Finished in 4

I started on Eli's quilt Tuesday night, by cutting the fabric into squares. Thursday I sewed it all together, I had lots of time due to Ruby's friend visiting for a few hours and then the girls wanted to color while I sewed. It was most convenient. Thurs. Fri, and Saturday morning brought Eli's quilt to a concusion, it left me with sore fingers after snipping all of the seams. It ended with a trip to the washing machine. So glad to have it crossed off my list of things to do. Jed picked the fabric, which I love. He has a better eye for these type of things.





Jed also got the crib moved out of Emma's room and into Eli's, with only a few blemishes to the wall later. :) Now it just needs to be put back together.

Emma has been most interested in getting into Jed's "comfy" drawer and putting ensembles together. It is so funny to me how tiny she looks in them, we had a good laugh when I showed them to Jed.


Ruby made homemade Valentines for her school class this year. It was a fun project along with having a few of the dum-dums while we were putting them together. If you can't tell, they are little owls that say "I'll owl-ways be your friend!"


Saturday we did some much needed shopping for work pants for Jed (which he insisted he didn't need even though he had to be careful how he sat so no one would have to avert their eyes if the very large hole in bummel area made an appearance.) We also got to shop for Eli. It was glorious and Jed had to approve all of the selections. We pretty much cleaned out the baby boy section at Costco, because a)they were so cute and b) they were extremely reasonable. Good combination.

We also made Valentines a family affair this year since Jed's birthday is the week after and we are too cheap to celebrate both holidays. We ended our shopping extravaganza with a trip to McDonald's for ice-cream . I of course got to have a few extra treats since I opted out dinner at Costco, because I knew there was the possibility of a Mcdouble being on the horizon. Oh how I adore them. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their treat and playing in the play place. It was perfect, it gave Jed and I little while to talk while the girls played.

32 weeks and other joys

Yesterday I had my 32 week appointment even though I am 31 1/2 weeks. I get so excited for appointments and then they are over within 5 minutes, and then it feels like forever until I have another one. Now I am down to my every 2 week appointments and then at 36 weeks I will be to once a week. Which I love. I am measuring at 34 weeks, Eli's heartbeat was 145 and I have now put on 30 lbs. I am embarrassed to admit but for the purposes of remembering, I am sure I will want to know what I weighed at this point in my pregnancy for at a later date. I am now in the marshmallow stage which will soon be followed by the "puffed up like a toad stage."



We ventured out to the park one day last week, lets just say we were under dressed and freezing after being there for about 15-20 minutes. I think the girls enjoyed the time outside and getting to play.



The girls got a new do on Saturday. I love the way it looks on both of them, and it is such a breeze since all I have to do is round brush while I blow dry it. They both look so cute.




Ruby has been making friends as I mentioned earlier. It is such a fun thing for her and I think she is really enjoying this new stage. As I am writing this she is over at Hannah's house, they are in the same Primary class. Last week when we had Julianna over the girls dawned on dress ups and took the liberty of borrowing the camera. It was quite the surprise when I found these little beauties as I was emptying the memory card.



I felt a smidge guilty this morning when we woke up and realized that it was 8:26. Nine minutes before we were suposed to be out the door on our way to preschool. We NEVER sleep in like this. I was up late cutting fabric for Eli's quilt, so that is my excuse. I remember Jed saying goodbye and both of the girls being in bed with me. When we awoke, to Emma saying "Oh NO!" because Jed forgot his phone, I picked it up and looked at the time and realized there was no way we would make it. So we played hooky today, it was actually quite fun.

Every evening while dinner is cooking, I revel in being able to cuddle with my girls during t.v. time. 1) they are really fun to cuddle with and 2) by this time of the day the dogs are barking. I really find joy in these simple times with my girls. And at the end of the movie they always entertain me with their great dancing while the credits are playing.

Rediculously late

If you recall, I said I would post a picture of Eli's ultrasound about 11 weeks ago. It never happened and I just saw it in our photo folder on our computer so I figured better late than never.


Jed picked out the fabric for Eli's rag quilt. I love it, he did a good job. Hopefully I will have it done in the next two weeks or less.

I am getting there

This weekend we had a lot of fun, my nephew Brody had his 1st birthday and we had a ton of fun playing games. I think one of my most favorites was the baby picture game. It was so funny to see, how into it all of the Romig relatives got into it. Jed would hold 3 or 4 in his hand like he was playing cards and then write names down. It was so fun. Lots of laughs. And the cake, oh the cake. The girls had such a good time and loved seeing the cousins. I am sure it was difficult for Sarah to get good pictures due to all of the cousins crowding around Brody to see what he was opening.

I feel like I am doing some early nesting. More or less I know there are things I want done and organized and that I better get it done before Eli makes his appearance. I did laundry, dishes, tore into storage room and threw out all of the excess boxes and items that we didn't need,organized all of the books onto the bookshelf we got from Grandma Ruth, and did some organizing in our closet. After I was done. I was ready to go to sleep and my back was hurting. But it felt good to get a few things done.

We also took a walk to City Hall to pay our utility bill. Jed got Ruby's bike put together from her birthday, and we put Emma on her tricycle and made the attempt. It took a very long time. After we got about 1/2 a mile Emma didn't want to ride her tricycle anymore and Ruby was frustrated. So Jed put Emma on his shoulders and ran the rest of the way, while I carried Emma's tricycle home and encouraged Ruby the rest of the way home. It took Jed quite a while to get back due to Emma falling and bonking her head on the sidewalk and needing to be cradled the rest of the way home. She fell asleep in his arms though. Note to self: City Hall is a lot further away than it seems.

We had someone come to give us an estimate on what it would cost to fence our yard. Due to HOA rules everyone has to have a vinyl fence. I was expecting it to be a decent amount but was blown away by the estimate. If you have seen our backyard I think you would agree that it is smaller by comparison to others. For the fence, labor, cement and gate it came to $3760! That is a ridiculous amount, and we are feeling torn. Knowing that we could put that money to good use paying off the van, student loans, or just saving it for a rainy day. But at the same time I can't even begin to say how much I would love to have a safe place for my kids to just be able to go out and play. I realize that they can play in the front yard but it's not the same as having a backyard. We are still stewing over what to do. We should have been born tomatoes, I am sure it would make this whole process easier. :)

Ruby gave a talk in Primary yesterday. Emma was home sick, so I got to help her give it. Our Primary meets in the chapel because it is so large. So I got to stand at the pulpit and help her. I was burning up up there. My face felt so hot. Enough about me though. Ruby did an excellent job. I was so proud of her. She talked about Jesus Christ is Heavenly Fathers son, and talked about three accounts of when people have either heard or seen Heavenly Father bear witness of Jesus Christ being his son. Then she talked about what she could do to strengthen her testimony and follow Jesus. She colored a picture of a girl being baptized and colored her face green. I loved it. I love these moments when our children get to share what they have learned and gain confidence in themselves. It was so sweet. Just a little shout out to Angie, we had this lesson a couple weeks ago in FHE (Angie made us a complete book of a year worth of FHE lessons geared toward smaller children that corresponds with this year's Primary theme month by month, she is nothing shy of amazing. THANK YOU ANGIE!) and felt like it would go perfectly.

I also finished binding Emma's quilt. So happy to have it done. I finished it last night, while watching bonus features from Cinderella. It is now on her bed and I feel most accomplished. I love the look of it. Special thanks to ERIN who held my hand most of the way on the project of starting and completing the girls quilts. She spent a lot of time teaching me and walking me through the process.





We had some great neighbors move in up the street from us. They have a little girl Ruby's age and they play so well together. The funny thing is that I grew up her dad kind of. He is older than me, so more or less I grew up with his younger sister but we grew up in the same ward. It is such a small world.

Some thoughts

-My 28 week appointment went well. Eli's heartbeat was 138, I have put on more weight than I care to admit. I passed my glucose and iron tests, but it was yucky eating the king sized Snicker bar in 5 minutes an hour before the test. I was also measuring at 30 weeks.

-I have been doing a lot of reading in some of my pregnancy books, and I am beginning to wonder what it would be like to go in to labor on my own. I haven't yet had that experience but at the same time worry being so far away from the hospital. The idea excites/frightens me. I have also read a lot of things about the risk of being induced, but both girls have been given a little "ushering" and they did just fine. It will be interesting to see what happens. I am getting to the giddy stage where I am constantly thinking about what Eli will be like, what I need to shop for and what I need to do to prepare my girls.

-Ruby's eye therapy is going well. She willing wears her patch and does what she needs to but the challenge is having enough materials to keep her eye working hard to produce the effect we are hoping for, and also new things so she doesn't get bored. The end of January will be the remedy to that so I can go buy supplies.

- I am finding so much joy in watching my girls play together. They like to play house and take care of each other. It is so funny to hear the things they say and how creative they are. They are such good friends for one another. They bring me so much happiness. It is also so fun to see them play with cousins and the special relationships they are building.



-I have been in an artsy mood, I have dug out all of my projects that need finishing, as there will be no time for projects for a while once Eli is born. I also discovered that the sewing machine that I swore up and down that it didn't work and I once threatened to toss out the window, is working quite well. I think it was the user and not the machine. If I get projects finished, I will post them. Tonight I am going to my sisters to sew the bindings on Emma's quilt and to get it pinned so I can hand stitch the binding. I am looking forward to it being on Emma's bed.

January took off...

I have always counted December 31st as a part of the New Year simply because it they coincide and one day leads to the next. Normally the past couple of years we have just spent New Years at home, because it is hard for the girls to stay up late and then have to travel home. But we were so excited when we arranged to have Lanette and Shaun come to celebrate New Years with us. Our girls absolutely adore them. We had a fun evening of playing Beetles Rock Band, TTR and Risk. We are always so pleased when we find people who love risk as much as we do. The "Tyrant" won around 2:30 in the morning. I think we were all completely exhausted. We had such a fantastic time having them here with us, and are grateful that they are willing to submit themselves to our brand of craziness. Sadly the only picture I got from the evening was of Ruby working her magic on the drums.



Saturday the 2nd, we found the perfect bed for Ruby. We have been looking around for a little bit because at the girls well check Dr. Ramsey said it was time to move Emma out of her crib because too many kids jump out and hurt themselves. We were initally thinking of just getting her a little metal bed frame and a mattress but we found an awesome bed on ksl for less than what we could have gotten just a mattress for. It was quite the squeeze fitting it into our van with the girls, but gratefully it worked. Ruby loves it and we call it her princess bed. She now resides in the basement, and Emma has taken on the toddler bed. I was completely worried about the transition simply becasue it was so hard on Ruby when she was two, but to our amazement. Ruby loves the basement and Emma is good about staying in her bed and just going to sleep (most of the time).





When I was reading a friends blog a couple of months ago she shared a challenge that she did that month. She dubbed it "No spend month." Which meant spending money only on necessities. Like groceries, bills, and mortgage. We decided that we would institute that this month and see if we could do it. I look forward to seeing the checkbook balance at the end of the month. :)

We thought it would be a good idea to start potty training Emma before the baby came. What a laugh that was. She had constant accidents and didn't seem to get what was happening or even notice anything different when she went on the potty. After three days and running extra loads of laundry to make sure she had clean panties to continue the process we decided that she wasn't ready and that we will give it a go later. Much to my relief.

I got a call for Jed on Wednesday right at he was leaving work, he told me that his 4runner sounded like a monster truck and walked around his car and discovered that a 2 foot peice had been sawed off his muffler. He filed a report with the police and then went to have it fixed because he couldn't drive fast than 30 miles an hour without the sound being unbearable. Jed took it to Master Muffler, and they said that this is the 6th muffler they had replaced this week. We couldn't figure out what they would want with that peice of the muffler and were told that it is the catalytic converter they wanted, and that if they are good it can be removed in about two minutes. So 366.00 dollars later Jed has a new muffler. I was in a rage about it the whole night because we could have done so much with that money.

Ruby also had an eye appointment this week up at Primary Childrens. We noticed that her vision has improved greatly since she has been wearing her glasses, but her left eye still would wander for short periods of time. She wasn't supposed to be seen until March, but I didn't want to wait that long if we could do something about it now. Dr. Dries also noticed the wandering during the appointment and prescibed patching therapy. So from now on she will have to have her right eye patched for 1 hour everyday so she can practice using her left eye while she does things that are detailed, like working on the computer, doing puzzles, stringing beads or things that require concentration. We have been doing it for two days now and she does very well and doesn't take the patch off. Were hoping to see improvement come her next appointment. After her appointment we got to meet up with Melody at the hospital and grabbed a little snack at the cafeteria. She was very nice and offered to pay for our snack. I felt silly but accepted because that allowed me to not have to break my goal for no spend month. It was very nice of her to offer. We had a great visit and enjoy the times that we can get to see her.

That was our week, an we are looking forward to next week being a little more laid back.

Christmas 2009

Christmas was truly a treat to spend in our own home. There truly is no place like home. We spent Christmas Eve tagging along with Jed while he did his merchandising and then picked up our supplies for our dinner that evening. In my previous post I had mentioned that Jed was cooking our dinner, and he had the most amazing recipe picked out, but as we looked over it, we realized the girls would want nothing to do with it so we took a more practical approach and picked up finger foods and had a picnic in our basement and enjoyed watching Night at the Museum. It was quite fun.





We had our regular tradition of new pajama's and the girls were happy with the snowman print. We take our Frosty the Snowman seriously around here. I love this tradition.



The girls were very good about going to bed and staying there. We were most grateful.

The morning started out early for us, and the girls were so excited by what Santa brought them. We had to keep coaxing them to come and open other gifts. Each year it seems they get a little more excited and it is so much fun to watch their faces.






We had the traditional scrambled eggs and cinnamon toast. So delicious I could seriously go for a piece right now. As for myself I always pick out the Vienna sausages. :) Jed started the day off with a nap so he wouldn't fall asleep while we were visiting family. Emma joined him and I was sad that I had to wake them up so we would be on time to the parties.

I love Christmas and always find myself sad when it comes to an end. Jed always teases me that Christmas starts in August for me, because that is when I usually start my preparations. I love being with family,enjoying traditions and good food.

Stay tuned for January happenings and 28 week pictures.