7 pounds and Cholestasis of Pregnancy

No, I'm not talking about the movie, that's just how much weight I gained in the last two weeks! I couldn't believe it. Everyone kept telling me "oh, it's just water weight", I sure hope so, and I hope it goes as quickly as it came after this baby is born. I have had a major increase of appetite lately, I feel like I'm always hungry, but I'm trying to be careful and not eat too much. So far I am still under what I weighed with both Quinn and Ava, and I'm trying to keep it that way.

Ok, on to Cholestasis of pregnancy. I had never heard of this until my doctor's appt. on Friday. A couple of weeks ago I had a doctors appt. and I was complaining about my whole body itching. The doctor said she needed to run some blood test because it's a sign of something being wrong with my liver. I didn't think much of it, because this same thing happened when I was pregnant with Quinn and my blood work came back negative for it, so I completely thought the same thing was going to happen again. Well it didn't. My blood work came back positive for it. Basically my liver and gull bladder aren't filtering out the acids like they should, so the acids are going into my blood stream and then deposit into my skin, which is why I'm so itchy. They are planning to induce me on Feb. 5th, but until then I have to go in for weekly ultrasounds so they can monitor how the baby is doing. As of now he's doing great. The doctor said she thinks they caught it at the early stages. They put me on medication to do what my liver and gull bladder aren't. So now we are just waiting around for the baby to get here, it's kinda crazy that it's only a little over two and half weeks away. I'm feeling pretty good, as well as an 8 month pregnant women generally feels. It is some added stress, but we feel good knowing all is in our Heavenly Fathers hands, and that he is watching over us.

He's already getting fat on his little cheeks, I love it.

Seattle's Crazy Weather

So I'm sure most of you have seen the news and all the crazy weather that's been accuring in Seattle. The picture below is of a road out in the valley that I grew up in that's been destroyed because of all the snow and then flooding.

Growing up we would get flooded in to our town atleast once a year and then we would have flood parties and go eat at Ixtapa (the best Mexican restaurant I've ever been to). Then everyone panicks and rushes to the grocery store and buys all the food because they don't know when the grocery store is going to get food again. Good thing the prophets have taught us to have a food storage supply!

Happy Birthday to...

me! Yes it is my birthday today, and I also have six weeks to go as of today. Can you believe it. I can't, but I am excited. Excited to have this new little baby (and not be pregnant anymore), but a little nervous about joining the ranks of the out numbered parents. We are still without a name, but I have faith we will figure it out before we leave the hospital. Have a good day, I know I am!

We're finally back

We got back from Seattle on Thursday, and we had so much fun. Any one who watches the news already knows that we were snowed in for about two weeks, and we were only there for about two and a half weeks, so we didn't get to do everything that we were originally going to, but we sure had fun in the snow. None of us who have lived there our whole lives have ever seen it snow like that before. It was unbelievable, it even got down to about 8 degrees one night. Everyone has always talked about the snow of 1990, well now we will talk about the snow of 2008. We had a great Christmas, and we were able to get to where we wanted to go with Matt's dad's 4 wheel drive SUV. We hope you all had a great Christmas too, here are some pics of the kids on Christmas morning.
Quinn got his coveted transformers from Santa Clause, he was so excited.


Ava got her baby doll with stroller, crib, and baby carrier. She is so funny with it. She does everything she is suppose to with her doll, she even puts it down for a nap and we get shushed if we are to loud.

Quinn also got a Spiderman bike, that Santa Clause conveniently left at our Texas house (this is what our kids call our house in Texas, as if we have more then one), on Christmas morning Quinn got a letter and picture of the bike from Santa explaining that he left it at our house in Texas and he can see it when he gets home. Quinn was so excited, he talked about little else until we got home, he even told people about it on the plane.We found Ava giving her baby a ride on the Spiderman bike this morning. She is so funny, and such a good mommy!


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We hope to see you soon. Love, The Stevulak's

Is it Christmas already...

...because when I woke up this morning all the chocolates were eaten out of the advent calendar.

All About Ava (AAA)

So I haven't done a post about Ava in a while, and she has definitely been saying some post worthy stuff, so here it goes. The above picture was taken yesterday, when I was done doing her hair she looked in the mirror and said "I look like Easter Bunny". A few weeks ago I was lying in bed and Ava came in, I told her to go get dressed, she said "Where are we going?" (because for some reason she can only get dressed if we are going some where) I told her we were going to the temple, she looked at me very quizzically and said "I get married?" Oh that one had me rolling, but I guess it's a good sign that some of it's sinking in.

Oh yeah, and one more thing, a couple of days ago I was sitting on my bed reading and suddenly I heard the sound of liquid spilling on the ground. I jumped up just in time to see Ava filling a glass up with milk, but forgetting to stop once it was full. I said in a loud voice Ava stop, and ran over to take the milk jug out of her hand. She immediately was in hysterics, anytime you talk to Ava in a loud or very firm voice, she instantly starts crying. After I got the milk cleaned up, I walked over to her and gave her a hug and a kiss and I asked her if I had hurt her feelings. She said yes, and then I apologized to her, but for the rest of the day anytime I told her she couldn't do something, or to stop doing something, she would look at me and say "You hurt my fewnings" (feelings). I tried really hard not to start laughing, and then would apologize to her again. Boy does she know how to make a person feel bad!

Thank you Elder Wirthlin for your hard work, dedicated service, and Christlike example to us all. We love you, and we will miss you.