Party's Over

This past week we've been partying like it's 1995. Not really, but we've had our share of fun moments. On Tuesday evening, we picked up Andy's parents @ the airport. The next morning, on Grace's bday, she wanted to open presents first thing. Can't say that I blame her.

I was contemplating on just splurging on a cake for Grace, since we weren't throwing her a party. So I went into a local bakery to inquire about one of those barbie cakes. You know which ones I'm talking about? It has an actual barbie doll surrounded by a beautiful, elegant dress made of the cake and frosting. I about died when they told me that it only cost $80! So I decided to splurge on a very well-crafted, beautifully made, homespun cake. And she was just as happy (priceless)!

Next on our agenda for fun was visiting the Natural History Museum (Grace's pick). Here are my two little statues posing (it was my favorite exhibit).

During the rest of their stay, we had grand plans-o-fun, but alas...Grace's cough turned into a fever, which we are still battling. So we spent a lot of quality time at home, watching movies and playing the wii.

side note: before Grace got sick, Kathy and I got to go to a taping of the Ellen show (sorry no pics). It was so fun to be able to spend the day with her w/o little interruptions (thanks to Dan). And I swear I burned 500 calories just from all the dancing (before the show, during commercial breaks, and after). If anyone caught Friday's show w/ Jimmy Kimmel we were the ones in the very last row in the top right corner. Did you see us?

Here we all are capturing our last few moments together. Thanks to Grammy and Grandpa for a fun-filled week! You will be missed (and your iphone too:)

Let the festivities begin

Grace will be turning 5 this coming week. Instead of a big party, we decided to keep things small and simple this year. She really wanted to go bowling...again. I'm not sure if this is going to be a tradition with her, but we were happy to oblige. This is actually the first time going bowling here in CA.

Grace chose to have her good friend Selah join us. Good choice Grace! These two are 2 years apart, but you would never know it (well, except for the height difference). They get along so well!

Clark got to try his hand at it. He's got great potential. Go Clark!

And here I am holding my bowling ball with my ever-growing belly. I was trying to think of a clever caption for this one, but it just didn't sound right.

p.s. I don't think I ever posted the due date: Aug. 1st...our first summer baby!

Attached

That's the word I would use to describe this boy. He cannot (or I should say 'does not') go to bed without these three items: his binky, monkey, and blanket. So when we have tried (unsuccessfully) to lose the binky, people will ask, 'so he doesn't have anything else to soothe him?'. Yes, he does. Not that I'm complaining, I think it's rather cute that when I see him first thing in the morning, he's armed. And something else he is attached to is the tiny tag on the blanket. If you squint really hard, you will see that in the photo he is actually playing with it. But the thing is so small, most of the time I have a hard time finding the darn thing (especially in the dark!). As soon as I hand him the blanket, he's asking for the tag. There's more. He's also very attached to his cars. We got him some of the cars from "Cars" for Christmas, and he hasn't been without. The boy cannot go anywhere without his Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks, and Mister the King. I'm sure other mother's with boys can relate. And he is constantly playing with them. Anywhere there is a flat surface, about his height, you will find him playing with his cars.
Hopefully in a few years I won't be complaining about having to pull him away from all his favorites just to go to school...wish me luck!

Kindergarten

Over the past couple of weeks, I've begun the kindergarten registration process. It's hard to believe my little girl is already at that stage in life. I didn't realize that I would be signing my life away just to sign Grace up for school, but I guess it comes with the territory. It's a small price to pay for my child's education. The one part that I truly did not anticipate being the most difficult of all, was the doctor's visit.
The visit itself was actually a great experience. For the first couple of years in her life, anytime we had to go to the doctor's Grace would scream, and that was just when they had to measure her head. So now, to have her be a willing participant, was quite pleasant. Even better was when Clark wanted it to be 'his turn'. Which was great since I had also scheduled his 2 year appointment.
Everything was going great until the first poke came for Grace. They had to get a bit of blood, and it all went down hill from there. Even right before that part she seemed happy to be getting shots, just because she knew she would be getting a sucker after wards. But all that bravery went out the window once that first prick was pricked. Can't really blame her, I'm a wimp when it comes to that stuff. So to see my little girl scream and shriek in shear pain and terror, it was a little more than I could handle. I found myself crying right along with her. The nurse could see that I was having a difficult time and asked if I needed a moment. I just didn't anticipate how much she would hate it. I had a vision of how it would be: that she would say how much it hurt, but that she would be brave...this was in-between each shot. Not so.
I'm just grateful it's over! Now life should just get easier from here on out, right?

All last week it rained and rained and rained some more. I almost forgot what it was like to live amongst so much moisture. I tried to capture just how much it was raining, but with a not-so-state-of-the-art camera, it doesn't do it justice (do you just love our view of the 90?). But after a few days of it, I began to realize just how much I've grown accustomed to the sun. I really missed it! And couldn't wait for it to come back. There were also a few things I learned about myself while stuck inside: I'm not very good at coming up with creative projects for my kids to do (any ideas would be welcome); getting up at 5:30am to work-out and being pregnant do not mix well with me (sorry Christa!); I really enjoy having a front yard that my kids could go out and enjoy; I love not having to wear socks with my shoes; and I really, really enjoy nice weather!
(disclaimer: this in no way lessens my love of Portland. I still miss it and everyone in it.)

So what to do while it pours? Cheap entertainment of course!

I'm very sad to report...that Clark has started to refuse naps. He may nap 1 or 2 times during the week, but that is about it. After much frustration, I've come to grips with this new phase. I was anticipating him napping for at least another year (especially since Grace napped until she was 4!). But alas, he is definitely not like his sister. The hardest part of it all is that between the hours of 3pm til bed time (7pm) he is VERY cranky. So until his little body adjusts to this, we'll all just have to endure and enjoy our ever-growing little guy.

playing catch up

I have been meaning to post about our christmas vacation (not restful one bit:) to utah. But this last week, i've been dealing with 3 sick people (very good excuse, i think). But now that they are getting all better, I have no excuse! And since our batteries died one day into our little trip and never replaced them, our pictures are few...but proof, that we were there.
Some of the highlights were: meeting my new nephew (3 months) Brody, and new niece (1 month) Hadley. So adorable. Seeing the rest of the family. Catching up with good friends. Eating way too much. Staying up way too late. Announcing baby #3. Working-out with my sisters. Going to see the lights on Temple Square. Freezing our butts off!

(pictured above are all our nephews and nieces)

We wanted to have our own little christmas here at home. So we didn't leave for Utah til christmas day around 10:30am. We arrived in Salt Lake after 10pm. The kids did great (thank heavens for portable dvd players!), the traffic wasn't bad, and the weather was perfect!

(no, Clark's forehead is not dirty...just the remains of a goose egg)

And here's my attempt at getting pictures taken of the kids after church (just had to throw that one in there:)

Happy New Year!