black friday

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

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?

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!!!

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!

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!



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!

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...

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

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

they look awesome!

you go, ladies of raider nation!!!

3/4's!

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!

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!

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. ;)