New Moon...Yes, I Was There

I didn't ever really get into the hype of the Twilight books. In fact, I didn't even read them until a few months ago when all four books were already out and I was at home on vacation with plenty of time to spend reading. At that point, I did get into them. I really enjoyed reading the series, watching Twilight, and was excited for New Moon, but still didn't really consider myself a 'Twilight Crazy'. I knew some friends were going to go to the midnight showing on Thursday, but I figured I would just see it another time. Well, late Wednesday night I let myself get talked into going to the midnight showing. Never mind that I had to get up at 6:30 the next morning and run around all day taking kids to school, helping out in classes, making snacks, etc.

I admit that I'm so glad I went! It was a blast and so fun to spend the night with friends. I was worried I wouldn't be able to stay awake for the movie, (at 24 weeks pregnant, I feel ready for bed by 10pm) but due to the excitement of the movie (and maybe a little help from my smuggled-in chips & salsa) I had no problem. It was a great movie and I'm already excited to see it again! I think I've even convinced Jeff to watch it too! :)

Chili Cook Off

Our ward always has an annual 'Chili Cook Off' in the fall. We were able to enjoy it last night. There were thirteen people participating in the chili contest and it was sure fun to see everyone and try all the fantastic varieties of chili.

(The Fabulous Chili Cooks)

I thought about making some chili, but then our Saturday ended up being busy so I ended up just doing a double batch of cornbread and brownies to go along with the meal. After I saw the 13 pots on the table I didn't feel too bad! Everything tasted great and the judges (the missionaries) did a good job of awarding prizes to the top chilies, although I think the awards could easily have gone to any of the entries!

The boys had fun trying the yummy food and having fun with their friends. This is definitely one of my favorite activities of the year.

Random November

I find that I usually have a few random pictures/happenings from each month, and they usually end up in a ‘catch-up’ random blog, but I enjoy seeing the pictures and looking back at them later.

I can tell when we’ve had a busy day. Matthew always fights me on taking a nap; he has so much energy that he can usually make it through the day just fine without one. But if he’s had a busy day and he’s tired enough, he can fall asleep anywhere, in his car seat, on the couch or even on the floor.

If Caleb sees me taking a picture of someone or something else, he’ll usually ask that I take a picture of him as well.

We did our traditional “Thankful Tree” family home evening this past week. It’s always fun to sit down together and write down things that we are thankful for. It’s usually pretty entertaining to see some of the things that the boys come up with.

I was in charge of snacks this week for Jacob’s kindergarten class. Fortunately they let us bring in homemade snacks so I don’t just have to stick to plain old store bought snacks. I especially love it when it gets close to holidays because you can find some creative ideas. On Friday when I came in to help in his class, we brought these rice krispy treats made to look like corn on the cob, with fruit roll ups for the husks. Only bummer is that it’s impossible to find plain green fruit roll ups, so we had to go with a red/green combination. The kids loved them anyway.

I decided it was time for a change and cut my hair. It was a quick decision and Jeff was sure surprised when he came home from work on Tuesday night, but it’s fun to have a change and I’m enjoying the new style. It’s definitely a lot quicker & easier to do!

Friday night, Jeff and I had a date night out. We finally got around to using a gift certificate to a restaurant that we got last year for Christmas. It was fun to spend the evening together. I love date nights!

I was also fortunate enough to be able to go with our Young Women's presidency & leaders to a regional training meeting. Elaine Dalton, the general young women's president was there with other general authorities to do some training. We ended up being right on the front row when we broke up into groups. It was such a neat experience to be right there with her, close enough that we could have reached out and touched her if we had tried. It was a neat experience to have such an intimate, close meeting with such an incredible lady! She is such an inspiration and I think we all came away feeling very uplifted.

All in a Visit

Everyone knows that kids don't enjoy going to the doctors, but I think they fail to mention how it's one of the parent's least favorite things to do as well!

Caleb & Matthew had their 2-year old & 4-year old well visits last week. Caleb is pretty good, he just likes to talk the doctor's ear off, whether it's his turn or not. I had talked to him beforehand about getting his shots. I knew he'd be getting a few, and I've always found that if we talk about it before, it usually works out better. He told me that even though it would hurt a little, he would be brave because, after all, he *is* 4-years old now, and a big boy. Well, he flinched a bit on the first one, whimpered on the 2nd; and then he decided that was enough! The nurses had to hold him down while he was yelling that he didn't want them to poke him again. I felt bad for him, he had to get 5 shots, poor kid. He did recover very quickly when he found out that he got stickers AND 2 toys out of the prize box.

Matthew has decided that he just plain out doesn't like to be at the doctor's office, until it's time for the prize box of course. He's usually a pretty good little boy and likes to smile and charm people around him, but it changes at the doctor's office. He likes to get into everything he shouldn't, pull everything out of my purse, run away from the doctor, cry when she touches him, and of course start to cry inconsolably when the nurses walk in with the shots on the tray. I was so glad he only had to get one shot! It was over before he really knew what was happening.

Anyway, I was glad when that appointment was over...I felt like I was the one in need of the Tylenol! Just kidding, it really wasn't that bad, I'm just glad it's not something we have to do everyday!

Caleb's 4-Year Old Stats

Weight: 41 Pounds

Height: 41.5 Inches

(86th percentile for weight and 85th percentile for height.)

Matthew's 2-Year Old Stats

Weight: 27 Pounds

Height: 35.5 Inches

(36th percentile for weight and 76th percentile for height)

And Baby #4 Is....

Today we finally had our ultrasound! Can you tell from the pictures what we’re having?

How about now?

Maybe this one…

That’s right, we’re having a

GIRL!

Break out the bows, ribbons, and flowers! I still can’t believe it! Over the past few weeks I really started to feel like we were going to have a girl, and I did tell Jeff that that was my guess; but I still felt a little shock over the news, in a good way of course! I would have been thrilled with another sweet little boy, but I am so excited to have a daughter. I think the boys are really excited to have a sister too, they all guessed that it would be a girl. I guess I’ll have to start referring to them as the ‘kids’ now rather than the ‘boys.’ J One thing is for sure, she’s going to have 3 very protective big brothers to look out for her!

She was so fun to watch. She’s such a sweet little baby and kept putting her hands up around her face. She seemed to enjoy putting her fingers in her mouth, looking around, and touching her little nose. It was fun to see her little profile and her nose and lips. According to dates, I’m 21 weeks & 3 days; really I know I’m closer to 20 weeks & 3 days, but she measured 19 weeks & 5 days.

I almost wasn’t able to have the ultrasound today. When I was getting registered, they told me that I was conscripted to go to another hospital and wouldn’t be able to have the ultrasound. I was so upset; luckily Jeff got there & called the insurance again, and finally got it worked out by changing my primary care physician. Of course at that point it was 2:20pm, so they told me they might not be able to get me in since my appointment time was 2pm, and Jeff had to go back to his office. Fortunately they got me in and did the ultrasound. The baby was being shy when it came to showing gender, so the tech did the whole ultrasound and then let me use the bathroom while she did a couple things. At that point, Jeff also got over there. He was a little bummed that he missed the ultrasound, but then the tech came back & tried to check gender again. This time the baby cooperated a little better and we found out together that we’re going to have a little girl! It was so fun.

The thought of having a daughter seems huge to me, I’m so excited and yet I feel a huge responsibility at the same time. I really hope I can be a good mother to my daughter (& sons too). I’m sure it will be an adventure. We’re so excited for our baby girl. Now if we can just come up with a name that we agree on! J

And the 21 week shot...

Halloween Part 3

I guess with all the excitment of the ultrasound, I never got around to posting the last Halloween pictures. I also got a couple more cute pictures from Jacob's party that my friend took.

We had a fun time the actual day of Halloween. We spent the day doing things around the house. We had a fun dinner with some friends, and then did a little trick or treating. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate fully, although it was warm, it was also rainy. Luckily there is a little neighborhood close to our home where they do a great job of handing out candy. We did the three streets quickly & ended up with a 2 big bowls of candy and about 14 full-sized candy bars-I told the boys we have enough treats to last until next Halloween.

At the end of the night, when Jeff put Matthew in the car we realized that Matthew was missing a shoe. We spent the next 30 minutes back-tracking our steps through the neighborhood with no luck. The darkness and rain sure didn't help. I was so disappointed. They were Matthew's good shoes & his only non-hand-me-down pair. The next morning I got up at 6:45 to go look again in the light, and would you believe that on just about the last house I found it sitting in the middle of the yard. I was so grateful! At least we have a good story to tell. It was a fun Halloween.