Decorating the Tree

A few of the Christmas decoration boxes. As Chuck kept bringing the boxes in from the garage I got a little overwhelmed. I was more concerned about getting it all put away in a month when I would be even closer to having this baby. So I finally decided I would put up the 3 trees, but I would only put up 1 nativity instead of my 20+ that I have collected. I figured I have many more years to get out all the decorations and this will be the last Christmas that I'll be pregnant so I might as well slack some.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but each of the kids has a butter knife and they are working on cutting the plastic away from the tree. This activity occupied them for so long I couldn't believe it.

Samuel and Bella were a little anxious to get the decorating started. They were hanging ornaments before the big tree was even ready. In fact we had to undecorate quite a bit so we could get the lights on and the branches spread. And Isaac was so excited about everything. Each box I would open up he kept asking, "What that, What that".

I decorated one of the little trees in the living room all by myself while the kids were occupied with the big tree. It was so nice and didn't take me long at all!

Chuck putting the top of the tree on. After I downloaded the pictures I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the finished product. Let's just say after being up for a couple of weeks it doesn't look as good as it did that first night. The bottom gets redecorated on a daily basis and Isaac loves to take the ornaments off and throw them at the tree.

Thanksgiving Weekend

The kids and I made a fun Thanksgiving turkey craft out of pine cones, leaves and berries. Isaac was having fun gluing berries all over and Samuel was going crazy with the glue, but they turned out really cute in the end.

Isaac is always giving his big smile while saying "cheese" every time the camera comes out. Of course Bella is in her swim suit and headband despite the fact that it's November. I know one day she's going to look through our family scrapbook and aks me why her hair was always a mess or she was wearing clothes that didn't match or always wearing her swim suit. So I just want to say that I do her hair every morning, but she always pulls it out and she is constantly changing clothes and it's not worth fighting her about - at least right now. And Aunt Trina promised that she would stand up for me one day when Bella wants to know about her appearance!

The finished product.

I think I'm on year 9 for preparing Thanksgiving dinner for the family. And the kids like to get in on the action always trying to help. I try to get as much done the day before as possible so that Thanksgiving day is not such a lot of work. Chuck laughs at me because I have a Word Document I pull up every year with the menu, shopping list, and time everything needs to be started so everything will be done on time. This year Grandma Jerri Lynn threw my schedule off a little bit because she was supposed to do the gravy and didn't realize we were eating at noon. Chuck was laughing and asked her why she didn't check the schedule. My mom just couldn't imagine why we were eating so early. But I had to remind her we had two pregnant women who like to eat early and kids who take naps.

This year Janice, Mike and the girls joined us. We loved having them!

And yes, Isaac was the only one of the kids who actually ate everything on his plate and then wanted more. I tried to get him to sit in his high chair, but he threw the biggest fit, screaming, arching and kicking as I tried to get him to sit down. He was determined to sit at the table with the big kids. And he did great just eating and eating. The kids is a bottomless pit!

One of Chuck's friends from High School was in town for Thanksgiving. He brought Rock Band and they stayed up late one evening playing. I finally had to come out and ask them to turn it down a little bit. The pregnant lady needs whatever sleep she can get!

On Saturday we went for a little hike with the kids, Grandma and Grandpa. I love this picture with the temple in the background. I can tell I'm way out of shape because on the way back to the car I was having false labor pains.

Tight squeeze - this is where most of us stopped. Especially big ole me!

Air Show

Chuck took Samuel and Bella to the Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base last weekend. I really wanted to go, but in the end decided it probably wasn't a good idea to drive that far, stand and walk around for hours with my leg hurting the way it does - Chuck would have been pushing me around in the stroller! They did have to wait in line for 1.5 hours to board the shuttle to the base and then they also waited in a couple more long lines to see inside some of the planes. This made me feel a lot better about not going - that would have killed me for sure!

Instead Isaac and I had a nice relaxing day at home. It's so quite around here when I only have one kid at home! I finished organizing the laundry room, played with Isaac who is so delightful when he doesn't have the other kids bothering him, and actually was able to read a little and take a short nap. I felt bad for missing all the action, but I have to admit it was nice to relax a bit.

Samuel is obsessed with planes and insists that he is going to be a fighter pilot. (Although a couple of days ago he told me he had decided to be a spy instead of a fighter pilot and was asking me what he needed to study in school to be a spy. Great a fighter pilot or a spy - I'm hoping he decides to become something a little more boring!)

Samuel can rattle off all sorts of facts about various aircraft. Chuck bought each of the kids their own toy plane and it was so funny to watch and hear their conversation when they got home. Samuel kept telling Bella that her plane shot missiles and his plane dropped smart bombs. Then he proceeded to tell her she was having the plane take off and fly the wrong way. He is very precise with how he thinks things should be!

Last year when we went to the Air Show all the kids at one point were crying because the planes were too loud for them. This year Chuck was prepared with ear protection for the kids.

Tears of Joy

Yesterday I was rearranging my laundry room because earlier in the week I decided I needed shelves on the walls. So my amazing husband got to work tackling yet another one of my projects that I needed done now! Can I just say how excited I am about having all these shelves in my laundry room. I keep wandering in just to take a look at the organization – I know I’m in hyper nesting mode what can I say!

While I was putting boxes on my new shelves I ran into a calendar and sheet of quotes that I had saved. As soon as I saw them so many memories came flooding and I was amazed how much my life had changed in the past 5 years. The calendar contained important dates when I was undergoing fertility treatments (dates for doctors visits, blood work, fertility drugs, ultrasounds), the day I found out I was pregnant, and the countdown to the birth of our precious Samuel. The sheet of quotes was something I kept on my fridge to remind me that one day I would be a mother, but the timing was not in my hands. I didn’t have much time to reflect because the kids were getting hungry for lunch.

During lunch I try and read the kids a story from the Friend magazine. Yesterday I opened the Friend to an article titled “My Gratitude List” and started to read. When I was done reading the article I talked to the kids for a few minutes about being thankful then I asked Samuel what he was thankful for. He paused for a couple of seconds then said, “I’m thankful that Heavenly Father is sending us another baby”. Bella who was sitting right beside him got the biggest smile and said, “Me too”. I took a look around at my little ones – Samuel with his hat on slightly crooked taking big bites of his sandwich, Bella with her messy hair and jam all over her face and on the front of the swim suit she insisted on wearing, and Isaac rubbing honey and peanut butter in his hair and I couldn’t help the tears of joy as I echoed my own, “Me too”. This is what I had prayed, hoped and wished for all those years. Is it hard – yes, at times life is chaotic and soon it will be even more so. Is it wonderful – YES, even more than I imagined!

After the kids finished their lunch I sat down to eat myself and read the quotes had I found that gave me such comfort during many dark days. It was then the tears of joy flowed freely again and I was amazed at how time can heal wounds and trails give us experiences that make us grow and become better even if the growth hurts at times. How Blessed and Grateful I feel to be a mother to these precious little ones!

I think most of these quotes came from Conference talks, but I can’t quite remember and I didn’t include references.
• We need to have faith in the timing of God and be able to say, “Thy timing be done” even when we do not fully understand it.

• We make a mistake when we think we own ourselves and that we own blocks of time. Our faith in God includes faith in God’s timing, enough to be able to say, in effect, “Thy timing be done”.

• We make another mistake. We fail to focus on and develop patience and faith. These two attributes are in tandem; they go together.

• We foolishly wish to have some of lives moments over and done with, seasons to be over with, ignoring the possibilities for service that are inherent in them.

• It is not without a recognition of life’s tempests but fully and directly because of them that I testify of God’s love and the Savior’s power to calm the storm…Christ knows better than all others that the trials of life can be very deep and we are not shallow people if we struggle with them. But..He rebukes faithlessness and He deplores pessimism. He expects us to believe. (Jeffrey R. Holland – I actually did write this reference down) He than gave an analogy of a red star fish holding tight to a rock ledge as the waves beat against him.

My Little Doll

In Bella's room I have a wall that is covered with pictures of her when she turned 2 wearing my mom's wedding hat. Since she just turned 3 I decided I needed to update the pictures on her wall so I borrowed my mom's wedding hat again and tonight the two of us went to take pictures. Bella used to drive me crazy because she was impossible to take pictures of. (I actually think the real problem was me being too uptight about trying to get the perfect look or the perfect smile.) But tonight we had a really good time. She loved wearing this hat and I just let her wonder around while I snapped away.

For fun, I decided to try a vintage look on this picture and thought she looked like an old painting of a little doll. In her room I will actually do the bright pictures, but I just loved this look.

I'm really excited to have another project almost done that I can cross off my list of things to do before the baby gets here!

We Finished!

A couple of weeks ago we had our Primary Program and Samuel did such a great job on his part. I am the Primary Pianist so I was on the stand and I must admit I was a little nervous for Samuel to give his part. I'm not sure why because the kid can memorize things easily and had his part down pat, he talks plenty loud all the time and he's not in the least bit shy.

This was his part: I can listen to or read the Book of Mormon each day. Have you heard there is a party for anyone in primary who finishes the BOM in November. (He said the word party with such enthusiasm that he got a good laugh from the audience).

The reason I mention his primary part is because our family finished reading the BOM tonight! In January, our Primary Presidency challenged each child in primary to read or listen to the BOM this year and so we took this challenge as a family. Before this we were reading the little illustrated BOM to the kids and were kind of hit or miss on our reading. But this challenge has been such a blessing to our family for many reasons. First it got us to put away the illustrated books and just read straight from the BOM. Second we have developed a consistency in our family BOM reading. We rarely miss a night of reading and I feel this has really strengthened our family. I loved Elder Bednar's talk in Conference on consistency. I'm sure glad consistency is what he said matters because most nights the kids are all over the place while either Chuck or I read. It can be a little crazy at times!

Tomorrow night we are celebrating reaching our family goal and will be starting over on our reading!

Falling Apart At The Seams!

Yes, I feel like I'm falling apart at the seams! The way I'm hobbling around you would think I was due any day now. This is what the back of my leg looked like last evening. The picture doesn't really do it justice, trust me it looks a lot worse in person! Let's just say my leg has really been giving me problems with a constant ache. I just don't really enjoy feeling the blood pulse through the veins in the back of my leg and the dizzy spells that accompany that pulsing. But only between 12 and 13 weeks left, and then it will all be worth it! These little ones are worth every sacrifice.


Friday something in me snapped and I decided I just couldn't live with the disorganization any more. So I set to work cleaning out the pantry, moved on to the closets, then put Chuck to work helping me with the basement, kids rooms and every other room. (Thank you honey!) But when I saw Isaac in the pantry moving around all my neatly stacked cans I wondered why I bother sometimes! I guess because I get a little crazy when I'm pregnant and think I can control at least one aspect of my life - wishful thinking! I must admit I feel a lot better now - all but my aching leg from clearly overdoing it.