Growing tummy

Just a few pictures of my growing tummy. I found out I was pregnant on August 6th. This first picture was taken on Oct 9th when I was a little over 13 weeks pregnant.

 Taken at 16 weeks - not sure of the date. I could figure it out, but I don't really care to.

 

18 weeks - I think it was Nov 9th

 And last Friday was my 22 week mark on December 7th.

I had my ultrasound and had them write the gender down and put it in an envelop which we will open on Christmas morning. My guess is a boy, but I have been wrong with all the others, so we'll see if I finally got it right, or if once again I just have it mixed up. :-)

Birthday Time

September 7th and 8th was birthday time around our house. Matt is on the 7th and Eliza the 8th. For Matt's birthday, he decided that he wanted to have a pizza party and watch "The Sandlot" as a family, so we got our favorite "Garlic Chicken" pizza from Papa Murphy's, some Root Beer and some other movie treats and had a fun night together. The boys had never seen it before, and they got a real kick out of it. I think Matt really enjoyed his night. He got a few new suits for his birthday, which were sorely needed, and we gave him a few of his favorite treats as well. On Saturday the 8th, we had a little gathering that evening with a few friends/family members to celebrate the birthdays and enjoy some cake and ice cream together. Here is Eliza enjoying the night

 The birthday boy and girl together. I didn't make Eliza a whole cake of her own, because honestly, she doesn't really care for cake that much. She is MUCH more an ice cream girl. So I just decorated a cupcake for her and put a Lego guy on it since she is ALWAYS carrying around Lego's, in particular Lego guys. Maybe I should have gotten her an ice cream cake, but I thought of that a little too late. Oh well.

 Here is Matt's Reese's Peanut Butter Cake. This cake is very yummy, but VERY rich. A small piece can really do you in. Matt didn't really want me to put 32 candles in the cake, but he had to have SOMETHING to blow out, so we compromised.

 Here's Eliza before she really dug into the treats. Man, I love that girl!

 Tess helping herself to Eliza's cupcake. I don't think Eliza minded too much. These two girls are SO cute together. They just LOVE each other and play so well together. I'm so glad that Michelle and I both had girls. Kept things perfect. :-)

 Enjoying her ice cream, and maybe a bite or two of cake. :-)

 Eliza with her presents after the gathering. She got an outfit, 4 My Little Ponies, a Tutu, a "pretty necklace," a couple bracelets and a little tiara that broke like that next day. :-) She is VERY much into pretty things right now. She loves to have her nails painted, and she LOVES pretty dresses and wants to wear them quite often. I really need to get that girl some dress up clothes.

A few other little things about Eliza - she really likes soup, but doesn't really care for the "chunky" parts of it, just mostly the broth. As Matt said, they make the perfect match - he's not much of a broth guy. She is an AWESOME talker and is always speaking in full sentences. Once in a while she says something that I can't understand, but most of the time I am a little blown away at how much she talks, and how well she talks. Much better than the boys at this age. She LOVES her older brothers, though she and Cooper do fight a bit...maybe it's the red hair. :-) She loves to hang out with "the boys" and she loves to snuggle Cooper in his bed at night before she heads to her crib. She LOVES to read stories, and she loves to sing songs, and knows quite a few. Last year at TJ's Kindergarten graduation, he learned a song called "Tony Chesnut knows I love you" and she sings that song a lot, as well as a bunch of primary songs. Her favorites are "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam", "Jesus Once was a little Child" and "I am a Child of God". She also loves Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It's so fun to have a girl in the family. Happy 2nd birthday Eliza Mirae!!!

A perfect night

This last Monday night we had a perfect night together up the canyon. When I was growing up, my parents were great to take our family on little adventures up the canyon. I learned from my mom that anything can be a "picnic" per say. I've had full on feasts up the mountain. Just make your food, pack it up, and enjoy it in the beauties of nature. :-) We hadn't made it up the canyon yet with all the leaves changing colors, and I was afraid we would miss it all together if we didn't go soon, so on Monday night, I made some homemade bread bowls and potato soup, and we headed up the canyon. We went to our favorite spot up Payson canyon, to this little turn-off where they have a bunch of tables. "Our" table is over to the side in the middle of a bunch of trees, so it's fairly secluded. There we enjoyed our dinner, and let me tell you, warm potato soup tastes SOOO much better when you are in the canyon and it's fairly chili outside, and you have the smells of fall in the air. Man, it doesn't get much better than that for me. I have learned more and more that I am SOOOO not a city girl. Give me the mountains over a big city any day!!!

 

Here's Matt and Eliza enjoying their soup. She got pretty messy since we forgot to bring a bib, but it was so fun, I didn't even care.

After dinner we went for a little walk/hike and looked at all the beautiful leaves. I just can't get enough of fall. Then we went back to our table, enjoyed some peanut butter bars for FHE treat, then loaded up and headed home. Can't wait to do it again next year. :-)

My "Court Jester"

Who needs a court jester when you live with Cooper? Seriously, that kid is funny. Sometimes he's trying  to be, but most of the time, he just IS. I just wanted to write down a few things that Cooper has been saying lately.

From today:
Cooper was pretend burping, which he knows I don't like. I told him to please stop. TJ was present and always tries to "parent" him as well. He said "Cooper, if you do that when you are a dad to your wife......" and Cooper said "I will get possessed." Uhhhh, ya mean divorced? Something like that.

Tonight when we were reading scriptures, I was reading from 1st Nephi when it is talking about Lehi's dream. In particular, this verse:
"11 And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the ^afruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the ^bwhiteness that I had ever seen."

Cooper wasn't really paying attention (shocker) but occasionally he listens when I don't think he is. So I tested him with the question "Cooper, what did the fruit taste like?" and was expecting to hear "sweet" as the answer, but instead he said "bananas?" TJ and I totally busted up laughing when he said that.

When I was picking him up from preschool, his teacher was telling me that he just thinks on a totally different plain than the rest of the kids - it was like having a junior high kid in there. He just really thinks outside the box. She said she thinks he is going to be very successful when he grows up. We'll see. Hope he can find a job that's not too "BOR-ING" because he has informed us he doesn't do boring things, such as clean. Think again buddy. His teacher also told me something kind of funny he said last week. They had a day where they talked about buttons, and as part of that, each child was counting how many buttons they were wearing. Cooper was wearing sport shorts and a T-shirt that day, so there were no buttons. He was kind of sad until she said he got this bright look on his face and said real excitedly "I have a button!" He pulled up his shirt and said "My BELLY BUTTON!"

I seriously love that kid!!!!

Shoes...

School time

So I know I am a little late with this post, but better late than never, right? School started in August, TJ starting 1st grade and Cooper starting Preschool. Here is a little picture of TJ before his first day of school. He was pretty excited to start first grade, and I think one of his favorite parts is that he gets to eat lunch at school - AWESOME! :-) He is a little smarty pants and is doing great in school. I think he has gotten100% plus all of the bonus words each week on his spelling tests, and he is reading super well for his grade.

 Here he is with his teacher Mrs. Beary. He has a split class, with one teacher in the morning and a different one in the afternoon. It seems to be going just fine for him, although I was a little worried about two different teachers. He said Mrs. Beary is a REALLY good teacher.

 After school on his first day, he came home and I had made giant chocolate chip cookies to eat while we sat around and talked about his first day at school. They had also sent him home with this M&M game where depending on what color he pulled out he had to tell us something about his day (new friend he had made, book they had read, etc). He was pretty happy, as you can see by his huge grin. :-)

 Here's Cooper on his first day of preschool. I am actually doing two different preschools with him - a joy school with a few of my friends, and then the other days he goes to a preschool here in our neighborhood area with a "real" teacher and he really loves both of them. He is gone every morning, which every once in a while seems like a bit much, but he loves it and it gives me some one on one time with Eliza each day, which I really enjoy. My kids are just growing up!!!

A change of "scenery"

I've been growing my hair out for a couple years and I have been thinking about cutting it, but with all the hot weather we've been having, I was finally convinced it was time for the hair to go. These pictures are a little backward as far as order goes because my computer is being dumb and not letting me change them, but at least you can see a before and after, or rather an after and before. Oh, and my 6 yr old was taking the pictures so they aren't exactly centered, but you get the idea. :-) I donated about 10 inches to Children with Hair Loss. I've donated a few times to Locks of Love before, but decided to go this route this time since my friend Season's daughter is involved with them in making Hats with Hair for kids who have lost theirs through Chemo. Anywho, it's been a week since I chopped it and I'm getting used to it, although I am still learning how to "do" it.

Cooper turned 4

Okay, so I am a little late in posting this, but Cooper turned 4 in March. I can't believe how fast that boy is growing up. I seriously feel like his first 4 years went WAY faster than TJ's did. Probably because life was busier. Even though I was with him pretty much all day every day, I just kind of feel like I missed it. It's crazy how fast our kids grow up. But I sure love my Diggers. He is such a funny kid. Here are a few pictures from the day. For breakfast I let them choose whatever they want, and he chose "colored cheerios".
Here is a picture of his cake. He loves Star Wars and Storm Troopers so he wanted a Storm Trooper cake. I did my best and think it turned out okay, but there was room for improvement. Oh well, I think he liked it and that's what matters, right?
He got a new bike for his birthday and here he is trying it out. He also got some Star Wars Lego's, new shoes, and some treats.
For his birthday dinner he chose Chicken Nuggets, olives, jello, and chocolate milk. Kind of a random meal, but whatever makes him happy, right? Matt was gone on a trip but was able to get home by about 7:30 that night to have cake and ice cream with us. We're so glad Cooper is part of our family.

Brotherly Love

This morning out of nowhere, TJ tells me that he wishes he was Adam and Eve's son. I thought that was kind of a weird comment so I asked him why and he said that then he would be able to marry Eliza. He knows that it's illegal (guess he hasn't quite figured out that it's gross too) to marry your sister, but the other day we were talking about Adam and Eve's family and he asked who their kids married and I said there wasn't anyone else to marry so they had to marry each other. I'm guessing the day will come when TJ might not be quite as fond of his sister (you know those teenage years) but I'm glad that he loves her. He's such a good brother to her.