Baby #4

So I thought I would update with some real information on our pregnancy. I am currently 11 weeks along and due July 16, 2009. And, no, this was not a Paris baby. I was pregnant before we headed to Paris for Mike's business trip. Though I don't recommend air travel and morning sickness, the trip was still wonderful. Chris has already requested a baby brother. His exact words were "Make it a boy baby, we already have 3 girls and that's just not fair." We'll just have to wait until March to find out. So far I'm feeling good, for the most part. The morning sickness is starting to fade, though I'm still hungry all the time. Thank goodness for the holidays, there's food everywhere you look.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas. I know we did!

And then there were 4...

Slowly but surely

Okay, so the new computer is up and running but we are still working some things out. We still can't access the photos on the old computer. Mike has been out of town so hopefully he'll have some time to work on that soon. If he can't figure it out we'll call in the geek squad and see what they can do. If the photos are lost forever, I'll have a good cry and then try and get over it.

In other news, our trip to Paris was awesome and I can't wait to get those photos up for all to see. Thanks again to my wonderful sister-in-law, Karen, who came a stayed with the kids so I could join Mike on that business trip. And boy did she have to put up with a lot; runny noses, coughing, throwing up, diarrhea, and to top it off Chris lost another tooth. And I thought the hardest part of the week would be wrestling all three kids through church meetings. Oh well, they all survived and they all still like each other.

Hopefully my next post will include some photos of the many adventures from our family.

Computer Issues

So our computer died a few weeks ago. It's been driving me crazy. I can't upload the pictures from Halloween or Chris's soccer games or tell you all about the 5 K run I did on Nov. 1. Thankfully the new computer arrived yesterday. Mike is working hard to put it together and get it up and running. Now I just have to hope that I can access the photos that are still stuck on the old computer. I'll try and post all our new photos and stories soon.

Random happenings

So I've neglected the blog for a while so I decided to make up for it by doing one massive post on all the random things that have been going on around our house.

At the end of September we went to Raleigh to celebrate Lily's 4th birthday. The kids had a great time visiting and playing games and of course eating cake.

Chris enjoys washing his hair all by himself. I assume it's getting clean in the process.I've been experimenting with new bean recipes. Rachael greatly enjoyed this one as evidenced by how much of the dinner she was wearing.

Rachael got all excited the other day when she decided to dress herself. It was a good thing I had no where to go that day. I just stayed at home and let her enjoy her new accomplishment.

I go to wake Becca up from a nap and this is what I found, a sleeping pirate. She later told me that she had poked her eye while playing and the patch was making it feel better.

No reason, just a cute picture.

The girls love sitting side by side in the car. Sharing toys and books, and holding hands are regular car activities.

Boone and Karen came for a visit for Conference weekend. We took the opportunity to go apple picking at our favorite spot, Gross' Orchard in Bedford. It was perfect weather and we all came home with tons of apples.

And of course after picking apples you have to preserve them. I spent a few days drying apples, and canning applesauce. And the kids helped too. When they weren't turning the peeler they were nibbling on apple skins.

Becca was all dressed for preschool in a new shirt and her hair in one of mommy's ponytails and she just had to pose for a picture, and it was too cute not to go on the blog.

This summer I found this great, and huge, tent on sale at Walmart. I snatched it up right away but it took until now to finally set it up and see how it looks. It's filled that whole section of basement. Now we just need to go on a real camp out and try it outdoors.

This is what happens when you give a baby a Hershey kiss. You can't really tell, but she had drolled some of it down her chest. At least I know she enjoyed it.

I've been experimenting with a bread machine I got at a yard sale this summer. I've found some really fun recipes and we've been eating a lot of good bread. However, I must of measured things wrong on this batch because the dough just kept on going. Though I must say it made some very tasty dinner rolls!

My little missionary

This was the conversation I had with Chris after school yesterday.

Chris: I told some boys to stop when they were saying "Oh my God."

Me: That's good Chris. You know that we shouldn't use Heavenly Father's name like that.

Chris: Yeah, I told them that if they went to the Church of Jesus Christ for Latter Day Saints they would know that it was wrong too.

How to update a bathroom in $50 or Less

Every since we moved in I have wanted to do some painting to the house. Everything was white and neutral and I wanted to give it some of our own personality. The only problem was I have no time, no knowledge of design and no money. Then I discovered the mis-tint paint section at Wal-mart. I found the paint for the dining room there. I check that shelf every time I'm in the store. One day I found this nice blue paint. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I bought it anyway. I started thinking that it would look nice in the upstairs bathroom, but that would mean new towels, and rugs, and shower curtain. So I started looking around. I finally found towels and rugs on sale at Target. I snatched them up and got to work. I've spent this week taping, and painting, then un-taping and painting some more. Finally today I had everything cleaned up, and the new towels and rugs in place. I still need to find the right shower curtain but I saw one at Kohl's the other day, now I just need to watch for the sale...

Total cost:

Paint: $6.50

Towels and Rugs: $20

Paint supplies: $5

Shower curtain: $? (I'm hoping for around $15)

Weekend in Raleigh

We spent the Labor Day weekend in Raleigh with my brothers and their families. The cousins had a great time with each other and we all had fun visiting together. We packed as much as we could into the weekend while still leaving plenty of time to sit back and relax.

Rachael was less then thrilled with a 3 hour car trip. Apparently hugging daddy's arm made her feel better.

Our first adventure was a trip to the museum. Krissi told us about a great, and free, museum downtown so we packed up all the families and had a great morning.

We were able to celebrate Brandon's birthday while we were all together. My sister-in-law, Krissi, baked a cake, and then I decorated it with help from Becca and Lily.




It wouldn't be a complete weekend while Brandon balancing the kids. I'm still not sure why this is their favorite activity, but whatever makes them happy.

First day of School

Today was Christopher's first day of school. He has been so excited to start the first grade. For the past few weeks all he could talk about was all the reading he would get to do and how he couldn't wait to learn more math. I know, he's an engineer already! This morning we all walked him down to the bus stop to see him off. And in the afternoon he came running off the bus to tell us all about his day, his new friends, and his new teacher. Here's to a great year!

It's all about...Becca!

So at the beginning to the summer we let the kids pick one activity they wanted to try out this summer. Becca was given a wide range of choice; dance classes, some kind of outdoor activity. She picked ice skating. So in the middle of August, I got the whole family bundled up and went to the ice rink for a week of lessons. Becca loved it. She was a little timid and nervous at first, but did a great job at learning to balance, and how to get up after falling (which happens regularly) Here are some pictures of her hard at work.




With all the Olympics on these past 2 weeks Becca has decided she wants to become a rhythmic gymnast. The idea of dancing with a ball or hula hoop is just too tempting for a 4 year old. So everyday she dresses up in a dance costume and requests music so she can dance around the living room. (This leotard is actually one I wore when I took dance lessons at her age, I found it in my mom's attic last December, Becca wears it everyday)


While Becca was watching the finals for rhythmic gymnastics she wanted to give ribbon twirling a try so she grabbed the first toy she could find and started twirling. I did eventually find her a real ribbon for future performances.