Brittney's Top Ten

Brittney's Top Ten Ways You Know You Are Definitely Pregnant:

#10: You suddenly start remembering all the things you forgot about being pregnant.

#9: 40 weeks takes on new meaning.

#8: By 7:oo at night you find yourself unable to keep your eyes open.

#7: Cold cereal becomes the family staple.

#6: You can't brush your teeth without gagging.

#5: Getting through the night with only 2 bathroom trips is a good night.

#4: You can sit and chat for hours with other pregnant women who just 5 minutes before were perfect strangers.

#3: You can't even make it through the grocery store without having something make you tear up.

#2: The fact that you have to start unbuttoning your pants has everything to do with your growing belly and absolutely nothing to do with all the Christmas goodies you've been eating.

#1: You find yourself mesmerized looking at the flashing little heartbeat and teeny little arms and legs actually moving around on the ultrasound at your first Dr.'s appointment.


*Stay tuned for Brittney's Top Ten Ways You Know You Just Had a Baby, coming July 2010.

Holiday Fun

Highlights of some fun Christmas stuff the past little while:

The Young Men and Women of our ward were participants in a live nativity down at the Tuacahn Theater in St. George last week, so we bundled up and headed down. The place was full of lights, and the girls loved it. We took down a neighbor boy of ours who also had a great time. The live nativity was beautiful and had a real donkey, a camel, sheep, and chickens! The youth did a great job. Along with the nativity we got to see Santa (Allie avoided him at all costs), pose as Christmas elves, and ride on the "train" that took us on a mini tour outside of the Tuacahn. On the way home, our 11-year-old neighbor boy who has been taking the missionary discussions said, "I really felt the Spirit, did you?" We had to agree.







Last week we also had our Ward Christmas Party. I just love a good Christmas party! For the program, they had a few musical numbers. I sang "Away in a Manger" for one of them, and the last act of the night was the Primary kids singing some songs. They had a little manger scene set up, and all the Sunbeams wore little sheep hats. Kenna just loved to wear her hat and looked so darn cute! I love to watch her sing with the Primary, my heart just beams. Before we know it, Allie will be joining her! After the program, the kids got to go in and see Santa. Once again, Allie made it very clear she wanted to remain firmly fixed to the back of mom's leg and avoid any eye contact with Santa. We didn't force the issue. Lastly, is a picture of Allie. The picture really does not do justice to the huge fat upper lip she got from falling on the ice earlier in the evening. Mostly all you see is the remains of the chocolate cake from dessert. I had been warning the girls all day to slow down on the snow and ice, and it really just wouldn't be normal to end up without any casualties. The worst part was she had her little hands in her coat pockets and wasn't able to catch herself when she went down face-first! Poor little thing. Her mouth and nose were bleeding, and she had to calm down for a while before she'd let us have a look to assess the damage. Fortunately all teeth remained in place, but she cut her lips and the little piece of skin that goes between your gums and lip. I suppose you live and learn, huh?








I love the words to "Away in a Manger," especially the third verse. It brings Christmas full circle.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay
Close by me forever and love me I pray
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care
And fit us for Heaven to live with Thee there.

Hey Baby Let's Go To Vegas!

Okay, need to start off with our Thanksgiving recap. It was tons of fun, food, and family. On Saturday, the boys on the Otte side went to the BYU/Utah game while the girls got a babysitter and went to see New Moon. We had a ton of fun. The girls and I picked up Jacob after the game was over and headed back home. Before we headed down to the game, we stopped of to say goodbye to the Israelsen fam. The girls really wanted to take a quick ride on Uncle Ross's horse, Holly. Well, to make a long story short, Holly got a branch up her tush and Kenna had a bit of a rodeo experience and ended up getting bucked off! (I was in the house and didn't see any of it, but it's probably best that way). She hurt her arm, and after 4 days of it still being swollen, we took it in to get x-rayed. That was a fun 3 hour fiasco going back and forth from Dr.'s office to hospital for x-ray, and then back to the Dr.'s office. Amid all the arm fiasco, we also discovered Kenna tested positive for strep. She had no fever and had only complained of a sore throat once or twice a few days before. After all was said and done, fortunately, there was no break and the case of strep was very mild. Unfortunately, the Dr.'s office has some major strikes against it in taking two days to get me the results of the x-ray. I think the emotional trauma hopefully won't last too long for the rodeo queen. We tried to help alleviate the fear of horses by putting all the blame on daddy. So now when anyone asks Kenna says, "Well, it was my dad's fault."

This past weekend, Jacob and I traveled down south to Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo. We help out a really great couple from California who have some land and animals down here by us and they treated us to some serious spoilage! Oh my goodness we had such a good time. It's been almost a year since Jacob and I have had a night or two alone together, and we loved every minute of it. It was so fun to be with each other. We got lost in all the crazy Vegas traffic, stayed up way too late, laughed tons, ate too much, and lost 90% of our hearing with two nights of awesome seats at the rodeo and a Brooks and Dunn concert. So. Much. Fun. Gotta say, however, two nights of Vegas is plenty. It's a whole other world, that's for sure. I'm not sure if there was more beer or people at the rodeo. We were the anomaly with our bottles of water. Ha! But all that drinkin' sure makes for some good people-watchin'! Aunt Marlene came down to watch the girls. We were SO DARN grateful for her! It was so nice to just go away and not have to worry about things at home. THANKS AGAIN a million times Aunt Marlene for giving up your weekend for us, it meant so much. I hope she can recover soon. :)

Husband looks mighty fine in a cowboy hat. And Wranglers. And boots. Love it.


Jacob LOVES it when I do these reach-your-arm-out-and-hope-you-get-in-the-shot pictures.


Hold on there little buckaroo. These people are seriously nuts.


A lil' Tanya Tucker doing the National Anthem. Drugs really didn't do her voice any favors. Oops, did I really post that?


Get ready for a good concert!


Now really, does it get better than this?


Boot Scootin' Boogie! Such a great concert.


Okay, okay, I know I am pure dork. Jacob laughed when he saw me sneaking a picture of this. This here beer bottle was pretty much in my lap. The guy next to me had two. He informed me that he didn't want to run dry. I gave him a good hearty laugh at that one just to make him feel extra special. He thought he was pretty suave. I really had a hard time not reaching over to take a swig all night. Actually, all the salt-and-pepper chest hair pushing it's way out of his 4 undone buttons kept me at bay.

Thanks Jacob for such a fun weekend full of great memories!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sending out a big HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all. Hope you have a wonderful holiday and are able to reflect on all the wonderful blessings the Lord has given us. I'm keeping a little prayer of gratitude in my own heart for the MANY incredible blessings I have. Thank you Jacob for being my number one. Followed up quickly by 2 and 3 who keep me hoppin' all day long. And to think that's only the beginning of my blessings....

Gosh I love this picture. Blessings indeed.

SMRT

I am so dang smart! I amaze myself. Astounding. Spectacular! Okay, so I'm only a mere lightyear away from the rest of the world, but hey, I'm going to give myself a big pat on the back anyway. As you may have noticed, I changed my blog template. Now, you have to understand what an accomplishment this is. I DID IT BY MYSELF. Yes, it's true. I actually read a tutorial and made my way through all that html code junk. To most of the outside world this is comparable to a toddler putting on their own shoe. Perhaps I'm a technical toddler. Nonetheless, I will rejoice in my triumph! Okay, I'm a dork.

Let's recap last week. The Israelsen family are really the stars of the show this past month. In the past month, all but two of Jacob's siblings have come down to visit. Considering we only missed two out of ten, that's a pretty good chunk of the fam dam! Well, we must also add in that we didn't get to see a brother-in-law and a niece. But still, we got great Israelsen coverage! Last week we topped off the family pilgrimage to Southern Utah with a visit from Mom and Dad Israelsen. Dad I had meetings T-TH down in Mesquite, and Mom I accompanied him down. She stayed with us while dad was being the professional and then he joined us for the rest of the week. I WAS SPOILED. I had a whole week of Grandma Entertainer/Dishwasher Loader/Housecleaner/Counselor. We even got to keep them an extra day because Dad I's work truck broke down and they couldn't get a ride back up north until Saturday. I'm afraid the snow storm on Friday put a major kink into Dad's "get-r-done" schedule and he was stuck inside the whole day. Torture for an Israelsen! But, we enjoyed all our time together. THANK YOU for all your help mom and dad. We really had a great time with you. And I'm not even saying that just to be nice! The girls especially loved all the TLC. Mom I deserves a serious upgrade in heaven for the million times she played Memory and Cooties. Not to mention the 1,259,301 books she read to the little girls. Monday morning I looked at the pile of dishes in my sink and just about called and begged them to come back. Love you!

Well, my little Allie Rae is having some major success with potty training. I am perfectly okay about that! My little two-year-old bundle of joy has also started into some MAJOR tantrums. I have never seen tantrumming like this. Out of control, freak out, send mom to the asylum, kind of tantrums. Fortunately I found a great resource on the internet that is helping whip these freak out sessions right into shape. It's a darn good thing, I was about to sell her to the gypsies. Hmm. Not sure they would have taken her. LOVE YOU ALLIE!

Another Good One

You may have already seen this, but this was so touching to me. What an incredible lesson on what it means to be a parent, and how to take our trials in stride. Great to watch after an afternoon of shopping with the girls who ran around like hoodlums and dropped a juice bottle that broke and spilled all over the floor in Smith's.

Food for Thought

Perhaps right now one of the biggest things going on is the H1N1 deal. I know there are many differing opinions about the flu this year and there has been tons of media coverage. What I have found is that there is quite a bit of research out there, a lot of which is not covered in the media. Now that I am a mom and have to make very important decisions regarding the health of my kiddos, I have been really trying to do research so I can make what I feel is an educated, objective decision. Before simply assuming the best preventative course of action to take, I highly suggest everyone to do their own research to make the best decision for them and their families. An example of many available:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/03/What-We-Have-Learned-About-the-Great-Swine-Flu-Pandemic.aspx (This one has some VERY interesting info and especially numbers to consider)

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/11/13/what-is-the-real-cause-of-influenza-epidemics.aspx

http://www.nvic.org// (this one is a non-profit organization therefore has no ties to any one program or company)

Just something to think about. Something I'm learning about myself is I often play the "devil's advocate," if you will, and try to see all sides of the story.

If any of you out there have some other interesting information you would like to share, I would love to hear it!