Three magic words

"I love you."

He said it!

Levi finally said it!

For a while now he's been saying "Yes, I love this one!" in reference to a toy or tv show, but he's never said it in reference to anyone.

Today, I'd just come out of the room from putting in a load of laundry and he ran up and hugged my leg, looked up at me and said, "I love you!"

It was so heartwarming! I said, "Oh, Levi, I love you!" And he smiled and said, "I love you too."

2 years, 8 months, 12 days in the making.

Happy Day!

My budding pianist...

He loves playing the piano SO much!

John Morgan's birthday present from Grandma:

Hump Day!

Today marks my baby #3 Hump Day!

I'm officially over halfway through with this delightful pregnancy!

Excuse the picture...I may change it out tomorrow...I look almost as exhausted as I feel :o)

Simply Said Sunday

Helllloooooo Simply Said Sunday!

I was inspired by so many wonderful things I heard at church today. I thought about how much I wish you all could've been there and heard them too, because surely they would have spoken to your heart as well.

So, I've decided to dedicate a post each Sunday to things that I heard that were simply said, and yet were so far from being simple.

Next week I plan to take a little notebook, to write these wonderful little gems in. Today's "simply said" comes from a Sacrament talk given by one of our good friends.

This quote is actually not just a quote, it's more of a story, taken from an Ensign article from December 1971 by President A. Theodore Tuttle of the First Council of the Seventy entitled The Things That Matter Most.

"Some years ago, I read an editorial in the Deseret News entitled “The Mechanical Rabbit.” I quote:

“Most of our readers must have smiled the other day when they read of the greyhounds in Britain who don’t know a rabbit when they see one. So long had they chased a mechanical rabbit around the racetrack, that when a real rabbit bounded across the track, the dogs didn’t give it a second look.

“Stupid, eh? But sad too, this perverting of the natural instincts.…

“We chase mechanical rabbits, too.

“We chase paychecks, and don’t give a second look to the glint of the rising sun on a snow-topped peak.

“We chase our way through the appointments of a crowded desk calendar, and fail to take time to chat with the next-door neighbor or to drop in on a sick friend.

“We chase social pleasures on a glittering noisy treadmill—and ignore the privilege of a quiet hour telling bedtime stories to an innocent-eyed child.

“We chase prestige and wealth, and don’t recognize the real opportunities for joy that cross our paths...”

...

“Race on, you poor, blind over-civilized hounds. You’ll never catch your rabbit until you learn to recognize a genuine one."

This points up our challenge: See “that the things that matter most … are not at the mercy of things that matter least.”

Here's to hoping we can recognize our mechanical rabbits and shift our focus to seek the real, important rabbits instead. Have a great week!

How I keep my sanity

Make a list.

I'm such a visual person.

If the world is crumbling around me, all I have to do is make a list.

Then, there it all is in black and white, ready to be crossed off and forgotten about.

So much less overwhelming.

All better.

Sayings

Here are a few of my recent favorites (all compliments of Levi the Great):

"I can't want to mommy, I can't want to." or "I can't like this mommy, I can't like this."

- For some reason, he's started mixing up don't and can't. It's incredibly adorable, so I have to work really hard to not laugh at him when he's trying to express a real concern. :o)

"Don't say that word mommy, don't say that word!"

- I'm laughing as I type this, just remembering how he used this earlier today. We were in the check-out line at the store, and he saw a little toy he thought he needed. I told him "Levi, we can't have that because it's not ours...it belongs to the store." With such a distressed look on his face, almost in tears, he told me not to say that word :o) This is a fairly new phrase, used only in situations like this, and I'm finding it so interesting, as I've never told him not to say a certain word...?

"It's a 'squito mommy, it bite me!"

- He was bitten by a mosquito and every time he's seen a bug of any kind since, he's been SO afraid of it and tells me it was a 'squito and that it bit him....even if it's five feet away on the sidewalk ahead of us, lol! I don't know if it really hurt or what, but it put the fear of God in the child. So much so, that if we're playing outside and I can't get him to come inside, all I have to say is that I see a mosquito, lol. Bad mommy.

Salad in a pot...

This only begins to describe the event we held tonight.

We just moved into our new home. I'll blog all about this later, when I actually have some time to sit down and write it all out.

Anyway. We've made it a goal to feed the missionaries once a month. We'd signed up for tonight, figuring that we'd be all moved in by now. Well, we had several road bumps along the way, and didn't get in until last weekend.

So, they arrive at our house for dinner (pizza and salad...they say we're one of the only families that ever gets them pizza...?). They get here just a little early and I'm running just a little late. Our kitchen is the only room in the house that is unpacked. Unfortunately, it's apparently not entirely unpacked. I can't find a bowl to put the salad in to save my life. Sigh. I go for the next best thing that's large enough.

That's right. We ate salad from a pot.

The sisters were good sports about the whole thing. Especially when they only had about one square foot of space to sit at the dinner table in a dining room full of boxes. And they were great when JM cried almost the whole way through dinner. And when he threw his milk down on the ground and it spilled all over me and the {new} carpet that we had such a hard time getting put into the place. And when my salad dressing somehow missed my plate and landed right into my lap and all over my shirt and skirt. And the way that I spent more time getting up and down from the table (if you could even call my ungraceful blundering and squeezing out the side "getting up and down") than I actually spent sitting with them. I totally ate my dinner after they left...I think I'd had part of my salad by the time the were walking out the door.

Yep. They were great. They didn't even laugh about any of it until while they were sharing their message Levi started running the only loud car toy we have up and down the walls just outside the dining room, to the point we couldn't even hear them.

Oh, good times. I just hope next time it isn't so fun...

Levi, Levi, Bo Bevi...you crack me up.

I was at target today with the boys. I was looking for a new bra (insert plug for multiple new bras during pregnancy...so worth it!) I had Levi in the back of a regular cart (he hates the "kid carts" anywhere that isn't Publix). He usually sits pretty well in the cart, I usually don't have to tell him to sit down very often.

Today though, I bent down for a second to look for my size, and when I stood up I saw this:

He originally had the hanger over his head, adjusting the cups to right where he thought they should be placed on his chest, lol. When he looked up and saw me, with a big smile on his face he said, "It's for me mommy! It's perfect!"

Oh Levi, you are such a joy!

And the verdict is...

Well, over 95% of you thought we'd be having a girl.

And the perinatologist agrees with you!

Take a first glance at Savannah Lynn Miller:

Everything checks out okay!

Notables: The placenta is extremely close to my cervix, but he said as long as it doesn't move any closer, we should be clear to attempt a VBAC. In addition, she has the same thing John Morgan did on her heart, called an echogenic focus, which can be a sign for Down Syndrome, but this was already a Level II ultrasound, so they were able to screen for the other markers right there, and she didn't show any. So chances are great that she won't have Down Syndrome!

Now to the issue of a big baby...unfortunately, he couldn't tell. He said that until the end of your 5th month, there's no distinguishing a big baby from a normal baby from a small baby...they're all the same up until that point. He then proceeded to tell me that size won't matter since I'll be having a repeat c-section. LOL. I could write a whole post about his reaction to me telling him we were attempting another VBAC. It was kind of comical actually, but he just ended by saying that he'll probably see me back towards the end of the pregnancy so my doctors can check the size of the baby.

All in all, good times!

So, YAY!

A girl!

{Just a quick shout out to the 1 lonely soul out of 22 that voted for little Marshall. Maybe next time!}

Cast your vote now!

We go in tomorrow morning to see baby #3 via ultrasound!!!

We'll get a glimpse at this little thing inside me that has made me so sick, so emotional, so tired, and so um...large. The same little thing whose kicks and swimmies make my heart smile everytime I feel one. The same little thing that has had my heart from the minute we knew we were supposed to be having another baby; I've loved this little thing since before day one...how is that even possible?

I can't wait to see you little one!

And of course, to find out if you're Savannah or Marshall!

P.S. - Do me a favor this once and

cast your vote to the right ------------->

Video of old

I was clearing out my cell phone and found this video. I think it was from a road trip like 5 or 6 months ago?

Listen close for John Morgan...it's so high pitched, it's kinda quiet!

Cheers to Olivia being in town!

Love these girls!

Vanilla Joy

You may have noticed a new button on my sidebar. It links to the site Vanilla Joy.

I love this site. There's a little bit of everything on there! She has great tutorial blogs {her latest is how to sew a fitted crib sheet - can't wait to try this for baby #3!}, book reviews, and awesome giveaways. She also semi-advertises (with reviews) ideas for craft room organization, discipline for children, and even some cool scrapbooking furniture.

So go check it out!

The First of Many

We love where Joe-Z works. There's a fun little park that's literally a 1 minute drive from his office. We meet him for lunch on days the kids are going to take a late nap for some reason or another.

The kids love this park, and always have fun playing there. There's always a bit of a power-struggle though, because the park also has a baseball field...and you know my boys (especially Levi) and baseball!

For some reason, while at the park one day last week, we decided Levi was just too cute to say no to. He was trying to sneak in, and when I saw him, he maintained eye contact with me while he kept going down the stairs to the dugout, nodding his head "yes" as if to assure me that it was okay, lol.

Such a big field, such a little {big} boy.

Look at him go!

JM in action!

All in all, we had a blast!