baby girl-well~

we are going to try and make sure..

tomorrow is my next appointment for this little one.

we are supposed to have another ultrasound to check and make sure since last time it was not super clear!

wish us luck and wish for an immodest baby!

on to 2006~

sorry no pics. when we had all our computer problems we lost a ton of pictures that were on it. anyways so this time 2 years ago....lets see, what were we up to? well we were a little more than a month into being the parents of two boys. kael was born on October 2 of this year. again my birthday was kind of a fog. in a house with a barely one year old and a one month old. This year was busy also. after my birthday, we were once again on the move so that we could again go and be with family for the holidays and show off our sweet new little guy! the boys were really well behaved. although we were exhausted and need a break after the holidays, it was fun.

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on a completely different note my family came up yesterday and spent the day here to celebrate my birthday. we had a good time chatting and spending time together.

my mom brought some yummy stuff for lunch and a birthday cake that my boys are still enjoying. i even got presents!!

it was a fun day. thanks guys for making the trip up and thanks for everything else!

b-day countdown continues~

(this is the best i could do for being close to my birthday)

3 years ago~2005

well in november 2005 i had been a brand new mommy to the most beautiful little boy i think i had ever seen for almost exactly a month. He was a great birthday present! We were living in a new place, garran had just decided to go back to school, so he was just finishing up his first semester back. we were living in a third floor apartment which was not that great for carrying laundry or for carrying a baby and grocery's.

i can not remember what we did for my birthday this year. we might have just had a quiet evening at home. i was super paranoid about anyone watching cullan. i had this new mommy thought that no one could take care of him like garran and i could, which really limited my list of babysitters =)

at the end of this year we traveled all over showing off our new little boy and loving it.

we were very tired but enjoyed the fact that so much of our family was able to meet our new little guy.

countdown from the past~

(a picture of us at the beginning of 2004, before we were married)

so with my birthday fast approaching. i thought i would do a count down of sorts. kind of a summary of years past. i am sure this again is more for me than anyone else. but because this is kind of a journal, here we go.

four years ago : 2004

lets see in november 2004, garran and i had been married right around eight months.

life was very busy, but fun. we were both working and unfortunately rarely seeing each other. during the week i would work 8-4 at a school for troubled youth and he would work 1-9 at a local business, so you can see how our time together was limited. by this point garrans younger brother was also living with us.

not the best decision on our part. not that his brother is a bad person, but i am now a firm believer that the first year really needs to be spent with just the two of you getting to know each other and not having a third person around to sometimes complicate things.

for the most part things went pretty smoothly after we got married. we only had a few awkward times when we both just had to adjust to the way that the other did something. looking back i sometimes miss those days. it was so fun to just be able to hang out with each other and enjoy each others company without the stress of finding a sitter or trying to keep the kids occupied so we could have a conversation about something. (don't get me wrong i love my kids and i would not trade them, its just fun to think back sometimes..to our lazy days as we joke about them now)

2004 ended with a lot of traveling to see family for the holidays and with a move to a duplex that was probably one of my favorite places we have lived. it was out in the country but still close to town. we had great neighbors, that were friends of ours. it was a fun little place and we really enjoyed starting the new year there!

cute-ness over flowing~

well the cuteness factor at our house has been on high.

this is cullan wearing the hat he got from the surgery unit. i guess now he relates sleeping with this little cap. oh well super cute either way!!

kael in camo!
cullan being truly amazing! =)
(in case you can't read his shirt, i found it at old navy, and it says "voted most likely to be amazing")
well thats all - just a little cuteness to share!!

my lil trooper~

today was cullans big day at the hospital. the nursing staff was very nice. they showed cullan all of their cool toys and asked if they could take pictures of him. i guess they do that for all children there to have surgical procedures or other things done. so the nurse and i took some pictures.

this was cullan and daddy when we first arrived at the hospital.

cullan in his scrubs =) they let him pick out his own hat and after a little convincing he put the gown and hat on. isn't he a cute patient!
checking mommys heart!
afterwards, cullan was a little upset coming out of the anesthesia, but the doctor said he did really well. he instantly wanted daddy to hold him and then a little while later wanted me to lay with him in his bed and he took a little nap.
after waking up, he was not happy about his iv, but was pretty good about not messing with it.

after a little while he was not really drinking enough, so they gave him a popsicle and that made all the difference. after that he was his usual talkative self. we were released shortly after. we are home for the rest of the afternoon resting since we had to get up so early. i am glad that he did so well and that this is over.

showing off my little boy~

CLICK HERE TO SEE A SUPER CUTE BOY!

so if any of you know us, you know we read a lot of books at our house. we do not have as many books as i would like, so the boys end up reading the same ones over and over again. here is cullan reading one of his favorites. i say reading with a smile. more like him repeating it from memorization! but still cute none the less!

PS. DONT WORRY WE DID NOT ACTUALLY POST THE VIDEO TO YOU TUBE. IT IS COMPLETELY PRIVATE!

all about babies~

so i thought that i would give a little update
on baby and things that have been going on. so sit tight who knows how long this blog could be.

for starters tomorrow is cullans big day. we have to take him to one of the local hospitals at the crack of dawn tomorrow. they are going to put him completely under, (which makes me extremely nervous). so anyways they are going to do x-rays, which is why they are putting him under in the first place. he is really good about letting them clean his teeth but when they tried to take a picture he flipped. so they decided that they would put him under, due the x-ray, do a really thorough cleaning and then if there is a problem they will just go ahead and fix it. so we will be doing that for most of the morning. say a little prayer that everything goes well.

on a happier, lighter note, i finally found the fabric i wanted, to make this lil miss a blanket. i have always made each of my kids a blanket. (with the help of my talented and patient friend cj)the first one with the little lambs on it is cullans. he loved it as a baby and now has out grown it a little. he might ask for it every now and then but it is pretty rare.

this cute one with frogs is kaels. he is super attached to his. he carries it all over and sleeps with it all the time. i love that he loves it. it makes me feel good because i made it for him.

and finally........................................

this is the fabric i found and fell in love with for this next lil one!! it took me forever. however i have to say that now that i have everything i am so excited. by the time that they are all done i can always just imagine holding our sweet new baby in them. i know i went a little over board on the pink, but hey it is my first girl.=)

on to a baby update~week 23!!

this by far has been my easiest pregnancy. i have felt the best and this baby is super active. she is always bouncing around. night and day she is just kicking and moving. which for me is great because i am a worry wart about the baby not moving enough. so we are doing pretty well. we have our next appointment on monday and they are going to do another ultrasound to make sure that this is indeed a girl.

well this is probably long enough=) happy tuesday to everyone!!

did you drive? ~

ok so i hope that i can convey the humor of this story.

my friend mandy and i have been going to get pedicures every once in a while, i think this may be our third since like may. so not super often, but every once in a while, we like to treat ourselves. today was one of those days. the reason that i took a picture of my foot was so that you could see my pink toes in honor of having a girl and my lovely pedi flip flops that i am now the two time recipient of winning.

i joke because twice now that we have gone to get pedicures for some reason i end up finishing after my friend mandy. i always get the same line "oh did you drive here?" i automatically now what that means. it means that i will be leaving the nail salon wearing these lovely paper thin flip flops while waiting for my toes to dry. not only is it a little embarrassing heading out in public with these lovely things on but with the current temp at 26 degrees today, my feet were just a little chilly as well. mandy and i had a good laugh at my good fortune of always getting to be the lucky one to wear these to our next destination.

on a side note, usually they have these wonderful chairs that massage your back while getting a pedicure, however the one today was more like riding a mechanical bull! a couple times i thought either mandy or i might get thrown from the chair. i even let out a yelp at one point. imagine i six month prego lady with wet toe nails flying across a nail salon due to being bucked from a massage chair. ahhh what a relaxing girls day!

oh the little moments.......

ok so this is a little embarrassing but i am going to post these pictures anyways. today we were just kind of having a silly morning playing with the boys. garran and cullan thought it would be funny to find every blanket in the house that we own and pile them on me. cullan and kael thought this was hilarious. i am not lying when i say that there was probably 40lbs of blanket on me. well then cullan and kael decided that i was like a huge slide of blankets. finally when it was all over i had to have garran literally help me with getting out from underneath them. they were so heavy. so here are some early morning pictures of us being silly and just know that i am not excited to show everyone what i look like first thing in the morning. garran laughing at me because i was stuck under a huge pile of blankets.
cullan laying on me saying cheese. he is so cute!

i am sure these will end up as black mail some day, but oh well =)

why i love sunday mornings~

i especially loved this sunday morning. we do not go to church until the afternoon, at least until january.(i actually prefer morning church for the sake of my kids, but its almost here) anyways so we have the whole morning to spend together. it is the only day of the week that right now for the most part we are all home and are not all being pulled in a million different directions. this morning it is cold outside, and so we decided we would listen to christmas music while we made and ate breakfast. i know it is early, but my kids really love christmas. plus i am a bit of a junkie myself. so this morning we had a nice breakfast with christmas music playing in the background and now the kids are taking a fun thomas bubble bath! so far it has been a good morning...lets hope it continues through the afternoon!

its starting to......

SNOW
i can not believe it is snowing. its only november 7th!
i guess maybe we will have a white thanksgiving =)
if it is not snowing where you are. enjoy it. we always get enough to last much longer than i would like.

oh hear i go~

BE PREPARED TO HEAR MY RANTING AND YES SOME MIGHT BE OFFENDED!

while i am glad that the elections are over and that hopefully the political debating and crazy nonsense is over, this morning the tv has been more than i can handle. i have been reading about protesting and things of such that have been going on in california. i am a little irritated. i feel that the people of california have spoken TWICE on how they feel about how marriage should be defined. i personally believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. i have no problem with homosexual couples having the following rights:

"regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the family or the constitutional rights of churches and their adherents to administer and practice their religion free from government interference." (this quote was taken from this web site)

i feel like i am a very tolerant person and that i would never be mean or even teach my children to be mean to some who lives an alternative lifestyle.

i am very bothered however by the fact that these protesters are singling out certain churches when what the reality is, is that 51% or people in california that come from different races, religions, income levels etc all spoke and said the same thing.

they all feel that marriage is between a man and a woman.

as a nation or a state we may or may not agree with how elections or voting or propositions come out. however that is part of what makes the usa a great place to live. the voice of the people matters. so when the majority of people vote for the president or whatever that is what we go with. not everyone will be happy with the outcome, however you don't see super mccain supporters protesting outside obama headquarters. this is how it works, people vote and that shows how the majority of the people want their society to run.

while i could continue to debate this topic for hours i think i will end my rant here!

sorry to those i offended but sometimes you have to stand your ground on what you believe!

**SIDENOTE** if you read the web link highlighted protesting i find it ironic that people protesting intolerance pulled a sticker off a mans car that stated he was in favor of prop 8, that then led to an altercation!

fire station field trip~

today was our field trip to the fire station with mom school. cullan was super excited. i even found a shirt for him that was on clearance last night that was only a dollar. it had a fire truck on it that lights up. he thought it was also very cool.

so today we all met at one of the local fire stations. the kids seemed to be excited and got to see where the fire men cooked and studied all the streets in our town. then we got to the best part.

THE FIRE TRUCKS!!!

this is cullan standing in front of one of the trucks!

he was very impressed with all their gear and helmets!it was very cute. cullan was really struggling with not being able to touch all the cool things on the fire truck. the temptation was more than he could handle. =)

then one of the firemen put on all the gear and showed the kids what they do when there is a call .

this fireman was very nice. they explained that they had to put on all their gear and that if you ever saw someone in your house dressed like this to not be afraid, but that they were there to help. cullan thought this guy was great, and he was really friendly.

cullan asked to have his picture taken, but i only got him giving the guy a high five. this is another little boy that wanted his picture taken too!

next they got to see a fireman slide down the poll. cullan watched as they did it twice. then he immediately turned to me and said "CULLAN TURN"!! of course they were to small, but they were able to go over and look at it.first look and then of course attempt!

then we were pretty much done. we got a group shot of almost everyone in front of the fire trucks.

all in all it went pretty well. however i was a little disappointed. when i scheduled the field trip they said the kids would be able to get on the trucks, receive hats and coloring books, and would also watch a fire safety video. none of which happened. they would not even turn on the lights for the kids. i guess it does not matter because the kids will never know that they missed anything, but it makes me sad because i know the kids, especially cullan would have loved it. oh well, still a fun field trip!

simple solutions~

(my clean boys with their special blue bottle)

for as long as i can remember my kids have always loved baths. they would play for ever and they really did not mind having to take showers sometimes either. however within the last 4 months it has become a real struggle. they would fight me on it and would cry when i would say it was time to take a bath. i thought for sure it was just a phase and that in time it would all work out. well thank goodness for simple solutions. garran and i had to do some shopping the other day and we decided to just go as a family. i was in the soap isle getting some body wash and face stuff when cullan yells thomas bubbles. there on the very top shelf sat a bottle of thomas bubble bath for $1.25! i said cullan would you like to take a bath with some thomas bubbles. to my surprise both boys answered YES!! that was on saturday i think. everyday since then cullan and kael have come to us and said, "take bath with thomas bubbles". all i can say is $1.25 well spent!

(and this just made me laugh, they are both saying "CHEESE")

blank~

that is how my mind has felt since i woke up this morning. i woke up not feeling so hot. not sick, just super sore. i guess this kiddo is getting bigger and because she is breech, i just have a lot of pressure a lot higher this time. so i woke up thinking that i would rather stay in bed.

on a different note it was my morning to teach mom school. i had to cram all four elements into my day because on thursday we are going on a field trip. i think it should be fun. so today we learned about the letter I, ovals, the number 9 and the color blue! we cut out 9 oval raindrops, that of course were blue and glued them on our cloudy page. then we talked about the letter I and colored that. here is a picture of all the kids with there raindrop pictures. what i think is funny is that i took this picture maybe 20 minutes after finishing the activity. notice how may still have 9 rain drops~

after mom school i went to vote. i have to be honest, i am so glad that it is over. i am sure that some people might be surprised to hear that this election has been the most stressful i have taken part in since i have been able to vote. while i consider myself to be conservative i have to admit that i did not care for my choices. garran and i have been debating a lot recently about how to vote. we had even tossed around writing in someones name. as i stood at the ballot box today i literally felt sick about what to do. i am glad it is over with and that hopefully the constant political debating will slow down. my mom always says you should not talk politics because it never ends well. so i think i will end my thoughts here. with all the stress though, i do hope everyone got out and voted today for whom ever they thought was the best choice for them.

a kid after my own heart~

so christmas is always a big deal for me. i enjoy getting a present, who doesn't. however i always get more excited about the decorating, the traditions, driving to go look at all the christmas lights and getting hot chocolate. i just love everything. it is so fun giving and getting christmas cards! ok so recently just within the last two weeks, cullan has started asking about christmas trees. he keeps talking about them and any time we go to a store that has christmas decorations for sale, we have to walk through and look at all the pretty christmas stuff. i am so excited that he already loves christmas as much as i do or at least close =) we might have to put our christmas tree up early this year, maybe right after thanksgivng so that cullan and i can really enjoy along with garran and kael!

time change~

what i love about the time change...

my kiddos are sleepy a little earlier during this kind of transition time and i can get a little bit more done at night!

what i do not love about the time change...

they wake up a lot earlier ready to go, while i am still dragging a little.

i am starting to believe i am much more of a night owl than a morning person =)

just cause~

do any of you blog just because..

i am blogging because i have had a long but wonderful weekend. i got to have a semi girls night before the saturday night adult session of stake conference. my friend mandy and i went to dinner and then did a little shopping! today i attended stake conference with garran and the boys. it was wonderful although i have to admit i was a little sad that it is no longer here and now we have to travel an hour to get to the new stake center. oh well. it was fun to ride and talk with garran and listen to the boys sing in the back. plus the boys got to see my husbands family this weekend and they always enjoy that!

i am also blogging because i secretly feel overwhelmed by the upcoming month.

it seems that we have something big going on every single week including just our regular schedule which is hectic in and of itself. so here we go-

WEEK ONE:

this is my week to teach mom school. so i am working on my lesson and getting things ready for that. i also scheduled the mandatory mom field trip for this week that each mom is supposed to plan. we are going to a fire station. i think the kids will love it, i just hope i make it through it.

VOTE!

then on saturday we are going to be celebrating garrans dads birthday!

WEEK TWO:

mom school. plus i have to take cullan to get a full physical. later in this same week we have to take him to a hospital and have a dental procedure done. the stinky thing is, is that he has to be put completely under. ARGG! it makes me nervous. but i want him to have good teeth. oh yeah and that weekend my parents are coming up=) that part should be fun!

WEEK THREE:

mom school. i have an ob appointment for this baby. i am excited to have another ultrasound just to make sure that our lil miss is definitely a lil miss and not a lil mister!! the i turn 28 on the 18th!! it is so weird for me to type that. i can't imagine that i am two years away from 30. i still think of myself as 21. it's like my brain froze my aging process at 21, or maybe im just crazy!

the one exciting thing about this week is that we head to nauvoo! i can't wait. we are taking the boys, and i think they will have a lot of fun.

WEEK FOUR:

hmmm.... basically thanksgiving and family!!

hectic is all i can say

then oh my goodness we start our third trimester and the countdown in on for christmas.

i try not to rush through anything, but i feel like this month is just going to fly. well maybe even the rest of 2008. i know all you other folks are just as busy as i am, but sometimes i think blogging is a stress reliever for me. so maybe this blog was more for me than you, but that's ok right! =)

HAPPY NOVEMBER, HOPEFULLY I WILL GET A CHANCE TO BLOG THIS MONTH! LOL =)

halloween night~

last night was halloween. we had such a good time. we went to some friends house and went through their neighborhood. i think that there was maybe about 10 families walking in our group. all of the kids were so cute. i was so impressed with cullan and kael. they walked the whole time and they were really good about saying trick or treat and saying thank you. well cullan was really good. kaels version went something like this:

me: kael what do you say?

kael: treat

me:(laughing..) say thank you

kael: you!!

he was very sweet. well they both were. and had a great time. by the end of the night they were both pretty tired but their little eyes lit up when i came home and dumped their bags on the table to check candy and put it away. this was the loot and then kaels expression.

cullan was getting pretty tired and was a little grumpy but woke up this morning in a great mood and super excited about the candy! hope everyone had a great halloween!