Excuse me for being emotional, but I am pregnant.

So I am home sick today from church with a terrible, week long (so far), self-diagnosed cold/sinus infection. I have had one with each of my pregnancies, it is just part of the process for me. But as a lay on my bed, house totally quiet, I have been thinking about not only my weakened body but my weakened emotional state as well.

For some reason pregnancy makes women overly emotional and at times irrational. The other day as I was telling Peter how a Pottery Barn customer service rep. made me cry for 20 minutes over the exchange of some crib bedding, Peter asked "can't you control it? You know that you are just feeling this way because you are pregnant, can't you just tell yourself not to get worked up about it?" "No", I said. I knew it was completely stupid to be crying over bedding but I still could not make the tears stop. Why is that? Why does pregnancy have to make women even more emotional than we already are? Peter suggested that it was to help us develop an early bond with the baby so that when they arrive we will love them despite the sleepless nights, diaper mishaps and their possible inconsolable crying. I think he is right. If being pregnant didn't present such difficulties than I might not have as strong of a desire to ensure this possible nuisances continued existence. I may take it all for granted and be left feeling disenchanted. No way! I put in 9 months of work, and I mean work! Physical aches and pains, nausea, sinus infections, humiliating crying episodes and worry over whether or not we could raise a law abiding, hard working, self-respecting, kind to his family and neighbors, not to mention a healthy and good looking human being. (Yes, I fear having an ugly child. Judge me if you need to.) So bring it on! Bring on the crazies and the varicose veins! I will endure it all because I know from my past three experiences that it will all be worth it. Or is that just the hormones talking?

And one more thing....this made me happy last night. The girls had set up a beauty shop in Ayva's room and invited me to come and get my hair done. I sat while they combed my hair and put in a few clips. While they did this Peter watched from the back of the room. I encouraged the girls to ask Dad to have a seat and work on his hair. This was the result.

I love the blond, clip-on hair pieces, they really bring the look together. To me, he looks like the best dad ever.

Disneyland and other notables.

For the past three years our family vacation has consisted of a long car ride to Seattle to visit friends and family. We have loved these trips and have a lot of fun memories from them. However, this year we wanted to do something a little different so we packed up the car and made the long drive to Disneyland. The girls were very excited and have talked about the trip everyday since we got home. Here are a few of the highlights.

They met lots of Disney characters.

We ate lots of churros. (Oh, how I miss the churros)

Bella was so brave and went along with Peter on California Screamin'.

Here are the girls posing in front of the Mickey Mouse Ferris wheel.

Lilly and Ayva played in this ladies bubbles for close to 45 minutes while they waited for Bella and I to ride Soarin' over California.

We rode lots of fun rides, ate some really good food and had a wonderful time together as a family. After touring Disneyland for two and a half days we headed to San Diego and Sea World. The girls loved seeing all the amazing animals, especially Shamu and the other killer whales. The weather was a little chilly while we were there so we skipped doing the beach thing. We will definitely have to make our return trip to California when it is warmer so we can play in the sand and ocean.

Despite the long hours in the car, this was a fabulous family vacation that we will remember for a long time.

In other news, we had a peacock show up in our backyard a few weeks ago. Kind of cool.

For three weeks in March Peter was back in Alabama for the rest of his Flight Surgeon training for the National Guard. He graduated on the Dean's list from the program and made his family very proud. Hopefully he will now be done with long trips out of town for awhile, I am not a fan of single parenting.

And last but not least, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first boy, due this July. The girls are thrilled to be getting a brother. They are excited to get rid of some of their girly toys and to get some boy toys. i.e. trains, planes, trucks. I am excited for something a little new and different and hopefully a little less dramatic. (Fingers crossed)

(This post was for my brother who misses us like crazy since he moved his family back to Minnesota. I hope you enjoy the pictures bro.)

Happy Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween!!

From the gypsy, the witch and the cowgirl.

The Little Peony that could.

We have two peony plants in our backyard. They are beautiful plants but for some reason they don't produce many blossoms. In fact one of them has never produced a blossom and the other one finally had a single blossom last year and again this year. One is better than none. This little flower has made me so happy today so I thought I would share. (If you have any suggestions on how to get my peonies to produce more blooms I would love to hear them.)