Nativity Program.

Our ward did a nativity program during Sunday School and it was so cute. Being on bed rest the Relief Society president utilized FaceTime for me so I could enjoy it.

Connie was an angel and of course played the part so well. She looked beautiful and I wish I had a picture.

Kyler was an inn keeper and he is hiding behind his sign, but it cracked me up that he was "David\\\'s Rest Stop." so funny!


Ethan was an animal. I put him in black and called him a black sheep, but he was determined he was a black dog. He was super funny. It was ingenious to have all of the sunbeams as animals. Animals are wiggly and unpredictable. He was a riot.

Santa

Our ward had a Christmas party this weekend and Ethan was so excited to see Santa! Jason said he sat on Santa\'s lap and gave him a whole list of what he wanted. I love the age when they really get int the whole Santa thing. Connie has now come to a conclusion about Santa now and is excited to help us this year. Kyler has made the same conclusion, but doesn\'t care either way. :)

Christmas Train

So, Jason was such a good husband and he knew how much I was dying to have the Christmas decorations up so he and the kids did it the Friday after Thanksgiving. They had so much fun!! Well, we have this train that Nana Lopez gave us a few years back and we neglected to put it up last year making it the first year that Ethan remembers it at all. He had so much fun just sitting and watching the train run around the tree. It totally cracked me up. He was so cute just laying there. He looks so much like his Daddy.

I Made it to 31 Weeks!!

Well, I made it to 31 weeks. Actually, I\'m about halfway to 32 now! We are happy. When the blood pressure started up so early, we were very concerned that this pregnancy would end earlier than the rest. But, in 10 days I will reach the point at which I delivered Kyler. So, I\'m feeling pretty good about the benchmark! Yay for babies staying in to bake!

Fun Daddy Time

Yesterday, Jason took the kids to the area where he goes paint balling and showed them how to shoot a paintball gun and gave them some targets to shoot at. They had a great time. He took these photos.

this is Connie\'s shot. Straight though the target!

they had a great time! Jason posted these on Facebook and a teenage boy posted "your kids are so lucky." It made me giggle. It is so true!

Sleepovers

Ethan, for some strange reason, has become convinced that he needs to have a "sleepover" with Kyler lately. They share a room so it took me a while to figure out what this meant. He wanted to have a sleepover in Kyler\'s bed first and then last night they had a sleepover in Ethan\'s bed. They go to sleep well, so it does not bother us at all. In fact, it is really cute.



What cracks me up is the way they both use the ball pillows that Grandma Connie made them. Their little necks get crooked, but they love them! Thanks Grandma Connie!

29 weeks and well on our way...

We\'re getting very excited in our house as my pregnancy begins to wind down. It has been really rocky and we anticipate only about 4 to 5 more weeks of more rocky. :) Evie proves to be an active little girl. Now that the blood pressure is worsening, the doctors do a test called a non-stress test. They strap on some monitors and watch the baby\'s heartbeat to ensure that her heart rate accelerates with activity and decelerates with rest. Problem is, she does not rest much, so it takes forever to accomplish the test. It has been pretty funny. Here is a picture of my ever growing belly.

Kyler's Artwork

Kyler came home from school today with a piece of art HE drew in art class. His art teacher is phenomenal and can somehow make a kid like Kyler, who doesn't like anything drawing or art related, come to love it and do it all the time. So, here is a picture of his drawing of his own shoe. I was totally impressed!!

Happy Halloween!!

In the continuing to praise what a wonderful husband I've managed to marry, he made the boys costumes this year. They wanted to be Tron Legacy characters. Kyler wanted to be Rinzler and Ethan wanted to be Sam Flynn. Jason got out the duct tape and went to work! He even got some glow in the dark paint and made them "glow up," in Ethan's words. I thought he did a Great job!





Connie made her own costume. I saw this idea in a magazine at the doctor's office (where I spend way too much of my time) and showed Connie later. She was a paper doll. She took some posterboard and made a skirt, shirt, hair bow and purse. She was so excited. It turned out great. That night we took some blue eyeliner and gave her some "drawn on" eye shadow and some red lips! I put a little mascara on her, which always makes her eyelashes look almost fake they are so beautiful and she looked perfect! I love that her clothes even have tabs on them. She's so creative!

Connie's Birthday

Connie is officially one year from Young Women. I am old!! She got a special little outing with Stephanie to buy some girly things that would not be fun to shop for with Daddy, and then I told her that she could have a few friends over for her birthday to spend the night. I'll admit I did sway the certain friends she chose as I knew the ones that would be calm and no trouble. I'm embarrassed to say that, but her list was too long anyway and she couldn't make a decision. I just helped it along. :)

A dear friend made some cupcakes and some butter cream icing and I let this use my nice wilton cake decorating stuff to decorate their cupcakes. I showed them how to change the tips on the bags and how to practice on wax paper before decorating their cupcakes, etc. It was wonderful. Not much fuss and the girls had so much fun. They did a good job!




Then things got a little silly! :)



As you can see by the large and silly smiles they had a GREAT time! They watched a movie, opened gifts, had pizza and stayed up far too late! Actually, Connie at about 11pm comes it to tell me she's tired and wants the girls to be quiet so she can sleep. Jason chats with the girls about how late it is and in a mere fifteen minutes she and another friend were fast asleep while the other two kept giggling for another 45. She's a girl after my own heart. When she was little she would just tell me she was tired and go to bed on her own, that girl loves her sleep!

Daddy woke up that morning and made pancakes for breakfast for everyone. I was amazed at how many of them these tiny little girls could pack away! Have I mentioned lately how amazing my husband is? <3

Kyler's Birthday

So, my kids are so old now!! They are happily adjusting to this hard year of bringing another sibling into our lives and so graciously sacrificing birthday parties and other fun things that mom usually does.

For Kyler's birthday we just had Stephanie and her family over here for dinner. He wanted pizza for dinner, so we got Papa Murphy's and saved it for Sunday for dinner. Easy, and it made Kyler happy. My sister generously made him a large cookie (at his request) for his birthday cake and he got to open a few gifts.

I can't believe he is a mere two years from holding the priesthood. When did I get that old?

Here are some pictures.

He had to open gifts first. This gift came from his primary teacher, who is the best ever!! She gave him a variety of fun things, but this was the coolest in my opinion and it made Kyler happy too. At the beginning of the year she asked what his favorite animal was and he said cat. So, for his birthday, she gave him some of these ceramic cats that she had when she was a girl. So special!
Christian and Stephanie and fam gave him some camping gear because he is going to be camping more as a scout now. He is actually really excited to get out there and use it! That being said "it's too cold to go camping". He needs to learn a thing or two about scouting! :)
Jason took Ethan shopping with him on that Friday to get gifts from the Lego store as that is a big obsession in our house. Kyler got home from school that day and the first thing Ethan says is "KYLER, WE GOT YOU LEGO NINJAGO FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY!" I guess taking the 4 year old shopping for that was a mistake! Later on, Kyler says to Jason "You know dad, you shouldn't have left that receipt out because now I know exactly what set you bought me." So much for birthday surprises in our house, ha ha!

Here's Daddy with the big cookie. He was funny with the candles. They added up to 10! :)

We are blessed

The children and I have truly been blessed through this pregnancy and through many other points in our lives that we have such a great Daddy on our home. He is a loving husband and wonderful father. As an example, yesterday he spent his Friday evening and Saturday morning helping Connie have a little sleepover birthday party, then spent all of his Saturday accomplishing tasks he normally would not even think about because I do them. He is so great!

At one point in the day, Ethan was playing on the Nintendo DS and asked Jason for help. It would have been so easy for Jason to say no or even to just take the DS and accomplish whatever it was that Ethan could not. Instead, this is what happened



He sat with Ethan and helped him do it himself. We love him so much!!

My Favorite Ethanisms

The more Ethan talks, the funnier he gets. Here are some of my favorite things he says...

WOOK! (said with great excitement because he wants you to see what he does)

When you tell Ethan he can\'t, or shouldn\'t do something he says "don\'t worry..." For example, the other day I told him there wasn\'t room for him to sit with me. He says, "don\'t worry, you will just scoot over."

He starts almost every sentence with "almost". For example, "almost Kylwr built this ship for me with Legos."

My favorite conversation I\'ve had with him lately though is this.
Ethan: "mom, you have to pick a movie for us to watch"
Me: after thinking a minute I say "Little Mermaid"
Ethan: with a sigh of disgust "that\'s not avaiwable on blu ray! " he cracks me up!

This one’s for Grumpy

So, Kyler has expressed some interest in fishing and Jason and Kyler went with a neighbor the other morning.  The neighbor offered to take all of the kids next Saturday and Ethan was so excited he said we get to go like this… and this video shows what “this” is.  He’s so funny!

Evelyn update

Well, she continues to grow and thus so do I.  She is already expressing her little personality.  She is very active, but will out and out kick anything that creates a new sensation on my belly.  If I wear clothes that have a seam or put some pressure on my belly she will kick it all day long except when I move it off my belly.  If you push her she will kick back.  If something cold touches my belly, she kicks it.  If I lay on my side, she kicks the bed…You get the idea.  Went to the doctor today though, and she seems to be thriving.  She is strong and growing fast.  The doctor is extremely pleased.  21 weeks and counting!

In my boredom, I have been crocheting things for her.  It passes the time and now that I know what she it, it makes me happy to do it!  Here’s a picture of the first blanket I made.

It’s Fall!!

The weather has been beautiful here lately, especially in the mornings and evenings.  We have a camping chair that is a recliner, so I have spent some time in the back yard enjoying it.

The kids finally convinced Jason to build a fire in the pit on Saturday and so we all sat outside in the nice weather and roasted…starbursts.  Mommy doesn’t like marshmallows, so we always have starbursts to roast too and this time the kids decided to only do the starbursts. It was fun.

“Mom, it’s dirty!”

They got bored, so they started to run around a play in the yard.

Ethan was already in pajamas.  He’s always willing to ham it up when there is a camera involved, so this is him showing us his Spiderman wings.  He’s too funny.

Spoiled Kitty…

The biggest culprit for spoiling cats in our house is actually Connie.  The girl gives them whatever they want.  The result is that they love her.  Evidence?

Neither of these cats was coerced into this position.  The first was asleep before I showed up with my camera.  The same with the second.  She’s definitely the cat magnet!

Then, Ethan seeing I have the camera out has to be a ham and get in front of it.

Who needs toys?

We had this box in our living room from a package that arrived. Boxes usually get left in our living room for a couple of days because Jason likes to spoil the cat who plays in them, but this time it was more than the cat that was spoiled.  Ethan spent a lot of time is this box that was just the right size for him!

He’s too cute for his own good!