Baby News-- or lack thereof

Baby steps....

-At my doctor's appointment on December 22nd, he said I was dilated to a 3, which I guess is not too surprising for a third baby, being so far from my due date. Reassuringly, he said the baby wouldn't come Christmas week!

-At my doctor's appointment on December 29th, he said he was a little surprised to see me there still! But I was still dilated to a 3 and the baby hadn't dropped at all.

-The last two days I've felt pretty crummy and had a lot of lower back pain. I was really scared it was a kidney stone again (I had one during my pregnancy with Cora and it was the same kind of pain), but thankfully it went away. It was so uncomfortable, I was pretty sure I'd have the baby last night! I made Kevin come home early from work to get our bags packed and everything, before we went to my parents' house for New Years Eve. Of course, nothing more happened, but we did have a good time... even if no one let the pregnant lady win any of the games...

-My next doctor's appointment in on Tuesday morning, so we'll see what's happened by then. I'm still 2 weeks out from my due date, and Cora and Violet both came after their due dates, so I'm not anticipating too much.

-However, there were a bunch of things that needed to happen before the baby came, and we've accomplished almost all of them! Christmas decorations are all put away, the New Year is here (our flex account is stuffed full of the money to pay for the delivery, which we wouldn't have been able to access had the baby been born in December), most of the baby stuff is out, I got my hair cut, I'm getting a pedicure today.... the only thing left on the list is getting the house clean, and that's happening tomorrow. So hopefully he'll wait until after that happens! Oh and there's a special request out for the baby to be born on a Wednesday morning. We'll see what we can do about that!

Terrah at 38 weeks, last minute pic after midnight on New Years Eve. Kind of sad, I didn't realize just how big I've gotten until I saw this picture!

Merry Christmas!

The Spirit of Christmas

Christmas Cuties

There's no shortage of cheesy smiles at our house!

I just love twinkly Christmas trees at night!

Christmas Tradition

One of my favorite family traditions has been going to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert each year. We always go to The Roof on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for dinner beforehand too. It's always such a fun evening, yummy food, a time to visit, and a wonderful Christmas concert. Such a nice celebration of the Christmas season! We haven't been able to go the last couple of years when they changed the ticket system from first come first serve to a lottery. This year we weren't lucky enough to get tickets, but other family members were, and we had a great time once again. We had a perfect corner table that looked out on the Capitol Building and the temple, and even had Mitt Romney and two members of the Quorum of the Twelve at our neighboring tables. Best of all, we had a relaxing dinner full of yummy food and of course, delicious desserts. The concert was lovely too, with Natalie Cole singing and David McCullough doing a narration. Thanks mom and dad! And of course, thanks to Emily too, who entertained the girls so well at home they didn't feel left out.

Family Home Evening

Monday night we went downtown for a Christmas family home evening. We started with listening to a children's choir in the Joseph Smith building. Cora loved it! The kids were all ages, sang pretty well, and were really cute. She was glued to it pretty much the whole time! Violet, on the other hand, had a fun time running around and playing with Kissie's phone. We had soup and cookies and Kissie and Pata's house and went back out to look at the lights. The girls were not interested in getting their pictures taken but we did have a fun time looking around. We also stopped the the Church History Museum to see the nativities from around the world they have in the lobby each year-- one of my favorite Christmas stops. I guess we really went just for me, I thought the girls would like it, but Cora was more interested in going on the escalators and Violet just wanted to get in and out of the stroller over and over. Planning events with kids is certainly unpredictable! There was a harpist in the lobby too, playing Christmas songs, so it was fun for Cora to see her play, it was really pretty music. I'm glad we made it downtown once more to take advantage of all the festivities! Thankfully it was in the 30s, not the single digits like it was last week!

Once there was a snowman.....

We got quite a lot of snow last week! Cora finally has a pair of snow boots and her own snow shovel and loved playing out in the snow with Kevin. Violet prefers the indoors.... she doesn't even want to touch or step in the snow! The first batch of snow was light and fluffy, the second was heavy and wet, perfect for a snowman.

Preschool PJ Day

Cora was so excited to wear her pj's to preschool yesterday! Their theme this month is suitcases and traveling. From what she said, they also read some taking a trip stories and she brought home a picture she made with toothpaste.

Hanging out at the COB

We had lunch with Kissie and Pata at the Church Office Building yesterday. We even saw Elder Bednar and Elder Scott in the hallway, which was fun. The girls and Kissie and I caught a concert in the lobby afterward, and the girls had fun posing in front of the Christmas tree. Two of the trees in the COB are their favorite ones on Temple Square, I think. One is decorated with musical instruments, and the other with birds, birdhouses, and butterflies.

Out in the Snow

We had some great snow days this week! Cora loved playing out in the snow while Kevin shoveled. Violet ventured out once, but usually stayed inside with me (I don't think I even have a warm coat that will zip up anymore!). They say there's more snow to come on Sunday! So maybe Cora will be able to get some use out of the kids snow shovel I picked up for her yesterday. This morning her first words to me were "Can I go out and play in the snow?"

Christmas Thought of the Day

First week of Christmas

I kept looking at my November calendar all week this week.... I just can't believe it's December already. We've spent some time this week catching up from our week off at Thanksgiving, but we've also started our Christmas festivities too!

~ We had a couple of opportunities to gather food and baby items for donation drives. It was so nice to be doing this while I was finalizing Christmas buying lists! A nice reminder to put everything into perspective.

~ We pulled out the Christmas tree and over a period of 4 (!) days set it up and decorated it. Yes, we're on the slow path :). I guess that's just how it is with 3 out of 4 of us with the sniffles, and well, that may just be an excuse, it might have happened that way anyway! The girls were so excited to decorate the tree, and it was fun to see our Christmas stuff again and see how it all fits into the spaces of our new house.

~ We started listening to Christmas music at home-- it's been going on in the car for a while now, but I finally found the Christmas cds. Cora especially loves Holly Jolly Christmas, and well, any song that mentions Santa. Violet's favorite is Jingle Bells. It was fun to start playing Christmas music at church too. I love the way Christmas music sounds on the organ.

~ Cora and I took a mommy daughter evening out to see a live nativity a nearby stake put on. It was incredible! She was a trooper, we waited for quite a while in line in the cold, but it as definitely worth it. They had camels, baby cows, chickens, goats, sheep, a donkey, and more. Volunteers were dressed up as Isaiah, the three wise men, shepherds, and the innkeeper. They had a little Bethlehem marketplace set up with a money changer, weaver, fruit and bread sellers, and more. Of course the highlight was the family of Mary, Joseph, and the sweet little baby Jesus. The scenery and costumes were amazing, it was all quite detailed and really a lot to it. Cora's favorite was the donkey... and the baby Jesus.

~ Saturday we had our annual Ellis family ornament exchange party. It was so fun, like always, and it was neat to have my mom and dad hosting it downtown in the social room in their apartment building. The room was recently redone very prettily, and held all of us well. We had lots of yummy food (if anyone knows who made the chocolate dipped coconut balls, I need to know! We need the recipe!), a fun exchange, and even a visit from Santa. It was fun to see Cora excited about all the ornaments, she would go over and watch people open theirs for a real close up view.
Cora was a little apprehensive about sitting on Santa's lap, but did much better than she has before. Violet, well, you can see how she reacted to Santa! She did do a lot better though in the family picture we took with Santa, but you will all have to wait to see that one.
What a fun annual event for our family! There are eight kids in my mom's family, and 6 out of the 8 of them were there, with lots of kids and spouses and grandkids to boot.

Afterward the party, Kevin and Violet went upstairs to see the last half of a football game, and Cora and I headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see the International Children's Choir perform. I've never seen them before, and it was really cool. Cora especially liked how the kids were dressed in costumes from around the world, and seeing some of them play instruments. We only lasted through half the concert, Cora was so tired! but it was well worth it. I'd love to take her to see them perform again. Yet another great thing about Temple Square is that during December they have tons and tons of free concerts throughout all the buildings that you can take kids to, unlike the ones in the Conference Center. I need to check the schedule and take Cora to a few more of them!

Thanksgiving

Well, we've all had the sniffles this week, so I'm late with our posting. All of us except Kevin of course. He NEVER gets sick! It's been a bit of a rough week or two with some sleepless nights, but I think we're all doing quite a bit better now. Anyway!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with Kevin's family. It was quite a BIG Thanksgiving, with both hosting people and packing up and going somewhere combined! We got to see lots of family and the girls loved playing with cousins, it all turned out well.

Tuesday I helped out at Cora's preschool Thanksgiving feast. So cute! They had a little lunch and did some crafts.

Making turkeys out of gumdrops, toothpicks, and caramel apples.

Kevin and Violet picked Grandma Anderson up from the airport. We loved having her with us, it's so nice to spend one and one time with grandparents-- we heard lots of great stories about Grandma growing up and her family memories. The girls especially loved reading books with her.

Wednesday we met up with the rest of the family from Oregon and the little girls and Kristen and I went to the zoo. It was a free entry day, with not many crowds and sunny (but cold) weather... it was great!

We spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at the place Kevin's parents rented--- it was large and hosted our big group so well! There ended up being 12 of us staying there and 20 people for Thanksgiving dinner. Much bigger than the Thanksgivings I'm used to, but it was a lot of fun. Our days were filled with eating yummy food, football (yeah for a great BYU game!), card games, and catching up. I got to meet Aunt Julie, Uncle Gary, and cousin Sarah from Texas for the first time (It was actually Kevin's first time meeting Sarah too-- and she's 11!). The girls had a special outing with Grandma and Grandpa to the dinosaur museum and had a great time. We also went to Temple Square to see the lights turn on for the first time this season. It was a really nice weekend! Thanks Brad and Dawn!

Violet didn't play with the bigger girls very much, but these 5 had such a fun time on Thanksgiving Day!

We packed up Sunday and made it back to our house to get settled in time for church. Kristen, Sorayah, and Kylee stayed with us until Tuesday morning, when they flew out to Mexico to meet up with Byron for the winter soccer season. All four girls were pretty spent by those last few days, but I think they still had fun playing together, even if a little more refereeing was involved :). That's a lot of days of fun when you are 1, 3, and 5!

Monday night we went to the Riverton city lights celebration. They had cookie decorating, crafts, hay rides, and Santa. There were some long lines and a lot of people out, but it was a fun evening to get us out of the house.

Isn't this look on Sorayah's face priceless??? She loved talking to Santa! I think she could have stayed there all night!

What a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving! And a nice start to our Christmas holiday with seeing the lights on Temple Square and going to the community Christmas party. It's been so much fun already to have the girls so excited about Christmas, and for Cora to understand so much more about Christmas, I've got lots of Christmas plans up my sleeve!

Getting ready.....

.... only this time, it's Kissie, not me! We've been the lucky recipient of Kissie's sewing experiments and excitement. She's been making baby blankets, burp clothes, Sunday tie onesies, and even a carseat cover for baby brother. We are so grateful-- I've checked and just about all of our burpclothes and blankets are PINK! Now lucky baby brother will get blue and green and trucks and balls (Kevin's favorites of course are the BYU themed ones), instead of making do with his sisters' old stuff. Thanks mom!

Spinach & Tomato Pasta Toss

Liz posted this terrific recipe and it's too good not to post here too. We've had it twice this week-- it's delicious!
2 cups penne pasta (I like to use rigatoni), uncooked
1/2 lb turkey sausage
1 package (6 oz, or 7 cups) baby spinach leaves
1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
1 cup shredded mozzarella
2 Tbsp grated parmesan

Cook the pasta and set aside.
Brown the sausage, drain. Add spinach and tomatoes, cook until spinach is wilted, stirring occasionally. Add cheeses.
Put pasta in serving dish, add yummy mixture, and toss.


It is so easy and quick! And you can do a lot of variations. I didn't have any sausage, so we used turkey bacon once and cubed ham another time. Also, I didn't have the Italian-style tomatoes, so I just used regular diced tomatoes and a tsp or two of Italian seasoning that we get from Costco.

Christmas Tree #1

This year we get to have two Christmas trees! With my parents moving into a smaller place, we bought one of their decorative trees from them (thanks!) and put it up last week. It's fun to have it in the entryway, and I love how you can see it from the street. So nice to have a little bit of Christmas around already. Lucky for me, my mom came over one day last week and helped put it altogether. Cora and Violet are especially excited about the little bird nests and shiny birdies on the tree.
We were also lucky to have my dad come over Saturday morning and help Kevin wire two new outlets so we can plug this tree in and plug the garland in on the other side (and for other kitchen purposes as well). Kind of crazy, but there are no outlets in our entryway. It was a little tricky, but they did it and it is so nice. Otherwise, we'd have to string an extension cord across the hallway to plug the tree in in the office... not the best alternative! Another bonus.... now that Kevin has re-familiarized himself with outlets, he can put in the extra outlets we need in the office and laundry room! Well, someday soon at least I hope.

Our productive / fun day Saturday continued with watching the IMAX 3D dinosaur movie at the planetarium. Kissie and Violet had fun back at my parents' place and Cora got her first taste of 3D. She wasn't so sure about wearing the glasses, and some of the big dinosaurs really made her jump in Pata's lap, but she really liked it. We met up with Kissie and Violet for lunch and to watch the BYU game, walked around the Gateway, and heard Jon Schmidt warming up for his concert that evening. We didn't end up staying for the real concert and Christmas tree lighting, much to Cora's dismay, it took some real distracting to get her out peaceably. But it was just too cold. We rode the train back, which the girls LOVE and the adults had a lot of fun playing a game after Violet went to bed and Cora got settled in with a movie. It's such a fun game, and I'm finally getting the hang of it. Thanks for all your help mom and dad, and for the fun day!

Thanksgiving

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it would be a nice one to share.

Cora's Big Fun Day

We had such a great day on Saturday, especially Cora! It really was a big day for her. We started off with a relaxing morning after a good night sleep for everyone (thankfully!).

Cora and I then headed downtown to see Disney on Ice, the Princess Show. I waited to tell Cora about it until the week before, and that whole week was filled with questions.... Will Belle be there? Will Ariel be there? Will Cinderella be there? Pretty cute. Cora wore her princess dress... and a warm coat, and was so excited. She didn't want to look around or anything before the show, just wanted to find our seats and wait for it to get started! It was hard to get a good picture of her, her eyes were glued to the ice even before anything started happening on the stage.

It was a fun show, and it was pretty cute. Cora loved it, and watched it intensely the whole time. When it was done, it was snowing really heavy outside! I was glad we had scored a great parking spot and didn't have to walk in the blizzard very far at all.
Next we were off to a birthday party for cousins Aubriel and Brianna. I didn't take my camera in, but it was a really fun time. Due to the heavy snow (up at Suncrest), I just stayed and watched. They had a magician come, and it was a hoot to watch the kids faces as he performed his tricks. Cora was most impressed by a balloon popping and turning into a bird and loved petting the bunny. Luckily, they had plowed the roads during the party, and we didn't slip at all on our way home.

Cora was so worn out by this point, but so hungry too, we stopped for a quick hamburger, but she couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to eat it! I tried to take it away for it wouldn't spill, but that just made her angry. She just wanted to hold it and sleep.

It was still snowing lots at our house too, and Kevin took the girls out to play in the snow. Wow, it took quite a while even just getting them geared up! Cora had a blast playing with Kevin, Violet kept saying 'Don't like it! don't like it!'. Sh didn't want to go in, but she didn't want to walk in it, she just wanted to be held! It'll b interesting to see if she still doesn't like it when she might not be as tired or if we can go out when it's not still snowing and blowing in her face a bit.
Of course, they were so excited to go out, all we got were blurry pictures!

Pumpkin Pie Poem

At Cora's preschool the kids memorize a poem each month. Here she is reciting October's poem, on pumpkin pie. It's pretty catchy, even Violet is spouting out bits and pieces of it. It's especially cute to hear them try to get their mouths around the word 'scrumptious'.

Ensign Peak

We've been taking advantage of the beautiful weather (high 60s, low 70s--wow) this week and have gone to the park every day. We also had a great playgroup trip to Wheeler Farm too-- we even saw a huge mama pig nursing 5 not-so-little babies. First time I've seen that in person! It's really been a perfect week, and we topped it all off today by hiking Ensign Peak with Kissie.

Cora walked all the way up and back with no complaining. She loved it! In her prayer tonight she said thankyou for the hike to the top of the mountain, the pretty grasshoppers and being able to see the whole world from the monument. It was super windy and a tiny bit hazy, but a great temperatures and a pretty view. Violet walked all the way up and 2/3rds of the way back. They both did amazingly well, way better than I thought they would! I've never been up to Ensign Peak before, and it was great.
At the little lookkout point near the bottom


At the base of the trail
At the top! It was sooo windy.
Violet was more interested in checking out a piece of ABC gum on the ground than the view. Ew.
Now the weather is supposed to turn more normal for November, so at least we took advantage of our week of Indian summer!