Routine

This week was back to the normal routine. It was nice to not have quite so much to do as the week before. I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few that I snapped.
Vincent is getting better at entertaining himself in the morning while I shower after dropping the girls off at school. He's so used to having Olivia to play with that he likes to come and turn the light off and on to the bathroom (We have an old house and the light to the bathroom is on the outside in the hall...) Or he will yell and scream outside the door. It's not like my showers are all that long, but he is just used to having someone in the family room with him. This week though, he entertained himself by getting games out of the cabinet instead and taking them all apart. They are all kid games, but it was a little annoying to pick up Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly Junior, and Trouble over and over. Monopoly Junior has a set of cute little plastic cars that he carried around for a few days. I made him help me clean it up. I guess that's the price I pay for showering daily. I think I can handle that.
He loves books and found this one in a bag that my aunt and uncle passed on to us. It's like a kid textbook. It has parrots on the cover. He carried it around for a day too.After his nap on Sunday, he wanted his train book from the library. He even put down his cup to read it. Andy put a blue shirt on him for church this morning and he had a whole big fit about wanting his white shirt. He wanted to be like his daddy with his white shirt, so I added his little blue clip-on tie too. He is like a little man.Olivia is loving kindergarten. She works on her homework and I don't have to bug her too much to do it. However, apparently when she is bored, she likes to put the scissors close to her forehead. Her eyebrow on the left and her bangs have seen the scissors.
I helped with our Stake Relief Society Small Things Gathering on Saturday night. Our Stake collects all the humanitarian aid items all year and then they display them and finish other ones at this event. I helped another lady with the sign ups for soups. We sent the sign up to each of the ten wards and ended up with 125 people signed up. We only needed 35, so we called a lot of them to tell them that we didn't need them to bring soup after all. It was amazing the response of the sisters in our Stake. This way was SO much nicer than having to call and beg people to make soup. I went to Costco on Saturday morning with the kids to buy 10 bags of rolls (360 total). I was so nervous that they wouldn't have them and I'd have to figure something else out, but they had plenty, of course, because they're Costco. Then after lunch, I went over to the church to set up with the other lady. My fantastic mother in law made four fall centerpieces for our tables so we wouldn't have to buy anything for that. And then the soups came pouring in! We ended up with 38 soups. Our long tables would only hold 21 soups, so we had to rotate them to make sure no one went home with a completely full soup. There was still so much soup leftover, but it was time for the General Relief Society Broadcast, so we cleaned up and went to listen to that. We had leftover rolls, so I sent a plate home with many of those who came to pick up their leftover soup. I made the green cards on the table that said the name of the soup, the person who made it, and their ward so we could track them down if they left their soup and so people could tell them how good it was, and so you didn't have to open every soup to see what was in it. After the excellent broadcast, another group of ladies was in charge of dessert. They cut up pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, and strawberries and mixed it with Tang. They dished it into cups (actually the two men who were helping in the kitchen all day washing dishes for us did during the broadcast) and gave each person a fork. It was delicious and refreshing.
The broadcast was so nice. I loved all the talks and I'll enjoy reading them again when the new Ensign comes out and remembering the mannerisms of the speakers. Excellent week.

Who's who?

To start off, we had a crazy, busy, fun weekend. We had so much to do and it all seemed to be crammed into the same days, but there was a little bit of time between each thing, so it wasn't too bad and I prepared pretty well for everything by getting the four birthday presents ready before the weekend.
1. I'll just go through the weekend starting with Thursday night. It was the Open House at the elementary school, so I helped with the PTA membership table and took a little break to go with Andy and the kids to the classrooms. I only took a few pictures (or had someone else take a few). Olivia and Elizabeth loved showing Andy their classrooms and lockers and introducing him to their teachers.
I took a picture of Olivia with her teacher, but Elizabeth's teacher was too busy. I'll have to get that one later.The PTA tables with sign ups, membership, and the lady behind me selling school t-shirts.
2. Friday morning Vincent and I went over to my mother in law's house to drop off the last of my crafts and then to the bank before picking Olivia up from school (Friday is a short day every week) and then went grocery shopping before dropping Olivia and Vincent off at a friend's house while I went to my doctor appointment for the ultrasound. It's a girl!

3. Friday night after Andy got home from work I left to go to the Ransom.Made design Fall Event to help out. It's so fun to see what everyone else made and how nice it is. I take the whole time I'm there to decide just which things I want to buy, but wait until the end to let the customers buy them first if they want to. It was B-U-S-Y! I missed the first hour and a half and it was the busiest time of the whole weekend. When I got there, so many things were already gone! Amazing.

4. Andy spent part of Saturday with a man in our ward cutting up a huge branch that fell off our tree on Tuesday night without warning. The guy in our ward took the big logs to use with the Boy Scouts on camping trips. Luckily the huge branch landed in the square between the house, the patio, the tree itself, and the powerline without hurting anything, but it was a little freaky. It wasn't windy or anything. It just suddenly fell down.
We already have half a tree because the powerline runs through our backyard and the city comes out every few years and trims it out of the line, but they don't trim the rest of the tree, so our tree is hanging over our house. I keep hearing the wind today and cringing.
See how the branch fell right in that space? It was pretty big around. Basketball big.5. Saturday morning I was up bright and early to go over to the Fall Event again. It was busy most of the day. I'm excited for our Christmas Event that will have Christmas decor, gifts, and stocking stuffers (ones maybe you can pretend Santa's elves made.) I love chatting with Andy's mom and sisters while we hang out and help the customers.

6. I had a little break after I got home and laid down for 10 minutes before it was time to go eat some dinner and go to my nephew's 6th birthday party. It was all Mario themed. My sister in law made cool Mario, Luigi, and Peach cakes with fondant and made each kid a Mario hat or Peach crown. The kids had a fun time. Elizabeth knocked the pinata off the string again. It didn't break the pinata. It just took the whole thing down, so my brother had to use some scouting knot skills to tie it back up. Strong girl.

7. Winco stop to get a few big hoagie sandwiches for the birthday luncheon at our house for my sister's birthday before they flew back to Arizona. They came up Thursday for my brother in law's sister's wedding and flew out right after the luncheon. Her birthday was on the wedding day. Nice, huh? I think they had a fun trip though. Anyway, at Winco I was buying the hoagies and one of them was mismarked and said $43.74 instead of $3.99 which I didn't notice until the $70 total came up on the screen. It was funny. The rest of the night I gave the kids a bath and then Andy read to them while I cleaned up the toys, cleaned the bathroom, and made sure everything was ready for right after church. My parents came over and spent the night on our hide-a-bed, so we played some games with them too.

8. Church. There were some good talks, as always, but this time there was one that I actually heard with my ears and mind without too many distractions. It was nice. Then off to nursery. Two weeks ago (Labor Day weekend) we had 8 kids, but it was just Andy and I down there. One week ago, we had 22 kids and three of them cried most of the time. It was chaos. We had several helpers though. This week it was only 15 and it was very pleasant. The crying kids didn't come this time and everyone played nicely. When one of the moms came down to pick up her son, she had to tell us something about Elizabeth in her Primary class just then. They were talking about President Monson, but apparently Elizabeth got mixed up between the President of the Church and the President of the Country and starting going off on how President Monson (again she mixed up in her head President Obama and President Monson!) is a liar and on and on. They had to make sure she understood the difference between Prophet of the Church-President and leader of the country-President. I guess she's listening when Andy's listening to talk radio in the car with her. We tried to explain that just like any other President of the Country, plenty of people like him and plenty hate him, but that the Prophet can't EVER lead us astray and won't EVER lie to us.

9. My sister came over just after church for the luncheon. I counted how many people came this morning-34, including my family. Three of her friends came with their one kid each and my brother in law's parents, two of my brothers popped in after saying they probably wouldn't be able to, along with some extended family. My mom and dad bought a big cake that we enjoyed and it was fun.

10. I took a three hour nap after cleaning up the party mess. Then we went over to Andy's parent's house for Sara's daughter's birthday cake. Daphne is one year old this week. It was fun to visit with everyone there too. Sara makes the cutest little cupcake animal toppers.

Like I said, busy weekend. Too busy for me to even worry much about pictures. Sorry. I really should have taken a picture of that nap. It was so nice. I didn't want to get up.

Ultrasound says....

Her face all pressed into me. She didn't want her picture taken.
Profile picture.
Cute little foot.
Little legs and feet and knees.

GIRL!

We are so excited to add another baby girl to our family. Abigail Mary will be so welcome here. (Just as a boy would have been.) Yea! She looks healthy and is growing. Now, if I would start showing a tiny bit more, I think it would help a little....

Boy or Girl?

I am putting a poll here on my site to see if the majority of you can guess what this baby is. Boy or Girl? It's not both or any other multiple (or it better not be!!!).
I have my ultrasound appointment on Friday and I'll let you know what the doctor says.
The poll will be open until I announce which way we find out.

Possible things to consider:
Elizabeth wants a boy to teach Star Wars to and says she will watch it with him every day. (I already told her there is no way she can watch it every day...)
Olivia wants a girl to dress up. I'm sure all of you are surprised by that.
Vincent doesn't seem to care, just as long as you don't call HIM a baby.

Also good to know, the pattern for grandkids on my side of the family has only been messed up once. The pattern is boy-boy-girl (Elizabeth)-boy-boy-girl (Olivia)-boy-boy-boy (only skipped girl position)-boy (Vincent)-boy-girl-boy-boy. I am due first of my siblings, which puts me at the girl position, but my sister announced to everyone first, but isn't due until ten weeks after me. My little brother's wife is due just before her. Who knows? And my sibling order is the same boy-boy-girl-boy-boy-girl pattern.
On Andy's side, they are due for another boy. Right now they have 13 grandkids (7 girls, 6 boys) and it's been even or just one up with each grandkid. And a lady at a church ice cream social told me it is a boy. I told her we'll see and she sounded pretty sure, because almost strangers always know everything, just by looking at your belly...
What is your best guess?

Nine Years Ago

Andy and I were asleep. It was nearly three months after we got married. Andy's alarm went off to the AM channel and he didn't push snooze. We listened for a minute and then both got up and went to the living room to watch on the tv what was happening. Just after we turned on the tv, the second plane hit. Having never been to that side of the country, I had no idea what the Twin Towers even were or that they had so many people inside.
We had to tear ourselves away from watching to get ready for work and at work we searched for a tv to watch the news on while we worked. It was such a sad day.
Nine years later, we remember the brave citizens who fought back and our brave men and women in uniform who are still fighting back, along with the few politicians who remember what we are fighting for.

Autumn Fair

We are getting all set for the Ransom.Made design Autumn Fair on September 17th (5-9pm) and 18th (9am-3pm).

Come and see our selection of gifts and home decor and shop early for Christmas!
There will also be a make-and-take craft to do.
We have a website with some* of our selection on it if you want to check it out. www.ransom-made.com. If you aren't available for the dates in September, feel free to check out the website and let us know if you are interested in purchasing anything.We are having a Just Christmas Event on December 3rd and 4th as well.

*Our newest selections will be added soon after the event.

Relaxing on Labor Day

Andy's parents asked us if we wanted to come up to stay the night at their property on Sunday, so after church (yea, early church!!!) and naps (for Vincent and I), we went up there to spend the night.
Andy and the girls enjoyed playing old-fashioned board games, like checkers and Chinese checkers. The dominoes on the floor behind them are what Vincent was playing with.Vincent liked watching this cookoo clock. It has a tiny bird that pops out at the half hour and hour.Aunt Suzie went on a hike with the kids around the trees close to the house. Elizabeth and Olivia are clear back there somewhere. I took the picture from the comfy deck.
Cousin Dylan with Vincent, Olivia, and Elizabeth. Dylan's brother didn't want to go up to that part of the playhouse until after all the kids got down. This is the end of the day playing on Monday. Do you see how dirty my kids are? Olivia has binoculars around her waist.This is a recent addition to the property. It was just built a few weeks ago. Last week Suzie and her boys came up and they didn't have bark down and they were completely covered in red dirt. George had some people come and chip up fallen logs on Saturday to help with that. Vincent did awesome on the climbing wall. He got going up it pretty fast.
Olivia wanted to swing all day.
Vincent with Grandpa George on the four-wheeler on Sunday night. They didn't go anywhere, but Elizabeth wanted to take a picture of them.
We had a fun time eating, resting, and visiting. Our kids slept pretty well, except for Vincent who woke up way too early. He's used to being in his own room with his own space and not in a room with four other people. We slept in the loft above the great room. He woke up and wanted attention. Oh well. We all got up and had delicious cinnamon strussel pancakes (they were supposed to be muffins, but Shirley doubled the eggs accidentally, so she made pancakes instead.) At lunchtime, Suzie and her boys came up and Andy's Grandma Ellen and Grandpa Paul came up to visit too. We missed Sara and David and Torrie and Brad who were busy earning money.
It was great to relax and rest and now we get to start a short week of school.

Olivia's First Day

Olivia before school in her sassy red dress and black leggings. She decided that the white lacy socks didn't match and put on these black ones with a pink bow around them from my mom instead. Who am I to argue with Olivia about fashion? I'll explain the red shoes in a minute.Olivia by her locker. The morning and afternoon kids share lockers. The morning kids have suns and the afternoon kids have snails with their names on them. Their coats and backpacks go in here.
Olivia at her table.
Kindergarten for Olivia started this morning. We found out last night that her teacher is the same one that Elizabeth had, so she was all set since she already knows her. (I'm pretty sure she'd be just fine no matter who the teacher was, but it does make it easier when you already know them.)
The red shoes: Yesterday afternoon Olivia was all excited to pick out her outfit and place it on her dresser (including socks and everything), but she was a little sad that she didn't have black shoes to wear with it. She couldn't wear the old worn out white Sunday shoes because they are old and worn out, so I took out my can of RED spray paint and painted the worn out white shoes red to match her red and black outfit that she picked out with Grandma Shirley. She loves them.
See how worn out these shoes are? I told her that she couldn't wear them to school because they looked so bad.The top of the shoes. They are all dirty and have a white spot missing on the top of the shoe.
I put a folded up paper towel inside each shoe and a paper grocery bag underneath and sprayed them outside. Here is the finished product. They even dried in plenty of time.
They still won't last that much longer because the heels both have holes starting in them, but they will be fun for her while they last.
Back to this morning....I took a friend's house and the girls to school because I had to accompany Olivia to her class for the first hour of school (they call it parent orientation, but it's really just cutting a little of the apron strings and letting the parents hang on a little longer.) Elizabeth and Olivia don't really need us there and I'm completely okay with them going to school and being independent. I'm not a crying when they achieve milestones kind of mommy, so it's kind of silly to me, but I played along (not crying.) I was the first parent out of there, but mostly because I was helping at a table set up with information for PTA for all the new parents. Then I had to go and pick up Vincent at a friend's house and then went back to the school to help with the PTA table outside to catch the class that didn't come past the table and sold t-shirts. Olivia ended up going home with one of her friends from church to eat lunch and play and they had a good time.

Dreams

The movie that came out in the late '90's with Robin Williams, "What Dreams May Come", is one of the craziest, weirdest movies I have EVER seen STILL. I went to see it at the theater with my mom.
However, the movie is crazy like my dreams have been lately. I wake up exhausted because of how intense my dreams are for the last four nights or so. I wake up all stressed and worried and tired. Good thing for me that Vincent still naps and I can take a nap in the afternoon when he does or I would be so much more tired.
Here is a little synopsis of my crazy dreams.
Night #1: I dreamed that I forgot to do things I needed to do before the first day of school. This dream happened on Sunday night two nights before school started. I dreamed that I didn't have the school supplies (even though I've had them for at least a month), that I slept in, that I didn't have time to fix Elizabeth's hair, and a bunch of other things went wrong. Luckily, I didn't sleep in or any of those things, but all these crazy dreams are making me stressed out!

Night #2: Laundry dream. I dreamed about laundry piling up in the house, but it was the house I live in now with piles of our laundry in the bathroom from the Burbank house that I grew up in. I was yelling almost the whole time in my dream at the girls to put the laundry in the hamper (instead of all over the floor) and then someone from our ward showed up at 10pm that night while I was yelling and I guess I babysat their son (haven't watched him for five or more years) and he wet his pants or something, so they wanted them. He is now 11 years old or something. Crazy.

Night #3: I have completely forgotten what this one was about, but I know it was crazy.

Night #4: Last night I dreamed that I was pregnant, just like I am and still had my kids, and dating (which would obviously NOT happen). I was out on a double date and checking in with my mom the whole time and had a really fun time hanging out with these people who rescued me from my car that I locked my keys in (or something-it starts to get foggy when I'm thinking of details).

My mother in law came over the morning after my laundry dream and said that I'm probably just stressing about having another baby and worrying about all the things I do now and that it's going to get harder with a fourth child. The yelling at the girls, she said, is probably because I'm giving them more to do lately and need their help. She also told me to take a bubble bath. Makes sense to me, but I'm still just so tired when I wake up.

I think I obsess about the laundry because I LOVE being completely DONE with it. By that I mean that the only dirty things in the house are the ones we are wearing/sleeping on. It is just a huge accomplishment to me and I try to do it a few times a month.

My sister recommended Unisom, but I don't like to buy more medicine, especially when I'm pregnant, even though it is safe. I have to wake up and help kids in the morning and I'm afraid I'd just be more tired if I took sleep medicine.
Any suggestions? More naps?