Expanding...!!

 I'm so embarrassed to be posting this so late! I promise I haven't been keeping it all a big secret, especially since almost everyone knows already.

That's right...we're expanding our little family!!  We are expecting another little one, due May 6th. Consequently, my belly is expanding at an alarming rate: 

Currently, I am currently 24 weeks along.  Pregnancy has been going very well, just as easy as Gabe's was. It has been going fast and slow at the same time!   I tell Gabe that there is a baby in my tummy but I'm not sure he gets it yet.  He get's jealous when I hold other babies but other then that he LOVES little babies!!  I think he'll make a great big brother.  He has a very sweet and loving personality so I'm sure he'll love the baby as much as we do.

  December 7th was my ultrasound appointment.  I was so much more excited to find out what it was this time around.  With Gabe, I had an appointment around 16 weeks, which originally was just to find out what my due date was.  The ultrasound technician asked us if we wanted to know the sex, and Erik was like, "I can already tell what it is!".  I didn't think the sex could be determined that early, so I had no anticipation or excitement to find out what it was when we went in for the appointment.  But like I said, this time around was so much more exciting! I was convinced it would be a boy, since the pregnancy felt the same and the Nelson side tends to have mostly boys.  But I was proved wrong!

Yep, Gabe is going to get a little sister!! We are so excited.  We have a list of names, but no single name picked out yet.
Here are her other ultrasound pictures.  They are grainy; the ultrasound tech said it was because the placenta is in the front.

 

The very first ultrasound pic.  She looks like a lizard!

Her face.  Kind of creepy...

Feet!

Side profile

4-D Ultrasound of her hand in front of her face

Her cute little face

Speaking of cute little faces...here is a general idea of what she may look like....!

Victorian Salt Clay

Here's a fun FHE activity for you (if you are the crafty type and enjoy crafty things):  Victorian Salt Clay!!
Here is the full recipe (copied and pasted from the Internet):

Mix 2 cups salt and 2/3 cup water in a pan. Stirring constantly, heat over a low flame for about 4 minutes (Do not boil). Remove from heat. Quickly mix 1 cup cornstarch and 1/2 cup cold water together and add this combination in one go to heated mixture. Stir and mix quickly. If resulting mixture is not a thick paste, place back on low heat and stir for about a minute until mixture is doughlike.

Treat like bread dough-- knead on flat surface until dough is a smooth and pliable mass. Can be stored in plastic or foil and kept in an airtight container.

Color can be added when dough is being cooked or when being kneaded, or modelled objects can be painted when dry.

It takes 2 days for a modelled object to dry at room temperature. For quicker results, preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and then turn the oven off. Place the model in the oven, preferably on a wire rack, and leave inside until the oven has cooled off.

For a finishing touch, smooth dry models by rubbing gently with sandpaper or an emery board.

I halved the recipe and it made plenty.  We made Christmas ornaments as an FHE activity last month.  You can make really whatever you want! I simply rolled out the dough and used cookie cutters to make the shapes.  Erik made the stethoscope. Gabie enjoyed poking the dough.  I was worried about him eating it but it's disgustingly salty so he didn't hardly bother.

                                     
 The dough...it's mainly salt so it makes your hands really soft when you're working with it (and hopefully you don't have any cuts!) Also, maybe I'm just weird, but I think it smells really good, too, kind of like the sea.

 Drying the ornaments--it took a few days.

After they were dry, I used an emery board and filed the rough edges (they looked so much better!).  We then painted them with acrylic paints, let them dry, and sprayed them with a sealant that made them look all shiny and pretty.

Christmas in St. George

Sorry for being way behind again! I guess I’ll start with the most recent happening.

For Christmas and New Year’s we went up to Erik’s parent’s house in St. George.  The bridge across Hoover Dam is finished so it cut about 15 or 20 min out of our driving time.  So nice! And you can’t even tell that you are driving over that…part of me is happy about that and the other part is slightly disappointed. 

Christmas day was so much fun! I didn’t ask for too much other than a camera that doesn’t take a year to take a single picture.  Erik got me one for Christmas and I love, Love LOVE it!! I got a few other random things, mainly cake decorating stuff.  I got Erik a game called Dominion which I think I ended up liking better than he did!  We played that game about 3 times every day since he opened it. 

It was Gabie who got spoiled.  I guess I will back track here.  Before we left for St. George we had Gabie open a few of his big presents and some we thought he would enjoy on the way up there.  Gabe got a tricycle (I got it a few months ago from Craig’s list-only $20 for a $125 tricycle—not bad!), a tent with a crawl-through tunnel, and a bicycle seat.  Gabe’s favorite toy was a steering wheel-thing that talks and plays music.  He played with it all the way up to St. George!

  

Erik’s parents also spoiled Gabe with numerous presents, including a power wheels jeep.  Gabe got 3x the amount of gifts then any of us!  Later Erik’s grandparents came over and gave Gabe even more presents and we all sat down for a yummy Christmas dinner. 

 

 

The rest of the week was spent playing dominion, fooseball, and Wii games.  Erik and I also got to go on a few dates while his parents watched Gabe.  We saw The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Tangled; both were very good.  We took Gabe to the Dinosaur Tracks museum and a natural history museum.

 

New Year’s Eve was spent at the cabin in Pine Valley, where there was SNOW! It was Gabe’s first true encounter with snow.  He wasn’t too excited about it, but he didn’t hate it.  It was FREEZING!!! Especially for us, coming from Arizona!  I think it was somewhere around 7 degrees.  But that didn’t stop us from 4-Wheeling!  We bundled up and put Gabe between us.  Gabe feel asleep while 4-wheeling and my knees and thighs almost got frostbitten but other than that we had a blast! Then we warmed up inside with some nice hot chocolate!    

 Since Gabe hadn’t had much of a nap New Year’s Eve, he ended up falling asleep around 5:30 and woke up just in time to bring in the New Year, lol!!  We left the next morning to head back to AZ.  We enjoyed staying in St. George.  It was nice for Erik to not have to go anywhere and I enjoyed having Erik’s company for more than a few hours, and we both enjoyed finally getting out, just the two of us! Erik’s parents are very hospitable and are excellent grandparents to Gabe.