Find the Little Austrian Boy

Almost time for a haircut.

It's cute, it's cute, it's cute, ahh, it's not cute.

That's what happens when his hair is at this length. One day we wake up and it's not cute anymore.

Fort Casey canons.

Those are little soldier toys all over the place. Those things are worse than sand. They are EVERYWHERE.

I love self imposed prisons. If only they stayed in there all day.

We got to fish-sit! Avery diligently fed them every morning and every night.

Sweet. Except then she's awake all night. But I go to bed at 8, so it's not my problem. smiley.

I love old little people toys.

I took just Evan to the library the other day and he played with these the whole time. He rarely gets to go places all by himself. It was nice.

Evan reminds me of a little Austrian boy when he wears shorts.

We went and picked wild flowers to make a bouquet.

Avery was so worried about stepping on a slug.

We saw a deer the other day on my run.

Mostly I am just proud and happy to say I feel good enough in the mornings to actually go for a run.

This is the only pregnancy I have been able to do that. Mornings are great.

I told Evan that Grandma Larsen is coming in a few days, and he is really excited.

He's sitting on my lap right now pointing to that picture of her and talking nonsense.

The other day there were a million cranes in the harbor - way more than this picture shows - but it was funny how they each picked a rock to stand on. I felt sorry for the poor suckers who didn't get a rock.

Little Fetus

Perhaps ultrasound pictures are only adorable, amazing, facinating, adorable, and adorable to the mother in whose belly the little being resides.

I just think this baby is the cutest.

Look at that little nose. And its leg was kicked strait up in the air the whole time; the hand resting on its face.

teeny little legs

dramatic little arm and hand

teddy bear face

the foot! hello little feet.

I just can't wipe the smile off my face when that wand wipes over the belly.

Side note: I love this ob/gyn office. Little things like the jelly stuff is warmed so that you aren't shocked when it's squirted on your belly. And you do the litmus test yourself when you pee in the cup. For some reason that makes me feel important and educated. (Right? Or should I feel like "this is a job for someone who gets paid"? Well, for now I like it.)

I love Dr. Doweling. Today I asked her, timidly, if when I get sewed back up she was going to staple me together (that gives me the willies. I don't want to be stapled), and she explained how she sutchers. Just like Dr. Juarez. And she totally agreed with me on not wanting to be stapled.

Anyway, just little things are making me feel very comfortable. I know those are trivial, but everything about this office is awesome. 

We are sticking with the due date January 9.

How We Spent The Longest Day of the Year

Well, Evan woke up at 5:45 because the sun was up loud and proud, and there was no cloud cover to take the edge off, so we were all up and at 'em by 7:00.

So we decided to go explore Deception Pass.

When the tide goes in and out, the water acts like a river because these land masses are so close together. Looking over the bridge when the tide is in transition, the water is rushing like a river.

Old Man's Beard grew on all these trees. Kind of made it a spooky few minutes of the hike.

Then we decided to just keep driving up Whidby Island and see what we could see.

We stopped at Fort Casey to check out this old...fort...built before WWI. 1890, I think?

It was awesome. I kept thinking about how much my mom and dad will love to come see it when they come visit this summer!

From here you can see Mt. Rainier and Mt. Baker at the same time.

The only downer was how many drop offs there were everywhere. My mama blood pressure was soaring when Evan would run away from my grasp.

Darn the 19th Century military for not making this place more kid friendly.

We got home with a whole day full of daylight left.

Annnnd I went to bed around 8.

A Text About Poop

But you'll have to wait until you get to the end of this post to read it...

"A little drive down a forrest road."

"I haven't taken a picture of food in a while..."

"This is what we do when it hits 65 degrees."

"This is what we do when it rains all day."

"I love Tina Fey."

"Cozy kid."

"Can you find both kids?"

"Throwing a fit. Doesn't want to leave."

"Darn kid learned how to climb out of the tub."

"Saw a bald eagle on the way home! These other birds were heckling him."

The bald eagle was all, don't you know who I am?

and the crows were like, yeah weren't you almost extinct once? haha!

"Can you handle the cuddling? It's out of control this morning."

"Spent our birthday money at the dollar store."

She called that orange thing "cute thingy" for awhile. Then it popped, so she did a chore to earn another dollar to go buy another one, and it's pink, and she calls it her baby and treats it thusly.

Dollars. Huh.

"Aww, Piper-dog."

"These toys never go out of style."

I bought these for our ward's 4th of July breakfast that our primary is in charge of. We had a planning meeting with some of the sr. primary so they could help be involved with the party, and one of the boys had the brilliant idea to decorate with soldiers. The kids will even get to set them up on all the tables.

"For when I get hungry in the middle of the night."

"There's plenty of couch space available, but these are my Sorensen children we are talking about."

I didn't realize it was "weird" to sit like this with my siblings until inlaws (Brandon) came into the family and pointed out the quirk. When you grow up in a family of 8, you do what you can to get comfy.

"Cute Piper."

Sky

It's true.

Also lately Avery asks me to sing her a lullaby when she is going to sleep. Three times she's been asleep by the time the song ends.

I sing the "hush little mermaid" Backyardigans song. It's a good one.

But one thing about it is, she doesn't want Jimi in the room. She gets shy if he is.

For when she's older...

 Rest my little darling

You’ve had a busy day

The sun is a'falling

And it’s time for me to say

 Hush, hush, hush little mermaid,

Good night.

Hush, hush little mermaid,

Sleep tight.

Close your eyes,

Close your eyes and lay down your head,

In your peaceful ocean bed.

Have a snooze, please, like I said and

Hush, hush, hush little mermaid,

Good night.

Hush little mermaid,

Sleep tight.

 You’re feeling kind of sleepy,

You’re feeling kind of loopy,

 Your fins are getting floppy,

And your eyelids getting droopy.

May your dreams be sweet,

As you fall into a snooze.

Perhaps again we’ll meet,

But now we have to cruise.

So hush, hush, hush little mermaid,

Good night.

Hush, hush little mermaid,

Sleep tight.

Hush, hush little mermaid,

Good night.

Hush little mermaid,

Hush little mermaid,

Good night.

Father's Day

Everyone wants a peice of this guy.

 

Avery always asks, "where's daddy?"

Evan always yells "Di Di!" when he hasn't seen him in a while.

Piper always rolls and grunts when she lays next to him.

10 Weeks

I've been looking forward to being in the double digits (gestational weeks) because that's when your hormones are supposed to peak and then you "won't feel so sick and tired".

But someone needs to tell my pregnancy app that that is not true. For me, things have gotten worse. Worse worse worse. I feel like I've been hit by a large truck full of sledgehammers, and it collided with a truck full of energy suckers.

I was bragging about how I've only thrown up three times this pregnancy...well you can scratch that off my list of accomplishments. For my future self who wants to see when I will be the sickest of my future pregnancy (if there is one...seriously): so far it's really gone down hill week 10. I know, you are soo mad about that, future self. I am too.

I am reading "The Hiding Place" to try to keep my "plight" in perspective. There could be worse things to endure in life than pregnancy, I suppose.

Avery tells me she has a baby in her belly too. I told her she needs to be married in order to have a baby in her belly and she said "I am married! To Evan and HeMan!"

(which is funny because Evan is her brother and HeMan couldn't be more gay...have you watched that show recently? It's extremely funny how gay he is.)

Also on my pregnancy app, there is a baby name feature, and it has the most popular names from different parts of the country. Well look at what the number 19 boy and girl names are in Canada:

Even funnier because we are practically Canadian.

Alright, that's enough. I need to go lay down.

Hovander

There's a cool barn/park/garden here that we frequent. There's always something new to see.

I'll be darned if he's not the cutest little boy.

This time we noticed some trails in the trees, so we followed it to see where it led.

Jungley.

Ta da! It led strait to the Nooksac River.

There is Evan frantically looking for a rock to throw.

It made me uncomfortable to watch the kids skitter around willy nilly,

so Jim held him while they threw in some weeds.

Jim "threw" something else in the river too, but never mind that. Never mind.

I love Evan's hand holding on to Jimi's back here. I can't really explain it, but Evan's hands make such Evan-y hand gestures. I could pick his hands out of a hand line up.

A few days ago, Avery started calling flowers "wonders". I don't know where she got it from, but she'll say, "let's look for wonders".

and then when she sees some wonders, she yells out, "wonders!"

Behind this house is a bunch of wonders and a big demonstration garden.

This whole homestead used to belong to a family, but they donated it for the public's enjoyment.

This is what an artichoke plant looks like.

I never knew.

We ended the trip with some ice cream,

(I could kiss that face)

and added another layer of grime to the car seat...

Later in the evening, after Evan was tucked in bed, we sat on the porch and watched the rain.

Be still my heart, I love days like this.

I love this place and this season and these people.