Holiday catch up

Because Ellie came right before the major holidays, it seems we just had people for weeks and weeks.  It was really nice to have company, and Benny just loved all the attention.

First my parents came.  As stated, my dad drove up the day of the birth, dropped off my mom, and left.  He returned the next weekend for her.

The next weekend Ben's dad and stepmom came up.  It was so nice to have them visit and of course, Benny was super excited.

The next weekend was Christmas, and I don't know where those pictures are. I think on Ben's phone. The above is the ward Christmas party a couple weeks prior.
We played it pretty low key this year since we had a brand new baby and were tired, and we kind of get stuff all throughout the year when we need it or see sales.  So Ben and I got a new TV for our bedroom the month before. Benny got all sorts of firetruck stuff, Angry Birds, and superhero guys. Then when all the grandparents came he got tons more stuff.  He is spoiled and we need to work on that.  We had a nice Christmas though and enjoyed just being together and spending the day relaxing. In the evening I let Ben nap and I took the kids over to Kimiko's for a bit to visit.

Then a few days later Ben's mom and brother came to visit.  I didn't get any pictures she would approve of, but I thought this one of Uncle Jon and Ellie napping was so sweet. 

For New Year's, my family usually has a huge dinner and plays bingo.  We were able to carry on part of the tradition by having a big dinner at Kimiko's and let the kids play wii games.  It was fun to have my parents and Ben's mom all together.  Our moms are two peas in a pod and it's scary to get them together because they are CRAZY! :)

Ellie

Eleana Naomi Middleton was born Dec 4, 2011 weighing 8lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long. My water broke at 39 weeks after several weeks of strenuous packing, unpacking, and cleaning.  I have a more detailed and boring birth story for my records but it is LONG.

 My coworkers said I should be too embarassed to show the above to anyone.  So what do I do?  Post it on my blog, of course!  It is a bit misleading as the mirror is angled a little, and I am in the middle of labor so the baby is in a weird position, but yes, I look "large," as church members are so kind to point out.

Shredded

Benny got sick of doing Level 1 of the 30 Day Shred. He moved on to Level II without me.

Slumber party

Since my sister is out of town, her family said my parents could stay at their place and have the house to themselves. When Benny found out Grandpa and Grandma were leaving our house, he decided he wanted to go with them. We let them have a couple hours to themselves and then sent him over to spend the night. We have no idea how it went and will find out in the morning I guess, but it was so cute how excited he was. He's all dressed up in his pj's with his special pillow and blanket (which he stole from me; my mom made them for me when I was little), ready to go. When did he get so grown up?

Oh yeah, I forgot to write down the latest Bennyisms:
-We were talking about Christmas and giving, and Ben said something about Benny sharing and giving someone a gift.
His response: "Why would I give them a present? I'm not Santa Claus."
Guess we need to work on the meaning of giving with him.

Happy Thanksgiving

Let's see. We've been super busy but not with anything exciting or fun. We moved last weekend into a small apartment here in Hercules so my mom has been here helping. The poor woman came a week before the move to help clean and pack since I was 36 weeks pregnant. Then she stayed another week to help unpack and clean and watch Benny. Then at that point my dad said since Thanksgiving was just another 5 days away, she may as well stay and he'd come up to get her and spend Thanksgiving with us. She will have been here a minimum of 3 weeks when she goes home. She will probably never want to visit again! But we really appreciate all her help and we did have a nice Thanksgiving dinner today. I did none of the cooking except the gravy which was gross. Everything else turned out well, even the pumpkin pie which had 3 incorrect ingredients.

Yesterday I was too lazy to cut Benny's hair and took him to Great Clips to pay way too much for a trim. But he's always so cute when he sits in that big chair. He always has such a serious look on his face.

My birthday was last week, and we had boxes everywhere in the apartment. It was exhausting unpacking all week but I did have a good day. Ben spoiled me and got me flowers and a card to a spa for some pampering. Then we were able to go out for lunch on Saturday to my favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory. So this pic is of me with a ginormous belly, as people are very eager to point out, at the end of the day on my birthday.

And, this last one is me today, Thanksgiving day, with 2 weeks left before I am due. I'm doing pretty well when my back and pelvis aren't killing me. I haven't gained much weight, and I'm not super swollen. My nose has spread a little which never looks good on anyone, but I'm still wearing normal jeans and didn't get any new stretch marks. It's been exhausting but I really can't complain. No one said pregnancy is easy, and we are very grateful to have Benny and now this little girl. Everything has gone pretty textbook with growth being spot on as well. So even though people say I'm "extremely large," I'm right where I should be. The one thing I worry about is the drama girls bring. And this one has been CRAZY from the beginning. We had to do her ultrasound 3 times to see everything we needed to see. And inside my belly has been a constant circus. They tell you to do "kick counts" during active periods during the day. I have to do the opposite and see if there are any NON-active periods during the day, or night. She is one constant ball of movement. There is hardly a time I cannot see or feel something going on in my tummy. All that said, we're just about ready. The doctor said any day at this point will be the day. I think I overdid it with all the moving and have had a lot of contractions and dilating. He said if she hasn't come by next week, 39 weeks, I can just go ahead if I want to if I am worried about size since Benny was fairly good size. We'll see. I kind of want to spend a little time with Benny before she gets here since the past couple weeks have been so crazy. So that's where we are! Still here.

Benny the Angry Bird

I am shocked at how many compliments I have gotten on this costume. Thank you so much! As I said, I have been called "craft impaired, craft-tarded, and the anti-crafter." I have complained about my anxiety over walking into the store Michaels. I refuse to make things and would rather buy them.
This Halloween, however, Benny's costume started at $50. Then we saw it was sold out and was going for $200 on ebay. So what does a dad do? He tells his son that "WE" will just make it for him. Yikes. For some reason I doubted that "WE" included more than one person, and I also doubted that one person was him.

Anyway, I figured someone else had also made this costume somewhere in the world, so I googled instructions on how. I came across this blog: http://theclockblog.blogspot.c​om/2011/01/angry-birds-costume​-instructions.html

Some have asked for instructions, so here are my revisions to the above guidelines:

You will need: colored fabric of choice bird (black here), other fabric for inside of costume, thread matching bird, stuffing/batting, grey fabric for bottom of bird, flannel for face.

I used as much stuff as I could find around the house and spent $7!!!



1. First, there is no pattern, so get some butcher paper or tissue paper and trace around the person to get an accurate size. I then tied a string to a pencil to create a circle from the center of Benny's body. I measured the circle and bought fabric accordingly.

2. Fabric is actually kind of expensive I found. You will need at least a yard of colored fabric for the front and one for the back depending on how large the person is. I got away with 2 yards total for Benny and it is large on him. I didn't want to buy the expensive fabric, so even though the blog recommends flannel, I decided a twin bedsheet would probably be good enough. I went to Walmart to spend $5 on one and ran across some flannel throws for $2.88 each and bought two.

3. You also need fabric for the inside of the costume, so I cut up an old white sheet we had lying around the house.
So essentially there are 4 pieces of fabric, 2 black (or red, yellow, whatever bird this is) and then 2 of whatever color for the inside that no one will see. They are all exactly the same pattern/size cut from the butcher paper pattern you drew earlier. The pattern should include the fuse at the top of the head if doing the black bomb bird, or tufts for the red etc.

4. Sew both of the outside/black pieces to the inside/white pieces leaving a small open area at the bottom to be able to stuff it. Now there are 2 pieces, the front and back of the costume.

5. On the front piece, cut arm slats, whatever size you want and wherever you want. Cut a hole for the head but DO NOT make it too big (Benny's is waaay too big). They recommend making it smaller than you think it should be and should use a cereal bowl to trace the head circle. Also make sure not to place it too high. I was worried Benny's would be too low and cover his face, but I made it too high and it doesn't cover enough head to stay on well (this could also be because the hole is huge).

6. For the grey area on the bottom of the black bomb bird, I cut up an old Tshirt. You can also find cheap Thirts at Walmart's craft section ($2.50)or Michaels, or just buy a little fabric. I didn't have dark grey so Benny's is a little on the light side. Sew this onto the bottom portion of the front piece. Save some small scraps for the eyes.

7. Stitch up all rough edges from head hole, arms holes, etc. Sew front of costume to back of costume so now there is one piece, making sure to leave a large opening at the bottom for the wearer's body to enter.

8. I used some red, yellow and white felt pieces and cut eyes, mouth, and eyebrows. You can stitch or glue them on.

9. Stuff the costume with batting and then stitch the openings closed. I used an old pillow and took out half the stuffing for the front and the other half for the back.

10. And that's it! Hopefully this won't take you, Bethany, as long as it took me as I had no idea what I was doing!!!! Good luck

Crazy

It's official: we have completely lost our minds.

We decided to move into a small apartment to save some money for a few months. I will be 36 weeks pregnant on moving day next month.

Kill me now.

That said, we both feel good about this. We're just moving a few streets away in the same city and same ward. We'll obviously be giving up some things, but at least we will both be able to fit into the bathroom at the same time. Although I won't be working anymore so I really won't need to be in the bathroom getting ready at the same time as Ben. Oh well. We'll see how this goes! It's not forever, right?