The Rays Days

Day 1. IPhone style

2012-01-30T21:08:00.001-05:00

Happy birthday, baby delaney

2012-01-29T18:42:00.001-05:00

I am in heaven.

ha ha

2012-01-29T06:15:00.000-05:00

remember that time, 20 days ago, when i said i had 10 more days?! silly!

also, where has the baby in my ticker gone? my friend lisa pointed out that the baby has disappeared. what, 41 weeks and 3 days isn't normal? whatevs.

this and that

2012-01-29T06:09:00.000-05:00

thursday night was another wrestling night. lexi borrowed my phone because she "had" to take a picture. it's cute at least. :) i skipped the wrestling match because a) i had felt crampy all day, b) dinner wasn't ready, and c) the last match i went to lasted 2 1/2 hours. this one only lasted a little over an hour, oh well.

since thursday was the never ending day and friday was supposed to be rainy, i made plans to stay in all day.

at one point things got really quiet and i was pretty sure there was no good going on. but sometimes those 15 minutes of quiet is really worth the mess.

here is the mess:

lipstick.

lipstick was also applied to the window, bathtub, and table in her room.

she helped me clean up and all was well.

and i still think it might have been worth it.

another reason for staying in on friday is that i really thought it would be baby day.

see, my little girls are birthday thief's. addie was born on lexi's 12th birthday (and 10 days overdue), and frankie was born on sister amy's birthday (and 11 days overdue). so friday would have been my grandpa seagrove's 90th birthday, and i just thought for sure that was our day. and we were 8 days overdue. we had a nice, lazy day. both the little girls actually napped, which was nice. right around 3, as christian had left to play basketball and the girls were napping and i was realizing that nothing was happening, i started to get a little stir crazy/depressed. no problem, i called matt, told him i needed some "me time" for a pedi and he said no problem. :)

sarah met up with me and we had a wonderful, very pregnant duo pedi.

(i had gotten a wonderful pedicure the day before addie was born, so i guess i think somehow that might work again. this time i'm 0-2. :( )

the rest of friday night was spent getting christian to basketball practice and visiting with matt, alexis, and the twins. it was nice.

(the twins and lexi also went for a walk with me, went to eat dinner, and did the "cinnamon challenge." if i ever figure out how to do video again i'll upload the video of them. in lexi's words "we threw up like 10 times! it was soooo fun!" we all love our twins.)

on saturday morning i woke up to this:

my wonderful hubby hard at work mopping the floors. he's a keeper. the little girls slept in till 9! that never happens except when daddy is home and awake and ready to take care of them when they wake up.

i went to a fun baby shower for 3 of the other preggy ladies at church.

i got home, put babies down, helped matt put the house back together after mopping (he's good at getting things done, not the best at putting things back together, that's okay, we're a team!), and watched some lifetime movies with lex.

she's got the boy troubles. but she actually talked to me about it and we had a great day.

christian had a basketball game at 4:30. addie has been my game day buddy, so she came with me to get him there early and we watched some of neighbor david's game while we waited. she had fun climbing all over everything. matt and frankie met up with us later.

the rockets played hard and it was a really good game! unfortunately they lost by one point, but it was such a good, well matched and well played game that i thought it was okay. now they are 3-1.

(that means won 3, lost 1, right?)

christian is the blur with the ball.

(i keep forgetting to take my real camera, so these are iphone pics)

after the game we came home and whipped up some baked potato's and all the fixins' and headed over to mccombs for some yummy bbq chicken. after dinner we watched "i don't know how she does it," which was cute.

while there, my friend amy texted that she had a treat for me, so she came over and brought her "labor inducing peanut butter cookies." she says they worked twice for her pokey babies. they are delicious and i've eaten almost the whole plate, so we shall see...

after the movie we read scriptures with mccombs, came home and put 2 very tired girls (and 2 very tired big kids!) to bed (it was after 11), and collapsed into bed ourselves. i woke up at 5 and now am blogging. for the record can i just say, i love the oprah winfrey network?! dr phil at 5 am?

yes, please. :)

the never ending day...

2012-01-27T07:33:00.000-05:00

on wednesday we met up with mindy and izzy at mcdonalds for some playtime and mommy/mindy time. it was so nice to visit with her as she's getting ready to move. ): we got home with just enough time to get girls down to nap, chris got home, i got more paperworky things done (never ending!), matt got home early, and then mindy showed up. i had forgotten that we were going walking while her boys were at piano. matt kept the girls (nice surprise to have him home early!) and made dinner while mindy and i power walked our neighborhood. i had been crampy since tuesday's power walk with lex. crampy, crampy, crampy, but nothing else.

then the big kids (including addie) and matt were off to church and frankie and i hung out just the two of us.

yesterday was a long day.

i went grocery shopping for the last time, again.

this is actually probably the 5th or 6th "last time to grocery shop before baby" we've done.

the good news is that we're building up our food storage!

i also didn't sleep well the night before. i was up from 3-5, up with kids/matt at 6, back to bed and up at 7:30 with addie. doesn't make for a restful night.

we dropped addie off at preschool and franks and i headed out. she's been my little buddy lately, for some reason i've had several opportunities to spend time alone with her and it has been so fun! i got a little teary yesterday, walking up to the store holding only her hand and thinking i wouldn't be able to do this again. at least not for awhile and not very often. i love being able to focus on one child at a time, even if it's while running errands.

i had asked sarah if addie could stay after preschool and play for awhile and she said yes, so we made a real errand running trip out of it. we stopped by marshalls (love that store but it can be super dangerous!) to use a gift card. we got a super soft baby blanket amd new rain coat and socks for addie. now frankie can inherit her old one and boots, and addie just needs boots. i don't know why, but i love rain gear!

next we stopped by kohls to make a return. i had gotten a $10 coupon, but it wasn't supposed to be good till sunday. kohls is very customer oriented, so i decided to play the pregnancy card and see if i could use it early and they let me. (: i got matt his christmas slippers (i had gotten them from marshalls for christmas but wrong size, hence the marshalls gift card), a "big sis" shirt and "i love daddy" shirt for franks.

kohls has a cute "family bathroom" with a mini potty. i love those cute mini potties! frankie asked to go, sat for awhile and pushed like she was trying, but still nothing. that's okay, we'll keep trying.
(she also wore her crown, mostly upside down, the whole day. i love that girl!!!)

then we walked over to dicks to straighten out a dicks points discrepancy. at that point i was already pooped. and we still had to hit the commissary, the real reason we were shopping at all. a quick stop at mcdonalds for some sustenance before the comm, and we were off.
and yes, for those counting, that's 3 days in a row of mcdonalds food.
don't judge, i'm a million months pregnant and it's so convenient!

anyhow, the commissary always takes forever. i tried to hurry, because by that point preschool was over and i felt bad leaving addie for too long. but i use coupons and... i'm just slow lately. we had been walking for hours and i was crampy again. frankie was so, so good the whole trip though.

we picked up addie and visited with sarah and abby for awhile. got him with just enough time to get girls down before chris got home. then i still had to put groceries away.

fiasco time, i opened the trunk and my huge jar of pickles fell and broke. in a genius move, i opened the garage door, which then got stuck on the trunk of the truck and was still trying to go up. i called frantically for chris and i don't think there was any damage (or at least not much). chris helped with a bucket of water so our garage doesn't smell sour and we got all the groceries unloaded.

i so wanted to have dinner ready for lex before she had to go cheer for wrestling at 6, but i was soooo tired! she snacked and seemed fine, matt took the girls for a walk, i took her to the school and then stopped by food lion for some veggies i had forgotten. at that point i felt like this day would never end. i was tired, uncomfortable, and grumpy because i hadn't slept well. that's one of my least favorite attributes, my crabbiness when i'm tired. i can just feel it, it's just a general black cloud over my mood. i do try not to be, it's just more difficult.

and, just for the record, i try really hard not to complain too much about being pregnant. there were a lot of years that i didn't know if i'd ever have another baby because i didn't know if i'dis exhausting.

back to the never ending day.

i got home (630 by this point and dinner was nowhere near being ready), and asked the boys for some help. we all pitched in and finally sat down for dinner at 7. we made 2 shepard's pies (one for dinner, one to freeze) and a delish 7-layer salad (my fav salad right now). then the kitchen looked like a tornado had hit, but matt offered for me to take girls up for baths and he would clean. i love that guy. just as the girls were getting in the tub, lex texted that she was ready. sigh. christian watched the girls in the bath, i picked up lex, and matt worked, worked, worked.

back home just in time to wash girls, jammy them up, and get them to bed. so i missed the whole easy part of the bath, but oh well. i had to remind alexis to finish her chores (which she loved!) and then there was still a floor full or peas, cereal, and other related garbage after sweeping. i hate to knit pick, but at the same time, i feel i should be training the kids to do a good job. and sweeping, for both big kids, is just not working lately. i don't mean to complain about the big kids, they are good kids and they always do their chores, (mostly:) they just cut corners sometimes (like we all did at their age, i'm sure). but i love those kids.

after prayers i vented to matt for a few minutes and went up to bed.

finally.

that sweet man stayed up to finish the kitchen till almost 11. if you know my hubs, he like to be in bed by 9, so i really, really appreciate all of his help.

and that was the super informative, super long version of a 41 week pregnant crabby patty.

today is supposed to be rainy and i don't plan on leaving the house until my chauffeuring duties start up after school.

it's gonna be a good day, i can feel it!

Frankie and me

2012-01-25T19:58:00.001-05:00

Matt has been coming home after work on Wednesday's and taking Addie with him to scouts. Since big kids have church also, I've had some special time to spend with my baby.

I love this kid!

surprised!

"how old are you?"

"one!!!"

(or 6, 10, whatever she feels like. but she always gets that 1 finger up there!)

"where's your head?"

she is getting so big and is just cute, cute, cute!

she sings, she talks in sentences, she plays, and loves.

even though she's kind of bratty, i am loving this stage!

ps - iphones make blogging soooooo easy!!!

A sunbeam!

2012-01-25T16:47:00.002-05:00

Or a sun-beep if you're frankie.

Addie's sweet nursery leaders made the kids these cards on their last Sunday in nursery. Isn't she just the cutest???

6 days late and counting...

2012-01-25T10:35:00.001-05:00

the library was fun. i was running a little behind so we only had about 20 minutes to hang out there before we had to go meet colleen. we had so many books to return (lots of preschool books!) that we pulled our dora rolling backpack, and this big girl got to pull it on the way out.
so grown up!

they were w.i.l.d. at colleen's house! i guess i forgot how fun it is to run around a new house. i was so embarrassed and then i started to feel bad cause they really haven't been able to get much energy out lately. so we texted sarah and mindy and made some plans. :)

then franks took a nap and woke up with awesome hair!

monday afternoon started off rough, but ended nicely.

alexis even talked to me about some boy problems and seemed to listen when i responded.

it was like having my old lu back, only a more grown-up, mature version. it was awesome!

we have a book that we write notes back and forth to eachother in, so before bed i hurried and wrote her a note letting her know how much i enjoyed our talk, and that i hope my advice wasn't too "mom." for her. i hope this new lu sticks around for awhile!!!

on tuesday we had plans to meet up with sarah and abby at our winter play spot - mcdonalds.

franks always helps me get ready.

we planned to play until 12, which was made easier because addie came to me about 5 till 12 and informed me that she was sorry, but she had pee'd her pants and could i change her please.

i know accidents happen, but seriously?! she's 3 1/2! we cleaned up her mess and were on our way home. lucky for her, daddy had packed a clean pair of unders for her in our diaper bag so she didn't have to wear a diaper on the way home. :)

i went to the ob at 2:30 for the overdue pregnancy workup.

sonogram that showed babies fluid is good.

i forgot to ask her to measure the baby to see how big she is though.

then the kick count.

if you've never been late in pregnancy, (cause your not lucky like me!) it's where you get hooked up to a fetal heart rate monitor for 20 minutes and then you press a game show like button each time the baby kicks.

everything looks good and we are clear for another week.

and no more dilation, just a little bit more effacement.

yay.

after naps, i convinced alexis to go for a walk with me. it had been a beautiful day, even though when we left it was already cooling down. we power walked a little bit, which is very uncomfortable when you are hugely pregnant. i was trying to do a repeat of frankie's birth.

i went to the dr. and got an exam (check), went for a power walk (check), felt crampy all evening (check), contractions started at midnight and she was born at 5. nothing.

and part of me really thought that was gonna work again. :(

park fun!

i had put drumsticks in the crockpot, so we ate dinner as soon as matt got home, and lex and i were off to wrestling. the only other wrestling match i've been to lasted less than an hour and i was hoping for a repeat of that. this one lasted 2 1/2!!!

but lexi had found me a chair with a back and i got to sit and chat with her coach, so it was okay.

today we're off for another playdate with mindy and izzy. trying to stay busy, busy, busy!

and just for good measure, franks says

"what chu talkin' 'bout, willis?"

Monday, monday

2012-01-23T07:53:00.001-05:00

it was a cold, cold weekend! winter has finally caught up with us and i'm not super happy about it. this morning was gray and foggy.

(view out our backyard)

heidi and hannah came over to watch movies on saturday night. hannah stayed the night with lex. the stipulation for them coming over was that lex clean her room. she was supposed to have cleaned it last weekend and never did, even though she got to go out. she piled all her clothes into a laundry basket and called it good. i call that lying. by tuesday, the clothes were all over the floor, again. i told her then that she would not be going anywhere until her room was cleaned. i had thought about what i would do if she asked to have a friend over and came up with, yes a friend can come over and keep you company while you clean your room.

well, h and h came over, and the room is still filthy. so here's my parenting question, does the childs room matter? we've gone back and forth on this one, yes, it's her space, but it's still in our house. and often when i am ready to do laundry i can't because i have no clue what's clean or whats dirty in her room. and yes, i know i could make her do her own laundry, and i probably should but... i don't know. and i hate seeing her filthy room. and i would like it clean. so i made her give me her phone today and until her room gets cleaned. she was super happy about that.

second parenting issue of the weekend is dinner. on saturday night as dinner was cooking (still had an hour+), lexi got home from cheer camp. she was, understandably hungry and made a nutella half sandwich. i was fine with that, but then she made a second. i reminded her that dinner was cooking and please not to ruin her dinner to which she informed me that she didn't want to eat our dinner, she was fine with her nutella. should i really have to force feed my 15 year old?

and the babies are even worse. they do not sit at dinner. they do not eat dinner. they run around, want daddy to hold them, play, anything but sit and eat with the family. just like everything else, this problem started small and i knew i should squash it as it was starting. but i didn't and now it's driving me crazy!!! time outs, tears, frustration, that was our dinner last night. one parent thinks we should make them something they would like to eat and one parent says they should eat what the family eats. what do you think? also, i think if they don't eat dinner, they don't eat anything else that night, right?

so needless to say, the weekend ended worse than it started, but it was still good. i came up with a new creative way to sleep (propped on 3 couch pillows) and slept pretty good last night. we put addie to bed early because she didn't get a "rest" (1:00 church) but kept frankie up because she slept for an hour and a half in the car after driving home from church and she was so cute and fun. she sings and performs for us now, she is growing and getting so smart! we all had fun playing with her and she loved being the center of attention. maybe i can even figure out how to upload a video from my iphone of her being cute.

(but i doubt it)

today we'll go to the library, do laundry, tidy up from the weekend, meet w/colleen, then the big kids get home 2 hours early, so maybe we should go do something?

i would like to do something at the st. mary's hospital, but that's just me.

Freeze out

2012-01-21T21:14:00.001-05:00

Christian made it home from the freeze out by 4. They hiked 2 miles (800 feet) in the dark last night (so their eyes could adjust). They stopped several times along the way and each of the leaders shared a spiritual thought.

Christian reported that it was "only cold at night when they slept, other than that the hiking was hot."

His MRE was gross (ravioli) but he ate it because he was hungry. His long johns and all the other cloths he brought (including his brand new boots) were warm and he ended up hiking down the hill without his snow pants.

Besides being a little too tired (and crabby!) all went well and he had a great time. So thankful he gets so many fun opportunities!

Weekend so far

2012-01-21T13:49:00.002-05:00

It's been a really good weekend so far. matt had his friday off yesterday. we talked about him either working friday so he could take a day off when the baby comes, or just take a day off early, and he chose early. i'm really glad he did. i was up from 2-5 thursday night/friday morning, so he let me sleep in till 10 when i finally was able to get back to sleep. it was heaven! then he kept the girls occupied so i could do tons of paperwork for the home closing and other equally annoying clerical kinds of things. while he did that, he also got dinner in the crockpot, awesome!!!

we ate dinner and then he took christian into town to get long johns for his "freeze-out" boy scout campout this weekend. christian seemed excited and even matt was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't go. silly boys! they left at 5:30, got to their camp around 9, and had about a 3 hour hike to their campsite (although i heard from laura today that it was more like a 4+ hour hike and they didn't get settled till 2!).

then i went to a fun pampered chef party. after the party we all sat around talking and visiting. we need to have more girls nights, even if they are just girls night in's.

this morning matt made muffins and alexis and i went to sew camp pants at church at 9. i really hadn't planned on going to the party or the pants making, but here i am, and i'm glad i was able to make it to both. i know nothing about sewing, but lana helped alexis and she was able to finish her pants by 10:30. then we headed to target to help little sister buy "please welcome me to the family gifts" for her older sibs and then had time for a quick lunch at red robin before i had to drop lex off at the high school for a cheer camp. she was so excited.

(not)

my little seamstress!

and some of the other girls...

alexis trying on the almost finished product.

the pants are very bright. :)

more of the ladies...

lex hiding from the camera.

and sweet lana helping alexis with her sewing duties.

it's a rainy and cold day. and since we don't have a lot planned (you know, since we were supposed to have a newborn keeping us busy), matt and i tried to take a nap when the little girls went down. my aching rib kept me from getting comfy though. now i am eagerly awaiting 4:00 when my chauffeuring duties resume.

and that's our good weekend so far.

surprise!

2012-01-20T17:08:00.000-05:00

on monday i had plans to have lunch with 2 of my fun girlfriends, sarah and shelly.

i kind of thought that i might already have a baby by then (silly me!), but figured that if i didn't, lunch out would be a fun distraction. and the big kids were home, so i 'hired' christian to babysit, and off to lunch i went.

i met the girls outside (surprisingly i was late!) and we walked back to our table where there was a whole group of lovely ladies there to celebrate our sweet little baby #5!

(who remains nameless)

just getting there, just realizing, thank you hug. (:

the conspirators.

we had so much fun visiting, comparing pregnancy and birth stories, and eating!

sarah is due exactly 3 weeks after me, (even though we found out we were pregnant on the same day!) so we like to compare baby bumps. i have always thought mine was bigger (and my lovely children have always agreed!) and i think this picture confirms my theory.

c'est la vie, i wear my baby bump proudly!

the ladies...

of course, i didn't have a camera, so these are all courtesy of debby!

thank you, mama debby!

i am so blessed with such wonderful friends that i can call sisters!

and after lunch, since the babies were still napping, i treated myself to a target shopping trip. all.by.myself.

what a wonderful day!

celebration!

2012-01-20T03:27:00.000-05:00

tonight we went out to our favorite japanese steakhouse for a celebratory dinner because we finally sold our home in new mexico!!! we got a babysitter for the little girls and had some big kid fun!

our sweet renters bought our house and we couldn't be more excited for them!

that was our first home as a family of 4, the first home we bought, the home we brought addie from the hospital to. we have so many good memories of our little home on bob jay drive!

(group self portraits are always fun! we each tried to take it, but in the end we all felt that christian's was best. yes, this picture was the best of the bunch!)

when boeing closed it's shop in nm and we were faced with moving, the housing market was terrible. we tried to sell with a realtor and tried to sell on our own, but in the end, renting was the best option and after lots of prayer, the way we decided to go. unwilling landlords we became.

(i-phones are so, so fun!)

until the house closed, i don't think we let ourselves realize how very stressful it's been to have a second home. or could have been, i guess i should say. we were very, very blessed with good tenants and no major problems. but to know, at all times for the past 3+ years, that we could have a major problem in one or both houses, that we could have tenants move out and be faced with 2 mortgages, and that we really have never been financially prepared for any one of those 2 scenarios, that has been stressful.

in the end, we learned a lot and would actually like to own an investment property.

someday.
when we are financially secure enough to do it wisely.

and live within 1500 miles of said investment property, that would be nice.

but for now, we are celebrating owning only 1 home!!!

goodbye little house!!!

on your due date

2012-01-19T16:36:00.003-05:00

seems like years ago i read a blog post written to a 4th baby and it touched me.
or course, i can't find it, and can't remember really anything that it said, except reassurances of love and the desire for that baby.

(at least that's what i took from it.)

at my surprise baby shower lunch (post to come) on monday, my friend sarah said that they wanted to celebrate my baby because like i always say, "every baby deserves to be celebrated." i've been thinking about that all week. i guess i didn't realize i said that so much, but i fully believe it's true. and this little 5th baby of ours was.
and is being celebrated.

so as another due date has come, some thoughts for my 5th child.

i want her to know that she is so loved. that she was, and is wanted. that she was (and is, and always will be!) prayed for. that i know our family won't be complete until she's here. and that she holds a special, special place in my heart.

i've been thinking a lot about birth these last few weeks. emotions are high. that can be a good and a bad thing. i've always been an emotional person, i feel really high highs and really low lows. i think as i've gotten older i've learned that the low lows don't last, and i've gotten better about not letting them affect me as much. but i do love my high highs. looking back at two silly little girls all strapped into their carseats, both with winter caps on their heads (crooked and backwards for frankie) and mittens on their little fingers, just because they found them before we left the house and had to wear them, that brought me to tears of gratitude. like, full on fuh-fuhs. watching christian play basketball and my heart about to burst because they played so hard and didn't give up. looking at my lexi, my first born, and the beautiful young lady she's grown up to be, and thinking of that little baby i held in my arms so many years ago. emotions are high.

i feel so close to heaven, does that make sense? like, we are so close to bringing this little spirit, straight from heaven into our world. straight from God's arms. and i've been wondering if that contributes to all of these emotions. like my natural man can't fully understand or come to terms with the miracle of being so close to heaven. so close to God in creating this life. or maybe i can more than i think, and that's the emotions. living in this world but having such close contact to heaven.

sadly, my aunt (my mom's younger sister) recently passed away after her second battle with cancer. That's had me thinking about the whole circle of life. and how a loved one passing away is very similar to a birth, in being so close to heaven. it can be a very spiritual and very emotional experience spending a persons last days with them. and being so close to them as they go back to God's arms.

maybe these are just the ramblings of a very pregnant lady.
a very grateful, very pregnant lady.
whatever it is, these are my thoughts on your due date, sweet 5th baby of mine.

and for you to hurry on down here, i can't wait to hold you.

Rocket man!

2012-01-18T18:43:00.001-05:00

Christian is playing basketball for the rockets again this year. He had a choice between his coach from last year (who was awesome!) and his BFF mike's coach, who happened to have the only undefeated team last year.

The problem was, he's kind of a mean coach. He yelled a lot and definitely expected to win, whereas Christians coach was very focused on learning the fundamentals, everyone playing, teamwork, drills, etc.

Even though both mike and David were set to play for the terps, Christian decided to stick with his old coach, and I am so proud of his choice.

Their first game was last Saturday and they won by a lot. This past Saturday they played the terps. There was lots of friendly trash talk going around between the boys and it was a great game! A real nail biter the whole time! Especially the last few minutes where they were within a point of each other and kept switching possession of the ball. But I am happy to report that the rockets won! By one point and the skin of their teeth!

I am also happy to report that Christian's playing has improved and he seems more confident and happy about playing.

Go rockets!

3 in a row

2012-01-18T05:47:00.001-05:00

I love finding rando pics the big kids have taken on my phone. Here's one from Sunday. I can't believe that soon there will be 4 sisters! We are so blessed.

Ps- another tough week at sacrament meeting at church. Frankie is so so tired and apparently when she's overtired she likes to hit, so there's a whole lot of slapping going on in our pew. I cant say i blame the girl, I know I feel like slapping people when I'm tired and crabby too. ;)

You know you're from southern Maryland when...

2012-01-18T05:41:00.001-05:00

Your son asks you for a mullet and you gladly oblige.

Either that or you're just excited to be able to cut at the mop of hair, and know the mullet won't last long.

Either way, I feel very at home where we live. ;)

Church these days

2012-01-15T04:54:00.000-05:00

This year our church starts at 1 and I'm kinda loving to hate it. For Matt, Lex, Chris, and I, it's great! But it falls right at nap time for the little ladies, and that's been tough.

Franks cashed out in nursery last week. She slept for about an hour like this. :)

For the big people, I love that we can wake up when we wake up, leisurely eat breakfast and still come home with plenty of time for dinner. Also, it can sometimes be hard to keep kids (little and big) occupied with Sunday appropriate activities, but so far that's been easier with this schedule.

The other big change this year is that our Addie-cakes is a sunbeam!!! I can't believe she's getting to be such a big girl! I love her teachers, there are 2 of them because there are so darn many little cuties, at least 10 coming regularly. So far I think Primary is going okay, last week her teachers said, and I quote, "she wasn't the worst one." I also get regular reports (from several different people) that Addie is quite the dancer. Apparently she likes to spin and twirl during singing time. What's a fancy girl to do?

They had a cute Primary activity, a meet your teacher breakfast. After breakfast they got to play games, and Addie had so much fun!

Frankie wanted to get in on that action.

Love these big kids!

Addie being silly with her teacher.

We love Paige!

Today is early Sunday morning and I'm hoping for a better church day for the littles.

And that I can get back to sleep now (4:30am).

So that I can have a baby today. ;)

finally!

2012-01-14T02:59:00.000-05:00

no, not a baby, but a fully painted basement!
matt had monday, jan 2nd off, (the big kids had to go back to school because they had missed so many days because of hurricane irene) so we made a goal to finish painting the basement that day! we started just after 6:45, after christian left for school, and then matt didn't finish till after 6 that night, it was a long day! i helped paint till the babies woke up, and then we brought them downstairs with us, where they played nicely for over an hour, and then started getting whiny for breakfast. so needy! ;) i kept them upstairs playing until naptime.
our day:

dress-up and doll houses and strollers and babies.

during naps and movie time, i helped where i could.

all day, the little girls were very interested in daddy's progress. especially when he got to the stairs!

i love the color and am so glad it's done!

the boys busted the wall at christian's birthday party last year, so it took us less than a year to fix the wall and paint the whole basement.

not too shabby, right?! ;)

new years eve

2012-01-14T02:40:00.000-05:00

we went over to the mccombs for new years eve. they had a big party and it was fun to hang out with lots of friends. and eat all night too, of course. we hadn't really planned on staying till midnight, but the little girls did fine and the big kids were having fun, so we stayed. i didn't take any pictures, but mindy took this one for fb, so here was our new years. :)

let's go 2012!

Medieval Times

2012-01-13T09:09:00.000-05:00

The last week of December we also went up to Arundel Mills Mall to use the tickets I won (last Christmas!) for Medieval Times that also expired on the 31st.

The big kids didn't care about Medieval Times because the Easter Bunny brought us tickets for the show a couple years ago. So we let them each bring a friend to walk around the mall (it's super nice!) and Matt and I each had a baby in our lap for the show.

They both enjoyed it, even though it was a little long. And we all had a good time. :)

i love how frankie wore her crown!

our little model. she comes up with this stuff on her own!

Odyssey cruise

2012-01-12T14:34:00.001-05:00

Matt and I went on a fun Odyssey cruise on December 30th. It expired on the 31st, so we had to use it! We've been on so many fun dates lately, I love it! The cruise was fun and pretty and the food was good. And I stayed awake for the whole ride home!

Today I...

2012-01-11T21:52:00.001-05:00

-put away my to do list...
-gave mani's and pedi's to 2 cute little girls...

-put together a giant letter puzzle and played "go to the letter" forever...

-played with play dough...

-made princess soup, strawberries, and pickles for lunch...

-continued growing a human being. in ma pajamas and robe, no less...

-read books and took naps... in snow hats no less...

-went on a lunch date with my favorite 13-year-old...

-and went to see my favorite cheerleader perform...

...with my youngest cool cat...

-enjoyed an awesome and much needed day off...

christmas 2011

2012-01-10T22:17:00.000-05:00

we had a wonderfully fun christmas.

my new york lovin' sister alli was able to find a last minute greyhound ticket for $33, so she joined us on the 23rd, which was super fun. we played games, went shopping, went to the movies, and cooked.

then on christmas day, since our church was pushed back to 10, i wasn't too sure how the morning would play out. but to alleviate a crazy rush to church, we planned to just open our stockings before church and the rest after. we had a few extra minutes of downtime before church, but i think it worked out nicely.

kinda grumply and still sleepy addie. and it was well after 8 by this point.

she perked up when she got ahold of her stocking.

church was wonderful. lots of beautfiul music and everyone enjoyed it.

as soon as we got back home, we all changed back into our jams and had fun with our presents.

the little girls saw this and it was pretty much over.

for frankie it was way over.

i think i did okay this year, but someday i will really learn that less is more.

christian excitedly helping addie with the rest of her presents.

goofy happy face.

and awesome hair.

it was a very baseball christmas for christian!

love lexi's face! she had no idea!

lex and alli were christmas jammy twins.

da' man.

new hat.

happy, dirty, goofy girls.

lexi had a very bieber christmas!

love her!

thoughtful books from our daddy-o.

matt finally listened and got me my beautiful jewelry armoire.

i. love. it.

santa brought us just dance 3, so we had fun with that all afternoon.

yes, even i did. there is no photographic proof that i participated though, because alli thought it would be funny to film me instead of just taking still shots. silly girl.

da' boys.

and da' girls.

funky was all proud of himself cause he won.

we munched all day and ended up having our dinner around 8 that night.

and that was our wonderfully fun christmas.

10 more days!

2012-01-09T06:48:00.000-05:00

at least to our due date, which we all know is not concrete!

but still!

10 days!

i figure that even if she's as late as frankie, we will have a baby within 3 weeks!

yikes stripes!

my body is super ready to be done being pregnant, but my life, not so much.

despite my best efforts, i am still behind!

some of it is just your normal needing to go shopping and do laundry.

(and clean my bathroom that may or may not have been thouroghly scrubbed down in the last 30 days)

but then there are the extra's that despite my best efforts, and numerous follow-up phone calls, are still not done. don't even get me started on the mva, insurance, doctor's billing offices, realtors, phone companies... blah! oh well, right? it will all get done.

someday.

the doctor said little lady is super low at my appt. last tuesday.

that would explain the pelvic and tailbone pressure and pain.

i've chosen not to be checked for dilation, i just don't feel the need to know that right now.

i'm measuring perfectly and at least for last week, my weight had leveled off, so that's good. ;) i've gained 28 lbs., so that's not so good.

and now i will get back to work preparing for this little lady.

and/or taking care of her 4 older siblings, however you want to look at it. ;)

i could really use a burst of nesting energy right about now!

our year

2011-12-31T07:24:00.000-05:00

january

in january i got the mutha of all toothaches. that taught me a little bit about our Heavenly Father (weird, i know!) and His love for us. sometimes we all have to go through some pain so we can learn and be willing to do the things we need to do. and as a parent, even though it's hard, it's necessary. simple, i know, but my toothache taught me that.

february
in february we celebrated love and all that goes with it. we had our first annual official 14 days of valentines and we added another teenager to our family. there was lots of basketball and lots of candy to be had in february.

march
march brought frankie's 1st birthday and a fun pink party, papa's fun visit and lots of sightseeing around our beautiful neck of the woods, and some st. patricks day celebratin' and lots of green.

april
in april grandpa ray came to town! we love spending time with our grandpas! we also took a fabulously fun trip to florida with the fischetti crew. on the road there we got our first dose of crazy weather for the year when we survived our first tornado. we missed christian while we vacationed, but also grew and learned from difficult situations. and matt turned 42! yikes!

may
the warm weather started and we spent a lot of blessed time outside. we checked out beaches and had pool parties and wrapped up some school stuff.

june
june is our busiest birthday month with our 2 girls celebrating on june 3rd. matt and i ran our first race and we found out we were expecting our latest little bundle of JOY! school wrapped up, alexis went to girls camp, christian went to boy scout camp, and we prepared for our summer voyage.

july
brought our long, long trip to seattle and exactly 0 blog posts! the pregnancy nasuea and exhaustion came full force, but amy still made me participate in my second race and first half marathon. we sent christian off to texas (sad face) but he was kinda bored and miserable and came home earlier than he ever has before (happy face!). we checked lots off our seattle bucket list, spent time with lots of family and friends, and got our fill of traveling until after baby girl comes.

august
back to school! 8th graders and sophmores! it was also the month with the craziest weather ev-ah! in one week we survived a tornado, earthquake, and hurricane. we came out of august exhausted and broke, but safe and happy. we also found out we were having another baby GIRL!

september
the kids finally went back to school again, lexi made the varsity cheer squad, christian played baseball, mama and addie started preschool, matt finished up our deck, and frankie started gymnastics.

october
in october mama nested and worked hard to organize and become more efficient with life - including kid swaps and days of cooking. we also went to tofw, franks had surgery, lex had homecoming, christian gave his first talk, and we celebrated halloween.

november
we painted, finished baseball, went to ny, got ready for christmas, and went to breaking dawn at midnight. we also enjoyed super mild and wonderful weather!!!

december
we had a wonderful christmas, the boys went snowboarding for the first time of the season, we experienced some teen growing pains and lots of parenting learning moments.

2011 was a good, good year. a relatively easy year. we didn't have any new jobs, new homes, new schools, new babies, it was just a good, calm year. which was twice as sweet because it was followed by a particularly tumoltous year. it was a year of learning and growing and discovering. relationships were tested and strengthened. lots of lessons were learned.
(wish i could say we were done with all the lessons being learned but something tells me otherwise;)

i think there's a good chance (but hopefully i'm wrong!) this next year and a half could be pretty difficult. 3 little ones at home all day, plus 2 big ones, plus some exciting stuff matt's been cooking up for awhile... just the thought of it all wears me out. so i'm taking some extra time to reflect on the good, sweet year we've had. and i know we can make it through the bad and that will make the good that much better. and i know that
i can do hard things. in the strength of the Lord i can do all things.

so, i'm preparing as best i can. i'm willing to ask for help and accept it.
i'm looking forward with faith and excitement and gratitude and hope.
2012, bring it.

christmas eve

2011-12-30T19:33:00.001-05:00

santa in the grant

2011-12-30T13:38:00.000-05:00

santa rode into our neighborhood on a fire truck a couple weeks ago and all the neighborhood came out to meet him. this was the 3rd time franks had met santa, and she wasn't feeling it. weird, because the 2nd time, she loved him.

ha, ha. i love the angry baby pictures.

not sure?

after the santa ~~torture~~ meeting, they got to ride around the neighborhood on his sleigh. there's addie's little pink capped head poking over the side of the sleigh on matt's right.

and after the festivities.

little miss did not want to walk.

she got over it.

our only carolers!

2011-12-30T07:55:00.000-05:00

we finally got it together and went caroling this year (twice!) and it made me wish for carolers to come sing to us. and they did! after a rousing rendition of jingle bells they even pulled out the marshmallow gun, just for use on the kids of course.
(and then after the shooting rampage, the little girls had a delicious blast eating all the marshmallow "shells" all over the porch!)

it was sooo super chilly, so before the special justin bieber miseltoe number, we invited them in. of course frankie cozied up with sarah right away.

lexi loved her bieber serenade!

carolers with ukulele, hot chocolate, marshmallow guns, and bieber?!

awesome!

today

2011-12-29T14:22:00.000-05:00

i'm interrupting my annual end-of-year blog-a-thon to focus a little bit on today.

the preggy-not-able-to-get-back-to-sleep-thing has started and after my 3am bladder relief (although last night it started after my 1am) i can't get back to sleep cause my mind is racing. things i need to do, random ideas, blogs to post, what to eat, you name it, my crazy can't sleep self thinks of it. of course, why wouldn't my mind be racing at 3am?

last week i kept the kids nice and busy with the mall, movies, lunch dates, chores, practices, and shopping. but this week, not so much. we are getting a little stir crazy and i've been too tired to do anything about it. addie is turning the corner to little girl-dom and has been very annoying lately, and i say that with as much mommy love as i can muster. "mommy, let's play a game, will you paint my nails, can we play with play dough, can i open frankie's gift, can we make cookies..." non-stop! i love the girl, but seriously! and she's been so sensitive! you can barely tell her anything and she covers her face with her hands and runs away crying. ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! i need a break!

then matt was gone from mon-weds snowboarding. and then i got the bright idea to de-christmas the house by myself (which, in reality i do every year by myself, but not at 8+ months prego) and i have been exhausted and not doing much with addie, or anyone else for that matter. so i'm happy to report that yesterday we did everything on addie's above mentioned list, except make cookies, cause i don't think i can stand having anymore cookies in this house, and you know me, i never say stuff like that!!!

alexis is riding the teen roller coaster with a vengeance. one day she hates the world, and the next (this past monday to be exact) she's an angel, doing her extra list of jobs that i left her, 3 loads of laundry (washer, dryer, folded, and put away), her regular chores, and cleaning up after dinner and picking up the family room, all without being asked. i kept asking her if she knew something i didn't know, like that i was terminally ill. and she didn't even ask for anything! maybe there's hope for that girl yet. ;)

matt and christian went with the boy scouts up to some remote ski resort in west virginia. they both reported that they had an awesome time. there were something like 20 scouts that were able to go. the first day wasn't very cold, but it was rainy, so my genius son decided to snowboard in shorts. boys will be boys! matt tried skiing, since the ski's were included in the cost of the group tickets they got, but didn't love it so switched back to his snowboard by the first afternoon. i'm glad they were able to go and have so much fun. :)

franks has been sweet, but needy. teething maybe? who knows, but i'm trying to enjoy it. since matt's been gone, i've had the opportunity to rock her to sleep twice a day for the past few days. and since my glass is half full, it's been really, really sweet. and she hasn't cried when i've laid her down. no tears at bed/nap time for the past 3 days! yay! she's also stopped hitting me. double yay! and she really only (usually) hits addie when addie's being a pest. hope we're outgrowing the hitting phase, i really don't like it.

okay. we're getting ready to head up to baltimore to make good on the medieval times tickets i won at last years navy christmas party. the expire on the 31st, so i guess it's time. 2 hour drive there, long show/dinner, 2 hour drive back home, ugh. wish me luck!

santa in the grant

2011-12-29T14:18:00.000-05:00

ha, ha. i love the angry baby pictures.

not sure?

after the santa ~~torture~~ meeting, they got to ride around the neighborhood on his sleigh. there's addie's little pink capped head poking over the side of the sleigh on matt's right.

and after the festivities.

little miss did not want to walk.

she got over it.

work christmas par-tay!

2011-12-29T03:57:00.000-05:00

the day after our ward christmas party, matt and i got all dolled up (or as dolled up as an 8 month preggy pop can get!) and went to his work party.
i love getting all dressed up!

and christian's been adamant about getting pictures of me lately, so here ya go!

love date night!

we didn't win any i-pads (or anything actually) but we did eat a very interesting flower salad (no joke!) and wowed the crowd with our mad swing dance skills. or maybe we just wowed them that someone of my girth could still move. or maybe they were just nervous that i'd pop the baby out right there on the dance floor.

whatev's, we got some attention and we had fun. :)
and next year we're winning big again!

ward christmas par-tay!

2011-12-28T18:02:00.000-05:00

we had a fun ward christmas party a few weeks ago.

there was yummy food and fun games and good music.

santa showed up while we were there, so we took the little girls and got in line. we got to visiting (in line) and then people up at the front of the line started calling for us to bring addie. turns out this little blondie decided to cut in front of 10+ people and climb on santa's lap all by herself!

she loved him!

and since she was so happy, and our friends are awesome and didn't mind our little line-cutting, we quickly grabbed addie and had our turn.

some santa pictures come out better than others, oh well.

oh, and that's the baby Jesus that frankie is holding.

line cutting, stealing, hitting, she's kind of a mess right now!

gymnastics fun never ends!

2011-12-28T13:53:00.000-05:00

gymnastics is still super fun, but has been getting pretty tiring for this big mama. so matt has been meeting us every friday to help with frankie's class. that means that i have lots of time for pictures!

~patient addie waiting for her turn. that's one of those little cheese spreaders in her mouth, ps.

frankie does not like stretching, or any part of the opening routine actually.

mommy makes her stay and stretch though.

i'm mean that way.

(here we are "rowing her boat")

finally she gets let free!

and she's off!

shhhh, sometimes we let addie sneak over to the bars during frankie's class.

this is her favorite, hanging like a monkey.

and franks flipping off of the bars. i know it's super blurry, but i love how addie's happily helping her baby sister.

"stick it!"

(and she actually did "stick it," which rarely happens!)

and i love the way frankie's looking up to her big sissy here.

and this is how frankie and i roll while we wait for addie.

princesses, books, and food (all over her face).

amy said she looks like a boy here, but i just think she looks cute. and dirty. and big.

st nicholas day fun

2011-12-27T23:20:00.000-05:00

we celebrated st. nicholas day on december 6.

i wasn't on the ball enough to get pics of the big kids before they left at 6:15 and 6:40, respectively, but here are the little girls enjoying their loot.

wonder which side she was sleeping on?

ps - fancy nancy's splendiferous christmas is definitely a must-read holiday favorite!

franks saw the candy and it was over from there.
no posing to be had from her.

even though i tried and tried!

and tried.

maybe next year...

no caption necessary

2011-12-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

preschool nativity

2011-12-27T04:28:00.000-05:00

on the last day of preschool for december, joann had the kids do the cutest little nativity ever!

this one shows a lot of their quriky personalities so nicely!

here are our little stars, left-right.

~kale (joseph), addie (angel), annie (wiseman), scott (wiseman), lily (mary), andersen (shephard), and abby (wiseman).

addie likes to cheese-it-up!

(when she's in a good mood:)

after their play they got to decorate delicous sugar cookies, and then the mama's planned out preschool for the next semester. big mama here is teaching the first 2 weeks in january, wish me luck!!!

on the way home addie told me that she wanted to be mary, but lily got to be her instead, and addie got to be an angel. then the next day she came in holding a baby Jesus, complete with a princess tiara for a crown, and told me that she was mary and frankie was joseph.

love that!

little random wrap up

2011-12-18T03:41:00.000-05:00

i had a few minutes before church one day (wierd, i know!), so i took some quick pics of this lady. she's getting so big and is so sweet. :)

we decorated our tree (weeks ago).

alexis was sick that day, but she laid on the couch with us still. christian was there and helped a little, but somehow escaped a pic.

and i got an early christmas gift that's got me totally intimidated.

a real, big-girl camera!

i love it, but i'm scared to use it!

dad, come teach me!

our other camera had taken a turn for the worse. it randomly switches settings as i take pictures, hence the increase in yellowed, blurry pictures lately. right now i'm using both cameras, but soon i'll switch over and just use my new one.

yay for better pictures (hopefully!).

next month...

2011-12-16T06:56:00.000-05:00

we're having a baby!

this pregnancy has taken a turn for the uncomfortable. i am officially huge. moving is hard with this cumbersome belly. trips upstairs completely have me winded. my back, that used to wait until the evening to protest, now angrily lets me know by afternoon when i've done too much. sitting through 3-hours of church is pretty uncomfortable, and i find myself standing through the end of sunday school, who's seats are the most offensive to my big body.

but even though my body is ready to not be pregnant anymore, the rest of my life is not quite yet, but getting there quickly! i have been eagerly waiting for the dresser i want to go on sale, but am going to bite the bullet and buy it next week so i can wash and ready little ladie's clothes and blankets.

all that being said, i am always in awe of the amazing thing my body is doing. when my belly takes over an alien like appearance and starts moving in waves, i can't help but sit and watch. i'm pretty excited to have a sweet little newborn to call my own again.

a sweet little newborn that i'm planning to be my last.

all in all, this has been a wonderful pregnancy. maybe it's because it's most likely my last and i'm trying to appreciate every second, but i have really, mostly, enjoyed it. i am so grateful. and happy. and big. very, very big.

and i officially can't wait for next month. :)

8th grade (!) chorus concert

2011-12-13T17:06:00.000-05:00

christian had his last holiday chorus concert last week.

(for middle school, at least.)

he's been in this chorus all 3 years, and that's saying something if you know about our past moving schedule!

(can you see him back there? back row, just left of the middle, and as always, right next to mike)

i'm not sure that mike actually sang at all, and christian only did a little better.

chris did smile a few times though when mrs. fredrick would make a face at them.

franks enjoying the show.

and addie being a cute (and sick) goofball.

ps - why oh why can't i upload videos anymore??? after 2 hours i gave up!!!

dental fun

2011-12-11T15:10:00.000-05:00

i took the 3 big kids to the dentist this week.

it went really well!

christian went first and i took pity on him and didn't take any pictures of him getting his teeth cleaned.

then he got smart and told the hygenist that i never take pictures of him, so then i decided i had to.
he was already finished, so i guess alexis took the brunt. :)

they are so good at that office, they let addie and i wander between rooms while the big kids were getting worked on, checking things out, helping to count teeth, and really make everyone feel comfortable.

waiting. but i had to get some pics because he said i never do.

and addie's turn!

she did so, so good!

mr. sun was pretty bright, so they let her wear some cool shades. :)

then i gave the camera to christian, who was standing on the other side, and he took these cute pictures.

all 20 teeth were there and no cavities. :)

another successful dental trip. :)

christmas party

2011-12-10T07:26:00.000-05:00

last week we went to matt's company's kid christmas party. we made the big kids go last year, but this year they won the battle and we let them stay home. :( frankie fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep the whole time, so addie-cakes had to go sit and wait for santa by herself. she wasn't too sure how she felt about it.

lookin' like a big girl!!!

still sleeping. of course, she would never do this if i wanted her to.

getting bored, but still waiting nicely.

since they go from youngest to oldest, frankie's turn to get her gift and sit on santa's lap came pretty quickly. daddy decided to let santa hold her and see how she would do or if she would wake up.

she stayed asleep!!!

and still sleeping...

and finally, the big girls turn.

after about 30 minutes, franks finally woke up, but she still wasn't feeling the santa time.

the girls got some fun toys, yummy cookies, and a nice party.

so fun!

2011-12-09T14:37:00.000-05:00

this is such a fun time of year!

(among other things)

buying and sending gifts.

ordering and recieving gifts.

getting surprise packages from family.

love it!

we got a fun package from nani and since she had already told us we could open everything in it, away we went! we each got a fun christmas ornament. :)

it was bedtime. :)

(he traded his normal hoodie with a friend thats a girl, and he's been wearing this fancy one every day for a week)

addie is a very helpful present opener.

(note to self: sit up straight!!!)

so fun!

letter's i love

2011-12-05T11:28:00.000-05:00

one of christian's teachers had the kids write thank you notes for thanksgiving. so on thanksgiving, he gave me this.

dearest mom,

i am writing this note today to thank you and show my gratitude for you. i thank you for raising me with gentlemen-like manners and for teaching me right from wrong. i thank you for feeding me and even though not all of it was good, i still thank you. i thank you for housing my head with some type of shelter. i thank you for being a wonderful mother.

sincerely,

chris

it made me think of another sweet note from lexi-lu. amy put together an awesome scrapbook for me for my birthday. she collected memories from tons of friends and family. alexis' letter to me was especially sweet and i will always cherish it. here's what she came up with.

dear mother and friend,

well, i know this can't beat the macaroni picture frame i made you for mothers day, but hey, how many things can? hahaha!

and now here are 33 things that i love about you.

1. your witty humor.
2. how you love to "capture the moment" with a picture.
3. your fashion sense.
4. that we can watch criminal minds together for hours and hours.
5. that you can think of knowledgeable quotes like "popping her balloon doesn't make yours go higher."
6. your advice.
7. how you always make sure the house is tidy.
8. that you decorate for every holiday.
9. how you take a nap every sunday.
10. that you can see the good in everyone and everything.
11. your determination, like how you would stay up all night organizing your drawers and such.
12. your endurance. like how you got through everything you have.
13. your faith in me. how you always believe that i can accomplish anything.
14. that you're grateful. you never forget to say "thank you."
15. your hardworking qualities.
16. how i know that i can tell you anything.
17. how you support me, in things like cheer leading and tennis, etc.
18. that you are willing to give up things for yourself to do things like drive me places and pick up my friends.
19. your divine nature to care for your 4.5 children.
20. your knowledge of the world.
21. your integrity.
22. i love that you do "the 14 days of valentines day."
23. how you would write notes in our lunches.
24. that you bring us balloons and cupcakes to school for every birthday.
25. how you put lotion on after showers.
26. that you walk around rubbing the soap on your hands.
27. how you keep the church music playing even when it's not sunday.
28. that you push us to do things and try things even if we don't want to.
29. that you let us listen to our music in the car.
30. how you always try to keep everything fair.
31. your couponing.
32. our girls days. :)
33. and lastly i love that your my best friend. i love our relationship and how close we are. happy birthday mother & friend!

it's especially nice to re-read these when the kids aren't feeling so nice and sweet. :) maybe some things i say and do really are sinking in!

ahhhh, i looooooove those kids!!!

sweet

2011-12-02T07:31:00.000-05:00

we got a call on saturday night that my sweet friend colleen had finally gone into labor, (2 weeks late!) so we got to have these 4 cute and proud siblings come stay with us for a little while.

they were so good and so excited to meet their new baby sister, who happens to be named alexis. :)

on sunday i got to take them over to meet her and, even though i felt like i was an intruder on a very private, very sweet scene, i was able to get some cute pictures of their first sight of baby sister.
i remember when my lex and chris first saw addie, and then frankie, and just how sweet the whole experience was and i'm just so happy for their growing little family. :)
and so excited that we get to introduce another little sister in our family in just a few weeks!

christmas on the square

2011-12-01T16:38:00.000-05:00

after an all-nighter of black friday shopping, sleeping till 10, then painting 3/4's of our basement, we bundled up and headed out to christmas on the square. the weather was so nice, after about 5 minutes i took my coat off altogether. one bad side of the nice weather though, is that everyone and their brother was there.

me + lack of sleep + achy body + huge crowd = michelle of zero patience.

i was feeling it from the second we got there.

but i love christmas on the square, we've gone every year, and i really didn't want to miss it, so i tried to push through the pain.
it went ok.

the good:

they have a super cute petting zoo and miss frank'n'beans loves animals!

even addie got in on the animal action.

they also each got to ride a pony, for a very nominal monetary donation.

our little downtown is so super cute and i love walking around down there.

they had a cute parade with firetrucks that the girls loved and then santa rode in and lit the huge christmas tree, which the girls also loved.

i got to spend time with my wonderful family that i love so much.
lex and chris (and robin!) were there too, they just ditched us as soon as we got there.

the bad:

*we waited upwards of 45 minutes to take the girls on a train that stopped service because of the parade and never started up again. consequently, the girls didn't get to ride anything (other than the ponies, i guess), and addie was a little upset.

*it was sooooo crowded!

*i (the line holder) was behind 3 of the most obnoxiously loud screaming boys ever! normally that wouldn't really phase me, but i was already dragging and it was bad.

*addie threw a fit because she had been promised popcorn, but when we didn't see it on our way out we decided to skip it, thinking it wouldn't be that big a deal to her. and it was.

*i might have had a little meltdown upon arrival at home.

the good:

(again)

there's always room for improvement and i have a feeling next year's christmas on the square will be fabulous!

black friday

2011-11-30T22:01:00.000-05:00

i went black friday shopping for the first time in years!

i had a really good time, even though i was flying solo.

i find as i'm getting older that i don't mind being alone, at all really.

i read the hunger games while i waited in lines and for stores to open, got lots of good deals, and met some people that were very sweet and accomodating to big pregnant ladies.

i left my house at 11:30 and got home at 6:00, but i did good and wasn't tired.

and i figured that it was a good time because we didn't need to juggle little girls or big kids schedules at all and all that shopping needed to be done for christmas anyway. so why not in the middle of the night?

i'm going to keep watching prices to make sure i got good deals and my all-nighter was worth it, but for now i am very happy with my venture back into black-friday madness!

painting pro's

2011-11-29T21:11:00.000-05:00

i bought a huge 5-gallon tub of paint for our basement probably 6-months ago.

and then..... nothing.we used the excuse that indoor painting is a job for when the weather cools, but of course there's more than that. :) anywho, we decided to get started with our monster basement painting project on friday during little girls naps.

prep work.

(ps - i hate taping. i think i am more sloppy when there's tape and i don't see a need for it. that is all.)

gettin' 'er done!

matt did the top, i did the bottom, and the kids did the middles.

about an hour into our painting gig, these guys showed up!

(2 sets of missionaries!)

months ago (probably right around the time i bought the paint!) we had bid on some missionary service hours at a yw service auction, so we finally made good on it.

turns out 6 adults (missionaries can be considered adults, right?) and 2 teens can get a lot painted in a few hours!

that night after we went to bed, christian screwed all the outlet covers back on, vacummed, put all the furniture back, and moved the furniture from the other wall so we can easily paint the rest when we're ready. which will hopefully be this saturday!
ps - i love our paint! i copied neighbor jana's color because i have such a hard time picking paint!!!
and i say if you see paint that you like, go with it!

do you know what this is?

2011-11-29T16:42:00.000-05:00

all 100 of our christmas cards, addressed, stamped, and in the mail by the day after thanksgiving!

i don't think i have ever done that!

just don't ask how many other things haven't been done around here.

and definitely don't look too closely around my house.

definitely.

happy thanksgiving!!!

2011-11-29T06:57:00.000-05:00

alexis hates cooking. she swears that she will never cook, why would she when she can just go out to eat? (her rational, not mine.)

but i somehow convinced her to cook with me as one of her 10-hour young womens value projects. there are 8 values, and she needs a 10-hour project for each before she can get her drivers permit.

anywho, i figured pie making for thanksgiving would be a great start and at this point any knowledge of cooking/baking/food that she gains is great!

(cause there's not much there:)

i took one funny picture of her on my phone and then this was the best i could do with the camera.

rest assured, a good time was had by all (ha!) and the pies were delicous.

and only one of those statements is untrue. :)
the mess.

on thanksgiving morning, matt and christian went to their 3rd annual turkey bowl and addie did some hiding.

the girlies and i watched some macy's thanksgiving parade, pretty cool cause we know several people that were there this year. but even though we looked for them, we didn't see anybody we knew. :(

(not that i expected to be able to, but you know.)

addie took some pictures.

she kept saying "okay, just one more! smile! okay, now just one more! okay, now..."

we had a super lazy, super nice day. christian got me started reading the hunger games with him, so i was pretty hooked and didn't really feel like cooking. we finally ate around 7, and even though it was late, it was one of the yummiest thanksgivings ever!

matt fried another turkey, and we all agreed this was his best so far!

(bringing the greasy turkey inside is always a little tricky!)

getting ready to grub!

i cut addie out accidently, but (almost) everyone else looks good, so oh well.

dinner was so yummy!

and this chick's tough to please!

so is this one, but she ate that drumstick like it was her j-o-b! ;)

while lexi has grown out (mostly) of her photo dodging, christian is still very much a dodger.

my girls love them some drumsticks!

and an "after" shot.

and it was a very delicous thanksgiving indeed!

look what i got!

2011-11-28T19:59:00.000-05:00

my sweet friend lisa is having a baby, and she held a little contest to see who could guess the babies gender. i am always wrong, but i thought i would enter anyway because the prize was something handmade by lisa, and she's wicked awesome. i figured she would be having a girl, since everyone else i know is having a girl too. (seriously, like 8 people i know are having or just had girls!)

and i was right!

(for like only the 2nd time ever!)

i told her to make me whatever, a baby blanket, crayon holder, or camera strap, cause it think they are all cool and i love any of her fabric choices.

and look what she sent me!!!

darling shoes and matching headband.

super soft little baby lovey.

4 crayon rolls!

and the cutest camera strap cover ever!

so fun and i felt so spoiled!

thanks, lisa!!!

and congratulations on your 2nd little girlie!

2011-11-21T17:20:00.000-05:00

not a lot going on in these parts.

*christian stayed home with me on friday.

(because we'd been up till 3am watching breaking dawn).

alexis was going to stay home but boy problems prompted her to want to go to school.

ugh on that.

*chris and i took the girls to gymnastics and then to the commissary for thanksgiving shopping. we shopped till we dropped and got home after 3.

*friday night was a ward service project to assemble hygiene kits for a local homeless shelter. we all donated items and then met to assemble 300 kits. we showed up 10 minutes late and they were already done. so we enjoyed a nice bbq dinner prepared by the bishopric instead.

*matt was gone to a scout training all day on saturday. i drove alexis to cheer tryouts (for basketball cheer) and then laura picked christian up for scouting for food. then i picked alexis and courtney back up to wait until 3 so they could find out if they made the team.

(note to prospective high school parents: buy a house close to the high school cause you will be driving there a lot! sometimes several times a day.)

*they both made the team so we were back at the school at 3 for a team meeting. in the meantime, christian had gone over to laura's to hang out for the day. after a frozen pizza dinner, i headed to an early holiday shopping event in our neighborhood, then drove lexi over to the twins. matt and i did some reading together and then christian got home around 10:30.

*sunday was a nice lazy day. at one point every one in the house was sleeping, except me. totally wanted to, but i was working on a present for the grandparents and wanted to get done in peace. (i finally finished it monday morning:) we had a fired-up macaroni and cheese freezer meal, did some family calendering, and everyone was off to bed by 9.

*i think a good weekend was had by all.

-----------
*and some photo's:

*post nap, cozily watching lilo and stitch.

*love when they're loving to eachother!!!

*the man!

(lex was napping in her room whilst we wateched lilo)

*just to prove that she is getting hair. she woke up from her nap one day and her hair was all crazy. i left it that way cause it was so cute. ;)

*we're 31 weeks!

breaking dawn at midnight!

2011-11-18T08:11:00.000-05:00

last night a bunch of fun friends (there were 15 of us) met at my house, piled into 2 cars, and made the 1-hour trek to waldorf to see breaking dawn. it was the best midnight showing i've been to because they let us wait inside instead of out in the cold!

see me there, dead center in my mustard colored forks sweatshirt? ugh!

(gotta love cell phone pics! i think this one is actually pretty good, considering!)

loved the movie! i was very pleasantly surprised that they've gotten a lot less cheesy.

not totally without it's cheese, but so, so, so much better!

so fun to have such fun friends!

getting home at 3:30 and up at 7:30 with frankie is not so fun!

totally worth it though!

in other news...

2011-11-14T13:19:00.000-05:00

the girls have been going "shopping" in our pantry.

i didn't have a problem with it at first, but after they dented some cans, i had to put the brakes on that one.

one cute story first though. addie got out nine cans, made 3 pyramids of 3 cans each, and said "look! they're cheerleaders!" she loves her cheer-sissy!

(and who knew cans were so fun???)

franks has been waking up early lately. that means one-on-one time with mama.

looooove it!

while addie was at preschool on thursday we did some potty training.

she happily ran to the potty when i asked if she'd like to go.

and yes, it is in the kitchen. i've got to make it as easy as possible!

there we sat, happily chatting and taking pictures for about 20 minutes.

she squeezes her little belly and grunts like she's trying to go.

then she really got down to business and took the jammies off.

she's glowing white because she's right in front of the sliding glass door.

and she's matt's daughter. ;)

i decided to continue the training session after she was done sitting on the potty. i broke out the padded undies and made a big deal about what a big girl she is. she wore those for exactly 2 minutes before she went over to the carpet and peed.

potty training is awesome.

we had a lovely weekend. i am always so grateful for calm, happy weekends that we get to spend together. on saturday we each ran around a little bit. chris went from his campout to help with an eagle project, home for chores, and then downstairs to play his new video game for the rest of the day. matt went from the eagle project to the church to help "scout for food." lexi came home from robin's at 12 and lounged the rest of the day. that night we went to mccombs for a big and fun potluck.

on sunday after churching it, we ate lunch together, watched a movie together, and chris went to a bishop/youth discussion.

we didn't do a lot, but we did it together. :)

cheer

2011-11-14T07:42:00.000-05:00

this bums me out that i missed the homecoming game even more!

they look awesome!

you go, ladies of raider nation!!!

3/4's!

2011-11-14T07:06:00.000-05:00

we are officially 3/4's of the way done with this pregnancy!

for awhile now i've been getting "the looks" when i tell people how far along i am.

some are shocked. some pitying. some nodding with understanding.

i can't say i disagree, i really don't know how i'm gonna get 10 (or 11, or 12!) weeks bigger!

i am still feeling really good, but am officially tired.

i've taught frankie how to get diapers and wipes when she needs to be changed.

and i can always bribe addie with candy or a show (mother of the year, yes!) if i really need her fetching services. the big kids are still holding out on me a little bit, but i'm staying on top of chores via the use of threatenings with cell phones.

you gotta do what you gotta do. ;)

happy veterans day!

2011-11-12T10:19:00.000-05:00

our veterans day friday started off nice and early.

to explain: addie has a bad habit of wetting her pull-up during her "rest time," even when she hasn't actually "rested." it drives me crazy when i know she hasn't slept, and she's still wet! or worse, which is often the case, ifyouknowwhatimean. anyways, i decided to try bribing her with a "potty toy" if she could stay dry 10 times. she got her first toy within about a month of the challenge. this one has taken a loooooong time, but she finally earned her second potty toy!

every day that i would go in and get her from her nap, and she would be wet, i would tell her, "that's okay, we'll try again next time." after about a month of that though, it got pretty frustrating. so lately when i go in and she's wet, she'll tell me, "that's okay, mama! we will try again! it's okay!"

anyways, on thursday night i went to a rs activity at church. it was all about getting the clutter out of our lives. i love spending time with such awesome ladies! after that, i headed over to target to find the perfect potty toy. since addie was already asleep, i put it on the table in her room so she would see it when she woke up. what i hadn't thought of was that she would wake up super early because she spotted it and couldn't get back to sleep. :)

so all of that to explain why our veterans day started so early. ;)

anyways, food lion was giving 10% off groceries for veterans, so my own special veteran and i bundled up some jammied girls and headed over to buy some on-sale cinnamon rolls and free eggs. (cause who am i to pass up a good deal and 10% off?)

food lion was an hour long fiasco because they're system wasn't giving the 10% off and it took for-ev-er for them to figure it out. thus is the life of a coupon shopper. by the time we got back home it was already 9, and with the parade starting at 10, matt the nay-sayer was thinking we should just skip the parade. never one to say no to a challenge though, i assured him we could handle it!

chris and i made the cinnamon rolls, hashbrowns, egg and cheese burritos, and hot chocolate, while matt got the little girls ready, and lexi got herself ready. ;) we parked at the bank and hustled over to johnna's to watch the parade.

soooooooooo glad she invited us over, because there was an accident at the beginning of the parade route (someone fell off a horse and had to get helicoptered out of there) and the parade started an hour and a half late. if we had been sitting (or standing) on the street, we would have been miserable! it was sooo cold and windy! but we were able to enjoy our breakfast in the comfort of the nelson's warm house and all was wonderful!

i forgot my camera, so johnna sent these to me from her phone.

in no particular order (cause i can't figure it out and don't care to try anymore).

franks kept it together for a long time, but finally around 12 she leaned back in daddy's arms and fell asleep. that never happens anymore! then she stayed asleep when he laid her on the couch, picked her back up, and put her in the stroller. she finally woke up when we got to the car, but she was happy as a clam with her little nap. :)

charlene, johnna, and i.

lex is such a princess. she totally laid on christianna, with her feet on josh, the whole time. i took them some candy we had collected down by the street, and she had josh unwrap a chocolate for her and put it in her mouth!

ugh, that girl!!!

we dropped christian off for a camp out and then around 3, matt and i left for a veterans day date.

we drove up to the temple, but on the way stopped at outback for a delicious dinner (and free bloomin' onion for my veteran!). we had a wonderful time at the temple, except for pregnancy discomfort. on the ride home i tried to stay awake, but after about half an hour, i crashed. love my sweet hubs for not complaining when i do that!

and we had a very happy veterans day, indeed. :)

beautiful days!

2011-11-09T14:59:00.000-05:00

we have had the most amazing weather!

mid 60's-high 70's, just perfect!

we had a quick yogurt snack before the park yesterday.

such a big girl!

and such a goofy one!

she's so weird!

and a walk up to the park.

frankie has been very concerned that i follow closely behind her lately, even at home.
she turns around and checks on me often.

and if i'm not fast enough...

she comes back to check on me. :)

da' boys playin' da' b-ball.

tough to get christian in an action shot because i didn't want him to know i was taking pictures of him. ;)

addie likes to climb on the teeter-totter. she's pretty good too.

and franks, the juice-aholic.

and now for my favorite picture of the day.

she's practicing to be a dude. ;)

last football game!

2011-11-09T14:58:00.000-05:00

on friday we celebrated lexi's last football game!

yay!

it was sooooooo cold!

and the radier nation lost sooooo bad!

robin came with me and as we were walking up, just 4 minutes into the game, the score was already 14-0. and it went downhill from there.
(robin was lexi's secretary, answering calls and passing on important information.)

they had the worst bleachers in the world! they were so low that we couldn't see the game at all.

but i go for the cheerleaders and, as usual, they were great. :)

we brought hot chocolate, gloves, scarves, earmuffs, and we were still freezing!

end of season pics!

lex is in the 3rd row, 3rd from the left, with her hood on.

until next year raider football!!!

trick or treating!

2011-11-09T14:56:00.000-05:00

so after the super fail of "day of cooking," we had a mad scramble to get the girls ready for trick or treating. as soon as we started to get trick or treaters, (at like, 5!) i started to get super antsy and anxious. i don't know what i think i'm gonna miss, but i felt all worked up!

the girls were kind of "eh..." about getting their costumes on again. so i got out some lipgloss and was going to put it on them myself, but then i got sidetracked and... this happened.

then she threw a fit because in the mad dash to get back to my house (after the super fail of "day of cooking," remember?), somehow izzy's costume got left behind. so we found her a rapunzel dress, which she was fine with, but the little mermaid was not. so then all that beautiful lip gloss got wiped on the top step of the upstairs. cause why wouldn't that be a good idea?

after all the anxiety and dramatics (after the super fail...), we were finally off.

mindy volunteered to stay and finish the cooking and cleaning (she didn't really want to go trick or treating anyway, and i must admit, i was a little jealous!), chris and friends lit the fire pit and set up our candy shop in our front yard, and prince eric and i took the 3 princesses out.
(lexi went to the twins for a spooky movie marathon)

we had to keep reminding them not to reach in and grab the candy they wanted.

our neighborhood is definitely that neighborhood.

that one that everyone comes to for trick or treating. our houses are just close enough together and our neighborhood has grown so much that there are tons of houses. and the people are friendly and most gave out candy. so it was pretty busy going.

they love ra-ra (robin).

addie's big into hiding and scaring people.

mini trees are good for that.

busy bee!

we went around the little loop, and the girls were done by the halfway point. we told them that they didn't have to go up to any more houses, but they kept going until about 2 houses away from our house, at which point addie threw down her wig and walked over it and izzy had just totally had it and was crying for her mom.

i had gotten in my costume, even though i really, really didn't want to, just so we could get a family picture with the little mermaids, ursula, and prince eric. and then, after all that, we didn't even get a picture of the little mermaid crew. ugh.

upon returning home we learned that christian and crew had run out of candy by 7 (i think the candy givers had something to do with that) and mindy was almost done with the kitchen. we finally fed the girls and finished helping her clean.

and that was one super long day!

worst idea ever

2011-11-09T14:55:00.000-05:00

day of cooking on halloween day.

mindy and i came up with a real doosey this time.

we thought we could get it all done because i, in a moment of severe stupidity,

volunteered to do the shopping by myself on friday while matt had the girls at gymnastics.

2 hours, 2 super full carts, 44 lbs. of chicken, and $400 later, and i was pooped!

then i still had to unload it all at home, put it all away, and then on monday get it all back out.

it was a lot of work for this big body'o'mine.

we just thought that we are still figuring out day of cooking and we might as well try the whole shopping first thing. it was nice to be able to get going a few hours earlier, but also a lot of extra work. we also decided to do less recipes. last time we doubled 11, + a fresh salad for that nights dinner. this time we quadrupled 8, + a fresh salad for that nights dinner. i think we thought it would be less work, until i went shopping and realized just how much food that was and how expensive it was.

(did i mention that i bought 44 lbs. of chicken?)

it came out to $270 for 32 dinners, 2 lbs. of shredded chicken and 2 lbs. of ground beef for each of us to keep, + a fresh salad. we also did a lot of pasta's and dishes that needed cheeses, which gets expensive. that's really not too bad, right?

anywho, we worked, worked, worked, and when it became clear that we were not going to be done in time for trick or treating, we went to plan b.

mindy left to pick up her boys, costumes, and pizza for dinner (no time for fresh salad!;(, and i got the girls and house ready for trick or treating.

we still didn't get it all done that night. i ended up finishing the last recipe on weds and got it to mindy's for freezing.

and that was the worst idea ever, brought to you courtesy of michelle and mindy.
live and learn, right?

trunk or treat

2011-11-09T14:53:00.000-05:00

trunk or treat was the friday before halloween. it was fun and chaotic, and there were tons and tons of delicious chili's to choose from! so yummy!

so my halloween conundrum every year is whether to dress up kinda halfway, or not at all. i like to dress up and every year i have grand ideas, but i never really flesh them out, and then usually the day of, i'm left scrambling and end up with a halfway costume.

like this:

any ideas on what i am?

look at my little companion, that's a big hint.

any thing?

don't feel bad, pretty sure 98.9% of people didn't know what i was.

URSULA.jpg

can you see the resemblance now?

i have the body for it too. ;)

when addie was deciding what to be, she went back and forth between lots of different ideas. then she finally settled on the little mermaid. and on her own, she decided (and declared) that matt should be prince eric, frankie should be flounder, and i should be ursula, the sea witch.
yeah, what does that say about us???

i actually think it's pretty funny, but i had reservations about frankie being flounder. she's a little girl too and she like to get dressed up and look pretty too. so then we decided that since ariel has a million sisters, that frankie would just be a mermaid, not necessarily the little mermaid, but ariel's little sister. well, finding a mermaid costume for an 18-month-old, that wasn't ariel, proved impossible. so twin little mermaids they were. and they were both fine with it. :)

the little mermaid and the bumble bee found eachother pretty quickly and it was over for them.
they ran around together the rest of the night.

triple threat.

i spent about an hour at the trunk or treat, washed off my face make-up, and headed to lhs for the football game. divide and conquer, that's matt and i. matt took the girls around trunk-or-treating and they had a good time. but it was soooooo cold! it drizzled the whole night and i froze at the game! but i was there, white hair and all, so that's what matters, right?

ps - i sat through an entire quarter before lexi noticed me. one of her friends saw me and pointed me out to her, at which time she motioned to my hair and mouthed "what?" then down the line of cheerleaders went the news of my hair. i just smiled and waved, smiled and waved. at least i washed off my make-up! mindy and laura offered me $40 to leave it on, but i declined because i'm a good mom like that.

a halloween gymnastics!

2011-11-09T14:48:00.000-05:00

in the spirit of wearing our costumes as much as possible, our gymnastics coach asked the kids to wear their costumes on the friday before halloween.

here we are getting ready.

this was the only picture of the two of them.

it's a good one, right?

such a natural smile...

and the stoic one...

love, love, love the wigs!

and at gymnastics...

addie tries to weasel her way into frankie's class (franks is first) at least a handful of times each friday.

love this shot!

poor franks is looking nervous!

and now for some balance beam action.

the best part of the bigger kids jumping off the beam is that they shout "stick it!" as they land, whether they actually "stick it" or not, which addie usually does not.

a couple of torn little mermaid costumes later, and a halloween gymnastics class was a success.

a preschool halloween

2011-11-09T13:24:00.000-05:00

the thursday before halloween, we had a halloween themed preschool and i got to be the helper.

they all looked so cute!

getting a picture of all of them, not so cute.

this one was the best of the best.

poor abby politely declined to be in the group pictures, but i tried to get her in anyway. :)

the biggest downside to preschool co-op is definitely how hard it is for our own kids when mama is the teacher. hopefully they will get used to it!

learning about the letter "i." or, if you ask addie "ummm, d!"

(or whatever other letter she cares to guess!)

please tell me she's going to start caring about letters/numbers sometime soon!

it's driving me crazy!!!

sarah had cute mudcups (pudding) with dirt (oreos) and worms (gummis) for their snack.
they loved them!

and halloween preschool was a success!

big talker

2011-11-09T04:28:00.000-05:00

frankie's vocabulary has exploded the past few weeks! she jibber jabbers constantly and now i can always pick out a few words in the mumbo jumbo. and she loves talking on the phone! i usually let her call daddy and put it on speaker phone so i can hear whats going on. the other day she was pacing around, talking with her hands, just going on and on to her daddy. and she did not want to hang up! there were some tears when i finally took the phone.

yes, she does add an 's' at the end of most words

(i didn't notice her "addie" until i watched! whoops!)

and yes, i still maintain that i do fix addie's hair when we leave the house.

and, despite what it looks like on this video, i do give addie attention too. poor girl was begging for it!

new york! - oct. 23-24

2011-11-08T15:35:00.000-05:00

right after my fun time out for women trip, we packed up and headed to new york! it was pretty crazy (and more than a little tiring)! i got back from tofw late saturday night and we left for ny at 6 sunday morning.

allie moved up to ny and finally had found an apartment (and job:), so we wanted to get her boxes up to her pretty quickly and that was the only weekend we had free for a long while. since we had to take her all of her worldly belongings, we couldn't take any kids with us (bummer!;), so our good friends, sarah and tony stayed the night at our house with them. you can read about that here.

we got up to ny in 6 hours and pretty easily found a place to park so we could unload the boxes onto the sidewalk, then i stayed with the boxes, matt went to find a spot to park our beast of a truck, and allie and her roomie started moving the boxes from the sidewalk into the lobby of her apartment building. then from the lobby we got to cart things up the 4 flights of stairs to her apartment. fun stuff!

after that workout, we were totally ready to get going and see the city! first stop: central park!

the boathouse.

hubba hubba. ;)

double hubba hubba. ;)

(or is it triple?)

we walked all around central park. we found the strawberry fields and saw lots of entertainers. we got a teeny tiny bag of roasted almonds. we lounged on the cute benches. and we visited many, many restrooms. so fun!

then we mosied over to the temple that is awesome and i soooo want to go into! i was bummed that we were there on a sunday and monday, the 2 days they're closed!

times square!

enjoying a rather disappointing gyro in times square.

replica of the new years ball. and one funny hubby.

we stopped by fao shwartz which is super awesome, but also super expensive.

do people really shop there?

i call this one:

"this looks a lot easier than what i've been doing!"

and then one of the two "nurses" that were holding babies by the nursery offered to let me hold one.

very cute!

then we did one of my ny bucket list items. we went to serendipity for frozen hot chocolate!!!

matt's never seen the movie, so he got a quick summary of it during our 45 minute wait, where we also met a couple from the same tiny community that we had lived in in california. (lake wildwood). such a small world!

delish!

but not what i expected... i don't know exactly what i expected, i think something more like fried ice cream, like hot and cold at the same time? this wasn't hot at all, it was kind of like a smoothie.

still yummy though. :)

word to the wise, there is an $8 minimum charge per person, so i recommend not going after dinner. we each left more than half of our goodies. that never happens, but matt and i had tummy aches, (we blame the gyros!) and just couldn't finish! we were super bummed!

the next morning we got up at the crack of dawn and scratched off another ny bucket list item:

today show filming!

this was right after we got swindled into paying $10 each for some ny hats. just beware of people trying to give away baseball caps. that's all i'm gonna say about that.

creepy big face, but that's matt lauer!

so cool!

we stayed and watched for a long time, it was very interesting and i totally recommend going!

do you see matt above the gold statue?

closer up.

the nyc library.

and an action shot, just for good measure. :)

empire state building!

we walked all over the city and back again. then we ate a delicious lunch and headed home.

it was like a 2-day date with my husband and we had such a good time!

new york was very cool, but so was driving for 12 hours with my love, being able to give each other our undivided attention. we stopped in delaware and got a cinnabon from a truck stop and it was just all so fun. very good trip!

and next time we go to ny, we are ready to actually go do things, instead of just go see things.

2 thumbs up for 2 fun days!

sunday night thoughts

2011-11-06T23:42:00.000-05:00

*i want to blog about ny, halloween, trunk or treat, being 29 weeks pregnant, and lexi's last football game, but the camera isn't willing. i am soooooo tired of computer/hard drive/camera issues. probably because most are caused by my general lack of knowledge. instead i'll just do a quick update.

*it's the end of another busy week. baby showers, games, tryouts, preschool, playgroups, church responsibilities, all of the usual time takers.

*being away from home is fun, but the catch-up is not. i've been behind since we got back from ny. it seems like i can't cross one thing off my to-do list without adding two more. bleh. even my beloved regimented chores are behind and i haaaaaaate it. tomorrow i'm trying to get back on board. hope it works!

*i passed my glucose test!

yaaaaaaaaaaaay!

i gained 6 lbs. last month!

booooooooooo!

(15 lbs gained so far. gotta reign it in!)

*alexis and i are having some growing pains. just typical stuff, but it's been an emotional week for both of us. that being said, i can appreciate my trials for the growth they bring, and i think we're both growing, and hopefully our relationship is getting stronger. i love that girl. i hope she listens and knows just how much.

*christian has been a model child lately. (isn't it funny how they take turns???) except that he "found" an atv in the woods this weekend. he and his friends brought it home (to our house, of course!), put gas in it, and voila! it works. seriously, parenting is so weird sometimes! a "found" atv?! how does that happen? i had him take me out to where he found it (i was scaling downed trees and balancing across precarious tree bridges. all at 6 1/2 months preggo!) and it does look like it was just thrown out as junk. still trying to figure this one out. any ideas???

*addie has been having night terrors. (i think) she's woken up a couple times in the last week, just crying and inconsolable. one night she was up 5 or 6 times like that. hard! on the upside, she is so funny lately! this morning at breakfast, she said "these eggs are frickin' hot!" way to keep me on my toes, addie! no more "frickin" for me. :( she comes up with such cute and clever things every day. it's so fun!

*frankie has become quite a little parrot too. she will repeat anything you ask her too, except she adds an 's' to the end of almost every word. so 'sis,' 'bus,' and 'yes' sound perfect. most other words, not so much. totally cute though. i am really working on her listening and obeying skills, and she's getting pretty good at time outs (within reason, you know). she sits still, with a sullen look on her face, but when her minute is up and i come around, she is all hugs and sorrys, and it's just the sweetest thing. i am savoring her being my baby for these last few months that she will be. she's a sweet girl.

*matt worked all weekend and had to get a flu shot today, so he was down for the count. he is so helpful and we totally miss him when he's gone. navy weekends make for loooong weeks!

*this sounds like a lot of complaining, but that's not what i'm feeling right now. i'm really feeling grateful and happy, even among all the weird parenting challenges (and there are a lot, aren't there?!)

*life is good.

the end.

oldie but goodie - warrior dash edition

2011-10-29T08:17:00.000-04:00

i don't know how or why i never blogged about this, but as i was perusing my "to blog" list,

(please tell me you have one of those too!)

i noticed that i still hadn't blogged about our fun warrior dash!

this was way back in april or may, before i found out we were even pregnant. actually, that was one of my first clues that i might be pregnant, because pre-dash i had eaten a delicious bowl of tomato and cucumbers, and post-dash, the thought of eating that made me want to vomit.

pregnancy symptom #1.

anywho, amy had told me about the wd in seattle and when i saw it was coming to so. md., we signed right up! our friend, david, was running in our exact race (although much, much, much faster than we, or i should probably say i), so laura got a few pics of us running.

my face here is saying "i will do a lot of crazy things, but i don't think i'll be running through fire today, thankyouverymuch."

after the fire, we got to swim through a mud pit.

so gross, but kinda fun too.

my pants were so heavy with mud that they were having a hard time staying up.

we even had mud in our teeth!

blech!

it was a 3.1 (i think!) mile course and they had something like 13 obstacles.

stuff like climbing walls (military style), hay hills, and the aforementioned mud pit and fire walk.

the warriors with david.

matt and i had decided we would run together, cause i think i thought i could keep up better. but it must have been the pregnancy fatigue ;) already kicking in that slowed me down. ;)

after the race, he said "maybe next year we'll just meet up at the finish line."

and being the nice wife that i am, i agreed. :)

they had water trucks with like 5 people on top spraying participants "clean."

so here we were all fresh and ready to go. ;)

and with our warrior hats, no less.

and my genius after dash shoes. i was slipping and sliding all over the place!

when we got home we took the longest and nicest shower ever!

we.were.so.muddy!

the kids are all excited to do it next year, but i think i'll be sitting it out with the babe in arms and the little girlies, mama warrior style. :)

goodbye 2nd trimester!

2011-10-27T23:12:00.000-04:00

the last few weeks...

(note to self: do not wear extra large t-shirts no matter how free they were. you will look like a giant blob of whatever color your wearing. in this case, a giant blueberry. ps- this shirt was in fact, free! i was supporting the raider nation, but still, not good.)

5/8 of the way there!

thoughts on our 2nd trimester:

*still feeling good! i don't remember feeling this good and ready to grab life by the horns during any other 2nd trimester. i am still furiously working to try and get ahead on my life and it's still not happening. i'm starting to think it never will. as soon as i cross one thing off my to do list, i add another. or two. ah, c'est la vie!

*still have that weird pain in my right rib. i guess that now it's not so weird, cause she's actually big enough to get in my rib. but the fact that it's been painful for like, 28 weeks now is kinda weird. i've even thought the whole "if only this pain in my rib would just stop, i wouldn't complain about this pregnancy at all!" thing. i'm sure i would find something else to complain about though.

*still have regular back/neck/hip aches, but nothing too bad.

*i'm still not emotionally or mentally ready for another baby, but i can tell that physically i am getting close. i am starting to feel that, "can i really get 3 months bigger?" feeling. and i'm definitely slowing down. moving slower, physically and mentally.

*i'm trying to get enough protein in, but it's tough. baby and i love our sweets! and lately i can't get enough water! i only usually get heartburn when i drink soda. or salty foods. but nothing too bad.

*still sleeping pretty well and still, strangely enough, able to sort of sleep on my tummy. i guess i'm not really on my tummy, but more so than other pregnancies. :)

(my writing is always so crystal clear!)

*she's moving a lot lately. during tofw she was lovin' on all the music! some of her kicks can be painful, especially the ones right behind my belly button. i do not like the way that feels, but i've always been weird about my b button. i do love feeling her kicks though. :)

*not a lot else to report... just thankful for a happy and healthy pregnancy!

homecoming dance

2011-10-27T20:58:00.001-04:00

i also missed the homecoming dance when i was at tofw.

thankfully i have good friends that i trust with my daughter and my pictures. ;)

i can't believe my lu is soooo grown up!

homecoming game

2011-10-27T20:50:00.000-04:00

so sad i missed the big game last weekend.

aren't they the cutest???

pumpkin patch

2011-10-26T20:23:00.000-04:00

last week our playgroup went to the pumpkin patch, so fun!

add 20 preschool/toddlers, + 8 school buses, + about a million people and your bound for some excitement!

this little lady caused a bunch of drama for this mama early on.

they have a little playground area that all the kids were playing in. i was taking a few pictures, and i went to take one of addie and when i turned around, i didn't see frankie. i wasn't worried about it, but after a few minutes, i started to worry a little.

after i had searched the whole playground, and not found her, and it had been at least 5 minutes, i started to get very nervous. i told all the moms to keep a lookout and mindy and sarah started looking with me. there were seriously a million people there and my mind started to go to that scary place where you are start thinking about what exactly you would do if you couldn't find your baby.

i looked all through the barn and still nothing.

panic!

i was the crazy pregnant lady shouting "frankie! frankie!" and not caring at all how people thought i looked.

after searching the barn i turned left, away from the playground and there was little miss bratty herself, just watching the animals in the little animal pen! at this point it had been 10-15 minutes! and she was just perusing the animals in the pen, like nothing was wrong. there were a couple of other moms there and they said they were watching her, but since she didn't seem lost, they didn't know for sure. she had wandered at least a whole football field.

(i am terrible with distances, but that's my estimate. it was far!)

anyhow, dramatics over, we had a really good time.

and this poor lady loves animals!

(i say "poor" because she will probably never have a pet as long as she lives at our house)

hayride!

the whole fun group.

"whoa!"

after playing, picnicing, hayriding, picking pumpkins, then picking apples, the girls were in a daze.

i wanted to take some pictures of them and the beautiful mums, but they were totally out of it!

about 2 minutes into the ride home...

addie held steady though. still a little out of it and sleepy, but she stayed awake the whole ride home.

we love the pumpkin patch!!!

time out for women

2011-10-26T14:01:00.002-04:00

this weekend i got to do something i've wanted to do for-ever! i got to go to "time out for women" and it was so much fun! the theme was "choose to become," and the scriptural theme was from mark 9:23 "all things are possible to him that believeth." becoming has been one of my themes for a few years now, so i was super excited!

alexis was supposed to come with us, i had it all planned and even had a ticket for her, but alas, it turned out to be homecoming weekend. :( which meant that i had some tough choices to make. should i go or not, should alexis go or not, should alexis go for saturday and then rush home for the dance... on and on my little brain worked. in the end i decided (with help from my brain trust!) to go by myself and let alexis stay with robin. she does have cheer obligations that required her to be at the game on friday, and... i felt like it was best and that's all.

i got to drive up with laura and her katie, lana and her hannah and chelsea, and sarah. we had such a fun time visiting and getting to know each other in the car. parts of our road trip were definitely just as uplifting as the conference!

we got way lost and were running way late, so we wendys'd it for dinner and got to the conference center just in time for friday nights 2 speakers. then i got to stay the night with these lovelies.

we were all so tired that we didn't even stay up late talking, kinda lame! the next morning we had a yummy breakfast at the hotel and then took the shuttle to the conference center for more inspiration. i can't even choose a favorite, cause i really liked all the presenters. we had some questionable jamaican food for lunch and then back for more speakers.

there was a big group of ladies from our ward that went and we all sat together, so that was fun.

on our way home we stopped at fridays for a delicious, albeit slow dinner.

it was such a wonderful weekend! i can't wait to go to another one!

surgery day!

2011-10-20T15:48:00.000-04:00

4am came around pretty early this morning! matt and i got up and prepped things as best as we knew how, and by 5:15 we were headed to waldorf with a sleepy, but very happy little frankie.

she usually asks for juice as soon as she wakes up, but we managed to get her all the way to the surgery center before she asked. she couldn't have anything to eat or drink, so they had us scheduled to arrive at 6 with surgery set for 7. at 6:30 they took us back and we talked to the anesthesiologist and got franks all situated. he mentioned juice and after that she was pretty set on looking through our diaper bag and badgering us for juice, so she wasn't super happy.

getting grumpier by the minute!

every once in awhile she would still give us a smile.

baby blood pressure cuffs are the cutest. i wouldn't want to see them everyday, but every once in awhile, it's pretty adorable.

i feel the same way about baby hospital gowns. cute, but only for occasional use.

(very crabby by this point)

but still a little bi-polar with her occasional smiles.

mama was nervous! and excuse my mane of hair, it was early and apparently i can't see very well in the wee hours.

"where's frankie?!" that kept her occupied for about a minute and a half.

and then it was time to go back to the or. i donned my space suit and we were off.

they wrapped her in a warm blanket and we held her down for her mask to put her to sleep. she cried and cried, and her cries got quieter and quieter. it took about a minute and she was out. they let me give her a kiss and then a teary mama had to go to the waiting room.

i got to the waiting room at 7:04 and they had called us back by 7:15. they put us in a little room and the sweet dr. came in and said all went well and that she thought she was awake, and then, the highest pitch frankie scream ever. she was so disoriented, matt held her, then me, then the nurse, she just didn't know what she wanted, poor baby!

when she finally took her juice, i knew we were getting our frankie back. she cuddled up to me and kept whimpering, but she was coming back around. as soon as we got in the car she was all better, and the rest of the day has been easy.

we love that sweet baby girl and are so very thankful that things went well and that we don't have to do things like this often.

week in review... again

2011-10-19T21:57:00.000-04:00

maybe if i keep naming my weekly updates something different it won't seem so lame that i only blog once a week. ;)

soooo. here we go again. nothing really new to report on, that's probably why i didn't blog. yes, that's why.

monday - miraculously the kids had school on columbus day! it was crazy. matt would have been off, but decided to work so he could take off for frankie's surgery this week. so i dropped the girls off at sarah's and had a mom day. i thought about going to do something fun, but i just can't resist an empty house! it's just too tempting! i did do some things just for me, but i also got some projects done that had been sitting around forever. it was dreamy.

(i really do love my kids, and i love having them around, but i also really relish my quiet time. you get it, right?)

tuesday - i met with colleen for some churchy stuff. we were surprisingly right on and got things done quickly and efficiently. go us! then it was just another day of naps, big kids, cheer practice, dinner, etc.

wednesday - i dropped the little girls off at johnna's for lexi's 2nd eye dr. appt. she managed to forget her contacts again, but this time we had enough time to come back home and get them. we got some lunch, i dropped her back at school and returned to johnna's to pick up two happy girls. and mama was much happier because we were able to go to the dr. in peace. it rained that night, so no baseball, which meant the girls were able to get to bed at the normal time. bummed that bubba missed another game, but glad for normal bedtime!

thursday - preschool! i watched curtis this week and took the 2 1-year olds shopping and they were really good. except that frankie has become a hitter. :( as soon as i buckled curtis in the carseat, she reached over and whacked him. i talk to her each time she hits, and have started 1-minute time outs too. i blame addie and all her 3-year-old cronies that have always tried to "help" her do everything. i think she just got tired of people always being all over her and now she hits. but who knows, because she hits even when people aren't all over her. boo for hitting. :( that night was a rs activity at church and it was wonderful and much needed! i met up with becky and kristin for some panera and then had a wonderful 2 hours at church. fabulous evening. :)

friday - matt was off, hooray! i had made plans with johnna for her to come to gymnastics with us because she had her grandson, landon with her for the weekend, so i took the girls to gymnastics and gave matt a break. i guess he deserves one too. :) after that, matt took frankie to her pre-op appt while i let addie nap. we have not gone a week without at least 2 dr.'s appts in a good long while and it's got me really appreciating my healthy children! it didn't rain, so christian finally got to play baseball again. the grey penguins did a wonderful job and won! after that, christian and i rushed over to great mills hs for lexi's game. we were able to catch almost the whole 2nd half, and watch the boys lose again. :( still a fun night.

saturday was yet another divide and conquer day. matt and addie left the house by 7:30 for an all day cuboree. alexis, frankie, and i left by 8:45 for a krispy kreme fundraiser. christian stayed home to work on his talk, which he wrote all by himself and did an awesome job at, i might add! we hawked krispy kreme's till 12, then frankie and i left lexi and the rest of the cheerleaders (who are raising money to buy varsity jackets) to go get addie, who was officially done cuboree'ing. we picked her up, went home for about 15 minutes, and then got to go back to pick lex and friends up to take them to the hs for cheer practice (with a quick stop at kfc for nourishment). we were able to come home for another hour, then back to the hs to pick up lex and friends for their 1 hour break before yet another fundraiser that night, this time helping at a ducks unlimited banquet. we had frozen pizza for dinner, and this time i actually got a 3 hour break before i got to go back and pick up lexi. so, for those keeping track, that's 3 volunteer hours, 3 hours in the car dropping off and picking up, and 1 very tired mama.

sunday - christian gave his first talk ever and like i said before, did a great job. all of sunday was nice and relaxing. we decided that since we had another crazy week ahead that we would have fhe that night and we worked on our family emergency plan. with a few natural disasters under our belts, we felt like we knew a little more what we were talking about. :)

and a few rando pictures:

hide and go seek is a daily event up in here. and frankie's getting pretty good!

christian getting ready to do the dishes and before he had a chance for the teen photo dodge. i'm training him up right. ;)

we have done a lot of running lately and it's been wearing some girls out!

(me included!)

a halloween hint... guess what addie's gonna be???

i got her a new "kleotark" for gymnastics and she requested a picture.

and this is how she posed herself. (before she got her hair did!)

okay, this one is actually from this week, but lexi really hasn't been home a lot! it's spirit week at the raider nation, and lex and crew dressed like little kids in footed pj's on monday. apparently the footed pj's were all the rage at the hs. who knew?

(hmmm, 2 pics of the big kids doing dishes, maybe i am a slave driver!!!)

and that was our last week. :)

time management

2011-10-13T17:02:00.000-04:00

with the arrival of this baby girl coming closer and closer, i am trying to seriously stay on top of things up in here.

in the spirit of that, a few time management updates:

freezer meals from our day of cooking are like the best thing ever!
i hate when 5 o'clock rolls around and i don't know what to make for dinner.
but meal planning, when i know i only have 4 nights to plan, because 3 nights can be freezer meals/leftovers, is a lot less daunting! it is so nice to be able to pull a dinner out of the freezer in the morning, throw it in the crockpot for a few hours, or the oven for an hour, and voila!
delicious dinner.

and everything's been tasty so far!
so far we've tried the chili, white chicken chili, chicken pot pie, enchiladas, corn chowder, and lasagna. oh and both the shredded chicken and ground beef we had made extra's of.
love it and 2nd day of cooking is scheduled for next week!

cleaning schedule is still going strong. it's been almost a month and i'm still on track.
here's how i started (ever so many years ago). i wrote down every room/chore and how often they need to be cleaned and divided them over a 2 week period. it used to be 1 week, and i even used to have a day for shopping set aside, but with every move and every new baby i've had to adjust. i will probably be adjusting very soon, but for now it's working. here's how it works.

week 1:
(every) *monday i do all my floors on the first floor. i shark all the wood and vacuum all the carpets and do laundry.
*tuesday - my room, bathroom, and closet
*wednesday - addie's room and mudroom
(every) *thursday - all the first floor floors again and kitchen - cleaning out fridge, organizing pantry, wiping stainless steel, etc.
*friday - frankies room and girls bathroom upstairs

week 2:

*monday - floors/laundry
*tuesday - formal living room and powder room
*wednesday - family room (it gets picked up many times every day, but it's nice to have a day to clean out the computer desk and pay special attention to small details that should be done regularly) and formal dining room
*thursday - floors/kitchen
*friday - basement and downstairs bathroom

that leaves saturday clear. :)
the only problem is stuff like windows, that i've never cleaned in the 2+ years we've lived here.
i did vacuum my truck out last saturday, so that was nice.
when i actually stay on top of my cleaning schedule it works so famously.

i also found this amazing new dry shampoo.
looooooove.
as allie pointed out, you can't use it every day, but a little refresh between washes?
yes, thank you!
(disclaimer: i've only used it twice, but so far, two thumbs up!)

sarah and i participated in our 2nd kid swap this week and last and it went swimmingly. i was able to get 2 days of work done, tackle 2 projects that were left over from my summer list, and take some time for me.
awesomeness.

all this staying on top of things has even left me with enough time to coupon a little bit. nothing like i used to, but that's ok. every little bit helps, i always say.

preschool is still running like a dream. we take turns teaching and helping and watching the leftover little ones like we've been doing it forever. and addie's told me all about safety ("if there's a fire, we have to get low and go, and crawl like frankie"), tuba's, and constellations. love that she's broadening her horizons!

i'm always looking for ways to make life easier! these are just a few things that i've found that have worked for me. :)

just because i love pictures

2011-10-12T17:47:00.000-04:00

addie got all dressed up to go see sissy cheer.

and she still makes awesome faces.

all. the. time.

we froze at christian's baseball game, and then at lexi's football game.

popcorn always helps though.

how can you not love this kid?

conference cinnamon rolls.

she had 4 mini's.

and addie had 5!

christian helping himself before the classic teen photo dodge.

this lady is always on the computer!

soon she'll be sending emails just like she sends texts and calls people.

i love footed pj's.

"hi!"

pre-potty training is still going on.

she will gladly sit on the potty and even clench her little tummy like she's trying to go.

this particular picture was taken about 2 seconds before she fell off and landed on her face.

that wasn't a happy minute.

gettin' halloweeny!

and since we're short on lexi pictures, a cute cheer video for good measure. :)

week-at-a-glance

2011-10-11T17:47:00.001-04:00

on monday we had our big ultrasound. everything looks good. not that the ultrasound tech would tell us if they didn't, she couldn't tell us much. but baby girl is coming along nicely.
on tuesday we had abby over for the day. we went to playgroup and had a good day. that night we had the mccombs over for fhe. fun, fun, fun!
wednesday was a terrible, no good, very bad day for me. it started with frankie waking up crabby and went downhill from there. i tried to salvage things, we even walked to the library with sarah and abby for storytime, but by that afternoon, when we got to lexi's eye dr. appt only to realize that she wasn't wearing (and didn't bring) her contacts and that we would have to come back for another appt., mama was in tears (which only made me feel super stupid and made things 10 times worse). that night christian had a baseball game and i had both the babies there alone. he'd only played 2 games this season (rain) and hadn't gotten any hits. i said a little prayer (and yes, i know bartering with Heavenly Father doesn't work) and promised i would lighten my load if my bubba could just get a hit and regain some confidence. he hit 3 times, and his 4th up to bat he got hit with the ball so he got on base anyway, and he scored 3 runs. needless to say, even though addie had an accident in her undies (diarrhea), i stayed smiling the rest of the night.
thursday morning i dropped addie off at sarah's so i could take frankie to her 2nd surgery consult. i think that was part of my bad mood on weds, is that i was really nervous about sweet frankie. it went so much better than i could have hoped! the dr. was really good with her (an actual pediatric opthamologist makes such a big difference!), she didn't have to dilate her eyes and didn't think the surgery would be extensive. she said she has a 90-95% success rate without needing the balloon catheter or leaving in the stent. the surgery will only take about 15 minutes and she should be good as new. so, so, so relieved!

she was throwing some weird tantrums at the dr.'s office!

tantrum #2. complete with blankie.

that night, alexis had a game up in huntingtown, about 45 minutes away. i fed the family dinner and helped get the girls down and headed out there. they lost 35-0, but the cheerleaders are always cute, and thats really the only reason i go. :)

friday the babies had gymnastics, always fun. and then we went to leprechaun lilly's, the big twice a year childrens consignment sale. they were pretty wiped out, but we got a few things. that night was a laaaazy, nice night. and very much needed.
on saturday we went to a fun birthday party for jack and anna. they had a pony (!), bouncy house (!), and fun playset. it was very cute and the girls had a blast. and it was nice to have daddy to share in the little girl duties! this whole, divide and conquer stuff is getting old!

frankie was ga-ga for the goats!

she stayed and fed them forever! and she ate a few pellets herself for good measure.

(note to self: do not lean over for pictures. ever.)

she was ga-ga for the bunnies too.

that afternoon the whole gang headed up to our new sporting goods store, dick's, for their grand opening. small town fun! that night matt washed the truck, i washed the girls, and the big kids washed the dishes. nice and quiet.
on sunday there were some excellent talks at church. the one on anger was especially given more me. (see my wednesday, above). after church i lazed about reading the scorch trials with christian and it was a wonderfully restful day. i went for a visit with colleen, we had a delicious freezer meal, and we got boo'ed with some fun treats. all in all, good weekend. :)