January fun!

Things have slowed down a bit since Christmas and the holiday season and it's been nice to spend lots of time indoors, play with the new toys that the kids got for Christmas, and just catch up on things I've been postponing.  Plus, I think I've got a little nesting bug going on because I feel this urge to finish up a lot of projects and just get my life organized and ready before the craziness of having a newborn again happens.  Updating this blog and posting pictures of everything that's happened in the last few months was one of the things on that list and now I've done it, woohoo! 

Here are the kids practicing their handstands.  Abbie is taking a little gymnastics class with her cousins from one of my sisters and she loves it.  She comes home each week excited to teach Leah everything she's learned and Leah picks up on it quickly and likes doing it too.  Porter even gets in on the action and tries to do handstands, splits, and somersaults. 

They also like playing the twister game that they got for Christmas

Leah being a Lego robot, something she totally made up herself.  Silly kid!

I love the back, she didn't realize her underwear was showing until I took this picture and now she asks to see it all the time because she thinks it's funny.  I'm posting it on here so I can easily show it to her at any time and for posterity's sake:)

One of the few outings we've been on lately.  They had a free day at the zoo last week so we went with some cousins and it actually was pretty fun.  It wasn't too cold that day and not too crowded and the kids got to see lots of animals so I thought it was worth it.  I hate going in the summer when it's hot, smelly, and crowded and more often than not, the animals are just hiding in the shade anyway so you can't see much.  This was a lot better!

Porter was kind of afraid of the giraffes

The elephants were pretty fun to watch, the baby one kept trying to get some water from this little pond that was covered in ice and that was cute to watch. 

Our little boys are growing up!

Of course, the kids had to ride the carousel, it's tradition!

Everyone in front of the big elephant statue

Porter had to have ear tube surgery the week after Christmas because of persistant fluid in his ears and because he has some mild to moderate hearing loss.  We don't know if it's fully because of genetics or not, we have a lot of history of hearing loss between me and Jared's family, but to rule out a physical problem and to make sure we cover all our bases, we decided to take care of the fluid problem and see if that helps his hearing enough that he won't have to get hearing aids.  We have an appt next week to get an in depth test to see how his hearing is now after surgery (the audiograms we've gotten have been pretty unreliable) and then we'll know more and go from there.  Hopefully it's just enough improved that he doesn't need aids and that he'll start speaking better too!  Here he is after surgery, he did really well before and during the procedure but afterwards was pretty out of it and kind of mad at me that I let that happen to him.  By the time we got home though, just an hour after surgery, he was running around being his usual happy, active self.  Good thing kids have a short memory and are quick to forgive.

It's been a while since I've posted any pictures of my pregnant belly so I thought I'd better put something so I can remember this time and also to prove that I really am pregnant, not just making it up for those that never see me in person.  Here I am at 20 weeks:

And then at 30 weeks (last week)

Yep, I'm getting bigger and am definately feeling it now.  Overall everything is going great and I can't complain too much.  We're excited to find out what it is, a boy or girl, and we still haven't decided on a name so we have some work to do.  I've been stocking up on diapers, formula, and wipes, though, and have everything else I need for a boy or girl so I think I'm ready for the most part to have a baby in the house again.  I can't wait to see what this little one looks like!  Only 9 more weeks to go, 8 if I can get induced before March 31st like I want to (for insurance purposes, our deductible starts over April 1st).  Wish me luck!

Christmas craziness!

We had a great Christmas!  I took a ton of pictures and finally have gotten around to posting them.  Here's some of the things we did, decorations we put up, and presents we received.

The kids with their letters to Santa

Making gingerbread houses

Decorating the tree

Our pitiful little tree, decorated mostly with crafts the kids have made with the valuable, breakable, ones on the very top.  This is a 6 ft prelit tree that we got a few years ago and when we plugged it in this year, only about half of the lights worked.  Well, after another week or two another 1/3 went out and then only the ones on the top front area worked.  On Christmas Day the last few went out, barely making it through Christmas Eve and the magic of Christmas morning. Whew!  I went out and got a new, much nicer 7 1/2 ft tree for half off the next day to use for next year!

Abbie's countdown chain she made in school, she loved taking one off each day

My little hot cocoa mix-in jars, the kids loved snitching marshmallows and M&M's all month long

The stockings were hung up high this year so Porter wouldn't pull the heavy iron holders down onto himself

My olive wood nativity set that I got in Jerusalem almost 13 years ago.  I can't believe it's been that long!

My little angel and sheep ready to act out the nativity on Christmas Eve

Two sweet angels

All the cousins dressed up for their parts

We even got a personal vist from Grandpa, I mean Santa!

Putting out cookies on Christmas Eve

So, there's a long story to the next two pictures.  You know that message from Santa video (from this website) that was going around right before Christmas, the one where you could put your child's name and info into and then it would make a personalized video for your child, just for them from Santa?  Well, on Christmas Eve day I decided to make them and show them to the girls and in the one I made for Abbie, I said that she wanted Legos because that was the only thing I could think of that she actually said she wanted that we had gotten for her.  Well, when she watched the video, she got all concerned at that part and said "I didn't ask for Legos, I asked for princess bath toys!"  Then she started to say something like "Well, maybe Santa will get me Legos too but I know he's going to bring me the bath toys, that's what I wrote him in my letter and when I sat on his lap, etc....."  Well, I had heard her say that before but I thought she just meant princess bath soaps or water squirters or wash cloths or something like that, which we already had.  Feeling curious and a little guilty that I didn't even know what my child wanted for Christmas, I started searching on Amazon for "princess bath toys" and some different things popped up so I asked her what it was exactly that she wanted.  The picture below was it!

Well, I had never seen that in the stores and here it was Christmas Eve so I wasn't even sure how I was going to find them in time but being the great mom that I am, I started doing some research online, narrowed it down to a couple different stores, and then went on the hunt.  I found the Ariel and Sleeping Beauty princesses at the first store I went to but nothing else so I figured they were better than nothing and got them.  Then at another store I found Beauty but couldn't find any others. I knew Abbie's favorite princess is Cinderella and I for sure had to get that one but I was running out of time and needed to get back home.  Luckily, these bath princesses look very similar to the ballerina princess dolls so I ended out getting the ballerina Cinderella and a blue loofah and I figured I could make the skirt myself.  So late at night on Christmas Eve I found myself taking the back off the Cinderella packaging, putting on her little homemade loofah skirt, and then with Jared's help, we taped them all together to a piece of cardboard to make it look like they all went together (and so it would be a bigger wrapped present to open in the morning).  I had never done anything so last minute or crazy, just to please a child, but I didn't want her to lose her faith in Santa just yet, and it really did seem like it would be the end of the world if she didn't get that present in the morning.  Here's our final product, pretty similar, right?

Here is Abbie Christmas morning, she loved it!  We made her wait until the very end to open it and she just kept saying, "I knew Santa would bring me this, it's just what I wanted!"  Seeing her face and hearing those words made it all worth it.  The things we do for our children!

Here's everything set out on Christmas Eve

The girls with their new dresses and matching dresses for their dolls

Porter with some new cars.  He loves cars so much that that's pretty much all we got him, that and some building blocks that he hardly ever touches.  He is all into cars, trucks, anything with wheels right now!

Leah with all her presents.  She was happy to get anything and didn't really ask for one certain thing in particular so she was easy to please this year. 

Abbie with her other gifts.  She also loved the Hello Kitty journal that I got her.  I had one like it when I was a kid and remember really loving it so I got it for her, mostly for sentimental reasons, and she loved it.  She likes writing her secrets in it and locking it up so Leah and Porter won't read it.  I guess she doesn't realize that they can't read yet anyway!  It's probably good to get into the habit, though, for the future.  I know I had a few snoopy siblings that probably read my journals!

Playing with the infamous "princess bath toys"!

It ended out that the kids loved the Legos too!  I had gotten two big boxes of them for a great deal on Black Friday and then it was Jared's idea to combine them all together in a big bin for easy sorting and finding.  The girls and Jared played with these for hours on Christmas Day.

The house that Abbie made, just copying the picture on the box.  She has gotten pretty good at making things and spends hours doing Legos now.  I never quite got into them and don't really have the 3D building skills that it takes to make something, just from seeing a picture of it.

This is just a random picture of Porter from New Year's Eve, a few days later, when we went to Grandpa's house to celebrate.  He loved the never-ending supply of popcorn that Grandpa had and probably ate more in that evening than he's ever had in the rest of his life combined.  I'm surprised he didn't get sick.  He did drink a lot of water that night and the next day, though!

The final picture of the season.  We got a great family picture taken at our ward party for free and it ended out being the picture I used for our Christmas card and everything.  I can't believe how big our kids are getting and that we have 3 (and a half) already! 

Whew, well that's pretty much sums up our holiday season, I hope yours was just as wonderful!

Visting Santa

Things have been very busy lately with all the holiday shopping, decorating, cleaning, cooking, hosting family members, etc. that comes at this time of year.  I also planned and just threw Leah a fun princess birthday party today (she just turned 5) and I've been pretty busy doing things for my calling as Primary president since it's the end of the year and everything is changing right now AND we just finished putting together a Christmas present for 100 primary children and have been trying to get the final ones of those delivered. 

Somehow we still fit in writing letters to Santa, decorating sugar cookies, making gingerbread houses, shopping for sibling and cousin gifts, attending a ward party and Cinderella play, and wrapping all the presents.  We even managed to find time to visit Santa the other night. Here is the classic kid crying on Santa's lap picture followed by a slightly better one of my three kids with the big jolly fellow.  

Now the excitement of Christmas Eve starts and the magic of Christmas morning when you have 3 kids that believe in Santa and are happy to get almost anything.  I can't wait to see their faces, it will make all the stress and work this month worth it.  I hope you have a wonderful Christmas day also.  Merry Christmas!

Leah turns 5!

Leah also had a birthday recently.  She turned 5 just a few days before Christmas and since she has never really had a big party before, I let her have a princess party and invite her cousins and some friends.  Here are all the girls dressed up in their princess dresses.

Getting ready to eat some cake!

 Her Cinderella cake

Blowing out the candle

Opening presents

 Hitting the pinata

 Candy!

The decorations.  I was really proud of myself for being able to pull off a princess themed party just a few days before Christmas and not make it seem too Christmasy.  Leah loved the streamers and pink everywhere...

 And the pink birthday tree!

I can't believe my princess Leah is 5 years old.  She is growing up so fast and is so ready for kindergarten.  She loves to do pretty much anything Abbie is doing and also loves to dance, color, dress up, and play with her cousins.  She is also a great big sister to Porter and does a great job sharing with him and including him in her make believe games.  She is almost always happy and smiling and is pretty easygoing, happy to do whatever we need to do that day.  She loves to help me with cleaning and cooking and she also loves to run errands or go places with Daddy.  She is excited for Mommy to have a baby and I'm sure she will be a big help.  We love our sweet little Leah!