Halloween

Michelle got really in to Halloween this year. I think she was most excited about getting to carry her pumpkin :)
I felt like the bumble bee really paid homage to a few certain pictures I remember in the Sampson photo albums ;)
We had a ward Trunk or Treat on Wed. and then on Friday we took her to a few houses in the neighborhood.

She even said "Trick or Treat" about 50% of the time this year.

We survived!

Most people don't realize that theatre teacher wife is synonymous with free labor. Last weekend was Joe's first high school play, he's done a couple at a middle school but this was different. I don't know that it was more work necessarily just different. And ya know I was 34 weeks pregnant with a toddler in tow and the school is 30 min away.

He put on "See How They Run" which is a favorite of his thanks to the many years of it at Playmill. For high schoolers they did pretty good ;) I'm hopeful that the program will grow over time. One bummer was that we didn't get any parent involvement despite trying to get it which meant it was all on us. Joe built and painted the set with the kids, I did all the costuming, and all the programing etc. We also decided to try concessions this time to see if that could boost what we brought back in which meant that I did a lot of baking.

I think that the most stressful thing was having NO clue what the turn out would be as far as attendance. The teacher last year didn't really do traditional productions and we didn't even have numbers from what she did so everything was a total shot in the dark. We just ran with it hoping to get close to breaking even and knowing that we were at least doing something for improving the reputation of the program.
I also took care of ticket and concessions sales for the first night (with Michelle in tow) and got them in a grove for the next couple nights.
Overall it was a very successful first show and the compliments were genuine. Apparently there were several kids who didn't enjoy their drama experience last year and after this show they regretted quitting drama ;)

Pumpkin Patch 2014

I guess this is a tradition for us now because this is the third year that we have gone to the Linder Farms Pumpkin Patch. It is a fun activity and we go on half price admission night (with Michelle still being free) so as long as we are reasonable with our pumpkin choices it turns out to be a fairly inexpensive family activity.
It was fun to see how much more into it Michelle was this year, she wanted to point out all the big pumpkins and the little pumpkins and the ones that had gotten squashed by the tractor. She was not however, interested in stopping two seconds for a picture ;)
She was also very concerned about her pumpkin the 3-4 times she fell and dropped/ landed on it. Thankfully it was a sturdy little thing ;)

 Does it get any cuter than these two? I'll let you know in a couple months ;)

The next week for FHE we painted our pumpkins. For some strange reason Joe had never done this. I am certain that I have painted more pumpkins in my life than I have carved. It didn't exactly work out as I had envisioned but.. oh well. Joe outlined the letter B using a red pen....don't do that if you are painting with cream and glitter. And I taped a chevron pattern on Michelle's with masking tape so that she could just go to town painting and I could still get a pretty cute pumpkin out of it :) good idea but I must have bought the wrong paint because it wanted to peel right off of the pumpkin- I don't remember that problem growing up.

But they still look pretty cute I think, besides they are on the ground by the front door so hopefully people aren't looking that closely ;)

Cruising Right Along

We are doing pretty good around here just keeping busy!
Joe's production of "See How They Run" opens in two weeks, so yeah, that is pretty crazy and consuming ;)
I am 32 weeks along with this little man now (well tomorrow) and still feeling pretty good most of the time. Which people are always surprised by. I mean yes, I am pregnant so I get the aches and pains and inconveniences that go along with that but I'm not so big that I can't function and I'm not sick. I can still mostly breath and I don't have swelling. In my book that means that for a pregnant lady I am doing pretty good. I mean don't get me wrong, I for sure have my days but really I know it can be much worse.
The nesting desire has set in though and that has been interesting this time. I mean we already have the main things- the crib, bassinette, car seat, etc. So it is just getting the consumables (diapers, etc.) and boy things. But also being due 5 days before Christmas is fueling my desire to have all things Christmas ready to go... because I clearly don't have two months to do so or anything- but it is a current obsession ;) Don't worry, I'm handling it reasonably.
Michelle is a little cutie pie for the most part but she also has gotten to an age where she has intense emotions. She feels most things very strongly, which means that we are working on how to calm down and express your feelings. She is very talkative around us but apparently still pretty quiet in nursery- she is seriously such a people watcher she just doesn't talk a lot when we are out but she will tell you all about it later.
She is very aware that things are changing in our family. Sometimes she has days where she will say "hold me like a baby" or "__________ like a baby". Other days it is all about being a big girl. She is very interested in baby brother and likes to show him things- which means that Mom's belly has to be readily available. If you ask her who is in our family she will tell you "Mommy & Daddy & Michelle & Baby Brother"
No. We have not decided on a name for this little guy. And no, even when we do we will not tell you. I don't care if you beg or think you are entitled, the answer is still no.

27 Weeks

I'm 27 weeks now and yesterday marked the 3 month countdown! Yay! Feeling pretty good. My energy is finally back to a manageable level- you know just in time for the third trimester to start pretty soon and suck it all away! Hopefully I will get some things back in order first! Overall feeling pretty good right now. If I am on my feet too much they are throbbing at the end of the day but that is to be expected. Joe has been able to feel him move for a few weeks now and yesterday we both sat and watched my belly for a minute because it was moving around ha ha.(although that will get much more obvious!).
Church callings have kept us pretty busy lately. Joe is the primary chorister and the program is next week. At this point however there isn't much more that we can do- the kids either choose to sing or they don't! I am a primary teacher and I also helped out with a couple projects for super Saturday yesterday- which of course ended up being more work than anticipated.
Joe is going to be putting on "See How They Run" as his fall production at NHS. Right now he has been faithfully rehearsing 4-5 days a week and only had to replace one kid! (hopefully no more of that!) We (me) have also been spending time doing cost projections so we can get a final budget approved and start getting everything together, ya know before I feel like a whale.
Michelle is doing great, just very energetic and challenging some days. She has been to Joe's school with me a couple times when I had to go and now she is always asking to go to Daddy's school- it's pretty cute ;)

This is an old one but who cares!

Note: This post is really old but it never got published because I was waiting until I uploaded some pictures.... which took forever... and I haven't scanned in the ultrasound pictures still sooooo, yeah. oh well!

2nd trimester energy boost? yeah, not really mostly I want to sleep but what else is new? ha ha ha I really am the type of person that could happily sleep 10-12 hours a night and still take a nap but having a toddler means that doesn't happen... I just may have been guilty of doing this when I was pregnant with Michelle.
So we've been up to everything and nothing all at once lately (pretty normal for us). Joe finished summer school and it was a great experience but he will probably need to do something a little more lucrative next summer. He had about a two week break between when he finished with that and when he started having stuff for his new job with Nampa.
July 30th Joe had a new teacher mtg and then that afternoon we went and had our ultrasound. So fun! I always love getting to see my baby and now this little one is big enough that it really looks like a baby. The gender was very clear as a BOY! I was just anxious to know either way but it did confirm our early feelings. We did get to see a couple sweet profile shots but he was moving too much for the tech to capture them.
This little boy is very wiggly now which is pretty fun at this point most of the time but he is definitely sitting lower than Michelle did (maybe there is something to that old wives tale after all?).
I of course had to go to Carter's and buy something boy once we found out (hey, it was on clearance!) but the fun story from that trip was sweet big sister Michelle. Her comfort item is one of those mini blanket/ stuffed animal things and we call it her snuggle buddy. When we went into the store she ran up to one and said "Snuggle buddy baby brother!" Such a sweetie- if it hadn't had a rattle in it I probably would have given in and bought it!

Michelle is starting to get very excited about baby brother and seems to be understanding it more. She will sing song "baby brother, baby brother, baby brother" quite often and occasionally adds in "mommy's tummy" for good measure.

During Joe's break we went to West Yellowstone for a long weekend (closer to a week really). It was fun to get to stop in Rexburg and have dinnewith a good couple friend of ours that had a 2 week old baby girl.
We got to see the Playmill's productions of "Les Miserables" and "Joseph" as well as sneaking a little bit of "Beauty and the Beast" which honestly we have just seen so many times...ha ha ha. Joe's dad was playing the priest in Les Mis and subbing for Roger in Beauty as Maurice (Belle's father).
Michelle's highlight was definitely the "Tea Party with Belle"- she is still telling me all about it. It's just a quick little thing where the kiddos get to meet Belle and a couple other characters and they get lemonade and a cookie. But they also get a rose and tiara. Yesterday Michelle came up to me just to remind me "and princess gave me flower....and a crown...Belle! Belle!" (the last part she does as they did to call belle to come out and join them ha ha ha)

 Update: She STILL tells me about how they called for "Belle!" and the princess gave her a big cookie and her flower and crown- I think we could still be hearing about this one next summer ha ha ha

 had to get her popcorn- this was her favorite thing last year ;)

Sambo did a great job of course!

Family Pictures

There are several unfinished blog posts sitting in drafts but I may or may not ever actually get to finishing them so let's just start with something else shall we?
We took family pictures a couple weeks ago. No, taking family pictures 5 months pregnant was not my ideal but I was so sick they certainly didn't happen in the spring and I knew that I would regret not having them more than I would dislike being pregnant in them. Sometimes you just have to capture the moment.
So here are a few of the pics (Jean Wolford Photography.. aka someone I randomly found on facebook for a good price :)

this is one of those random ones I didn't know she snapped but i kinda love it :)

I'm sure you already know this but..

We're having another baby Bidwell!
We called close family to tell them when I was 13 weeks and then the next day we posted this to facebook.

The ultrasound pic was from my 9 week ultrasound which was fun because I was far enough along it looked like a baby now not just a kidney bean! Unfortunately it was finals so Joe didn't make it to that one.

The whole morning sickness just in the first trimester thing doesn't apply to me. I'm 17 weeks and still managing it, BUT I am grateful to be to the point where I can manage it now rather than being totally at it's mercy which I was pretty much from 5.5 weeks on. It's been awesome... but the prize is worth it ;)

This time around obviously it's been a different challenge managing pregnancy and  kiddo but Joe has been great and most of the time Michelle is too.

One major bonus this time- not living in a studio apartment. For several weeks if Joe was home to watch Michelle I hibernated in my room. I usually ate in there too because then I didn't have to deal with the cooking smells (which Joe had to do, obviously). Also not having a job was great too :) Although Playmill is an awesome place to work with understanding employers you still have to show up and do your job! And it gets pretty hot in the tech "booth" plus you would have to run down stairs and past the audience if you had to puke... and just assume your awesome husband could figure it out, so yeah, not having that stress this time has been nice ;)

I'm starting to want to do things now but it has been so hot outside (in the 100's) that it's still hard to want to do anything! I got brave and took Michelle outside yesterday for a little while but after ten minutes even she was too hot (although she wouldn't admit it because she also didn't want to go back inside). Even with sunscreen and a hat on her I didn't dare let her stay out more than 30 min... also I was done.

At the beginning of this pregnancy every single time we asked Michelle if it was a baby brother or a baby sister it was ALWAYS a baby brother. Now it is ALWAYS a sister. Which is funny because at the beginning I was convinced it was a boy (at the 9 week ultrasound the tech even guessed boy- although that would be crazy early to really be able to tell anything) and lately I have leaning towards girl. So if you ask me what I am thinking it is, it will change on any given day! Hopefully baby will cooperate and we will get to find out in a couple weeks (as well as some good pics I hope)!

Michelle knows there is a baby in Mommy's tummy (mostly because I tell her it hurts when she smashes or hits there...) but I know she is way to young to understand it! But it is cute to hear her say it :) We have taken to telling her we will have a baby for Christmas, she likes that answer.

As far as movement, there have been a couple times I have thought I have felt the baby but it is still pretty early to feel and so it is hard to tell for sure if that's what it is ;) No karate chops yet

Fun times

Joe had two weeks off between when school ended and summer school started. It was wonderful! It was great to have him around and let him have fun with Michelle while I kinda got a break.
We went to the park and splash park a couple times.

 This one is from Mother's Day

 The rest of these are from when Michelle and I ran down to SLC at the beginning of May. Because sometimes I just want my Mommy! (& Papa!)

Not the most organized blogging and I was too lazy to fix any of the pictures so... yeah, there you go!