bring home baby outfit

Okay so technically we wont 'bring home' our baby, the baby will be born here, but here is my If it's a girl outfit. I swear I'll do something if it's a boy, just havent done anything yet.

26 weeks along!

I'm on weeks 26! So I'm fat, ichy, ready to have a baby and freaking out because a new baby is coming soon!

Bike Riders!

Yeah, Joel came home for a night due to the snow in Salt Lake. So we figured we would take the kids to the park and take of Tarans training wheels on his new Christmas bike... Taran was so excited to try out riding without his training wheels he told me "I can just see in my head how I will do it" Well after some failed attempts he got it! He is a two wheel riding boy! It was so windy when we were practicing it will be nice to give it another shot on the weekend. He is obviously a little shaky on the steering and stuff, but he could do it and we were proud!! Joely brought down her scooter to ride, she never learned how to ride a two wheel bike, we tried several times, but she just wasn't interested and had NO balance. We'll when we were down there, she got on Taran's bike which was too small for her and said she wanted to try, and she rode around like she had been doing it for years, she could start herself out, steer, and stop and go forever. I guess the timing just had to be right for her. We were happy to come home from the park with TWO bike riders! Way to go kids!

Happy Birthday Joely

Hip Hip Hooray Joely is 9!

Here are 9 things we love about Joely

1. She is such a big help around the house and helping out with the boys
2. She loves things that I do, like matching outfits, hairbows and jewelry! I love that she lets me do her hair.
3. Taran says "Sometimes she be's nice"
4. She has memorized all of the Articles of Faith, she is reading the Book of Mormon and works hard on her Faith in God.
5. She loves school, and has always helped out in class, even staying after school to help clean up the classroom.
6. She helps me remember stuff! I swear she is my day planner, and my journal. Joely has an excellent memory.
7. She loves to have fun, she always wants to play games, go to the park, watch movies or whatever.
8. She is really good with little kids and babies, there was definatly a reason she is the oldest in the family!
9. She is super tough! Anyone that knows Joely realizes that this girl has the highest tolerance for pain, it's seriously amazing! She is not someone to cry about a teeny cut, or for that matter a huge cut.

We love you so much Joely, you make our home a wonderful place to be!

Disneyland

We surprised out kids with a trip to Disneyland over spring break, our first family trip to Disneyland!!! We were so excited to break the surprise to them, we had it all planned out, Emily was meeting us in St. George to get Kyler at 7:30am. We told the kids she would have him for the day so that we could do whatever we wanted, and we asked them for ideas. They loaded us with ideas, and we said those all sound great but we were thinking of going to Disneyland. This would be where we thought the kids would be super excited, but there was hardly any reaction. Joel and I looked at each other like 'that was not what we expected'. We told them we were really going to Disneyland again, and finally they said no we're not, we didn't even pack anything. So then I gave them their surprise bags and told them everything was packed, they were still hesitant...It took about 15 minutes of convincing that we really were going to Disneyland!

Day 1: We went to the beach it was cold, and of course the kids got soaked, and found lots of sea shells.

Day 2: Early up for Disneyland! The park closed at midnight, and we stayed until closing. There was SO much walking involved but we hit most of Disneyland and a lot of California Adventure, it was great. The kids even went on Tower of Terror at California Adventure (So did I-which was STUPID. There were warning signs everywhere about not going if you were pregnant, but I figured screw it, and later had a lot of contractions....oops)

Day 3: Another full day of Disneyland, and man were my legs tired. I swear if we had got a three day pass and the next day I knew I had to walk all day I think I would have started crying!

Favorite rides: Everyone: Splash Mountain (especially the first time we went, Joel sat in front, he was worried about getting wet. He DID NOT want to get soaked, I assured him that most people dont get wet...well he got SOAKED, it was the best)and Pirates
Taran: Astro Blasters
Joely: Indianna Jones and Soaring over California
Mom: The bugs life 3-D movie: complete with a stinky stink bug and bubbles tat come from the roof.
Dad: Space Mountain and Star Tours

Worst Ride: Taran told us if we took him on Tower of Terror again he would just wait in the motel :)

We had so much fun and all I can say is I can't wait to go back again. I could easily go every year!!!

Meeting the Disney Characters

While at Disneyland we had the chance to meet some Disney Characters. Here are some of the pics (sorry they are sideways). Joel was using the camcorder when we met Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger, and Tigger was having a lot of fun playing with Joel and the camcorder! That will make for fun movie moments. There were many other characters we saw, but honestly we just didn't want to wait around for pictures.

Laughing my head off!

I found this website and started laughing so hard I thought I'd throw-up...So I thought others may enjoy..make sure you check out older posts too.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com

Disneyland 'color' presents

I love presents, so here is the presents the kids will open each morning before heading out to Disneyland for the day. Each day is given a color, that way pictures of the kids at Disneyland will coordinate (so important!)

Joely of course have a matching necklace and hair-ties that I made to match the outfits, the blue necklace I ventured out and made a two strand necklace, a first for me.

hmmm.... I went to upload the pics and realized I never took any of Tarans new outfits, I think I was too excited about the necklaces and hairties...I guess we'll see those at Disneyland!

Crayon Bag for Surprise bags

I made a pocket inside each of the kids surprise bags to put crayons and dry erase markers in it, then I decided to go one step further and I made little bags that they can put there crayons in and store it in the pocket. I tried doing an applique on the front, it was my first attempt at an applique, so it's not the best, but it's fun non the less :)

I made the crayon bags from the matching fabric as the lining on the insides of their larger surprise bags....it's got to all coordinate right?

Car games for surprise bags

I found this fun website momsminivan.com. They have some fun games you can print out for long car rides. I printed the scavenger hunt, Bingo, and Battleship. Then I went to Alphagraphics and had them do a book laminating on it, so it was like a credit card, that way they could play the games over and over again and just use a dry erase marker.

The surprise bag...

Needless to say this post couldn't be put up until the last day. But here is the latest project I made (maybe I need a another blog for projects). We are surprising our kids with a trip to Disneyland, and whats a surprise without presents (trust me you'll see more when I post pics after the trip). I decided to make the kids each a Disney bag for the trip down.....once we break it to them where we are going, then I will give them each there surprise bag.

I found a cute Mickey print with coordinating polka dots for Taran and a festive Tinker Bell with a coordinating yellow fabric for Joely. (Kyler isn't going on this trip with us, so no bag for him)

As a major disclaimer I am not a seamstress, that's my mom. But I figured I could wing this project, and I am happy with the results. I am also pleased that everything is lined (the bag and both inside and outside pocket). I made some fun travel games and bought some educational stuff and some snacks to fill the bag with. I am so excited to give these to the kids, hopefully this will get them as excited for Disneyland as I am!!!!

One more done.

These are just all turning out so cute. I can't get enough of them. Check it out, I actually did a matching bracelet this time!!!

New Rooms

The kids all got new beds last weekend...(and yes I probably should have made sure the room were all cleaned and art work moved to the right rooms, but oh well) So here they are. The boys got a new bunk bed, and they moved into Joely's old room. Joely got a new twin bed and dresser. She actually got two new dressers, but we are returning one, and exchanging it for another one that will be coming next week. It's so nice to have th extra room in the kids' rooms, it was also nice going through closets and 'de-junking' so much stuff!

Baby Shoes!

I found this adorable pattern online that I bought to make your own little baby shoes. So I had to buy it, I had so much fun picking out material and getting all ready to make these cute little shoes....except I dont sew. Maybe a little problem, luckily my mom came over and helped me make my first pair today and they are so cutesy! I can't wait to make more....or at least I can't wait for my mom to come back over again so I can watch her make me another pair. SO here is the first attempt at a baby shoe, I will say I did make one shoe ALL by myself!

I just added the top two pictures, I made those shoes entirely by myself...whoo hoo!

Now, I just have to make the matching hairbow and baby bracelet...and of course pray that we have a girl ;)

Snow Canyon "Lorax" hike

Red Mountain Elementary is celebrating reading. Tonight we went on a hike in Snow Canyon, that was based on Dr. Suess' book 'The Lorax'. Joely, Taran and I did the hike tonight and had a blast. It was a little chilly, but no one complained. The best part was the fact that they told us to bring a flash light because the hike went until after dark. As we were hiking and it was getting darker I started thinking, I hope the flashlight I packed is actually working, I probably should have checked that out first. Needless to say when we went to turn it on, it was the weakest faintest light I think any flashlight could possibly be...oops. Luckily we did fine with everyone elses flash lights. I'll try to think ahead next time.

Tissue paper pom pom's

We are going to try and make these tissue paper pom poms, I finally found a site that had instructions. Apparently Martha Stewart once showed how to make these and has a link, so every site I would check just posted a link to her site, unfortunatly the link has been removed form Marthas site, so I had to do some major web searching to find someone who actually did her own step by step instructions. Here is her site, if you want to make some.

Okay here are some pictures from my attempt at tissue paper Pom Pom's. I didn't know how much tissue it would take to make one of them, so I will need to go and buy some more for Joely's room, but I think they turned out cute. If you do decide to make them they are time consuming, about 30-45 minutes for one.

Here's the site if you want step by step instructions.
http://www.deepfriedkudzu.com/2006/04/making-giant-paper-pom-poms.html

Joely and Taran

I just love my kids, I love the ages that they are at, I love the innocence. I worry a lot about what the future holds, so as for now I am greatful to have them at the ages they are. I am in no hurry for them to grow up!

Visiting the cemetery

Because we live so close to the Santa Clara Cemetery, we are able to visit my kids' sweet cousins Katelynn and Kyleigh's headstones rather often. Here are a couple pictures at Kyleighs headstone, she would have been 3 weeks older then Joely. I also took a picture of these balloons in the tree, I'm going to guess that those were probably from Ash and Farah to Kyleigh. Nothing ever stay's were it is supposed to with the strong winds there on the edge of the hill.

Home birth

For the birth of our fourth baby Joel and I have chosen to have our baby at home with a midwife, the other day I found this funny article about this lady who chose to do the same thing....these are some of the questions and comments people asked her while pregnant....It's good for a laugh.


"I saw a home water birth on A Baby Story and she looked fat." (If you give birth in a hospital, suddenly you look like Elle McPherson?)
"What happens if there are complications?" (An ambulance, naturally.)
"Will they sew you up after the episiotomy?" (In truth, I was asked if I'd be left "flapping in the breeze.")
"What happens if you die?" (Consult your local cleric. People don't ever die in hospitals, right?)
"Won't it be messy?" (???)
"What if it hurts?" (Doesn't it always? I hear about pain-free births, but I hear about unicorns, too.)

If only I could come up with quick responses like that. Actually I dont think we have had any odd questions, just the common are you scared or worried...and the answer is YES! But I am each time I am pregnant, after Taran I know just how bad it hurts, so sure I am not looking forward to the pain. But, who does? So, just the same old concerns.