Lots of stuff on my mind

My parents are coming for a quick visit tomorrow. They've been in Palm Springs this week at a resort vacationing - how nice! So, since they're only 4 hours away from us (as opposed to 10-12), they are going to come see us tomorrow after checking out of their hotel. They'll be spending the night and then the next morning we (the kids and I) will drive to Utah with them to spend the week. At the end of the week we will fly home. So - there's the plan for the next week and half. I'm really excited! I'm hoping I'll do okay on the drive to Utah - I'm still nauseous (not horribly, and I am having many good days intermixed with bad). Today was a little worse, which is probably a good thing, because I don't usually have 2 bad days in a row. Well, seeing as my parents are coming to visit, I needed to make sure my house was clean. Ben's been doing much of the cleaning lately, but mopping and cleaning the bathrooms and such have been more neglected. Ben's rotation this month has been at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale and they have him on a pretty rough schedule. He's spending the night at the hospital every fourth day - he doesn't have weekends off even. Anyway, he's at the hospital tonight which means I needed to really get down to cleaning despite that I am husband-less. Well, I got a lot done and now I don't think I'll be embarrassed by having my mom and dad see my house. I don't really know how I did it, considering I was feeling so cruddy - I must be really motivated. :) I even got Emma's room organized yesterday (or mostly organized - there are still some things to do). I got some great advice from the previous post about my cluttery Emma room woes. One thing that was suggested was to put the toys and such in clear storage boxes and keep them up high. So, the idea now is that most of her stuff is up where she has to ask to get it down. Today for quiet time I told her she could pick one box to play with during the hour - she picked her art/craft box. So, she made a bit of a mess with the stuff in there, but at least it was all easily cleaned up - later in the afternoon she was able to toss all her markers and coloring books and such back into the box and back up on the shelf in her closet it went. Wonderful!! No more scary messes that are too disorganized to tame. So, right now she has boxes for the following: legos, art stuff, make up/princess stuff, dvd's (lately she's figured out how to put her own dvd's in and start movies without asking, so now she can't), and dress up clothes. I still want to box up her musical instruments, puzzles, and a few other things. I'd like the only things left out to be her books and her kitchen stuff, so she at least has a couple things that she can get to easily without bugging mommy. Anyway, I've rambled way too long about this - but I'm just thrilled!

A few more random thoughts - I'm getting mosquito bites like crazy lately! I've hardly been leaving the house, so I must be getting bit during the night or something. I keep waking up and discovering 2 or 3 more itchy mosquito bites. I hate it! I currently have one right on my face - lovely - and a couple on my legs and one on my foot. I'm an itchy mess - as if I don't already have enough issues.
On a nicer note, after the kids bath this morning I plopped them on the couch in their towels while I went to gather their clothes - they looked so cute all wet and wrapped up, so I took a picture.



We're also getting ready to put Becca in a toddler bed (which we'll be moving in with Emma closer to when the baby comes) - We decided to put a pillow in her crib to sleep on for the next few weeks before we throw her in a bed so she can get used to using one. She seriously loves it and I'm really surprised at how well she stays on it - when I check on her before going to bed myself, she's usually still snuggled in on her pillow. Last night was really funny - she lately really likes her baby dolls and this random squirrel friend, so she took them to bed with her. Well, when I checked her a few hours later, she had them nicely placed on the pillow beside her - so funny. I had to take a picture and she shielded her eyes from the flash when I did so. :) And another very random thing - I saw this video this morning. I thought it was so amusing - I really don't enjoy cats (or dogs for that matter), but this just made me giggle, and kind of creeped me out. :)