Thursday, February 23, 2012

The New Hiding Spot

Gage's favorite hiding spot. He's started going there when he knows he's in trouble!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Happy Day!

The best day of the year!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Our Game Closet

 This is what happens when your kids' friend teaches them to open the child proof handles on each of the doors in your house.

And this is what happens when the mom finally gets sick of looking at all that mess!

Friday, February 17, 2012

What's Wrong?

Anybody see anything wrong with this picture?

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Peek-a-boo Mommy!!!

I could hear some noise in Gage's room during nap time today, so I went to check on him. I saw his dirty clothes out of his basket and on his dresser, and his balls in his dirty clothes basket. Then he popped out of his ball bin and said, "Peek-a-boo Mommy!"

He is one goofy kid!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Mega Phone

As if Princess music wasn't annoying enough, I now get to hear it sung through this mega phone. Thank you $ store!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

My Valentines!!!

My Valentine's were looking especially cute today! We started the day off with heart-shaped doughnuts and Valentine outfits. We talked to Grandma Grimmett on the phone, which is always fun for the kids. We met Grammy Olsen for lunch then headed home for naps. After naps we met Daddy for dinner at Applebee's then headed home for gifts, and bed time.



 The kids got new thermoses and coloring kits!

This is the picture we got when we told the kids to kiss! Haha!

Even though those two are super special to me, nothing compares to my one and only Valentine! Shaun is seriously the best husband and father ever! On Sunday, I had a lot of time to think about things and share some things with my mom. I'm only 25 years old and have experienced a lot of different events and emotions in my life. There are not a lot of people my age who have been through what I have. When I got married at 19, people questioned if I was ready. I know I was because of some of these experiences. I am so thankful I have Shaun to share my life with. He helps ease my burdens and share my load. My life has definitely not gotten easier since we've been married, but I feel like with him and I working together, we can handle anything. I am thankful that he helps me to make temple attendance a priority in our marriage. The Denver Temple President spoke in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and talked about when your family is young, it is hard to go to the temple and definitely not convenient, but that those who go frequently will be blessed. I have Shaun to thank for that. He also makes sure we have our scripture study together every night, even if I'm already asleep, he'll read aloud to me. It has been interesting to me to watch different friends and family struggle over these last few months. Some trials have torn families apart, and some have brought families closer together. I've come to realize that no family is perfect, and everyone has their problems, even if they aren't made apparent. I guess the whole point of this is that I KNOW that I am a very lucky girl to have Shaun as my Valentine today, and always! I love him more today than yesterday, and 6.5 years ago when we got married!

 And proof that he's the best, this is what I walked into when I got home from the airport late Sunday night. Flowers, cards from him and the kids, and my favorite candies! He seriously is the best!

Denver

My little sister graduated from nursing school last week, so I flew out to Denver to be at her pinning ceremony and to have a nice little mommy break for the last time before #3 comes. Shaun held down the fort at home, so I could enjoy some time with my mom and sisters. 

We packed the weekend full! My mom and I flew out of PDX at 6 am on Thursday, which made for a looooong day and night (good thing our layover was in SLC and they have a Krispy Kreme in the airport!). We ate Costa Vida for lunch and that night was the pinning ceremony. We were all very proud of Kelsey and how hard she worked at following her dreams and becoming a nurse, even if it took going back to school after graduating from BYU! After the pinning, we celebrated with some Macaroni Grill.

On Friday, my mom and Kelsey and I headed to the spa for a day full of pampering. This was HEAVEN!!! Seriously, the best five hours of my life. We had back facials and massages, European facials, manicures, pedicures, and a hair shampoo and style, with lunch! And not to mention the fun time laughing and visiting with each other. It was awesome. We met up with the rest of the group and went to Cracker Barrel for dinner (which never disappoints) then headed to the Avalanche hockey game. The game went into overtime and the Avalanche scored with 1.2 seconds left in overtime to win the game! It was really fun!

Saturday was more of a relaxing day. I had to go to the Worldwide Leadership Training meeting that morning, which was nearly impossible to stay awake in because of the late nights I had had, but it was still good. I have to give credit to my mini cadbury eggs for keeping me awake. I helped my sister with her taxes that afternoon, then we headed to an outdoor mall by my sister's house. It was FREEZING, like 10* freezing, so we didn't last long. We headed home for dinner, put the nieces and nephews to bed, then got our games on!!! 

Going to church on Sunday and actually being able to listen was a big highlight of my weekend. The Denver Temple President happened to be speaking in my sister's ward that day and it was awesome. Some of the things he had to say really hit home with me, but more on that later! After Sacrament Meeting it was time for my mom and I to head back home. We had interesting people on each of our flights.

But on to the pictures. . .




Kelsey's friend from her ward got to pin her!

A waitress at Macaroni Grill sang a beautiful Italian song to Kels, and they brought her a yummy chocolate cake, which she happily shared with her preggo sis!

Go Avalanche!!!

Right after the game winning goal!

See the clock? I wasn't exaggerating when I said with 1.2 seconds left!

All the girls on Sunday

I came home about 5 lbs heavier, and I have an OB appointment tomorrow! It always seems to happen like that! Oh well! It was so fun and a much needed weekend away!

Maisey Quotes

* To her friend, "Did you know that my mommy looks bigger than my daddy now? Her baby sure is getting big!"

* Also to her friend, "You know my Grandma that we went to lunch with today? She used to have a husband, and he is my Grandpa, and he died so now he lives in heaven." Then she ran to her room and grabbed a picture of Papa and said, "This is him. He sure does love me."

* "Mom, you know what my dream is? It is to be on the TV and the computer!"

* "Mom you are taking me to crazy!"

* A few weeks ago, Shaun was watching the State of the Union address and asked Maisey who was on TV. Maisey said, "President Monson?" When Shaun told her it was President Obama she said, "Well, I knew he was a president!"

* I turned on the Lizzie McGuire movie soundtrack in the car and Maisey said to me, "Mom this music is rockin!"

* "Gagey, if you don't finish eating your breakfast, Mommy is going to throw you in the garbage."

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

February. . . so far!

 Maisey loves to play her Silverlicious game that she got for her birthday. It's kind of hard to play with Gage around, so one night her and I went in her room and shut the door to have a little girl time and this is what we played. I may be a little embarrassed to admit that that is my drawing of Carlos Cupid in the middle of the page. I am soooo not good at drawing. At the bottom of the paper, Maisey wrote, "Gage I love u" all by herself! :) 

 Grammy came up to our house before church last Sunday! The kids sure loved seeing her!

 Shaun made a race track with masking tape that goes all through the house. It has kept this kid busy for HOURS!!!

 Shaun and I went ventured into the ghetto of Portland ghettos to go to this basketball game. . .

 . . . and cheer on our COUGARS!!!!! 
(BYU beat U of P by 19, but when I took this pic we weren't playing very well so Shaun was trying to force a smile. This is the best he could give me!)

 Gage slept in my arms on the couch last week and I soaked up every minute of stillness with this busy body!

 We've had some AMAZING weather lately (the rain comes tonight, BOO!) so we've been riding bikes, roller skating, and playing at the park. 

 I started a project for Maisey and the baby! Matching tutus to go with the cute matching shirts I bought. I'm going to LOVE having two girls! Hopefully I'm still saying that in 10 years!

 I spent my Saturday making invitations: baby shower and New Beginnings. It seems like life never slows down!

Shaun made a BIG mistake this weekend. We were preparing our grub for the Super Bowl Party we were going to and I asked him for help. He gladly took the assignment of making queso dip. His big mistake? He let it out that he knows how to follow a recipe! It was fabulous, I had to kick my self out of the kitchen just so there would be some left to take to the party. All along I thought the only thing he could make was grilled cheese. I see many more cooking days in his future!

January Wrap-up

I've kind of been avoiding this post. I even uploaded the pictures early this morning, but have been dreading the journaling part. Not sure why, but here it goes.

We kept busy during the month of January! Besides starting the great bedroom swap, which is yet to be completed! Maybe by the end of February?

Here are some of the things we've been up to:
(a lot of these pics were taken by my phone which has a crappy camera!)

 One Saturday morning, Shaun let me sleep in, and when I woke up I walked into the family room to the art table transformed to a breakfast table in front of the TV and dad relaxing on the couch! I made sure the kids knew that this was not going to be an everyday occurrence!
(since then, the art table has been primed, painted, and moved into Maisey's room! YAY!!!)
I wanted to work in the play room by my self one Saturday and get rid of lots of old toys with out the kids whining every two seconds, so I sent them on a field trip with Dad. They ended up at the KROC center swimming and had a GREAT time!

 Maisey gets a little bit of computer time in the afternoons a few days a week. One day she printed out smoothie recipes from a Fresh Beat Band game. She had been begging me to help her make them, so for FHE one night that's what we did! And she loved it!

 They were pretty tasty! 

 Another FHE this month was the testimony glove that we got for Christmas from my aunt Judy. Maisey had a good time with this and learned a lot. There was only one glove with the book and Gage was feeling left out so Shaun got his football gloves out for Gage and he was in heaven!

This boy is loving having his train table in his room instead of the play room and is very insistent on putting the trains and tracks away before nap time and bed time each day. That means a lot of track building each day for me! And who could resist that cute caboose?

One morning in January, a water pipe in our cul-de-sac needed to be replaced, so there was a back hoe and a concrete cutter outside our house for a  few hours. Gage was mesmerized by it. I was annoyed. I was trying to do laundry and they turned off the water, with out any notice! :(

 Shaun has been doing a great job of working out this month! He usually does it after the kids are in bed, but on Saturdays he does it in the morning and the kids love to join in! They sure are a cute crew to watch!

 I found the first hint of Easter candy!!! I live for Easter candy every year! My favorites: Brach's Jelly Beans, Robin Eggs, and the Cadbury Mini Eggs. At least I got one of the three! And the jelly beans I got in a package from Janel were the closest thing to Brach's that I've tried and both bags she sent me were gone in six days! At least this year I have an excuse for the expanding waist line! :)

One night at like 10:00, Shaun and I were watching a movie on the couch and Gage came walking down the hall with his blankies in tow and proudly announced, "I'm awake!" Dad couldn't resist that cute little smile so he let him stay up for a little snuggle time!

 I'm sure most of you know that I'm obsessed with the news! I watch it three times a day, sometimes four if our evenings aren't too crazy. I saw a card board cut out of Mark Glyzewski from Fox 12 at the Salem Hospital! I was so excited that I sent a picture of it to Shaun. . . who thought I was a total nerd! What's new? 

Oh, and about the Salem Hospital, I was dismissed from jury duty last week after showing up and filling out a questionnaire and then sitting and waiting for two hours. Apparently the attorneys didn't like one of my responses or something because I was one of the first ones to be dismissed! That was fine by me! I headed to the hospital to do my glucose test, then headed to the mall for lunch and shopping! I would way rather do that then sit in on a case any day! And P.S. Apparently you can't bring a camera and scissors into the court house! Who knew?

 This is what my laundry looked like last week! Pretty cute if you ask me!

 EPIC FAILURE!!!! 
So, we once had a crib that we bought before Maisey was born. We also bought the matching changing table. When Gage came along, Shaun's mom bought us a cute white crib for Maisey and Gage was going to use the natural wood one. Well, Gage, being the destroyer of all things, broke that crib. So when Maisey was big enough for a bed, we put the Gage in the white crib and we got rid of the natural wood one. As we are starting to prepare for baby #3 we got the crib and changing table out of storage, and me being anal about things wanted the white crib and the natural wood changing table to match. So I decided to spray paint the changing table. It was a disaster! I bought this spray paint with primer in it thinking I was sooooo smart! I started spraying and it was a sticky mess. I didn't have gloves on and my hands were covered in white! The spray paint was running all down the wood, my shoes were sticking to the plastic drop cloth that I had set up, then eventually the plastic drop cloth fell and ended up all bunched up, so now I have white spray paint speckles all over my garage floor. I went to the store and picked out a different kind of spray paint (a no run kind!) and tried again, and again, FAIL! I was so frustrated. I ended up going in, scrubbing my skin off my hands just to get the paint off, and searching craigslist for a white changing table, which I found. And bought! And wished I would have done that from the beginning. By the time I bought all the supplies, I only spent $15 more on an already white changing table!
 Here is a close up of one of the shelves! Lesson learned!

 This is Gage's spot for reading books! He plops himself down on the scale in my bathroom and reads away while I'm getting ready. 
You wanna hear another story that happened in January? So we used to have 8 am church, now we have 10 am church, Hallelujah! Shaun has to go to meetings before church, so the kids and I are left alone to get ready in the mornings. One Sunday I got up when the kids did and just kind of took it easy. I got the kids fed and dressed and they were just playing. Once Shaun left I got in the shower and started getting ready. Gage brought me in a book and asked if I would read it, so I did. Then I blow dried my hair and he brought me another one. So I read it to him. I looked at the clock and thought, "wow, we have a lot more time than usual this morning. I wonder why?" Then Gage brought me another book, and I read it to him. This happened about ten times while I was in my bathroom. Then Maisey comes walking in and asked when we were leaving for church because it was taking a long time today! I told her we still had 45 min before we had to leave and sent her out. That just didn't seem right to me, so I looked at the clock again and it was 9:58 and then I realized that church started at 10, not 11! So I grabbed my shoes, did the kids' hair, packed some snacks for them and got to church by 10:15. I felt really stupid for being late! Can't I just blame it on pregnancy brain? Isn't that a condition?

 One of Gage's hiding spots for Hide and Seek. He loves that game!

 The kids got these new squishy pillows and they totally love them! 

 There are three boys in Maisey's primary class that all have birthdays three days in a row! So we celebrated at John's Incredible Pizza. Shaun came over during his lunch break to play with the kids. 

 Gage loved bopping the sharks!

 And Maisey won the jackpot on this Captain Hook game! She got 500 tickets!

 Gage and Hudson rode the train

 while Maisey and her friend rode a big kid ride.

 Gage also loved riding the elephant.

 And these kids loved the boat!
It was such a fun birthday party! By the end, the kids were exhausted, and so was I!

 Maisey loves to use all of my pillows and build herself a nest on my bed!

 Gage is really into the whole Barbie thing right now and loves to play with the house and the car. The other morning I was laying on my bed watching the news(surprised?) and Maisey came running back and told me Gage was doing something naughty. So I went to check on him and he was dumping water out of the water bottles in our fridge into the Barbie pool from the cruise ship! Oh that boy!

 Maisey has been into drawing. . . a lot! This picture is of Jesus on the cross.

And this is of the tomb with the stone that was rolled away and Mary smiling because Jesus lives again.
We also get lots of pictures of the nativity! I forgot to take one of that though. Maybe next time.
That last big thing for January: Shaun and I went out with some friends to a Blazer game! We had a great time and love getting to sit so close to the court! And it helped that the Blazers won! And scored over 100 points, so we got free Chalupas from Taco Bell! YUM!!!
(My face looks weird there!)

January: The End!