unexpected morning activity

In September we were out playing in our front walkway area when our neighbor came out with her camera saying a hot air balloon was landing in our green belt at the end of the street. The girls and I went and watched. Those things look a lot bigger in person than in the air!

My neighbor took these and sent them over. It was soooo exciting to see! They eventually deflated it and got picked up right there in our neighborhood.

Hannah's birthday

Hannah turned two on November 30th!! I can't believe my sweet little baby is two. That's like, not a baby anymore. Sheesh.

This is Han when she was really a baby. Seems like yesterday. Sniff.

Anyway, we had a family birthday party for her. Everyone but this grump enjoyed the party. heh heh. She actually had fallen asleep a little before the party and we woke her up instead of moving her to her bed so she wouldn't miss anything. Both kids had colds and needed rest. She cheered up eventually though.

Opening presents. She really got into it this year.

She also loved the singing.

And she loved the cake, just like her mommy. :-)

Some things about Hannah at age 2:

• She is putting two and three word phrases together like, "mama, hannah, bye bye." and "dada stay home." She loves to shout up the stairs, "dada! Eat!" when dinner is ready.
  
• She loves to color on a piece of paper and then roll it up.
  
• She hops everywhere like a bunny and loves to jump off the bottom step.
  
• Not even close to potty training.
  
• Sleeps with a little polar bear that she calls "baby."
• Follows Natalie around and does whatever Natalie says to do.
  
• Still has a shrill scream that she pulls out whenever anything chaotic or noisy is going on, which makes things even louder.
  
• She wants to do everything herself. "me!" is what she says to let us know.
  
• Blows kisses and says, "hi!" and "bye!" to everyone.
  
• still signs quite a bit and says "heeee" when she wants us to look at the sign she is making. For the record, she signs milk, juice, water, help, please, red, orange, brown, green, purple, pink, yellow. Probably more that I don't remember right now.
  
• She almost knows her colors. Probably gets them right 85% of the time.
  
• She's in the 10th percentile in weight and 80th for height.
  
• She is very loving and the feel of her little arms around my neck is the best every! We love her so much and couldn't imagine our family without her!
  

the fair

So, back in November I took the kids to the AZ state fair with my awesome friend Emily and her kiddos. It was free so we thought we'd might as well! We chose November 3rd as our date to go in hopes that the later in the year, the cooler it would be. Nope. It was 95 degrees and sunny. But nevertheless, we were determined to have a good time.

The kids all packed in and ready to go. They are soooo excited!

We got there before the rides opened in hopes that we could look at the animals, etc before the rides opened and the day went by. The kids were super excited about the rides and wanted nothing to do with the animals. Oops. Note #1 to self: next time arrive with the rides open. 11am finally arrived and we rode the carousel first.

Here we are on the ferris wheel. Both girls were scared and tightly clinging to me when it started but ended up enjoying it so much!

Emily and her kids, Heidi and Nathan. See Heidi's look of intensity? That is a common look for her. I've never met a more intense 3yo. :) She and Natalie get along great though! Both girls are very smart and have great imaginations.

Heidi and Natalie riding an airplane. They never got the hang of rising it off the ground.

Enjoying a super overpriced ice cream cone. Before they could get through the giant pile of ice cream on top, the cone disintegrated. It was soooo much fun having ice cream all over everyone!

Another ride. Good thing we went then cuz I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to squeeze myself into that car now.

This was an obstacle course thing. Natalie didn't realize that before she got in-she thought it was just a bounce house. The fair workers and I encouraged her to go on up the rope ladder and through the tunnels, etc. She and Heidi both climbed up but got scared and lost and started screaming. One ride attendant lifted Heidi over a barrier so she could go down the slide into the arms of her mommy, but Natalie for whatever reason went back into this tunnel she was next to and the fair guy couldn't get to her. Of course she is terrified of strangers in general so this was not helping. Add to that a bunch of bigger kids crawling through the maze and me holding Hannah while trying to shout instructions at her. Uh, not working. Finally some bigger girls helped Natalie get back to the rope ladder (behind her in the pic), I handed a screaming Hannah to Emily and climbed over to the ladder where I coaxed a crying Natalie back down the ladder until I could reach her. It was quite traumatic. Note to self #2: Make sure kids know what each ride entails before getting on. After that we decided on one more ride and then we would go!

Hannah trying out this riding toy. I know it has a name but I can't think of it right now. This was in the "toddler zone" which we stopped by on the way to our last ride.

Can you tell how thrilled everyone is at this point? Hot and sweaty and traumatized from that last ride. ha.

After that it was time to go. I didn't have a double stroller at this point (I have since purchased one) so I put Natalie in the stroller and carried Han. Both were tired and sweaty and hot and fell asleep within 2 minutes of walking. Note to self #3: Never go to the fair without a double stroller. Unfortunately we were at the very back of the fair, furthest away from the entrance. It took us a good 15 minutes to walk through the fair, winding around people and then we were parked sooooo far away. Pushing a sleeping kid with one hand while balancing another sleeping kid on your shoulder is not easy! While 5 mo pregnant, too. Emily was very patient with my slow walking and finally we made it to the car. All in all it was a fun day, but exhausting. Glad we have the memories, but glad it's over!

Thanksgiving

I am grateful for these little people who help give my life more depth and meaning than anything else. They also give me reason to practice patience, heh heh. They are beautiful inside and out and I couldn't love them more.

Having a blast at Judy's house for Thanksgiving.

Weather was a speck on the chilly side but they could care less and played for hours. My pies turned out great (if I do say so myself) and dinner was delicious overall. It was fun to catch up with the family a little more, even if conversation is punctuated by kid requests and whines. And did I mention the pie? It was divine. Just like my Grandma Masterson used to make. mmmm

Halloween

Look at me, so on top of things. So here's our Halloween.

Natalie was a witch, and Hannah a fairy. I'm happy with this picture (the only one of them both smiling) but I wish I had thought to change the orientation for it!

After that things got a little wacky. Natalie DID have green face paint, but earlier this week we went to the Hatch Halloween party and she didn't like how it itched, so she didn't want to wear it to the ward party. Oh well.

Our kids have frequent meltdowns if we are out too late, and added to that the extra stimulation and excitement of Halloween=super meltdowns. Mark and I are trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In case you can't tell what my shirt says, it is a bump sign as seen here:

hahahaha. Mark is Clark Kent. He looked kinda handsome with black hair, I have to say. It was soooo messy getting it out though. Our whole bathtub was stained this gross gray color till he scrubbed it out this morning {bless his heart}. We decided it wasn't worth it to spray it again.

We attempted carving pumpkins, but once Natalie realized you actually have to TOUCH the goopy stuff {mommy can I just use the spoon?} she was outta there. Hannah solemnly ate a candy corn and refused to be part of it. So we have a hollowed out pumpkin with no face. Hey, I wasn't going to finish it if it was all by myself! They both went to the living room to play.

All in all it was a fun Halloween with lots of treats made, crafts created, and smiles shared {please excuse my President Monson-esque sentence in passive voice}.

I'm glad it's over. Bring on the Christmas music starting first thing Monday morning!

A busy day

Since our days usually aren't that busy I wanted to document our busy day yesterday for journaling purposes.

5:30 am: wake up, get ready, wake up kids and head to mom's for garage sale with my sisters

6:30-9:30 sell stuff, go back and forth from the house (where the kids were) to the yard a bazillion times, run to the grocery store

10:00 Primary rehearsal for program on Sunday. Even though I know Natalie will not want to go up, I wanted to let her see how it kinda goes so she might want to try.

10:30 leave. We didn't get to the part when the kids all say their part. Oh well.

10:35 get home, eat early lunch, put Han down for early nap

11-12 Prep for dinner and clean house

12:30 wake up Han and get kids ready to go to Mark's cousin's baptism

1:00-2:30 baptism. It was really great and special. Loved seeing the family, sitting, and showing Natalie all the stuff we had learned about at FHE this past week.

2:30-3:30 hang out at the cousin's house with family and friends, enjoy visiting, kids melt down just as Mark arrived. Drive home with screaming kids.

example of one screaming kid

4:00-5:00 Calm kids. Clean house and make dinner

5:20 dinner guests arrive

6:00 head to the church to have homemade ice cream with other ward members

7:30 go home again with screaming kids.

8:00 kids are asleep. Rest. Read a book. Ahhhhhh.

It was crazy, but I was blessed with energy to last the whole time. The kids were mostly good and I was please with only two major meltdowns. I thought there would be more.

It's a....

GIRL!!

We had an ultrasound today to double check the due date. I was right on, of course, but it was fun anyway to see our little baby. We were surprised to hear it was a girl--we were so sure it would be a boy. Yay! The girls are excited to have a new sister.

Now-to get Mark to love the names I love. mwah hahaha.

Happy list

1. Attending the Lamb of God concert last night. EVMCO, the orchestra/choir that I play in, performed the newest Rob Gardner work. It was utterly amazing. I didn't end up playing for it because there weren't enough flute parts (Rob brought his own flutist). I was ok to listen though. Out of this world. I highly suggest buying the CD. My sister Melanie is in the choir.

2. My kids playing together. Natalie used to be able to stretch out completely on the stairs. I just bought her a new shirt that fits her great and it is size 6X! Anyway, hearing them laugh and squeal together while I can do some mommy time just makes me grin.

3. Cool mornings. Yes, I said the word cool actually referring to the weather. I open the windows and burn my favorite fall candle, pumpkin pie, and pretend that it really is fall. AND get this--cold water comes out of the tap.

4. Going shopping for new clothes. I've been holding back all summer and contributing my lesson money to our general family fund, but I was able to use my August and Sept money for my own purposes and actually bought some clothes!!! Mark just doesn't understand what that does for a woman, particularly me. Especially after holding back for sooooo long.

5. Violin lessons. It's hard but I really love it. I'm always amazed when my fingers remember where to go. Ha.

6. Having energy to cook dinners again. Still need occasional naps, but energy level is definitely improving.

How I'm feeling

So just a little pregnancy update. I am almost 13 weeks, and looking chubby. Gotta love the stage where regular clothes are getting too tight and maternity clothes are too big. All I want to wear are exercise pants. I'm all about comfort during pregnancy.

We are getting an ultrasound in a couple of weeks to date the pregnancy. I have had a couple of quick u/s at the midwife's office just cuz she has a portable machine to check out the baby but it's an old machine and it is not very detailed. So my "real" u/s will be at 15 weeks so hopefully we'll find out the sex! Same thing happened with Hannah and we found out about her at 14w. Then I'll have the real diagnostic one at the regular 18-20w mark.

I have been totally and utterly exhausted. I have stopped exercising and started napping at the same time as Hannah. Hopefully I will be able to start exercising again now that the first trimester is over but so far I haven't felt much of a difference. Other than the fatigue, I feel pretty normal. My same ol' pregnancy symptoms-greasy face/hair, breakouts, heartburn, and the return of a lovely vericose vein I got at the end of the last pregnancy. It's on me bummy so not that fun to sit on hard surfaces for very long. When orchestra starts up again in Oct I will take a pillow to sit on. Still awaiting that lovely time when my leg hair goes all fine and soft. That's my favorite thing besides feeling the baby. :-)

Anyway, on to trimester #2! Bring on the best stage of pregnancy. Oh, I have felt the baby move a couple of times. Can't wait for the kids to feel the kicks!!

I remember when I was preggo for the first time, I thought that it wasn't as interesting or cool for women who were on their second, third, etc pregnancy. But I find myself just as excited. I still read preg websites and books and want to talk about it with people. Wish I could have told myself that back in the day! Any new life is much anticipated and exciting.

Lakeside

Our friends Lucas and Jenny Sheppard invited us to stay at their parents' cabin in Lakeside (by Pinetop-northern AZ) for a few days. We drove straight there after our Snowflake day. Fun was had by all, and the beauty was magnificent. It was so awesome to get out of the heat, enjoy rain, relax around the house with nothing to do, take walks around the neighborhood, and chat with our friends and each other. What a much needed vacation!! Tons of pictures for this one, beware.

The Sheppard twins, Ava and Brynlee. They are Natalie's age and she was thrilled to have them to play with.

My sweeties hanging out on the porch swing.


See the beauty? Behind us, that is. Just wait. There's more.

We even donned jackets, yes, jackets. My girls were like, what are these?

They insisted on wearing the hoods at all times.

Right before she fell off. Guess she's not ready for the big girl swing yet. But the baby one was being used by a dog. As in, the dog was swinging. ha!

Natalie on the tire swing.

Before they really knew what joys could be had from swinging in circles super fast. The smiles got much bigger once they did.

Girls decorated cupcakes out on the porch one lovely evening.

Behold, the beauty. And this is not even edited yet. Can't wait to find time to do some processing!

The dads and their girls. Lucas and Mark have been friends since high school. Or before that. Not sure exactly.

So glad I caught this little shot.

More beauty. Can't wait to do stuff to this one too.

An edited shot.

Another one I enhanced, but only slightly. It really was that green.

I definitely want to do this trip again!!