away (so he can come home at lunch! And no rush hour traffic to worry about!), has a better salary, some great benefits, even paternity leave! If you ask us, losing his job was a blessing in disguise.

Aside from settling into his new job, Doug is looking forward to playing in the Orem Ultimate Frisbee League this season and is *almost* as excited as I am about fall. Almost. :P We've also both agreed that we need to watch more BYU football this year. I'm in such a nostalgic mood right now and miss my alma mater a lot. Doug is still reveling in the fact that he never has to do homework ever again and hasn't reached the point where he misses campus yet ;) You'll get there, Doug. I think.

ASHLEY

I feel like my previous post was a pretty good update of myself since my life centers around pregnancy these days, so I'll just share some random things instead.

If you didn't catch on yet, I'm very excited for fall. While we're on the topic, imagine how surprised and ecstatic I was when I walked out my front door 2 days ago and noticed some very familiar orange flowers blooming on a big-leafed plant growing right by our front door. Yeeeep, we have a pumpkin plant growing in our front yard! I'm guessing that the previous owners planted it... the plants by our front door/windows are all annual/perennial plants that they planted, and so I never know what's going to pop up.

It's almost as if that little pumpkin plant was saying "Hey! Guess what? Fall is nearly here, and now you get your own pumpkin plant! Surprise!" I think they're just miniature or pie pumpkins because they're not very big yet (about the size of my clenched fist) and I hope they mature before it gets cold... we'll see!

I made my favorite 5-ingredient stovetop fudge this week and it gave me heartburn. It was an ah-ha moment for me: I ate this stuff all the time during the end of my last pregnancy, and I had heartburn almost daily. Now I'm suspecting that this fudge was one of the main culprits. I never connected the dots before because who would suspect chocolate peanut butter fudge of causing heartburn?! So... as sad as it is... no more of my favorite fast sweet treat for the next several weeks. I can handle it since there are yummy fall treats I can eat instead! Besides, that fudge was NOT Trim Healthy Mama material. Ooops.

NICOLE

If you were to follow this happy toddler around for a while, you would very likely hear her say one of her favorite phrases, such as: "No, mine!" or "Two...One...Two...One...Blassooooff!" (blastoff) which we can thank Little Einsteins for. If you ask her what her name is, she'll say 'Bole. (That's pretty close to Nicole, right? Ha!) She's also starting to "parrot" what we say - she'll hear us say a word or short phrase and immediately repeat it, even if she doesn't know what it means. Cute, but potentially dangerous! Good thing we don't cuss ;)

Her favorite book is an Usborne lift-the-flap book that we can spend 15 minutes straight looking at because she points at every.single.thing. and asks "Wha dis? An' dis? An' dis?" although often she stops asking and just points while I say the name of the object. We also read the following books at least once a day: The Gingerbread Man, On The Night You Were Born, and a giant search-and-find book that's half as tall as she is.

She tried some seaweed at Costco today and loved it. Yep, seaweed. When she wants me to come play with her or get something for her, she'll take my hand and pull. Going on walks is one of her very favorite activities, and she says "Woooooow! Dere ih is!" (there it is) whenever she sees something interesting or sees a building she recognizes, such as the Provo Rec Center or Costco. When it's time to fold her arms to say a prayer, she tucks her hands into her armpits, bows her head, and sits there looking like a sleeping chicken.

Oh man, we love her. I've inadvertently started this tradition: once we do her bedtime ritual and say her prayer, I cradle her like a baby and ask her what her favorite parts of the day were. It's one of the only times she'll let me hold her like that, and it almost always ends with a tickle war, which I shouldn't do because it gets her a little hyper, but she loves it. It amazes me how there's so much personality in such a tiny body.

^^^I try to snuggle her and she just makes faces because she's a goofy goober. Basically. :D

BABY BOY

He hasn't been born yet, but he already has some personality quirks and preferences. For one thing, he doesn't wedge himself up in my rib cage like Nicole used to. He prefers to press his little bum and limbs outward against my belly instead of upwards to get comfy. On two different occasions I was able to feel a little foot (or maybe it was a hand?) when I went to poke at him. He quickly moved the foot away when I poked it, but I could totally tell that it was an appendage of some sort. He just doesn't like having his foot touched I guess, which is exactly how Nicole is. They're definitely siblings ;)

He still gets a ridiculous number of hiccups, is VERY active (I got nervous a lot with Nicole because I would go a couple hours without feeling movement... I never worry about this kid because he moves a LOT), and he really seems to enjoy ice cream. Me too, baby boy. Me too.

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That's the gist of things! I could write a long novel of a post about all of Nicole's little quirks and habits, but I chose my favorites. She really is such a joy to have as part of our family. From her daily piano recitals, to taking every opportunity she can to sneak into the master bathroom to weigh herself, steal Doug's toothpaste and floss, or climb in the shower to mess with our shampoo... she's so fun. I'm excited to add another little ball of personality to the mix.