I hope I win...

This blog has some super cute stuff! I'm trying to win a beautiful baby quilt. So go check it out! The colors I would choose would be pastel colors like light lavender, light pink, light green anywhere along those lines! Wish me luck in winning.

making room for baby and the flu again

I've been looking around for a little dresser or something to provide a bit more space for all the baby clothes that will be added to all of Maddie's clothes. I really didn't want to buy a $200 dresser and I was lucky enough to find one at the DI last time I looked.
before-

Maddie telling Andy where to put the bee-

We sanded it and repainted it. So now I can start going through and washing Maddie's old baby clothes and finding out what I have enough off and what I get to go out and buy.
After-

Andy painted all the little purple flowers on-


So far Maddie is okay with us moving her play kitchen to the basement so we can have room for the new dresser and pretty soon a crib in her room.
Maddie's never really had to share a room (since Garen didn't ever sleep at night till after he was one he slept in my room, and when Garen turned one they had their own rooms) or any of her things before so we'll see how it goes.



-And yesterday I some how managed to catch the flu bug. I really think it should be some kind of rule that pregnant people should not be able to get the flu! Late Sunday night I thought I was just nauseous like I get often but in the middle of the night I could not stop throwing up! (I got tired of getting up to go in the bathroom so poor Andy had to deal with me throwing up in a bucket in bed). It was awful. It's one thing to have your stomach aching but to have that ache smashed up into your ribs and then to have the baby kick it all night was not the most pleasant feeling. After a blessing from Andy I did get a bit of sleep. But I could not believe the toll it took on my body. Even though the throwing up had stopped I was so weak and tired. So it made a world of difference that Andy was able to stay home from work and take care of things with the kids so I could rest.

Thanks Andy for putting up with me all day, taking care of the kids, going shopping and cleaning up!

This week-

Things have been pretty laid back lately. I've got a cold and have been feeling tired and unmotivated so we haven't ventured out much or done anything to exciting this week. But since this is pretty much my journal here are a few things that went on this week.

-I had a doctors appointment and everything looked good. I had a big old weight gain of 8 pounds in 3 weeks. I guess it's time to lay off the sweets. My total weight gain so far is 24 pounds and I still have 6 to 8 weeks left that usually add a pound a week. Oh well. I guess I'll worry about running after the baby comes out.

-Maddie did awesome at her tumble-a-thon. She did 100 tricks and ended up raising just over $100. Thanks so much to everyone who pledged and supported Maddie in this event. She was very excited! For doing so well she gets to pick a new gymnastics leotard, gym shorts, and a hair thing.

Maddie playing duck, duck, goose after the tumble-a-thon:

-We had a very lengthy discussion with Maddie about fires and fire drills. She's been getting stomach aches lately and I finally figured out what it was. She was feeling worried and stressed because they have been practicing fire drills at school and talking about fire safety.

She's worried about going outside without her coat and other things.

She's worried the smoke alarms won't work in our house (the firefighters stressed changing the batteries or they won't work), she's worried if they go off in the night she won't wake up. I assured her that her dad and I would not leave the house without carrying her and Garen out with us.

She found out that you could start a fire with two pieces of wood so she assumed if two of her toys hit together they too would start a fire. I keep telling her that fires don't happen to often and that we won't have one at school or at home, but she believes there will be one for sure or else they wouldn't practice so much. The things a 5 year old can conjure up in her little mind! :)

-We babysat my neighbors 5 month old baby and the kids loved it! Maddie got to feed him a bottle and hold him before she headed off t0 school. And Garen was very interested and kept bringing him toys and sticking his binki in his mouth. So I think Garen will be happy with the new baby, probably till he figures out she's staying. And Maddie said she wants to be in charge of feeding the baby a bottle each day-I haven't broke the news to her yet that the new baby probably won't be using a bottle.

-We finally carved some pumpkins. Maddie has been wanting to do this all week long, but we wanted to involve Andy and since he hasn't been getting home till it's to late we had to wait till Saturday night. Garen was super excited and stuck his hand right in the first pumpkin and yanked it right back out with a terrified look on his face. He didn't touch the slimpy things again after that. Maddie did a good job cleaning her pumpkin out and then she drew the face on for me to cut out.

Maddie's pumpkin face-

Maddies'-

Guess what Andy carved-

yep, that's me-

There's mine-

-Maddie had her primary program today at church. She said her speaking part so well from memory! And she pulled faces at her dad instead of singing the songs. :)

Kindergarten Pictures

Maddie got her Kindergarten pictures back. I think Andy did a good job getting her ready since I was in Minnesota that day.
I thought it would be fun to compare her Kindergarten picture with mine. Maybe we don't look as similar as people think?

I had to had this picture of me and Alisha getting on the school bus-too funny!

Fire station field trip

This morning I got to go with Maddie's class on a field trip to the fire station. It was a lot of fun! The firefighters were so good with the kids. They put all their gear on including the oxygen masks and then would crawl through the kids and give them five and make them laugh so the kids know not to be afraid of the firemen even though they sound like Darth Vader. They taught the kids a ton and showed them so many cool things! I'm glad I got to go, it was fun riding with Maddie on the bus and sharing this experience with her.
Maddie's class before we left-

Maddie and her friends on the bus-



The kids giving fives and touching all the gear-

Weekend in Clarkston/Logan

Thursday night we headed to Andy's parent's house for the weekend. It's the only weekend Andy has had off work and with the baby coming soon we decided we better take the chance to go visit family and friends.


We pulled in about 7pm that night and I headed right back out to meet my best Logan friend, Brenda at Chili's for some yummy food and some much needed girl time!



Then the kids and I spent the morning and early afternoon at Brenda's house on Friday while Andy's parents worked and Andy did some yard work for his grandparents.
Maddie with friends Jake and Danny-

Friday night Amber and Zeb joined me and Andy at the temple. We have really missed having a temple right at our fingertips, as well as having trusted babysitters close by!


On Saturday, Andy and I went into Logan and got a little shopping done and then for lunch we had a wonderful early Thanksgiving feast with all of his family. Jann also had planned a fun fishing for prizes games for the kids that they absolutely loved!





The kids playing with their prizes-


Levi-

Garen playing in the rocks-

The kids were feeding the hourse corn, but they had scared the horse away by the time I came to take the picture-

Sunday we went to Andy's parent's ward, then stopped by to see Andy's great grandmother on our way out of town.


It was a great long weekend for us, now it's back to work, school, and our daily routines.

No More Binki! And playing with giant blocks

Well, I've needed to take away Garen's Binki for some time now, but I've put it off since that little plastic thing can make all the screaming and whining go away in a matter of seconds.

With Garen's 2 year molars coming in he's been chomping on his Binki's and he finally bit a hole through his last one. And I can't go buy a 2 1/2 year old new Binki's. So I give him his broken one and he chooses not to use it because he doesn't like the rip in the side.

Garen is now Binki free, but he has not taken a nap since he stopped having one! :( We'll see how it goes from now on and hopefully we don't have a relapse when the new baby comes in a few weeks with her Binki.


This week I've had my neighbor Zoe a few days since their regular babysitter is gone. By 10:00 one morning Garen and Zoe were both getting restless so we went to the Family rec. center for some playtime.


This boy only thinks in trains and cars. Everything around us can always be turned into a train or car. Even the light coming in through the blinds becomes train tracks. Here's the car he made and pretended to drive around-

Garen had a blast building towers and knocking them down. But he was not happy when the other kids would knock it down for him. Watch at the end of the video, Garen is ready to slug a girl for knocking it down but he hears me call his name and holds back. Even though he hold back that time, it doesn't mean he didn't hit several kids for knocking it down.

The Great Pumpkin Surprise

I actually got this idea from our friends Blain and Britney. We had the kids make pumpkin bags and then each morning the 'great pumpkin' leaves them a surprise in it. Sometimes it's candy, a Halloween craft, or a Halloween toy. They had a great time making their pumpkins and were very excited to look in them this morning.


The Kids were trying to make a face like their pumpkin-

Just a picture of the kids right before church-

Our First Wyoming Snow!

When I woke up this morning I was surprised to see about 2 inches of snow out my window! But the first snow is always exciting and it was fun to show the kids. Maddie wanted to put on he snow clothes and go sledding right then! But she settled for going to school instead.


Garen was back to his normal self this morning, ready to eat and play so I'm glad that flu bug is over with.
This picture is of Maddie pulling a face after I was teasing her that she should have waited to fall of the playground till today because it wouldn't have hurt so bad in the snow. :) She's a trooper with her scraped up head, face and knees.-