Salt Lake Life Part 1

I'm obviously four posts behind, because all of a sudden Sam got super motivated and showed me up in the blogging world. Definitely not complaining, but today I totally realized that you guys haven't gotten to hear my take on on anything since we've moved.....which I know you've missed SO BADLY haha.

Moving
Soooooo glad it's over with! I will skip a lot of the boring packing and cleaning week, and just say that we managed to get it all done with a decent amount of efficiency. Driving with just me and Jayson in the car for three hours was about my worst nightmare, but Jayson was absolutely fantastic for me, so at least that part of our move went right! And of course, we made it to Salt Lake City safely and in one piece, so that part went right too. We are now all set up in the lowest level room of the house, and it really does feel like home for now. However, we do look forward to Jayson having his own room again in the future--he sure tosses a lot and makes obnoxious noises at night!

Baby #2
As Sam mentioned, we decided to have the same gender ultrasound as we did with Jayson, but very last minute this time. I made the appointment for Jayson two weeks before we went; this baby was more like 1.5 days. I kept going back and forth about whether I wanted to go or not for this kiddo. The experience was so fantastic when we had Jayson's session, so that wasn't the problem at all......what was holding me back this time was the money (anyone surprised??). I hate to spend money that doesn't absolutely have to be spent when we are using our rainy day funds, so I had pretty much talked myself out of the experience and was all determined to just wait it out until I get insurance and go to the OB again. However, one day I found a coupon that cut the price rather drastically if we went on a Wednesday--and there was no turning back after that.

The night we decided to go, I had a dream that we were at the appointment and found out the baby was a boy. It was almost a strange sense of deja vu for me when I woke up; I had a dream that Jayson was a boy the night before we went to his ultrasound, and he indeed turned out all boy. So, going into the appointment, I think I was already a little bit prepared to meet another boy......but of course I still kept my hopes up for a little girl. I'd love to say it's because I'm all sentimental and want to have a daughter to bond with (which is at least partially true), but I think I was really hoping for an excuse to have myself a DI shopping spree complete with pink and purple, frilly dresses, and adorable hair bows.

Anyway, fast forward to the appointment. The same guy who did Jayson's ultrasound did this one, which I thought was kind of cool. Being there on a Wednesday as opposed to a Saturday meant that they weren't as rushed, so we got to see a lot more of this little one (definite bonus in my book). We got some really great profile pictures this time; as Sam mentioned the baby was being a total ham, complete with thumb sucking and swallowing--it was the coolest thing ever to actually see live! However, this little one was in a much more tricky position than Jayson ever was, and apparently I have an anterior placenta that covers up a lot more in terms of imaging, but the tech pulled through and got a good shot of, well, the goods. I had asked for him to put up a good shot and let me have a guess, but really there was no need to hem and haw over a guess. I took one good look and could clearly see that......

I know Sam already spoiled my punch line there. But seriously, there is really NO doubt that this little one is going to be all boy too! I think I handled the news better this time, probably because I felt that I had been "prepared" by the signs around me that we were having a boy. Don't get me wrong, I was kind of bummed for a day or two, just like with Jayson. Good news is that most of the bummed feeling has passed now, and I'm looking forward to all of the great things Jayson and his little brother "Max"* are going to do together.  They will get to share a room, some clothes, and hopefully a lot of great life experiences with each other. Knowing just how much I love having a sister, I really wanted to Jayson to be able to have some sort of similar bond with a brother....and now there is no question that he will! And I certainly can't deny the overall savings it will bring us in terms of clothes and other such gender specific items--but I do have to admit that I've gotten little Max a few new things of his own too (such as long sleeved clothing necessary for a February baby) :]

I feel like this is probably getting excessively long, so I think that I will do a separate update about what has actually been going on in our lives post-move, besides finding out baby's gender. Trust me, you won't want to miss it, things are way more exciting that you might think for two currently unemployed, recently graduated people......

*My family, for whatever reason, decided to nickname this baby Max. Since Sam and I honestly have not come to any conclusions about this little guy's name, I think we will just call him Max after all, until he's born, and figure it out from there lol.

Jayson learns to clean

I know that it is not uncommon for children to learn how to clean from a young age. In fact, I would hazard a guess that it is good to raise a child in the tradition of cleaning up after themselves so that they will be perfectly picked up in their teenage years. This being the case, I have been teaching Jayson how to clean up his messes, and naturally he has been perfect at it. He cleans up every mess right after he makes it, most of the time without us even asking him to.
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Okay, yeah right. Aside from almost gagging at the amount of arrogance in that first paragraph, I don't think that Jayson is good at cleaning up after himself at all. In fact, he rarely tries to pick up a toy once he's done with it. He would much rather crawl over whatever mess he just made than pick it up. On occasion, however, he does take it upon himself to pick up some of his toys, usually when someone else wants to play with them.

Three in a row

So, Sam wins the award for writing three blog posts in a row, without even being asked to. (^_^) Yeah for Sam!!! Anyway, after moving out of Idaho, we have been temporarily living with my in-laws, which has been a lot of fun for everyone, I hope. I guess I should say that it has been a lot of fun for me and just hope that everyone agrees.
Moving on, lots of fun. I think Jayson has enjoyed it lots too, because he has been able to spend more time with his cousins than he ever has before. As far as I can tell, they are all enjoying it, especially Mayce.

 She has really seemed to enjoy having someone around that is smaller than her, but still big enough that they can do some of the same things. Here they were watching Tom and Jerry together. Jayson looks huge, but he really is smaller than Mayce. Of course, it didn't last too long because Jayson decided he needed to follow me up the stairs for something, but it was nice while it lasted.

Baby #2

As you faithful blog readers know, Samantha and I are expecting baby number two. 

Jayson actually look excited in this picture, and it's relevant, even though it's already been posted on here before, I believe. Anyway, you may also remember that this pregnancy has been really different for Samantha: she has been really sick, really tired, etc. So of course everyone was telling us that we would be having a girl, and you know what, I kinda thought that at first too.

But recently Samantha and I have been starting to wonder. Do we really think that this baby will be a girl, or do we just want it to be? It's not like we could actually change anything, but you know how people like to speculate on the gender of the baby. It's kinda fun, a little scary, and only slightly nerve-wracking. My thoughts on the matter went along the following lines: if would be really fun to have a little daughter to spoil, but it would be so much more convenient if we had another boy because we already have boy stuff, Jayson would have a little brother to play with, and they could more easily share rooms.

Moving "Day"

Shock and astonishment, Sam has actually gotten around to writing a post. I thought I would take some of the burden off of Samantha and cover the events occurring during our week of packing and moving and other such sundries. Yeah!!
Anyhow, as many of you already know, our little family is moving back down to the great-ish state of Utah. (And no, I will not entertain any questions as to why we are moving down there, so don't even get started on the topic.) So this past week we both had our last days of work, so that we could spend this week getting our apartment ready to move. Well, technically, the apartment isn't moving, but all of the stuff in our apartment will be moved. Just had to clarify that there. (^_^) Jayson is still going to daycare this week though, so we have time during the day in which to pack and clean, like I mentioned we would be doing.
Today we wanted to tackle all those parts of our apartment that we shouldn't be needing in the next few days, you know, like clothes, toiletries, foodstuffs, Xbox, computers, Jayson's toys...okay, maybe there was some stuff in there that would have fit the agenda for today (ie: take only what you need to survive), but hey, we still need to live here for a few days. Give me a break. We actually got a lot done, which is nice because we only have a couple more days before the über cleaning must take place.

This is what our stack of boxes looked like after the majority of today's efforts. Let's see, we got the bathroom, Jayson's room, coat closet, and most of the living room taken care of. We also packed the stuff in our room that wasn't clothes or bedding, and the books we had packed a few days ago. Oh, and we took a couple hours break. So, not bad for a day's work. True, we didn't clean at all, but that is what Wednesday and Thursday are for, right.