First Days of School

I can't believe how fast this summer flew by. I knew it would because I was dreading Lydia starting first grade. A WHOLE day away from me? Unacceptable.

However, she was ready, and excited, and I knew it was the first of many hurdles I would have to jump as a mother.

It all went off so much more flawlessly than I thought. It was as though she never even left school. And while the afternoons are long without her, as long as I don't focus on missing her, things are good. She a natural-born schooler.

The second week of school was when I could tell the whole-day had finally caught up to her. She was a little more tired and cranky, and some tears when I was leaving for an evening meeting warmed my heart as she explained, "I just don't get to see you as much anymore, I don't like when you leave at night."

Despite that, Lydia has loved transitioning to hot lunch at school and looks forward to every Friday - Pizza Day!

A couple weeks after Lydia started school, Ammon was thrilled for his turn for his FIRST time to have a first day: preschool!

Hardly able to contain his excitement, we had a fun time taking pictures, though Ammon just wanted to get in the car and go!

Preschool is every Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30-2:55 pm. Until this baby comes, that means some alone time for just mommy. I joke around with my kids and pretend cry about missing them and being all alone, but of course it's pretty great.

Ammon is especially enjoying the social aspect of preschool, being in a class of eight boys with his best friend, Hyrum, included in the bunch. And though he already is reading, practicing his writing skills and artwork is something I'm happy to have someone else help with.

As school began this month, we've been adjusting and learning and transitioning. But with these two adorable kids, it's pretty easy.

Man I love them.

Tappana Times: August

Well September is practically half over, and yet I've still not updated about all the extra things that happened in August besides vacation and baby updates. So let me get to it!

Though August was hot, and all the grass, bushes, half the trees, and more died of dehydration (seriously, Utah was greener than Washington. Which is just crazy.) I worked hard and kept flowers that I planted from seeds from the dollar store alive.

I took a picture because first: it's truly a feat for me to keep plants alive. I'm a plant neglecter/killer. They don't cry like babies to remind me to water them, so I put it off until they die. Second: I have no idea what type of flowers these are, but our whole family is obsessed with them. They are beautiful. Out of two little plants, we've had multiple blooms of multiple colors. Red, purple, orange, pink.

Besides flowers, we've been blackberry picking multiple times. One of the benefits of living in Washington is that blackberries just grow wild everywhere so we found a secret location that had the best berry bounty, and we braved the brambles to fill our bowls.

Out of the berries we picked, we made blackberry cobbler, blackberry pie bars, ate them with our lunches, or just popped them like candy. We love blackberries around here.





With our fun out in the sun, Ammon had to miss his nap time quite often. Which means he got it in anytime, anywhere he could.

 I forced the kids to go out and play. I found Ammon like this a bout a half hour later.

Wondering why it was so quite in the playroom, I found Ammon sleeping in the most interesting way.

And I guess he found it comfortable to curl up and cuddle with the end of my bed....this boy just really needs his naps still.

And his sister.

We walk to my parent's house a couple times a week, and these two are often running together hand in hand. It seriously warms my heart. May these days never end.

At my parent's house, we've had fun with Uncle Kenny before he left for Honduras to serve his mission. This included a blind taste-test of hamburgers.

We always argue over which fast-food burger is our favorite, so we decided to do an unbiased taste-test to determine the overall winner among the family.

We ranked each burger in different categories: best overall, best meat, sauce, bun, and worst overall.

The results were shocking!

The overall winner was the Whopper from Burger King, which most of us claim to hate, and the runner up was McDonalds Quarter Pounder deluxe...the other place half of us refuse to eat at. Carl's Jr famous star was a close runner up with McDonalds.

The worst burger overall was Wendy's. Truly the burger was horrible. Almost everyone loves Wendy's so we were blown away. We postulated that it was because it was the furthest away so it was cold and older by time we ate it, but really it was just bad. However, Jack in the Box was pretty much tied for worst burger. No surprise there.

It was some good entertainment for an afternoon, and though I'm not much of a burger person, I do declare the Carl's Jr's famous star is the best burger, no matter what our results suggest.

After our last weekend with Kenny, he gave his second farewell talk, was set apart as a missionary, and had an open house for everyone to come wish him well.

We took a few family pictures with him that night.

I don't know why I'm such a giant in this picture, but usually Kenny has a few inches on me and Brigham is an inch taller....I better not be getting taller with this pregnancy! With my other brothers, I wasn't living in state when they left, so it wasn't hard to send them off. However, living close made it much more difficult to say goodbye. Especially since Kenny is such a great uncle. My kids adore him and really have no concept that he's going to be gone for so long. But despite how sad I am, I'm so happy that's he's doing what's right and serving the Lord. I'm excited for all he's going to do, and learn, and grow.

Speaking of growing, my kids' hair just won't stop. So to prepare for school, they had their back-to-school hair cuts.

I barely cut anything off Lydia's hair, but she cringed each time the scissors snipped, sure I was chopping off more than was bearable. We did add a few shorter layers around her face for something a little different, but mostly we just trimmed her ends.

Ammon wanted his haircut done as fast as possible, so I pulled out the clippers and we were done in no time.

Oh so handsome and beautiful. Now they were ready for September, school, and all that is ahead this fall!

24 Week Growth Spurt

Since it's been so long since I've been pregnant, I've forgotten all the different changes that happen at the different weeks. It's made me wish I had done a better job documenting it all before so I could go back and read more of what to expect with my body. So I'll just have to start now with this one!

As of today I am 24 weeks and 6 days along. I had my doctor's appointment yesterday and was lucky to get a bonus ultrasound so they could check to make sure my placenta had moved up, since last time it was closer to my cervix.

I asked the ultrasound tech if it's still a boy, so she tried to look again, but he had his legs clenched together. I said, "So you're telling me there's a chance," to which the tech answered, "We can't get a good look, but I'm still pretty sure it's a boy."

Weird.

This little guy has jumped from the 55th percentile to the 69th in the last month and is as active as ever. In fact, I believe he's the most active baby I've had. I swear he started moving earlier and hasn't stopped. But I can't be positive that I just don't remember.

I could tell a growth spurt happened from all the pulling and tugging and aching of my ligaments. Previously I've never had bad ligament pain, but this pregnancy I've felt every stretch.

I'm also popping out much more so people are actually noticing that I'm pregnant. Most days I still just look fat. I hate that awkward in-between stage.

Along with my popping belly, I had a whopping eight pound weight gain this last month. Woah! That only puts me six pounds away from how much I wanted to gain total. Hahaha, fat chance now. However, I do remember from Lydia and Ammon's pregnancies that I would gain a lot one month and then only a couple pounds the next. HOPEFULLY that's the case this time too. And while I blame this gain on a growing baby, it might also have to do with the entire bag of chips and dip I polished off with my brother in one sitting....

Breathlessness has been another new companion this time around. I hear it's common, but it's new for me. I hate sitting in church or laying in bed and feeling like I just walked up five flights of stairs. I'm just sitting there! Imagine what it's like when I actually do go up five flights of stairs!

Also, my nausea used to disappear completely, but this time it hangs around after I eat. Especially breakfast. Blech. It's not too bad, but really I could go without. The accompanying heartburn is nothing new.

Despite all my complaining, I'm really happy that everything is looking good. My placenta has moved higher and we're moving along. Next month's doctor's appointment includes the wonderful glucose test, so I'm hoping I pass and that my baby's not getting big because I've got a case of the diabetes.

Most people want to know if we have a name and we sure do. Despite lack of popularity among friends and family, we have settled on Kendrick Nelson Tappana. I love it. And yes I know Kendrick is some black rapper these days, but NO that does not mean it's a black name. Actually, it's an old Gaelic/Scottish/Wales name and has been since medieval times. In fact it means "royal chieftain" or "royal power" or "family ruler". That's what finally sealed the deal for Brigham. He had been wavering on the name, but such manly meanings can't be passed up.

This pregnancy seems to be taking forever, and I'm incredibly more impatient this time. I used to really savor being pregnant in the past and didn't feel rushed at all. This time I'm working on enjoying the moment, and giving all my attention to my two beautiful children before life as they know it changes with a new brother. All the new babies born lately sure makes it hard to wait for December though!