Halfway through!!

 Thank you, Nadia for this sweet TARDIS shirt called "All of Time and Space" from threadless.com. I love it! It was one of my Christmas morning surprises.

I am 20 weeks today, y'all. HALLELUJAH.

I had an OB appointment the day after Christmas and the baby is measuring great. I am still -1 lb. from my pre-pregnancy weight, which gave my doctor some concern, but honestly my other pregnancies were the same way--and I had extra chub beforehand this time--so I'm not too worried. I have been eating normally (finally no nausea, yay!) but maybe the stress of the holidays compounded things? I don't know. But even at the expense of my body, the baby is growing fine, so that's what matters. I've been able to feel her kick since 15 weeks and she can be very squirmy. Mark has been able to feel her a couple of times.

On Dec. 17, I had my big ultraound and we didn't get super clear pictures because the baby was thrashing around and covering her face with her arms. But all the parts are there and she's so cute!

 It's still a girl, thank heavens!

The last one is a side view of her little feet and toes. :)

I guess I will get at least one more look at her at 30 weeks, so that will be exciting.

We still don't officially have a name yet, but we have a short list. We each like a different one, so who knows what it will end up being. I haven't sewed anything for her yet, have no nursery plans since she'll be sharing a room and figuring that out will be a doozy, and am just hoping that I'll have plenty of time to get all that done.

My heart stuff is getting more frequent and the episodes are stronger, and I started to black out in the shower twice the other day. So fingers crossed that I can still carry on and do the stuff I need to do before she gets here! 

12 years!

Oct. 2001, Kolob Utah. Picture by Pamela Terry. This is a scan of a 3x5 print. This was pre-digital photo days because we are ancient dinosaurs.

 
Yesterday was our 12 year anniversary!! Wow, that's a long time. Every year, we have dreams of a fantastic anniversary trip, but it usually ends up being decidedly less fancy. (I mean, who has any money left by Dec. 28th?? Even if you haven't been bled dry from medical bills.)

So we spent most of the day deep cleaning the house and putting all the Christmas stuff and new toys away, taking trips to the attic and storage unit and gathering recycling. If you think that's super romantic, check out my gift for Mark! Tire cables!! Whoo!! But honestly he's been needing them for years and now he'll be much less likely to slide off the road and crash during our next big snowstorm. And really, a clean house = happy wife, so that was all okay with me.

We did want to go see a movie though (free movie passes, drink and popcorn!) so we went to go see Catching Fire. ALSO so romantic! Ha! Blood and violence! But since we've both read the book series, it was one we wanted to see.

My brother and sister-in-law Paul and Nikki came over with their son Cove and watched the kids. They played with finger puppets and watched Planes and had a great time. Thanks, guys!

 

Then we went out to Applebee's because we had a gift card (thank you, ROTC--Mark did some new recruit physicals for them and they gave it to us). The kids ate like we hadn't fed them for days and it was nice to not have to cook dinner.

I'm just grateful to get to spend every day with someone as loving and patient as Mark. I'm so glad we got married all those years ago and am looking forward to another great year. :)

 After the kids had a bath, Luke fell asleep on the couch and Tiger came and snuggled with him. (SO CUTE!) He slept on Madelyn's bed the night before. He's finally figuring out that it's better to just chill out with the family instead of meowing every two seconds and getting shut in the laundry room all night! Hurray!

Christmas recap

There are 363 days till next Christmas--YAY!

This year's was lovely and great but I am thrilled that it's over for now.

Christmas Eve we actually got the house neat and tidy (for Santa, which is good motivation for the kids) and they played nicely together with Luke's Little People camper set from his birthday. Wishing I hadn't gotten them so many new toys now...Earlier in the day, Mark and the kids went out with his company on a horse and carriage to deliver presents to some needy families. They had fun but it took forever and they're hoping that if they have to do it next year, they'll just stick to going in a truck so it won't take three hours out in the cold to visit three houses!

We watched a Charlie Brown Christmas special, read some Christmas stories and ended with The Night Before Christmas. And then Madelyn couldn't get to sleep till 11:30pm, compounded by the fact that Mark had told her Santa would skip our house if she was still awake. THANKS, DEAR. So we were all up very very late.

But Santa finally did come!

 

 Luke was still sick and was cranky getting up, until he saw the new train set Santa had left. Then it was present opening frenzy for everyone for a while. Madelyn's favorite present was her Animal doll and dragon blanket. Mark's was his new Turtle Beach XBox headset, and Luke's was his giant new green dart gun.

Mine was my new nerdy tees. I got this George Harrison one for myself, and a Doctor Who/Belle one, and Nadia got me a TARDIS one. I also got twelve new gray hairs that had sprouted sometime during the past two weeks from stress. AWESOME.

Madelyn eventually dragged Tiger out from under our bed to join the festivities.

Then I crashed and had to take a nap for a few hours because I hadn't had a good night's rest in weeks and could not physically go on. Mark took a nap too, then we had lunch and finally lumbered out to the car to visit friends and family for the rest of the day at 2:30 pm.

First we swung by and saw our friends the Jowers in Toquerville. Madelyn and Kelty remind me of Rapunzel pre and post-haircut (one with long blond hair and the other with a  choppy brunette bob). The weather was so nice!!

 Then we went to see my brother Kevin and his family. They are living in his wife Lori's parent's house with their three kids Hattie, Jack and Gary. My parents and Megan also came over so we could exchange gifts and stuff. We gave Gary a new vacuum and he loves it. His daddy was totally obsessed with vacuums as a little kid, it's so funny that his son is now too.

 Megan got a Maurader's Map (from Harry Potter). It was sooo cooollll.

And then we all went upstairs and had a huge turkey dinner (even though we hadn't been planned on or invited). But the Reeves are so friendly and there was a ton of food so they welcomed us to eat.

 

 My mom and Gary. He is a delicious baby. She said, "He looks like a Murset!" Well, he IS a Murset.

 

 Then we went over to Mark's parent's house. Thankfully they only live about five minutes from everybody else we were visiting.

 Mark's mom had bought this sweet wooden ping pong ball catapult and the kids LOVED it. Luke asked me, "Mama, can we buy this?" Haha

 It's always fun to visit Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Frank! (Luke had just started in on a tantrum--long day.)

Then we finally got home and crashed. The next day I had a doctor's appointment and a ton of errands to run. The kids stayed in their jammies the entire day and we didn't get much accomplished.

 

Although the kids had used Madelyn's new decorative edge scissors to make confetti.....we spent all day today cleaning up and putting Christmas decorations away. There are still odds and ends to do tomorrow, but thank heavens the worst of it is over. I'm planning on sleeping in every single day until the kids get back in school. Can I get an amen?!?

Merry Christmas from the Yoders 2013!

In case you didn't get our Christmas card this year. We still love you, we just can't afford the postage.

Merry Christmas from the Yoders!       2013

Mark is still at Premier Pediatrics as a physician assistant—soon to be five years there. He is busy with lots of patients at the clinic and newborns to see at the hospital. He enjoys his work but loves to come home and unwind with online video games (Xbox and computer). His mom said something at Thanksgiving about how she thought he’d have outgrown such things by now, but since he’s 35 and still going strong, it probably will never happen. He is a great dad and husband and does most of the dishes.

Melissa is four months pregnant with her third (and last) baby, a girl!! She is due May 19^th 2014 and had a rough first trimester, but is finally feeling better. She was diagnosed with Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia (IST) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), low blood pressure and low blood volume, so that makes pregnancy and everyday life more challenging. She keeps busy with the kids, church, her blog and her online jewelry shop, which is in its sixth year.

Madelyn turned nine on Dec. 21^st and is in 3^rd grade! She is a great reader, loves art and science and wants to be a marine biologist. She is in her third year of gymnastics and is doing well. She loves watching Mythbusters and BBC shows with us and has been looking forward to seeing the second Hobbit movie in theaters for her birthday all year. She is super excited to have a baby sister.

Luke is four and is a smarty pants. He taught himself to read this year and can read kindergarten and first grade level books. He started preschool in the fall at our local music studio and loves every minute of it. He will have to do preschool for a second year before he can finally start “real” school in 2015. He loves play guns and swords, books, vintage Fisher-Price little people, snow and ice (so he can eat it) and likes to watch his daddy play video games.

 

This past week, we found ourselves with a big fluffy ginger cat named Tiger that used to belong to a family in our ward. He is eight years old and is very sweet and mellow. Mark and the kids especially are smitten with him. We think he’ll fit right in.

Hope this coming year is a great one, and that we can all keep in touch!

♥ The Yoders Four

Tiger

Well, this was unexpected.

We got a cat last week.

Mark is famously allergic to the cats my parents have had. He had cats growing up but has always gotten so congested around my parent's cats that we just assumed we could never have one. But he knows we both love cats, so he had told our friend Cam, who is a veterinarian, to look out for one for us several months ago.

Cam has called us about potential cats off and on, but I've always said no.

Enter Friday the 13th this month. I was minding my own business at home and got a call out of the blue from Lisa Boneck, who is in our ward and a super nice lady. She said their family's cat needed a new home (she had already called Mark, who deferred to me). She was allergic to him and was tired of not being able to sit on her own couches for the past 8 years that they'd had him. She was getting new furniture that day and so needed him out of the house. For some inexplicable reason I found myself agreeing to let them bring him over to meet him! She said we could give him a trial run for a week to see if Mark had a problem with him.

Mark was very surprised that I'd said yes! He got home for lunch and had to fetch him from behind the dryer. Poor thing was so nervous and scared he was shaking for the first couple of days.

Luke was extremely excited and also freaked out about the cat--he has been scratched and swiped at by both his grandparent's cats. He always had to be on top of something or have someone holding him. For days, any time the cat started walking around Luke would be like, "SAVE ME!!!" and run to you. Thankfully, this cat (named Tiger) is not aggressive at all so Luke had nothing to be worried about.

Madelyn got the surprise of her life that day when she came home from school! She could not be more thrilled.

 

Unfortunately, by that night, we could tell that Luke was having an allergic reaction to him. He had been petting him and then touching his face, and his eyes were all red and inflamed. :/

 The next day, Tiger found this teeny hole underneath our cabinets where some of the paneling had fallen down and crawled in there. He stayed in there for hours. While I was out running errands, Mark called to tell me they'd gotten him out, and since he was covered in sawdust (and lint from the dryer) and tons of dander, he gave him a bath with some cat shampoo he'd bought. 

"Did he try to claw your eyes out??!" (Thinking of my old cat growing up and the one time we gave her a bath.) He said he tried to get out of the tub but otherwise just let him wash him. I was amazed!

Then Mark bought some cat nail clippers and trimmed down his claws because he was scratching stuff. Tiger just kind of laid there and let him do it. I'm telling you, this is the most docile cat I have ever met.

We had to give Luke Claritin for a couple of days until we could get him in for an NAET allergy treatment at the chiropractor's. Since he was treated for the dander, he hasn't had any more problems! Mark hasn't had a reaction to him, either. He's been grooming him every night and getting rid of all sorts of fur. We'll have to keep the baths up, but I'm so glad we will be okay on the allergy front.

He loves the fish tank. Madelyn likes to give him a stool so that he can see them/swipe at them better.

 

 Isn't he beautiful?? I have always wanted a ginger cat, they are my favorite.

 

 Luke's getting braver with him. Tiger puts up with him rumpling his fur the wrong way and all sorts of other things.

 

 He likes to hide under stuff. That has been our only real issue--that he likes to hide under my bed all day and then finally come out at night--sometimes right as we are all going to bed. Then he wants tons of attention and meows incessantly. We've had to start shutting him in the laundry room because he's so loud. And if the door is not latched completely, he can get out. Or get into the garage and knock down stuff. So that's fun. You think he's in his room and suddenly there he is again yowling at you at 2:00 in the morning.

 

On Thursday, we tried closing all the bedroom doors and keeping him out all day so we could try to train him to be awake during the day. Sleep training a cat! HA! It's as ridiculous as it sounds. Not only did it not work--but we lost him for a while. We couldn't find him anywhere and I finally found him shimmied under the recliner.

I have no idea how such a big cat squeezed in there, but he got in there a second time and finally we had to leave the chair tipped over so he couldn't go back in.

(Mark loves anything that will cuddle with him.) Eventually we realized that part of why he meows at night is because he wants to go outside, but we're afraid he wouldn't come back if we let him out. He might find his way back to his old owners up the street, but he might just get lost. He doesn't like the snow, but we still want to wait a while longer before letting him out. Plus he needs a collar or a microchip or something first.

 "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!" 

We found out later that his owners couldn't find a place for him and he was at the vet, about to be put to sleep, when Cam told them to call us! I'm so glad they did. If we were ever going to have a cat, we needed one just like him that loves to be held and pet and is so good with kids.

  

 There's no way the kids would allow us to give him back, anyway. :)

♥

Madelyn is NINE!

Holy smokes, has it been a week since I posted?? I have so much I've been needing to post about. Oh well. Luke's been sick for the past 5 days and it started developing into pneumonia, so on top of the crazy birthday weekend/Christmas scramble I'm sleep deprived and exhausted even more because of that. I JUST LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR.

Anyhoo, Madelyn turned nine on Saturday!! I can't believe it!!

This was when she was five--I don't have baby pictures of her on the computer. But my, how she and Luke have grown!

Our very busy day started with choir practice at the church--I had to be there for the ward choir and Madelyn for the Primary. Everyone sang to her as a surprise at the end and then had donuts and juice afterward (not for her birthday specifically but it was fun). Then I had promised to take her and her "BFF" Emma out for ice cream.

 Her friend Kamryn came, too. Those three together are something else.

 Madelyn is the oldest of the bunch but they all had to flash me nine fingers. I can't believe I have a PRETEEN.

 

 We browsed around the cute little shops downtown, got ice cream at Bulloch Drug and the girls each got a blinged out jewelly Christmas ornament.

 After that, Emma came to watch her open her birthday presents.

 After lunch we hopped in the car and drove down to St. George. We dropped Luke off at his cousins Nathan and Ava's and we went to see The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. 

Finallyyyyyyyy!!!!!

 It was all she wanted to do for her birthday all year. That's my girl! She loved the movie (we all did), despite being disappointed that they left out the scene in Mirkwood where Bombur falls into the enchanted stream and falls asleep for days and the other dwarves have to carry him around.

 Her auntie Meg had just come home from college and was able to come with us! She is twice Madelyn's age at 18 and I think it's really weird that I had a baby when my sister was only 9 years old.

 

We went and got Luke and drove by the St. George Temple on the way out of town to see the Christmas lights. So pretty!

 The next day, I finally got around to making her birthday dinner, potato soup (her favorite). We had sparkling cider and even got out our goblets for the occasion.

 Luke just had to use one, too.

And tonight we finally got around to having her birthday cake! It was a store bought cheesecake and not quite as good as mine, but I just didn't have the time or energy to make one this year. 

♥♥♥♥♥Happy birthday to my smart, sweet, spunky, sensitive and super little girl!!! ♥♥♥♥♥