A can't-miss announcement

Sooo Chuck and I realized that thus far we're two for two on sweet,
darling, perfect (albeit slightly goofy) babies . . .

so we might as well go for a third :).

Yep, I'm pregnant! To answer all your questions:

* I'm 12 weeks along

* Official due date is January 7th (my grandpa Braden's birthday!)

* C-section will be sometime the week before that

* I feel wretched, hence the lack of cooking, cleaning, taking care of existing children (I think as long as they don't actually address the TV as 'Mom', we're still okay . . . ), emailing, blogging, reading/commenting on blogs, forming complete thoughts, making phone calls, returning phone calls, running, getting out of bed in general, etc. Major props to my dear, dear Chuck who has only rolled his eyes three or four times as he does everything around the house while I whine dramatically :)

* Chuck and I are both currently in the 'stick with the devil you know' train of thought (aka a boy would be excellent) but we will certainly not argue if a baby girl is sent our way (and I have wisely already gotten a verbal commitment from Nicole that she will be in charge of her hair if it's a girl)

* Clyde is very excited and has Star Wars names picked out for either gender

* Will points to my stomach when we ask where the baby is, but there's a definite lack of comprehension about the whole situation. He loves babies but is also verrry possessive (of me, toys, etc) so we'll see what happens come the end of the year!

We made a (fairly vague) video to share our news with family, blogger has no interest in letting me load it on here but you can check it out on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZVCS56_RHE

To: Courtney // From: Jana

So it turns out that I have a blog. Who knew? Apparently not me since I've been pretty scarce around these parts lately. Luckily for all of you, an exciting event has interrupted my laziness and inspired a post. . .

it's Courtney's birthday!!

And considering I have yet to blog about the end of school for the little boys, Memorial Day, our seventh wedding anniversary, my kid brother's wedding to the beautiful Eden, Chuck's mom and grandma visiting, etc, it should be pretty apparent how special Courtney is to have prodded me out of my apparent blogging hiatus :).
(And no worries, all of those things will be properly documented for posterity's sake. Possibly soon, be excited).

So, back to my dear BFSC Courtney and why I love and adore this birthday girl so much. I don't even know where to start.

Just kidding, yes I do. We'll get the shallow stuff out of the way first: the fact that she's flippin' gorgeous and stylish.

Seriously, look at that hair.


Also, another semi-shallow reason I love Courtney is because of our shared, deep love for the TV show Castle. It's one of the best shows ever and Courtney understands that and appreciates the witty dialogue and awesome characters as much as I do. I love recapping each episode with her and discussing our slight obsession with Esposito and Ryan's bromance. Seriously, everyone watch Castle!!

Of course, under that amazing hair, she's incredibly intelligent. I was so glad that I could be at her graduation last August from the nursing program at BYU. I've already started taking advantage of her RN credentials by seeking her medical expertise and insights. She also has a very admirable work ethic (something she learned from both of her parents). Her last semester of school she was doing 12 hour clinicals and working 12 hour shifts at a nursing home, all the while in her second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Amazing.

Another one of Courtney's traits that I love is her thoughtfulness and genuine concern for people around here. She is very loyal and very loving and wants the best for everyone. Right now she and her husband and sweet baby boy are living in the Caribbean, which has eliminated our phone contact. Now we email very frequently instead, and her emails never cease to entertain me and brighten my day. No matter what Court has going on in her life, she always remembers exactly what's going on in mine. She also gives the sweetest, kindest compliments. She's an amazing friend.


Courtney is also hilarious, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally :). One of my favorite Courtney stories is from an April Conference a few years back - maybe 2002-ish? 2003? All of a sudden Court brought up the fact that she didn't get a birthday cake for her last birthday (I can't remember why; details are fuzzy). So she obviously needed a birthday cake. That day. And of course she got one. We all dutifully sang 'happy birthday' to her and then shared the delicious chocolate cake. That's sooo Courtney and it makes me laugh every time I think about it!!

Courtney is a great deal like her wonderful mom Gloria; especially in her amazing skills as in the kitchen and as a hostess. One General Conference weekend fell at the beginning of Spring Break and most of the family was headed out on a trip. My family showed up anyways and Courtney and Ben entertained us and took care of us the rest of the weekend - complete with delicious meals!


Court is also very good with babies and kids, most importantly mine - here she is meeting Clyde for the first time (he was a month old) and Will (he was three months old, and this was on the eve of her wedding to Ben!).

Now she has her own darling baby boy, who brings such joy to everyone who knows him, and she is an incredible mom. She also brought Ben into the family, and he's a really great guy. Here is their cute little family on Father's Day, and yes, I stole this picture from their blog :). She's done a great job sharing all of their adventures via blog; I love seeing all of the pictures and hearing about island life.


So happy, happy birthday Courtney! I am sooo thankful for you and our awesome BFSC relationship - it means so much to me that you and Heidi let me worm my way in to share a bit in your sisterhood. I hope you have a fabulous birthday, I LOVE YOU buckets and buckets!!!

Pinewood Derby!

Well, after a fairly somber detour, the ol' blog is back with some lighthearted fare!


And what could be more lighthearted than a Cub Scout Pinewood Derby??

Well, probably plenty of things, if you're a competitive Cub Scout/dad :). Luckily I'm just a Cub Scout leader, so although I created my own car, I had little emotional investment in its speed.

The Pinewood Derby is a pretty sweet activity for Scouts. Each boy is given the materials shown above - a block of wood and the axles/wheels and instructed to create a car. There are some restrictions - can't weigh more than 5 ounces, and something about what kind of stuff you can rub on the axles (I obviously chose the safe route of no rubbing at all) but other than that, the boys have free reign for the design.

Our dedicated Cubmasters, Brother and Sister Murphy, returned from their six-month snowbird trip just in time for the Derby, which was WONDERFUL (I had been filling in during their absence but am delighted to scale back and just be a den leader again). One night they had sort of an open house car clinic in Brother Murphy's shop area where the boys and their families could come to get their cars designed, cut out, and sanded.

Here's Brother Murphy creating my 'station wagon' from the sketch I made.

And here it is after being painted and detailed!

Pretty sweet, am I right? I was going for the 'most accurate depiction of an actual vehicle' award . . . which sadly only existed in my head.

There was a 'check-in' time a few minutes before the official start so the cars could get officially weighed in and cleared to race. Coins were taped on the top of the more lightweight cars to even the playing field a bit.

Due to a scheduling misunderstanding, there was another Pinewood Derby setting up in the (much larger) Cultural Hall so we all squeezed into the Primary Room;
we were verrry grateful the track fit!
(I do feel compelled to share that in the following days it was figured out that we did have the rightful claim to the Cultural Hall, but it's okay, I've clearly moved on).

Imagine this group, plus about twenty more people. Standing room only!

Most of the cars lined up - the blue tape shows where coins have been added to help them come closer to the weight limit.

The ol' station wagon only raced once - against Brother Murphy's super fancy sports car. He definitely won!

Brother Murphy made a wonderful car display stand for each participant.

So now the wagon has its own special place of prominence on the living room bookshelf! Feel free to check it out on your next visit by the house.

The Pinewood Derby was really fun, and I think only a few tears were shed (possibly by dads). It was probably the least stressful 'big' Cub Scout activity I've been involved with so far - we had such great participation and help from the Committee and Primary. And now I'm much more prepared for next year - I think 'Sister Izatt's AWESOME Station Wagon 2.0' will do very well . . .