the box

Playing in the shop vac box

I found him hiding under my end table with my cell phone

He loves the box

That's what we were up to on Tuesday. Just playing in boxes. We went to Sears to pick up the shop vac Nicks dad had purchased for him for Christmas. Then we went to Macayos for lunch. Then to the mall where we got some awesome deals at KB Toys (50%-70% OFF) and then to Target where they had a ton of leftover Christmas candy for 75% off. We stocked up on caramel Ghirardelli chocolates, Dove chocolates and Premium M&Ms. That night, new years eve, we put the kids to bed and Nick and I were so tired we managed to stay up til midnight while watching HGTV. I found that the ""Live"" New Years programs (balls dropping and such) were totally cheesy and lame and I HATED watching nasty people kiss on those programs after the new year hit every hour starting at 10pm. We didnt know it had hit midnight until my alarm went off.... Isaiah had unplugged my clock and when I reset it I didnt realize he had clicked my alarm to on, which defaulted to 12:00. We then drank some sparkling cider and were asleep by 12:30. Yeah, Im old and lame and even if I had a babysitter Id have no where to go so to bed it was. New Years is a wierd holiday. I cant wait til my birthday, now THATS a real holiday :S

Christmas was great, ready to rest!

Joes Crab shackOur Christmas cookies

Isaiah on Christmas morningThe gifts

Its been a long couple months. Here it is: In November my inlaws came to town. We had a lot of fun and did a lot of running around. The following weekend we drove up to Oregon for Thanksgiving. The next weekend we drove back home (I drove 20 hours of the 24, we didnt stop to sleep). The next weekend Nick had to work. That week my sister Becca and Justin came to visit on their honeymoon. That same weekend we went to El Paso for Cory's graduation and back the next day. The next week I got strep throat and pink eye. The next week I got the flu (I lost five lbs). That leaves us at Christmas. We did the presents and spent the rest of the day with extended family. This last weekend my mother in law and sister in law came to town. Now we enjoyed being with family for the last two months and making and taking visits, but we are worn out!
Christmas was a lot of fun. On Christmas Eve I was so tired and sick still that instead of making cookies and icing I bought cookies from the Fry's bakery and a can of frosting. That evening we acted out the Nativity with the kids and Julian and Carmen sang Christmas songs as part of a program they put on for their dad. That night our kids were asleep by 8:40pm. The next morning I woke up at 8 and the kids were all still asleep! They woke up around 8:20am. We opened presents but Isaiah cared less about the presents. He spent all morning eating the leftover Santa cookies! We have strength for one more holiday then we are laying low for a few months. Next up.. New Years. What are we going to do? Absolutely nothing (not like we'd have anything to do even if we had a babysitter). This week I'm going to be organizing and reorganizing the kids' toys, clothes and rooms. Yay. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

"Kiddie Tag" Julian

We were tagged to say 5 nice things about Julian. Before I begin I want to go ahead and tag others because my response is quite lengthy and you may get lost looking for the list:

Max Gibson
Sydney Poulson
Savannah Olivas
Jonathan Allred
Mylee Jensen

Julian was tagged by Kandice Alt so I'm going to tell you all 5 neat things about Julian:

1. Julian is the nicest child I have ever known could exist. He gets very sad if he can't manage to help someone in need and he is very polite and says hello to everyone and is very willing to make new friends at school. He always makes sure everyone has the same snacks and opportunities, he welcomes his siblings into his room to play and even has been letting Carmen sleep on his bottom bunk bed for the last two months because she doesnt like sleeping apart from him.

2. Julian has a whole lot of faith. When he is concerned about something he prays. When someone is sick, he prays. When he loses something, he prays. Before we can eat, he makes sure we pray. He doesn't let anyone speak of Christ out of context, and he and his sister speak of Jesus Christ as a close friend they are waiting to run into one of these days.

3. Julian can read. Julian just started Kindergarten this year. He has always been a fast learner and has to date earned a Kindergarten grand total of three Book It awards. When he was a baby the only way I could get him to eat was to read him the Dr. Seuss ABC book over and over until he refused to eat anymore.

4. Julian loves legos and video games. Better yet, both. Lego video games. He can sit for hours and hours and play alone or with a sibling playing with legos and action figures and of course, he can spend hours playing video games if I let him. He is so innovative with the legos. He takes apart his patterned sets to create new inventions. He also loves super heroes.

5. "You are number 1 and you are special" Julian has a unique way of making anyone feel good about themselves. When I am sad or upset he knows what to do and say to make me feel better. When I need help he is always willing. When I ask him to do something for me, he doesnt complain. On the flip side of that, those characteristics come to him as a sensitive boy. He keeps me in line when I act up. When my temper starts to show or I get impatient he is the one to call me out and tell me how I am making him feel and asks me not to make him feel that way. I cant raise my voice at him without him getting sad, he is the child that reminds me that my emotions must be kept in check to preserve their loving innocence.

Baby Boy's Ultrasound

ITS A BOY!

I will post ultrasound pictures as soon as I get them scanned.. but yes, its a boy! I had my ultrasound this morning and all the organs and parts of the baby look, as the technician put it, "all normal" :) YAY! Babies are such wonderful blessings!

HAIR!!!!

This is what I would look like with Beyonce hair.

This is what I would look like with Katie Holmes hair.

Long Drive

For Thanksgiving we drove to Oregon. We drove up through Las Vegas, St. George, Orem (where we stopped to get free donuts from my sister Rebecca who works at Krispy Kreme), then through downtown Salt Lake (Nick had never been there before), then up through Boise to pick up my sister Amanda before making it to our destination, McMinnville, Oregon. We arrived about three in the morning on Sunday and on Monday morning Nick flew back to Phoenix to work. On Monday my sisters, a cousin, my mom and I went to see Twilight. On Wednesday my mom, Liss, Sarah and my kids and I went to the Salem Center Mall. We did some shopping (window mostly), the kids got to see Santa, we bought pretzels and white chocolate covered marshmallows for the kids, and we bought a Honeybaked Ham. On Wednesday night my sisters and I prepared all the Thanksgiving food, minus the green salad and the stovetop stuffing. I made the green bean casserole, candied yams, and four layer chocolate mud pie. Sarah made a couple banana creme pies and she was supposed to do the potatoes but forgot to. Mom prepped the turkey. On Thursday morning my mom and dad took all the kids to the zoo (free day) while I picked up Nick at the airport. When we got back to the house the older kids who had sayed home had cleaned house and set up. We baked the beans and yams and prepped the salad and made last minute smashed potatoes (thanks Sarah) and Amanda's famous runny gravy. It turned out very well and we had a great time. My kids, even with all the food available to them, only ate ham. Each one of the kids ate three helpings of ham, and left the rest of the food untouched. On Friday night my mom and dad and Nick and I went out to see Four Christmases. It was pretty funny, and we had a lot of fun without the kids. We left on Saturday at 2:30pm and I drove 20 of the 24 hours and we arrived in Phoenix Sunday at 3pm. The total trip going to Oregon, $150. The return through California cost us $86!! Hurray for the price of gas. I can live with a recession if it means $1.70 gas!!

Before and after. I hadn't had a haircut in three and a half years. I had the hair saved in a pony tail so I can send it to Locks of Love.

TWILIGHT: The Movie

Today I went to see Twilight with my mom and sisters and one of my cousins. We like it but because of who we are, we spent a lot of our time in the theatre cracking jokes and laughing about little things here and there we would catch that were funny. My mom hasn't read the book so she kept leaning over and asking us, "Was this part in the book?" At the part where the Cullens are introduced to the story she leaned over and made the comment, "Those people look like vampires..." She left the theatre to take a phone call and when she got back she caught the last end of Edward telling Bella that she is his drug of choice and so she mostly just caught the word heroin and was asking us during the movie if drugs are in the book.... "No, mom... He is addicted to being with her, like a drug addict addicted to drugs...." We had a great time. Good way to end the day. My sister Sarah and I went to lunch today at the Sage. If anyone goes to McMinnville, Oregon, they need to go there for lunch. Best marinated mushroom salad dressing ever. I want to go back tomorrow for another salad. Dad watched all the kids while we were gone. That was my three, Sarah's one, three foster kids, and two of his own little ones. It was him and the kids until Ryan arrived at 6pm to help him out. Somehow they managed to have all the kids but one fed, dressed and asleep by the time we were home. Mom should go out with us more often. She deserves that kind of break!

flashback

I guess this is a Flashback.... Well, since in Enrichment yesterday we did an activity where we picked a penny from a dish and told about what we were doing in that year that what printed on the penny... here are a couple pictures from that year. 2001. I was pretty crazy, and as the women at Enrichement learned, I have had a lot of different hair colors. Sorry guys, no pictures of the rainbow colors. I actually didnt own a camera during that period of time :) Lucky me..

Question about Gifts!

QUESTION OF THE MOMENT:

What gift(s) did you handmake for others last Christmas? What was the handmade gift you are most proud of (any year/holiday/occasion)?

Today is Nicks Birthday!

We started this weekend on Saturday with a trip to the Tempe Marketplace. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water and we bought presents for Nick. Then we went to Red Robin for lunch. We had a fun day.

For Nicks birthday I made him a Harley-Davidson cake. He wants a motorcycle but we can't afford one so we got him the next best thing, the chocolate cake version!

Nick's parents got him a remote control helecopter and accessories. I got him a Hurley backpack and Julian got him cologne and a shirt.

Nick blew out all his candles so I guess his wish will come true. I bet he wished for a Harley, because that one already came true (mmmmm chocolate!).

Oh I just had to go and look at Amy's blog.... Thanks Amy, I have now organized my pictures into folders because before they were all just a mess of pictures in the picture folder. So I guess this means I was tagged, and so are you (anyone who may possibly be reading my blog). The rules are you post the 4th pictures of the 4th folder, 8th picture in the 8th folder, 12th picture in the 12th folder and the 16th picture in the 16th folder. I dont have 16 folders though and some folders are family history documents and such so here are four pictures randomly from four random folders: This is a picture of my Sister Sarah and her baby Jonathan. I have a folder of her photography on my computer because I'm working on a web page for her photography business. The kids were in the bath one day with their new bath paints and we decided to say hi to dad at work. I took this on my cell phone.This is a picture of Carmen and me taken with her KidTough camera. She got it for Christmas and we had been playing with it all week. I really should start showering BEFORE breakfast when there's a camera sitting on the table.

This is Nick when we went to Silver Creek Falls, near Salem, Oregon. That particular day was literally three or four days after I had had surgery to remove my gallbladder, and yep, I went on a hike up a waterfall that soon after surgery. I am insane :P I took that picture of Nick on the path that leads behind the waterfall.

King of the Knights

Today my in-laws came to visit. They brought gifts! Nick's mother brought Julian a full knight costume. He insists that he is the King of the Knights and has gotten very good at nighting people. He says, "I knight you to protect your family and kingdom" as he taps the blade on the right and then left shoulders of the kneeling knight. Carmen was given a sesame street dress. She is the princess the King of the Knights defends and rescues. Isaiah, he just likes balls.

This Summer

I just started this blog and there is no way I can catch up on the last 6 years so I'm reviewing this summer. This is what we did this summer:

We went to Oregon and saw the grandparents and great grandparents
Nick graduated college

I worked at a movie theatre to earn money for gas. The boxes are nacho chips I had to date and restack.
We went to see Wall-E.
Julian turned 5
I turned 25

We went to the mall
We got Julian ready for school

Remembering Tata

My grandfather died when I was in middle school. This is a picturee of me (left) and my sister Sarah (right) with him. He loved icecream. I remeber every time he came to visit he would drink his coffee and smoke a cigarette every morning. Sarah and I used to always tell him "caca" trying to tell him that it was bad for him. I remember at our young ages we were concerned about the smoking killing him. We didn't speak spanish and had no way to communicate with him other than gestures and reactions and the two or three words of spanish we knew. We loved him so much. Once when I was about 9 I made by hand a case for his glasses. It was a simple pouch sewn by hand with thread and yard. He loved it. I have never known someone my dad respected more in the entire world. Yes he respects my mother and his children, but the respect he had for his father was one of awe. I miss him and though I could wish my heart out he was still alive, I believe it was part of the plan. He was preceded to the other side by my grandmother, who he missed dearly. They are together now.

Daddy Daughter

Carmen and Dad went to the Ward Daddy Daughter Activity on Saturday. The Young Women and I organized the activities. It was a lot of fun and the girls did a great job getting things to run smoothly! Carmen had a blast!

Maybe next time there could be a Mommy Son Activity (according to Julian). He even went to the Bishop today at church and asked him when the next Father Son Campout would be, he felt so left out!

Wonderful Oops

This is what an oops looks like. There is a funny story behind this though. All that month Nick was worried I was pregnant. I kept reassuring him that there was no way I could be pregnant and that I wasn't pregnant. He would bring up his concerns once every three days or so. Finally, the Saturday night before I was to start my period I got tired of his antics. He was up late watching TV like a maniac, flipping flipping flipping through all the channels over and over. I went to sleep. I woke up a couple hour later and the channels were still flashing before his eyes. He was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed watching the lights flicker through the channels. I told him to go to bed, that I'm not pregnant and that I would start my period the next morning. I had to use the restroom so without telling him I grabbed my emergency pregnancy test from the back of the cabinet (it had been there for a very long time) and I decided that I would take the test then wave the negative test in his face so he could finally go to bed and turn of the gosh darn TV. I went in and took the test and immediately two lines appeared. My one and only thought was, "OH CRAP. HOW AM I GOING TO TELL NICK?" I left the restroom and walked over to Nick and kneeled behind him and told him, "Nick, I have something I need to show you." He looked over at me and at the test in my hand and his dead dropped and rolled as he mumbled something about 'How are we going to do this?' I reassured him everything would be okay and to get some rest. I went back to sleep immediately, Nick was up til 5am.
And this is what an oops looks like 12 weeks later. Now give me a little leway here, this is my fourth so my body goes straight into gain and stretch mode now. So such thing as 'hiding it' anymore. We are very excited. Nick is excited now and is glad we are having another baby. I am just now posting this because I went to the doctor today and heard the heartbeat for the first time so I know there is a life growing inside me!

My little sister Rebecca (the one directly left of the graduate) is getting married December 6. Time goes too fast. I taught her to read! I will have to find a better picture of her. She says she will come for a visit as a part of her honeymoon road trip. We will see... but we will have a bed ready! Love you Becca!!

Tuesday night we carved pumkpins at Mutual. My son drew a face on his pumpkin and a Young Man helped him carve it. My daughter painted her mini pumpkins and my baby decided to climb on the kitchen table and drive his car across the top of his big brothers Jack-O-Lantern.