Where Have I Been?

Some of you may have noticed that I have been mostly absent from the blogging world lately. I have only written a couple of posts and have not made my usual share of comments. Here are my excuses:

1. For the past 4 years I have made a Family Yearbook on Shutterfly. I started doing this because I really really can't stand to scrapbook, but I felt a need to display my pictures in some way. Problem solved. For the previous three years I completed each years book in January or February after the year ended, but this year it has taken me till May. I had all the pictures placed in the book and just needed to write in some captions, which usually come pretty easy to me, but I was coming up blank each time I would open shutterfly.com to start working my magic. After a couple of months of this I finally enlisted Steve's help. Steve and I were immediately on a roll, feeding off each other, and before long (1 1/2 hours) the book was done. Next year Steve is on the initial caption committee! Now why is this an excuse for not blogging? Because every time I decided to spend my extra time on the computer I was staring blankly at my shutterfly book...not blogging!

2. If I wasn't spending my extra time on my Family Yearbook I was over pondering (some may call that overanalyzing) decoration ideas, food options, and jewelry and shoe ensembles for the weddings and joint reception of two of my little sisters. Cali is getting married on Friday, May 30th and Hilary is getting married on Saturday, May 31st, both in the Boise Temple, then they are having a joint reception on Saturday evening. I am so excited...if you can't tell!

3. This is the excuse that is actually most to blame for my absenteeism. I have these crazy hormone levels right now...because I'm pregnant (16 weeks along)...and for a short time have lost motivation to do anything that isn't necessary or nature-loving (what the?). I am finally over the first trimester, and thankfully I don't get sick, but I was very fatigued and exhausted, which explains the concept of not having motivation to do anything that isn't necessary (necessary to me means cleaning, exercising and taking care of my kids), but the nature-loving thing was new to me. I have never had blues during pregnancy, actually I don't know if I have ever had blues for more than a two hour period, but I definitely had them the last couple of months. Along with the blues came this lack of motivation, accompanied by a desire to simplify my life. I lost all desire to decorate my house (that's huge), buy new clothes (even huger). I have never cared about cars, but I started being more attracted to older cars, I thought women who wore less make-up and less trendy clothing were more attractive, I just wanted to ride my bike everywhere to not consume fuel and to be in nature, and gardens and flowers, which were never my thing, are suddenly so interesting to me. The last couple of weeks I have started to shift back to normal, but I think (and hope) some of the simplification, nature-loving changes are permanent. Below are a picture of Maxwell (first picture) and Sophie (second picture). I thought I'd show you what our third child will most likely look like, seeing as we create clones! The due date is November 4th, but because both my kiddos have come a week early, which puts us at Halloween, my doctor said I could induce earlier.