Elsa....I mean Breanna

This girl does NOT ever want her hair done.  Thank you Frozen for helping my daughter to actually let me put a braid in her hair for once.

She likes it b/c it's an "Elsa" braid.

This pic is for the record book :)

Chef Ethan

Ethan wants to make food everyday.  His favorite thing to make is toast for ANYONE.  He also enjoys making sandwiches with all types of concoctions.  The other day he made a sandwich with bread, sprinkles and strawberries.  The day before that he made bread, chicken, cilantro and strawberries for his sandwich.

The kids used their own money to each buy a doughnut last night.  Today he told me he knew how to make donuts.

So, he got a piece of bread and laid it out on the table.  Then he pushed a lego piece into the center of the bread, which cut out a tiny lego size piece.  Then he put a sprinkle on it.

After this he proceeded to make us each one.  We were allowed to choose 1, 2, 3 or 4 sprinkles.  I chose 3 and Breanna chose 4.

After all this excitement he spilled sprinkles on the floor "on accident" and the kids ate as many as they could before I made them vacuum them up.

This was all before church at 9am :).

This article hit home to me.

To wives: Before you were Mommy

By Becky Thompson

For Scissortail Silk

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865596178/To-wives-Before-you-were-Mommy.html?pg=all

Ladies, there will come a day when your husband walks in the door and you do not turn around. You will be preoccupied with filling up sippy cups and wiping booties. You will shout over the running bath water, “Hey! Glad you’re home.” But it won’t mean what it used to mean. It won’t be full of eager anticipation to spend time together. It will be full of expectations to aid in the demands of the family. “Glad you’re home,” will more properly translate, “Thank goodness for two extra hands to help me.” And “Praise the Lord I might get five minutes alone.”

Ladies, there will come a day when you spend every last ounce of yourselves on your children. The demands of life and the babies will come before any other priority. What little of yourself you have left at the end of the day will be used to crawl into bed before someone is awake to need you again. The thought of doing anything else after the children are asleep will sound impossible and your handsome husband’s happy smile had better mean he is willing to get up with the baby and nothing more.

The husband that once completed your heart will be just one more person who needs you. The charming things that you fell for will go unnoticed. The daily grind will become expected.

Men, there will come a time when that beautiful bride sitting next to you hasn’t showered in days. She will be at her wit’s end wearing other people’s food and poop on her clothing. She will need to hear that she is beautiful, but she won’t listen to you. She will need to know that she is still lovable, but she won’t want you near her. When you arrive home after meeting the demands of work, you will be expected to meet the demands of your family. Your wife will hear none of your exhaustion, and you will see none of hers.

Men, you will call home to ask a quick question and anticipate a two-minute conversation. Half of it will be spent listening to your wife talk to your kids. As a matter of fact, you will make it no more than a few sentences in to any conversation ever before your wife spurts out direction to your children.“Don’t climb that!” or “Don’t sit on your sister!” You will become accustomed to these outbursts, but you will forget that there was ever a time when you had her full attention.

But Ladies, when Mommy becomes your name, remember this man. Remember that you are his wife. Remember how much you love and appreciate him in this moment. Remember his dedication to your family. Remember his love and devotion to you. And then, when the days are long and you need a break, fall into his arms.

Men, remember your bride. The care and love that she has given you will soon be spilled over to your children. Her love for you will not change. Give her the grace to be enough even when she doesn’t feel like it. Remember when your days are long, hers are too. Remember her. Fall in love with her again.

Remember each other. Remember the two that made the family. Let the Lord lead you both together. Because when the days are endless and the hours short, it will only be his love who keeps you together. It will only be his mercy that gently guides your hearts as one. Hold tightly to one another, and even more tightly to the Lord. There is no greater adventure for you to experience and no greater gift than to walk through parenthood with your best friend. You are a team. Every single day.

When they had heard these words, perhaps then, I would offer a certificate. Something that they could hold in their hands to remember that they were prepared.

So, to my friends, a reminder. Something for you to hold onto. A cue to look into the aged eyes of the one you love and see the one for whom your heart fell. May our words be sweet. May our hearts be received. And may we remember the love of our youth.

Olympics

Last night we watched the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

It started at 6:30pm and ended at 10:30pm.  Rob wanted to let the kids watch the ceremonies and I wanted to put them to bed :)  Ethan lasted til 9:20 then was tired and I put him to bed...he was asleep within 2 minutes. I made Luke go to bed at 9:40....he was acting totally normal and running around the house/watching with us although that's 2 1/2 hours past bedtime!

Breanna stayed up til 10:05 when I forced her and Rob to turn it off so I could move the baby to her crib in the family room.

We started watching it really around 8 or so, there was lots of interviews and stuff before then and so we kept turning it on and off to check.  I think Breanna enjoyed it the most.  Ethan and Luke had a hard time paying attention.

Tonight we watched a few minutes of the snowboarding.  Very cool. I'm excited to watch more and teach the kids about the Olympics.  They were very impressed that USA had over 200 participants.  Tonga had 1 athlete, which we were very impressed about!

C and L

4 month check up:
Weight 13 lbs. 14 oz.  - 50th percentile
Height 25 inches - 75th percentile
Head 16 1/4 cm - 55th percentile


L - 2 year check up:
Weight 27 lbs 12 oz. - 40th percentile
Height 34 1/4 inches - 45th percentile
Head 19 1/2 cm - 75th percentile

Well it's been 5 months since I last posted ;)

It's been forever since I last posted.  Claire is now 4 1/2 months old and not in the belly anymore :)

She is 13 lbs. 14oz. and a happy baby.  We have had several illnesses for the past few months, so I am a tired mommy.  We had the throw up bug run through the family (more like crawl slowly) so that was over Thanksgiving and into December.  We were healthy again after that til the beginning of January.  Now we have had kids with colds and coughs, including Claire with a very congested nose and cough :( Sad!

Life is good and hectic right now.

Breanna is in 1st grade
Ethan is in preschool

Luke hangs out with mom
Claire hangs out with mom

Breanna will turn 7 in 11 days!

Ethan can now write his name and is starting to memorize words at preschool so he's starting to "read".

Luke continues to play with trains, trucks, cars, anything with wheels.  But he can now differentiate the trucks and calls them "truck" everything else is still a "choo choo."

The Countdown

The countdown is on.  Less then 5 weeks til baby's due date.  I just added something for the to do list, pack my hospital bag and one for the kiddos for their stay at Grammy and Grampy's while we are at the hospital.

At 35 weeks:

-Feeling good, yet heavy
-Not exhausted, but want to sit/lay a lot b/c it makes me tired to do a lot
-Have been nesting during tons of this pregnancy.  We have gotten a lot of little odds and ends jobs done around the house b/c of this.
-I have been washing the baseboards, the doors, the floors, the cabinets, the walls.......not jobs I normally do (man we have kids with grimy hands!)

-Have an ultrasound on Monday last one til she comes....I'm excited to see how big they estimate her size :)
-My feet swell a tiny bit when standing for a long time.
-The past 4 days have been WONDERFUL, we had a break from the heat and it's been cool and cloudy. I've loved every minute of it.
-My belly feels today like it stretching and there's no more skin to stretch.
-She feels very big in the belly, no space for her or me!

This is our last baby so it would be nice if I could enjoy this more. I'm honestly more excited to have her and be done being pregnant.  But, I do LOOOOOOOOVE the sleep I'm getting right now, that's the only thing I don't want to change!!!! Dreading that change.

Ethan told me the other day he just wants to cut open my belly and take his sister out so he can see her.  He's excited for her and thinks she'll be as big as his hand.

Breanna is very excited for a little sister and I told her i would let her hold the baby as long as she wants, so we'll see what happens.  Whenever we have a baby around that is someone else's baby there is always a short time limit for her to hold the baby....so she's excited for this.

Luke is clueless and will have his world rocked when baby girl comes home and doesn't leave.  Thankfully he's sleeping great at night (finally) and will hopefully keep that up when she comes home.  He has a stuffed animal that he calls baby and he tried to feed it a bottle the other day, so he's grasping some things.

Here's a pic my sister took of me.  I don't want to post it on facebook b/c I look at it and think that's not me, I don't look that huge, but here it is for the record.  That was at 33 weeks.