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.

6 yr old dream world

This morning as we were eating breakfast, TJ was telling me about a CD that he listens to when he's going to bed, and on there one of the kids talks about what the world would be like if they made it. So that led to a discussion of what the world would be like if TJ was in charge, and as he was talking I thought "I should document this so he can look back at it later" so I grabbed a piece of paper and started writing. So....if TJ was in charge, this is what he would choose:

• Wear shorts every day! (he LOVES shorts and begs every day of winter to wear shorts, which I usually don't let him, but occasionally I give in)
• Eat cold cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What can I say, he's his father's child.
• We would have dessert EVERY night.
• Every day would be a holiday.
• Mom would by him 100,000 lego sets.
• Never have homework, chores, and school is just recess.
• Eat peanut butter and look at lego instructions anytime he wants
• Watch a movie in the morning, afternoon, and evening
• Always be six. Or he could be 6, 7, 8, 7, and then 6 again.
• Get married to Emily H when he is 31.
• Play with friends EVERY day.
• No jeans or buttons in the whole world (the boy HATES wearing jeans and buttons)
• Use treats for snacks
• Never get sick
• Read 1 book every day
• Sacrament meeting would be last at church "cause it's so long!"
• Live in Legoland and visit chocolate land and peanut butter land.

Cooper also told me a little about his dream world, but I'm guessing it would have been different if he hadn't just heard his older brother telling me about his. Here's Coopers:

• Cold cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.
• Have a treat after every meal
• Play with friends every day
• Go to bed in the middle of the night
• No chores, just playing
• Go to Sam's and Edyn's house
• Never have to brush teeth
• Watch Dora/movies all day
• Read books every day.

Wonder what my dream world would be...hmmmm, maybe I'll make my list and post it too. :-)

Fall Projects

This fall we did a few projects to our yard. We have wanted to do a patio for a while but didn't really have anywhere we wanted to put it. Well, this summer/fall, I just decided that I was sick of waiting so I called and got a few bids on things and got the ball rolling. We ended up moving the fence on the east side of our house up about 12 feet since our front yard was huge, and we wanted to be able to use the shade from the house during those hot afternoons/evenings. Here is a picture of them drilling some new holes for the new fence posts

After they got the new posts put in, we had our patio poured, and we love it. I decided to go red to match our house, and it feels so much more fun than just a regular old gray cement color. I don't feel like I am sitting on someone's driveway. :-) In the picture below you can also kind of see our garden. It was really fun to watch them pour the cement, and how fast those guys had to work to get it all smoothed out before it dried - it was a HOT day when they poured it, even though it was in September.

Here is a picture of the finished product, looking back at the house. I am guessing I took this around 3:00-4:00pm so you can see we already have a fair amount of shade by that point. I want to get some fun lighting for the deck, but for now we just have a bunch of tiki torches set up around it, which gives it a nice soft light. Actually, the torches are in the shed at the moment since there's a bunch of snow out there, but once the spring weather emerges, so will the torches. :-)

The lighting in the picture below is kind of weird, but this is Matt's shed that he built, or maybe I should just say put together. We ordered it off of Amazon (yes, we get everything from Amazon) and it's actually a pretty sturdy shed, and not too ugly since it's right off our patio. I did plant a Rose of Sharon tree in front of it on the left, and plan on planting a few other things around it too.

We are really looking forward to a LOT of dinners out on the patio come summertime. I grew up eating dinner out on our deck a lot and I hope my kids can have some of those same fun memories.

Eliza update

This will probably be a boring post for you all to read, but I want to keep track of this info and I figure this is one place I won't loose it. :-) I know I still need to finish a bunch of other posts, but I wanted to at least get this documented. I took Eliza to the doctor yesterday for her 15 month check-up (even though she is now 16 months, she was sick last month - shocker). She weighs 23 1/2 lbs, which is only the 53rd percentile for weight, so she has totally dropped in that category - she used to be 97%. She is 32 inches long, which puts her in the 81st percentile, which is less than it used to be ( 97%) but she is still tall. Her head is 19 inches, which is the 94th percentile, so she still has a large head. I don't know why all of my kids have big heads, but they do. She has her 4 middle teeth on the top, and two more middle teeth are growing in on the bottom so that will be all 4 across the bottom. She also has her bottom right molar in and her bottom left one is just about to break through. Her top molars have both broken through, so soon she'll have a whole bunch more teeth. This morning TJ and I were trying to remember all the words that she says right now and these are the ones we could remember: Mom, Dad, TJ, Cooper, Eliza, grape, milk, hi, up, please, shoes, eye, nose, cheese, me, no, hot, yes, ball, baby, grandpa, puppy, go, banana, bye bye. I am sure there are more, but that's probably the majority of them.

She is such a girl right now and LOVES shoes. Seriously, she will always have shoes on her feet, and it doesn't matter who's they are. Hers, Coopers, mine, Matt's, etc. She just LOVES shoes. Sometimes she will have one pair on and then bring me another pair to put on her if she can't get them on herself. The shoes she is wearing in the picture above are too big for her, but she puts them on all the time. I think she likes how they clank around on the wood floor. I sure love that little girl! She also LOVES grapes and asks for them at every meal. She loves to play with the boys legos and is always carrying a million pieces around, and gets frustrated when she keeps dropping some of them. She is finally interested in books and is constantly emptying the bookshelves. I will often find her in the reading room just sitting on the floor looking at books. She is a darling little spitfire and we love her to pieces!!!

Eliza turned 1

Eliza turned one back in September. I am a little late getting this posted (or maybe a lot late) but I at least wanted it documented, late or not. The problem with waiting until almost 5 months later is I can't remember that many details about her birthday. :-( I had a the Relief Society Service auction the night of her actual birthday, and since I was on the planning committee, I figured I should probably go, so we didn't do cake and ice cream until the next night. Since she is our little ladybug, I did a ladybug cake. I was watching my friends kids almost that whole day, so it was a bit crazy and the cake didn't turn out like I wanted it to (shocker) but oh well. We had some friends and family over for it, and we were celebrating Matt's birthday too since his birthday is the day before Eliza's. I handed my camera off to someone else to take pictures and we didn't get any pictures of Matt's cake, but I did make him one too. That's one thing I want to make sure I do - not let Matt's birthday get swallowed up by Eliza's. He's my best friend for eternity, so I want to make sure he feels loved and special on his day too. :-)

A cute pic of Eliza before she gets her first real taste of sugar

Eliza with her cake. She doesn't look too excited - I probably wouldn't be too excited with an ugly cake either. :-)

Yummy!

Mommy and Eliza before bath-time. I think it's safe to say, she LOVES sugar!