Mother Nature....

You are DEFINITELY female. I see that now.

One minute you're like this, and the next like that.

Here are the kids today......playing/jumping in the pool (right after jumping in all the leaves)......70 degrees.

But what's AWESOME about it is that during the nights it still gets in the 30s, so we get to all sit by the fire in the morning, drink Wassail and and nights curl up in bed under ALL the covers.

I would say, This. Is. Perfect.

Creeping up on me......

I'm "due" December 4th. (Not that my due dates actually MEAN anything, but you know) That's actually 4 weeks from this Saturday!!!! It's crazy, because everytime I get close to delivering, a lot of things go through my mind and this time is no different.

- I'm a planner, and I've made a mental list of EVERYTHING I would like done before the baby comes. Part of me thinks, "What if I'm not DONE with all of this before the baby comes?!?!?!?" Which is silly, because the baby will come when it's best for us, whether I have all of Christmas, freezer meals, sewing projects, Primary songs taught, presents for teachers/neighbors, temple sessions, Personal Progress goals done that I want or not.

- I play scenario after scenario of "If I go into labor at THIS time, the kids will go here, or I'll call so-n-so, etc." Also, what do I need in their "bag" in case they go to someone's house, and do I have their schedule/school stuff all typed up for someone......

-I get a little nervous about labor, because let's be honest, I don't like pain. When my contractions always get close enough towards the end, I get excited wondering if it is THE TIME, but then right after I get REEEEALY scared and anxious thinking, what if this is IT?!?!?

I get a lot of, "But you've had FIVE OTHERS!!!", but I think that's WHY I get like this, because I KNOW and DON'T KNOW exactly what's coming!!!!!

EVERY labor/birth story has been different for all 5, so I really go into it, not knowing what it will be like, except I know there will be pain involved.

I'm not one of those this-is-such-a-spiritual-moment when I'm labor type of people! (However the moment after I feel it)

- I'm FINE with going overdue. I'm also not one of those get-this-baby-out-now type of people, because I KNOW the baby will come eventually, on his own time table, when his body is all developed and ready to make an appearance. With Iris (I went only 4 days over due), each morning I woke up, I thought, There's one more full night's rest I got......as opposed to having a newborn and NOT getting sleep. I'm also not naive to the fact that your body doesn't feel AWESOME after you have a baby. (Energy "high", yes, but physically, not always) All the nursing and healing adjustments really aren't that fun anyway at the beginning, so I'll take one more day of "whale=ness" to prolong THAT!

-And well, um......we don't have a name yet. :)

With all these things going through my mind, it's always kind of a whirlwind...... and you can imagine why seeing my date getting closer and closer get's me thinking WAAAAAAY too much.

Until I ran across this picture (while getting Iris' scrapbook underway.....finally.....thank you Personal Progress):

This was RIGHT after I had Iris and they handed her to me. I broke down crying when they gave her to me. Infact, I'm tearing up now remembering back to that moment, and it's pretty pathetic.

I was soooooooo happy. It filled my whole soul and shaking body. There's some part of me that just "clicks into place" when they hand me a new one, like I was missing this part of me all along in my family. One thing with having more kids, is that it has seemed to get MORE special each time to me and MORE miraculous. Yes, I was excited she was a girl (because we didn't find out the gender and I REEEEEALLY wanted Aleeya to have a sister), but that wasn't why I broke down. It was just so special and intimate. Truly an indescribable feeling.

I can still remember that feeling as I type this, and it makes my arms LONG to hold my little bundle of blue that I've come so familiar with recently (meaning, I could tell you the size of his feet, how boney his sweet knees are and how long his back is when he rests it up against my left side when we go to bed each night).

Now doesn't this picture really make EVERYTHING in that above list seem so insignificant!?

YAY for blogs

This time of year is always my favorite to look at people's blogs of all of the Halloween costumes.

Yes, we JUST got back from our Trunk or Treat, I put the kids down, raided their baskets and just want to sit my fatness on this comfty computer chair and document Halloween.

So please oblige me. :)

Here's Russell, Tinkerbell and the Skeleton (that was SUPPOSED to be Darth Vader, but he JUST changed his mind. Good thing for friends with kids the same size!)

I was LUCKY to get one picture of this rhino, because he was just off doing his thing all night (obviously, since he picked a RED shirt to go under his costume)

I was a speed bump..............for obvious reasons.

And Iris? Well, I HAD her dressed as a fairy with wings and all, but look at this face.........

the rashy red stuff kind of ruined the fairy look......and I didn't have a pirate outfit her size for her to go as Redbeard, so I threw her in her pjs and she went as......um.......a homeless child.

If arranged marriages are considered fine, this is one I would do.

How cute is Peter Pan with his Tinkerbell?

Since Brooks is still in San Fransisco, I was getting a little exhausted after the whole Trunk or Treat, chili dinner thing, but the kids wanted to do the cake walk. I told them as soon as one of them wins, then it's time to go. I threw 3 kids up there (made our odds better!) and on the FIRST round, Emerson won. (Tender mercy from up above I'm thinkin' ) He was pretty proud of his cake.

(And yes, I did darken his eyebrows this time, and they looked awesome)

I try to do some project whenever Brooks leaves because I don't REALLY have to keep the house always clean and a huge dinner made. I decided to spray paint our brass bed that is over 20 years old......and chipping.....and turning green (oxidation, I guess).

I've never spray painted (or really painted anything) before, so it was kind of exciting. I picked brown, because I wanted something very calm and muted and different from the shiny brass.

Aleeya helped me set back up the bed. She held it while I screwed everything back in...........I know, I know, and to THINK I slept in it last night. But it actually held up, and I just WISH I had the time to do the dresser as well while he was gone.

Update: Brooks was SUPPOSED to have gotten back tonight at midnight but on the answering machine he told me he missed his flight and that it was a long story and that he won't get in until tomorrow afternoon and that I needed to call the bishopric to let them know that Brooks won't be able to make it tomorrow for when HE SPEAKS IN CHURCH!!!!!

Um....I had no idea.

(What a stinker, he always likes to surprise me with that and just walk up to the stand)

And no, he knew better then to ask me to speak for him,

afterall, the congregation wouldn't listen to a WORD I would say, because I would imagine 5 kids sitting by themselves right up front might be more entertaining then anything I would have to say.

Ahhh, the good ol' days

I pulled a "Dad" this week, when I was trying to get Bronson to keep his wrists lifted and flat and his fingers curved while practicing the piano........

I remember the good ol' days when my dad would make me balance things on my hands too!

P.S.- It's amazing how JUNKY you sleep when the last thing on your mind is seeing a "Tornado Advisory" for your area. I tossed and turned and w/ every possible scenario going through my mind, my plan of action, etc. Then I woke up Brooks in the middle of the night when the rain got bad. My only thought was, I bet our basement is flooding right now!

Thank goodness, it wasn't, but I still slept horribly.

Don't worry though, Brooks leaves today for San Fransisco for 4 days, so I should have PLENTY of bed to sprawl out on and make up for last night's sleep!

In honor of Halloween

To celebrate Halloween you HAVE to do something spooky, right? Well, I got this email of this car advertisement that was done in Great Britain. The camera man is convinced that he sees a ghost as the car rounds the last bend, (that according to the email happened to be the place of a few deaths in the area) and you can hear him whisper it (so turn on your sound). Whether it's special effects or not, there's clearly something there.

So..........Happy Halloween.

My heart BROKE

as I got off Emerson's GORGEOUS blond hair........

But he insisted, so he could be "Russell" for Halloween (from the movie "Up")

Here they are before a Halloween party last weekend. I didn't have the second spray of the black on his hair yet, but I DID draw on "Russell eyes".....lines to make him look Asian.....and he thought that was pretty cool.

He didn't even NOTICE I hadn't made his sash with all the badges yet, he was just soooo excited about his "fat belly", scarf and backpack..........which later housed a mouse they caught, but I'll spare the details on that story.

Anyway, despite my heart breaking as I cut his hair, his giggling and constant giddiness while wearing this costume made it all worth it.

Queen Bee is Three

Can you BELIEVE IT?!?!!?

She wanted a pink heart pinata (that's after I convinced her she didn't want a dinosaur). She laid all the newspaper strips on the pinata and painted it all by herself. She was pretty excited about it all.

THEN 15 minutes before her party, she said she wanted all the girls to wear swimsuits

Iris wasn't too thrilled.

Aaaaaaaaand, mine happened to be "dirty" so I couldn't wear mine.

As you can imagine, she ended up being the only one in a swimsuit.

Here's the pinata grab....

Ice cream sandwich cake (score! I didn't have to serve cake and icecream......just this!) with pink frosting of course.

Her loot:

(not pictured, a BIG ol' princess tent and a Polly Pocket from "Uncle Preston" visiting us)

She was ONE happy girl! The bottom left picture is of a Princess and the Pea set my friend Etta made for Aleeya along with the story. It was so cute.

Here she is sleeping in her necklaces she got (before I took them off so she wouldn't choke) and Iris was sleeping with all the bracelets. They continue to wear them constantly......really, they do.

I HAD to include this picture just because it made me laugh.

It looks like she doesn't have any clothes on because the pinata is covering up her swimsuit!

Our lives would be so boring and dull without my little Mamacita!

FREE!!!

Last week we let the 13 Painted-lady butterflies go!

I REEEEEEEEALLY had to convince Aleeya to want to let her's go.

I felt like my kids were going to college after raising them from larva and soaking their little cotton balls in brown sugar water and watching them evolve into butterflies (well, some anyway, one never came out and two had "special wings")

Brooks thinks they weren't too pretty and looked too much liked moths......although he seemed to get most excited over this whole process of watching the butterflies.

Here's one of the "special" ones.

Adios! May you have a GREAT and long two-weeked life.

Speaking of great.........

-we had an awesome weekend trip to the temple/hotel. We actually got more sessions in then usual and the kids got more swimming in then usual.

-I may not be getting as much Personal Progress done as I want, but at least I'm still on track with my 2 freezer meals done a week until the baby comes. (I started at 30 weeks, so the goal is to have 20+ meals in the freezer when the little man arrives.......I say "+" because I'm sure he'll be fashionably late like the others)

-we had a great week-ish visit with Brooks two close friends from high school. They just left yesterday, but not before spoiling the kids with toys before they left.... (AND they even brought chocolate-covered cinnamon bears for me from Utah! Wa-hoo!..........for the baby, of course.)

The Challenge

I went to a Relief Society weekday meeting last week where they were encouraging all women to do (or re-do) the Personal Progress Program again.

It's been re-vamped since I was a youth and it was interesting to hear about it.

I even sat there thinking, "Yea, I should pick that up and work on it here and there a little", because it's a REALLY good program, and WHO doesn't need a spiritual kick start, right?

It was then that my friend Rachel leaned over to me and said, "I bet I can finish before you!"

Now, ANY of you that knows me, would KNOW that what she said was really all it took.

"It's on!", I said.

Then we recruited our other friend Jessica to do it too.

So after I got home, I ordered a manual and started reading some of the requirements online, because in MY mind, I was going to finish before the baby came around the first of December.

I could do it and beat those two.....I knew it.

THEN......I realized, the program is about building habits, so there's a lot of "long term" type goals. And not only THAT, I realized that I needed this program more then I thought!

With the 7 values (Faith, Good Works, Knowledge, etc.) , there are 6 required things to complete and a 10 hour project with each one.

With the 8th value, there's 4 things to pass off with the project being reading the whole Book of Mormon (starting at the beginning, obviously).

It was super easy coming up with the 10 hour projects I wanted to do with each value, because unlike my teenage years, I can find a LOT I need to work on and would like to accomplish.

The trick is, you can't START those projects until the 6 experiences of that value are done.

It's funny though because I remember sitting down with my Young Women's leader and having her say, "Oh, you're already doing this in school", "Or that will count", or "since you DID bring other people with you, you could count THEIR hours towards your project", etc.

This time, that won't work. I actually WANT to get things done, I WANT to be better and frankly, if I'm supposed to be the nurturer and a spiritual leader for my kids, I NEED to be better.

What started out as "friendly competition" and I'll-win-no-matter-what, has turned into quite an eye-opening and humbling experience (self-evaluation ALWAYS turns into quite a humbling experience for me).

Yes, I'm trying to finish certain values before the baby gets here just because I realize the project I've picked will be easier to get done BEFORE he comes, but I'll also be enjoying the little changes I see in me and as a result, my home life and parenting.

I think I'm ready now

With Aleeya's b-day coming up (pinata fillings), Halloween, my sweet tooth, and OTHER

holidays coming up that I might need some candy to FILL things with (if ya know what I mean)......... I've been on the lookout for candy deals!

And...........last Friday, I think Rite Aid delivered for me, since I walked out (after going to 2 stores) with 24 bags of candy and $10 richer.

Yes, richer. I MADE money getting this candy. (I know my dentist brother-in-law will cringe after seeing the next 2 pictures)

Then this week, they're giving away (after rebates) free medicine. Here's what I EARNED $5 in taking off their hands....so now I'm ready for the cold/flu season.

Bring it.

But enough of that, let's get down to more important and healthier things.....like these:

Don't these look heavenly? I found the recipe on ourbestbites.com (quickly becoming my fav recipe blog). These are quick and easy turtles.

The recipe is HERE

They were super yummy, and I didn't do a THING!!! I had my slaves put the pretzels out, unwrap the Rolos, put them on top, and then throw the peanut M&Ms on top when they came out. See?

Aren't they good sports? (Before you think I chopped off Aleeya's hair, I didn't. That's just still the remains of her mullet Emerson lovingly gave).

I made a few with throwing another pretzel on top instead of the M&M and I think I like that better......it balances out the sweet and salty more for me. Seriously, super yummy.