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! :)