Icing on the cake!

Let me start off by saying I had the best day. Well, at least the late afternoon, and evening. I went to the temple, despite all of those nagging thoughts like "I am so tired, I will just fall asleep." and "I don't feel so good." I went much earlier than usual, I got into the 5 o'clock session--and it ended up being nearly empty. Ok, not that bad, but the smallest session I have ever been in. AND I am happy to report I didn't even nod off once! That is the first time in a long time for me. Not that I am not glad to be there, and intent on staying awake, but the peace, and the quiet, and the lights dimmed seems to get me everytime. :) A sweet lady a couple of seats away had a seizure--how horrible is that? Seemed like it was a regular thing for her though, and she was just fine after a few minutes. I just love the spiritual high I leave the temple with. Makes me feel like I can keep on keeping on.

Then I get home, get the kiddos in bed, and check my email. I have been reading this blog http://kaceyscouponcorner.blogspot.com/ that I found from my friend Brandi's blog. It is this awesome lady who posts deals and all sorts of couponing ways to save money. Last week I checked in on it, and saw she was doing a giveaway for this cute table that I posted a photo of, and I entered. I entered totally NOT expecting to win--I don't think I have won anything like that since high school maybe. Well, I WON!!! Hooray, I am so excited. She lives in Colorado, so hopefully she is ok with shipping it to me here in Utah. If not, well, maybe we'll have to take a drive to visit our old friends in Grand Junction. :) Either way--I am so stoked that I actually won something. And better yet that it is a totally awesome prize. I can just see my little ragamuffins chowing down at it next spring. Moral of the story...good days do come along after all. :D

Halloween!

Love blogger and the picture order! Oh well, here is my much anticipated Halloween post. I know Y'all have been dying to see my cute family in our Halloween digs. :)

Could I be any bigger?! Holy cow, and I still have 4 months left. This is definitely my LAST kid--I don't think I can buy clothes to fit a HOUSE!! :P

Tyler is such an amazing helper. Sometimes he is a little TOO much in Kyle's "personal space," but he is so sweet! Here we are starting off to the "trunk or treat" in Mike's parents neighborhood.

This is Tyler at the end of the Halloween Parade at school. They let the parents pile into the gym to see the little kids--so fun!


I was able to go help with the Halloween party for Tyler's class. It was fun, and CRAZY!!! I don't know how his teacher does that everyday. Takes a special kind of person--and they deserve saint hood!!

This should be with the one at the end, but at our ward party they had a doughnut on a string thing, and the young men convinced Mike, the Bishop and his wife, and another guy in the ward to compete against each other. It was funny! they were way too close together, but it was fun to watch. This is Mike WINNING! That's my guy. :)

And Optimus Prime showed up at our house. I was suprised he fit in the door. And he turns out to be much nice than I thought he'd be.

Here is my not so smily BYU Cheerleader. She said this is her happy smile--whatever! When people would ask her for a cheer, she would barely whisper it--goof ball.

And here is my sweet mini-Optimus. He loved being the same thing as Tyler, and even kept the mask on most of the time--much to my suprise.

Here is Mike going up against the Bishop. Looks a little like they might be going in for a KISS if you ask me. HA!

I fall for FALL!!!

I really do love this time of year. Not too hot, not too cold (until today that is) Fun to have warm soup, and enjoy the last bits of warm days and sunshine before the winter hits. (dun, dun, dun) I also love how excited my kids are about all of the different happenings. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas coming before we know it. SO grateful that Christmas came a little early, and brought us a new camera to document it all! Last night we carved pumpkins--which I love, but gets a little wary when the kids aren't quite old enough to do all the hard work. But we had fun, and love our pumpkin family out on the porch.

(Tried getting one without the flash to show it lit up. Still working on my photography skills!)

I told Tyler he really had to get his hands in the pumpkin to get all of the "guts" out--he wasn't too keen on the idea.

Tyler hard at work designing the perfect "Scary" pumpkin. He ended up going with one of the patterns Annie brought over--lot's of work for one great daddy!

Kyle wanted to hack right in to his pumpkin--good thing he only had one of those kid knives from Ikea. What a ham!

Grandma "Idaho" sent a package for Bailey and Kyle for Halloween. Bailey didn't take this butterfly costume off for 2 days! Thanx Grandma!

Tyler got this cool light up shirt. Or should I say SCARY?? Everything with him this year needs to be spooky. "Our decorations need to be spookier mom!" And he keeps asking why some people don't have their Halloween decorations up yet--"it's almost Halloween!"

Awww--don't we need a dog?! How cute is my little family, plus one four legged friend? We doggie-sat for Michelle for a few days while they were out of town. Dottie was so sweet to have around, and I actually find myself missing her now that we took her home yesterday. The kids loved her! They wanted to go out and play with her, first thing in the morning, no matter how cold it was out there. Someday. :)

Talk about a scare!

So, I never really considered myself a worrier, until now. I guess a large part of it comes from miscarrying in May, and getting pregnant RIGHT away afterwards. I am SO grateful to be pregnant, but I find myself trying to talk myself out of worrying myself sick, almost constantly. So last night when I started spotting, I LOST it. Mike was busy with work, and I called my parents house and bawled to my poor dad for a while. He is so sweet to listen to his crazy daughter, and give me some good advice. Then when Mike did call, I lost it again. My poor kids--they were so worried too. We said a prayer, and sweet Tyler kept telling me, "Mom, I think Heavenly father heard our prayer, and the baby is going to be ok." How do you argue with that? Tyler came in at 5 AM (who's kid is he anyway??) So while I was already awake I went in to go "potty." More than just spotting now. I went in and told Mike maybe we are only ment to have 3 kids, and sat on the bed and cried, and cried...and CRIED! Then I went and googled, which I know often isn't good in cases like this, but actually made me feel a lot better that the baby might still be ok. I called my OB's office first thing, and they got me in at 10. My super kind visiting teacher watched Kyle and Bailey for me, because I could NOT do that alone again. They got me right back, and checked the heart beat. She found it right away--RELIEF!!! I have never been more grateful in my life--or at least it feels that way right now. My midwife came in (LOVE her BTW!) and told me she wanted me to get in to the perinatologist to see if they could find a reason for the bleeding. They got me in at 2:30--same day. Another big blessing! Getting in there was a whole other story though. They said come with a FULL bladder--not an easy thing in adn of itself. Then I get there, and they say they don't have me on the schedule, and my dr's office didn't fax the order. Come on! They randomly send me over to Labor and Delivery, where they wonder what in the world I am doing over there at only 17 weeks pregnant. But a sweet RN took pity on me, and wrote me up an order, and called over to Radiology, where they now miraculously find me on the schedule. Then back to check in, (Still super full bladder) then over to Radiology. I check in there, and proceed to wait until past 3:30 for my 2:30 appt. (in case you are keeping track, I have gone potty for a LOOONG time) ON our way back to the ultrasound room, the girl says sorry about the wait. I said I would have not had a problem if my bladder wasn't about to explode. ;) She says--"Oh, you didn't need to have a full bladder. You can go right now! WHAT?? Much better. Long ultrasound, so fun to see the baby. That never gets old to me. He/she was moving around like crazy--great to see it is active and looks healthy. They looked a lot at my placenta, which seems to be covering my cervix a little, but not too big of a deal. Comes out that they are not sure why I was bleeding, but my dr. says to expect it to reoccur, but not to be alarmed unless it is really bad. (easy for HIM to say!)

Moral of the story is, don't let your crazy, hormone driven, irrational fears get away with you. Now, I do feel like I had good reason to worry, but I have recieved a lot of peace since I found out I was pregnant, and I need to quit doubting and have some faith. :0)

Family Night

Alrighty--I have been a major blog slacker as of late. I blame it partially on the "morning" sickness, and partially on the fact that my camera has been MIA since Mike got home from Scout camp. (I think it's somewhere with my cell phone, which I now cannot find!) But tonight was SOO much fun, I just had to blog it. Saturday Mike went to the BYU game (which we will not speak of any further) he went way early with a friend to all of the tail-gating stuff before hand, and came home and told me about going to the BYU Creamery before hand, and since then I have been craving bubble gum ice cream (I know--weird, but not as odd as some pregnancy cravings)

So tonight as I was looking at the gorgeous mountains dotted with red I thought--Hmmm, we could go for a drive up the canyon, and then take the kids to the creamery. The drive was beautiful. We drove up to Squaw Peak, which is one of my favorite spots since I was a kid, but the road is pretty windey. Apparently a little TOO windey for some of us, because Bailey decided she needed to throw up--all over everywhere! Throw up is something I remember wondering how my mom coped with growing up, and thinking specifically--"How am I ever going to clean up someone ELSE'S puke??" Well, I have come to realize you just DO IT. Along with many other things in motherhood, you love your kids, and just do it. And since my dear husband wimps out around vomit, I get to just do it a lot. Bailey seems to be my car sick one too, I was thinking as I was trying to clean her up that she is the only one of the kids to throw up in the car. And it has happened often. Then she cried because she could not go in to the creamery with throw up everywhere? What a mean mommy I am. I told her it would make everyone else want to throw up too, and she begged for an ice cream still. Since I figured it was likely just car sickness, I caved and bought her one--and then she wanted mine!! Goof ball.

Then on the way home, Tyler was about to die because he had to go potty SOOOO bad. Everytime we passed a gas station, or store he'd say "Oh great, we passed another one!" We made it home, but boy--these are the days right? People always say to cherish these times, because I will miss them some day. I know that is true, but there are times I seriously question. :) But hey--we made some memories--right?!! Although the kids did want me to take their pictures while we were up at Squaw Peak, and I had to explain to them that we have no clue where the camera is. :(

My son. the professional Kindergartener

This is actually the second day of school, but it was so cute--Kyle has been wearing a backpack around ALL the time, wanting to be like his big brother!

It was a little chaotic to say the least when I dropped Tyler off the first day (what can I say--my first time too!) But I snapped one photo of him playing, and oblivious to what's going on! So funny to see him with the other kids, because he is at LEAST a head taller than all of them. The playground lady has even asked him several times if he is really supposed to be on the kindergarten playground. :)

Here he is--"Going Hero!" as Ben 10 would say. I still cannot believe my little man is in kindergarten! A few days before school started, I got an overwhelming feeling about the fact that this is it for him--school for the next 12 years at least. WOW! He is so excited though. There has been a little confusion with his teacher and stuff, they had to hire another teacher because they ended up with a lot more kids than they thought. He was upset to not have the teacher that he had met for the testing, but the morning of his second day (he has been waking up at 6 or earlier because he is SO excited) he came in and was talking to me, and he said "I don't just like it, I LOVE IT!!" He says the best things. His temporary teacher came up to me after the first day and said "Holy cow, he is reading and everything already!" He is such a great boy, I am so proud of him. I had the proudest mommy moment while he was doing his assesment, so fun to see you kids grow up. :)

I had to include this on here. Mike has been working on this for a while, and is so proud of it. You can't see in the daylight, but he even put lights on it! He plans on lighting it up every win (Which hopefully is a lot!) He's received some razzing from a few neighbors, but he is super excited about it. What a handy man, and a BYU nut I have! Love both!

Here we go again.

(This top one is the one from 6 1/2 weeks. I have never had an ultrasound that early--not really much there but a clump of cells. But you could see the heart beating already in the middle--nothing better :))

I have kept the secret pretty darn long--especially for me. This is some sort of record for sure. I saw the doctor for my second time last week, and decided it's ok for me to be excited. So here I am--sharing my news--with all y'all! I am just about 12 weeks along--my due date is March 5 (Happy Birthday Dad!) I went in for an ultrasound at 6 weeks, because my sweet midwife told me to come in about then so I could see that things were ok, and be more certain of a due date, as the date of my D&C isn't really accurate for figuring that out. I was honestly suprised to get pregnant this quickly. It has been a mixed bag of emotions for me. I am SCARED to death!! I have never been so anxious about anything. Well, anything I have absolutely no control over at least. I am so excited too. I was honestly heart broken when I lost the last baby, and wondered how long it would take for us to have another one. I went to the temple just a week or so after I found out, and felt such overwhelming peace while I was there. I know in that logical part of my brain things will be ok. But boy it is hard to not let the other train of thought run away with me. It's amazing how attached you become to the little peanut--whether you like it or not. I swear I have been sicker this time, which is good, and bad. My husband has been so sweet and patient, and my kids have been great to fend for themselves on the days I am not "high-functioning."

So, here we go again. Hopefully things turn out better this time than last. I am sure they will. God is good, and the sun truly does come out tomorrow.