growing belly

Aaaaand because at least one of you might care what I look like these days, here’s my belly shots from 20 weeks and 30 weeks. I feel like I am much bigger now so maybe I’ll post a 36week pic.

Gilbert Temple

 

We have been so blessed to have a new temple built right in our town, very close to our house. It takes us less than 10 minutes to drive to it and we see it on a regular basis (almost every day). Over the past month they had the open house, and we went twice as a family. We were encouraged to invite non members and Natalie wrote this cute note to her friend in her class.

We ended up taking this friend and her older sister (our carpool friends) through the temple tour one day after school.

Mom Simonson went with us and since she had a twisted ankle, she got to ride in a wheelchair. The kids thought that was fun, especially because we got to use the fancy elevators.

My three little beauties.

Us in front of the beautiful temple. This is the largest one the church has built in 20 years.

I had prepared them for the paper shoes but they still thought they were soooo silly.

sisterly love. I should edit this one, if only it didn’t look like Natalie is strangling Emily.

The water fountain was a big hit for little kids. They were sticking their hands in all around the entire thing.

All six of us. Kind of. That is really weird to say.

As we left. I did not edit this one, but my eyes are automatically making the sky more blue, the contrast more sharp, and straightening the image. So you can imagine that too, k?

Tonight was the cultural celebration which was amazing. President Monson and President Eyring are here for the dedication and we got to see them tonight on TV as they watched the celebration (it was broadcast on ABC). Tomorrow is the dedication and we are trading babysitting with friends to be able to go see it. Then the temple opens for ordinance work on Tuesday, the 4th. I’m hoping to get some sessions under my belt before baby girl makes her appearance and therefore makes it much more difficult to attend the temple.

Natalie turned 7

Disclaimer: these pics are not edited. Excuse the orangeness thereof.

It was Natalie’s off year for a birthday party, so this one was spent with family. Her birthday was on Saturday, so we went bowling and she got to bring her friend Ashley. Of course I don’t have any pictures of it….

She requested an angel food cake, which I hadn’t made since switching to plant based eating 2.5 years ago. Sadly, there is not a plant based equivalent to beaten egg whites. So….I made the real thing. Kids were fascinated by the eggs. ha.

It was quite delicious, let me tell you.

A bit about Natalie at age 7:

• she has lost 6 teeth
• she loves reading
• grammar is her favorite subject at school
• she adores her teacher, Mrs. Huggins
• her love language is Quality Time and must get some alone time with me every day to keep her love tank filled. It’s usually the half hour before bed.
• She gets anxious about school and is occasionally overwhelmed by it, yet…
• she gets straight As.
• She loves riding bikes and playing at the park. During the summer, she LOVES to swim.
• She is a big helper when she wants to be. She can get her sisters snacks, read them books, or distract them when they are upset if I am unavailable at the moment.
• Her car seat just got converted to a high back booster using the car seat belt instead of the 5pt harness (just info for me to remember)
• We love her to pieces!!

Hannah turned 5

Hannah had a birthday in November, which was oh so exciting. The big 5. Where did my baby go? Anyway, she wanted to have a pink party, so here are the pics!

These streamers were fun to rip down afterwards.

Pink wonderland. Thankfully, my sister Melanie showed up early and helped me finish decorating.

Pink food and dishes. I loved the pink straws.

All the little girls wore pink. So cute.

Pink vegan cupcakes. Nobody blinked an eye.

Hannah can be quite silly when she is around friends or is getting attention. Both were happening in this picture. She stayed like this for the whole HB song.

Presents. It is quite the event, with everyone pressing in further and further to see better until there is no room for the birthday girl. haha

Big girl Emily enjoying the cupcakes. It was a fun party. Thankfully I was in my second trimester for it with my extra energy. If I had to that in the first or third….it would definitely have been a simpler party!

At age 5 Hannah:

• has lost 2 teeth (as of yesterday)
• can say all of her sounds except sh, ch, and r
• LOVES preschool
• is developing her sense of humor. She makes us laugh often. 
• can play Twinkle Twinkle on the piano
• knows her letters and numbers
• can read very simple books with sentences such as "Mat sat on the cat." 
• Physical touch is her love language. She thrives on tickling and cuddling. She responds better to disciplining if I'm rubbing her arms or back while I do it. 
• She is getting taller but not taller than all her peers like Natalie was. She is about average. Still very slender. 
• She likes to sleep in just a shirt and panties. Even in the winter. The part of the winter that was cold. 
• She is a special girl who we love having in our family!

Catch up

I don’t even want to call this post by that title, because it’s going to be far from caught up when I’m done with it. Oh well. I almost didn’t remember how to blog! lol. I have no idea how to change the pic at the top, so just ignore the super outdated pictures you see there. I’ll just load this up with pics and narrate a little, shall I?

Baby 4, another girl, will be making her entrance to the world in 4-5 weeks. Hopefully more like 4. We aren’t for sure decided on a name. But we are decided on which car seat to buy. Priorities, people.

Back in October, we took a family trip to Albuquerque to visit Mark’s sister Aubri and husband Bryan. It happened to be the same weekend as the Balloon Fiesta so we took part in those festivities as well. It was a VERY fun trip, and our last as a family of five. This pic is of the kids in a small town in AZ on the way to NM that had this cute little wigwam hotel complete with old restored cars parked outside each “room.”

We stayed with Bryan’s parents in their beautiful home, and can I just tell you that their yard was the highlight of the trip for everyone? My favorite was this raspberry patch. We went out every day and picked big bowls of sweet, juicy, ripe raspberries. It was SUCH a treat.

The huge swings were the kids’ favorite. They could go REALLY high on those things.

We visited the ABQ zoo, which was delightful. The animals were more interesting to look at than in PHX, probably because they were moving, and not just laying in shade escaping the heat. We saw a 9 day old baby elephant which was oh so adorable. The polar bear feeding was really fun to watch; the zookeeper guy would throw a fish into their enclosure far away from where they were, and they had to dive and splash and slide to get to it. Super cool.

So the balloon fiesta. Friday night was the balloon glow, which is where all the balloons are tethered to the ground, but the balloon handlers would light up the fire thingy to fill the balloon with light. You are supposed to walk around and look at all the different shapes and designs, all the while marveling at their ginormity and ponder on your own smallness.  Well, by the time we got there, parked, walked down the massive staircase to the field, the balloons were all deflating and were being put away. So…we saw like 2 balloons up close.

Next morning we woke up like at 4:30 or something unholy like that and made it to the field before the balloons started. Well, it was FREEZING and we AZ peeps were not huge fans of the cold. We were very bundled but the kids were so whiny and complaining so much that we ended up leaving before we saw many balloons. We did eat donuts though. The kids were like, what’s a donut? haha. Now they know.

Here’s the view of the balloons from the Blackers’ house. Apparently the wind speed was at a borderline level, so many of the balloons did not lift off. Normally there are around 250, this day there were less than 100. Still impressive though.

Up close with Natalie and Aubri. Did I mention it was cold?

Just a day in the life

Here’s a little video of me and my girls goofing around.

Our trip to Kentucky

Back in April Natalie and I took a super awesome trip to Kentucky to visit our BFFs, the Cliftons. They moved to Kentucky last June and had a new baby in the meantime. It was Natalie’s first time flying and she was fascinated and thrilled by it all. It was a long flight but we made it. The scenery was beautiful, the horses were interesting, but the best part was hanging out with our dear friends.

We took a field trip to a horse farm, where they keep race horses and breed them. This is the trophy room where they can show off what races were won by prestigious horses housed there.

These horses were seriously beautiful. The whole place was pristine and meticulously cared for. I would feel totally comfortable eating my dinner off the stable floor. Look at this beautiful shiny stallion. The tour guide took us around to each pasture and we peered over the fences at the grazing horses while she told us briefly of their racing history, their family members who had won races, and their stud fee. The fees ranged from $50k to $150K. It was truly amazing to take a peek into this world that is so different from mine (horse breeding and racing, that is).

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Here are the little beauties in front of a fountain. Can you see what I mean about the breathtaking beauty all around us?

There was a famous horse buried here. Don’t ask me who it was, heh heh.

Here is the one picture of me, proof that I was there. The moister air made my hair extra poofy.

This tower was like, 100 years old.

Aren’t they purty? Natalie’s tall, huh?

It was green rolling pastures and brown and white fences in every direction. I was plastered to the window the entire time. This one time we were driving past some horses grazing and there was one galloping along, its shiny brown coat glistening in the sun, its mane and tail flowing behind it, its lean muscles rippling under its skin. It was a slow motion moment and one I’ll never forget.

Meanwhile, we spent a lot of time leisurely hanging out at Emily’s house, the kids playing to their hearts content and Emily and I enjoying the ultimate chat session. The kids did a lot of digging for worms and centipedes. The weather was a bit chilly and really nippy at night! We were glad we brought our sweaters.

Natalie and Heidi both knew some cute little songs on the piano and did a little performance for us, complete with matching long-john PJs.

We went to the Keeneland racetrack on the last day of the races to see some, well…races. It was a super fun experience and highly interesting. It was at this old, beautiful location with all sorts of amazingly dressed and very attractive people. There were betting stations EVERYWHERE and people milling about studying the race booklets trying to make decisions on which horses to bet on. Also lots of beer and cigarettes were to be seen in every direction. Strangely, people were just smoking throughout the crowd during the races. There was no avoiding the smoke or smell of beer. So different than Gilbert! lol

Jockey statues

So outside of the arena/building/racing area, there were these tranquil grassy areas where the horses were paraded around for all to behold. It was really cool to see these highly athletic and specially trained horses up close.

 

The jockeys were indeed very small men and an occasional woman.

We bought popcorn to occupy the troops between races.

This lil’ fella did great, considering he was only 2 months old, missed a nap or two, and was overwhelmed by crowds and noise. Just wook at his widdle double chin!

We rode a shuttle bus back to our car, which was super exciting for the kiddos.

Natalie was being rebellious for these shots.

The Saturday we were there happened to be Arbor day, so we went to the children’s garden at UK (Univ of KY) and got in for free. It was this really neat area with play structures, a creek, and beautiful plants. There were two little pioneer buildings; a house and a school. Heidi and Natalie pretended they were pioneer kids for a while.

Out fetching the water.

Churning the butter.

“fishing” in the creek.

Cute baby.

Leaf rubbing in the schoolhouse.

Creek jumping. It was such a beautiful day and we just let them play for a long time.

This was a spiffy painted horse statue.

It was such an amazing trip, with oodles of fun had by all. Hoping we can go back a time or two in the next few years!! If only we could fly for free….

Thank you, Cliftons, for an awesome time and all the fun memories!