The Eye of the Storm

I am now 24 weeks, and feel like I am in "the eye of the storm". I am passed the miserably sick 1st trimester and enjoying the 2nd before I head into the miserably large 3rd trimester. I stopped being sick right at 13 weeks, and my energy came back around that point too. Before that, however, I learned that throwing up anything with milk is nasty, and throwing up in bed is not fun.

Baby Penny is growing well, and the doctor says she's strong for her age. She is already taking after her mother and showing her true colors. When I spoon Scott, she kicks him in the back. When he puts his mouth on my tummy to talk to her, she kicks him in the mouth. The doctor was trying to listen to her heartbeat 2 days ago, and she started kicking the doppler. We will have our hands full for sure! She is very active and also gets the hiccups a lot.

When we got our last ultrasound they saw something that they wanted to have checked out, so we got sent in for a level 3 anatomy scan, which just means another ultrasound with a radiologist and a doctor looking at it that they can charge you a lot of money for. Everything was fine with her, but it was kinda fun because we got another look at her. Here are a couple of shots from that:


In that last one she is sucking her finger, again, just like her mom. Oh yay. We are very excited for her to join us in a few months and already love her so much!

Yes, he did.

So lucky to have him

IT'S A...

big...

beautiful...

healthy...

GIRL!!!

Update on Elder Dimick

Elder Dimick has been in the field for 3 1/2 months now and he's doing great! He is such a hard worker, and he is really loving the people and the gospel. He spent the first 3 months in Illinois. Here he is, working hard:
This is one of my favorite stories from him:

"Whenever we call our mission president with a date, its a really fun and awesome experience. The reason it is, is because you would expect him to be serious business most of the time. He loves a good time though. Whenever we call President Hutchings to tell him we set another baptismal date, we just tell him we have something to ask him, ( the first time we asked him, what do we do when somebody wants to get baptized? ) and after we say that to him, we just start screaming in the phone! Its awesome! It doesn't even make sense why we would do this but we just start scream/cheering in the phone and he does it back! It is one of the most ridiculously awesome things ever!"

A month ago he got to do his first baptism, which he was very excited about:

"We decided I would be the one to tell President Hutchings about it. So I called him and I said hey president, I have a question. I said it in a semi-serious voice (we love making him worry over nothing) and then I asked, "what should I do if someone wants to get baptized?" And he replied something along the lines of, "Well Elder, tell them no, its too much paper work and it makes the water bill go up and it is just way too much work for all of us." I love him ! He loves joking around with us as well, and after that we did the normal screaming at each other in excitement. "

Last week he finally made it to Tennessee! He became a trainer and district leader! In his last email he said,

"Last Wednesday I heard about a guy passing away who was in our ward. The guy had been less-active for awhile, and it made me so sad that I wasn't able to bring him back to church. About a week before he passed away, he called us and told us that he wanted to feed us if we were ever around his house. We never got to see him because of how things worked out, and it was really sad that he was less-active. It kind of opened up my eyes, and made me realize that we need to really repent daily, and always be reading to go back to our home with God. A talk in general conference I heard, someone said that a person who is afraid to die, or thinks it will come too soon, is a person who is not living life how they should be. Do all of you feel like you are able to meet the Savior today, with how you are in life?"

We are so proud of him! Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Locks of Love

15 inches

My 3rd time! It's easy to donate. You just need a minimum of 10 inches, and they'll take your hair even if it's dyed, etc. Click here to donate.

2nd trimester

The second trimester is awesome! It hit right at the perfect time: when we got to New York! The nausea is gone and my energy is back! During the first trimester I would come home from work and go to bed. And sleep for the next 12 hours. I hated our house, because I didn't feel well enough to clean it very well, or to hardly put anything away. Now I am feeling great, and scrubbing the place from top to bottom! I am very much enjoying feeling good again so I can do one of my favorite things: organize. Now I love our house again! Here is my 15 week photo:
Yes, I'm in that wonderful stage where you just look FAT and not prego, and where all your regular clothes won't fit anymore but the maternity clothes are still too big. We've heard the baby's heart beat (now we know it's a human being and not a tumor), and we have another appointment tomorrow, but we probably won't find out the sex for another month. We are stockpiling baby clothes and trying to clear out things to make room for another person here. We are very excited and loving it all!