Blake is One Month!

It's hard to believe that our little dude is already one month.  He is so cute and sweet!  And growing big!!

Weight: 9 lbs 3 oz, (30%)

Height: 21.8 inches, (65%)

Head Circ: 14.8 in, (30%)

Zoo Trip

 Two weeks ago was the annual 5 Arts Circle day at the zoo.  Dustin had to work, so my aunt was wonderful and helped me with the kids.  First stop was breakfast at the new Education and Event Center.

After that we went to see the elephants.

We saw the elephant mix up her own pink lemonade.  The zookeeper poured the lemonade on the ledge of the trough.  The elephant then picked up the lemonade with her trunk, put it in the water and mixed it up.  Then she sprayed the water in her mouth.  It was really neat to see since they rarely do this.

Aunt Kathy was so nice and bought Morgan and Ethan each hats.

 Blake was so good and slept the whole time we were there.

 Our last stop was the baboons.  We had such a great time as always.  We can't wait until next year!

Blake Edward

 I'm finally getting around to putting pictures of Blake up now that he's 4 weeks old.  Here are Blake's stats at birth:

Birthdate:  Sunday, Oct. 28th at 1:04 am
Weight:  6 lbs 9 oz (the smallest of the 3)
Length:  18 inches
Head:  13.5 inches

He is such a sweet baby and we all love him so much!  Here are some pictures from the last 4 weeks.  Just to warn you, there are a lot of pictures.

 Grandma Geake came down to help out for 10 days.  It was so wonderful while she was here!

 Morgan loves being right by Blake all the time.

 Dustin's office sent us a bouquet of cookies.  They sent us the same thing when Ethan was born and I ate all those cookies.  Needless to say, I've eaten all these cookies as well.

I had planned on making Halloween sugar cookies with the kids that Sunday Blake was born.  The dough was already in the fridge, so Grandma helped the kids make the cookies.  It ended up being the day after Halloween, but we aren't picky when we eat our Halloween cookies.

We went for a bike ride.  Blake enjoyed his nap while the kids rode their bike.

 Grandma and Morgan playing Toon Town together.

 Morgan LOVES to hold Blake and she is even pretty good at burping him as well.

 Brotherly love!

 Kisses for Big Sis!

 We just can't get enough of this little guy!

Princess & Prince Birthday Party

Morgan's birthday isn't until Saturday, but since I'm due Friday we figured we would do her birthday party early.  She has been telling me since the beginning of the year that she wants a princess party.  As all the guests were arriving she was going up to everyone and saying, "Say 'Happy Birthday' to me."  Nope, she is not a shy one at all.

You can't have a princess party without the castle.  I didn't realize until I started to decorate that it was completely leaning over.  Luckily it lasted the 16 hours until her birthday party.

 You can't be a princess or prince without your crown.

Here are all the princesses and the two princes.  They all did such a great job on decorating their crowns.

Can you tell that Morgan had so much fun and was very tired after her party?  Even though her birthday isn't until Saturday, she is telling everyone that she is 4.  And when I tried to explain to her that she doesn't actually turn 4 for another two weeks, she would just sternly tell me, "No Mom, I'm already 4."  Does this mean that on Saturday we don't have to do celebrate since she's already 4?

Locks of Love

Since June I've been telling Morgan we would go and get her haircut, but it just hasn't happened.  I realized a couple weeks ago that if I don't just pick a Saturday and schedule our haircuts that it won't happen before the baby comes and once the baby comes, good luck!

We went to Carsten's Institute in between General Conference sessions on Saturday.  What I was told is that I would get my haircut first while Dustin, Morgan, and Ethan waited up front.  After my haircut they would bring Morgan back, so that I could sit with her as she got her haircut since this is her very first haircut and they didn't want her to get scared.

While I was getting my haircut a lady comes back with Morgan and asks how short we are cutting her hair.  I told her shoulder length and that I wanted to see if her hair was long enough to donate.  I assumed not, but wanted them to check just in case.  By the time I was done with my hair and went over to where she was getting her haircut she was almost done.  She did great!  She sat still and moved her head when the lady asked her to.  It probably helped because there was a huge tv just above her so she watched that or watched herself in the mirror.  Here are the before and after pictures.  Morgan has 10 inches to donate and I had 12 inches.

She of course is still talking about how short her hair is and how cute it is.  She does look so cute with her haircut so can you blame her?

The Final Countdown

 As of this past Friday I have 5 weeks left.  Hard to believe this little guy will be here next month.  I had an ultrasound just to make sure he was growing good.  He's estimated to be 4 lbs 12 oz, so he's growing great.  It was so fun having this ultrasound because as they get bigger you can see much more.  At least that's how I felt.  We could see him blink, and move his eyes which I didn't see with Morgan or Ethan.  With Morgan I thought I would have seen that because I had four 3D ultrasounds at the last 3 months of my pregnancy, but I never did.  Or at least I don't remember ever seeing it.

And my bump.  Dustin and I were talking and we both agree that the last two weeks have been when I have really grown.  People tell me I look so small, but looking at this picture I think they must just be being nice because I look like I could be as big as I was at the end of my pregnancy with Morgan.  I still have 5 weeks to go so we'll see how much bigger I get.

Soccer Time

 Morgan started soccer through the City of Tempe two weeks ago and she LOVES it!  I never thought about putting Morgan into soccer until my friend Lauren told me she enrolled her son Kaden for soccer through Arizona Soccer Club.  We decided to go through the city because it is only 5 weeks instead of 9 weeks (she'll be done before the baby comes) and we wanted to make sure Morgan enjoyed it.  If she wants to play soccer again next year we will definitely do one where she is actually on a team.

Ethan enjoys going to see Morgan play soccer, but he just doesn't like that he can't go out and play with her (it's for ages 3 - 4).  We sat in the bleachers where no one was, so Ethan was happy running back and forth on the bleachers.  For most of the time anyways.

Doing her stretches.  Morgan makes me laugh.  She was sitting about 4 kids down from her coach and then got up and moved so she could be right next to her.  She has always been one that wants to be right by her teacher, and tell them what she has done that week and/or show them what she is wearing.

 For fitness she was with Coach Angelo.  One of the things he had them do is run around 4 cones.  Here she is running forward.

 Then she was supposed to run sideways.  What she is exactly doing here I don't know, but it makes me laugh.  It did take her a bit to figure out the running sideways.

 And her favorite, running backwards.

 Then she went back to her other coach (which of course I can't remember her name) to practice kicking the ball in the net.  Dustin got a good shot of her jumping over the cones.  This is her favorite thing to do.  She is always setting up her cones at home so she can jump and kick the ball.  She's gotten pretty good at it.

 GOAL!!!!

Grandpop's 90th Birthday Party

That Sunday we celebrated my Grandpop's 90th birthday with brunch at the Scottsdale Resort and Conference Center.  This was definitely a party!  There were 91 people there, which was mostly family.  My Grandpop's family consists of:

5 children (my aunt Susan passed away 12 years ago)
17 grandchildrem
24 great grandchildren (with 3 on the way which, funny enough, are all from my family)
1 great-great grand child (with 1 on the way)
My Grandpop and Nonna have been married for 49 years.

My cousin Chrissie created a family tree of everyone.  You can see it in the back behind Nonna and Grandpop in that first picture.  You see on the left hand side how the squares (which are pictures) go up much higher than the rest?  Well, that's my family.  There are 9 kids in my family.  The family tree is a little lopsided, but I'm sure we have the most fun. :)

Morgan just LOVES her cousin Bentley.  We didn't sit at the same table as him, so as soon as she was done eating she was over by Bentley playing with him or going over to Nonna asking for more beads.  I think she dried Nonna out of all her extra beads she had brought for all the girls.

Nonna brought headbands and beads for all the girls.

And cars and balls for all the boys.  Ethan was in heaven when he saw the cars.

Each child got up and said a few things about my Grandpop, and I was sitting back wondering if my mom would actually get up.  She's the oldest, so you would think she would have gone first, but no.  I figured for sure she wouldn't get up.  My mom is not the type that will ever, and I mean EVER get up and speak no matter the occasion.  And I am certain that she would have not spoken except her cousin Floyd just handed her the microphone and wouldn't let her say no.  Alas, this is proof that my mom actually did say a few words.

One thing she mentioned is that my Grandpop always told her that she was his favorite.  And she believed it and then found out that he told everyone that they were his favorite.  Growing up, Grandpop always told me I was his favorite.  After graduating high school is when one of my younger sisters told me that he has said that she was his favorite as well.  I wasn't upset at all because the wonderful thing about Grandpop is everyone is his favorite.  He is so sweet and genuine, and he dearly loves everyone he meets.  I couldn't ask for a more wonderful Grandpop.

After everyone spoke who wanted to, it was my Grandpop's turn to talk.  I could listen to his stories for hours!  And I have.  Two years ago when my parents were down here visiting I just started asking my Grandpop all these questions about his childhood and the sports he was in and the places he worked, etc. and I loved it.  He has done so many interesting things and helped so many different people it is amazing.  I wish I could tell you everything he has done, but I just can't.  And I can't even remember everything he told me.  But my mom was smart and pulled out her camera and recorded my Grandpop telling all the stories.  Unfortunately I missed a lot of his talking with running the kids back and forth from the restroom, but I know I've heard a lot of them already and hopefully I have a few more years to hear some more.

Here is the whole group.

My Grandpop with his four children and Aunt Susan there in spirit.

I love my Grandpop so very much!  He is the best and I'm glad I've had the opportunity to get to know him more over the past 10 years that I have lived down here.  I feel so very blessed for that.  I can't wait for his 95th party!