The Grimmetts

Chinese New Year

2012-01-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

I decided to forgo making fortune cookies this year and just get Chinese take out for dinner and enjoy their delicious cookies. Too bad the guy didn't put any in the bag. It's really the only reason I eat Chinese food! Anyway, we were talking about the different Chinese signs and which ones we all are. Shaun and Maisey are both boars! I made a joke that they are both bores! I thought it was clever and funny. . . Shaun, not so much. See what I mean? Such a bore! Gage is the year of the ox, which means he should be dependable, calm, and stubborn. Well, we've got the stubborn part down, but we're still working on the calm part. And me, I am the year of the tiger. Supposedly I am hot tempered, impulsive, impatient, but giving. That sounds pretty close to me! And, since 2012 is the year of the dragon, Shaun thought it would be funny to tell the kids that we were having a dragon baby, but he did it in a scary dragon voice. Now Gage is scared of the baby and really thinks I am having a dragon! GREAT!!! He keeps saying, "No dragon baby! Just baby baby!!!" I guess maybe Shaun's not such a bore after all!

24 Weeks

2012-01-18T22:53:00.001-07:00

I haven't written much about this pregnancy so far, so this is a little update. I am 24 weeks today. I feel like I've been pregnant FOREVER!!! I can't believe I still have 16 weeks left to go. I have a lot to get done between now and then, but it still seems so far away. This pregnancy has been very different from my others. With the other two, by 15 weeks I was on a prescription for heartburn and by 20 weeks I had this crazy numb spot in my rib cage. At 24 weeks with this pregnancy, my heartburn isn't any worse than pre-pregnancy (just a night or two a week, and tums totally do the job) and no weird numb spot! This baby is sitting really low (so low, at my 19 week ultrasound they couldn't get full pictures of the brain because it was so far down in my pelvis) which has led me to two conclusions: 1)Maternity pants don't fit the same when you feel like your baby is hanging between your knees. They don't stay up because my baby hump isn't firm like with the others. The pants just slide right down. I've been opting for lots of leggings and sweatpants. I think I wore jeans one night last week, and that was for mutual for an hour and a half! and 2)A low baby causes lots of pressure, swelling, and varicose veins in not fun places! At my appointment today, my doctor told me that I need to have scheduled rest time each day! (HA!) 3-4 hours of normal activity, then an hour of laying down on my left side, repeated until bedtime. It will be pretty interesting to see how this will actually work in real life, but if it will take a way some of the discomfort, I will make it work. Overall, I just need to take it easy and not push myself (like trying to get 3 bedrooms completely made over in a week!) My blood pressure has been normal so far with this one, but with Gage it didn't get crazy high until 36 weeks. So far, I've gained 11 pounds and I'm on track to gain the least with this one! I did however, cancel my gym membership because it hurts to even walk. So it will be interesting to see how well I can keep it up. But I'm pretty sure chasing Gage around all day and keeping him from bugging Maisey will be exercise enough. I've been craving mostly salty things: chips, popcorn, pickles, chicken in a biskit crackers. And a few other things like poptarts, m&m's, and sugar snap peas. We are pretty sure we are naming her Miley or Mylee, haven't decided on the spelling yet. We are excited for her to be here, but we are kind of nervous. Shaun and I both slumped down on the couch the other night after a particularly long day with the kids and we were both thinking the same thing (but I said it first!!!): "What did we get ourselves into?" Are we really ready for another child? To be outnumbered? To be in the baby phase again: bottles, binkies, no sleep, no sanity. It's a little too late to be having second thoughts though, huh? I'm sure everything will be put to ease when she makes her grand entrance into the world and melts all of our hearts.

Until then, you get to see me:

at 24 weeks, taken at our traditional picture spot in our house--the front door!

Bedroom Transformation

2012-01-17T22:41:00.002-07:00

This is what the kids' rooms looked like Sunday night.

(bottom half of Gage's room primed, ready for white coat Monday morning)

This is what the 3 rooms looked like Monday night

Baby's room (old play room) painted yellow! Thanks mostly to my mom!

Gage was very concerned that his furniture was missing. He said, "Oh no! Where did my bed go?" It was pretty cute!

Carpets in all three kids' rooms got shampooed Monday night = sleep over in mom and dad's room = NO SLEEP!

This is what the bedrooms look like tonight!

Gage's new room (Maisey's old room) is halfway put together. At least he has a bed to sleep on!

And this is where Maisey is sleeping tonight. You see her little sleeping bag set up in the back corner?

We are picking her bed up at IKEA hopefully this weekend. We got it all picked out, we just need to go back up and get it.

You should see our garage! All three rooms were stored in our garage at once, so my car was parked outside. On the only snowy week of the whole winter season, might I add. :(

It's getting done slowly, and my Goodwill pile is growing!

Painting

2012-01-15T18:50:00.003-07:00

Painting has never been my favorite thing. But this weekend I realized that it is a lot harder this time around. Why? Because I have two crazy kids running around wanting to be every where I am and wanting to help. I am pregnant with a baby that is sitting so low I feel like it could fall out at any time. And the fact that I have to prime first then paint makes it that much more tedious and annoying. Oh, and did I mention that I am not even very good at it? I've spilled so much on the carpet today. I'm ready for this phase to be over! Hopefully by tomorrow night!

P.S. IKEA rocks and totally came through for us! I just can't wait for it all to be done!

Date Night

2012-01-13T14:28:00.001-07:00

I have a date tonight! I'm so excited, I even curled my hair this morning! My date is with IKEA and The Container Store (and my mom and Shaun). We are going to get ideas for the bedrooms! I have a few in mind from different blogs and sites, but I'm anxious to find more! And to have two opinions there!

P.S. the painting starts this weekend! Eeeeek!

The Underwear Epiphany

2012-01-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

Clear back on black Friday, I found myself almost in tears while standing in line to check out at Fred Meyer. They had a BOGO sale on underwear, and I decided to buy a pack for each of the kids. No big deal, right? But in my crazy, emotional, no-sleep-all-night, and pregnant (you can blame everything on the baby on board) state of mind, it was a big deal to me. I was buying Maisey underwear from the little girls section. THE LITTLE GIRLS SECTION!!!! Not the toddler section. It was a big realization to me that she is growing up and getting bigger. I mean, I just turned in her application for kindergarten! That's just crazy to me. And then there was buying underwear for Gage. He's my baby. He's got the cutest little diaper bum. Part of me wants him to stay my baby forever. Especially since the next baby is a girl. He's my baby BOY! This probably makes no sense. But while standing in line I just had this realization that my family is getting older, that I'm getting older, and there is absolutely NOTHING I can do about it. So I tried my darnedest to fight the tears in the Fred Meyer line that early November morning, while appreciating my little (but getting older) family. Funny what underwear can do to your mind!

The Story of the One-Armed Monkey

2012-01-08T19:57:00.001-07:00

There once was a family with two crazy kids!

This family was blessed with an awesome babysitter!

The said sitter made sock monkeys for the crazy kids for Christmas!

One day, on the way to church the sock monkeys got in a fight.

And one of the arms "fell off".

The little boy was devastated.

The mom couldn't help but laugh, maybe hysterically!

The mom promised the boy she would try to fix it after church.

So the one-armed monkey made it all the way through church with, well, one arm.

He also survived nap time in his amputated state.

After nap time, the mom attempted her sewing skills, with no luck.

The dad suggested they wait until Tuesday and have the babysitter fix it when she comes over.

The mom was too embarrassed to tell a 12 year old that she can't sew a monkey's arm back on.

So she called up her friend and before they knew it, he was a two-armed monkey again.

And the family was thrilled!

The Great Bedroom Swap of 2012

2012-01-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

Once we found out our baby is a girl (!!!) we had a lot of thinking to do. Good thing Shaun and I have spent 54 hours in the car together over the last three weeks. We've had plenty of time to discuss the bedroom situation. We love having a play room, but we also love the fact that Gage and Maisey have their own bedrooms. Our biggest debate was do we turn the play room into the baby's room and keep Maisey and Gage separate, or do we keep a play room and put Maisey and Gage together, or Maisey and baby together? I think we decided to do three separate bedrooms! So now all of the planning and executing needs to take place by the end of April! There are a lot of decisions to be decided, a lot of work to be done, and a lot of purchases to be made. Can you tell I'm starting to stress. . . just a little? I'm sure I'll be posting updates along the way, so stay tuned!

New Year's Eve in Spokane

2012-01-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

We made a quick trip to Spokane over New Year's weekend to go to Ryan and Hannah's open house up there. Sadly, I didn't take a single picture at the open house! I was too busy keeping my crazies from getting into trouble, while also trying to help keep the food table stocked! It was a lot of fun to catch up with some friends that we haven't seen since we graduated from BYU! Wish we could have spent more time with them! But our weekend was jam-packed full of open house preparations, games with the fam (mostly Mexican Train Dominoes!!!), and eating at all of our favorite places.

On New Year's Eve, we took the kids to Dock Side at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. The years that Shaun and I have been in Spokane for New Year's this is what we've done, so it was fun to share that with the kids also. Maisey fell asleep on the ride out there, I carried her all the way inside, still sleeping, and we had to wake her up for ice cream! She would have been pretty sad to miss out on that! After dessert, we walked around on the boardwalk and looked at all of the pretty lights! The kids seemed to have a great time. We got home at like 9:02 pm and missed the ball dropping in New York. Maisey was really bummed that there was no party this year. Next Year!!!

The sundae is almost as big as Gage's head!

I can't believe how fast our family devoured that thing!

The nativity!

(I LOVE that that is my kids' favorite Christmas decoration!)

We enjoyed spending time as a fam!

We drove home New Years night and met up with Kelsey and Brian who had flown into town after we left! We played games and ate ice cream (surprised?) late into the night! Once we saw Kels and Brian we had seen every single member of both of our families during this Christmas time. It was a special year! We felt so blessed to be able to spend time with each one of them! What a way to end 2011!!!

The Rest of this Week

2011-12-28T16:00:00.001-07:00

Monday we went to visit Papa who lives in Heaven. That's what the kids call my dad! I can't believe it's been four years! So much has happened in those four years. We miss him like crazy!

We had a movie night to watch Cars 2 that Gage got from Santa. Movie night would not be complete with out bowls of ice cream! YUM!

We also went swimming at the Clackamas Aquatic Center! We brought Madi along with us and we all had a fun time!

All three kids went into the wave pool on the tube!

Gage was an animal going down the slide. He would even go down head first!

And he liked to sit on the little fountain! He was so fun to watch that day.

Tonight, my mom and sister and I are going out for girls night. And on Friday we leave for Spokane! I'm sure I'll have more to update after that trip, but until then, I am all caught up! YAY!

Gage's Christmas Morning

2011-12-28T15:05:00.002-07:00

Gage's Santa stuff (cars, trains, and roller skates)

Playing with his new shake n' go Cars 2 track.

One of his favorite gifts all day was his Lightning and Mater Spin toothbrush he got in his stocking!

He wasn't too sure about his new Cars undies! Potty training starts in January!

Maisey picked out a book for him and was so excited to watch him open it. And it made it even better that he LOVED the book and they've been reading it a ton together since Sunday!

He loved his roller skates too. Two days before Christmas he told me he wanted blue roller skates. I think he was just as happy with his Lightning McQueen ones!

And he got a fun remote control car that he loves to drive around the house and crash into things!

Maisey's Christmas Morning

2011-12-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

Maisey's Santa Stuff (lots of Barbies and princess things, roller skates, a globe, and sight word flash cards!)

Her first time on skates! Only one splits all day!

Workin on a puzzle with Daddy

Rapunzel Dress to go with the. . .

Rapunzel Barbie, to go with the . . .

The Rapunzel wig!

Maisey made a cute angel gift at preschool. She was so excited for me to open it!

Quote of the morning, "Mommy, I feel like I'm in a magical winter wonderland!"

I'm glad her Christmas was magical!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-28T14:20:00.002-07:00

The morning of Christmas Eve was the most mellow morning we've had all month of December. It was WONDERFUL! Maisey had a sleepover at Grammy's, and Daddy let me sleep in. Once we got up and going, Gage and Daddy wrapped some last minute presents (Shaun's gifts to me! haha!) while I prepared some things for our Christmas Eve dinner later that night. Shaun got Santa things out of our shed and brought them into our room. We laid them all out on our bed so they would be ready for that night then we shut our door so the kids wouldn't go in. We all took afternoon naps, then we got ready for dinner and a program at Grammy's. We sang songs, some read stories, and we played a few games, then we headed home, took bathes, the kids laid out their stockings and wrote Santa a letter and left him some treats. They were in bed and asleep by 8:30, and I was asleep on the couch by 9. Shaun woke me up, Santa came, then we went to bed. It was a pretty relaxing and enjoyable day.

While Daddy was wrapping presents, he wrapped Gage up!

Gage had NO idea that Santa had just walked by!

(Before we left on our trip, I organized all of their Santa stuff into their own big black garbage bags and took them out to the shed! It was a BRILLIANT idea and one I will be doing again next year.)

Christmas Eve at my mom's!

Gage and Maisey singing Jingle Bells! It was way cute!

Playing a snowball game!

Stockings!

Maisey wrote the letter to Santa this year. And she chose what to leave out. She left egg nog and one cookie for Santa, one cookie for Mrs. Claus, one for the elves (to share?), and she left fruit for the reindeer.

Post Trip Christmas Activities

2011-12-28T13:50:00.004-07:00

Once we got back from our trip, we were in full-fledge Christmas mode! After unpacking and laundry, we made Christmas cookies, played with cousin Brock, looked at Christmas lights, shopped for Christmas dinner, played games, went to Malibu Raceway, went to a movie, and sat on Uncle Blair's (Santa) lap!

Trip to Utah and Colorado

2011-12-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

Day 1: Lots of Driving! Drove to Aunt Judy's house in Burley, ID and only made two stops! The kids were AWESOME! Gage loved having his own movie to hold and watch. We thought he would watch Cars on repeat the whole trip, but actually his movie of choice was Strawberry Shortcake! Maisey was also entertained by movies, Barbie ones, but she mostly colored in the car.

(One of our stops on Day 1 was at McDonald's in Boise to meet Shaun's grandparents and Shaun's cousin's daughter. We let the kids run around and play for about an hour!)

Day 2: We drove from Burley, ID to Provo, UT, checked into our hotel, then went to visit BYU campus! We drove past the football stadium, showed the kids the bell tower, where mommy used to live and then headed to the Wilk to eat lunch and ice cream. We went to the bookstore where Gage threw a MAJOR fit and I carried him all the way out to the car while he was kicking and screaming. He fell asleep within minutes. Maisey and Daddy finished in the bookstore and came out with a few fun things. After BYU, we headed up to Cabella's and let the kids look around at all of the animals and fish. Gage thought it was pretty neat. Maisey could have cared less. Shaun was chasing Gage through the store so Maisey and I stopped at the movie kiosk to see what the movie was. It was a deer hunting movie. Maisey said to me, "Mommy, that deer just fell over. Is he getting back up?" I just laughed to my self and we kept walking. We hit up Cafe Rio for dinner then rode the Trax into Salt Lake to look at the lights on Temple Square. The kids LOVED riding the train, but they were pretty naughty at Temple Square. It was a packed day and we all totally crashed that night at the hotel.

Ice cream at the Cougar Eat

Gage growling at all of the animals at Cabella's

Ryan, Gage, and Hannah on the Trax

The Nativity at Temple Square

The kids loved having all of their aunts and uncles there to chase them around.

Gage was really naughty during the Christus presentation, so just Maisey and I got a pic.

Loved all the lights.

The fam!

Day 3: Friday morning we headed to this fun place called Lowe's Extreme Sports in Provo. It's a big trampoline/foam pit place! The kids (and the adults) had a blast! We ate at In n' Out for lunch, YUM!!!! We went back to the hotel where Gage and Papa took naps and the rest of us played games. In the late afternoon, we headed to Olive Garden for an early dinner then Shaun and I went to the Timpanogus Temple for Hannah's endowment session. Janel took the kids back to the hotel for swimming, movie watching, and bed time. After the temple, we stopped at Krispy Kremes for a late night treat!

Shaun jumping over Maisey into the foam pit

Gage flying into the pit!

Maisey's turn! The kids would get some serious air!

They had so much fun with Aunt Janel!

Gage tackled Daddy into the pit!

Yes, that is me, 20 weeks pregnant, swinging on a Trapeze bar into a pit! Shaun wasn't thrilled!

Day 4: Hannah and Ryan's BIG day! The sealing was wonderful! However, right before they came out of the temple, Gage decided to throw the biggest fit of his life (he is known for pretty bad ones but after a while can snap out of it. NOT this one!) and again I took him to the car kicking and screaming and we missed all of the pictures. Luckily, Shaun's aunt took pictures on our camera and when I downloaded them all to the computer I could relive the moment! :) Gage once again fell asleep in the car and we headed to the luncheon. I helped Janel get it all set up while Shaun sat in the car with Gage sleeping. When it was time to start the luncheon, Gage was still sleeping. I went out and switched Shaun so he could enjoy lunch with his family. After a while, Gage woke up and we were able to join the rest of the fam for lunch. We took a few pics after lunch then headed back to the hotel. Maisey fell asleep on the way back and Shaun carried her up to our room and she slept on OUR bed until it was time to wake her up for the reception. When I woke her up, she had wet OUR bed and she was still wearing her dress for the wedding (which was the only dress we brought!) So by the time we got things cleaned up, asked the front desk to change the bedding, and stopped at the store for a new dress, we were late for the reception and missed the pictures (again!). Good thing we got a few at the luncheon! The kids didn't last long at the reception so I took them back to the hotel (and stopped for dinner at In n' Out, again!) and Shaun stayed for the rest of the reception. Later that night, Papa watched the kids and put them to bed while we played games in the hotel lobby with Shaun's fam! It was way fun!

The new happy couple!

I loved this pic!

The whole Grimmett Clan!

Our fam!

Maisey was begging all morning for a pic with the bride! She finally got her moment at lunch!

Day 5: We woke up bright and early, headed to Krispy Kreme, again! This time with the kids. They loved watching the doughnuts being made and sampling one! Then we headed to Colorado to visit my sister, Christina and her family! Maisey was so excited to see her cousins that's all she would talk about! Once we got there, we just hung out all afternoon and played games that night! It was a nice relaxing change of pace from the rest of our trip.

Day 6: We just hung around Christina's house all morning and in the afternoon after naps, we took the kids bowling. Our kids have never really been bowling before, and they loved it, except for the whole taking turn with five kids thing! We ordered pizza for dinner, put the kids to bed and played more games! It was a nice way to end the trip!

She is such a poser right now!

Day 7: We said our good byes to all the cousins and made our way back to Aunt Judy's house in Idaho! Maisey had been excited to get back to Judy's house all week, because Judy promised her she could play with a big Barbie castle on our way back through. It made the goodbyes with Shayla a little easier! We stopped for lunch at Cafe Rio! Shaun wanted to get one more meal in there before we headed home! The kids were good on the drive and picked up right where they left off at Judy's!

Shayla and Maisey

Derick and Gage in their matching jammies!

Day 8: We checked the roads that morning and it showed icy conditions, so we were really focused on just getting home! When we made it to each of the usually hazardous spots, the roads were perfect! We really lucked out with weather on our whole trip! We made it safely home late Wednesday evening! The kids were so funny when they went inside the house. They kept going around to just normal things like the pillows on the couch, and their seats at the table and telling me how much they missed each of these things. It was cute!

Well, we survived our trip with some major fits, lots of fun, lots of games, lots of GOOD food, and several pounds heavier!

Brother or Sister?

2011-12-13T15:49:00.002-07:00

Maisey was sooooo good during the ultrasound and loved looking at all of the baby's body parts. She was also very proud to be holding her sign and she displayed it in the car window the whole way home, hoping that all of the other cars would see!

We are very excited for some more girliness in our home!

Now we just have to wait until May!

Our Prisoner

2011-12-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

So our morning didn't exactly start out on a good note. Shaun was working from home because we had my ultrasound at 11 am. He came in to wake me up at 7:30 am saying that Gage locked himself in his room. A few things to know here:
1) When we bought the house, there was NO key to the door knob in his room.
2) His door knob is like a front door knob with a specific key, NOT like a bathroom door with a tiny little circle to stick a generic key into.
3) He has a child proof handle OVER his door knob, so I'm not sure how he stuck his little fingers in there to lock it in the first place.
4) You can't just unscrew the door knob because the screws are on the inside of his room.

After we tried opening the door with a credit card (I knew those fake ones that come in the mail that overflow our shred pile would come in handy someday) for like 20 minutes, we decided to call a locksmith. Gage was in there SCREAMING to let him out. I quickly googled "locksmith in woodburn, or" and called the first people on the list because it said they had a 15 minute response time. Almost an HOUR later, some guy shows up, reaking of smoke and with half his butt sticking out of his jeans, he sticks some special key in the door, hits the key with a tool, and pops the door open. Seriously it took him two seconds. We coughed up 155 bucks and sent him on his way. Then I got in the shower and just cried. Seriuosly? We just spent $155 for 2 seconds. I couldn't get my mind around that. Plus with the furnace and the router in the last week, we have now shaved over $500 off our trip budget. The thought of it all just disgusted me. So I cried, and by the time we got to the ultrasound, my eyes were puffy and my face red, but I felt better!

Oh and in the middle of it all, Shaun locked our bedroom door to try to see how Gage's door knob would work (which is a completely different door knob) and shut our door before he unlocked it. We had a key for our door, but unfortunately it was sitting 2 feet from the door on our computer desk. By the time the locksmith got there, Shaun had used the credit card to unlock our door. Thank goodness because we could have been out another $115.

Ugh!

Christmas Activities - Part 2

2011-12-12T22:55:00.001-07:00

On Friday, we had our annual Elder's Quorum Christmas party, and I forgot my camera. That's ok. We had a better turnout last year anyway! We played Christmas Family Feud and the ladies took it home this year. They didn't just win, they won by over 500 points! It was great! We also did a white elephant gift exchange where we saw some pretty funny gifts. The best: the bra purse that keeps making it back year after year! Can't wait to see what gets added to it next year.

Saturday was a great day! We didn't have ANYTHING scheduled until the evening. Shaun and I took turns running errands with out the kids then we met up at my mom's house to go to the Christmas Lighting Parade. They used to have the parade in Salem and I can only remember going once growing up. This year, they moved it to Keizer so we thought we would try it out. It wasn't all that spectacular. We liked the Iris Parade in May much better. Maybe because it is usually 30+ degrees warmer, but also for the quality of the parade. Anyway, the kids still had a great time bundled up and snuggling with mom and dad. My favorite part of the whole night was after every single thing passed us, Gage would say, "Wow! Beauuuutiful!" It was pretty darn cute!

Maisey's favorite was the Princess in the pumpkin carriage.

Gage's favorite was any of the semi trucks. He kept yelling out Mack! whenever he would see one.

On Sunday, we had a little bit of an early Christmas. We are leaving in a few days for a trip to Utah for Uncle Ryan's wedding. We decided to let the kids open a few gifts early to help with the loooooong drive ahead of us. They were pretty excited with what they got.

Cars coloring books for Gage and a new Tangled game for Maisey's Leapster

Gage got his very own boy Leapster with a Cars game and a Thomas game! He's totally loving it!

They each got a new Look and Find Book

And DVD Players!!!

Hallelujah!

(Did I mention we are taking Shaun's car? Yeah, these things are going to be a life saver!)

And the best part, Gage had so much fun throwing the tissue paper up in the air and watching it fall.

Later Sunday night, we took the kids to a friends house and went to our Stake Christmas Fireside and actually got to sit by each other AND enjoy it! A Christmas miracle!!!

That's all for now.

Tomorrow is the BIG ultrasound!

Boy or Girl?

Christmas Activities - Part 1

2011-12-09T17:42:00.001-07:00

The first of our activities was our ward Christmas party. It was a Luau complete with Hula dancers, kahlua pork amd rice, and a nativity show with an angelic choir (Maisey was an angel), and a visit from St. Nick himself!

Gage was sitting on my lap and making cat calls at Dana (one of the dancers and our friend). Too bad he was too quiet for her to hear!

Maisey did a great job singing all of the songs and being very reverent. Sometimes she can be very angelic, and other times, well. . . yeah, we'll just leave it at that.

The kids were waiting in line for Santa. Maisey is posing it up, and Gage is totally nervous. He ended up just waving at Santa from his mommy's arms.

But this girl has been sooooo brave this year. She is all about sitting on Santa's lap.

The party was a big hit and we all came home and went right to bed afterward!

Our next activity was our yearly gingerbread house tradition with our friends, but we really missed one of the families this year. When I was buying the kit at the store, I saw one for a train and I KNEW Gage would love it. But the framework wasn't preassembled and there was no way of talking Shaun into an unassembled gingerbread kit again after our failed attempt two years ago. So we stuck with the classic house. It turned out pretty cute.

On Monday for FHE we headed down to Keizer to walk through the Christmas Light Display. It did not disappoint. My kids love looking at all of the lights, and by walking this year we were able to stop whenever we wanted to admire the work. We will definitely be driving through the route again later this month.

Maisey's favorite part was spotting all of the characters, including Santa, Frosty, Mickey and Minnie, and The Grinch!

Gage's favorite part was yelling out "Mama TRAIN!!!!!" every time he saw one.

And our favorite part was just being together as a family, oh and the hot chocolate.

Last night was Shaun's work Christmas party. I made my friend's famous chocolate cake for a silent auction event. It went for $30! We played lots of Black Jack and Shaun played a little Roulette. I was awesome at Black Jack and if you won a certain amount then you got raffle tickets to put in the drawing. One of my tickets won us this laptop cooling pad. . . not as cool as the donut maker but that's ok.

It's been a fun filled week, with more to look forward to this weekend.

Random Thoughts

2011-12-07T14:33:00.001-07:00

* I'm working on a Shutterfly book for my mom and was going through all of my pictures from when Maisey was born til present. I found this picture, and it made me smile and cry at the same time. Oh, how he loved BOTH of them!

* I've really been reflecting on my testimony of the Plan of Salvation this week. Our friend's dad passed away a few days ago, and it really makes me grateful for the knowledge that I have that I will see my dad again, and when I do, his body will be completely perfect, free of disease and pain. How grateful I am for my Savior and for His atonement that makes this all possible.

* We've been having some seriously frigid temps for the last week or so. I was talking to my sis who lives in Denver the other day and was complaining about how cold it was here. I told her it was in the high 20's and low 30's. She just laughed at me and said, "It's 8* here!" Brrrrr. Oh, and not to mention our furnace went out over the weekend. Why does stuff like that have to happen on the weekend? Anyway, $250 later and we will have a fully working furnace come Friday! YAY!!

* Speaking of things going out, I sat down to work on my mom's book last night, and our internet would not work. Our router has been acting weird the last week or so, and I guess it finally decided to call it quits last night when the deadline for this book is TODAY! So, another $100 later, we have a new router and our internet is working!

* My ultrasound is in 6 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm starting to get really anxious! I just want to know what we are having right now! I'm not very patient. After looking through all of these pictures today, I don't really care what we have, I'm just excited to have another little baby. Remind me I said this next year at this time when I'm in the thick of it all!

* Maisey sat on Santa's lap at the mall last weekend. All initiated by her. I was so proud I almost cried (seems I've been doing a lot of that lately). She walked away from the Santa area and said to my mom and I, "There really is a Santa Claus!" YEEEESSSSSSSSSS! It's a Christmas miracle!

* I will be updating soon with all of the fun Christmas activities we've been busy with. The ward Christmas party, gingerbread houses, Keizer Christmas light display, and later this week we have Shaun's work Christmas party, our Elder's Quorum Christmas party, and a Christmas Lighting Parade. All coming soon, so stay tuned!

It's Not Too Late To Be Thankful

2011-11-30T21:54:00.001-07:00

I know tomorrow is December 1st, but I wanted to take a minute to write about all of the things that I am thankful for at this time of the year.

* Prayer. I would not survive motherhood without it.
* My Heavenly Father. Only He can soften my heart and ease my burdens.
* Gage and his "Mama Loves" He always knows when I need a big hug and kiss. He is a sweet little boy.
* Maisey. She tries so hard to be a good helper for me.
* Shaun. He tries so hard to understand me even when I don't make sense. He can also give the best and longest back rubs ever! Love him!
* My mom. She does a lot of little things for our family that I'm really grateful for, like babysitting, and meal making.
* My friends. I'm grateful for the babysitting swaps and the ice cream nights!
* Baby #3. I felt it move for the first time yesterday. What an incredible feeling. Oh, and not to mention a very nice and calm pregnancy so far. knock on wood.
* Our Babysitter. We have the BEST babysitter ever, second to Grammy of course. It makes it so nice to not have to worry about the kids when we are out.

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. Bring on Christmas!

Our Thanksgiving Week

2011-11-30T15:43:00.001-07:00

We didn't have any school all of last week and the little boy that I watch was out of town all week, so I really wanted to focus on my kids. We decided to something fun and out of the ordinary each day last week. I think we were pretty successful with what we came up with.

On Monday, we headed to Grammy's school for lunch. We haven't been able to go very much the last two years because of everything we have going. So it was a fun and special treat to be able to go and meet all of her students. Maisey has been waiting to meet a specific student all year. Her name is Belle. And Gage enjoyed drawing all over the white board.

Tuesday is my laundry day, so we don't go anywhere ALL day! So we did fun things together in between folding loads and loads of laundry. The highlight of the day was making a chain counting down the days until we leave for our trip.

On Wednesday, we had a family date night. We let Maisey choose anywhere she wanted to go for dinner and she chose Panda Express. So we ate there then headed to Pump It Up. The kids love this place, and so do I. I can just sit there and watch them entertain themselves and get really tired, then when we get home I can throw them right in bed. Daddy is a good sport to chase them all around! It was a great night.

Until the ultimate fit throwing at the end because it was time to leave. Oh well!

Thursday started off with Shaun going to play football (which on Sunday I had a few men from the other wards tell me how good my husband is at football! It was kinda sweet to hear!) while I stayed home and got the grub ready. This is my second turkey ever and it turned out beautifully! Maisey even asked for seconds! We ate our meal early so we could put the kids down for a nap.

While they were sleeping, my mom and I poured over the Black Friday ads, trying to figure out our game plan for the night and following morning.

Once the kids woke up, we took them to go see Arthur Christmas. It was a cute little movie, but Maisey was still hesitant to believe the whole Santa thing.

This was Gage's first movie. He did pretty well, granted he had the large popcorn tub on his lap the whole time. (I snapped the pic from my phone after the movie started, so there is no flash) He just looked so dang cute with his little head sticking out of the top of this BIG tub!

Then there was Black Friday. My mom and I headed to Wal-Mart a little before the 10 pm toy sale started. We did Wal-Mart, Kohls, Macy's, Target, then slept for an hour, then hit up Lowes, Bed Bath and Beyond, Fred Meyer, Staples, and Learning Palace. I got home at 8 am Friday morning. We got everything on our lists and stood in relatively short lines, minus Target. We stood in line for over 2 hours for a kindle for my mom and when we were 8 people from the front, they ran out. That was our longest line and the only thing on our lists that we didn't get. When I got home Friday morning, I ordered one thing off of Amazon, then I crossed off the last few items on my "left to buy before Christmas and our trip" list. I am completely done shopping for every single person that we have to buy a gift for! It feels nice!

A little while after I got home from shopping, we headed up to the airport to pick up Papa! He flew in for less than 24 hours to pick up a car. The kids had a blast seeing him. We sang lots of Christmas songs, played Ragedy Ann and Andy, ate at Sweet Tomatoes, and went to a Spokane Chiefs hockey game!

Gage did not want to be in this picture!

We got home from the hockey game and the kids and I went straight to bed while Shaun and his dad watched a movie.

There were lots of tears Saturday morning after Papa left. Good thing we will see him again in 2 weeks! After things settled down a bit, we headed to Palmer's Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas tree!

Every tree we walked by, Maisey would say, "ooooo Mommy, I like this one!"

The kids are always up for a ride on the tree cart!

Our fam in front of the tree. This year it only took us a few minutes to pick it out. I think it's because Shaun wanted to get back to watch a football game! Haha!

Maisey helping Daddy cut it down.

After we got home from picking out the tree, the kids took naps and I locked my bedroom door and got everything out and wrapped gifts all afternoon. And just like my "left to buy" list, I am COMPLETELY done! It's so nice to not have to stress about that.

On Sunday, we decorated the tree. The kids were so fun to watch. Most of the ornaments ended up in one little section of the tree, but that was fine by me. They were so excited about putting them on. Gage had a hard time getting the bulbs to actually hang from a branch, so he would stand there and concentrate so hard on it and when he got one to stay he would stand back and say, "Taaaa Daaaa!"

Like I said at the beginning, I'm pretty sure we accomplished the task of doing at least one fun thing a day last week! I love making these memories with my family!

Maisey Lately

2011-11-30T13:10:00.001-07:00

Maisey has been super creative lately, which often times leads to the biggest messes! I decided to take pictures of her last creation to document it.

She set up a tea party for every stuffed animal/doll in our house. She set up all of the chairs around the ottoman. When she ran out of chairs she decided to dump out every bin of toys from the play room to use as seats for her guests.

Here is another view of her tea party.

And this is what the play room looked like after she was done setting up! Clean up was extra long that night.

To sign in at preschool, Maisey has to write her name on a white board then put it in a pocket chart. She usually hurries through it and writes whatever way she wants, which usually means all capital letters. This particular day, I told her to slow down and use lower case letters. She did such a great job!

She also found an activity in one of her coloring books and asked if I could help her do it. I helped her with the very first "P" and she did all of the rest. She would bring her book to me after each word and have me read it to her. She really enjoyed this activity!

She is also really working on learning to read. We have a set of BOB books and she can read the first 2 books in the set. She really knows the words because I will point to words in other books that I know are from her BOB books and she can read them to me. She is getting site word flash cards for Christmas and this girl will be reading in no time!

Sometimes, she is too smart for her own good. A few weeks ago, she was laying in bed and she came running into my room. She told me that there was not a real Santa Claus. I asked her why she thought that and she said she was just laying there thinking about it, and there is no way there could be one. There was no way he could fly to all the houses in the whole world. And that people can't really fly. And that there is no such thing as magic. I was surprised. Usually your oldest child believes the longest because he/she doesn't have older siblings to spoil it for them. And, she doesn't even go to school with bigger kids so it's not like somebody told her. She just figured it out on her own. She's too analytical.

So when my mom gave her the Elf on the Shelf, she wasn't too keen of the idea at first. She again told me that the elf couldn't be magic because magic was not real. I told her to just try it out for a few nights. She was very surprised but still skeptical when the elf showed up in a different spot the next morning. I'm still not sure she REALLY believes it all, but we're going along with it.

I'm just sad that my little baby girl has already lost the magic of the holiday.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like. . .

2011-11-30T12:53:00.001-07:00

Christmas!!!!!

And my all time favorite of this year. . .

Our Elf

2011-11-30T12:49:00.001-07:00

I would like you to meet our elf, Max. Grammy bought us our elf this year and at first Maisey wasn't a believer. But after the elf forgot to hide in a different place two nights in a row, we told her that maybe the elf didn't want to tell Santa the naughty things she had done that day, she started to like him more and more. She is always excited to be the first one awake and try to find his new hiding spot. And Gage, well, he could care less, and doesn't get the whole thing.

We have a winner. . .

2011-11-28T11:23:00.001-07:00

Jenny!

She said: Living here has taught me that I love snow - I love to travel to it, play around in it, and then leave it behind when we go home!

I agree with a lot of you. I love to watch the snow from inside my house, but I don't like to have to go out in it too much.

Congrats Jenny, I'll mail it to you soon!

Giveaway ends tonight!

2011-11-27T13:17:00.001-07:00

Today is your last chance to enter the giveaway on the post below! It ends at 11:59 pm!

Good Luck!

Holiday Crafting + A GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

2011-11-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've been busy this month getting things ready for Thanksgiving events, Uncle Ryan's wedding gift, and part of my mom's Christmas present. (shhhh, don't tell her!) I thought I would share a little bit of what I've been doing.

Oreo turkeys! These are for our ward chili feed tonight!

M & M turkeys. These were for my mom's relief society activity.

Glass etched glasses for Hannah and Ryan.

K, so I won a giveaway earlier this month from this totally awesome cooking blog! The blog is written by a mother and daughter who enjoy cooking and baking together. I love their recipes because they are usually pretty simple and always delicious!

I won a Silpat and a cookie scoop and got it in the mail last week!

So, I decided to do a little giveaway myself, to share the holiday cheer! I've never done one before and I'm really excited about it!

If you would like to win this winter charger all you need to do is comment on if you enjoy the snow!

This giveaway will close on Sunday, November 27 at 11:59 pm.

The winner will be announced on Monday, November 28.

Help: Pulled Pork Recipe

2011-11-16T15:40:00.001-07:00

I need a good pulled pork recipe. Something that is pretty simple, and not spicy, like not at all! Anyone have anything good out there?

Parades and Other Fun

2011-11-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Maisey made a parade out of all of the characters, blocks, and legos that we have. She was so excited and she played her recorder as the Grand Marshall of the parade. She's very creative.

Gage thought her parade was pretty cool and he was sad that he couldn't be apart of it (because he is the destroyer of all things) so the next morning he made a parade out of cereal boxes!

He made himself a bed on the kitchen floor and said, "I go nigh-night"

One day the kids climbed in the dryer with wet clothes in there. YUCK!

And, last but not least, Maisey got a haircut.

She now looks like Rapunzel at the end of Tangled when her hair gets cut and turns brown.

Cathartic

2011-11-15T17:54:00.001-07:00

I just spent the last hour playing puppy with the kids. I was the puppy. They would feed me, pet me, cover me up to sleep. They laughed. I laughed. I had laundry to fold and dinner to make but it didn't matter. It was nice to be laughing together.

Dad called for a mid-week family movie night, which NEVER happens. He is stopping to pick up pizza on his way home and we are all going to cuddle on the couch and watch Polar Express.

Aaaaand, I ate part of an ice cream sundae for lunch today, while venting. It felt good. Thanks! :)

Things will get better, I can only improve from the mistakes I've made. It's all about the attitude!

Gage and the Kitties

2011-11-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

So our neighborhood has a lot of pets in it. Unfortunately, I am NOT a pet person. And I dislike them even more when they POOP all over my yard. It's seriously ridiculous. Anyway, my kids aren't really pet people either. Like, when the neighbor lets their two small dogs run around in the cul-de-sac, we have to go inside because BOTH kids scream and yell and cling to my legs while trying to climb up me. But one day, these two kitties (who climb up our screen door, grrrrr!) caught Gage's eye. He was really scared of them at first, but then started warming up to them.

It started as a stare down.

Then it lead to him chasing them.

Then he slowly got brave enough to pet them.

And before I know it, he's saying "Wook, Mama!" as he is coming at me with one!

Another kitty story:

I loaded the kids in the car one day and left the door from the garage to the house open as I ran back inside the house to grab something. When I came back up to the front of the house to go to the car, these same two kitties were INSIDE my house!!!! Ahhhh! I had to pick them up, ewww, and take them outside. I ran back inside to wash my hands (this time I shut the door from the garage to the house) and when I came back out, the kitties had come back into the garage and were hiding under my van. I had to sweep them out from under the car with a broom just so I wouldn't run over them.

Have I ever mentioned how much I don't like animals, especially when they aren't even mine! But apparently Gage has taken a liking to these two cats.

Confession

2011-11-14T22:43:00.001-07:00

I've been dealing with issues with my brother for the past two months and this weekend I hit my breaking point. I'm frustrated, and I'm done trying.

I yelled at Maisey tonight for biting(?) Gage's arm. Like not just a little yelling, full on yelled at her. I just had no patience left after dealing with my brother's crap. I regret every word I said.

I got on the computer to post a few posts on the blog, but instead I spent the last 2.5 hours playing solitaire while crying my eyes out.

I miss my dad. He would know how to fix everything.

I think I'm going to go lay on Maisey's bed with her and cuddle her while she sleeps. Hopefully she'll forgive me in the morning.

Here's to a better day tomorrow!

Happy Fall!

2011-11-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

It's a MIRACLE!!!!

They are actually both smiling and looking at the camera in the same picture!

Halloween Weekend Wrap Up

2011-11-02T17:55:00.001-06:00

We started off our weekend at the Elder's Quorum Halloween Party, which we were in charge of.

We made our costumes, and everyone loved them. Not very many people from the ward knew that I was pregnant. Those that read my blog did, but that's about it. It wasn't a secret, but it's just awkward to be like "Hey I'm pregnant!" So this was a nice way to kind of announce it, although some people still did not get it! Haha!

This was our drink and voting table for the costume contest!

A big group shot of everyone who came. Some people got very creative with their costumes, and well, some didn't. But we still had a fun night!

On Saturday morning, we dropped the kids off at a birthday party and went to the church to set up the for the carnival and trunk or treat that would happen later that night. Maisey begged to go as anything BUT Ruby to the party, so she made a perfect Snow White. If Maisey wasn't Ruby, there was no use in MAKING Gage put his Max costume on so he chose to be a pirate. He was so dang cute walking around saying "arrrgh" with a really straight pointer finger! Haha!

Saturday night we went to the aforementioned carnival and trunk or treat, however I did not take a single picture. I actually left my camera under a chair in the room where the cupcake walk was taking place and somebody turned it into the Bishop. By the time I had gotten wind that it was even missing my friend had grabbed it for me. I tried to get to her before she gave it to Shaun (I really didn't want him to find out that I left it!) but it was too late. Oh well. At least it was safe. But that is why there are no pictures. The night was as crazy as ever and Gage was as grumpy as ever, so we were one of the first cars to roll out of there that night.

By the time Halloween came around, I was kinda done with the whole holiday! Our friends invited us over for dinner in a pumpkin (which was actually really good!) and green goblin bread. Then we headed out trick or treating!

The 5 kiddos before dinner!

Maisey was really excited about this treat! It was probably a plain Hershey bar! Those are her favorites!

Gage tried opening the door at almost every house. There was one house that he actually got it opened before the people came to the door. YIKES! Here he is trying to open a garage door!

The 4 trick or treaters! They sure were cute that night!

All of the Halloween decorations were taken down by 9:30 am Tuesday morning! We put up a few (3) Thanksgiving decorations for a few weeks until we break out the Christmas stuff! We've already been listening to Christmas music for two weeks! Bring on the next holiday!

Caught Up!

2011-10-28T17:46:00.000-06:00

I spent most of the afternoon playing catch up on the blog! We've had a lot of fun things going on over the past few weeks! And I know if I didn't catch up I would just get more behind with our activities this weekend: Elder's Quorum Halloween party, a friend's birthday party, ward Halloween carnival and trunk or treat, and then actual Halloween night! It's been a crazy month here but it's been a lot of fun. I love watching my kids get so into the holidays. I love the traditions we are starting with them! I just love them!

Happy Friday!

Shaun's Work Halloween Party

2011-10-28T17:42:00.000-06:00

This afternoon was Shaun's work Halloween party! The kids went around to all of the different offices and cubicles to trick or treat! Not very many people there knew that Maisey and Gage were Max and Ruby, but they all thought they were still cute! We brought Peyton along with us too!

Cupcake walk! Look at that cute tail!

2:37 pm - Gage eating his cupcake he won from the walk.

2:41 pm - Gage threw the biggest fit because I wouldn't let him have another cupcake, so we left. It's hard when they plan things during nap time!

I wanted to get back up stairs to take a picture of my favorite decorated cubes but we didn't get to due to our quick exit, so I had Shaun take these on his phone! The Product Implement Team (PIT) made fun of all of the Occupy movements going on around the country! I totally loved it!

Thanks guys for a good laugh and a great party!

The Piccadilly Circus

2011-10-28T17:09:00.001-06:00

We went to the Piccadilly Circus Wednesday evening. Overall, it was pretty lame. The kids enjoyed themselves, but I'm not sure we would go again.

I think the highlight for the night was before the circus even started! The kids and Daddy got to ride an elephant. They thought it was WAY fun. . . once they were on. Maisey was a little nervous but acted brave. Gage was SCREAMING! But Shaun made him do it and once Shaun was on there with him he was fine and had fun!

Gage and Daddy enjoying the show!

The other favorite part of the night was when the elephants pooped all over the circus ring while performing. The crowd wasn't very into the circus all night, but when this happened everyone was laughing and clapping and cheering!

And that's it because nothing else was even worthy of mentioning. . . it was that lame! Oh well, at least we know for next time.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

2011-10-28T16:54:00.000-06:00

We had Maisey's preschool pumpkin patch field trip on Wednesday. Shaun took the day off of work so he could be with us. Our family had a ton of fun along with all of the other kids that came. It started off FREEZE-ING!!!!! I didn't realize it was that cold outside so I didn't dress any of us super warm. Oops! But after about the first hour or so it warmed up a little, at least so my hands weren't numb!

Gage and Dad on the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch!

Maisey and Mom trying to stay warm.

Watching the worker make fresh apple cider! The best part of the field trip is the apple cider and the donuts! YUM!

Don't you love that there is only a couple of inches between them?

Mommy is forcing Maisey to feed the goat. Once it started eating off her hands she didn't mind it! She asked to do it again!

The 5 preschool kids: Porter, Maisey, Peyton, Sadie, and Hudson

Gage coming out of the tunnel slide from the kid's hay maze!

Maisey and Daddy coming down the slide.

(I was very glad Daddy was there to do all of the activities with the kids. I got to just relax and visit with all of the other moms that were there! YAY for extra vacation days!)

All of the kids that came!

After the field trip was over, you could pay a dollar and stay and play the rest of the day! So we and a few other families did that!

The kids went to the hazelnut pit and had a great time!

Maisey was making nut angels!

All the kids were burying Shaun!

They couldn't see him anymore so they started jumping on him!

And then he emerged and got all of the kids! They sure had a good time in there!

They also went down a HUGE tunnel slide!

And climbed on the climbing wall!

By about noon, we were all exhausted. We bought another bag of donuts from the store and went home and had donuts and apple cider for lunch then took some long naps!

It was a great field trip!

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-28T12:15:00.000-06:00

For FHE on Monday night we carved the pumpkins from our garden. We've never carved pumpkins with the kids before, so we weren't sure what to expect.

We started off with a little Monster Mash dancing!

Then we got right to the carving!

Both the kids thought it was really gross to reach in and feel all the guts!

Lets just say this was Gage after the first 2 minutes.

Daddy ended up doing most of the work. I think next year we might stick to painting them again!

The finished products.

Left to Right: Mom's with a smile in dire need of an orthodontist. Maisey's Minnie Mouse, Gage's Mickey Mouse, and Dad's perfectly symmetrical smile.

Hide the Pumpkin

2011-10-28T11:54:00.001-06:00

One night while Daddy was gone we decided to get festive. The kids wore their Halloween jammies and we played hide the pumpkin. They loved the game, so we've played it several more times since.

Jammie time!!!

Looking for the pumpkin.

Gage always puts his finger to his mouth and says, "Hmmmmm, let's see." He was doing that all night. It was so cute.

Ta da!!!

And, she found it behind the pillow!

When it was Gage's turn to hide the pumpkin, he threw it in the middle of the floor and then he and Maisey ran after it.

It was a pretty fun night!

2.5

2011-10-23T19:00:00.000-06:00

2.5 years today, that is. Gage is such a big boy and does so many funny things. I asked everyone what their favorite thing about Gage was and what makes Gage so funny. Here are the answers:

Daddy -

* My favorite thing about Gage is that he is always the first one to come and give me a love when I get home from work.

* Gage is funny because of the new phrases he is constantly saying. Like the other day he found his Swiper stuffed animal and came to me and said, "Swiper no swiping, Swiper no swiping, Swiper no swiping, Ooooo Man!" while trying to snap his fingers at the end.

Mommy -

* My favorite thing about Gage is that he always has to give "Mama loves". Any night Shaun is home (which isn't much) Shaun puts him to bed, but before his door gets shut he always has to beg Shaun to let him do "mama loves". He will come and find me and give me a little snuggle then run off back to his room.

* Gage is funny because ALL.DAY.LONG. I hear "look mama" and then he does something silly or naughty. For example, he will spin around until he gets so dizzy he falls over, he will throw his trains, he will crash his cars together, he will jump off the ottoman, or he'll point out something funny in a book.

Maisey -

* My favorite thing about Gage is that he sometimes shares his choo choos with me.

* Gage is funny because he jumps on the couch even though it's against Mommy's rules.

We love Gage so much and enjoy watching his the wheels in his little tiny brain turn and turn as he learns a million new things everyday. This is such a fun stage, but it's a lot of work! We wouldn't trade it for anything.

Love you big boy!

3rd Annual Pumpkin Party

2011-10-21T14:30:00.000-06:00

This year's pumpkin party started out with the kids eating breakfast in the playroom because Shaun and I stayed up until almost 1 am the night before getting the family room and dining room all set up.

Then I got the kids dressed in the costumes. They are Max and Ruby this year. We've been planning it for months and I made their costumes, then this morning Maisey tells me she doesn't want to be Ruby anymore and throws a major fit. I talk her into it by making her face look like Ruby's with a pink nose and some black whiskers. Gage also hated his costume (which I'm not sure why, it's just overalls and a shirt) and went around all morning pulling at his clothes and yelling, "Me not like Max!" This was one of those moments when I thought to myself, "Why even bother doing something cute and creative with them."

Anyway, here are pics of their costumes

Gage's ears lasted for that picture only then he wouldn't put them back on for the rest of the morning.

I sewed (don't be too surprised! haha!) bunny tails for each of them.

Then it was time for the party to start. We played pass the pumpkin and then each of the kids got to decorate their pumpkins. The past two years we've done paint. This year I opted for stickers, foam stickers, glitter glue pens, and googly eyes. The kids didn't seem to miss the paint to much and I definitely didn't miss the mess! After decorating the pumpkins we had a spooky lunch (Kids: mummy hotdogs, jack o' lantern cheese balls, and orange Jell-o jigglers with spooky cider to drink. Moms: salad with Halloween pasta, witches broomsticks, and haunted h2o.) After lunch we ate treats. I made rice krispy treat ghosts for the kids which they gobbled right up. I also made a yummy apple cake for the moms, but in all the craziness of the party I forgot to pass it out. Sorry moms! Then we played one more quick game of BINGO where everyone won Halloween silly bands. It was another great party this year! Thanks for coming everyone!

Gage's pumpkin!

All the kids decorating!

Maisey's pumpkin!

The spooky lunches!

And some food pics:

10 weeks again. . .

2011-10-20T18:01:00.002-06:00

So, I had a doctor's appointment last week and the doc decided to go with the May 12, 2012 due date. Which means instead of being 12 weeks along, I am back at 10 weeks. But I feel like I'm 15 weeks. Haha!

Not like a due date really means anything to me. Maisey was a week late and Gage was almost two weeks early. It just kinda messes with your head going backwards like that.

P.S. It still looks like a gummy bear, don't ya think?

Primary Program

2011-10-18T13:26:00.001-06:00

Our ward's Primary sacrament meeting program was last Sunday. Maisey sang all of the songs really well and the said her part with confidence in the microphone. Her teacher asked each of the kids ways they can follow Heavenly Father. And Maisey's answer was: "Saying your prayers." I was so proud of her.

Maisey's and her new dress!

(Excuse the swollen eyes, I had just stepped on her bare foot with the heal of my boot.)

Maisey posed with her baby (notice the matching dress) and Gage as the dad! Haha! This girl cracks me up.

Go Cougars!

2011-10-17T16:15:00.002-06:00

When the Cougars head west, you better believe we will be there! Last Saturday they came to play Oregon State. It couldn't have been a more beautiful fall day in Oregon, and most importantly, NO RAIN!!!!!

Maisey was really excited to see some familiar faces! And Jenn gave her a Beaver's necklace to wear!

The highlight of the day was Daddy holding Maisey up like a cheerleader every time we scored! She loved it!

The other highlight was seeing Cosmo. She asked about every 2.5 seconds if she could go see him again.

The Cougs won 38-28 in a really good game! It was fun to watch them live!

Family Pictures

2011-10-11T11:54:00.001-06:00

Family Pictures August 2011: Sunriver, OR

And my all time favorite. . . . . . .

Drum Roll Please . . . . . . . .

Our Trip to the Apple Orchard

2011-10-10T18:16:00.001-06:00

You know when you think you have a really good idea and it all is perfect in your head, but then when it comes time to execute the idea you get nervous that it won't be as ideal as you were imagining? Well, my friend blogged about an apple orchard just a couple of miles up the highway from us. She took her kids there and it looked like a lot of fun. So, my vision was created. I was waiting for the perfect day to take the family, and Saturday was that day. It was a beautiful fall afternoon so we headed to Beilke Farms to pick us some apples!

The lady took us on a gator ride to wear the best apples were located! I'm pretty sure the kids were in heaven!

That is, until they found all the apples.

The lady encouraged us to eat them straight from the tree. Maisey took full advantage of the lady's wisdom and ate three during the hour we were there. Daddy beat her by eating six or seven.

The kids helping with their buckets. We ended up picking 4 buckets total which was almost 100 lbs. of apples!

We picked Jonagold, Golden Delicious, and Honey Crisp.

Delicious!

Gage liked the apples, until he found the tractors, then the dirt.

Then he filled up on dirt and mud for the rest of the time and he was happy!

And here am I in all my glory, actually picking the 100 lbs. of apples, imagine that!

Wish me luck on my first attempt at making and canning applesauce!

P.S. This was actually one of those rare times that my idea turned out JUST.LIKE.I.PLANNED! :)

A NICE day at the beach!

2011-10-06T20:53:00.000-06:00

In Oregon, if you hear it is supposed to be 80* at the beach, you better be taking advantage of it because it only happens once or twice a year. Lucky for us it happened on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago when we didn't really have much planned. So that morning we packed up the sand toys and headed west!

They are both holding on to the kite handle. I'm pretty sure that's the best dollar I've ever spent! They had a blast flying that thing!

Maisey the Mermaid!

Gage LOVES the sand. He likes to be buried in it, eat it, throw it, eat it, and let it run through his fingers. Oh and did I mention, he likes to eat it?

Until next year!!!

Oktoberfest 2011

2011-10-06T09:32:00.000-06:00

Oktoberfest this year was a lot of fun. Not as wet as the last few years, which was nice. We went with our usual friends, ate the usual food, looked at animals in the petting zoo, jumped in the bounce houses, rode ponies, went inside the church of men (that's what Maisey called the big Catholic church that is in the town) played in the hay maze and watched wiener dog races! The adults all decided that next year we are doing Oktoberfest kid-free!

Polos anyone?

2011-10-05T17:57:00.000-06:00

I just made the grand maternity swap today! You know, when you bust out all of your old maternity clothes and organize your current closet into categories: Still fit for 6 more months, squeeze into for next 3 months, no fat chance, it's already tight on me! I put all of the last category into the maternity bins along with all my summer clothes to make room for my maternity clothes, and the clothes from my two sisters. As I was going through the maternity clothes (which is a lot when you combine all three of ours) there were just a few things here and there that I still thought were cute, and most of them were my sister's who just had a baby 3 months ago. Seriously, how can fashion trends change that much in 5 years? I'm pretty sure between my older sister and I we have EVERY.SINGLE.COLOR. of polo ever made. And they all went right back into the bin. And the jeans? Don't even get me started. Let's just say I already ordered a pair of maternity jeggings, some leggings, and will definitely be shopping around for a few other pairs. You would think out of 15 pairs of denim, at least one pair would be fashionably acceptable. No! I don't even feel like I'm all up on the trends, but Wow! How things change in just a few years.

Maisey's Preschool, Ballet, and Soccer

2011-10-04T20:55:00.036-06:00

September was a busy month for Maisey. Yeah, I'm a little behind.

She started preschool again and is loving it just as much, if not more, than last year. This girl thrives on structure and routine so starting preschool again has been so nice for us both. She loves how they do a letter of the day and can't wait for tomorrow because it is "M" and since her name starts with "M" she gets to bring something else that starts with the letter to show her class. She already has her mind made up! She is really looking forward to her pumpkin patch field trip at the end of the month.

Maisey's first day of school pics!

Maisey's next adventure has been ballet! She is so small and petite that she makes the cutest little ballerina. She is able to focus on what Ms. Deborah is teaching her and is really good about following directions. She goes to class on Monday afternoons and it's kind of a fun Mommy/Maisey time. We now leave Gage at a friends house after taking him on the first day and regretting it within the first five minutes.

This is Maisey's class with Ms. Deborah and her little helper girl.

Maisey is really excited to be in the class with her friend Sadie.

We also decided to sign her up for soccer this year. It's only for six Saturdays
and there are not any practices during the week. It's low key and the kids pretty much just chase the ball around, but it's so fun to watch. Her team is this weird khaki color but Maisey calls it gold! She is such a girl. Shaun was trying to tell Maisey how to be aggressive and kick the ball after the first game. Then the morning of the second game, this is what she said to me: "Mommy, I'm going to make a score today. I'm going to kick the ball with one foot and kick people out of the way with my other foot." Haha! She is pretty funny to watch out there, and you can't miss her with her rainbow striped Hannah Montana socks that she demands to wear each week.

Maisey is on the same team with four of her friends. They were all on the field at the same time last week! It was fun to watch them all.

I can't believe how grown up Maisey is becoming. It's so fun to watch her develop different talents and skills and to make friends with the new kids she meets.

Wheel of Fortune Take 2

2011-10-03T20:42:00.000-06:00

Remember my obsession with Wheel of Fortune?

Remember when I went to try to audition for the show a few years ago?

Remember when I was really disappointed?

Good! Then I don't have to write much about Saturday.

Go here for the recap!

This phrase is a funny family joke. I had to get the picture to show Shaun! I knew this puzzle before ANYONE!

I should SOOOOOOOOO be on the show!

But just like last time there is still a glimmer of hope.

Gage and His Big Boy Bed: Part 2

2011-10-02T20:40:00.000-06:00

Gage still doesn't fall asleep in his bed. I went in on Wednesday night to check on him and he had TOTALLY destroyed his room! Picture frames, clothes, diapers, bath towel, books, things that were once hanging on the wall were no longer.

There he is smiling at me on his bed because he thinks it's funny.

So Thursday, I spent the morning rearranging his room and the play room. I took out ALL of the toys, including the train table. I took out the frames and other things he would pull off the walls. The only thing left in there was his dresser and his empty garbage can. I was sure he would go to sleep that night.

10:00 pm on Thursday rolled around and I went to check on him and he had pulled out his bottom drawer of his dresser, broke the side off of it, used the empty space to climb up to the top of his dresser, retrieved his piggy bank, and played with his money all night long. It was all over his room. He also opened the side door of his dresser and took all of his new diapers out and put them in his garbage can.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. I was leaving for the day and gave Shaun a list of stuff to do while I was gone. On that list was to fix Gage's bottom dresser drawer and put it back in his room. Like a good husband, he got everything on the list done, including the drawer.

But apparently that didn't matter, because that SAME night, Gage took it back out, emptied all of his pants, put his pillow pet inside, broke the side off so he could use it as his bed!

That kid is strange. If I had a queen size bed all to myself and was allowed to go to bed at 7:30 pm every night I would sooooo be there!

Reminder: Try a Little Harder

2011-10-01T15:29:00.000-06:00

. . . To Be a Little Better!

How is it going?

Am I being more patient, kind, and positive?

Am I learning to let things go and be more flexible?

Am I understanding that life is hard, and am I trying to find joy in it?

Remember you are preparing yourself for future trials and great events.

You can try harder!

You are doing a great job!

Gummy Bear Grimmett

2011-09-30T17:35:00.000-06:00

It's head is on the left, followed by arm buds then leg buds.

Doesn't it look like a gummy bear?

Based on the calendar, I should be due on May 2. Based on this ultrasound it says May 11.

That seems like forever away!

Plan C

2011-09-28T15:44:00.000-06:00

I finally think the car thing is settled! We got our settlement check in the mail last week and come Friday, we decided to NOT go car shopping. We just went out on a date! We went to Costco to buy my shelves (post to come!) went to dinner and a movie (Crazy Stupid Love = Surprisingly Cute and Funny!) and talked about cars. Plan A was to buy a new van and fix the totaled car. Plan B was to keep the van and buy a pickup. We weren't really feeling either of those plans so we went to Plan C. A Toyota Corolla! We talked about it during dinner and driving home from the date and it just seemed like the most logical thing to do. So we spent the weekend looking online for what we wanted and then Monday we went and bought it! When we were test driving it the salesman asked if I wanted to drive it. I said, "Nope! If he likes it we're getting it!" I was just so ready for the process to be over.

We are the proud new owners of:

A 2008 Toyota Corolla in BYU blue!

(Shaun has already shopped around for a nice "Y" window decal!)

Aaaaannnnndddd. . .

We got what is hopefully the final letter in the mail today from Allstate. It read:

Dear Mr. Grimmett,

We sincerely regret your dissatisfaction of your claim handling and thank you for the opportunity to extend this additional $100.00 as a measure of good will.

Ha! Shouldn't it say "our claim handling" since WE are dissatisfied with the way THEY are handling the claim? They are just lame! At least we got 100 bucks out of it. Although, I'm not sure $100 is worth the stress of having your car MISSING for two days!

Whatever. It's done.

Thank goodness!

Gage and His Big Boy Bed

2011-09-23T17:18:00.000-06:00

We took Gage's crib down almost 2 weeks ago! He had learned how to ~~climb out~~ fall out, and I was worried one of these times he was really going to hurt himself. So we moved him into his BIG BOY BED permanently! Let's just say it's been an interesting 2 weeks!

We moved his train table into his room (YAY! I get my family room back) and it's so nice having more space in there for him to play.

Unfortunately, he likes to play all.night.long. He often tuckers himself out and just falls asleep anywhere except for his big boy bed. We had to start shutting his door with the child proof handle on the inside so he wouldn't come out. Then we open it a little after he's asleep so he can come out in the morning.

Here are a few of his sleeping positions:

These 2 pictures of him in his closet freaked me out! Shaun was in Atlanta for work so I was home by myself. I had put him to bed but before he was asleep I got into bed. I turned the news on and ended up falling asleep watching it. I woke around 12:30 am turned the TV off and decided to go check on the kids. I went into Gage's room and he wasn't in his bed. I checked on the other side of his bed. Not there. I checked under his train table. Also not there. I went into Maisey's room. He wasn't in there. I preceded to check the family room, kitchen, MY room, the bathrooms. He was no where! And of course Shaun was gone so he couldn't help me look and I was seriously ready to call the police. My 2-year old was missing!!! I said a quick prayer, decided to look in his closet, which the door was COMPLETELY closed and there he was, snuggled up to his blankie in there. It was definitely a scary night!

This particular night he decided to empty his dresser AND his hamper and mix all the clothes together!

We just have to make it through the next month or so and it should get better, right?

Well, tonight is date night so I don't have to worry about it!

Good thing we have an awesome baby sitter!

Control

2011-09-21T15:48:00.000-06:00

I like to be in control. Who doesn't? Unfortunately I feel very out of control with everything going on in my life right now. I wish I had control over time! Or better yet, just a handle on time. I feel like I have a million good responsibilities and activities and I don't feel like I waste any time (that's why I haven't joined Pinterest! I know it would be the death of me!) but I just have so much going on that I often feel overwhelmed! I haven't couponed or tried a new recipe in months. Both are things that are good activities, but that I just don't have time for. My house is in major need of organization and honestly a good purging! We have so much C-R-A-P, mostly toys that the kids wouldn't mind if they were missing, it just needs to all be sorted through.

Another thing that I have no control over is our car situation! Shaun and I went to the temple last week, prayed about things, and made a plan. After Shaun's brother got engaged a couple of weeks ago and announced a December wedding in Utah, we decided to buy his car back from the insurance company after it was deemed a total loss and pay our mechanic to just fix it so it ran, but didn't look pretty. Then we would replace the van before we left for Utah in December. We even found some vans that we liked online and got a sitter for Friday night so we could go on a date and go car shopping. The insurance company called Shaun today to let him know that everything was settled and they would be putting a check in the mail today. So Shaun called our mechanic to give him the green light on fixing our car. He told Shaun that the insurance company (which btw is Allstate and we've been very unimpressed with) towed the car away 2 days ago! WHAT????? They knew we were buying it back, they knew we weren't being charged any storage fees for keeping it there. There was no logical reason to tow it and they are covering the costs of towing it back and the storage fees for the last few days. And now our mechanic told Shaun that his friend is actually going to fix it for us and his friend isn't even sure if it can be fixed!!!! I'm just really frustrated by this all because we felt like we were making a good decision in moving ahead with a new van, but now this is all happening! So, we might be back to plan B which was buying Shaun a new pickup and keeping the van for a while. :( Again, NO CONTROL!

And, remember when I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune a couple of years ago? Well, they are coming back to Oregon again this weekend and next. We are crazy busy both weekends, but I may try to squeeze in some time to run out to the coast and try again. I want to be on that show SOOOO bad! Another thing I have NO CONTROL over.

So I just said we've been very unimpressed with Allstate. You want to hear about my conversation with their adjuster? Well, you're going to anyway. He called me after looking at Shaun's car. He asked me a bunch of questions. Some of them included:
* Do you accept the appraisal value of the car? I said, "I don't know, I need to talk it over with my husband"
* Are you being charged any storage fees? I said, "I don't know" I knew we weren't but wasn't sure if I was supposed to say that or not.
* Do you have full coverage on your car? Because if you do, you might want to file a claim through your own insurance to get everything settled quicker. I said, "I don't know" Even though we DO have full coverage on the car. They don't need to know that. Their insurer was responsible for the accident and THEY need to cover it.

After my third "I don't know" answer the adjuster said to me, "You're like interviewing Bill Clinton. Did you have sexual relations outside of marriage? I don't know!"

As soon as I hung up with him, I called Shaun. I was mad and offended, but Shaun was livid. He called this guy's supervisor and chewed him out! And we ended up getting more money out of all this because he was such an idiot!

I will never be insured with Allstate! And that IS something I have control over! :)

Thanks for listening to my rants! Hopefully all of this will pass soon!

Courtesy of the BB

2011-09-21T15:05:00.000-06:00

I had a bunch of random pictures on my blackberry that needed to come off, so here they are in no particular order:

Our YW in Excellence is tonight.

The theme is Have I Done Any Good? I made, ok, my mom mostly made, a ton of smiley face sugar cookies for the refreshments.

While she made the cookies, I made these frames! Turned out pretty cute for whipping them out the night before and having NO previous ideas!

Maisey found some stick on nails in one of her make up kits and begged to do them! I love having a girl to do these kinds of things with!

Gage got a new do! The hawk only lasted 2.5 seconds until it was buzzed too!

I've been canning like crazy and I'm ready to be done! My awesome friend taught me how to do it and it's really not that hard! I'm hoping to finish up with my pears tomorrow and then I might be brave and try applesauce. We'll see!

Gage has 2 current obsessions: Not listening to you/Running away from you and talking on the phone. He hates when you tell him it's time to get dressed and runs away all the time. And as soon as he hears my phone go off, he is at my feet begging to talk to whoever it is. And when you are on the phone with the insurance company 500 times a day it's not very convenient for him to have this obsession!

One day Maisey wanted all of her flowers in her hair because Rapunzel wears flowers in her hair!

Filling up the pool one hot afternoon!

70 lbs of pears waiting to ripen!

I made these cookies last weekend for the much anticipated BYU vs. Utah game. Too bad we got CREAMED!!! At least our friends were nice about it and didn't rub it in too bad.

The day after BYU lost, Maisey went running to her room right after church. She came out to me all changed and said, "Mommy, I'm wearing all red because the Utah Utes won yesterday!" What a trader!

Speaking of BYU, we got our football tickets in the mail today for the game against Oregon State next month! Hopefully BYU can work all the kinks out by then because we didn't just pay $100/per ticket to watch them loose by 40+ points!!!

A Whirlwind Weekend

2011-09-06T23:32:00.002-06:00

It all started Thursday night when I went to bed. I felt sick. The next morning I woke up and also felt sick. I took a pregnancy test and . . .

SURPRISE!!! It's positive.

(It wasn't a surprise to us! We are way excited!)

I texted Shaun at work and a few hours later he showed up at home with

these flowers and my favorite kind of apple from Rocky Mountain! He sure knows what I like.

I called my OB's office and they wanted me to come in for a test, so I ran down there real quick since Shaun only worked a half day. I took a test there and it took forever for it to turn positive so the nurses were worried. They sent me to the hospital lab to get blood drawn. I was nervous that something was wrong.

After the hospital Shaun brought the kids down to my mom's and I met him there for dinner! My mom and I were doing our big Carb-loading dinner for the next day.

After dinner, Shaun took the kids home in the van and I ran to Lowes to grab some things.

I was stopped at a red light waiting to turn left onto the freeway to get home when I saw a car coming right at me. I just closed my eyes and prayed that it wouldn't hit me. Well, it didn't hit ME, it hit just a few feet behind me. The lady coming from the opposite direction that I was heading ran a red light going 45-50 mph. She hit a car that had the green light, ricocheted off of her into me, then into the truck behind me, then crossed two lanes of traffic before hitting the guard rail and slowly rolling to a stop. It was scary! I called Shaun right away and told him I just got hit. Then I called 9-1-1 and talked to a complete idiot. After calling her back, the police finally came along with an ambulance to take one of the passengers to the hospital. I was a little emotional because I didn't know what to do and the very first person to know about my pregnancy (besides Shaun) was the driver in the truck behind me. He was such a nice man. Our friends came to the accident scene and waited with me as the police took down all of the information and the tow trucks came to tow all four cars away. They were the second ones to know about the pregnancy. I told them my mom would be mad that they knew before her!

This is the pic of the car I took on my phone when it was still in the middle of the road. Shaun went to the tow yard today to look at it and said the picture doesn't do it justice. The tow truck driver and our mechanic are both sure it's totaled. Which isn't too hard to do when it's not worth very much in the first place.

I eventually made it home and was trying to settle down. My mom was at a wedding reception when all of this happened and she finally called me back so I could fill her in on what happened.

I put myself in bed that night, wishing I could take a Tylenol PM or something. I didn't sleep all night. My shoulder was really sore from where the seat belt was and I was nervous about the next day.

I didn't think it would ever come, but finally. . . the TRIATHLON was here!!!!!

Look at this good lookin' fan club! It was so fun to hear them cheering for me at the pool. Shaun parked them right at the end of my lane!

Lap number . . . I don't know! I beat my PR by 15 seconds!

The cheerleaders at the end of the biking route!

The biking route was BRUTAL!!! I'd been training on it for the last 4 months and never did I have a wind like we had on Saturday! A few days before I did my last training ride and I was averaging 17-18 mph for the whole 12 miles. On race day, I was averaging 14 mph but I still felt like I should be going 17-18. It was way frustrating and way draining.

The run was just HOT! Didn't notice the wind as much but the heat was intense.

I was soooooo ready to be done with it all. We won't find out our times until the end of the week, but I'm just proud that I did it. I did it pregnant, and with a bruised shoulder and no focus or sleep.

After we got home, I vegged on the couch all afternoon watching a close BYU football game and then put myself to bed at 8:00 pm.

I love when he actually cuddles me!

On Sunday we were able to have some great friends over for games and dessert. It was nice to have a distraction from everything. Also that day we called the insurance (I just wanted to get the triathlon out of the way first) and filed our claim. We are slowly trying to get it all worked out, but today we paid almost 300 bucks cash just to get it out of the tow yard. How frustrating for not doing a single.thing.wrong!!!!!!! I'm sure everything will work out the way it is supposed to, but right now, I'm just annoyed.

But I should be happy! The Dr. called back today and said blood work all looked normal for how far along I am and he scheduled an ultrasound for me in 3 weeks to make sure everything looks good so far! What a relief! We decided to break the news early since a bunch of people already know. We wanted those who didn't to hear it from us! We are so excited about this new addition to our family, but a little bit nervous because now Shaun and I will be outnumbered!

Picture This

2011-09-01T16:06:00.000-06:00

It is 12:15 am and a very tired and exhausted wife and mom is peacefully sleeping in her bed. She is suddenly startled by a loud vacuum right by her head. She sits up, confused, and says some not very nice things to her husband who had just returned home from basketball with an old friend from Kansas. He turns the vacuum off and peers into their closet and then says some not very nice words himself. Apparently there was a large spider on the wall in the closet. . . too large to smash with one of the hundreds of shoes that are on the racks in there, and apparently that spider had was also startled by the vacuum noise and hid itself. Have it ever been mentioned that this husband is terrified of spiders? This now very annoyed wife told the husband to just shut the closet door, put the vacuum away, and get in bed. He was ready to head for the couch. So his now grouchy wife got out of bed, found the spider, sucked it up with the vacuum and crawled back in bed. Then she laid there starring at the ceiling for two hours because she couldn't go back to sleep, all the while her scaredy-cat husband was snoozing away next to her.

Yeah, can you picture that? I sure can.

August Randoms

2011-08-26T17:34:00.000-06:00

These are all pictures from my phone, but still things I wanted to document!

Maisey's choice of outfits isn't getting much better. This is what she chose to wear today.

And yes, I took her to run errands looking like that!

When Shaun's fam came, his dad and I were getting ready to go to Wal-Mart to get food for our campout and Maisey came running out and asked Papa if she went to Wal-Mart with us if she could ride a ride. Then she told him that I won't let her ride them because they cost money. She asked Papa if he had money and he said back to her jokingly, "I have lots of money!" Then Maisey went running into the playroom to tell her friend Peyton that they could go to Wal-Mart and ride the rides because her Papa has tons of money! It was really cute!

I went in to get Gage up from nap one day and found Max like this!

Nothin says summer time like a fresh peach shortcake from the Shortcake Stand at EZ Orchards! YUM!!!

We went with the cousins to a lake to feed the ducks. Did you know baby ducks like to eat corn? We took some corn and some bread and the kids had a great time!

We went to my mom's school a day this week and Maisey and Peyton took the tub of bugs and separated them into categories! It took the a while, but they were pretty proud of their accomplishment! They called it their bug party!

FHE at the Temple

2011-08-26T16:53:00.000-06:00

Maisey has been begging all summer to go to the temple for a visit. Well, our temple has been closed all summer until just a few weeks ago. So the first Monday after it opened we headed up for a special FHE. We walked around the beautiful grounds, tried keeping Gage out of the fountain, talked about specials things that happen at the temple, tried keeping Gage out of the reflecting pool, and watched as Maisey pretended she was a bride and she sat on every white bench, posed, and asked me to take her picture!

She will make a beautiful bride, someday!

She was pretending Daddy was her groom!

After the temple we stopped at Divine Yogurt (I thought divine and the temple went hand-in-hand! Haha!) for a treat!

I think this was our best FHE ever!

(Minus Gage in the water!)

Sunriver

2011-08-26T16:43:00.000-06:00

Sunriver was a blast, just as usual. It was definitely the busiest we've ever seen it. We actually had to pay to make tennis court reservations, which we've never had to do before. And to even find a court with an available reservation was tough! We also did a ton of other things that were way fun!

1. Getting delicious doughnuts from the bakery in the village!

2. Getting in lots of sweet baby time with my sister's new baby, Brock!

3. Eating ice cream with Aunt Spider on Thursday night.

(btw, Kate is wearing my sweatshirt in this pic, and it kinda looks like me!)

4. And eating ice cream again on Saturday night!

5. Going on a long walk/run/bike ride with 3 adults and 3 kids while we let Daddy sleep in until 10:45 am!!!

6. Playing "This little piggy" with Baby Brock

7. Sneaking out to where the deer were

8. And watching 6 deer in a row!

9. Winning "Mom-of-the-year" award for going down the big water slide, which I didn't want to do, and holding Maisey up out of the water so her precious face didn't get wet, all the while I get the whole pool up my nose!

10. Swimming in the pool with the fam!

11. Watching Dad go down the slide over and over and over again with both kids.

12. Catching Maisey going down the tube slide by herself. This was more of my idea of having fun!

13. Watching Maisey, 2 years later, still giving a thumbs up with her pointer finger!

14. Laughing at the kids giving each other rides in the John Deere!

15. Enjoying the new Cars Bouncy House!

16. "Hiking" in the village!

17. Hangin with Grammy, poolside!

18. Playing lots of games after kids went to bed, and dominating most of said games!

19. Beating Guitar Hero on medium!

20. And I think the funniest thing from the whole trip was that Kate adopted a new nickname - Aunt Spider! Gage says spider in this really funny growly voice and he kept saying it and pointing to Kate. We couldn't figure out why until we were at lunch one day and Kate's head was bent down and Gage did it again. She wears two bobby pins on the top of her head and they are crossed and apparently Gage thinks they look like a spider. Even since Kate left to go back to Idaho, Gage still says, "Aunt Spider, Baby, Buh Bye!" Sorry Kate, I think this one is going to stick!

We love going to Sunriver and we feel so grateful that we have the opportunity to do it so often! It is seriously one of the most peaceful and relaxing places that I have been to!

Ward Campout - Bar View Jetty

2011-08-26T15:46:00.001-06:00

Our ward campout was just north of Tillamook so we decided to go a day early and hit up the Tillamook Cheese Factory on our way. For how obsessed Gage and I are with Tillamook cheese, I can't believe we've never been. We ate at their little cafe area. Everyone got a variation on the delicious grilled cheese sandwiches. Then we headed on the factory tour, which ended in a cheese sampling bar. YUM! After the tour we all settled down for some ice cream.

Peyton, Maisey and Gage inside the loaf van.

Look at all that cheese!

Sample bar!

These bricks were the size that Costco sells and my kids could barely lift them!

Ice Cream!

(oh yeah, did I mention Shaun's fam came with us on the campout? We all had a great time!)

My mom drove out to do the factory with us, but then went back home! No camping for her!

Gage ate all of his cone, then happily finished off Peyton's, then Maisey's!

After the factory, we headed to our campground. It was definitely sandy! I wasn't used to camping on the beach! We got our camp all set up, roasted bratwursts for dinner, played games and crashed the first night. The next day was followed by more games, naps, playing at the beach, and a cheerleading show put on by Maisey and some other girls from the ward!

See! This is our tent, and that is the sand!

Maisey found some crab pinchers! I'm surprised she touched them!

She also got the dirtiest I've ever seen her! The picture doesn't even do it justice!

The cheerleading show - complete with lifts and all!

Playing at the beach doesn't mean playing in the ocean. The kids found these little pools in the sand to be much warmer than the ocean water!

Daddy and Maisey built a beautiful sandcastle. . .

. . . and seconds later, Gage came by and made sure to crush every mound.

Hoodies at the beach in August is inevitable in Oregon! Brrrrr, it was cold!

My cutie little boy on the beach at sunset!

We took off pretty early Saturday morning and stopped at the cheese factory one more time for some lunch and ice cream, then enjoyed a peaceful quiet ride the whole way home!

And it's two weeks later and we are still finding sand everywhere!

Thursday's Thoughts

2011-08-25T18:01:00.000-06:00

I've kinda been avoiding the blog lately! I have soooo much to post on and we've gone on 2 trips since I updated last.

We have officially retired our suitcases for the summer! We actually took them out to the garage, and when I did laundry this week, I put clothes away in drawers and not right back into suitcases like I have done ALL summer! I'm not going to lie, it feels nice.

I'm ready to be done with summer and to have the routine of the school year! I think the busy-ness of the summer is catching up with me. I actually took a nap yesterday for the first time in months! My house is suffering, my yard is suffering, our dinners are suffering (apparently you can't eat oatmeal for dinner every night of the week), like I said, I'm just ready for fall!

I love the fall holidays, I love the cozy evenings on the couch cuddled up to the hubs (it's hard to cuddle when it's 87* inside your house!), I love the shopping, and the fall activities. I may sound crazy, but I'm looking forward to that first good fall rain! Before anyone hurts me for saying that I'll change the subject.

The last scheduled thing that I have is my Triathlon next weekend, and I just can't wait for it to be over. Honestly, I wish it was this weekend so it would be out of my mind! I put my running shoes on the other morning to go work out and my mosquito bites were so bad by the time I walked from my room to the front door I had to take them off. I haven't done anything all week, which isn't good. I'm hoping to get out for a real good workout on Saturday morning.

Oh, and about my bites. They are slowly getting better. I only woke up once last night because my one foot bumped a large bite on the heel of my other foot. The pharmacist recommend this stick thing called After Bite. It worked for about ten minutes before I had to reapply. It smelled like straight ammonia, so I was a little worried about putting it on my skin as much as I was, but it did help.

Maisey is really into drawing all of the sudden. Some of her pictures are actually legible! When I post about Sunriver I will have to put up a picture she drew while we were there. It was great!

Gage is going through this HUGE separation anxiety thing. Boo! Insert lots of hysterical crying here.

I'm picking up 40 lbs of peaches tomorrow and I'm going to attempt to can them. I also ordered pears that I will get in a couple of weeks. I've never canned before, so this will be quite the experience. Luckily there are people in my ward who are willing to teach me! Thank goodness for good friends!

Those are a few of my thoughts. When I get around to it, there will be lots of posts coming!

43

2011-08-23T17:53:00.003-06:00

43 mosquito bites that is.
It wouldn't be bad if they were spread out randomly all over my body.
But NO!
They are all on my lower calves and feet.
And they itch like no one's business.
I can find no relief.
I've tried Benadryl itch cream.
I've tried toothpaste with baking soda.
I've tried nail polish.
And nail polish remover.
Deodorant.
Solarcaine.
Aloe Vera.
I look like a leper.
No joke.
I didn't sleep last night.
So technically I look like a tired, grouchy leper.
Any other suggestions?

P.S. Maisey said to me this morning, "Mommy, I'm going to go outside and tell all the mosquitoes to quit biting our family and then I'm going to spank them all in the bum."

Happy 4th Birthday Maisey!

2011-08-12T09:52:00.000-06:00

You are quite your own individual, but that's what I like about you. I mean, who else would wear white leggings with a short pink shirt, and Christmas socks pulled up over your leggings, in August? However, you think you are quite the fashionista! And, you still think some of your clothes are hanky!

You love to type. You only know how to spell a few words on your own, so you often drag your preschool pillow to the computer and type all of your friends' names, along with the poem that is on the pillowcase.

You also like to text Daddy in the morning if he leaves before you wake up. The latest text from you to him reads: DadhOw.are YOU. Daddy loves to get these texts at work and you love it when he texts you back! It makes you feel pretty special.

You are really into sleepovers right now. You love having sleepovers at Grammy's house and you can't wait to have a sleepover with Madi at our house in a few weeks. We have already had to have the discussion about how we only have sleepovers with girls. Oy!

Here is your 4 year old Birthday Interview (word for word):

* What are some things you like to do? Well, let me see here. . . playing my new Silverlicious game, and reading my Silverlicious book. Oh, and watching The Little Mermaid show and playing the Wii at Grammy's.

* What things do you like to do around the house? Oh, well I like playing dress-up and I like reading all of Gage's books in his room, so and I like to do yoga on my green yoga mat.

* What are some of your favorite foods? FOODS, well, grapes, and green grapes, mac n' cheese, grilled cheese but only with cheddar cheese, raisins and hotdogs, pizza, pepperoni and watermelon (that's what she calls pineapple)

* What do you like to wear? Um, dresses, my Disneyland shirt, skirts, and um, k let me think, my Tinkerbell outfit, and my white leggings.

* What’s your favorite color? Yellow and pink with white polka dots like my floaty

* Where are some of your favorite places to go? Well, Pump it Up, uhhh, Northwest Kids Club, Wal-Mart, that's my favorite place to get toys, Idaho, Colorado, the condo by The Little Mermaid and stuff, Old McDonald's, Panda, Red Robin, and Petco and that's it.

* What things make you happy? Happy? Well, when a person does silly things to me it makes me happy. And when you rock me in the rocking chair and watch TV. And when Peyton comes to our house all the time.

* What makes you sad? When Gagey hits me. When other people hit me. When I was younger I used to not like characters so they used to make me sad that time, but now I like them.

* What do you do when you are sad? I just um, go somewhere else.

* What do you do when you are mad? Well, like when Gagey hits me I just walk away. And it makes me stomp my feet.

* Who are your best friends? Peyton, Sadie, and her friend Riley, Porter, Madi, Jack, and Alex.

* What are your favorite movies or TV shows? Brain Surge, Wipeout, Tangled, Sid the Science Kid, Max and Ruby, and Dora, Disney Princesses, and don't forget Tinkerbell, and the Disney Christmas parade.

* What are your favorite books? The number and the letter books, my Friend magazine, Pinkalicious, Purplicious, Goldilicious, and Silverlicious.

* What are your favorite songs? Um, I don't know mom. My preschool songs, and well, I Lived in Heaven, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the ABC's because I totally rock it, and that's is.

*What is the best thing about having a birthday? When you get to be the older sister and you get bigger than your little brother. And playing games at my party.

Happy Birthday my beautiful 4 year old!

The Big Boy Bed

2011-08-10T15:52:00.000-06:00

For the last several weeks, Gage has become obsessed with any bed but his crib! He finds a bed, climbs up, snuggles in with the covers, then pretends to snore. So we started trying him on his big boy bed. It would last about 30 seconds before he would come running out and yell "Ta-Da!!" We'd play his little game with him for a few minutes, threaten his crib if he got up again, then ultimately put him in there.

That was, until we had a babysitter last night.

I had one of my YW over who had never babysat for us before. I showed her around the house, got out jammies and a diaper for Gage, showed her his beloved blankies, and ran out the door.

When we got home, the house was silent, both kids were sleeping. I took her home and was asking how the night went. I asked her if Gage cried when she put him to bed. She said he did for a few minutes then went to sleep. I told her how he really wants to sleep in his big boy bed but he won't stay in there so he gets mad when we put him to bed in his crib.

The babysitter gasped and said, "I put him to bed in the big bed! I didn't know he didn't sleep in there. After I brushed his teeth I told him it was time for bed and he just ran and climbed under the covers of his big bed. He made it seem like that was what he does." And then she apologized over and over and over again.

I just laughed!

We've been trying for like 3 weeks to get him to stay in his bed and he never would. The sitter said he never got out once! When we went to check on him he was still all tucked in his covers!

I guess all it took was a babysitter to do the trick, because he slept all night in his bed.

I snuck in this morning and took this picture!

So, when nap time came around today, I asked him if he was going to be a big boy and sleep in his big boy bed again. He shouted "YEP!" and ran to his bed!

And he's been sleeping for 2.5 hours and counting!!!

Didn't even get up once!

Maybe we'll hire this babysitter again when we start potty training! :)

---------------------------------------------------------------

On to another big boy bed story:

Shaun's fam is coming into town tonight, so I was washing the bedding in his room for them. I started unbuttoning the duvet cover and Gage discovered a new hide out! He thought it was pretty funny.

Random Happenings

2011-08-10T15:22:00.000-06:00

We have been having some fun outside time this summer. We have not had a single day in the 90's this summer, which is fine by me! We've only used our air conditioner maybe two days. It's so nice to have sunny, but cool weather.

The kids were begging to play with the sprinkler but it was almost time for dinner so I didn't want to get their suits on. I just let them play and they loved it. Ironically, the next day I put them in their suits to play out there and got out the fun kid flower sprinkler and they wanted nothing to do with it.

Gagey learned how to go down the slide head first!

I can't believe all 3 kids looked at me and smiled!

Gage is sitting in the corner because he hit his sister. He looks real remorseful, huh?

I went and picked blueberries with my friend last week! I got close to 20 lbs worth of them and spent a couple hours out there. When I got home, I opened the door and they all spilled out.

It was such a bummer!

(sorry for the poor pic. quality, blackberry has no flash!)

We picked them all up, washed them off, and had blueberry pancakes the next night for dinner!

They were delicious!

Birthdaty Celebrations

2011-08-10T11:54:00.001-06:00

Maisey's real birthday isn't for two more days, but we will be camping with no Red Robin in the proximity, so we celebrated her birthday with mine last weekend. And since Scott has the same birthday as her, we decided to throw his celebrations in the mix!

At her party the day before, Maisey got a make-up kit from one friend and a dress-up kit from another friend. She got herself ready for dinner that night by using both kits! She also HAD to bring her camping barbie with her to dinner.

Maisey and Scott with their ice cream sundaes!

My ice cream! YUM!

Unfortunately, it got taken over by Gage who was really sad and confused on why he didn't get his own.

On Sunday, we had a nice BBQ at my mom's and opened some gifts.

My mom made me this cute apron to match the colors in my kitchen!

Maisey got lots of fun things including the new Silverlicious book, a princess game for her leapster,

new shoes for school,

and princess skateboard, which she has been BEGGING for,

and a 2-pack NERF gun set, which she has also been begging for.
Do you think she hangs out with boys too much?

Gagey enjoyed that last gift as well.

Her favorite gift of the day had to be her new Barbie cruise ship from her Grammy. Somehow we didn't get a picture of it though.

My mom made my favorite chocolate cake for dessert. It tastes so good when you don't have to make it yourself!

6th Anniversary Getaway

2011-08-10T11:38:00.000-06:00

Our 6th anniversary is this weekend, but because of our ward camp out that starts tomorrow, we decided to celebrate last weekend.

We follow the traditional anniversary gift list to inspire gift ideas each year. It's kind of a fun tradition! For the 6th anniversary the gift is sugar or candy related.

I went the cheesy route and made a cute candy-gram for Shaun!

And he went right for my heart by getting me See's!!! It's only taken him 6 years to get all of my favorites down! It was the perfect box. He's so awesome! (And somehow, there are still a few pieces left. It never lasts me a few days, let alone a whole week!)

We gave gifts to each other Thursday night then after Maisey's party on Friday, we headed out of town, ok, just barely out of town. It's only a couple exits up from our house, but it was a wonderful weekend! It also happened to be my birthday weekend, so all I wanted to do was shop!

I picked out these way cute shoes for my birthday!

We stopped at H&M! Best store ever! We also made a few other stops along the way and came home with a new chair, glasses for our kitchen, jeans, sweaters, hoodies, shirts, shoes, cleats (Shaun!), and kid's clothes! It is so much easier to shop with out one kid throwing cars across stores and then crying when you can't find them and the other one whining because I won't buy her some ~~ugly~~ interesting shirt or whatever it is she is begging for that day. Instead I just had one nice, patient husband who was happy to hand over the cash when he was asked! Like I said, a wonderful weekend!

After shopping and dinner, which was sub-par :(, we headed to our hotel! The Grand Hotel at Bridgeport! And it was awesome. We booked the King Jacuzzi Suite, but when we got there they upgraded us to the Deluxe King Jacuzzi Suite, complete with a fireplace.

It was a perfect place!!!

We slept in on Saturday, ate a hot breakfast at the hotel, made a small stop at H&M again, then headed to Malibu Raceway! Shaun had never been before, and I hadn't been since I was 16! We had a great time and want to go back! Shaun's fastest time beat my fastest time by 4 seconds. He tells me I can't tease him for being a slow driver anymore!

After Malibu, we headed to downtown Portland for the Portland Saturday Market and some

Voodoo Doughnuts!!!

The doughnuts were way good but not worth the hour long line that we waited in. At least while we were waiting, my starring addiction got it's feed. There were plenty of interesting people to ~~stare~~ look at. Shaun had to keep reminding me to look away! Haha!

We left Portland to head home, but stopped at Costco first. Again, it was amazing how peaceful and enjoyable a trip to Costco can be with out the kids!

Once we got home, the chaos began with a trip to Red Robin for dinner. After Red Robin, my mom and I went to the state Jr. Miss program that one of our friends was competing in. That was a fun way to spend my birthday evening.

The weekend was seriously incredible! I would do it all again in a heart beat! Anyone want to babysit next weekend?

Maisey's Pinkalicious Party

2011-08-05T22:41:00.002-06:00

A few months ago, Maisey decided that she wanted a Barbie party. I dove right into planning it and we had decided to do a Barbie-Que. I had our guest list made, the location set, the menu picked out, it was going to be grand. And then I had an "Ah-Ha!" moment. I remembered my motto for 2011: Keep things simple! That Barbie party was going to be anything but simple. So Maisey and I sat down and talked about some other options. She wanted a Special Agent Oso party. I said no. We agreed upon the Pinkalicious party, and you can tell from the pictures below that it did not disappoint!

We decided to keep the guest list limited to kids her age. Parties get too big and too out of control when we try and invite everyone! We had the perfect number of kids there! We decided to have the party in our backyard. We set up the food area on the deck.

Maisey requested plain pink cupcakes and homemade strawberry lemonade (like Red Robin's)

We set the table before the party started. In each of the pink caddies in the middle of the table were pink m&m's, pink jelly bellies, pink marshmallows, and pink animal cookies. Each place setting had a knife and little cup of pink frosting so each guest could decorate their own cupcake. We also had pink sprinkles and cherries to put on top!

This was the gift table

We started the party off by reading the Pinkalicious book! If you've never read it or heard of it, go here for a summary!

Then we played Pinkalicious Bingo!

Maisey was smiling ALL morning long!

That's what 4 year old birthday parties should be all about!

After Bingo, we played pin the cherry on the cupcake and all the kids had a great time!

Then we sang Happy Birthday. . .

. . .Let her blow out her candles. . .

. . .And the kids got decorating!

Look at that concentration!

After cupcakes, all of the party guests posed for a group picture

then headed back to the grass to watch Maisey open her gifts. She got some really fun things that she couldn't wait to play with!

We sent the kids home with cute treat bags full of green treats, just in case they ate too many pink things at the party.
(I forgot to take pics of the treat bags, pre-handing them out! This was Gage's which has been well loved by his little paws.)

Oh, and did I mention that this little sneak ate ALL of the cookies out of one of the caddies, before we even got to decorating the cupcakes?

The party was a HUGE success. And the nicest thing about it was I didn't stress one bit the morning of. Shaun took the day off of work so he was able to help with the set-up and my mom also came up early. Everything was so simple, but still so fun for the kids. I'm so glad we pulled an audible and decided on the Pinkalicious theme. All afternoon I just kept saying to Shaun, "I can't believe how easy and fun that party was!"

Maisey requested everyone in our family wear pink to the party. Well, her daddy didn't have anything pink except for his tie so Maisey asked him to wear it!
Don't my boys look so cute in pink?

Happy Birthday my Pinkalicious Maisey!

I'm glad you enjoyed your party!

Zoo Trip

2011-08-01T22:26:00.000-06:00

Even though we had just returned from our camping trip and I was still trying to get everything put away and clean from that, we headed to the zoo on Monday with the cousins. It was a perfect day, not too hot! The kids were really good as well.

The kids thought it was so neat that the baby elephant was swimming.

Aunt Jeanne gave each of the kids some money to spend in the gift shop. Maisey and Madi each picked purses with stuffed animals inside. And Gage picked a semi-truck with a car trailer and three animal print cars! Even in a store full of animal things, Gage spotted the truck and cars! Not surprised!

Our New Bedtime Song

2011-07-31T22:19:00.000-06:00

Sung to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

Stinky stinky diaper change

Boy, my brother smells so strange

He made something in his pants

Sure hope it won't attract ants

Stinky stinky diaper change

Boy, my brother smells so strange!

It's okay, don't hold your nose

Now he's clean and in fresh clothes

All his stuff is often stained

Can't wait til he's potty trained

He's so cute in his playpen

What's that smell? Oh . . . not again!

Both the kids get a good kick out of this one!

Oh, how we love bed time at our house . . .

and clean diapers . . . and our brother!

Oregon Coast Camping

2011-07-31T22:07:00.000-06:00

We went camping with some friends to Devil's Lake in Lincoln City. On Friday night we made tin foil dinners, ate lots of treats, put the kids to bed, and stayed up waaaaaay to late and talked around the fire. We all have young kids, so it's not very often we get to sit and talk with out being interrupted! It was really nice. On Saturday morning, we headed to the beach, but not without a stop at the Candy Shop.

They were making fresh taffy while we were there. The kids always love this part.

A fun family weekend!

Gage needed a nap and I didn't mind cuddling up with him and resting. It was freezing, so the towels and his blankie were keeping me warm!

Maisey flying her kite. It only got away from her twice!

The dads got in a little snooze as well!

The kids had a great time building sand castles, playing in the water, hunting for sea shells, and getting buried.

We were going to stay for 2 nights but our kids were seriously melting down so we decided to head back home Saturday night. Plus, we had already missed three Sundays of church in July! We didn't want to be put on the inactive list! :)

Youth Conference - 2011

2011-07-29T16:11:00.001-06:00

I wanted to write about our ward youth conference before we leave for our next adventure. . . in one hour!!!

We headed to Ashland, OR for a fun-filled two days! On Friday we worked on a service project, headed to the lake, and had a fireside. I slept on the floor in the hall on Friday night because we had heard that a couple of the girls were talking about sneaking out. Definitely not my best night sleep!

Saturday morning, we woke up super early, headed to the Medford Temple to do baptisms, then headed to the Rogue River to do some rafting. We stopped for ice cream at the famous Rice Hill on the way home.

Here is my favorite moment from the trip:

It has been years since I have wake boarded! I popped right up as if I just did it last week. I even got a few good jumps in (in first pic I'm landing) before face planting it pretty hard! It was AWESOME! We also rode on a 12 man banana which was way cool. I've only ever done a 6 man. This was so fun. There are pictures on someone else's camera so if I ever get them, I will add them to this!

My not so favorite moment of the whole trip:

I wanted to write about this before it was too far out of my memory. When we were dividing up who was in which boat when we went rafting on Saturday, a bunch of the young women wanted to be with me and few other female leaders. We ended up with an all girls boat that had 9 of us in it. When we started on the river it was about 11:30 am, and the water was swift and cold! Ok, cold is an understatement. It was as close to freezing as you can get with out actually having ice in it.After about ten minutes of paddling some of the young women in our boat decided they really wanted to paddle. We started switching paddles and positions and everything when we realized we were heading straight of a bridge pylon. By the time these inexperienced girls starting paddling, it was too late. We ran straight into the pylon and the current started sucking the back end of our boat under. The whole boat flipped and sent 7 of us floating down the river. 2 clung on to the raft for a while trying to get it unstuck from the pylon before a fisherman came over with his boat and rescued them. I was one of the unfortunate ones that got dumped in the freezing water and floated down the river. Our Bishop's boat was a little ways ahead of us and could hear all of us screaming. They paddled to the side of the river and we all made our way over to them. The bishop reached his hand out for mine and he was within centimeters of grabbing me. I reached my other hand toward my friend so I could pull her in as the Bishop pulled me in. Well, my friend grabbed my one hand a half second before the Bishop grabbed my other hand, and it spun me away from the Bishop's boat and back out into the COLD and SWIFT river. The Bishop's raft was able to pick up everyone else who got dumped out except for me. I was terrified. The day before we left for youth conference there was a story on the news about an 11-year old boy who drowned in the river. All I could think about was I was going to either drown or die from hypothermia! I was probably in the water for a total of 8 minutes, including a set of rapids! By the time another boat came and rescued me I was freezing. I could barely talk, and I couldn't stop shaking. Since I was one of the first out of the seven of us to make it to Bishop's boat and then got sent back into the river, I wasn't able to see if all of the other girls and leaders in the boat made it. I was really worried about them and I just wanted the new boat I was in to pull over so I could wait for them and make sure they were ok. I eventually talked them into pulling over but they missed a clearing in the shore line and we ran into several trees. One of the boys that was paddling in the front pushed a branch back so it wouldn't hit him in the face. As soon as he passed it, he let go of it and it whacked me right in the head and gave me a nice little cut. At that moment, it took everything out of me to not cry. I looked down at my watch and we had only been on the water for 45 minutes. This was supposed to be a 3-4 hour float. At that moment, all I wanted to do was be dry and warm and at home with my kids. I did not want to be rafting anymore! We eventually made it to the river bank and waited for about 45 minutes. We never saw them which worried me even more, but the boat I was in didn't want to wait anymore, so we left. I eventually hopped in another boat that wasn't into getting in water fights with every other boat that they saw. I enjoyed my ride in the third boat and made it safely to the take-out spot with no more incidents.

About 45 minutes later, I start to see all of the girls from my boat! I was so happy to see that they were ok.

{There was a ton more to the story here, but when I pushed "publish post" it disappeared. We are now leaving in 17 minutes and our car is not packed, so I will have to redo it when we get back! Boo.}

It was quite an adventure. At first I said that I'm not sure I would ever get on a raft again! But I'm pretty sure I will as long as we are more organized and smart about who is paddling and when we switch paddlers. It is definitely an experience I will never forget!

A Few Random Things

2011-07-24T21:30:00.000-06:00

* Maisey loves to look her calendar and ask about everything that is written on all the days. This used to take forever, until we limited the calendar to one month a night. Tonight, it was May's turn. So we flipped open to May and we started with May day, then Cinco de Mayo, then Mother's day, then Luke's birthday, etc, etc, etc, until the end of the month. The final thing written in May was Maisey's last day of preschool. With out missing a beat she said, "Oh, tear!" She makes me laugh.

* We were matching the DVD that I made from our video camera in December of 2010. It had Maisey's gymnastic performance on it, as well as Christmas with Grammy, and real Christmas. Gage thought it was so funny to watch himself on TV and on the section of Christmas with Grammy he opened a dino flashlight from her. In real life, he got so excited and went and found the dino flashlight and starting copying everything he was doing with it on the TV. It was pretty funny to watch him. We may be breaking out the home videos more often.

* Maisey is STILL obsessed with death. Tonight she was talking about it with Shaun and I and she said that on time someone told her that when you lay in a hospital bed you go to heaven. I asked her who told her that and she said she wouldn't tell me. Then she asked us if there was a tunnel that leads from the hospital to heaven. I told her that her Papa who lives in heaven was very proud of her for singing his favorite hymn today. She said she already knew. I think she must have a special relationship with her Papa who lives in heaven.

* I survived our ward youth conference. More to come on that later, I just wanted to get these little memories down tonight.

What I've done since we've been back!

2011-07-20T23:20:00.000-06:00

I am still EXHAUSTED from our trip! I haven't been to the gym once since I've been home, and my to-do list just keeps getting longer and longer. Next week, I'm getting back into routine.

But this is what I've done in between the almost daily naps.

Made freezer jam with 30 lbs of strawberries and 15 lbs of raspberries.

Picked another 15 lbs of strawberries to make strawberry bread for home teaching and visiting teaching families. Delivered said bread.

Made homemade strawberry syrup! Can't wait to try it out tomorrow night for dinner!

I also took Maisey to the hospital to have some testing done that her pediatrician recommended (too many uti's). That was entertaining!

They did an ultrasound on her kidneys and bladder and then they gave her some sedation before the next procedure. I sat her up on the bed and got my camera out to take her picture and as soon as I snapped the picture she started falling off the bed! Haha! I didn't know the medicine would work so fast. Let's just say I put the camera away for the rest of our visit at the hospital.

She was HILARIOUS on this medication! She told me that she wanted to name a baby Crayon. She was saying all sorts of silly things. She also made up and sang/yelled a crazy song about stickers! She also told me to take her pictures making silly faces. I just grabbed my phone and snapped a few.

She was soooo loopy and I'm glad she doesn't really remember anything. Having a catheter is NOT fun, especially for a 3-year old.

We stopped for a doughnut on the way home because she couldn't eat after dinner the night before. She scarfed the doughnut down and was asleep within minutes. I moved her to her bed when we got home and she was out!

The doctor called a few days later and said everything looked good! I'm glad everything is fine, but it is still puzzling why she gets so many uti's.

We have also been busy planning this little girl's birthday!

August is always a busy month for us so it's hard to fit a party in, but this little girl has been planning every detail, so we will make sure to fit one in for her!

I also completed 2/3 of the triathlon that I will be doing in 6 WEEKS!!!!!! I rode 12 miles on my bike then ran 3.1 miles. It went better than I expected and I am so pumped about this race!

Maisey had a sleepover with Grammy this week! They painted nails, played games, and watched Chihuahua the Movie (which btw, is NOT a kid movie!!!). When Grammy was driving her home, this was their conversation:

Maisey: Grammy, when you have a sleep over at my house?

Grammy: I have slept at your house.

Maisey (in a very serious voice): You slept in Gagey's room. His room smells like pee. You should sleep in my room. It smells like cake balls!

I guess it hasn't been too bad of a week! My house just looks like I haven't done anything since we've been home! It will have to stay like that until next week because I'm heading to Southern Oregon for the weekend for our ward youth conference. This is going to be such a great experience for our youth. I'm way excited!

Family Vacation 2011

2011-07-13T01:46:00.002-06:00

Whew!

We made it home all in one piece -- barely!

It was a long 2 1/2 weeks, but we had a great time and created some wonderful memories.

I stayed up waaaay too late tonight and got all of my posts done.

20 of them to be exact!
I posted them by their real dates, so they will all be backward to you. If you care, you can go to June 25 for the first post and work forward!
I seperated them by Week 1 (Shaun's fam) and Week 2 (My fam)

We were sure busy!

Now I know why people say they need a vacation from their vacation!

Week 2: EXHAUSTED!

2011-07-10T22:18:00.000-06:00

By the ride home on Sunday, everyone was in the Don't talk to me, Don't touch me, Don't even look at me mood!

Week 2: St. George Randoms

2011-07-10T20:21:00.002-06:00

Some left over pics from St. George that didn't really belong in their own post!

4 generations!

Grandma Smore and her girls!

The kids had fun going on rides on Grandma's walker!

Celebrating Brian and Grammy's birthdays at Pasta Factory

Grammy had a sleep over with the girls. They watched Tangled and had a great time!

Week 2: Rhodehouse Pictures

2011-07-09T22:06:00.000-06:00

These pics are out of order, but I don't want to go back and fix them. So here you have them. The new family of 3: Blair, Katelyn, and Brock Rhodehouse.

I threw this one in there because Gage was helping get baby Brock ready and decided to brush his own hair. He just looks really mischevious.

What a cute little family!