#18

We hope Clara enjoyed her 3 days as the newest niece! Today at 1:04 pm #18 arrived. She is Mollie Fern Atkinson and weighed in at 8lbs 7oz, measuring 21 inches. Congrats to Ryan and Amy!

#17 Has Arrived

Introducing another adorable niece, Clara Faye Shoup. Clara made her debut appearance at 4:59 on Tuesday February 24th. She tipped the scales at a hearty 9lbs 3oz and is already 20.1" tall. Congratulations to Theresa & Josh!

Cross your fingers for Clara. I remember when Monroe was born 3 years ago. A few weeks later I was on the phone with Theresa and I hear her yelling to Eve (then 2) "Eve, don't step on the baby's head please." And Eve saying "Why not?"

Any day now we should be hearing from Ryan & Amy about #18's arrival and we'll keep you posted!

Alien Kaleidoscope

 Here's the latest photo of our baby. This was the big appointment where we found out for sure if it was a boy or a girl. I knew it was a girl all along because, well, I'm only having girls. As they were doing the ultrasound, everytime they would get close to getting a look at the face of the baby he would cover his face with his hand and turn his head away. That's exactly what Jerel does when you try to take his picture, so I knew at that point it was a boy. I'm not sure how this mix-up happened, but I suppose we'll just go along with it.

If you've never had an ultrasound, let me explain it to you. They put sticky cold goo all over your tummy. Then they put the camera device all over you and at the same time turn on a recorded film that is just a kaleidoscope of alien pictures. It goes from one alien-looking thing to the next. While you're watching the alien moving around the tech says things like "There is baby's leg" or "There is baby's face." Sometimes you even think you are starting to recognize things. I was so excited when I first saw the baby's face. I could tell it was the face because I could see the two eyes. Then the tech said "Those are the baby's kidneys." Well, it looked like a face to me. Then she showed us the actual face and it didn't look very face-like at all. I think the whole thing is just made up. Anyway, we did see two each of: arms, legs, eyesockets, hands, feet, and kidneys and one each of: heart, head, brain, and spine. So I think we've got the basics.

But enough about our baby....let's talk about everyone else's babies! Here is the schedule:

Mandy's sister Theresa's baby, Clara, is due this Friday (the 27th).
Next come Jerel's siblings:
Two days after Clara is due, Ryan & Amy's girl is due March 1st
Karee & Dave's baby is due July 3
Jerel & I are also due July 3
Jake & Mandy are due in early September
Poor Trudy! Jerel's mom makes a beautiful quilt for each grandchild and I just don't see how she'll be able to keep up with this little baby boom in the Atkinson family!

I am really enjoying these last four months where I can see kids misbehaving and say "My kids will never do that." It is especially funny to me to say that to people who already have kids and have them look at me like I'm crazy and naive and maybe even a little bit stupid. Of course I know my kid will do all those things that other people's kids do, but for now I'm just pretending it will be born potty-trained, sleep soundly 16 hours a day, etc.

Happy Made-up Holiday!

That is what Jerel said when we woke up on Valentine's Day. What a romantic he is...Jerel likes Valentine's Day just about as much as he likes JoAnn Fabrics (which he calls The Evil Store). Fortunately he likes me more than he hates Valentine's Day so he gives in and celebrates it. Well, maybe not celebrate, but at least acknowledge.

Jerel took me to dinner at Salty's, my favorite seafood restaurant. It's on the Columbia River. Wait, maybe it's the Wilamette River. One of those. Anyway, gorgeous view and fabulous food! Jerel had some kind of chicken thing and I had salmon. It was tasty, although as I told Jerel, nothing is as good as my Grandpa's salmon cooked on the grill! We had a good time, except for when I had the waitress take a picture of us, then Jerel was cranky. But seriously, if I put on makeup AND comb my hair all on the same day then I expect to at least have a picture to prove it!

In return for Jerel taking me to this super fancy place, next week I'm going to take him to Red Robin for his free birthday burger because I'm nice and generous like that.

Jerel with his Birthday Present!

The day after Jerel's birthday he woke up in the morning and started talking about how if he just had a Hoveround it would be so much easier to get to the fridge to get his prune juice to take his arthritis medication...then he started singing from the commercial "go, go, go in my hoveround!" You can go here to see the commercial, but I have to warn you, the song is likely to get stuck in your head http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKPeYrrhIvQ

By the way, Jerel is only 36 so I'm not sure why he's turned into Mr. Drama over this birthday thing, but it is pretty entertaining to wake up to him singing "go, go, go in my hoveround!"

Jerel's Final Birthday

Thursday was Jerel's big day. He wasn't particularly excited about it, but then those of you who know Jerel know that he doesn't get particularly excited about anything. It's part of his charm. Anyway, I've spent the last 3 months trying to get him to commit to something he wants for his birthday. He's not very good at doing that, which I don't get. If you asked me right now for a birthday list I could name at least 10 things I'd like. Not so much with Jerel. I thought about getting him a really fancy ice cream maker since he LOVES ice cream, but then I remembered I did that 2 years ago and as it turns out he doesn't LOVE ice cream or even really LIKE ice cream so it's only been used once. Then I thought about getting him a dress coat. He's mentioned several times he might like one (he won't go so far as to say he for sure wants one, just maybe). Then I remembered I got him one 2 Christmases ago--a really nice one--but he had me return it. Then I thought about getting him a winter coat. The one he has is hilarious. Both of us could fit in it comfortably (although that would be awkward) and it hits him mid-calf. Then I remembered that I got him a cool Columbia one last Christmas and that was returned as well.

Should I keep going, or do you get the idea? So I told him that until he told me specifically what he wanted, including style number, color, model & serial number, etc. I wouldn't be getting him a present. See, this is Jerel's last birthday. By the time his next birthday rolls around I won't be working and my budget for his birthday gift will be right around 38 cents. I told him I wanted to get him something really nice this time since it's his last chance. Over the past couple of months there have been a few times when he ALMOST thought about MAYBE wanting something enough to CONSIDER putting it on the list, but as of now--2 days post-birthday--nothing is on the list and so nothing is what he's received.

That doesn't mean I completely ignored his birthday. I took him to Olive Garden for dinner (his favorite place). I also got him a cupcake cookbook. Jerel LOVES cupcakes...at least I think he does. Maybe he just sort of likes them a little bit. Anyway, he seemed to like the cookbook because aside from 30-some-odd really fancy cool neato cupcakes it also has a recipe for vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting. When he opened it he was telling me that cupcakes are getting more popular and that in Utah they even have bakeries who only do cupcakes, which he thought seemed like a great idea. So after dinner I took him to a surprise place. It was in downtown Portland, which is not Jerel's favorite place to drive, and also not my favorite place to be a passenger when Jerel is driving. By the time we arrived I had to give him strict instructions to change out of his cranky pants. And then we went in to a cute little cupcake bakery called Saint Cupcake. See, Utah isn't the only place on earth with cupcake bakeries! You can see their website here http://www.saintcupcake.com/ and prepare to be impressed because even Jerel liked the place! (Probably because aside from 8 million fancy kinds of cupcakes they also sell vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting, which is what he got).

When we got home I told him "Don't forget, whenever you figure out what you'd like for your birthday, just let me know." And he says "What? We just had my birthday--Olive Garden, cupcake place, and cookbook. It's done." What does a girl have to do to get something nice for her husband around here?!

I Think We'll Just Have ONE Kid

This is cute Monroe. Don't be deceived by the receding hairline, he is really only 3. My favorite thing was on Sunday. He didn't want to go to Sunbeams so I told him he could come to my class. But no, he wanted to go to the "baby class" because they get to play with toys. So even though he's too old they let him go. It cracks me up because some kids, if you suggest the "baby class" they'll say "no way, I'm a big kid." Not Monroe.


This one is Eve. She's 5 now and highly entertaining. After church on Sunday one of the little girls from my class came to our house because her parents were sick. She and Eve played for several hours while Theresa & I worked on receiving blankets and burp cloths for Clara (due in 17 days).

Saturday evening we went to Out of This World Pizza and the kids had a great time playing on all the toys and not eating the over-priced pizza. After a few hours we took Uncle Jerel home and then we went to the "Doughnut Factory" which is Krispy Kreme. Eve had a near-death experience when we told her she could only eat one doughnut that night, but she ended up pulling through and surviving. It was especially fun when we went to leave and realized Theresa had locked her keys in the car...She said "Gosh, I haven't done that in a long time" which I think means like 4 months.

The kids and I went inside to wait and Monroe was hilarious. He thought he had sole ownership of the ledge where the kids watch the doughnuts and he wouldn't let anyone else go past him. So this other kid tried to kind of push past him and Monroe turned into a drama queen and did this fake fall where he rolled over and then started fake crying and looked at us to yell at the other kid. Which we didn't because the other kid barely touched him! I think he must've snuck and watched WWE with Jerel to learn fake injury moves like that. If Jerel had been there I would've said my newly-learned basketball phrase "Did you see that? He was totally trying to draw the charge." I don't really know what it means, but something about trying to get the other guy in trouble for knocking you over.

Anyway, we had a fun time but it sure wore me out!

I think I'll go eat some worms...

You know, as in "nobody likes me, everybody hates me." So I was chatting with Monroe (my nephew, age 3) who is coming to visit tomorrow. Here's the transcript:

ME: Are you so excited to come visit tomorrow?
MONROE: Yes.
ME: Who are you more excited to see--Aunt Mandy or Uncle Jerel?
[Theresa yelling in background "Monroe, say Aunt Mandy! Say Aunt Mandy!"]
MONROE: Jerel!

You can't win 'em all! Still I am excited to see them. Eve will get to come to my Primary class on Sunday, and maybe Monroe too if he doesn't want to go with the Sunbeams.

As a side note, one of my all-time favorite Primary students, Grant, who's been in my class for over a year, is moving to Idaho. I sure will be sad to see him go! He is one of the few in the class who gets that I'm sarcastic all the time. For example last week we were going to watch a short video about Joseph Smith and the kids asked what movie it was. I said "Transformers" and they all said "Yeah!" except for Grant who just laughed and said "No, that is not a church-watching movie." He's on to me and my silliness. Also last Sunday I was asking them lots of questions and instead of each time just saying "raise your hand if you know the answer" I was saying "raise your foot" or "raise your thumb" or "raise your eyebrow" and at one point I couldn't come up with anymore ideas. Grant helped me out by suggesting "I know, how about raise your middle finger" complete with a demonstration. They all tried it but decided it required too much coordination...Anyway, you can see why I'll miss the little guy. And his mom too. She has been a sincere friend but if I write about that I'll cry and that won't be as funny for readers of this blog.

Check back this weekend for more posts. I'm guessing with Eve and Monroe around something blog-worthy is bound to happen!

The Large & Spacious Belly

I would hate for my baby to be squished or cramped in any way, so even though he is only 4 or 5 inches long these days I thought I should add at least 87 million inches to my stomach so that he'd have enough room...Also, my body apparently thinks I am also carrying a baby in each thigh because they are rapidly expanding as well.

Speaking of people with enormous tummies, my little sister Theresa is coming to visit this weekend with her two kids. #3 is due in three weeks, which explains why Theresa currently has an enormous tummy. Plus her baby is like 3 or 4 weeks bigger than it's supposed to be. Fun for her...Anyway, little Monroe is of course way more excited to see Uncle Jerel than Aunt Mandy, but I think I still win with Eve.

We got to talk to our niece Ellie on the phone last night. She is barely two and just a doll. I put her on speakerphone and she sang songs for us. My favorite is that she sings the ABC song but when it gets to "now I know my ABC's" she says "now I know my A B C D E F G..." and the song starts over in a never-ending loop.

That's all the excitement around here. We'll post more ultrasound pictures in about 2 more weeks.