TONS of Fun

WOW...there are just gonna be a lot of fun pictures since they've been piling up for awhile. Our Thanksgiving in NC was a blast and great weather. It was so fun to spend the holiday with my sister Trish and her family...and Maci was absolutely giddy with the idea of being in the same house with other kids for 4 days. Thanks for the great time Trish and Rick! We miss you and your kids already--especially since the kids played so well with Maci and now I'm being a poor substitute.

Maci and Kempton watching leaves fall in NC. Come spring, they're planning to watch grass grow.

Also in NC we went to one of my favorite beaches at Surf City. It was FREEZING, but still so pretty.

Maci was pretty ticked the whole time for unknown reasons (you can see proof in the picture below), but she found some sweet shells.

Family tradition pushed us to the movie theater on Thanksgiving Day. This year was Madagascar II. I loved it...but I most of all loved the after movie "I like to move it move it" substitutes from the kids such as:

Maci: "I like to google it, google it" ---obviously unaware of the double meaning but kept repeating it because we all just kept laughing

Averie: "I like to toot it, toot it"

Here are Maci and my adorable niece Amber after the movie. Don't they look like sisters?!

THEN we came home and got right to decorating for Christmas!!! Maci was bored after about 10 minutes...but I was wired all night from the hot cocoa. So it was awesome.

Don't you mind that in the blog pic last year Jared is wearing this same outfit. Do guys not use the word outfit? What's the macho equivalent?

Here's the end result...my little dollar store tree, all lit up! Soon we'll see what it will look like after two sweet little hands move things around.

THEN Jared and I went to his work holiday party. It was super fun except that I'm the only one under 40 that has kid(s) and everyone that's my age is not in the same life stage as me. In other words, I was pretty much the only pregnant/young/married--not in that order-- chick at the party. But we got to gamble with fake money so that made up for it. I am not so lucky, which is another great reason I don't actually gamble, besides many other great reasons. Also the creme broulle (HOW do you spell that?!) made up for it.

THEN I found this awesome idea for bored toddlers in this book: "The Preschooler's Busy Book" and wanted to share. Maci and I squirted shaving cream in each section of a muffin tin, then added a drop or two of food coloring and mixed our colors. Then I let Maci paint in the bathtub for about 45 minutes (until the muffin tin fell off the stool and made gray water) and it was great. She was talking about it all night. Just don't let your kid paint the tile surround/grout if you have it.

SO...those are our holiday highlights so far! We're having a blast and plan to go to Cheyenne for Christmas so we'll have many more holiday moments to come.

Merry Christmas!!!

Oh the Joys

Maci just threw up all over my bed, so I'm just posting while I wait for the dryer cycle to be done.

I just have to say, that driving home from our Thanksgiving vacation was so great. Maci was a complete angel in the car and while we got close to home it started snowing and Christmas music was on the radio and Jared said he wanted the trip to last a few more hours, which made me so happy. I love Christmas... which may have something small to do with how I LOVE presents...

I will post Thanksgiving pics soon, I just don't want to fish my camera out of my luggage at this ridiculously late, pukey hour. Hope you all had an awesome turkey day with lots of memories!

ModgePodge

The other day I was talking on the phone and apparently Maci was dressing up in everything from her top drawer. She came up with this awesome ensemble. As you can tell from the picture, this was a moment of pride for her.

I took course 1 cake decorating and had my last class on Thursday. What I didn't realize is that you have to make a bunch of cakes and so much frosting. I don't even like cake. But I did like the roses I put on top of this pretty little thing. I'd love to take the other classes, but I need to take care of these cavities first. I ended up getting rid of this cake at the stake dinner, which was better than trashing it or eating it.

Jared was home this weekend so we went to FRANKENMUTHE, the Christmas all-year-around town. Not to be confused with FRANKENSTEIN, the crazy robot town. Anyway, I loved the ballerina and candy land trees. Such good ideas! Definitely made me want a house. (What doesn't these days?) The theme for my tree this year will be the always popular dollar store tree. It'll be awesome.

We also went to the Stake dinner/talent show where Maci received her first kiss on the lips from her cute friend Adam. I'd explain that, but you really had to be there to get the full effect. Hilarious. Later she asked him to dance to one of the piano talents. And boy did they dance!

In other news: today my thighs started touching. So for the sole purpose of celebration (not emotion) I ate a snickers from Maci's beloved candy stash. She's asleep so I didn't have to get her approval like usual. No picture posted was intentional. Also, for TWO funny Maci Moments:

1. Today I was explaining to Maci what "drop-off" means. So I say, "For instance, if daddy drops us off at an ice cream factory, he would leave us there and come back later to pick us up." Well she heard ice cream factory and ran with it. So she starts in with an entire explanation of how "cones are made of wood with giant flashy things (insert hand actions here)." And then she whispered to us that "the flavors are made of a special winter with pink and green skies." And in her eyes I saw pure magic, thinking that there may actually be an ice cream factory in existence.

2. Over dinner, Maci dropped the bomb to me and Jared. She said, "I want to live at Averie's house so I can run and jump all day long and eat popsicles every night." So I think I'll be picking up some popsicles tomorrow to earn back the favorite status.

I'd say all in all, it's been a great week. For Maci especially, with that kiss and all. But the best news of ALL this week was that Jared's project got cut off early and this is his LAST WEEK away from us!!! Oh hallelujia! I wasn't sure how I was going to get through November. How's your November going so far??!!

One Word

This is a tag from Megan. Each answer is supposed to be only one word...which I may or may not feel like doing. 1. Where is your cell phone? purse 2. Where is your significant other? California 3. Your hair color? blonde 4. Your mother? Saint 5. Your father? Strong 6. Your favorite thing? laughter 7. Your dream last night? CRAZY 8. Your dream/goal? Happiness 9. The room you're in? living 10. Your hobby? blogging 11. Your fear? separation 12. Where do you want to be in six years? House 13. Where were you last night? Church 14. What you're not? hungry? 15. One of your wish list items? cash! 16. Where you grew up? Cheyenne 17. The last thing you did? read 18. What are you wearing? jams 19. Your TV? small 20. Your pet? imaginary 21. Your computer? overused 22. Your mood? happy 23. Missing someone? Jared 24. Your car? Ticking 25. Something you're not wearing? size 2 (one's a number and doesn't count as a word) 26. Favorite store? Mall 27. Your summer? Short 28. Love someone? Everyone 29. Favorite color? red 30. Last time you laughed? today 31. Last time you cried? today (just misty eyed, no bawling or anything) I tag: Anyone and Everyone!

Sweet Halloween

Preschool party...made me wish I was three.

Ready for candy candy candy!!!

Before trick or treating with Kylie and Jake, who were also ready for candy candy candy!

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You can see in this picture how much Maci loves Kylie. She was so brave with all the Halloween houses decked out with skeletons and ghosts. Halloween is weird. But I love it.

Pure exhaustion.

Score!!! These kids were proud of their loot.

Halloween was a blast. We really had such a fun time with the kids. At one point Jake pushed Maci ahead of him to get candy and said, "And here's my princess." It was so cute. And I must say that I am doing well with the self control so far in the midst of 10 reeses peanut butter cups.

Girls

It's easy to remember the things I love about Jared when I only see him on weekends. Lately something I find myself loving is that he calls Maci and I his girls. "How are my girls?" or "C'mon girls, time for dinner" or "I love being with my girls". I just love it. And luckily, it won't change when the new baby comes, because #2 is also a GIRL!!! I had to go in a week early for an ultrasound to check something, and the ultrasound tech checked the baby out for us! I can say I am shocked shocked shocked! If I gambled, I would've bet money on a boy. I probably won't start gambling now. I was so surprised at first, but now I'm excited. And looking forward to buying the "coming home" outfit since that makes me even more excited. (Did anybody else get pregnant so you could buy baby clothes? Just checking...) So that's my surprising, but great news! Here's the proof:

Taggy Tag

It's been awhile since I've responded to a tag, so I'm paying my dues... 8 T.V. Shows I love to watch: 1. The Office 2. Mystery Diagnosis 3. What Not to Wear 4. Scrubs 5. According to Jim 6. I mostly hate TV 7. 8. 8 things that happened yesterday: 1. Pumpkin carving at the library 2. Trunk or Treat at the church 3. Ate Spumoni ice cream (delicious!) 4. Finished a home office project 5. Laughed a lot at Maci 6. Cried a little 7. Stayed up till past 2am 8. Thought about working out 8 favorite places to eat (in no particular order) 1. Home w/Jared and Maci 2. At my Mom's house 3. Jamba Juice 4. Elephant Bar 5. PF Changs 6. Any Barbeque 7. Subway/Quiznos, etc. 8. Baskin Robbins purely for their clown cones (I refuse to grow out of this) 8 things I am looking forward to: 1. End of Jared's project!!!!! 2. Thanksgiving in NC 3. The new baby and seeing Maci as a big sister 4. Learning how to decorate cakes 5. Losing weight in about 5 months 6. A better economy 7. Buying a house (in the far future) 8. Traveling anywhere fun! 8 things on my wish list: 1. To feel healthy 2. For Maci to be happy 3. To get on "What not to Wear"...anyone and everyone is welcome to nominate me 4. To sell songs to famous singers 5. A house with a big yard and a nice deck and fence 6. My toned legs from pre-kids days (I will get these back) 7. Cute winter boots, hat, gloves 8. Cosmetic dentistry sounds like fun Now 8 people that I tag (don't feel obligated): 1. Tia 2. Heather 3. Dana 4. Andrea 5. Katie 6. Nicole 7. Tia 8. Kristin

Picking Pumpkins

Last weekend we went to Long's Orchard (for the second year in a row) and had so much fun with cousins Kempton and Averie! Here's what we did...

Watched the apple press make cider...

Stood in a freezing line for the tractor ride to the pumpkin patch...

Still in line, and still freezing...

Fed the goats! This one was the cutest baby...

Later, Maci got to trial run her costume for the Friendly Forest, which was very fun. They had Disney/TV characters handing out the candy.

Halloween will be a great day...we get free candy AND we get to find out what our baby is! I'm thinking boy, but we will see!

I love the fall here.

Gigantor: 18wks

I have almost reached half way in my pregnancy and it's going super fast. Also, I'm growing super fast. Below I have posted pictures of pregnancy #1 and #2, both at 18wks. You can see I'm about a month ahead of myself this time, but hopefully this baby will be bigger than Maci's tiny 5lbs, 6oz!

Pregnant w/Maci 18wks .............Pregnant w/Gigantor 18wks

("Lay off, I'm starving!")

Just in case you are worried, we will not be calling baby #2 Gigantor to his/her little face. Just a running joke we have around the house behind the baby's back, which is usually better. (:

Maci Moments

No picture, just pure funny... Last night in Maci's bedtime prayer we heard, "and thank you for our servants that get us food at restaurants..." Jared and I were laughing so hard she stopped her prayer annoyed and asked why we were laughing. Her prayers are WAY better than mine.

Maci Moments

Here's Maci on her first day of preschool a couple weeks ago. She has loved every minute since! On my side, though, She seems to be growing double time since she started!

And my Maci Moment for today is:

Maci sees me putting a green bell pepper away and says, "Mom, what's happening to that pear?"

CA Top Ten

I love this pier picture!!!

I KNOW I am so behind in blogging. My sincerest apologies. Maci and I had a great time in California visiting Jared for a month. I was so happy that I don't work and could leave home like that. So many other girlfriends/wives can't do that when their husbands leave. Our weekends were especially fun. The Santa Cruz Boardwalk, The Big Tree Park, and San Francisco! And to avoid any rambling, I've broken our trip down into top ten worsts and bests about the trip. We'll start with worsts so you won't leave our blog depressed.

Top Nine (couldn't think of 10) Worsts

9. So much nasty fast food, which never sounds appetizing anyway, not to mention for 3 meals/day with prego nausea.

8. Some kind of funky smell in the hotel (funky like urine) that was in the filtration system and would not go away in any of the rooms! It was 105 degrees outside and I wouldn't turn on the AC because of the smell.

I'll be right back...I have to throw up thinking about it.

7. Driving Jared to work super early and having to wake up Maci so we could have the rental car.

6. Seeing RATS the size of small CATS (and maybe some small humans) at the city children's park. Oh yeah, they were huge. Just running around with the cute little kids at midday...stepping on the same wood chips, sliding down the same slide. We were not the only parents who saw them, but we were the only parents who left the park after seeing them. Scary AND disgusting. 5. Rude people on the San Fran trolley...don't get Jared started on this one.

4. Not having time in San Francisco to see the Exploratorium. Guess we'll have to go back soon! 3. Getting our rental car broken into in Stockton and having almost $600 worth of stuff taken, including all of Maci's toys, books, and travel entertainment. 2. Jared's 60 hour work weeks. He is working so hard and I can't say if I've ever been so impressed with him. Although it was pretty boring for me. 1. Coming home to MI with Jared but not getting to keep him here!

Now onto the good stuff...Top Ten Bests 10. Maci's "Wow this is AMAZING" and "This is BEAUTIFUL" comments about the airport, hotel, pool, taxi, downtown buildings, fast food...everything was amazing to her.

9. Maci and cousin Hali playing so well together. 8. Free food and racking up Subway Fresh Scrabble letters almost daily, which reminds me...does anyone have an 'N', because I need those diamonds (NEED). 7. Free weekend at the San Fran Intercontinental. Pretty sure I wouldn't have spent the $1000 on that myself, but since it was paid for, the experience was priceless. (: Especially the mints on the pillows.

6. Seeing my Uncle Tom and Jeanne who I haven't seen for so long and spending a fun fun weekend with them. Maci is still talking about it all.

5. The bum on the street that stopped me and told me I was beautiful. I KNOW this should be next to the scary and disgusting rat story in the worsts section, but for some reason it made my day! Scary AND weird. 4. Watching Maci pull out these chopsticks at a restaurant and use them like a pro with me and Jared staring jaw-dropped and speechless. I finally took a picture after she started grabbing ice out of her water with them. The funniest thing was that Jared and I were seeing who was better with chopsticks between the two of us (me) and Maci silently showed us up out of nowhere.

3. The crabs and jelly fish we saw at this beautiful beach.

2. Going to places I've never been. I love that feeling. 1. Getting to spend some awesome weekends with my very most important people and making great memories. Also the lazy sea lions at the Boardwalk. Don't you just love vacation? Now it feels like fall, which I really love in Michigan, I'm finding out.

Question of the day...What was your favorite vacation? See more of our California fun here:

California 2008

Five Pickles and a Secret

So far our vacation has been relaxing. Maci is having so much fun that she is actually napping again. Today she cozied up right on the coffee table while she was tracing letters.

Now onto my riddle:

What do five pickles, three otter pops, a cherry pepsi icee and hot cocoa have in common?

I would wait for your guesses, but....I'm too impatient.

If you guessed "all things that are not really healthy for you" I would like if you weren't so judgemental.

If you guessed "all things that Summer eats when she's pregnant" you're right! You get the prize, which is nothing.

Coincidentally, I've been eating a lot of those things lately......yes, for those of you who thought we'd never have #2, you were wrong, because I am pregnant!!! I found out this exciting news on my 25th birthday which made me feel pretty important for some reason (I'd like to thank the academy), and now I am a whopping....11 weeks along tomorrow--(If you thought I was going to give my whopping poundage, you were sooooo wrong.)

Speaking of which, I am positive I was not pooching at 11 weeks with Maci. It took seven months for people to ask me if I was pregnant. So this little pooch I already have is making me a little nervous to say the least. I am more sick and more hungry this time. Maybe it's a boy!!!! Maci said she thinks it's a boy and a girl mixed up colors, whatever that means. In the same conversation she asked me how the baby got into my tummy.

We are so excited. The due date is March 20th. Yay!!!

We miss you!

We are so lucky to have Jared's job, but recently were reminded that it's a 50% travel position. So we had the family reunion, and Jared left for CA the day before my parents left for home. He's been gone for three weeks, with the exception of one very short day when we got to see him! I don't know how you military wives do it, but here's to you!

So now Maci and I are going to San Fransisco for a little month long vacation before PRESCHOOL starts! Jared will hopefully be done with the project in October. I've always regretted not going to San Fransisco with my design friends, (along with the Japan, Europe, and Egypt trips I didn't take), so I'm pretty excited to see the city! Mostly because I don't have to pay for it.

Here's Jared in all his shaved-headed glory before he left for CA.

If your company was paying for a trip...where would you go?

The Best Reunion Ever...Round 1

I was so happy to see my family at the Ed Perriton family reunion (first ever!) Of course, I learned some things I'd do differently, and some things that I wouldn't change, but overall it was just so much fun to see everyone. I would say my favorite part would have to be watching the boys of the fam have a friendly competition at the batting cages. The best part was when some twelve year olds went in after them and hit all the balls they couldn't hit. Although I have to say, they were coming pretty fast.

I hit 1 out of 24.

But I'm confident I have other talents...like this AWESOME trifle I made (New Zealand inspired). First try turned out pretty good...I love praise, don't be shy....

These kids were so cute all together!!! Also, loud.

We reaaally missed Colette. I tried to get some other brunette in brown to stand in, but no go. Here's 3 out of 4 sistahs. Sondra and Trish...STOP smiling cuter than me.

I love this picture. Thanks for taking it, Rick! I can always count on my camera batteries dying at the worst time.

Kids are pretty easy to trick. Maci really thought she was driving the boat. I think she might have been.

This gave me flashbacks to last summer when Joey and Maci got to hang out in the sprinkler all the time. Maci would not get in the water (she doesn't like cold, uncomfortable things like me) until she thought she was helping Joey be brave. So cute.

Thanks for traveling really far and being the best family ever, (Perritons rule! Perritons rule!) I guess I'll see you guys somewhere tropical in a year or two? I'm already looking up plane tickets.

Fourth of July

This year's fourth was so much fun. We started off early with a great downtown parade, followed closely by a picnic in the park, where we also enjoyed great bounce houses, a dog show, and water features! Then to cap it all off we had an impressive BBQ and fireworks show with the Tenwolde's and all the Perriton families here (3, and welcoming more if anyone is interested). Such a blast! Needless to say, Maci fell asleep as soon as her head hit the carseat at the end of the night.

Jared loves being the favorite

That's at LEAST a foot off the ground

He's the cool parent