Here we go again...

When we moved from Connecticut, we pretty much got rid of all of our baby gear. After two kids it was worn out and since money was tighter back when we had Carter, some of our stuff wasn't all that nice to begin with. So we find ourselves having to pretty much start over with the baby stuff. We have been out looking at things a couple of times and are ready to take the plunge and buy. So, I'm wondering if anyone has a Chicco carseat/stroller combo? This is the particular one we are considering. It is a fairly new product and the draw to it is that the carseat goes up to 30 lbs. instead of the standard 20 lbs. I'm not sure how necessary that is, but for an extra few bucks, it seems like a good idea. We loved it in the store. We've gone the rounds of what to get. I see the appeal of a Sit-N-Stand but after looking at a bunch they just don't seem all that practical or well made. I also LOVE higher end strollers (think Peg and more) but they don't come in travel systems. In my opinion, having a travel system for at least the first 9 months is ESSENTIAL. If you have an opinion on this topic (about Chicco or any other brand) weigh in please!

A great thing about having baby #3 is that you know what you really DON'T need this time around. I hate having baby stuff cluttering up my house. So I've decided we're only buying a swing this time (my babies have loved the swing). As we were leaving BabiesRUs tonight, we discussed how we both feel like we've waited too long between kids. We're totally out of the baby phase right now and both feel like we are in for a rude awakening once we are thrust back into middle of the night feedings and billions of diapers changes. We can't wait though!!

Carter & Makenna Save the world

...or maybe just the backyard. So, as I mentioned before, it literally poured rain for most of the day today. A total rarity for AZ - I felt like we were back living in Seattle today (and frankly I loved every minute of it). Anyway, for reasons I don't understand, the ground here has a difficult time absorbing all the water when it rains and the water just accumulates in our backyard. Carter was quite alarmed at the water in the yard after school and decided he needed to "dig a trench and save the world." This is a line from one of his Superman books - Superman has to dig a trench for lava to drain away from an island village and into the sea. So funny. Here they are saving the world:
The outfit getups were completely orchestrated by Carter. He insisted they needed hats since they've both outgrown their rain jackets from last year. It was a hoot watching them in the yard and listening to Carter's instruction on how to dig a trench and save the world.

New Years Cards Anyone?

Hmmmph. Today we were supposed to have our family picture taken - again. The first time I had a session scheduled was the week that Carter fell and had to have stitches. I cancelled that session. My photographer has been really busy but squeezed us in today. Great... except it is pouring rain. It NEVER rains in AZ. So, maybe I will be sending out a new year card instead of our traditional Christmas card this year. Foiled again.

Happy Birthday Monique

I know Monique already blogged about her Birthday, but shouldn't the rest of the family get a chance to blog about her Birthday? So, here is a list of 32 things we love about Monique. Though we could list many, many more.

Makenna:
1. Takes me to McDonald's
2. Gives me a bath
3. Reads me books
4. Sings me songs
5. Decorated the tree

Carter:
6. Buys me clothes
7. Makes me yummy PB&J sandwiches, cake, & waffles
8. Brushes my teeth
9. Bought me a scripture case
10. Drives me to school
11. Prints me coloring pages

Allen:
12. She is very organized
13. She has a lot of life's experience including: Being the personal assistant to Senator Bennet (UT, Republican), scoring in the 92nd percentile on the LSAT (though working in DC squelched her desire to do law school), being an internal business consultant (AT&T Broadband), singing in Carnegie Hall in high school with her choir, graduating from BYU with an 'A' average, remodeling a house, staying at home with our children (though it was financially stressful for many years), and the list goes on.
14. She is a wonderful mother
15. She is a loving, caring, patient wife
16. She is empathetic; the standing joke is 'nobody cries alone when Monique is around'
17. She has a wonderful testimony of Jesus Christ
18. She is willing to state her opinion in a tactful way
19. She is a party planner
20. She loves to read
21. She reads to our children often resulting in our children loving to read
22. She has a knack for decorating
23. She is an avid blogger and scrapbooker and is consequently recording our family's life history in the process
24. She is a good friend
25. She sends thank you notes for those who help her
26. Everything she does has a flair of class & style (from decorating to cooking to dressing our children)
27. She loves music and is musically talented (piano & voice)
28. She loves to help others and willingly serves
29. She knows how to laugh at her self
30. She is an excellent conversationalist
31. She said 'yes' when I asked her to marry me
32. She has put up with me for 7 wonderful years!

Happy Birthday, sweetie! We love you. You are the best thing that ever happened to me (& the kids)!

Hey Denver Friends!!

To all my Denver area friends: My mom is once again the chair of the Interfaith Creche exhibit for the Littleton stake this year. The exhibit starts today and runs through Sunday at 5:00 p.m. PLEASE, please take your family to enjoy the exhibit this year. It is a great introduction to the holiday season and a way to keep focus on the Savior this year. We are unable to attend this year but were absolutely blown away last year. It is great for kids and the exhibit does include a hands on kids room. There are over 700 nativities on display from all over the world and admission is free. Let me know if you attend and if you see my mom, stop and say hello!! (click on the link for hours, directions and details)

Mom & Dad, we are SO proud of all the work you have done over the last 6 years. We love you and wish we could be there with you! XOXOXOXO

32!!

Well, today is my 32nd birthday. I had planned to post a list of 132 things about myself but instead I'm going to post 32 things I am grateful for this year!

1. My hunky, sweet, righteous husband who is my soul mate and perfect for me in every way.
2. The two CUTEST kiddos in the world who I love with all my heart and cannot imagine my life without.
3. Baby #3 who is on her way. I'm SO excited to meet our new little one. And the fact that this pregnancy has been extremely uneventful thus far.
4. Parents who taught me what is right, have supported me in EVERYTHING over the years and have given me so much - both tangible and intangible.
5. My sisters who have become my dearest friends.
6. Friends both near and far who I love to keep in touch with.
7. That I get to stay home with my kids every day.
8. The gospel of Jesus Christ that has brought me so much peace, joy and love in my life.
9. My great in-laws
10. Freedom - I love this country!!
11. My testimony
12. My health
13. The good health of my family
14. Great extended family on both sides.
15. Highly scented candles (I love when my house smells yummy)
16. Many modern conveniences - internet, DVR, auto doors on my van, the icemaker in my fridge etc.
17. Hobbies that I enjoy
18. Good books
19. A calling in the church that I love
20. Allen's great job that provides all the necessities and lots of extras for our family
21. The fact that Al got up at 6:00 a.m. today to make me breakfast in bed, complete with a fountain Diet Coke he ran to the gas station to get (he knows me SO well)
22. My beautiful home and all our closet space for storage
23. The scriptures and General Conference talks
24. The holiday season
25. Nap time :)
26. Cars that are in good repair and paid for
27. The flooring we chose for our home (random but I am grateful for it every day because my tile hides EVERYTHING and my carpet is sooooo easy to clean)
28. All of life's experiences, good and bad, that have made me into who I am today
29. Cute kids clothes
30. Overcast days (like today!)
31. Good music
32. 32 years of birthdays and MANY more

Thanksgiving Weekend (now with pictures!)

Happy Very Belated Thanksgiving! We had a great, busy weekend. Allen's mom and little sister Laurie joined us for the weekend and we had a great time.

Earlier in the week we also decided to tackle some home improvement projects this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday night we painted Carter's bedroom. On Thursday morning we TOTALLY broke tradition since I didn't watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade (a tradition from my childhood) and Al didn't play football (a huge, huge tradition from his childhood). Al was pretty bummed that he missed the ward Turkey bowl but it started a couple hours earlier than he thought. Anyway, we spent the morning setting up all our office shelving and unpacking our hundreds of books. Incidentally, Allen has finally decided he can part with his engineering text books and even some of his books from MBA school - hallelujah!!

Allen's mom and sister came down at about noon and we headed over to our friends the Nobles house for dinner. Al's family and the Nobles have been friends for decades and we have hung out with them a lot since we've moved to Phoenix. It was SO nice to be invited to have Thanksgiving with them. The best part for me is that I didn't have to do ANY cooking. Al's mom made 8 pies and I provided some ice cream and toppings and that was IT!! We had a great time. The weather was great, we got to eat in the back yard (in the 70s and quite pleasant), the kids got to play with their friends for hours, good food, etc. Here we are before dinner:

On Friday, LJ decided to brave some Black Friday shopping with me. We actually only hit a few places so it wasn't bad. I finished up ALL my Christmas shopping except for a few things for Allen. It's so nice to be done and know I don't have to brave the crowds unless I want to. We went to Costco, Gymboree and a little home decor store here in town and that is it. Early Friday evening we headed to Mesa to eat at yummy Rosa's (my SIL Tess' favorite AZ restaurant)

and see the lights at the Mesa temple. It was so much fun and we were actually COLD. It's funny because it was in the 50s but it felt really cold to us - I guess the climatization really has begun for us. The kids had a great time and loved the lights. Carter in front of the manger scene.

Saturday was just a whirlwind of projects. Al, LJ and I finished up Carter's room -- I seriously love it so much I could cry. I cannot wait to share pictures of the kids' rooms as soon as we get everything on the walls. Al's mom was a real trooper and kept the kids totally entertained for most of the day by taking them shopping and out to lunch and then later to the park, etc. We had a nice family dinner and spent hours visiting.

Yesterday was so super busy. Al and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting and I taught Relief Society on Elder Oaks' amazing conference talk Good, Better, Best. I made homemade chocolate chip cookies for the entire RS to illustrate the principle of Good, Better, Best (good =Chips Ahoy, better=toll house premade cookie dough, best=homemade cookies). The ladies LOVED it and I was happy with how both the talk and lesson went. We were both so relieved when church was over yesterday and spent the rest of the day together as a family. Now we're ready to tackle decorating for Christmas and finishing up the kids' room. We had a great Thanksgiving and are grateful for all of our abundant blessings. Hope you had a great one too!

(ETA: I'm still having major issues uploading to blogger-hence the missing pictures. Would really love to throw the router out the window--except I like surfing the internet from the comfort of my own bed occassionally. Anyway, LJ has better pictures of the family that I will get from her and add later.)

Do you just get crazier...

with each subsequent pregnancy? Holy moly. The hormones are FULL force around here lately. I have been SO weepy this pregnancy. Is this normal? I think this better be it for us because if we went for a fourth I would probably have to be checked into a looney bin. Today I was at Costco (trust me, bad idea 2 days before Thanksgiving) and ran into a cute gal in my ward who is pregnant with her 9th!! Her 9th child!! She has two sets of twins (including 1 year old twin girls) and she just seemed so calm about things, even though she was lugging around a whole ton of kids. I'm so amazed by people like her. I could honestly never pull it off. I get so irrational when I am pregnant and the littlest things get blown out of proportion. Do you feel sorry for my family yet?

Happy Birthday Hottie!

Sunday was Allen's 31st birthday (thus begins the 11 days of the year we are the same age). He had a pretty low key day. We attended church in the morning and then he went Home Teaching. While he was gone the kids and I "heart attacked" him. He loved it. He was able to have a looooong afternoon nap and then we had his favorite dinner (chicken cordon bleu). I made him relax all day long which is actually pretty hard for him. We had molten chocolate cake (yum!!) for dessert.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart. I love you!!

(I am a couple days late posting this because I am having major computer issues every time I try to upload to blogger. I think it may have something to do with our wireless router that Al just got around to installing.)

Week in Review.

I have no idea where this week has gone or why I haven't blogged all week. Busy, busy and surely to get even busier with the holidays quickly approaching (I feel SO unprepared this year). So here's a quick recap of our week with a few pictures:

Monday - No school due to Veterans day. We went some friends to an amusement park in Phoenix. The kids had a ball. Unfortunately, this is the one and only picture from the day since my battery died within the first minute we were there.Bummer. There were so many great photo ops that I missed-like the expression on their faces on their first roller coaster ride. Seriously priceless. Lunch with friends at McDs. I seriously felt like I needed to hose down with hand sanitizer after our day.

Tuesday - Early morning doctor's appt. All looks well - I especially loved that I've only gained a pound in the last month. Beautiful. 3rd trimester begins. I get to have a 3D Ultrasound at my next appt and am now seeing the doc every 2 weeks!! Activity days in the afternoon kept me on my toes all day.

Wednesday - Finish up the girls' room FINALLY!! Love, love, love it. Still have some accessorizing to do but should have pictures up really really soon. We actually would have been done on Tuesday but we were 9 inches short of the chair rail we installed. Figures.

Thursday - Makenna's dance class then rushed off to playgroup in the morning. It was rainy and breezy and heavenly. I am heading up the playgroup and I did two cute Turkey crafts with the kids. Forgot to take pictures. Spent the afternoon shopping at the outlets with a friend and came home with virtually nothing.

Friday - Spent the morning working on projects for the girls' room over at a friends house. Carter's class wraps up the Native American unit they are working on. He comes home from school looking like this. Serious cuteness. Especially love that we ran errands after school and met Al for dinner at Yumm-0 Macaroni Grill and he insisted on wearing his face paint and hat all through the meal. Lots of people commented and he loved it. Al's younger sister LJ comes to spend the weekend.

Saturday -Started the day off right with hot chocolate, fresh-from-the-oven Cinnamon rolls and Christmas tunes:

Carter's last kickball game and end of the season party. He got a trophy and said it is the best part of the whole season. Here he is with his coach and beloved trophy:

LJ takes the kids home and Al and I head to Mesa to do a session at the temple!! HOORAY! After the temple we decided to splurge and celebrate our birthdays at The Melting Pot. Had a fabulous meal (as always) and the company was great (of course). Here we are - get a load of my fat pregnant face (ugh)

Spent a couple hours shopping at Ikea for shelving/storage for our craftroom/office and buying Christmas gifts for Al's employees. An awesome day and a big thank you to LJ for watching our kids so we could enjoy the day together.

How to make millions...

...figure out how to make maternity pants that don't fall down!!!!

Welcome to my 3rd trimester (yippee, hooray, and mostly YIKES).

First Haircut!

Yes, Makenna is rapidly approaching 3, and last week she got her FIRST haircut ever. She looooooved it. Well, she was a little unsure about the hairwashing sink but she loved sitting in the cutting chair just like a little princess on her throne. I only had my hairdresser take off about 1/2 an inch so you really can't see a difference but we got off the dry ends and it looks so much nicer. I am going to die when she loses her beautiful curls! (And um, yes, we are STILL in our summer clothes).

Just some Random Stuff!

First off, I have to give a shout out to my cute, cute mom who turns 65 today!! Happy birthday to the most talented, amazing, giving and hard working lady out there. We hope you have a wonderful and relaxing (hahaha) birthday today! We love you!!
Second, THANK YOU for all your Christmas music suggestions. I have no idea how I will ever narrow it down this year. I think I have enough recommendations to last me for at least 5 years. I did buy the Polar Express soundtrack yesterday and it is SO cute. If your family loves the movie (like we do), you should add it to your collection.

Third, a couple days ago we gave our kids the option of trading in the remainder of their Halloween candy for a new toy. Carter was all over the prospect of getting a new superhero action figure so he said yes almost immediately. Makenna was much more reluctant but eventually succumbed to her obsession for the Tinkerbell purse she has been eyeing at Target for awhile. My sister-in-law Tess had an even cuter idea that she posted on her blog. She let her girls choose 10 pieces of candy from their loot and then had them put the rest of it at the foot of their beds. During the night the "Candy Witch" visited and left them a surprise at the foot of their bed. I am SO stealing this CUTE idea next year.

Fourth, I am in REALLY big trouble. Guess what just opened at my mall a few weeks ago? Pumpkin Patch Holy cow. Their clothes are so so cute and I could pretty much buy one of everything in the store. A few things found their way home with me last week. Here's Makenna today: Fifth, Carter is the cutest boy ever. Seriously, he is just so helpful and sweet. Today we were talking about all the things we need to do to get ready for the baby. The next thing I know he had drug out the walker and was "sanertizing" it for me. I love that he is nesting FOR me. Here he is cleaning away:

Sixth, check out this yumilicious stuff my cute friend Leslie told me about. It's lipgloss from Bath & Body Works that also freshens your breath. I bought some a few days ago and I LOVE it. (Be careful if you have a daughter, Makenna is totally obsessed with it). They also have little girl flavors that will be finding their way into M's stocking this year. Finally, I got this awesome book in the mail a few days ago from Amazon. You probably know that I love family traditions. You HAVE to get this book for tons of great ideas on holiday and everyday traditions.

Let's talk Christmas music!

I need some help. Every year Al and I buy at least 2 new Christmas CDs to expand our collection (which means that we have an entire CD case just for our Christmas CDs). So this year I need some recommendations. Tell me about your favorite Christmas CD. Some of our favorites:

1. Carpenter's Christmas
2. Various random CDs from my childhood like the Partridge Family Christmas Album, Herb Alpert and Tijuana brass band, etc. (seriously, I could go on for ages on this particular list because my family has made a huge effort to get the vinyl records we grew up with transferred over to CD so we can all enjoy our old school tunes)
3. Harry Connick Jr
4. The Three Tenors (SO awesome)
5. Amy Grant
6. The Forgotten Carols
7. Various MoTab Christmas albums
8. Manheim Steamroller
9. Our kids' favorite is The Muppets Christmas carol CD (it gets pretty annoying so I have to hide it sometimes)

This year I want to add the Polar Express soundtrack to our collection. We really like all types of music so we are open to anything. Recommendations PLEASE!! (Christmas is ONLY 50 days away - hooray!!)

A bad day at black rock...

I know that is the MOST random blog post title ever. It's actually the name of a Melodrama I did in Girl Scouts back in 4th grade when my mom was our leader (mom, do you remember that?!?)

Have you ever noticed how everyone in blogland always has a perfect day with perfectly groomed and dressed children? Yeah, not my day today. If you haven't guessed by now, today was a bad day. I'm in a bad mood. And since I'm keeping it real and this is my journal, I thought I would document it for my posterity (and all of you, my lucky blog readers - heh).

First of all, Al had to work all day. Yuck. I hate when the weekend feels no different than the rest of the week. He only has to pull the all day Saturdays every couple months but it still stinks. Then this afternoon I REALLY wanted to do something fun as a family but Al got home late and I swear Phoenix really lacks in the family activity department. Plus (see, I'm griping here), the valley is SO spread out that it takes forever to get anywhere.

The icing on the proverbial cake is that it was 93 degrees today. 93 degrees. On November 3rd. See, there are things I actually like about living here. I like my house, a lot. I love our ward. I love that Al loves his job. I hate.loathe.despise.detest the weather. We were outside playing this afternoon and I was literally fighting back the tears. Call it pregnancy hormones or whatever but I seriously cannot handle the weather here. Usually, I'm in full holiday spirit by now. But really, how can you feel remotely festive when it's 93 degrees outside? And lucky me, the 10 day forecast calls for days in the 90s until the 10th- then we'll cool down to the 80s. Someone shoot me. I think I have seasonal depression - depression due to the lack of seasons in my case.

Then there's the house projects. Yep, we have yet to finish a single project. Circumstances beyond our control -- like Al having insane 70 hour work weeks the last 3 weeks, me being deathly ill for a week, holidays, things like that --have gotten in the way of finishing the girls' room. Which, if you know me well, you know how it is driving me nutso to have my house torn up. And it's taking a looooong time. I consider us fairly accomplished do it yourselfers but this project has been a huge undertaking for some reason. The end is in sight though. I want to be done with it and working on Carter's room by the end of the week.

Al shooed me out of the house tonight because I think everyone was a little sick of grumpy mom. I ran some quick errands (yet another trip to Home Depot) which go amazingly fast when you're alone. I stopped for a few things at the grocery store which turned into $35 worth of comfort food, including the seasons first bag of mint M&Ms (so glad they only make these at Christmastime). After about an hour I felt rejuvenated and headed home for the nightly routine. Now it's on to getting ready for church and more of our painting project.

In order to end the post on a high note, here are 10 good things about today:

1. Previously mentioned mint M&Ms
2. My friend Karolyn found me during the kickball game and we got to visit for an hour
3. Makenna's dresser that we ordered 4 months ago finally arrived unscathed (this is their 5th attempt at delivery and the first time the dresser has been undamaged)
4. Fountain diet coke on the way home from errands
5. I got to take a short nap while the kids slept
6. I finished a scrapbook page
7. The laundry is caught up for once
8. My kids are sick of their Halloween candy (yay!)
9. Honey crisp apples - yum!
10. My kids and husband are really cute and still love me even when I'm grumpy

The end. Thanks for bearing with me (and yes, I know that there are people in the world with REAL problems, and mine don't remotely qualify as real problems, but I actually feel better after writing this all out).

November 1

Today is a bittersweet day for Al and his family. Ten years ago today his dad passed away from a stroke. Over the last seven years I have seen Allen really heal from the passing of his dad. He can talk about it quite openly now and shares his emotions freely. I know he still misses his dad - there are times when it is harder than others. For example, during major life changes, I know he misses his dad and wishes he could ask his advice. I think he has felt his absence keenly at the births and blessings of our children, when he was ordained a High Priest and as he has made decisions about his education and career. He also misses his dad a lot at conference time when he thinks about attending many priesthood sessions with his dad over the years. We are both so grateful for the legacy he left for us. My dad grew up with Allen's dad and over the years I have heard many people (including my parents) share wonderful stories about his leadership, love and generosity. One time while living in CT, we visited with some friends from Arizona. They told about moving into a new home and how Allen's dad took a break from his law practice and came over and set up all the beds in the house - in his suit and tie. He left after working for a couple hours but just long enough to run to the Dairy Queen to pick up blizzards for the entire family. How can you not love a man like that? Even though I have never met my Father in Law, I know so much about him and love him and am so grateful for him.

On a lighter note, November 1 also officially marks the beginning of the holiday season for ME. I start really getting going on Christmas as soon as Halloween passes. I have a jump start this year and have most of the shopping done for my kids. Today Target had out almost all their Christmas stuff so I took advantage and bought paper and will begin wrapping this week. HOWEVER, this year I decided I didn't want to jump the gun and skip right over Thanksgiving. Al and I decided we really want to focus on gratitude during the month of November. I made this jar and have different colored slips of paper for each member of the family. This month we will take time every night before dinner to reflect on what we are grateful for and write it on our slips. I'll share what we come up with at the end of the month.

As a little incentive (bribe) for the kids I also made these candy chains to countdown to turkey day. They'll get their treat after they share their daily gratitude. I'm planning to do both of these every year for our family.HaPpY nOvEmBeR!!

Final Halloween Recap.

It's hard to believe another Halloween has come and gone. Here's what we were up to yesterday. Carter's preschool teacher planned the CUTEST party for her class. Earlier in the day the kids got to Trick or Treat to the 1st-5th grade classrooms. Carter just loved seeing all the kids dressed up. For the party his teacher prepared 5 cute crafts for the kids to do. They made a Halloween necklace, decorated a pumpkin (they had a cute "playground pumpkin patch" trip earlier in the week), colored Halloween bookmarks, made a fall wreath and decorated foam pumpkins. After the crafts they played games and decorated pumpkin sugar cookies. I was able to spend the afternoon in the classroom and had the best time helping out. At the end of the day Carter told me and his teacher, "This was the BEST day ever." Here are a few pictures of the party:

Allen dressed up as Napolean Dynamite for work yesterday. Makenna HATED the wig he bought and cried every time he put it on. She calls it "Daddy's scary wiggle." He looked hilarious. Despite he and his boss promoting their Halloween celebration for the last couple weeks, only 16 employees dressed up (out of several hundred). So his boss gave out $25 Starbucks gift cards to anyone who dressed up, plus very generous prizes to the costume contest winners. Wanna bet they have a lot more participants next year?!? Here he is:We spent the evening at our fun ward Trunk or Treat. The turn out was huge and they had a fun dinner, carnival games and spook alley before the ToT started. The kids had a great time but were wiped out by the time we went home at 8:00. This is the only picture I took the entire night:
One of the benefits of living in Phoenix is that the entire evening was outdoors - it was in the 80s for the party. We finished up the night not quite so pleasantly as Carter threw up several times in the middle of the night. We're not sure if he had a touch of what I had last week or was just hopped up on sugar and adrenaline from the holiday. I'm thinking the latter as he seems himself today. All in all, we had a great Halloween season this year!