It's a Girl!!

I had an ultrasound on Thursday! I was only 17 1/2 weeks but they let me try to get the measurements for insurance reasons. Turns out I'll have to have another one in a couple of weeks because she wasn't sure she could see everything properly and she wanted to make 100% sure the baby was okay. I was a little worried about having another one but it turns out I'll have insurance to cover it, so it's going to be just fine. PHEW!

And... it's a GIRL!!! My little Scarlett.
Tyler and I both guessed right.
Look, here's her Halloween picture:

Happy Halloween!

We'll post pictures of Derek and his Halloween costume soon. Love to all!

Wedding and A Subaru

We found a car! Derek and I are no longer stuck at home all day while Tyler is at work. It's extremely liberating. We bought a 2001 gold Subaru Legacy. I usually don't like gold cars but this one actually looks pretty nice. Tyler is enjoying it. I still love my Jetta. We're thinking about making the move to an SUV or minivan. I don't know if I'm ready for that. I guess it would be practical. At the same time, it will be awhile before we'll have to fit three carseats in one car, so maybe we'll wait a little bit. I don't know. The debate is on.

Kyle and Jenn got married on Tuesday, October 19th! Congratulations to the newest Mr. and Mrs. Prestgard! Everything was beautiful. Jenn looked gorgeous and the ceremony was perfect. Derek had the great honor of being one of the ring bearers. He looked like such a little man! It was adorable. Welcome to the family, Jenn! We love you!

I am still pregnant and get to have an ultrasound on October 27th. I am very excited. Can't wait, can't wait...

Derek is 18 Months!!

He's doing great! He had his 18 month appointment last week and he's in the 50th percentile for his head circumference, 45th percentile for height, and -10th percentile for weight. He's following his own curve for weight and the doctor isn't worried. He's gaining weight steadily, he's just not very heavy. The doctor said he looked perfect. I agree.

Derek still loves the movie "Cars" but he also loves "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo", which he calls the fishy movie. Well, he actually calls it "Wuh wuh wishy." He started saying "wishy" and I was trying to get him to attempt the /f/ sound so I kept saying "fuh fuh fishy." He's talking up a storm these days. Among some of his newest words are: down, "side" (outside), "biser" (spider), "baba" (banana), "kickin" (chicken), yogurt, happy, and sad. He also constructs a few simple sentences like, "I see Woody" or "I want cars."

We bought him a toddler bed and last night was the first night that he slept there the whole night! I am so proud of him. He loves the bed because it has Toy Story characters all over it. He also loves the Lightning McQueen pillow his grandma bought him.

He's growing so fast. He's just adorable. The other day I was getting a little frustrated with him. He had been whiny for awhile and we were at the end of a long day. He worked and he worked to climb up onto the couch, gave me a kiss, and climbed back down. Completely melted my heart and, of course, my frustration as well. He's such a sweet little boy! He still calls me Tara once in awhile but mostly he'll call me Mommy now, which I love. He sings too. His favorite songs are "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Halloween Cat." He also sings the "Wow Wow Wubbzy" theme song and "Break Your Heart," that song by Taio Cruz. What a funny kid.

He had his first couple of weeks in our church's nursery. He did fine as long as I or Tyler were there. I think he'll do fine when we move church times back to the morning. We have church at 2 and every day at 2, Derek and I take a nap. Nap time is not a good church time. He's supposed to be in nursery from 3-5 and that just isn't going to happen while he's sleepy and grouchy. He loves to play with other kids though! I guess we'll see when January rolls around. I just got released from my calling in the Primary, so I'll be able to stay in nursery with him if he needs me to.

Needless to say, I love being Derek's mother. Happy 18 months, my beautiful little Peanut!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

So our family has a few new things to report. Tyler accepted a job with Strayer University yesterday! He will be the Student Account Representative. He starts at the end of this month and we are very excited. Derek and I are also a little sad. We've been terribly spoiled these last few weeks having Tyler home with us all day every day. It's been so nice having him home!

We are also expecting another addition to our family! I'm 10 weeks and 6 days with an estimated due date of April 2, 2011. We were able to have an ultrasound on Tuesday to determine dates and everything looks healthy so far!


I'm pretty much tired and nauseated all of the time. I'm still working and that's really hard on me. The day after I work, it's all I can do to get out of bed in the afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to cut back on hours now that Tyler has a job!

Derek is still doing well. He has his well-baby appointment next week. Can you believe he's almost 18 months old!? He's a beautiful and intelligent child. He says "bless you" when you sneeze and loves playing with cars.

Anyway, there's a quick update on our lives. I promise to be better with posting.
Love to all!

Independence Day

We had a fantastic Independence Day weekend! It started on July 3rd when Tyler, Derek, Dan, Choka, Zayaa, Danny, Ariunaa, my Dad, and I went to BYU campus to have a picnic and wait for fireworks! We had Panda Express and then just enjoyed the sunshine. The kids had so much fun running around, rolling down hills, bouncing balls, and eating ice cream. The picture above is all the kids in the outfits that their Grandma Sherry bought them.

This is my favorite picture. Such handsome boys!!

Our little family.

Papa and his grandkids.

The fireworks were amazing and I think we all had a pretty good time. Danny and Zayaa don't like loud noises, so their hands were over their ears the whole time. Derek liked the fireworks. He didn't seem bothered by them at all. He even was possibly even bored by the end.

On the 4th of July, we went to church and then had a barbecue at Dan and Choka's house. I was a little skeptical of the T-Bone steak they made me, but it turned out to be tender and yummy! I was very impressed. Dan made ice cream and, as always, it was delicious.


On July 5th, Dad, Tyler, Derek, and I met Dan, Choka, Zayaa, Danny, and Ariunaa at the park. Here's Derek in the outfit his Grandma Prestgard bought him:

We fed the ducks and played on the swing-set. Derek LOVED the swing. That's all he wanted to do. He probably would have stayed there all day if we would have let him. Every time we tried to get him out to go feed the ducks or run around or slide down the slide, he'd scream. He just wanted to swing.

After the park, we went to eat at Five Guys where we had some delicious burgers. I'm not a big meat eater but I dream about the burger I had at Five Guys. Yum yum.

I worked that night but the whole family came in to the restaurant. It was so fun to be their server! It made work go by much quicker. It wasn't too busy that night, so I got to visit with them a little.

All in all, it was a really good weekend! Happy Independence Day! (Late as always....)

Title Cliche: Calm Before the Storm

I have put off writing about this but I'll update anyways.

Last Wednesday I went to bed and had one of those rare moments of perfection, of complete bliss. Everything in my life was right where it should be. Before I even had a chance to enjoy the moment, blind panic set in, for I've had this feeling of perfection before and trials inevitably follow. I had to calm myself down so that I could sleep.

The next day, Derek and I went to swimming lessons and had a great time. I had forgotten about the panic the night before and didn't think anything of our neighbor's car parked in front of their house. Tyler and our neighbor carpooled to work that day and I thought they might have come home because his wife needed help. I thought to myself, "I'll have to call Tyler when I get in the house to see if he needs a ride home." When I opened our front door, Tyler was walking up our stairs. It startled me, but I wasn't thinking that anything out of the ordinary was happening. I asked him what he was doing home, chiding him a little for scaring me in that way. He sadly answered, "What do you think?"

Tyler's department downsized and outsourced and didn't renew several contracts, including Tyler's. So we are back to job searching and unemployment. Hello uncertainty; I can't say that I've missed you.

We're dong all right, considering. I'm still working at the restaurant and Tyler's all ready had a couple of interviews. He's such a good man and I'm sure he'll find something soon. We're hopeful and we're happy and healthy otherwise. So that's something.

Derek at 15 Months

We had Derek's well-baby appointment a week or two ago. He is in the 60th percentile for height but isn't even on the charts for weight. The doctor said that by looking at me and Tyler, she's not expecting him to be very big, but she'd like to see him on the charts. We're trying to give him lots of good fats like milk, peanut butter, etc. He won't drink a lot of milk, but he likes yogurt, so that's something. The picture above is Derek with a mouth full of french toast. I especially love the powdered sugar on the nose. He loves to feed himself. He almost won't eat unless we let him do it himself. He's really good at using a spoon.

We did mommy and me swimming lessons for the last two weeks. He LOVED it. We'd get to the pool and he'd start saying, "water! water!" which sounded more like, "wadee! wadee!" It was fun to get in the water everyday, sing songs, and play. It kept us busy while Choka was gone. It actually kept us busy until Tyler got home everyday.

Derek's favorite movie right now is Disney/Pixar's "Cars". He's obsessed with all things cars. I'm fine with it. It's a good movie and very entertaining and I was getting a little tired of "Yo Gabba Gabba". He also loves to ride in the car and to play with toy cars. He also loves to pretend to drive our car. Such a boy.


He says quite a few words for a 15 month old. 3-4 words is normal and Derek has a vocabulary of 15-16 words. I am trying to make a list of all the words he says, but I'm fairly certain that I'm forgetting some. He also is a little gymnast. Last night he kept trying to do somersaults. I was pretty impressed.

Unfortunately, he's also started with the tantrums. He's still adorable though and we love him very much. He's a smart kid, charming, and happy. I'm still loving motherhood. I love you, Derek!