Crafts, Cookies, & Contractions...

CRAFTS: We decided that since the weather was gloomy we just wanted to stay home this weekend. So the girls and I got our creativity flowing and we got to work. Saturday afternoon the girls made these cute flower valentines.

COOKIES: On Sunday after church we made sugar cookies. We have a really fast, really yummy recipe that we use that doesn't make a million cookies. They had so much fun cutting them out and decorating them. We love weekends like this when the t.v. isn't on 24/7, because if you know me, you know that I despise when the t.v. is on. It's just such a waste of time.

CONTRACTIONS: On Saturday after the girls finished with their flower crafts I started having contractions. This is not unusual for me, so I took some tylenol and started making dinner. Well and hour later I was still having the contractions every 5 minutes, but at that point I figured I could finish making dinner and we could eat before we did anything. Another hour later I was still having contractions every 3-5 minutes and we had eaten dinner and cleaned up. I called my friend Dani and we drove to Orem to drop the kids off with her and head to the hospital. We got to the hospital, went straight to labor and delivery and then got set up in the room. The baby's heart rate was good, but the contractions were coming strong and fast. The nurse called my dr. and he said he really didn't want me to have the baby that early. Thus resulting in me getting 3 shots. Finally 4 hours later the contractions stopped and we headed home.

I let myself get excited for a minute, but then I remembered how bad it could be if I had him that early, so I am thankful that they were able to stop my labor and send me home. I had a dr. appointment today and he said everything looks good. I haven't had any more contractions, and I am finally 36 weeks. The dr. said if I go into labor now they won't try to stop the labor they will just deliver the baby. I'm hoping/praying to make it at least 1 more week.

It's That Time...

It's time for Girl Scout Cookies in Utah (it's different for each state). If you are one of the lucky ones that happen to live close to us, this darling girl will be ringing your door bell in the next week or so. If you don't live close to us you can go to the cookie website here or the Girl Scouts of Utah website here and find a troop or a booth near you. Support your local Girl Scout!!!

And just for your information, the following are the cookies available this year:





Trefoil - shortbread cookies are shaped like the Girl Scout Trefoil design








Thin Mints - round, mint-flavored cookies covered with dark chocolate







Tagalongs - round cookies with a layer of peanut butter on top, and covered in chocolate









Sugar Free Chocolate Chip








Samoas - covered in caramel and toasted coconut, and then striped with chocolate






Do-Si-Dos - oatmeal cookie top and bottom surrounds a peanut butter-flavored layer inside




Lemon Chalet Cream - sandwich cookie has a touch of cinnamon-ginger spice with lemon frosting center







Dulce - De - Leche - New for 2009 - milk caramel chips and stripes

Engagement

This weekend my sister and her fiance came up so I could take some engagement pictures for them. They were so much fun to work with. We wanted to take the pictures in ST. George where they both live, but due to my current condition they came up to me. It was freezing, but they were awesome and we got some really great pictures.

Starting Fresh

So if any of you are like me, you like to start the new year with a clean house. You take down all your Christmas decorations and start cleaning out closets, etc. One of the other things I do is to make sure my house smells good. I love scentsy, and its very convenient for me because my sister Mary sells it. So if you are interested here is a link to her website.

Ring in the New Year

We had a really great holiday season. The girls got what they wanted for Christmas. MaKady got a Nintendo DS and Paige got her Barbie car. It was really nice just to spend so much time at home with the girls. Jared and I both had a lot of time off of work.

We were able to visit with Jared's family on Christmas eve and then we went to my parents house the day after Christmas.

For New Years we just stayed at home. We got the baby's room all ready and we took the girls bowling. It's one of their favorite activities. (Sorry for the blurry pictures).

Candy

Me & My sister Mary

My sister and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening baking cookies and making candy. It was so much fun. It's been a couple of years since I have done it, so I wanted to do it this year. We made Pinwheel cookies, toffee, caramels, & peanut butter truffles. Yea for baking. It really helped me get into the Christmas spirit (as weird as that may sound).

Birthday party

Trinity, Paige & MaKady

My sister Mary and her daughter Trinity came down for the weekend. We celebrated Paiges birthday with some homemade pizza, cake, and a trip to Jumpin Jacks. The girls had a blast. Paige picked out the topping for her cake. She is still at that age where she thinks it's fun to mix Christmas and her birthday. I'm sure that will change.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today Paige is 6 years old. I can't believe how the time has flown. Six years ago today, it was a Thursday, I had just finished finals on December 15 and I was on my Christmas break. MaKady had her Kindergarten Christmas concert, and my brother Shane was due to fly in from Alaska for the holidays. I didn't feel well during the concert, but I wasn't due to have Paige until the middle of January. So I sat uncomfortably for 2 hours. Then we all congratulated MaKady on how well she did. I asked my parents to take MaKady home for a sleepover and Jared and I headed for the hospital. I was having contractions, they were very painful but they weren't regular. I thought they would just check me and send me home, but we got to the hospital and the contractions kept coming. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions and that didn't work. They gave me the shot twice more and still nothing. I never dialated past a 2, but my dr. came in and said they would do a c-section anyway. So around 10:30 we had our little Paige. I was so nervous because she was so early but even 4 weeks early she was a 6 lb, healthy little girl. She has brought such a great spirit to our family. She is full of jokes and always has something funny to say. This morning she woke up and said "guess what, I'm 6 today and I looked in the mirror and I grew, I am so tall." Happy Birthday Bunny!!!

Dance & Trains

Last night the girls had their winter dance recital. They have both improved so much since their last recital. They did great and it was fun to watch all of the girls perform.

We have a family tradition of making candy trains every year. I use to make them with my mom when I was little and then when MaKady started school we started making them. This is her last year in Elementary, but she has decided that she can still do it every year. The only difference will be that we will only have to make a few of them for her friends instead of 30 for her whole class. Paige isn't sure she wants in on this tradition just yet, but maybe we can convince her to do it next year.

Update

Here is the belly at 30 weeks. And here is the update: The dr. says I am out of room. I know that I am. I can't sit, stand, or lay down in any comfortable position. This is what happened with both of the girls. I will be lucky to make it to 36 or 37 weeks. I've been having contractions since about 27 weeks. Also very normal for me. But everything is going good. We are still cleaning out the office to make room for baby and we have a list of about 15 names. Sometimes we sit around and toss out names. MaKady likes names like Edward and Noah. Paige wants us to name him something off of the t.v. shows she watches. She votes for Freddy (from ICarly) and Manny (from Handy Manny). The other day I mentioned the name "Nash" and Paige said "why don't we just call him hash brown, it rhymes with Nash." I couldn't stop laughing. I'm glad to have these little girls to point out the horrible things that kids could tease him with at school because of his name, so to say the least "Nash" is off the table. We will just keep thinking of names. I'm sure we won't decide until we see his face.

Christmas Parties

Friday we had our ward Christmas party. We had a nice dinner and then Santa surprised the kids by showing up. MaKady thought she was too big to sit on Santa's lap, but still had to tell him what she wanted. Paige and her friend Hannah went together. Paige said they were brave.

Paige & Hannah

Saturday we had a family Christmas party. My aunt made all the kids these cute drums and the kids sang "Little Drummer Boy".

Paige and my mom

My dad is so cute. He is always making faces at the kids.

Busy...

We , like most of you have been extremely busy. Here are a few of the things we have done the last 2 weeks.
1. Spend Thanksgiving Day watching the Macy's Parade on t.v. in the morning, then we went to Levan to grandma Mangelson's for yummy food.
2. Friday after thanksgiving we went to Brigham City to have another Thanksgiving feast with my family. Jared deep fried the turkey. Then my dad and Jared took the kids swimming at Crystal Hot Springs (it's a natural hot spring and it's open all year long - so much fun)
3. We got out all of the Christmas decorations. Jared put up the lights outside while the girls and I put up the tree and the decorations inside.
4. We went to the light parade in Santaquin. It was a lot of fun. We put a blanket out on the sidewalk by the bank on main street and we all cuddled together. Then we went home and had lots of hot chocolate with marshmellows. (Our little family loves hot chocolate. We go through tons of it this time of year)
5. We've been watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music
6. The girls have started their Christmas countdown. It's a paper nativity. They each got their own to color and cut out, then each night we read a story or something and they tape another piece of the nativity to the wall in their bedrooms. Here is a link to the nativity if anyone wants a copy.
7. We have been playing tons of games as a family, Dora Candyland, Uno, Matching, and the girls really love playing High School Musical Singstar.
8. We have done a few craft projects, including pomanders. (I didn't know they actually had a name, but it's where you take an orange and stick cloves into it to form a pattern.) We used small oranges and tied ribbon around them to hang on the tree.
That's how the past two weeks have gone. We have some Christmas parties coming up and we are so excited for Christmas.

Thankful

In light of Thanksgiving and the coming holiday season, we decided that we would make our list of things that we are thankful for. So here it goes:

1. First and foremost our family

2. A baby on the way, it is truly a blessing

3. A warm house to live in

4. Cars that run (they aren't the nicest things, but they are paid for and they run)

5. The fact that Jared and I still have jobs

6. Food in our cubards, fridge, freezers, and food storage

7. Good friends and neighbors, and especially our great ward

8. Awesome babysitters, I don't know what I would do without Jessica, Kelsey and Julie, they are like 2nd moms to the girls.

9. Living close enough to our families that it only takes a little while to drive and visit

10. Church callings

11. The weather - I know it's a pain sometimes, but it is fun to live in a place with all 4 seasons

12. Turkey -deep fried - it's the only way to go, and to Jared for having the patience to stand out in the cold and cook the thing

13. Banana cream pie

14. Thanksgiving

15. Christmas

16. People that put up Christmas lights, it just adds to the holiday enjoyment

17. Christmas movies

18. Hot Chocolate

19. Fun parties

20. My Dad's homemade rootbeer

21. Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Here is our list so far, it may be a list in progress because we have so much to be grateful for. We wish you all a lovely Thanksgiving!

Holiday Kickoff...

It's no secret that this time of year is my very favorite. Starting about now through Christmas, our weekends are full of fun stuff. This weekend to start it off we took the girls to one of our favorite restaurants "Red Lobster". It was so good. Jared always gets an enormous plate of crab legs and I usually get some kind of fish, but considering my condition, I opted for the cajun chicken linguini alfredo. It was so yummy. Of course the best part of Red Lobster are the garlic cheese rolls that they bring out. I could eat those all day long. After lunch we took the girls to ToysRus, just to look (we didn't buy anything) but this way we get a good idea of what they are into and they can start writing their letters to Santa. It was so much fun.

Dance

The girls had a dance recital over the weekend at the city building. They did such a good job. Paige was a little mad at first because she didn't want to wear the headband but once we got there and she saw that the other girls were wearing theirs she was fine. MaKady did a really good job in her dance. She was a little nervous because at the end they had to do this little pyramid thing and she was afraid she would fall, but it all turned out really good.

New Nephew

On Saturday we went to Jared's parents house in Levan. We got to meet our new little nephew who came into the family through the miracle of adoption. His name is Adam. The girls just loved him. Paige couldn't get enough of him and she wanted to hold him the entire time. He is just so adorable. Look at all that hair and he's already had 1 haircut. Too cute!!!

Ward Party

Our ward had their Halloween party last night. We ate chilli and lots of yummy treats, and they had games, a spook alley, and trunk or treat for the kids. I think everyone in our ward did such great jobs on their costumes. They were all really creative and so cute.

The Movies

I have to admit that my daughters and I are huge High School Musical fans so of course over the weekend we had to see the new movie. I was prepared for the worst, but we got there an hour before the movie started. We were 2nd in line to buy our tickets (although a lot of people had purchased theirs online) then we got a great spot in the theatre, no pushing or yelling. It was great. The whole theatre was full of moms and their kids (mostly girls). We had a great time, just the three of us. (Jared opted not to go with us).

Engaged

My baby sister got engaged over the weekend. We are so excited for her and her soon to be husband. He is such a great guy. For more details and to see the ring check out her blog here.

8 Things Tag

8 Things about me....

8 Favorite TV Shows:
I don't have time to watch tv, here is what everyone else in the house watches:
Wizards of Waverly Place
ICarly
SpongeBob
Dora the Explorer
Handy Manny
How It's Made
Deadliest Catch

8 Things I did yesterday:
Took the kids to their babysitters
Went to Work
Visited with my neighbor
Made Cookies with Paige
Played Uno with the girls
Made Dinner
Cleaned the House
Laundry

8 Things I look forward too:
Having this baby
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Deep fried Turkey (it's the best way to have it)
Christmas
New Years
Some time off of work
Hanging out with my kids

8 Favorite Resturants
McDonalds (I had to put this as #1 because I have an addiction)
Applebee's
Cafe Rio
Good Wood
Kneaders
Dominos
Carrabas
Brick Oven

8 Things on my wish list
To have a healthy baby
To be completely out of debt
To take a big vacation this sumer
A new car
To sleep in, just once!!!
To get all my projects finished
Get caught up on my food storage


I tag whoever wants to do this.

Our Experiment

Last week was a little hectic for us and we found on a couple of occasions that Jared and I needed to be someplace without the kids (hospital to visit a friend, dinner with Jared's boss, etc). We had talked about it several times before, and MaKady had been begging us for a long time, so we finally agreed to let her babysit Paige. I was very nervous at first, but we came home both times and Paige was in bed, MaKady was reading, and the house was spotless. MaKady did such a good job. I'm not sure that she is completely ready to watch other people's children yet, but maybe soon.

Belly Shot

One of my sisters was in town over the weekend, so we went up the canyon and took some pictures. We got a bunch of cute ones for our Christmas cards (I know it's only October but I like to be prepared.) Anyway we did get one picture of my belly so here it is.

Pumpkin Patch

Last week we took the girls to the Red Barn. We went on a hayride to the pumpkin patch and then we picked pumpkins for Halloween. The girls had so much fun. MaKady wanted to pick a big pumpkin, but I told her she could only get one as big as she could carry. It was funny to see her hauling around the enormous pumpkin, but she managed to get the one she wanted. Paige was more interested in riding on the wagon and the ice cream we got afterwards. It was a really fun family activity.

Drum Roll Please.....

We are having a BOY!!!!! I know I could hardly believe it myself.We are so excited. When we went in for the ultrasound the lady asked if we wanted to know what it was right off and I said no so she took some measurements and showed us the heart, face, lips, hands, spine, etc. Then she got to the legs and she said, he's not even hiding, it's a boy. Not a shy one at that. The girls are excited to be getting a little brother finally. Paige said she wanted to hold him, but she wouldn't change any diapers. MaKady on the other hand said she would change his diapers. What sweet girls I have.

Model

A couple of weeks ago Paige did her first modeling job for a photographer who needed some pictures of the tutu's she is making. Paige was a natural, she kept smiling. The hardest part for her was when the photographer wanted her to have a serious face and Paige just couldn't do it. She is such a happy kid.