Critters, Critters, Everywhere

Eric went Christmas caroling with the Young Men the other night (in the rain) and found this...



in the middle of the road...



I had no idea Fresno could produce frogs this big. And it is not a toad, it is a true American Bullfrog. I looked it up because as you know, I have a tiny obsession with frogs...



As you can see, Eric was BEAMING! (Are we not a match made in Heaven?) Haylie, on the other hand, screamed. She loves frogs and critters, but when she saw this thing jump across the floor (about 6ft at a time!) she got very scared. But then she warmed up to it and started touching its feet and then she wouldn't stop talking about it all night. She came home hopping across the floor saying "ribbit, ribbit". He gave the frog to a man in our ward who has a pond on his property - hopefully Mr. Hoppy will have a nice long life out there and stay off the road!

Then, there is the unexplained phenomenon of ladybugs inhabiting Haylie's room. I don't know how they get in - or where they are actually living, but ever since we moved into this house, we have found ladybugs living in her room. Sometimes we'll go months without seeing one, then all of a sudden, we'll find one every couple of days. She loves it! I usually catch it and let it crawl on her for a while, then put it in a jar for her to admire. We try to let it go before it dies in our little prison, but she gets very upset when she can't find it...

A lot can happen in 2 weeks...

The last 2 weeks have been a little crazy - in good ways and bad ways. Here's the rundown:


November 26 - Haylie started puking - couldn't hold anything down until the 28th, did fine until she puked again on the 1st. Got her back on the BRAT diet, did fine until she puked again on the 4th (and diarrhea too). Oh yeah, and Eric and I both woke up the morning of the 3rd feeling rotten - puking, etc. But lucky for us it only lasted 24 hours. So, two trips to the doctor with Haylie assuring us that it's just a virus and sometimes it just takes a while for the body to fight it, so I kept her on the BRAT diet because I was too afraid to let her eat anything else. On the 8th, we finally let her eat real food at our ward Christmas breakfast - and boy did she go to town on those pancakes! Anyway, she's been doing great until this morning - now it's diarrhea again but no vomiting. (Thank goodness). I'm not real sure what to do at this point - we're probably gonna have to take her in for a blood test to see if there is something more going on. Ugh.

Anyway, on to the good things: On December 1st my friends threw a small baby shower for me at the Spaghetti Factory. My parents drove up and surprised me! What an awesome surprise!

After the shower, we decided to go and get our Christmas tree - and get out all our decorations. Haylie had a blast decorating the tree with Grandpa Garry and Grandma Jo.

Haylie was so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa here - here are a couple shots of them enjoying each other's company - Haylie can hardly stand to be away from Grandpa Garry -





Testing out the timer on the new camera...not bad...





I was running out of ideas as to what I could feed Haylie considering that she was having trouble keeping ANYTHING down...so decided to try Jell-O - only she wouldn't touch it. Until Grandpa Garry showed her how yummy it is...and let her eat it with a cheese slicer...who could resist?




Monday morning my parents had planned on leaving mid-morning but flew out of here when Eric and I both felt sick - I don't blame them! Thank goodness they didn't catch it. But Haylie was very sad to see them go - luckily we get them again for Christmas!

And finally, Saturday we went the ward breakfast in our matching jammies and got to sit on Santa's lap. You may remember how that went down last year...



She was very excited to see him this year - but still a little apprehensive....but you gotta' give the girl credit...no tears!! She just sat stone-faced on his lap trying very hard to be brave. On the way home she even said "I had fun with Santa" - maybe next year she'll actually smile...:-)








Here's hoping that the next two weeks have a little more of the good and not so much of the bad...


P.S...I got my c-section date moved up to January 10th...less than 5 weeks to go!!!

Tagged Again...

I have a lot of things I want to write about - but I just don't have the energy right now. So, I just saw on my friend's blog that I have been tagged to tell 7 interesting things about myself, I figured that would be more fun to do than talk about the copious amounts of vomit that we've seen in this house in the last week and a half.

1. I have webbed toes. On both feet, my 2nd and 3rd toes are stuck together about 3/4 of the way up. No, this does not make me a good swimmer, as a matter of fact, I'm a terrible swimmer. It also makes it difficult to get a pedicure with those spongy things between my toes...but even so, I think I have darn cute feet.

2. I cannot cut my fingernails. I used to have a bad habit of biting them and I always hated that I had that habit, and always wanted long, beautiful nails. So, when I finally kicked the habit, I found it rather difficult to cut them. So I will either file them down, or let them grow until they break.

(this is harder than I thought...)

3. I like to shoot guns. When we go on vacation with Eric's family to Medicine Lake (in Northern California), I'm always on board to go shooting. I prefer handguns, and am actually a decent shot (most of the time).

4. I used to hate hot dogs - but craved them when I was pregnant with Haylie and now have no problem with them. I used to hate mustard, but have been putting it on my sandwiches during this pregnancy. Maybe my next pregnancy will cure my hatred for onions...no...I doubt it...

5. I dream of being on Wheel of Fortune - I'd love to go during "Family Week" with my dad - we would make a killing!!! I actually tried out last spring, they do a lottery and my name got picked, I got onstage and solved the puzzle before the other contestants - but they never called me. :-( Maybe someday.

6. I'm slightly allergic to cats, but love them anyway. But didn't have very good luck with them growing up. First there was Dusty, who got hit by a car - the poor girl came to our door crying to tell us that she just hit our cat. Then there was Oreo, who "ran away" which is code for "he got eaten by a coyote". Then Snickers who was victim of a hit and run. Then Mittens, who unfortunately got hit by a very large truck and we all witnessed it. Then Murphy, who happened to be narcoleptic. Ever heard of a narcoleptic cat? Well, he would fall asleep and it was impossible to wake him. He decided one day to curl up in the engine of our large family van for his afternoon nap and well, you can guess the rest. That was a bad day. Then there was Fuzzy, whose "fuzz" we found one morning on the neighbor's lawn. Darn coyotes. Fuzzy was the last cat. Dad refused to get any more after that as he was "tired of burying cats".

7. Random interesting facts: I love pickles - and pickled okra. mmmm. I'm not very patient. I'm a little lazy. I'm not good at cleaning. I love beef jerky. I hate shaving my legs. I love my freckles. I love being short. I'm scared of things that go bump in the night. I am afraid of alligator lizards...eeew... I'm very good at mini golf. I love bowling – my high score is 176. Sometimes I drink pickle juice. Root beer is my favorite soda. I'm a pretty good cook when I put my mind to it. I've never mowed the lawn. My favorite flowers are daisies. I hate shopping. I hate Valentines Day. I've never tried surfing - the ocean kinda scares me. I love video games. Spring and Autumn are my favorite seasons. I don’t like fruit pies, but love cream pies.

I've decided not to "tag" anyone this time - but if any of you decide to do it, lemme know so I can go see your answers!