20-Week Ultrasound

Boy or Girl? Take a guess!


As Amanda said at the ultrasound...think hamburger bun...not hot dog!

You guessed it...

IT'S A GIRL!!!

The doctor said everything looks really good - there are no signs of down syndrome or birth defects. So, that was very reassuring. Her heartbeat is still nice and strong and we could see her breathing and moving around. Thank heavens for ultrasounds!!

What's Been Happening Recently

We've had our 12-week and 16-week baby appointments. At the 12-week appointment, the girls and Tim came with me and we heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. It was good and strong! We also had an ultrasound. Because of my age, they do some special testing called an integrated screen. The girls had to leave before the ultrasound- Eliza had her CNA class and Amanda had student council obligations for a fundraiser they were doing for breast cancer research. So, they didn't get to see the ultrasound. It was so wonderful to be able to see the baby! He/she was doing somersaults and we could see his/her fingers & toes! It's very reassuring! We've gotten the results back from the integrated screen testing and it came back normal, so that was good news.

Nothing much happened at the 16-week appointment other than hearing the baby's heartbeat, which is always a WONDERFUL sound!!!

Another big event is that Tim was released as a Sunbeam teacher and called to be the Young Men's President!! When our new Branch President announced the calling in sacrament meeting, he accidentally said Tim Swallow instead of Tim Cross. My dad and Tim both just kindof sat there for a moment not sure what to do. Then President Rowley looked right at my Tim and asked him to stand. It was so funny! I looked at Dad and asked him if he had nearly wet his pants! Anyway, Tim is very excited and looking forward to working with the Young Men. He has been in Primary for SO long!! I'm so happy for him and I know he'll love this calling and be really great at it, too!

Eliza got her track assignment from BYUI. She will be starting school in January and be there for two semesters, which will end in July. So she will be home every year from August to December. Heavenly Father was very mindful of us in her getting this assignment. It means she will be home for almost 5 months after the baby is born. I wasn't sure how we were going to manage getting her to school so soon after the baby comes, if she had to go in September. We were SO happy when we received this great news!!

Eliza is almost done with her CNA class! She has been doing clinicals the last few weeks which is where they get hands-on experience at the nursing home. She actually likes it a lot more than she thought she would and has enjoyed getting to know the elderly residents there. She has come home with some pretty great stories! It's so awesome that she will graduate from a high school with a Certified Nursing Assistant License! Other than that, she has just been busy with Speech, homework, chores, Church, getting ready for prom, etc.

Amanda hasn't had much going on other than the usual school and Church stuff. She and I had a Mommy-Daughter Day yesterday. She helped me get rid of all our recycling before we headed out which was quite a chore. We had more cardboard than it is natural for any one family to have! Also we hadn't redeemed pop cans and bottles in a long time. Then we went out for lunch at the Panda Express and then went to a matinee of The Vow, which is a great movie! Then we went shopping for jeans for her and maternity clothes for me. We both had pretty good luck! We finished our day off with some Cold Stone ice cream. It was a really fun day - I love being with Amanda!! After that, Amanda was picked up by the Young Women's President to go to a Stake Dance in Cedar Rapids. Amanda LOVES those dances!

I had a wonderful day at Church today. I almost didn't go because the only Church outfit I can wear right now was in the laundry! I bought a dress yesterday and Mom made me a maternity skirt, but I forgot to get nylons to wear with either of them. But I didn't make it to Church last week and really wanted to go today, so I just threw my clothes in the dryer with a dryer sheet and hoped they wouldn't smell too bad!! :0) This is what happens when you work full time and are gone all day 3 Saturdays in a row! Anyway, my class was starting to gather in the Cultural Hall where we usually meet, when a member of the Primary Presidency came and asked if I could give them the Cultural Hall today and move my class to the Primary room, which is what we did. So, since we were in the Primary room, I figured we ought to do something that Primary kids do. So, a room full of 13 teenagers and I did Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. We started out slow and got faster and faster. It was awesome! Got our wiggles out! Anyway, we had a great lesson and two of the young women came up to me and told me I was beautiful! It made my day! No one but my family ever says that to me, so it felt really wonderful, even though I'm pretty sure these girls need to get their eyes checked! The talks in sacrament meeting and the lesson in Relief Society were also so wonderful. Where else but at Church can you get the spiritual boost you need plus a bit of a self-esteem boost as well!! I LOVE the Gospel! I LOVE the LDS Church! I LOVE being a Mormon!!!

Speech Contest

Eliza and Amanda both participated in Group Speech Contest this year. Eliza and Amanda were in a Choral Reading group. Choral Reading is sort of like a mini-musical. They read their lines but they know them very well and read with a lot of expression and actions. They don't really dance, but they move around the stage in a choreographed way. Sometimes one person speaks, sometimes small groups or the whole group speak in unison, and it is mixed with singing. It's hard to explain and unfortunately, they do not allow pictures or videos during the performance. I tried to get a video during their rehearsal, but there was too much noise and chaos around us while they were practicing. The choral reading number they did was called "The Starlight Express", adapted from a rock musical by Andrew Lloyd Webster. They all dressed in jammies, because the story is about a boy who is getting ready for bed and playing with his trains. He pretends that a steam train is challenged to race with a newer electric train, but the steam train is afraid he will lose because electric trains are the new thing and the electric train brags that he is better. So the steam train's father says he will race the electric train instead, but he is old and worn out, so he loses the race. Then, the younger steam train, inspired by his father's courage, decides to race the electric train and he wins! They did an awesome job. It was so fun to watch! They got a 2 rating, which was totally bogus - they deserved a 1 (1 is the best). They were SO good!!



Eliza also participated in another group, which was Radio. She and 3 other kids were DJ's doing a radio show that they came up with themselves. It was great and they got a 1! So they qualified to do their show at State, which was very exciting!

Amanda was in a group that did News Casting and she worked really hard on it and spent a lot of time practicing, but unfortunately, they had to scratch because their green screen didn't work and after watching some of the other schools they decided their show wasn't up to snuff.

Eliza also participated in the Individual Speech Contest. She did a really funny prose piece called Men's Colds verses Women's Colds. It talked about how when a woman has a cold, it's always her fault that she caught the cold, that she has the cold forever because she never stops to take care of herself, and she uses it as an excuse to clean out the medicine cabinet, taking expired cough medicine, the rest of her prenatal vitamins from her last pregnancy, and something that turned out to be for diarrhea relief. When a man has a cold, he caught it because of a government conspiracy, and from the first sniffle, he goes straight to bed and everyone waits on him hand and foot. There's more to it, but that's the basic gist. It was hilarious and she did an awesome job! She was so expressive! She got a 1 and went to the State Competition yesterday. Tim went with her. He said she did really great, but they judge more harshly at State, I guess, and they have 3 judges instead of one. One judge gave her a 1 and the other 2 judges gave her 2's. Speech has been a really great experience for her, and Amanda really enjoyed it this year, too. It was great for them to have a year in it together!

Color Guard

Eliza and her best friend choreographed a color guard routine. They did such a great job. I was so proud of them. I wish everyone could have been there to see it. Here's a picture of half the group performing it during the half time of a basketball game.

We have a video of it, too, but unfortunately, we decided to try our video camera instead of our camera to see if it would be a better quality video, and we can't get it to compress so that we can put it on the blog. It's too big otherwise. So, we will have to put it on DVD and show it to everyone whenever we see you next. Bummer!