A year (almost) in review

I haven't been the best blogger these past several months, and I'm going to try to do better in the future. I just downloaded 8 months of pictures off my camera, so I'll be giving you an update by picture, so sit back and relax...


Seth had his fifth birthday!


Seth's buddy, Eric got him some cool warrior guys!


John had a birthday too! (I don't know how to rotate the photo - any help would be appreciated)

In March, we went to the Children's Discovery Museum at the Gateway.

Seth and Eric doing some construction.

TJ in a police car.





This is our cousin, Elizabeth.

Eric, Seth and TJ watching a "master Builder".


What good little climbers I have!

WOW!!!!!

TJ and Elizabeth at the water fountain at the Gateway. Seth and Eric each earned a dollar from me by running across the fountain. The idea was to get them a little wet ... they didn't get a drop on them!

Best buds posing at the Gateway! We made this trip on St Patrick's Day - that's why everyone's in green!

We had a fun Easter and the kids found lots of eggs with goodies inside.


At the end of April, I had the opportunity to go with some of my friends to one of the classes at Women's Conference. Since the baby was due the second week of May, I decided not to sign up for both days, but my friend Sidnie got us tickets for her mom's presentation. Sister Joyce Jones did a great job and we got front row seats!! Below, from left to right: Sidnie, Jenalyn, Annamarie, me and Sister Jones.


On Saturday, May 9th, our family participated in a temple day for our ward. It was fun to take the kids into the foyer and share our testimony of the blessings of the temple.


On May 12th, 2009, Benjamin Edward Lyman was added to our family. He was born about 20 minutes after they put in the epidural so I got to feel the whole thing. I'm grateful for modern medicine that has made childbirth so much more bearable.

It's a boy!!

We had our ultrasound yesterday and everything looks great. Our due date is still May 16th and the Dr. said it was very obvious that we'll be adding a baby brother to our clan. Abby and I are a little bummed because we wanted to even things out around here, but we are mostly just relieved that everything looks perfect!

I tried to upload some ultrasound pics, but it's not working for some reason. I'll try on another computer later.

Jenni

I'm a What!?!

Anyone who has had any interaction with a two year old knows that sometimes they struggle with finding the right words to express themselves. Their vocabulary is limited so they use what they know. Recently, I bought a 6 lb bag of gummy bears at Costco. They are a special treat for the kids (and me and John). The other day when TJ got mad at me for some reason, he called me a "Dummy Bear". I know I should have said something about being nice to mommy and not saying mean words, but I was taken so by surprise that I couldn't. I know he loves gummy bears, so maybe that's his way of expressing that he loves me, but that I wasn't living up to his expectations at the moment. Kind of like a dud gummy bear, or a "Dummy Bear".

Update

I'm sorry that I've been absent in the blogging world lately. The first couple of months of pregnancy are always the hardest for me. I'm finally on to my second trimester where I can re-emerge into the land of the living. Everything is going well with our family. I've updated our photos with our family pics we took in September.

We are busy preparing for the holidays. I don't have much of my Christmas shopping done because I've been feeling so lousy, and now I'm anxious to get it all done. We were in St. George visiting family on Black Friday, so I didn't venture out. There wasn't anything that had me drooling, so I chose to sleep in. We had 3 Thanksgiving feasts this holiday, as we traveled to St. George, Las Vegas, and Delta. I would just ignore the scale for the next couple of weeks, but unfortunately I have to go to Dr. appointments every four weeks where they make you get on the scale. I guess I'll just blame it on the baby growing inside me!!

Ahead of the Game

Have you ever noticed how the LDS Church is so ahead of the game? The Word of Wisdom was revealed in 1833 and some of its points are just being "discovered" by modern-day scientists. The Family: A Proclamation to the World was given to us in 1995. Now we are coming to grips with the problem of governments wanting to declare marriage between two people of the same gender as legal. There are a lot of people now agreeing with what was set forth by our leaders 13 years ago, and hopefully Prop. 8 will pass in California this upcoming election.

Since I am so into the personal finance thing, I have noticed in the past couple of years that more and more personal finance gurus are coming up with "new" ideas that we've had access to since April 1975 (7 months before I was born!), when Elder Marvin J. Ashton gave a talk entitled "One for the Money." This talk was formatted into a pamphlet that you can get for free at the distribution center or download for free at providentliving.org. If you want to order a bunch, you can find them at www.ldscatalog.com item # 33293 (you may have to pay shipping.) This is a must-read for everyone, in my opinion.

It's been a rough year for many financially, but I truly believe that the counsel we've received from our Church leaders will help us through these turbulent times. We need to get out of debt, get a good supply of food, and set aside some money for harder times to come. As always, if any of you have any specific questions or concerns, I would be happy to help.

Jenni

What's the deal?

I went to Wal Mart the other day to get our normal brand of spread (fake butter), and when I got home and opened it, I noticed that it looked a little skimpy. So, I checked the label and noticed that they are now packaging only 15 oz. of spread when they used to package 16 oz. They charge the same amount, but you're getting less for that price, so actually the price is going up. I kind of feel like they think I'm stupid.

I noticed this a couple of months ago with my boxes of pasta. I used to get 16 oz., but now I only get 13.5 oz. per box. For my food storage purposes, I would much rather pay more for the same size of box because my storage room is limited, and now I have to buy more boxes. Has anyone else noticed this in their shopping?

Jennie

Our Big Announcement!!

In my last post, I said that I didn't have a lot of time to post, but that's not the entire truth. I've been so exhausted and nauseous that I don't have a lot of desire to get on the computer or really do anything else. Why do we forget how miserable these first couple of months of pregnancy can be? We are really excited to have another baby, but I think I must be getting too old or something - it seems harder than last time.

I was going to try really hard not to tell anyone until I was at least 12 weeks or so, but I want you all to know why I'm not posting much and to get any sympathy you can send my way (grin)! I'll keep you all posted as things progress!

Jenni