Just one more thing...

I had to post a few pics of the beautiful view at the beach! When we would sit down at the dining room table and look out through the balcony door, we would see this...we kept saying that we felt like we were on a cruise ship, because you could see no land...only water...

Standing on our balcony...

Beauty...

Gorgeous...

Myrtle Beach, part 2 (Apr 10-12=Days 6-8)

Day 6-Meltdown morning for Abby! She just was not happy! And here's a beautiful shot of me-only 14 weeks pregnant and look at me already...nice...

Abby's meltdown actually started on the beach-rolling around in the sand...
She got better by the afternoon, when we clothed the kids in Nana's handmade gorgeous outfits and headed to the aquarium. The outfits were very fun and turned out to be the perfect thing for keeping up with all nine kids on our outing! This is Zoie (age 9) with her baby bro, Jacobi (8 mos) and cousin Will (age 3).
Abby playing at the aquarium with Silvia climbing beside her...
Our little family posing at the Aquarium...
WHOA! This shark swam just above my head in the underwater walk-through...
Abby and her dad! She was getting tired...

A classic moment in front of the waterfall outside the Aquarium...Do you think the little ones were exhausted yet?

We went to Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville for lunch because we heard they had a balloon man and it was CLOSE! We are all such good parents, and we realized it when we saw the tv screens loaded with drunken people in the streets, dancing to "Margaritaville" and "It's Five O'clock Somewhere" and even MORE when it was time for the huge bottle of "lemonade" (tequila) to come down from the ceiling and into the huge blender to make a "smoothie" (Hurricane mixed drink)...and even MORE when they walked us to our table, past a table with an almost topless hula dance lamp centerpiece!

BUT, the balloon man DID show up and all the kids got their balloon hats and animals and flowers, which they LOVED...

Our last full day...Abby at the lazy river...

Abby was all tuckered out after a long day of playing in the pool...and a long week of non-stop fun!

Overall, it was a fabulous time of swimming, playing, card games, food and fun!

What can you do?

A couple of weeks ago, my sister-in-law, Amber and I took our girls to see my sister, Sarah, participate in Special Olympics! It was very cloudy and threatened rain the whole time, but we perservered and had some fun! Sarah (who has Down Syndrome and just turned 25) got to throw the tennis ball and walk in both the 50 meter walk and the 100 meter walk. She got "third first place" ;o) in all three and had a BLAST! It's actually an amazing accomplishment for her to go as fast as she did, considering the fact that she has had about 8 or so hip surgeries and 3 or 4 foot surgeries in her lifetime! I didn't get very many good pics, but here's one of her waving to me from the start line for the 50 meter walkand one of her about to cross the finish line in that same race! (She's of course, the short one in the green shirt and Clemson hat-she LOVES Clemson! And beside her is her VERY energetic, big-haired, volunteer friend, who helped her along-she was great!) I love Sarah so much! She's the best!

Consequently, Abby had a blast herself! There were balloons and huge puddles of clear water in all the grassy areas. And once she jumped in the biggest one one time, I figured, "What the heck?!" and let her keep jumping. People around me were laughing mostly, but of course there were the token few, mostly older women, who gave me those sour, disapproving looks. I mean, for real! What else am I gonna do?;0) It was hilarious and of course, when I pulled out the camera and she saw it, she immediately gave me that perfect "CHEESE!" and here's what we got!

We didn't stay the whole time, because grumpiness was becoming more prevalent (mostly with Amber and I, who had forgotten to bring camp chairs, so we were walking and standing the whole time, chasing Abby and HOLDING Myah-also no stroller-What were we THINKING?), but it was a fun, exhausting morning that we will never forget! Sometimes you just have to laugh, huh?

Crescent Keyes in North Myrtle Beach! (Apr 5-9=Days 1-5)

We just got back from a FABULOUS trip to Myrtle Beach with Josh's family! (It's only an hour away from us in case anyone ever wants to break their trip to the beach at our house in Florence!) We stayed in a condo at Crescent Keyes in North Myrtle and it was so fantastic! 12th floor corner unit with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, a balcony and an AWESOME view right on the beach! Indoor pool, outdoor pools, hot tubs and a lazy river! I have to split the trip into different posts, because it's just way too much to do at once! So here we go! Josh's parents and sister, Alison's family (including Alison, Ryan and their 4 sons) came in from Greenville just in time for the first session of General Conference (a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake City we have twice a year where we get to hear all of our church leaders speak to us.) This was a special conference, because as many of you know, our prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away a few months ago and we were able to sustain a new prophet, President Thomas S. Monson during this Conference. It was a very special opportunity and I am so glad that we took the time away from packing and getting ready for the beach to watch this session as a family and stand together to sustain our beloved prophet!

So then we drove for a little over an hour in the pouring rain to Myrtle Beach! It was still very cloudy and a little chilly by the time we got there, but most of us headed out the front door of the building that evening and went to the ocean!

Sunday, we set up the laptop with speakers and watched the rest of Conference, and even though we walked on the beach, I don't think anyone went swimming--or maybe they did. I'm not sure! But we definitely went the next day to the indoor pool. It was really too cold in the outdoor pools, even though some went on the lazy river! Here's a pic of Abby jumping to Dad in the pool!

Josh's brother, Jake, and his wife, Nadia joined us that day and that night, we went to Fuddrucker's for dinner and to the famous Painter's Ice Cream for dessert, where we consequently went almost every day after that until we left (Chocolate Almond-Numnum!)! Here's Noah and Abby in the car on the way to dinner!

I don't know why I don't have any pictures from Apr 8, but on the 9th, Abby and I headed to the ocean by ourselves for a little while, before everyone else joined us! It was so fun to spend time together-she LOVES the sand and shells! And she is, of course, a crazy funny kid, as you can see!

We spent most of that day at the beach and in the hot tub. (Not me, though! The water was WAY too hot for my pregnant self!) Abby enjoyed it, though and so did her buddy cousins, Will and Sam (Alison and Ryan's two youngest-Will is 9 mos older than Abby and Sam is 9 mos younger!)

Okay, so that's it for Days 1-5. Days 6-8 were definitely less low-key! Jake and Nadia had left, but Josh's sister Heidi and her family (including Heidi, Aarron, their 3 girls and 1 baby boy!) came for the rest of the week...it was a GREAT time!.....

EASTER!

Okay, so Easter was so fun this year! So much preparation for one day! But, here was my favorite memory this year-Abby's HAIR! So, here's the story...I have never claimed to be the best hairdresser-my mornings are full of shaking my fist at the mirror and wondering why I can NEVER do my hair like they do it in the salon! But I guess I thought that when I became the mom of a beautiful little girl, it would all of a sudden come to me like magic and I'd have absolutely NO problem getting HER hair to lay in the perfect Shirley Temple curls. That was my plan for this Sunday morning! And the fact that Josh had no morning church meetings was even better, because it would give me more time to focus!

All I can say was that it was a disaster! And I had to laugh when Josh walked in our bathroom, saw her hair and said, "Um, why don't you curl her bangs back and kind of feather them?" He was trying to be constructive! So HE took the curling iron, curled her bangs back and cracked us both up when he poofed it up a little and said excitedly, "Look! It's the PERFECT 80's CLAW!" I almost fell on the floor laughing! Unfortunately, I did not take a picture at that moment, but laughing was definitely the only option, because I was about to cry! And it had calmed down by the time we took these pictures right before leaving for church.

I got so frustrated with the frizz at church that I ended up putting it all up in the middle of church, which is how it was in the family picture! (Can you see my pooch? Of course you can! Not even really baby yet, just leftover fat redistributing itself! And I suppose the satiny shirt with the camera flash didn't help!)

This picture is in our back yard after the Easter egg hunt with Abby's cousins Kendal and Tanner. She was in HEAVEN, as you can see by her trying her darndest to get that egg open!

And this one shows her on her new swingset, built by her dad, her Poppy and her Uncle Boo. We still haven't put the "big girl" swing up yet, but we'll take that as it comes! She would stay in that swing ALL DAY if I would let her! Thank you, Poppy and Uncle Boo for helping!

Thus ends the saga of the Easter hair catastrophe! I guess I am no beautician! But, I DID make her dress, so maybe there is SOME talent there somewhere!

Blogtag! I love these things!

So, my brother, Layne, "tagged" me today and I felt that since my last post was sooooo long ago, I should go ahead and do it or it would never get done! So here goes...

10 years ago: I was serving a mission for my church in California. My companion was Becky Flanigan, who was and still is one of the most positive and uplifting people I have ever spent time around. We were in the town of Gridley with the fields and orchards of every kind of fruit or vegetable imaginable (stinky kiwi trees!) and it was probably about the time we decided to show our faith by ditching our car for a day and WALKING several miles around town to our appointments! One of the best times of my life!

5 things on my to-do list today: Well, this morning my list looked like this! Shower, eat breakfast so I don't puke from morning sickness, bake a delicious chocolate chip cake for Easter dinner dessert, ATTEMPT to curl Abby's hair in those cute little perfect Shirley Temple curls (I'll show you in my next post how THAT one came out! I guess I am NOT a beautician!), paint both Abby's and my toenails cute pink, got to...oh, I guess that's 5! As I said, the next post will tell you all about our Easter!

Things I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Geez, how do you answer a question like that?! I guess I would pay off our student loans, buy a car that has less than 100,000 miles on it, okay, buy ANOTHER car that has less than 100,000 miles on it! Donate a lot to our church and other wonderful organizations that would help other people in many ways, maybe a new house, invest, save and save some more for Abby and other future children's college--okay, so I'd probably indulge myself with a new wardrobe and a personal trainer post-baby! And maybe a book or two...

3 of my bad habits: Still a nail-biter, unfortunately, stressing too much and not taking the time to "smell the roses", and last but not least, CHEESE! Anytime, anywhere, any kind (except bleu!)

5 places I have lived: Virginia Beach, VA, Goose Creek, SC, Provo, UT, Burney, Gridley, Auburn and Paradise, CA, Seneca, SC, Florence, SC-more than 5 I know, but I had to put them all!

Jobs I have had: Camp Sunshine for Kids-counselor, Berkeley County After-School Program at Howe Hall Elem, BYU Morris Center Dishwasher, SWKT Copy Center-Copy girl, Moneyline Lending Phone Sales, Provo Library PERC intern, BI-LO deli, Joe's Tax Service-receptionist, Clemson University Bookstore Bookkeeper, Mom to Abby

Things people don't know about me: See previous post from when I was tagged the last time!

Easter pics coming soon...

Can I post with no pics or what? I think I can!

Okay, so today I realized how long ago my last post was! Even though I check everyone else's blog EVERYDAY, I've been a slacker with my own! So I figured it really is okay to post without putting a bunch of pics! So here you go...
I only have 3 weeks of my first trimester left and believe me, I'm ready for the nausea to end! I don't remember feeling this sick with Abby. Everyone says that means it's a boy, but my sister, Sarah insists it's a girl (whose name she says will be Sarah, by the way-I'm not so sure.) And even Abby is talking every day about her "baby stister"-but every once in a while she comes out with something about her "brudder", too, so how can ya tell, eh? Oh, well...still plenty of time before we'll find that out!
Life is great! Ours has been filled with plans for the future. Will Abby stay in the small room or should we move her to the larger one at the end of the hall and put the baby in the room next to ours? When do we need to move her out of the crib and into a real bed-yes, she's STILL in the crib and never even tries to get out! We need to get her potty-trained-when? By the way, we already tried once and she DID NOT get it! And Josh has started training for a bike ride in July. A while back, he used to be really into biking and even did the BRAG (Bike Ride Across Georgia) twice and across Missouri once with a bunch of his family members! Now, 15 years or so later, they've decided they want to try again-this time the RAGBRAI (Bike Ride Across Iowa), so his goal is to lose 40 lbs by then and train his little heart out, so it will be the least painful as possible! His uncle and his mom are planning to go too, and they all think I'm a saint for saying he could do it, considering I will just be getting into my 3rd trimester by that time. But my philosophy is if it will make him happy and motivate him to lose the weight and gain better health, which he's been wanting to do forever, it will be totally worth it! And it will force me to eat as healthy as possible, so I can help him!
Josh will be shrinking as I'm getting as big as a house! I love it! I'll post again soon!