Gingerbread Traditions

One of our favorite traditions at Christmas time is making our Gingerbread house and Gingerbread tree. We have done this a couple of years now and it is so fun-and totally worth destroying my kitchen for! I love these few days just before Christmas-my shopping is done, presents are wrapped and now it is just a couple of days of fun and tradition! Tomorrow is "sugar-cookie day" and on Tuesday I am taking Allie to Ballet West's Nutcracker. This is her first time going to the Ballet and I can hardly wait! She even gets to meet the Sugar Plum Fairy at the end of the show. I love this time of year. Happy Holidays to everyone!!

Getting started....
Paul loves doing these-he sat up even after the kids were in bed applying hundreds of frosting icicles. He even used the word "lattice" tonight while frosting the gingerbread house. haha...I love that he enjoys this stuff as much as the kids do.

TA-DA!!!! The finished Gingerbread house. Pretty good huh?
Starting the tree....

Our 2008 Gingerbread house and tree!...

So much for surprises......

And we are OVER THE MOON! (Can't you feel me smiling??) I know, I know....I wasn't supposed to find out!! If you go to circle of life, that is not so easy to do! She has been so curled up that we haven't been able to see anything, even if we had wanted to, until yesterday(and I'm 24 weeks, mind you)-I had my targeted ultrasound and it was very obvious what we are having. She is perfect, perfect, perfect, (and healthy which is the most important thing) and I can't BELIEVE that I get to have another girl! I really thought it was a boy and I would have loved that, but if I could have the choice I would have picked PINK! My husband's feet haven't touched the ground yet-he is absolutely crazy for little girls. He immediately made me go with him to buy girl outfits at the mall, and we were good and restrained ourselves-only four outfits and two pair of shoes:) haha... His girls are lucky to have him and I'm going to spend the next 20 years reminding him to not spoil them rotten. :) And Easton now gets the coveted role of "golden boy" which is a nice spot in life and if he doesn't believe me I will tell him about my only brother...B.J. It's a nice spot-believe me. haha...

She kept her hands over her face most of the ultrasound, but the few peeks we got, we think she looks a lot like Allie AND Easton. She definetly looks like their little sister. She's cute:) The little stinker is still curled up all weird and she is currently breach. They think she will flip down-but if she doesn't I'm getting a tummy tuck with that C-section, and don't think I'm even joking....(Are you reading this Paul?)

So even though I think the surprise would have been fun, I'm so happy to know that my caboose is a little girl!! Now I have to go because I have much to do! There is shopping, painting, decorating, name picking......

Birthday Parties, Thanksgiving & BLACK FRIDAY!

We decided to celebrate Easton's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese this year. Let me just say this....my kids LOVED it and could have stayed there forever playing the games. The pizza sucked, but then again who goes to Chuck E. Cheese for the food??? I, on the other hand, was quite certain that all of us were going to get the bird flu, chlamydia or some other horrible disease from that place! It wasn't that it was dirty, it's a brand new Chuck E. Cheese, but it was like kid central and everyone is touching the same game controls and tokens and hand rails and.......ew! There wasn't enough hand sanitizer for me that night! All in all though.....it was really fun for them and we had a great night. You should try it sometime if you don't mind the mingling scent of feet and pizza! :) And none of us have gotten sick from being there-yet.

I sent Easton on a Birthday scavenger hunt for his presents the next morning. This is something my mom used to do for my birthday's when I was little. You start at a certain place in the house and there is a note with a clue as to where you are supposed to go next, you run there and sometimes there is a gift at that place and sometimes not, but always a new clue where to go. My kids love to do this and it makes getting their presents a little more fun because they are running all over the place looking for them.

Reading a clue......


You can't tell he was excited or anything.... ;)

Me and my Bubba...

You would think that having a birthday so close to Thanksgiving would suck....but he kind of ends up partying for a solid week! My mom had a celebration at her house for him on the morning of Thanksgiving and I think he thought it was his birthday all over again! He was so excited for his cake....

My Dad's dog had puppies awhile back and all the kids (minus Allie) have been in seventh heaven playing with them. Paul took these pictures while I was out shopping and I LOVE them!

"Snips, snails and puppy dog tails....that's what little boys are made of"

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Thanksgiving!!

This year we were at my Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving. All of us kids rotate every year so that we can all be together every other year. It works out perfectly. I love having Thanksgiving at my mom's house. For starters, she is an amazing cook. She is known for her pies-they look like something out of a magazine and they taste even better! YUM-O!! This year she made cherry, pumpkin and apple crumble. I'm craving that pumpkin pie right now! The night before Thanksgiving all of us found babysitters for the kids and went to see the movie, "Four Christmases." I think we all laughed for a solid two hours! Loved,loved,loved that movie! It was a great Thanksgiving! I slept over at my mom's this year so that I could get up for......

BLACK FRIDAY!

yes, that's right....we are some of those crazy people that get up at 3:45 and hit the stores! Me, my mom, my sister and sister-in-law do it every year and the funny thing is, most years I'm not even after a specific item! I mainly go to watch the craziness. This year, me and my Mom found a safe aisle in Wal-Mart and just enjoyed the scenery-which is really something to see(and hear)! Nothing funnier than some woman in fleece polar bear pants screaming profanities at 4 a.m.-all for the sake of a $30 toy! My sister is so dead serious about this day-and she cleans up! She almost ALWAYS gets what she goes in after. Krystal is the same way...except she has buyers remorse the whole rest of the day! It really is a white trash affair, but we have too much fun to stop. And you really can find some great deals that day. For instance, I found and bought the cutest boots that were 60% off! My theory is this: The higher the heel, the cuter the shoe the less focus on the ever expanding belly! :)

My pictures of Florida are almost all put together and I will post them soon. I will say this though...Florida was heavenly! It was relaxing, fun and...WARM!!

Happy Birthday Easton!

(Easton at 3 mos.)

My little boy is four-I can hardly believe it! I hate that he is growing up on me, but yet I love the little person that he is becoming. I have been thinking about the day he was born all day today. I call him my "turkey-baby" because I took him home the day before Thanksgiving and we couldn't have been more thankful for anything in our lives! When he was born, I remember not hearing him really cry and asking Paul if he was okay. I remember Paul turning to me with the biggest smile and saying, "He is gorgeous!" And he really was the prettiest baby I had ever seen. (Allie was cute too-but she was so mad that it took a few hours before I could get a good look at her :) When they handed Easton to me, I remember feeling like I knew him-really knew him and knowing that he was supposed to be my little boy. We will be forever "thankful" for Easton!

This morning I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day and Easton came in with a pirate sword in one hand and a gun in the other. He was banging around and smacking me, the toilet, and the tub with the sword when all of a sudden he stopped, looked up at me in the mirror and said..."You look tute(cute) Mommy." He is always telling me that something about me is cute or pretty. (Is his future wife lucky or what?!)This about sums up Easton for you. He can go from full throttle testerone to the sweetest most sensitive boy around.

(Easton at 18 mos.)

Easton asks a MILLION questions a day. He is curious about everything-why it works that way, why we have it all, etc... His questions range from, "Why do we have clouds?" Why did we have dinosaurs?" Why do we need stoplights?" and then the other day, I got this one...."Mommy, why do girls sit down to go to the bathroom?" haha....go ask your dad!

(Easton-2 years old)
A few weeks ago, I was telling Easton about missions and how when he is 19 he will go far away and teach people about Jesus and our Church. I told him about how his daddy went to D.C. and taught a lot of people for two years. He sat there and listened to me for a minute and then said, "I don't want to go on a mission." When I asked him why he said...."because I would miss you soooo much." (*sigh*) Me too-Bubba. Me too.
(Easton-3 years old)
I wish I could click my heels, snap my fingers...whatever it would take to keep him little forever. But I can't. So I will try to soak up every day and memory with him(even when I am ready to give him to my mother:) Happy Birthday Bubba! We couldn't have asked for a more perfect boy. We love you...to the moon and back!

(Easton-4 years old)

Our Dinner with an Astronaut

So recently I have thought about deleting my blog. I don't do much with it anymore and everyone that I tried to recruit to blogging has left me for "easier" ways of keeping in touch. I realize that only about three of you actually visit and read my posts, and I appreciate all three of you!;) SO-I'm not going to delete my blog. I'm actually going to use this as more of an online journal and maybe eventually have it printed out for future generations to read. I figure I have been better with this than any other journal. So from now on I am not editing what I say in my posts. I'm going to write exactly how I feel,say what I want to say,and BRAG about the most important people in my whole universe....MY FAMILY. And I'm not going to worry what people think of these posts-there are, after all, only three of you! haha!

So get ready....I'm about to BRAG big time about my husband. If you can't handle these kind of posts-you may want to leave now. Otherwise, get ready for Paul-fest, because I'm so proud of him I can hardly contain myself!:)

So a few weeks ago Paul was nominated and selected for an award at work called the "Launch Honoree Award." Well, last night was the award ceremony and dinner in Ogden for the honorees and I got to actually see just what a big deal this award is. As they passed out the awards, they talked about some of the accomplishments and contributions that person has made to ATK-and I had NO idea how much Paul had been doing. I mean, I know how much he works and how hard he works, but I'm kind of clueless as to what he does all day. I was so proud of him! They had the spouses of each recipient walk up with them while they accepted their award and I just felt so proud to be with him! They acknowledged how much he had contributed in only 3 1/2 years with the company and they also thanked all the spouses(which I thought was nice-since I feel husband-less at times!) But here is the part I about died over......

We ate dinner with an astronaut!

And I'm not talking like in the same room, a couple tables over.....NO!-he sat right next to Paul and me eating prime rib! Now to some, this may not be a big deal. This was a HUGE deal for me, people! One of my favorite movies of all time is Apollo 13(not joking)-I will watch that movie every single time that it is on! Holy crap! And here is the thing. I didn't realize that he was an astronaut for about the first hour of dinner. Him and Paul were having boring "engineer" talk and I was kind of zoning in and out. Finally, the MC of the night went to the podium to hand out awards and he begins to rattle off the resume of "the astronaut." He explains that this guy has completed FIVE space flights. At this point I am looking around the room to try and find the guy that looks like Tom Hanks or at least Gary Sinise(Apollo13 again..)and then they say his name. Kent Rominger. The guy sitting right. by. Paul.- stands up. I thought I was going to crap. I had sat here for an entire hour letting Paul talk shop with THE ASTRONAUT! I had a million questions.....(which much to Paul's embarrassment-I asked him most of them!) Anyway...here is his picture-he doesn't have the stache anymore. For you space geeks out there(NATE-I know you get this!) you can google him and see all he has done. VERY smart guy-and so nice. He didn't mind my questions at all...he thought it was funny.

Anyway, Mr. "space-man" Rominger was there to hand out the awards and have a professional picture taken with each recipient and their spouse. Yeah. I'm going to have like an 8x10 of Paul, me and Mr. Rocket Man in my house. I'm sure I will look like a tub of lard-(20 weeks along now)-but it is going in the house somewhere. Paul says it won't.....it will! It may go up in the closet, but it will go up!

Okay-back to Paul! Because after all it was his night. And it was all about him....(and the astronaut.) I'm so glad that he has been recognized for all his hard work. When he got a job at ATK-Thiokol, I remember thinking, "What am I going to do with a husband that gets home at 3:30?" (I grew up with a Dad that worked until like 8 at night, so that is what I am used to.) I didn't need to worry....he works A LOT. And for the most part, I'm good with it, because when he gets home, he makes sure that he is all ours. Work is left at work-most of the time. I also feel the praise is long over-due. He worked his tail off in graduate school and his first job didn't really make us feel "rewarded" for that time and effort. I think we now feel like school was, in the end, worth it. So...I'm extremely proud. And so glad he is mine. :)

Now, we get to go to Florida-and this time we are really going! It is hard to leave two kids behind with their own busy schedules, but good thing I have two grandmas that are willing to help. If all goes as planned, I should be watching a space shuttle launch on Friday. They told us we get VIP seating for it and we are also touring Kennedy Space Center. I'm so excited-and SO glad that I am not sick anymore. They are sending a professional photographer along with us and he will take pictures of ALL of the trip and of us. I have so few pictures of me and Paul because I'm always behind the camera! So, I will be posting all the pictures from the award ceremony and the trip to Florida when we get back. We extended our trip by a few days so that we can play around(this is after all our "early" ten year anniversary trip) and we are hoping to go see a Florida Gators game... My husband is somewhat of a college football fanatic!

As a side-note: We still don't know what we are having...I have had a lot of people ask me that lately. Here is the funny part-the baby's legs are so tightly crossed together that even if we wanted to know, they couldn't tell me! My doctor said she has never seen a baby cross their legs that tight and not move them at all. We did get a look at it's head/skull. It looked like a cross between Easton and an Alien. ;)

Happy Halloween...from a "good-witch" & a Ninja!

Introducing......Glinda the good witch and Ninja dude! I told Allie that I thought she should be a witch this year instead of a princess(which is what she has gone as for the last 4 years) and she thought it about it for awhile and said,...."Okay, I will be Glinda the good witch." HA! She found a way to be a witch, but still wear a crown. And Easton? Well, the $3 sword was all it took for him to decide to be a Ninja!

WOW! The month of October has been FULL of Halloween activities for us. My kids have already worn their costumes five times to other parties, and Halloween isn't until tomorrow! Luckily, I feel like I really get my money's worth out of their costumes! My mom always has a Halloween party every year where she makes this yummy dinner that you eat out of a pumpkin and then we carve pumpkins and play games, but this year-Krystal and my Dad were gone and so we had to "alter" the party somewhat. We dressed all the kids up-met for pizza and then took all of them to see.....

Oh yeah! Opening night! I made Paul go and buy tickets the day before-just to make sure that we would see it. (We are a little crazy for HSM at our house!) It was so fun for Allie to see this movie with her most favorite people in the whole world...her cousins! I have to admit-I absolutely loved it too! We are currently listening to the soundtrack non-stop. That Zac Efron....holy moly! He is such a cutie! After the movie, we went back to my mom's house and carved pumpkins. We like to line them up and turn out the lights to see them all lit up. I love carving pumpkins! I will carve pumpkins even when I have no kids at home!

Then we had our neighborhood Halloween party. Every year we close down the streets leading into our neighborhood and everyone has some sort of activity for kids in their drive-ways. The lady who puts this together every year, also does hay-rides for the kids around our block. This year, we did musical chairs in our drive-way. (I picked an easy one!) It is such a fun event and my kids look forward to this every year. We have such an awesome neighborhood!

This is our good friends' little girl, Aubree. She decided to be Dorothy-so we had a Wizard of Oz thing going that night! I tried to get Easton to be the lion again this year..no such luck.

This is my "traditional" Halloween picture of my kids. I started this about two years ago and I have decided that I am going to make them do this every year-even when they are 18 and 16 and they don't want to! (I'll will put the third in when he/she arrives). I think it will be fun to look at how they change over the years.....(The one from last year is my header right now...)


I can't wait for Halloween tomorrow! I love taking my kids around trick-or-treating, but I also love staying at my house and answering the door to all the kids. When me and Paul were in graduate school, we never got trick-or-treaters at our apartment and I yearned for the day that I had my own house and trick-or-treaters knocking on my door! haha! Weird I know...but I LOVE it!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

First Grade Pictures

So I finally got around to taking Allie's first grade pictures. I did Easton's forever ago and then I got too sick to even think about trying to take Allie's. There are a lot on here, so bare with me....the grandma's are picking out their favorites so I had to put a bunch on for them. I think they turned out pretty cute...I'm no professional (and I am not trying to be one), but I have a great model to work with-don't ya think? :). I took these down at Paul's grandparent's farm. They have the most beautiful place to take pictures-it looks like an old fashioned post card down there. Their home and farm have been painted several times by Ned Young. Here is one of his of the farm called "Honeybees". He has one print called, "Pirates" that has two little boys on top of a barn-supposedly those two little boys are Paul and his older brother. -so if you have Ned Young's calendar or have seen his work...then you have seen Paul's grandparents place. We love to go down there and most of Paul's childhood memories are centered around the farm.

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Anyway, here is Allie...not very many kids can pull off the "jack-o-lantern" smile, but I think she looks pretty cute without any teeth. :)