Shoveling

We recently had unheard of good weather for this part of the country in the winter. All of the snow from the huge storms melted away, and the highs were in the 40-50's. It was a lot of fun to be able to go out and play in the warmer weather (although it was VERY muddy). Heather loved splashing in all of the puddles, but unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures.

It snowed again yesterday (not much), and it is cold and windy again. Heather and I went out to help daddy shovel the snow...okay, I just stood there looking very pregnant, but that's beside the point. :)

An action shot of Heather "helping." This snow wasn't as heavy as normal, so it was a lot easier for her to push it around. The trick was getting her to push it in the right direction. :)

I love this one!

Making snow angels... actually, she fell in a hole in our neighbors lawn (where a tree used to be), and couldn't get up, so she just laid there.

Trying to get out of the hole. She sure got a kick out of slipping and falling back in.

The reason we went inside. Check out the size of her lip!

 We don't really have any amazing news. Life is life. Some days are good, some days are hard. Daniel is doing well at school. He is about to start his last research rotation, and we can't believe we are already more than half way through the first year in school. YAY!

I am doing well. I am experiencing all of the normal pregnancy symptoms for this stage...you know, backaches, fatigue, ravenous hunger, ornery for "no reason," nesting, swollen (not half as bad as I was with Heather), weird dreams about the baby, not to mention crying at the drop of a hat...or over spilled water (yes water, but it was for the millionth time!), over-exaggerations, jealous that Daniel can lay on his stomach...Yeah...all those things...and lets be honest, there's probably more. But sooner than we know, it will all be over, and we will have a beautiful new baby boy.

I know you all (ahem...Johannah...) keep bugging me about posting pictures of the pregnancy. Here we are at 37 weeks (and counting...).

I win! I didn't even have to puff my chest, hold by breath, and arch my back. ;)

We love you all, and hope you are staying warm!

Heather's Latest

I know this video is long overdue. Sorry about that. It is impossible to capture all the wonderful moments with Heather in our lives, but we hope we can give you a glimpse into her happy self here. A warning to those short on time: it's a long video...sorry. :)

Obeying

Heather has been going through a lot of emotional...development lately (we'll put it nicely). Up until a few weeks ago, there is nothing she could do to raise my blood pressure, even at her worst. Now it seems she's found my buttons and she is pushing them, although most of the time it's not intentional.

During times like this, I try to remember the many reasons I love her. She really is so cute and so smart, and yesterday I had a wonderful reminder. I was washing the dishes when Heather came up to me, dropped a pair of my shoes at my feet, and looked up with an expectant look. I said hi and continued doing the dishes. She waited for a bit, then started trying to pick up my feet and put them in the shoes. Finally, I gave in and started slipping my feet into the shoes. As I did so, her face lit up and she said "thank you for obeying, daddy!"

Caught Red-handed

I walked into the kitchen this morning, and this is what I saw:

Heather used her "car" as a footstool, and got into the muffins.

She doesn't even look guilty does she...she ate the tops of 6 muffins!

Riding away in her car...

The moment you've all been waiting for

So basically...we are still alive and nothing much has changed. We are still busy. I am still pregnant, and Heather is still cute. Since the first two of the previous items are boring. I will focus on the third. Heather!

When Heather was a little baby, we started a journal for her. It is a place that we write about what she's doing, how she's developing, and memories that we want to keep. It has gotten a lot more fun recently, because Heather is finally doing cute things that are fun to remember. I mean, who cares how much she weighed at her two month appointment! I want to remember all the funny and cute things she says and does! Here are a couple of recent updates.

• Heather puts her firefighter hat on and says "he-er-hi-er-hi-der."

• Heather has started singing more. She loves to sing her ABC's and also Old McDonald. This is the best video I could get...

• She comes into the kitchen when I am cooking, points at the stove and says, "berry, berry hot, Berrrry hot!" 
• At the dinner table one night she started signing baby and singing "baby, baby, baby, baby..." then she suddenly stopped and said "Awww...."
• When Heather finishes something hard for her, or when she comes inside when it's really cold she'll say "whew!"
• When she wants held or just a hug she'll tilt her head to one side, put her hands out, and say "mmeeeerre" (come here). 
• Heather seems to have a hard time with the "Pl" sound. When she wants to say "play," it comes out like "pbbbbay" (the b's here represent lip buzzing). She does the same thing with "plate."
• We had the missionaries over for dinner recently. For dessert we had apple crisp. During the holiday season (in other words, the time of a surplus of pie) Daniel and I would say "Heather do you want some pah?" (pie...southern accent). When we brought out the dessert that night, Heather said "Oh! Pah!!" The missionaries got a kick out of it. I guess we are raising a little southern belle. 
• Heather has been singing a long during her bedtime songs. I love it! 
• She is also starting to whistle. Neither of us has tried to teach her, she just started doing it. 
• We recently got some Fancy Nancy books at the library. Heather has started saying "Ooh, la-la!" at random. :)