Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! We had a very busy day today and I'm worn out! But the girls loved that Santa came and that they got presents from two sets of grandparents, Dick and Sybil and their friends Emma and Mary. So even though we kept Christmas small, there were lots of fun things to open today because of our very wonderful and generous family and friends. My favorite part (as selfish as it might be) was having the girls open the presents from me. I have been sewing every night for the last 2 weeks trying to get these dresses ICinderella and Tinkerbell) finished and was able to get them done Tuesday night. And the best part is that they loved them so much they wore them all day until friends arrived (and that always means the million changes of clothes begins). Sarah insisted on being in the picture- she's wearing one of ellie's leotards because she needed to dress up, too.
We were able to have friends over to share Christmas dinner and the girls always love having them come over and play. We were also able to do the webcam with Grandma and Grandpa and that allowed the girls to talk with Dick, Sybil, Carrie, Brad and Brandalee. The girls loved it, especially Sarah. Here are a couple pictures from the day (Erin, you might recognize the earrings that Sarah is wearing)...

Tricare and Fort Riley Medicine STINK!!!

Yeah, I had a horrible experience today. I was actually excited about going to the doctor today to meet my new doctor- who was supposed to be Dr. Leyba. My old doctor just left, so he gave me a couple recommendations and I chose her. I for sure didn't want Dr. Charles, who delivered Katie and left me in pain for a year until Sarah was born (I think I mentioned before). So anyway... we were all out running errands together this afternoon and Katie fell asleep on the way home. I figured it would be a usual 15-minutes in-and-out appointment, so I had Steve and the girls come with me so Katie could stay asleep in the van. Well, I get checked in and wait for 1/2 hour to see my doctor. Finally a nurse comes and asks if I would be willing to just see Dr. Charles (apparently Leyba was held up with a patient). Bad news #1. I figured it was just a routine OB, so I went ahead and agreed, knowing that Steve was in the van probably with three very squirrely girls. She comes in, looks at my chart and asked how I was doing on weight gain. I told her I was around 35 pounds (yes, the truth comes out) and she gasped and told me that was much too much weight. As if I'm not already self-conscious about how enormous this belly is of mine. So she tells me I need to make sure I watch what I eat. Gee... thanks. She measured me and everything was right on and the heartrate was at around 130, which she said was fine. Appointment is over and I go to make an appointment with Dr. Leyba in 2 weeks. Here comes bad news #2. Oh, her soonest appointment is January 21st. I was supposed to be scheduled for my c-section January 20th. Great. So then she starts searching for any available doctor in 2 weeks and it took her forever to find someone. She found Dr. Mason, who is a civilian and has been practicing for like 35 years or so. And I honestly don't care who my doctor is as long as he/she is competent. But since I won't see him for 2 weeks, I have no idea what day he does surgeries, so I have no clue when my c-section might be now. And then the bad news #3 is that I believe Dr. Charles assists on his c-sections. I don't want that woman near me. An hour later I finally leave the hospital and poor Steve is just done- and I don't blame him one bit. So my great day of shopping with Steve and the girls (and we did have fun) was ruined by this horrid experience. Now I'm feeling depressed and anxious and scared and uncertain about my future. Dumb Army medicine.

Long Update- sorry

Just a couple tidbits of what's been happening the last couple weeks:

My girls love to be helpful when we're grocery shopping. I always take all three girls (never ceases to be an adventure) and they love to help put the food on the counter to be paid for. Well, Mom was in town and she was keeping an eye on Ellie and Katie while Sarah was handing me groceries to scan in the self-checkout line (I thought I was taking the easier way out). Well, I turn around for a minute to scan and I hear my mom gasp. I looked over and saw that Sarah was being extra helpful by trying to hand me the eggs one by one. There were broken eggs everywhere. What do you do? I gave a great sigh, cleaned up the eggs while Mom got a replacement pack, and then just laughed. A little too helpful!

We've had our kittens over a month now. The girls are getting better... slowly. The cats are amazingly patient are really quite fun to be around. They really enjoy being in the action, which I sometimes wish they would just run for their lives!!! They're constantly climbing on everything- including the Christmas tree. We've had to remove all ornaments, as they like to swat at them and knock them off. Then Mom made some pipe-cleaner candy canes, which the cats also knock off and play with. Nothing is safe on that tree. Daisy even likes to nibble on the foil star that Steve and the girls made.

Ellie told me yesterday that she loves church day because it's the day she gets to wear her beautiful dresses. Yes, she is all girl! Katie and Sarah have learned to love to play dress-ups with Ellie (much to Ellie's enjoyment) and they come down in some very interesting outfits. The favorites lately have been the Halloween outfits- as Katie and Ellie can fit into all three dresses. Sarah prefers a rather silly, poofy pink skirt.

Sarah is just a crack-up. Some of the things she comes up with are just hilarious. She of course is great at saying no, but it usually comes out as, "uhhhh.... nooooo". So funny. While she doesn't have a lot of words that anyone outside the family could understand, she really is doing great at communicating. And she likes to copy her sisters- tonight she asked for a co-cone over and over again when she heard Katie request an ice cream cone.

Katie regressed on the potty training while Grandma was here. She's hasn't had a dirty diaper in weeks, but she tends to get that pull-up rather wet. I'll take it anyway! She is amazingly good at remembering and singing songs (although she is terribly tone deaf so far). The girls LOVE the Raffi Christmas CD the Tolmans got us last year and we listen to it whenever we are in the car. The girls know most of the words to most of the songs now.

And it was just wonderful having Mom here. But of course our week flew by far too fast, as usual. The girls did projects every day and had a blast doing it. Ellie informed me one day that I was no fun- only Grandma. C'est la vie, right? Mom helped me pick out fabric, etc. for the projects I'm doing for the girls for Christmas. I am so incredibly excited about them, too. Ellie and Katie are going to love it. I'm still not done and am not going to give it away, but will get pictures on Christmas.

Steve is finally done with his Masters degree from Webster University online (out of St. Louis), which is a huge relief. He is being highly recruited by BYU at the moment (obviously accepted there) and has his acceptance to Georgia Tech as well. We hope to find out mid-January about the other two schools: Purdue and University of Illinois.

I am amazingly large. Steve laughs almost every time he sees me because I'm so big. I just stick straight out. I might break down and get picture proof of it one of these days. I am having strong Braxton Hicks (some really hurt), I don't fit in most of my maternity clothes any more (strange for me), and I'm getting rather awkward doing just about anything. But I still have a month to go and will somehow survive! Carrying a boy is tough work!

I think that's probably enough for tonight. Oh- I did receive callings again at church. I'm back to playing the piano in Primary, which is great, and I'm also the Visiting Teaching Coordinator. That one will keep me busy! I tried my best to get a picture of the girls in their "beautiful dresses" after church by myself and Steve is currently cleaning one up for me. I'll try to get one posted soon. I'm certainly no photographer, but my subjects sure are cute :-)

Released

I was called into the Relief Society Presidency a few months ago as the Enrichment counselor. And I really enjoyed it. I liked helping the sisters, knowing what the issues were and being able to help, having that "in" so Steve (Elder's Quorum President) and I could discuss and share with each other how the ward was doing, and having that night off from home to have our meetings. Then our Relief Society President's husband got orders to Korea. So that meant it was time to reorganize the Relief Society again. I was surprised at just how upset I was about the fact that I wasn't called back in. The normal person would give a big sigh of relief. The other two were called back into the presidency, and that was probably part of it. I guess I felt that for some reason the new president didn't think I could handle it. And maybe she's right. With the baby on the way I will be busy and overwhelmed. And even if it had nothing to do with it, inspiration is inspiration. I can't argue with that. Maybe I'm just needed somewhere else. I'm not being demoted, just moved somewhere else. But honestly, that's how it felt. I'll just blame it on those crazy pregnancy hormones again. It's an easy out ;)

Quickie

I always say these will be quick and hopefully this time I can stick to that. So, even though I feel HUGE and have gained far more weight than I'll ever admit, when I went to see the doctor on Thursday (exactly 32 weeks) I was measuring 31 cm, so I'm back to my typical 1cm behind again. Maybe this boy won't be enormous after all? I also had to pick a new doctor, as mine is out-processing next week and won't be back for a year. He gave me a couple options and I chose the female doctor. There were a couple reasons for this choice. First of all, it was the first name that came to his mind- always a good sign. Second, when I asked about a c-section date (at 39 weeks) I found out the other doctor I had considered was being assisted by the doctor that messed up royally on my c-section with Katie. Not even interested in having her near my body- mostly for my mental consideration. It has been almost 3 years, so I'm sure she has improved, but that year was HORRIBLE after Katie and I don't want to even think about going through all that again. So it looks like my date (if this boy cooperates) for the c-section will most likely be January 20th. It's nice to have a date in mind. And it makes me feel good that it's just about 6 weeks away... I can do 6 more weeks.

And that's my update. Steve goes into the field for 10 days starting Monday-including sleeping over (the field being a patch of grass about 3 minutes from our house here on post.) Absolutely ridiculous to take husbands from families for 10 days right before Christmas. Infantry mentality makes no sense to me. I'll probably complain about this some more next week ;)

Elgan Family Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Starlight, Starbright

Every night that we were outside and it was dark Ellie would make a wish on the first star. And every night she would wish for a pet. She vacillated over what pet would be just right. For awhile it was an ostrich, then Steve tried to convince her of turtle, the other day it was birds, but usually it came back to either cats or dogs. And since there was no way I was getting a dog... I started to contemplate getting a cat. Of course it would have to be a kitten, so it could get used to these crazy girls that live here.

Steve finally agreed and after consulting with a couple people (mostly Mom) to be sure I wasn't totally losing it, I decided to go for it. I called all over town and searched the Internet to see where to get a pet and the only place is really the animal shelter. So last Friday I took the girls down for an afternoon at the shelter (the girls just call it the pet store). They had all sorts of options. Siamese kittens, calico kittens, teenage cats, adult cats, puppies, dogs (the girls were terrified in the dog room- too much noise) you name it. I grew up with a calico, so that was the kitty that caught my attention. Ellie liked the gray striped one, because it was the smallest. After looking at the cats for awhile we went to Walmart and stocked up on all essentials needed for bringing home a cat. I got cash and we went back. Since Ellie and I couldn't agree on which kitten to get- we got BOTH!!! Yep, we have two little kittens now. And they really are cute. We are having issues with litter training (I don't like cleaning up cat poop!), so they're locked in our kitchen until we can get that figured out. The girls just adore those poor cats. Just look at their faces in the pictures.

Ellie's cat, the striped cat, is named Daisy. My cat (or Katie's cat, depending on who you talk to) doesn't have an official name. Ellie describes her as being camouflage (only a daughter of a military guy would even know that word at age 4) so I call her camo kitty and so far that's what we call her. If anyone has any better ideas, we'd love to hear them! But it's fun having these additions to the family. Opposite of what Dad said, the girls have actually received a few scratches from the cats. They have to learn to be more gentle, and while the kittens are amazingly patient, sometimes the girls are just too rough. Here are a couple pictures of our feline friends...

The girls love when the cats will sleep on their laps. It is rare since the girls can't be calm around them. They are holding their respective cats.
One day I heard this enormous giggle come out of Sarah's mouth and out she runs with poor Daisy in her arms. You can see by her smile just how proud she was that she could do it. So, so funny.
The cats are fascinated by the laptop and like to sit with me at night while I work. They also find my belly to be the perfect resting spot, which I find amusing.

And there you have it. Daisy and Camo Kitty.

Potty Training

Something very bazaar is happening around here. Katie has decided she wants to use the potty now. Steve has been fighting tooth and nail with Katie the last couple months to get her to use the toilet. Both have been getting more and more frustrated. I decided to let it go, since pushing never did any good with Ellie. So then we had some friends over the other night and I caught Katie with that grunting face. I warned Steve and he whisked her away to use the potty. She took care of business, got a treat and has been doing great ever since. I had her in a diaper yesterday and she only had one accident. She even got out of the bathtub to use the potty. Today was pull-ups and while there were a couple incidents, nothing big. She doesn't need reminding to go, and she likes her privacy until it's time to get cleaned up. I'm really a little shocked by all this. It seems too easy... ? The funniest thing is that she practically has lived in the bathroom the last two days to get her treats. That kid has had more sugar pumped into her little body than I'd like to even think about. I'm thinking I need to get a little more organized and do a chart to earn the treats. But yeah... I would absolutely love to have her out of diapers before Junior arrives!

Hansel and... Sarah

We were all playing upstairs and Katie decided she was hungry. She went down and grabbed the package of hot dog buns. We reminded her that food does not belong upstairs so she took it back downstairs. The other two followed her. About 10 minutes later Sarah showed up with a fist-full of hot dog bun. I knew we were in trouble. Sure enough, there was a perfect little crumb trail from the kitchen to the girl's room. As the bun was in her right hand, there was even a predictable trail of crumbs every other stair leading up to the bedroom. At least she could find her way back, right?

Saturday is a special day...

Today I had the girls help me clean up the living room so I could vacuum. I pull out the vacuum and Ellie asks, "who is coming over?" I assured her we had no company on the way and she asked, "so why are you vacuuming?" Hmmm... Good question! ;-)

A couple firsts and a whole lot more...

Well, a couple new things have been going on here.

First of all, we finally have thrown away Katie's pacifiers. I have been wanting to do this for months, but have been chicken- to be honest. She has taken it better than I thought she would. We can very easily use logic with her and she understands more than I would think a 2-year old should. We have decided to wait a little longer before taking Sarah's pacifiers.

Second, I was pulled over for the very first time on Wednesday. I was leaving playgroup and saw the cop sitting there and was going under the speed limit (or so I thought). Turns out I was in a school zone that had no lights, just a posted sign- so if you didn't read the very fine print on the sign, you got caught. Luckily I got away with a warning. I guess it had to happen sometime, right?

Steve has received early acceptance into Georgia Tech, which is flattering. We're still shooting for University of Illinois, but it's nice to have that boost of confidence.

We had a ton of fun with Halloween, which I mentioned. I forgot to mention that when people asked us where the lion was, we would point to my belly and tell them he was cowardly... hehe. Sarah found her dress today and was excitedly dragging it around the house. I'm amazed at how much they enjoyed dressing up. Usually Katie doesn't like it (she cried every time I tried it on her while I was putting it together... she was afraid I'd poke her with pins, which I never did!) Sarah is going to be like Ellie and loves to dress up. She's been joining in with the girls and wearing "dancing outfits". It's very cute to watch her interact with them.

I went to the doctor this week and everything looks good. I'm measuring right on target and this little baby is as active as ever. I'm actually getting kicked in the ribs as I write this. The only bad news I received was that my doctor is being sent to schooling in December, so I have to pick a new one. Not what I wanted to hear, as I felt very confident in this doctor's abilities. I have made it clear I DO NOT want the doctor that delivered Katie (resulting in serious complications) and he said he'd speak with the other available doctors and pick the best one for me. If only he could wait another month to go to school! That's the Army for ya. I've also started getting heartburn, which is typical for me in the 3rd trimester. Time to pull out those Tums! And as always, I'm just constantly exhausted. I am such a wimp with this baby!

Sarah has started making huge strides in her speaking abilities. She repeats just about everything we say and is doing very well. Some of my favorite words of hers: pup (up), pep (help), kuck (stuck), foof-foof (woof-woof) and baba (baby- one of her favorite words). She's also down to just one nap a day.

Ellie had a haircut the day after Halloween. I had let it grow out so she could be Dorothy, but then we took off about 3 inches the next day. It's very cute and a little easier to manage. She still changes clothes at least 10 times a day and there are some days I get really tired of helping her put away her pile of leftovers on the floor.

I mentioned that Katie has ditched the pacifiers (she told us yesterday morning that she didn't need them anymore... the story changed that night when she actually didn't get it!). She is also much more talkative at night now that there's nothing plugging her up! She has basically dropped her afternoon nap, which is very sad. I would say maybe 2 or 3 times a week she actually takes one. She's still as stubborn as ever and and keeps us on our toes. But in the end that will probably be a good attribute for her to have! We have a lot of fun with her. She and Ellie are happy to tell anyone and everyone that their little baby brother is coming after Christmas. It's fun to see them so excited about it.

Belated Wishes

I am belated in wishing Steve a Happy Birthday on here (we didn't get to celebrate it until tonight) and also wishing everyone a Happy Halloween. It was an insanely busy week with Halloween activities three nights this week. Our costumes got some good use, but I'm sure glad we're done dressing up, doing hair and staying up late with those activities. And I'm glad I can officially hide that Halloween candy and the girls don't know any different. :-) I also put some more on our picture website at steve.elgans.com. You'll have to use the slideshow function to see the full pictures...

Almost Halloween

We went to a Ward halloween trunk-or-treat and how disappointing! We showed up shortly after 7 (we were just a few minutes late because I forgot the candy and we had to go home and grab it), went around the circle in the dark (why did it start so late again?) then packed up and came home- no more than an hour total, and half of that was driving time. Again- thoroughly disappointing. It's a good thing we have parties the next two nights. I didn't even get pictures, it was so rushed. I'll do my best to get some tomorrow. But I am thrilled about the way the costumes turned out. The girls were absolutely adorable!!!

To rewind a bit, I drove the girls and myself out to Illinois two weekends ago to get a break and to sew those costumes. It was so much fun being home again. The girls were thrilled (that first night that kept running in and out of their bedrooms screaming and laughing) and loved every minute there. Unfortunately they didn't adjust to sleeping very well, but otherwise it was a blast. We love being with grandma and grandpa. I did a lot of shopping (had to catch up on my Kohl's) and even more sewing. I was up late every night and spent most of the day sewing those costumes. But it was well worth it! Mom was a huge help and we were able to make the dresses look better than I had hoped. We made a trip to the Children's Museum one day, which was fun. The week flew by and by the time we left Saturday the girls were crushed. Ellie told us that she could stay at Grandma and Grandpa's- we have two other girls, we would be just fine without her. What a cute thing to say! I wish I could have stayed longer and gotten a little more rest! I've been exhausted ever since I got back. That was a lot of driving for one pregnant girl! We're going to try and convince Mom and Sybil to come visit us again soon :)

I am definitely not doing well with this pregnancy. I am constantly tired and frustrated with... everything. This little boy is bringing out some kind of monster in me. I am getting bigger tons faster, my usually glowing pregnant skin is riddled with acne, I get charlie horses every night, my body definitely doesn't handle the day-to-day tasks nearly as well as it used to (aka sore back and body) and I really am just constantly exhausted and an emotional wreck. It will be a very long 3 months until this little boy arrives.

Enough complaining.

So again, hopefully I will get some great pictures of my Oz family tomorrow and have them posted soon. After all that hard work, someone ought to see them other than in the dark! :-D

Creative

I have decided recently that I'm tired of always cooking the same thing, so I've been trying out new recipes. There were a couple from my brother, Geoff, a couple from my mom and a couple that I got off the internet or one of my many cookbooks. I was getting excited about it until I got going. I have tried 5 or 6 of those new recipes so far and it has been rather frustrating. Steve has enjoyed them all, which is nice, since he can be picky sometimes. But the girls and I haven't been nearly as thrilled. I can see why my mom was so frustrated with me- the pickiest of eaters. How frustrating to make a meal and not have it eaten! So far we haven't found any new "family favorites", but there are a couple that I'll probably make again and see if maybe the girls had a bad night or I fed them too many snacks before dinner. I'm hoping that's all it is. I still have many more experiments to go.

I'm feeling much better now with the pregnancy. I went in today (they had to reschedule me from Monday) and I'm at 24 weeks, measuring 23- just as I figured. The heartbeat is still strong in the 140's and the doctor said the ultrasound looked great. Always good news. Probably the fastest appointment I've ever had (I doubt it was over 3 minutes with the doctor) but that was fine with me.

Being in the relief society presidency has given me quite the eye opener into just how hard the Relief Society President has it. I don't know if it's just this ward, but there is constantly something that needs done or a family in need. She's pretty good at delegating, and just what I have been assigned to do has me exhausted. How in the world do we keep so many sisters happy and prospering in the Gospel? And raise a family! On a day like today it makes me wonder.

Funny girls

The girls just crack me up sometimes. Katie has such a unique way of speaking and I'll be sad when she loses it. We were driving the other day and we smelled skunk (which the girls have now used to label any bad smell that enters the car). So of course we started talking about it.

Katie: I pell kunk!
me: you smell the skunk?
Katie: Yes, kunk pell poopy?
me (trying not to laugh): I suppose the skunk might smell poopy.

later on...
Katie: I see booties!
(again Steve and I try not to laugh) and after consideration... Oh- you see birdies?
Katie: yes, I see booties

So funny. Also, Ellie has become enthralled with anatomy, both male and female. I have had to correct her for drawing certain body parts on both girls and boys and let her know that modesty carries over in our drawings, not just with what we wear. I'm not even going to say who she drew yesterday, but I would have been terribly embarrassed if anyone else saw the picture before we had Ellie draw clothes on the poor exposed drawing.

We took a couple family pictures this morning before heading over to church to listen to Conference. I'll try to get one put up on here as soon as Steve is done editing it :)

About my pregnancy: I've told a couple people this lately, but I'm getting too old for this. And I'm not even 30 yet! I have had more aches and pains and pulled muscles that it's getting ridiculous. I apparently pulled a ligament and it didn't heal for 2 full days! Ouch. I also pulled a muscle in my neck- never fun. Then this morning I woke up and could barely stand or breathe because I managed to pull a muscle in my back. Again- absolutely ridiculous. If I hadn't seen the ultrasound I would swear there were 2 babies in this tummy of mine (although most everyone else would argue that I'm not very big...). I have had lots of headaches this time around as well, which I don't really remember having with the last three pregnancies. Steve has decided I need more exercise to keep my body more limber. He's probably right. So in all my spare time (and I don't mean at 6am) I'll see what I can do :-D Yes, yes- woe is me. But even amidst my frustrations, this pregnancy is going great. This little boy is extremely active! I see the doctor again tomorrow morning and we'll see how I'm measuring. I'm typically 1-2cm smaller than "normal", so we'll see if I'm following that trend again this time. Steve has edited lots of pictures tonight. I'll see if I can snag some tomorrow and post them- it's been awhile since I've done that.