Drum roll please!!.........

We had our 20 week ultrasound today. Princess came with Ben and I into the ultrasound in hopes that she would be told she was having a baby sister......the ultrasound tech said, Oh, look at that...

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BOY!!!!!

We are happy and excited! Princess will be the only princess in this house for now! He is healthy and measuring exactly on for his age.

We couldn't be happier!

I'm not going crazy!

Today I lost my keys. Not an uncommon occurrence. I am a space cadet and often *carry and drop* things that are in my hands.

Lately Ikey has taken an interest in driving me crazy and in so doing loves to take things that he shouldn't and then laugh at me.

So this morning I had BIG plans. I was getting Princess off to school and trying to get everyone ready so I could meet up with some friends at the old Bean Museum on BYU campus. It was going to be great! Dead animals and the Creamery. What could be better than that? 

Stroller packed? check. Diaper bag stocked? check. Shoes on? check. With my keys in hand.....keys? Where are the keys? Crap. I knew it wasn't me this time! I had already hit my quota this week for loosing them. They were on the hook.....oh crap! The stool is under the hook. IKKKKEEEEYYYYY! Where's mommy's keys? He starts to laugh. Not funny.

A half an hour later, I am still looking everywhere. I had to call my friends and bail out. Sigh. I was so looking forward to getting out!

So after a whole day of finagling the schedule and a good brisk walk to get the carpool from school (they all LOVED that!) I finally made it home.

Here's where it gets weird. Ben is a genius. He really is, but his mind is a little crazy. After looking in the usual hiding spots, he pulls out the screw driver. Honey? What are you unscrewing?

HONEY, I FOUND YOUR KEYS!!

You're all dying to know where, right? Oh, the sub woofer. You know, the speaker that men worship? Yes folks. Underneath our TV in a closet door is said sub woofer and Ikey found little tiny holes and has been stashing away toys (and my keys) for a rainy day.

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Do you see them?

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Now the big question. WHY would Ben think to look in there. You see, a long, long time ago when our oldest nephew, James was a toddler he lost Ben's keys when Ben was in High school. The keys were lost for a very long time. James just turned 15 this last week.  Ikey was just following his cousin's example. Thanks James!

This and That

Some people have asked since I've been talking a lot about my pregnant belly for a picture....here I am in all my glory at a mere 18 weeks. ENJOY!

In other good news, I have been baking bread a little bit this year. The bad news, I can't make them beautiful. They taste good so I guess that's all that matters. This loaf I made this morning is a little lopsided.

The lopsided-ness is only made worse by G-man taking a huge bite out of the hot bread..gotta love it! Hey, it's what I would want to do!

Can I just say...

It's bad when I went to church yesterday and 4 people say "Wow, when are you due?" Uggh! Am I really that big?? I do feel bigger this time around than I did with Ikey, but Geez! If I have to hear that every week from now until August, I'm going to scream!! :)

(Pregnant hormonal vent over)

Random Happenings...

I haven't updated in a while. Here's what's been happening this last month:

M. RUSSELL BALLARD: On Valentine's Day, Elder Ballard came to our stake for conference. With my calling we were given the opportunity to serve a dinner for our families and the Stake Presidency along with Elder Ballard and Elder Wheeler of the 70. It was such an amazing experience for him to go around the room and shake all of our hands. I only had Ben and Princess with me. I didn't think that G-man and Ikey would care much. He was very jovial and had a very sweet temprament. I was happy to have the experience to meet that man. Two things that really spoke to me that he taught us during that Stake Conference, 

• Pray daily as a couple to keep our marriages strong. This will not only give us a united purpose, but also give us daily opportunity to see your spouse as the Lord sees them.
• Stop and be still. Make a daily effort to listen for the personal revelation that you need in your life.

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PRINCESS fasted for the first time on fast Sunday at the beginning of March. She is preparing to be baptised in May and she is trying to do all that the Lord wants her to do. It was really hard and a struggle near the end of the fast, but I was proud of her for making that effort. I know Heavenly Father was aware of her.

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SAD NEWS: My sweet sister in law Jenny went to the doctor because she felt like something wasn't right. After a battle they diagnosed her with anemia. After undergoing further tests she found out this week that she has Malignant stomach cancer. This has affected Ben and I deeply because we have seen cancer first hand with Ben's sister and her husband Jay who passed away three years ago. Jenny's diagnosis is good and they are being aggressive in their treatment. We love you guys and know that you are being guided and watched over! You are in our thoughts and prayers!

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Last, my belly is getting bigger. I'm at that weird don't fit into anything stage. Maternity clothes look ridiculous and  my clothes are tight and make me look gross! Ugh!! Oh well! I'm not on bedrest anymore which is a real blessing! I started feeling the baby about 2 weeks ago. We find out what the little squirt is at the end of this month...

Fire?

Reading my email, a friend of mine (who was with me when my wife called about the house being on fire) suggested that the smoke might have come from the dishwasher. I walked right over to the dishwasher which had already begun its heated dry cycle, and removed this wooden spoon from the heating element.

Nice call Jeff, thanks!

FIRE!!!!!!!

I had am interesting night last night. It started out great! Ben came home from work, we ate dinner and then he left with his youth group to go to SLC to my brother Rick's game. I put the kids to bed and settled in to watch American Idol. I had just gotten done watching when all of a sudden I smelled a very strong smell. Almost like burning rubber/melting wax. I started running all around the house trying to figure out what the smell was. It started getting a little smokey and I started panicking! I got the phone and called 911. She got my information and then told me to get the kids out! I ran upstairs. I knew that G-man would be hard because he is so big and I can't carry him. Also he is my deepest sleeper so I said a prayer! Guess who was an answer to my prayer? Princess! I yelled "Princess, we have to get G-man up!" She went in and started wiggling him. She grabbed his hand and yelled into his ear, FIRE! G-man! We need to go see the fire truck! That did it!! 

In the mean time I got Ikey and we all ran out across the street to the neighbors. It was so cold last night and none of us had shoes on! The police came first. I was just feeling sick. With anxiety, stress. The police made me sit down and a neighbor brought a blanket. The police started asking questions. There was no visible smoke on the outside of the house, but it was just weird. Also, there fire alarms had NOT gone off. Why? I don't know. 

At this point I can hear all the sirens coming. Wow. This was not really happening. You always imagine what you'll do when you have an emergency like these. I have actually been thinking (stressing) about this a lot lately. I had just watched a 20/20 episode during the day on what to do in an emergency situation. They say 80% of people just freeze. 10% jump into action. 10% make the situation worse. 

By now the fire truck and accompanying ambulance are just down the street and all the neighbors start coming out in droves. Inside the neighbors house I can hear my boys screaming because they've just been plucked from their beds and are just upset. 

The fire truck pulled up and the head fireman comes to me and starts asking me a lot of questions. I answered them to the best of my ability and then he asked if we felt sick. I had a burning feeling in the back of my throat. I said that my daughter had complained of a stomach ache earlier in the evening, but this is not uncommon. When Princess is tired, everything dramatically starts to hurt. So we asked G-man if he felt sick and he said no. Princess and I were taken to the ambulance and we got all hooked up to carbon monoxide monitors. That all came back negative but my heart was racing. The medic said, "Well, that's not uncommon."...YOU THINK? :) At this point I borrowed a neighbors cell phone and called Ben. I said, "Don't freak out ok?" He immediately was like, what happened! I told him not to speed because there were YM in his car and everything was under control. I later learned that he did speed a little to get home.

So in the meantime, the crew of firemen went into the house. They were in there forever! The head guy came out and said they didn't get it because the smell was so strong but they had checked all the electrical outlets, pulled out all our appliances, gone into the attic, and the furnace, Washer/Dryer, and the garage. Thermal sensors said that nothing was hot or toxic but it just didn't make sense because you could see the smoke.

Sigh. So, they cleared us to go back into the house. The smell made me sick and I just couldn't sleep because of the anxiety. Just not knowing what is going on is driving me crazy! So we have the furnace and A/C people coming today to check our furnace (which is less than a year old).

We shall see. 

To be continued.....