Powell Trip 2009...

We just got back from a week long trip to our houseboat at Lake Powell. It is always such a relaxing trip to go on. I love packing for it- tshirts? check. swimsuits? check. sunscreen? check. a bunch of books to read? CHECK! This is the first trip in a long time that was just the family. No friends or extended family. I always think the more come the funner it is, but this was a nice change too. Both boys loved the tube and taking turns on the jet ski. Plus after watching Braden wake board with Rusty, Berk decided he had to have a turn too. It was so cute, he just kept reaching for the rope handle and was so mad Rusty was hogging it! Of course we managed to get to Dangling Rope for ice cream, and I got the cutest hat... yes there is shopping even in the middle of a huge lake.

The weather was cooler than normal, and we had a storm system pass through, so a few times the water was warmer than the air! I hung out on the boat most of the time, but I did escape to do sunset cruises, a jet ski ride and of course play with my new toy CAMERA! I finished three books and in addition I read the camera manual, and learned just a few of its fun tricks and settings. I hope to work on it more with our next trip. So here are a few (of the over 400 I took- yikes!) pictures from our time there. Can I just say that if you have never gone to Lake Powell, add it to your bucket list. The views are amazing and it is such a fun place.

Enjoy my picture overload...

Berk at the wheels!

Out on a sunset cruise

Braden chillin

Berk laughing at Kels

Rusty & I

Tubing with the boys

Jaci being mad about getting out of the water

Pops & Braden on the jet ski

Kelcie wake boarding

Kelcie & Pops

Berk loved the slide

But hated being cold

The best tube we have ever had- everyone loved it.

Check out Braden's foot- that kid is a daredevil

Cheese

Rusty jumping the wake

Berk wants to wake board

And does! Braden took turns too.

Our Cove- same spot every year

My cute hat & windy hair

The best views around

Jaci being silly

Berk and Mom snugglin'

After a storm we went to get shells and play on a beach

We take these photos every year to gage the kids growth. I love 'em.

Happy Anniversary!!!

9 Years, 2 (almost 3) kids, a dozen passport stamps, 2 houses, 5 cars, 1000 tears, a million laughs & countless adventures- Thanks hon, you're the best!

Happy This and That...

So this really should have been a Happy father's Day post but it will be more a recap of the last week of madness here. My hubby Rusty has been off the charts amazing lately. Bless his heart, no matter how tired he is, he knows I am more tired, more fed up with kids and more stressed than ever, so he is always doing the least expected things for me. Plus he has crazy willpower. He has been working out like a fiend and has lost 30 pound in the last few weeks. Pretty sure if he looses any more, we will weigh the same and I will cry. A lot. And don't get me started on how he does the laundry and clean up the house every night. But he does and he does. Love you!

But anyways, last Saturday after Braden's dive meet (more on that later), we came home and he said, "we're gonna paint today." I have been wanting to put Braden and Berk together for months now, and since Baby B is coming WAY faster than I feel like I am ready for, I have been anxious to get this first step done. So, he spent all day Saturday priming, painting and -just for kicks- putting crown molding up, as well as molding around the window. To top that off, since I couldn't be around the fumes for too long - he did all the clean up, taping, sanding, sawing, ect ect. And as an added bonus we got the stripes painted in the kids bathroom as well. (Don't get me started on how flipping textured my walls are, or how bad the lines bleed, I might hit you.)

So Monday, I get a text from my friend Steph, who knows I have been hunting for bunk beds for AGES, and she tells me they have a super cute one, just like I want at Costco. So that night for family night, we hopped in the car, went to "just look" and wha-lah-- 4 hours later we have a new twin over full bunk bed, mattress and bedding for the boys room. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the disaster that happened in my house during the 90 minutes I was getting the mattress and bedding. But let's just say, it looked like my boys had quite a fun time with the 85 billion pieces of Styrofoam that came with the bed. It looked like it snowed in my house. In fact, a week later, some of it is still flying around...

(I really need to get a photo of the room once all the picutres are on the wall, but for now...)

Well, Monday's project resulted in a little Tuesday project. We had to take down the ceiling fan and get a standard light. We put a tower fan in the corner and it seems to keep it cool just fine. Poor Braden had to turn the fan off and push the blades aside to climb up to his bed. Thankfully, Berk is finally out of the crib and sleeping and napping in his very own bed!!! YEAH! Cross that off my list.

So later in the week Rusty mentions to me that he already has his Father's Day gift as well as our anniversary present. I am thinking, ok awesome! Since I had a few things already for Dad's Day I knew I needed one more thing or two and I'd be all set, but little did I know he had this up his sleeve... A Nikon D5000!

That's right, I am finally a card carrying member of the Big Girl's Camera club. In truth, the camera was my anniversary present (on the 30th- 9yrs!) and the accessories, lenses, case ect. were his presents. I am still speechless. I have secretly been coveting an SLR camera for ages, but never actually talked about my desire for one! He is the best. Now, if he will let me do more than just hold it. Because according to my slightly OCD hubby, I have to read the manual before I can use it. And frankly, since it does HD videos as well as photos the stinkin manual is like my old Art History textbook. So for now- Rusty is the shutterbug. And yes, he has read the manual.

Well, the camera came in handy the next day at Braden's third dive meet. It was the last regular season meet, Prelims and Finals are in a few weeks. They upped the required dives from 3 to 4 and it threw him for a loop- at the last minute he refused to do his 4th dive (a front flip tuck) and had a melt down. I think it may have had something to do with the kid that did a back flip and totally hit his head on the board- but that could just be me. Anyhow. At last weeks meet Braden did three dives. A front dive, an Inward dive and a back dive with a 1/2 twist. He rocked them all and ended up in 2nd place!

This week he did the same dives, and even with his low score on his "flip" attempt, he still walked away in 3rd place! We are so excited. He looks like a natural.

These are my favorite photos from last week, and then I am putting a slide show of video clips and the other pictures at the end. It is short, but he is crazy good. To think one month ago he didn't even know how to do the approach and now this...we love ya buddy! Can't wait to see how you do in finals! These two photos are of the same dive. His back dive w/ a 1/2 twist. I love that he looks like he's flying! So cool! I love the new camera!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Must Have's...

It's funny how from pregnancy to pregnancy some things stay the same, feel the same, look the same. And other things are new and different each time. As I realize this pregnancy is quickly winding down I wanted to document my must haves, likes, hates ect so when I scrapbook it, I will remember.

1. The Boppy Wedge Pillow. This thing saved my life with Berk's pregnancy and this time around I remembered and pulled it out as soon as I had a showing belly. It may not look like much but it helps me rest so much better. Try it, you'll LOVE it. I sleep with a body pillow too and this is small enough to use both. Perfect.

2. The Belly Bands. These are new for me this time around. And I really have used them since the first trimester. Now that I am growing too large for even my fav maternity clothes to cover the expanse of my belly, these are a life saver! I got two, black and white and wear them nearly everyday. I think they will come in handy post partum too.

3. Cereal & Eggos. I can eat two Eggos plain every morning and keep them down. So nice! And a novelty, that was a short lived, was having milk on my cereal. This was amusing to Rusty, since in all the years we have been together, I have never liked milk on my cereal. And preferably, it was HoneyComb, Lucky Charms or Apple Jacks that I loved. Once I went to the store to get more cereal, and they were OUT of MY cereal. How dare they, I swear...

4. Fresh fruit and nuts. I am digging grapes, of all kinds, and berries. And raw almonds, but they have to be Fresh & Easy's brand. And lately trail mix. Heavy on the M&M's.

5. Caffeine! Normally I love me some Dr P. But this pregnancy it just takes off to me. Same with my standby Pepsi. So for the last few months I have been a Coke kinda girl. I will be glad when my taste buds go back to normal.

6. Subs. Now, with Braden, my go to food (meaning for what ever weird reason- I was able to keep it down) was pizza. Barro's pepperoni to be specific. With Berk, pizza was the cause of massive heartburn and so subs became my go to. This time both seemed to work, but I could eat a sub from Ned's or Port O' Sub everyday and be just fine. Oh crud, now that I typed that I really want Port O Sub. Dang. I love that I can order Ned's on the phone, and they have my order in the computer already. And I love that I can order my POS online. Yee-haw!

And last but not least...

7. Fans! I swear I have fans everywhere I go. In my room there is a fan by my bed, and on my vanity- in addition to the ceiling fan I have on 'turbo' whenever I am in the room. Plus, I put a fan in my laundry room and it blows right on me as I work. Or my Mom or Rusty, as is usually the case. And if you have seen me at Dive Team, or nearly anywhere else outside, I have 2 of the little hand held fans. Life saver! Always in my purse- with spare batteries just in case. Each of my boys have one too, but they use them more of weapons than anything else.

I'm sure I forgot a few of my fav's. So I will have to update this. Oh, I am loving this nice AZ summer. I will take the low 100's with a breeze ANY time! It is actually bearable here, ish.

Our Lil' Diver...

With Summer in full swing here in HOT AZ, we decided to try Braden out in Diving with the City. He goes to a pool near our house and the practices aren't too early in the morning. It's not super hot and they are not very long, so it's worked out nice.  He is on one of the bigger dive teams and has 3 coaches. There are about 3 times as many girls on the team as boys-he doesn't seem to mind. 

They practice out of the water everyday before they hit the 1meter spring board. I had to throw this shot in of Braden in his team Speedo- he wouldn't wear it for the meet today, lame.  In just two weeks they have learned the Three Step diving Approach, front dives, back dives (although he has yet to do one in a meet), pike and tuck jumps. They have worked a tich on front flips and back twist dives. Crazy huh? His required dives for the next meet include an Invert Dive and a Twist Dive. Yup, pretty sure I have never even tried either of those!

I just loved this 'action' shot. He is totally built for the water. Now if we can just get his flexibility up- he will be amazing. 

His first City Wide meet was this morning. Luckily for us, they split the older kids off so the meet only lasted about 90 minutes. Yesterday in practice, one of the girls on Braden's team hit her head on the board. Needless to say, it freaked the crud out of Braden and he would NOT attempt a back dive after that. Would you blame him??? So we called in a favor to a family friend and took him over to their pool. Not only did they let us use their pool (which BTW has a 1M spring board) but Mikenna (a State Champ Diver headed to BYU next Fall to dive for them) came out and worked with Braden, one on one, for over an hour! His approaches front and back got so good. As well as his dive forms. We hope to work with her a little more this summer to see just how much he can improve. 

But, even with all that help he still wouldn't do his back dive, so we had to change the dives he did today. He did a front dive, a back straight jump and a front straight jump. I'm not gonna lie, this is my first dive meet, so the scoring made little to NO sense. But most of the older kids scored as high as 5 and as low as .5.  The 5/6 year olds didn't scored higher than 3.5. The difficulty makes the score possible go up. ANYWAYS... Braden got two 3's and a 2.5 on his dive and 2's across the board for  his other jumps. 

His Front Dive Straight. 

So we were super excited when they called out the 'Participant' awards and they didn't say his name! That meant he was top 8. He ended up with 6th Place Ribbon and a HUGE boost to his confidence. Rusty and I are so proud of him! The meets start at 7am, and none of us really wanted to get up- but we are so glad we did! Thanks to Noni & Pops and Nana & Grandpa for coming all the way out to watch him. Berk was the best little brother supporter out there. 

After the meet the whole team got together to do their cheer. We are the Gators (our team color is purple though- explain that one to me) and the cheer cracks me up, no matter how often I hear it... "If you hesitate- you're GATOR bait, RAWRRRRR" and then they say "Eat 'em up! Eat 'em up! Eat 'em up- GO GATORS!" There are hand motions and everything. I will have to get a video of it... 

We celebrated with breakfast at Joe's Farm Grill and then going to see UP!

And because I have been given grief over my not-so-subtle absence of photos of a pregnant me on the blog lately, here ya go.  Kids are the perfect prop for hiding bellies, by the way.

The Nesting Bug...

Despite my best efforts to contain it, the nesting bug has hit me early and hard! It started simply enough. Last week we busted into our 'craft cupboard' to play playdough and at the end of the day as I tried to clean up --it hit. Suddenly, it's 10:30 at night and I am sitting with a garbage bag, plastic bins and a label maker. But an hour later all the arts supplies, playdough, coloring books and paper were all neatly stacked and arranged. Whew.

I went to bed and woke the next morning with an unhealthy urge to find the missing Cars characters- that have been a staple of play for Berk for a while now- and low and behold 8 hours later, my playroom was clean, organized, labeled (dang that label maker), and I even cleaned the sticky spot of who-knows-what on the carpet. I was itching to paint in there- but logic took hold and that urge passed.  

My closet, where I could barely see carpet was the next to get it. My clothes are once again coordinated by color and season. And my maternity clothes are finally all hanging together so I don't have to hunt them out. The suitcases & bags from all our traveling LAST SUMMER (pathetic) have had a final clear out and been stacked away in the back of my closet. My bins are labeled (blasted label maker) and sorted and I am all ready for the next project...

Now the problem is the ORDER in which I will nest. I lay awake thinking about it (like I said, I don't sleep)which project I want to do first. Berkley's closet, where there is serious need of space bagging to do- as well as the whole "get it ready for the baby thing"; my pantry; the junk drawer; oh the things I have let get out of control. I have at least bought the paint and found the beds I want for the 'big boys' room... but that is as far as I have got in that area. **Update, space bagging finished...I had the time, what else could I do? Sleep? **

But it really is the more outrageous ones that leave me stumped. Like this crazy desire to paint my garage. Yep, the inside and yes it is a million degrees in there right now. Or wanting to walk my house with a Mr Clean Magic Eraser and attacking every little scuff mark I see. Ooh or wanting to scrub the sand toys. See, this nesting bug really is an illness! I just don't get one thing. The whole I am way to tired to actually accomplish most of these tasks! Thankfully Rusty is up for any type of cleaning and my Mom will jump in to help too. I am just starting to realize I only have about 12 weeks left, and that makes me nervous!

Open Mouth-Insert Foot...

What is it about a woman being pregnant that causes other around them to say the first thing that comes to mind? Be it a loved one or a stranger at Target; being prego is like a magnet for stupid people comments, advice or ancient wives tales.  So, I thought I'd compile a list of things said to me in the course of my three pregnancies.  Consider it a sort of "what not to say when talking to someone expecting" list. Please feel free to comment with your personal fav's- maybe one day I'll write a book.

• Oh you just popped out in the last week.Thanks for stating the obvious...
  
• Don't worry I got really swollen in my pregnancies too. 
• Wow, are you sure there's just one? My pediatrician asked me that one. Love her.
  
• We got pregnant without even trying. This one bugs me for many reasons a) let's face it there's always some sort of "effort" involved.  And b) never say this to someone who is or has struggled with infertility. I promise they will secretly want to poke your eyes out.
• You're not supposed to lift your arms over your head. As I am closing my trunk.
• Due anytime now, huh? Actually not till August, but thanks!
  
• You're wearing flip flops to church? If you would like to squeeze my feet into more appropriate footwear, be my guest.
  
• Are you going to try for a girl? Please just let me get through this pregnancy first.
  
• You really shouldn't be drinking Coke. Oh yeah? And my 2 yr old should really be sleeping all night in his own bed too I bet.
  
• Oh just buy a few maternity clothes, everything else will stretch. No one tells you that a some point even those biggest maternity clothes won't fit.
  
• Wow, we really need to get you clothes that fit. Thanks Hon.
• So what will the baby's sign be? Really? As if I know and or care at this point.
  
• He's a little old for you to be carrying him. Well unless you're volunteering shut it.
• Be sure you drink lots of water. While I agree this is vital let's face it the more I drink the more I pee, it's a vicious cycle.
  
• Are you sleeping on your left side? Actually I just don't sleep, nasty side affect of this pregnancy but when I lay down it is on the correct side.
  
• Do you need help out with your groceries? Um duh it's 190* out and I have to get my kids in the car too. So yes of course I'd love some help.
  
• How much weight have you gained? Unless you have an MD after your name and I have your pager in my cell, that's just rude.

I plan on adding to the list. It's still early the best comments come once you hit the 30 week mark.

Sometimes I think I should have a shirt printed that says "august boy third hot tired" and on the back in smaller print " two other boys- 6&2- no name yet- yes we have a pool-no my FIL isn't my OB- yes, I'll have an epidural- I think it would solve a lot of strangers questions. And even some not so strangers as well. What's the awesomest thing that has been said to you? I love knowing I'm not the only one who gets this...

I'm Not Ready For Summer!!!

Is school really over next week? Where did April and May go? We have been busy busy busy getting things ready for this summer. First the boys have been in swim lessons for the last 5 weeks. They have a few more lessons and then we are all done. I love having my old friend Courtney teach them, it's always so nice to be able to get caught up on her life! Plus I always know the people in my kids' classes too, so it is even funner. Then the nesting thing has hit me hard. I have been cleaning the kids rooms getting them ready to change rooms and make room for the baby.

I finally got brave enough (or hot enough?), to venture into our pool. I generally won't get in it until it hits the 80* mark- which thanks to the high temps last week it did. So Saturday we swam, a few times, and got our first sunburns of the year. I love making that annual trek to Walmart and the pool store to stock up on rings, noodles, dive sticks, float tubes- all the things to make the pool even more fun. I forgot, however, just how much not fun it is to blow them all up...

Braden starts his Dive Team camp this week, and I hope he likes it.  It is a full time commitment this summer, but I think he will enjoy it. Berk is feeling sick again. I think he is cutting his top 2 yr molars this time.  I swear this kid is trying to see just how little sleep I need to survive on. I think I am averaging about 3 hours a night right now. Let's pray this new baby let's me get more! 

And finally I had an awesome Mother's Day. Breakfast in bed, sleeping in, and for dinner the whole Rasmussen clan came over to my house for dinner. It was so fun to see my siblings that live here- we all actually made it! Which is fun since we all live within a 30 minute drive, but we tend to have VERY different schedules.  I cannot wait to use the maternity massage from Rusty and the boys. As well as call in my slave labor coupon and get the boys room & bathroom painted! YEAH!!!

Another Discovery Channel Addiction...

Well we already know I love Dirty Jobs. But another show that leaves Rusty asking the same question ("Why do YOU watch this?) is Deadliest Catch.  See here's the thing.  I hate hate really really hate seafood. Fish, shell fish, lobster, crab. Pretty much if it came from water I am NOT eating it.

So the fact that I never miss this show all about deep sea crabbing baffles most of my family.  Like last week when the show was centered around a fishing boat that went down. I was riveted! And I hate catfish! But I tell you what, when they found survivors after 18 hours in the Bering Sea - I cried- just a little bit, pregnancy hormones and all.  Plus the fact that Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs host, does the voice over commentating is an over all bonus.  

So, if you are looking for some entertaining -check out Deadliest Catch. And you will be forever grateful for where that yummy (?) King Crab comes from next time it arrives on your plate. Hmm, and I am sure Mike Rowe has done a show about making butter, so that should make you extra grateful...