O.k., here's the proof

Krista, here's the proof. Mike actually took this picture before I put the post on so rest assured this is real. It's quite embarrassing! I'm hoping I'm retaining water so the weight goes away quicker.

The Shelf

I can balance a water bottle on my belly- and it's not hard to do. How depressing. I've gained an unspeakable amount of weight and I can't see anything below my outrageously large "baby bump". Bump? What? More like a mountain range. It's comparable to one of those large tumors that grow off those peoples faces. You know, the kind that stirs pity and some ingrown yearning inside you that wants to somehow help raise money for a medical procedure. Yes, I get those looks. With my other two, I always got comments like, "Wow, you look MAYBE 6 months pregnant.", or "I would never have guessed you were full-term!" Now, it's the "tumor" look with a sigh, followed by a "Hon, how much longer do you have? You poor thing. You look like you're just about to burst!" Yeah, thanks. Oh, and by the way, just because the belly sticks out into the neighbors yard does NOT give you the right to rub, touch, pat, or talk to the belly. I grew it, so HANDS OFF! Can you tell I am just about finished with this whole "blessed event"? I honestly pray every night for my water to break. Any sign of a contraction or some unexplainable pain brings tears of joy. This is how God planned it, you know. To make it so unbearable at the end that the woman will go through any kind of pain to be done!

Mike is OLDer- Happy B-day

Mike had a birthday yesterday. He's 28!!!! I'm usually at school with him to embarrass him, but since I wasn't there, I called one of the counselors to do it for me. It was the last day of school, so they had an assembly. They announced to everyone that Mr. Winslow was finally turning 18. I wish I had been there. Anyway, the kids decorated the house and we went to lunch with Daddy and some friends. I let the kids pick out their own gifts for him. It was HILARIOUS! Tyson picked out a ceramic, fuzzy dog, and Anna gave him a princess journal. It was so cute. They also got him an Indiana Jones Mr. Potato Head. Beth and Chad came over for dinner then watched the kids while we went to see Indiana Jones. It was a good date, but not the best movie. We'll tell you about it later. Anyway, Mike had a fun day. WE LOVE YOU MIKE/DADDY!

Pre-School Graduation

Tyson graduated from pre-school on Thursday! He was SO cute! They each had a line or two to say. He almost memorized his lines. They sung a lot of songs and all with sign language. The program summed up what they had learned the whole school year. Here are some pictures I took. The battery was dead on the video camera, so I could not get it in action. Sorry. The class singing a song.

Tyson's first line was about authors and composers. A good fit for him.

The happy kidlets together. Anna loves this stuff!

And the much anticipated graduation picture. They gave us scrapbook pages inside the manila envelope of work from the whole school year. His progress has been amazing.

CONGRATULATIONS TYSON! WE LOVE YOU AND ARE VERY PROUD!

To those who need/want to know.....

I have received a few e-mails wanting to know if a baby is here yet. No, I'm still pregnant, but don't think it's going too long or anything, I'm just barely 37 weeks. Those of you who are worried about the whole seizure thing, don't worry either.

A few people have asked why they are not just doing a c-section. Well, it is more detrimental to the baby and me to have ANY medication (aka epidural, spinal block, even gas). All have a higher risk of sending me into a seizure. It is much safer for me to have this baby the old fashioned way and we've spent a lot of time (and money) preparing for that. All I need is a few extra crazy pills at the beginning of labor and during labor and that should be able to keep the head problems at bay.

I have a great staff of doctors who have been monitoring me and little Brayden the whole pregnancy and they have all agreed on a protocol for the birth that will keep both me and the baby safe. If I seize, they will let me go through a couple of them in labor. If I have multiple seizures and they keep coming, they will give me Valium to stop the seizures, but at no time will they take the baby c-section unless I have a grand-mal. I am perfectly o.k with this and prepared for it, so those of you who are scared for us, try not to be. Remember, I have been doing this whole head thing for over 2 1/2 years now and I'm pretty good at it, especially with my hubby around and a group of trained medical professionals.

So, I hope that clears a few things up and reassures those who have been sincerely worried for us. We appreciate your thoughts and concern. It is nice for us to know there are people who care about our welfare. We love you all!

Brayden Update

We had our LAST ultrasound today. He was too squished to get pictures, so we have none to post. They say he's about 6 pounds 10 ounces. I thought that was crazy because I feel like he's 10 pounds and I look like he's 20. I hope they're right, though. Maybe I won't have as big a kid as I thought. Oh, and they saw hair on his head : )

Annas Dance Recital

This is Mike doing the posting. I had a great time at Anna's Dance Recital Monday morning. Hayley was able to sub for me at school so I could go and watch. I was so proud of Anna! She was not shy, dressed up and did every dance. I was a very proud daddy! Below you can see some great pictures and video of the historic event. I love my little girl!!

This is Anna right before the dance recital. I think she is excited!

This is Anna in her Tinkerbell Outfit!

This is Anna's styling dazzle outfit. Notice the sunglasses!

The best part of being a Dad was giving my little girl some flowers!

This is after the recital having the weekly tea party with cookies. We even got our own little picnic blanket! And below that is Anna's dance teacher. She is amazing with the age group and the little girls love her.

Here is a video montage of the many dance numbers performed!

A Word to the Wise

So, ever thought about renting out your home? DON'T DO IT!!!! We found our new house in October. We felt so good about it (and still do) so we bought it without selling our condo. We tried to sell it for 3 months with it empty, but with no bites. We decided to do what anyone with two mortgages would do- rent it. We have a really great real estate agent who went through a whole lot of applicants and found someone who checked out on all points. Non-smoker, no pets, clean, sparkling references, and financially stable. We were thrilled. So, we discovered about a month into the whole thing, that what looks good on paper isn't always good.

To make this story a shorter one, we fixed something in the house every two weeks to every month. No, I'm not talking about a dent in the wall or changing a light bulb, but things like putting the garbage disposal back in the sink (um...we don't know how that got out). Our renters called us two weeks ago telling us they had a family emergency and needed to move to SLC. Well, we of course have soft spots for things like babies being in hospitals, so we let them out of their 1 yr contract. They moved out yesterday and Mike went over today to check out the place and get the keys, etc. back from the woman. He entered to find an entire strip of our railing on our stairs totally gone, stains all over the carpet in every room, a missing light fixture (what?), a hole in the pantry door, our built in bread box destroyed, etc, etc. Not to mention how many light bulbs were out (what, did these people have- built in night vision?). Keep in mind he had been over there to fix other things no less than 3 weeks ago and none of these new problems existed. OH MY GOSH!

After all that, the woman asked when she would get her deposit back! She should have asked something more like, "When will I get my bill?". It's a good thing Mike handled it with her because I'm a big, fat pregnant woman right now and the Bertha in me would have been in her face.

Oh, and the excuse for knocking out a whole stair case railing- "It fell off when we took the laundry downstairs." Well, then I think you need a few less 200 pound shirts fighting on the stairs. And to the wise, well, I think you get the picture. You are, after all, more wise than us!

I wanna be like Mike

Mike got his graduation package in the mail yesterday complete with the red gown, black cap, and pink music robe and tassel. For some reason, a genius thought music should be represented by the color pink. Whatever. Even in high school I thought that was stupid. We did not have enough announcements to send to all of you wonderful people, so consider this your official announcement. There will be a special lunch provided by you at your home on the day of his graduation. You are certainly invited to attend. You are also more than welcome to send any monetary gifts our way! JK (hee, hee)

So, we would just like to thank his mom for purchasing the set (which was not cheap), his Grandpa Bradshaw for helping A LOT with the cost of the degree, and the financial institutions that we will FOREVER be indebted to that made it possible for this graduation. I am really proud of my husband and all the work he put into this. He did it for our family, and mainly for the kids future. He's a very good man. Maybe someday I can be like him (well, except for the man part. Yikes.) Love you all!

The Land of Blog

So, I'm not sure about the rest of you bloggers out there, but sometimes I judge the success of my blog by the number of comments I get. Well, if that sets a true standard, I'm am quite the failure due to the lack of comments I receive. Well, I found a counter online and put it on our blog a couple of days ago. I expected to see the number increase by one every time I looked on our blog, BUT it turns out you people really DO look at our boring life! I'm so happy! Thank you (even if you do not post comments)! :)

The Life of Christ

We went with friends tonight to the visitor's center here in St. George. A woman has spent the last 10 years of her life depicting the life of Christ in sculptures. The exhibit will be traveling to different visitor centers across the U.S. and if you get a chance to see it, DO! It was amazing! She depicted so many very touching scenes from the scriptures in different lights than I was used to seeing them in. It was really very touching and the spirit was present there. Tyson was front and center at every new sculpture we saw and we were happy to see him recognize the stories. There was one showing Joseph in the Sacred Garden. The trees were beautiful and Christ and Heavenly Father seamed to be suspended in the air. Another showed Lazarus rising from his tomb, only the view was from within the tomb, and through the tomb's opening, you can see Christ waiting for him. Mike and I both wish we had these in our home. Anyway, like I said, if you get a chance to go you will not regret it.

GYM DAY!!!

So, today was Tyson's gym program and final gym day of the school year. The kid is doing great! He was so happy to show off his skills. Here are some of the pictures of what he can do..... Ty stretching.
The first event.
This is how boys salute after an event.
He is a PRO on the balance beam. Didn't get it from me or Mike.

This picture is a bit out of order, but this was at the very end when the kids received their awards. Ty was SO excited. His award is for being great on the balance beams.
This is Mrs. Angie. Tyson LOVES her (obviously). He looks like her son in this photo. The little girl is Olivia and she is Ty's little girlfriend. They are inseparable and the good news is that they are both going to the same school next year and Olivia's mom has requested they be put in the same class. CUTE!
Ty and Olivia are never without the other.

This is a video of Tyson on the trampoline at his gym program.

Kids Drawings

O.k., this is a picture Anna drew today. All we have seen are straight lines and circles from this kid until this week. She was drawing at the table, and when I looked, this little person was sitting on the page. I couldn't believe it! When I asked about it, she said it was her. A little work of art!
This is a picture Tyson drew at home. This shows our neighborhood with our family in and out of the homes and cars in the garages. I especially like the 2nd story garage. Very innovative.