Does this mean...???

Today after CoOp I took the kids shopping at Target.  I was feeling the need to purchase a few baby necessities to have on hand just in case- that way, he surely won't come before his time, since I'm ready... right?

In the car I explained what we were shopping for to avoid the extra "Can we buy this?" questions.

Melia excitedly asked, "Does this mean we're nesting?"

:-)  Yes, I guess she could say that.  19 days and counting down... It's about time to get ready for this baby!

What is THAT!!!

This morning I told Isaac to go get his sandals so I could help him put them on.  He hem-hawed around, then told me to "go get them."

I looked at him and said, "Are you obeying Momma?"

He looked at me and smiled a sweet smile, "You go get them please Mom?"

(And yes, I did make him go get his own sandals...!)

Isaac's Clothing Pickiness

Normally, I let Isaac have some say in what clothes he wears for the day.  He is very opinionated about what he's going to wear, and while I will let him choose some things, Gabe doesn't let him at all :-)

Wednesday however, I was picking things out because we were headed to CoOp, and I like him to at least match.  I had his overalls, and picked out a short-sleeved red shirt to go under.  He starts right in with "Me no like that shirt. Me no want that shirt.  It too small." 

I said, "No it's not.  Here, put it on and see that it fits just fine," and proceeded to put it on him.  He immediately started pulling at the short sleeves, again telling me that it was too small.  Pretty soon, I clued in to the fact that he's saying he wants long sleeves instead of short sleeves.  So I picked out a red long sleeved shirt- it was a win-win!  :-)

Close...on St Patrick's Day

I printed out several fun coloring pages and mazes to keep the kids busy for a while today on St Patrick's Day.  One of them was a "color-by-letter" for Kiera.  She loves to guess what the picture is before she colors it to see if she's right.

I printed out a pot of gold...

She guessed it is a basket full of grapes.  :-)  Love her!

On another note, I am very excited to prepare a more traditional Irish meal for dinner tonight.  (Did you know corned beef isn't very traditional? I read it was more of a nobility dish, only made popular by immigrants to America... but I read that on the internet, so who knows...)  The first time I tried, Gabe distinctly told me not to make corned beef again.  I thought it was *ok*, but not a favorite.  Last time, I made green potato soup and beer bread.  Tonight, we're having Beer braised venison stew, Irish soda bread, and colcannon.  Can't wait to see how it turns out, especially the colcannon!  (To be honest, I'm a little nervous, but hey, it's worth trying once, right?!!)

Lumpy and Bumpy

This baby is SO fun :-)  He moves a ton more than any of the others ever did (enough to make me question if there really is twins in there!)

Last night we were watching a show, and I was laying on the couch on my side, feeling him roll around.  I moved over next to Gabe so he could feel.  Baby slowed down quite a bit, but was still bumping around.  Gabe removed his hand, and my whole tummy leaped!  After a few more tries, it was almost like he could tell when Daddy's hand was there because when the hand left, the big bumps happened.

Definitely something to enjoy these last 8 weeks!  Especially when I can't get inside my dryer, I have to have the kids do it... :-)

Love My Melia

This is a pattern for little knitted horsey blankets that Melia wrote up.  As in, made up, on her own.  And then wrote down so she wouldn't forget, and so that Kiera could use it later.  She also laminated it with packing tape :-) 

Love it... Adore her :-)

Another Melia Tidbit

Last night, as we were discussing the Torah and the law,  Melia asked what we do for the Sabbath....

Looong story short, we shared with Melia that we aren't Jewish, and with a VERY confused look on her face, she says...

"But I thought we were Jesus people?"

*Love...* 

What a handsome fella

Even with a little mascara....

My Decorator

Kiera decorated the house for me yesterday.  She was giggling to herself, and I asked her what was so funny... this is what I found...

She said something along the lines of "it already feels like a party!" 

"I think it's time to break out those Christmas decorations Gabe!  Gabe?  Gabe...  Hon, where is it in the barn that you stashed those??"

I found the lair of Thomas and Friends....

 Look closely.... Need it closer?  See below...

One guess who's lair this really is...  ;-)

Good Start to the Holiday Season!

This weekend we went shopping for decorations to do our "Basket of Blessings,"  and for our Operation Christmas Child Boxes.  The girls helped me thread the ribbon through the basket and tie the flowers on top, and so far we've seperated the kids' stuff into different bags because we can't find any shoe boxes :-)  I'm a little bummed we didn't get finished, but this week is the drop off for both these items so that puts the pressure on to GET IT DONE! 

Now, about shopping for gifts...  I need to start making my lists!  (Hint Hint... that means I need some lists, if you all feel kind enough to email me some!!!)

Carving Fun

Kiera's Butterfly... That Daddy carved :-)

I guess raw pumpkin isn't so bad... At least for an almost one year old :-)

Oh Alden- you will enjoy these pictures someday, I promise!  :-)

 

Melia's Dolphin jumping out of the water.  She worked very diligently on this, and it turned out great!

Fire Station Fun

Saturday I took the kids to the Open House at one of the local fire stations (#2 I believe...).  Gabe took Melia and Kiera last year while I stayed home with Isaac, and the girls (Kiera especially) has been asking to go back ever since!  I hadn't seen the sign, but my friend (Thanks Brooke!) told me about it this week and thankfully we were free to go!

What a great time!  They had several stations set up- I don't think we even hit them all!  But we did build a bird house together (Thanks to Home Depot), the girls practiced calling 911 and answering the questions, we discussed our "emergency exit" plan, I picked up a magnetic 911 board that I can leave on the fridge which has all our information on it, all the kids' faces were painted (I don't think I've ever seen Isaac sit so still!!), we rode on a mini-pumper, climbed in a police car, talked to a K9 officer and met his dog, ate hot dogs, bought a brownie at the bake sale, and spoke with someone about carseats.  WHEW! 

And, to top it all off, Melia won the $25 gift certificate to Fred Meyer drawing!  Wow! 

Salt Lake City: Part One

Last week I tagged along with Gabe to Utah for his annual Spillman user's conference (which is the computer system the jail uses.)  It was amazing :-)  I read FOUR books, took TWO naps, and had lots of fun with him on his downtime.  He also did very well on his certification tests.  It was a great vacation! 

The weird part for me was traveling alone. Because we used air miles to book my flight, I had to fly down the day before him, and home 6 hours later. While waiting for him to arrive, I took in the Hogle Zoo there in Salt Lake City, and hit a movie (The Help) which finished right as he was landing. Perfect!

We spent that evening with his co-worker and a gal from the Wenatchee PD, and another fellow from the west side playing pool and eating some delicious food at a small sports bar.  I must say, I am not a pool fan.  I'll watch, but please don't make me play! 

Monday Gabe had a review and testing (and I read and read and read...).  After his test we drove south a bit to take in a Brazilian steakhouse called Braza.  I've heard about this type of restaurant, and have been wanting to take Gabe to one for a while, so this seemed the ideal opportunity!  What we didn't know, and had it explained to us later in the week, was that the elevation can affect more than just your breathing... Apparently, it also can change how much you can consume... which makes it not the ideal opportunity to catch an "all-you-can-eat-meat" deal!  However, most of the meat was fabulous, and the salad bar was pretty good, plus the price was right.  We wished we could have eaten more, but this was just setting the tone for the rest of the week!  I went on to not be hungry at all until I arrived back home- it was crazy!   Especially when I am trying to enjoy having my plate to myself and not sharing with three little piggies!  Oh well!  Live and learn!  I also really noticed going up the stairs in the conference center- I felt like I was so out of shape, but then got laughed at because of the altitude thing... and I didn't feel so bad :-)

The next day was the corporate "event," in which they took us all out to Miller Motorsports in Tooele.  Here Gabe rode along in a racing mustang, which he said didn't go fast enough!  This is him exiting the car... he looks like he had fun, doesn't he?  :-)

Can you read the price tag? $80K- polished aluminum... brand new it'd run ya $140K.

Miller Motorsports has the largest private collection of Shelby Cobras, plus Shelby Mustangs and Ford GT40s.  There were some really high prices in this museum... all the way up to 14 million.  I can't believe they let me stand so close...

We also experienced riding in Jeep Rubicons on a rock crawling course and drove *real* go-carts!  You know, the 40 mph kind!  Gabe only passed me 3 times... But I did some passing too :-)  He was just the fastest driver out there by far- so I didn't stand a chance!  The rock crawling ranked high on my "how do they do that" bucket list... though I never would have admitted it.  I only went because these are "experienced" drivers... but they had a tendency to make mistakes here and there too!  Those pics are on Gabe's phone, so I'll have to post those later...

The next day included more conferencing, during which I drove down to Lehi to pick up some essential oils directly from the Young Living office (kinda cool!), plus visited the local Costco where I bought another book (which put my checked bag at 1 pound over the limit!) on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  The conference's closing banquet ended the day, but Keys on Main topped off the night!  Keys on Main is a bar which hosts dueling pianos two days a week- and it was the number one thing on Gabe's to-do-again list from last year!  I can't begin to describe how much fun it was- phenomenally talented pianists- funny drunk people- great songs.  What a blast!

Gabe had a few classes to do the next morning, and then we scooted out to do some sightseeing together.  First I wanted to check out the Temple Square- mainly to see the Beehive House and Lion House because I'd recently (in the last year) read about their history and Brigham's countless wives :-)  However, once we entered the square and started rounding the temple itself, we decided to leave due to "feeling weird."  We did drive by the houses the next morning, but after leaving we found the yummiest little bakery/sandwich shop ever!  Hagermann's Bakehouse:  if ever you find yourself in Salt Lake City, visit here.  They had scrumptious samples, tasty sandwiches, and we went up afterwards to pick out dessert (because we couldn't refuse!) and they gave it to us free! 

My apricot-jalapeno jelly was sliming me!  (By then we'd learned to split whatever we ordered!)

To be continued.... because it's late and blogger is not cooperating in the photo upload process... :-)

Melia Without Training Wheels, Isaac Rides His Bike

Monday night, the girls wanted to ride.  Isaac amazingly also wanted to ride.  I say amazingly because before now, he's ridden a little bit in the yard, but didn't really care about it.  Oh, but now!  Bike riding has become VERY SERIOUS.  He stoicly rides along.  The smiles in these pictures are only because he was being photographed- they are not due to his "having fun."

 Esther and Kerzon getting in on the fun :-)

 What??  Off-roading already?

We decided it was time... Time to take off the training wheels.  Monday night with Daddy was full of lots of frustration, lack of balance, and heavy huffing and puffing. 

But Tuesday and Wednesday, she got the hang of it and was cruising around like she'd been doing it for weeks!  (The hardest part is getting started!)

Even after a crash, she's all smiles!

(Note:  There's no pictures of Kiera because she wasn't on her bike at this time.  She was in time out because she rode on the road before Mommy got outside, even after being reminded by Sissy... Lots of tears, but an important lesson!)

Issac's Funny Faces

I had the camera one day last week and Isaac came up to me and wanted me to take his picture.  Then he wanted to see the picture.  Then he made another face, and so on and so forth.  We were both giggling uncontrollably by the time he ran out of faces, and I just had to share :-)  I wish he didn't have food on his face, but during the season of fresh fruit and veggies, this kid just doesn't stop eating!  Enjoy!

Esther's Kittens

These little punkins were born Monday morning, August 29.  She actually had them in the girls' closet, and neither Melia nor Kiera had any clue!  Gabe heard the baby kitty cries from the living room and went to investigate!  We got the box all set up, then told the girls what had happened.  Right then, while they were watching, Esther had baby number four!  What a special experience!  We have two girls and two boys (to the best of my knowledge :-), one gold boy, tan/white girl, gray girl with a smudgy nose, and gray boy!

So... we're taking requests if you're in the market for a kitten!