An Afternoon out

I took advantage of Leah's doctor's appointment this afternoon and turned it into a Mommy/daughter date. I had a sitter for Brandon anyway since the appointment overlapped with his naptime, so it worked out perfectly. I asked Leah what she wanted to do after her appointment and of course she said "GO TO SUBMARINA". She always picks the same place. I don't mind though. It's one of my favorites too. So off we went. For some reason, we always play eye spy while we eat. So we did a little of that, ate our food, and then headed over to "The Cupcake Tree" for a sweet treat afterwards. I think she had fun, but she did tell me that NEXT mommy/daughter date she wants to go out at night. Funny girl!

A little drink.

A little sandwich.

Makes for one happy Leah.

Matchy, Matchy

Apparently, I am not the only person in this Valley to shop at Kohl's.

This is Ashlyn's good friend Lourdes. They were in class together last year also, but never sat by each other, and thus never got to know each other. This year they are right next to each other and have become really good friends over the last month or so. I'm glad because Lourdes is a good little girl, and there don't seem to be too many of those types around anymore.

Anyway, they have figured out that they have about two or three shirts in common. So they plan to wear them on the same day. Today was the first day they both remembered to wear the correctly matching shirt. And I got lucky and happen to be in Ashlyn's class this morning helping out the teacher. So I snapped a quick photo before the girls ran off to recess together.

Cute huh!

Just for fun

Nothing spectacular going on the last few days. We spent most of Saturday trying to clean up and organize the house. We're in the process of refinancing (rates are real good right now), and we have our appraiser coming on Monday. So we thought the house should look a little more presentable and not like 3 crazy kids live here. Haha...Ashlyn mostly entertained herself by coloring and doing crafts. She's not always much into manual labor. However, she did have fun organizing all of her little hair ties, barrettes and bows. I was quite impressed with that. Leah was a good little helper and loved helping us get our food storage and toy closet reorganized(my camera battery died, so I didn't get a picture of that). Brandon....well, he's two and he pretty much just got in the way. Poor boy. We got most of our work done while he was napping.

Speaking of sleeping. Sometimes it's just fun to take a picture of your kids asleep. So that's what I did. Ashlyn always covers up as much of her body as possible and bundles up into a little ball. Leah is a back sleeper and always has her arms spread apart. They also always fall asleep with the light completely on. It's on a dimmer, so I just turn it down on my way to bed. As long as they are already asleep, they are fine with it.

Enough?

I got all of Brandon's old clothes out recently. To wash them up for the new little guy coming to live with us here pretty soon. Lucky for me that I even saved them. Because for some reason I had NO problem giving away all my girls clothes. But felt compelled to keep most of my boy clothes. Weird, but I'm very grateful I did. We'll call it a "tender mercy" because it would have cost a lot of money to replace them .

Anyway, this is what I have in the 0-3 and 3-6 month department. Awesome huh! And while I am extremely grateful for all my many wonderful friends who have offered to give me a baby shower, this is why I don't really need one. I honestly can't think of anything that I need for this little guy. Now I'm sure things will come up, but being that Carter (that's his name in case you didn't know) is gonna be my second boy in a row, I think I'm pretty set. Having said that, I do have NO problem accepting meals after he gets here. haha... Because if you know my sweet and wonderful husband at all, he's great in just about every department, except the cooking department. Although he's getting better at boiling water. Haha....sorry honey (had to throw in that inside joke).

I did, however, feel that our little guy needed a new outfit to come home from the hospital in. So I picked this up from Target one day. Super cute huh!

BUT then a few days later, my awesome friend Brooke gave me this! It's way cooler of a coming home outfit huh! I love it and I know Brandon will too. And hopefully it will help him like having this little guy around. (He's kind of a momma's boy and I'm a little nervous how he's gonna take having to further share me.)

On my own this time

Yesterday was a "furlough" (aka-state budget cut) day for Ashlyn. So I took the opportunity to take the kids to Disneyland. I waited to leave until Leah got out of preschool. I am paying for that afterall, and didn't really want her to miss it just for Disney. Plus, I figured if we went a little later, Brandon would nap on the way down, and then we'd stay until after traffic lifted a bit.

So we got to Disney a little after 1pm and I prepared myself for a long walk into the park. I never take the tram because that means I would have to unload my stroller, fold it up, and then reload it, and that's just not gonna happen if I'm by myself with three kids. But then I noticed in the back row of the tram, they were letting people on without folding up their strollers. So I asked an employee about it and sure enough, if you get in the right line, you just have to take your kids out, not all your stuff. PERFECT! So that started off my day. Not too bad. Once in the park, we headed straight for "Buzz Lightyear" thinking the line would be LONG. But it wasn't. Then we got on "It's a Small World". Another short line. Then we headed over to the "teacups". ANOTHER short line. Seriously. It was awesome. After that, we hit "Alice in Wonderland", which we NEVER get to go on because it's always an hour wait. But it was only about 20 minutes or so. We also got on "Peter Pan" (another ride with a usual hour long wait). Things were going well. The kids were a little restless in the lines, but nothing I couldn't handle.

We went on a couple more rides, and then were finally able to meet up with some friends that I had been playing "texting tag" with all day. She was their with her hubby and kids, so it was better that I wasn't a third wheel all day anyway. Once we met up, it was about dinner time, so we headed to get something to eat. THAT'S when things started going downhill. The kids were getting pretty darn tired and hungry. We got to our table, got our drinks and appetizer, and the fire alarms went off. They made everyone leave. The place became a madhouse, the kids didn't understand, and some major mayhem broke out. (Between Leah and Brandon that is.) Brandon grabbed Leah's chocolate milk she had taken with her. Leah tried to get it back. We were RIGHT in the middle of the sidewalk. And as if that's not the worst of it, I run into another friend who was with her family. She starts trying to help me, but Brandon ended up spilling the milk all over himself and the ground. Now he HATES to be wet, so he freaked out. My friends went on and kept walking. I moved out of the way and Brandon was crying so bad, he throws up. (I'm laughing as I'm typing this at the craziness of it all.) I got him cleaned up as best as possible and then wonderful Becky proceeded to entertain my children and hers while we waited to get our table back. Thank you Becky, for saving the day! As we finished our dinner, almost, the fire alarms went off again. So this time we just left. By the time we got to our car it was after 8pm. I was beat, but glad for the fun hours we had BEFORE the dinner fiasco.

And yes, I suppose I am crazy enough to try and go one more time before I have this little baby and our passes expire. We, unfortunately, will not be renewing them for at least a couple more years, so I really feel like this is my last chance. We will miss you Disneyland. I may have had some hard times visiting you, but I've had a lot of good times too. And hopefully the kids will remember some of those (good times that is).

The one and only shot of me.

On the Jungle Cruise. The kids LOVE this ride.

Well, the girls do. Brandon was getting pretty tired by this point.

The guy told Leah to duck from the tiger that was going to jump over our heads. She took him seriously. Then he turned sharp and she fell off her seat. Poor thing. Dumb announcer guy. He didn't even stop to ask her if she was okay.

This is just a fun shot of Hyrum snatching some french fries from the table after we got kicked out the first time. Yes, we were all hungry.

And for your viewing enjoyment. The tail end of "little bunny foo foo" as performed by the famous Becky!

And then a short clip of my favorite part of "It's a Small World". Just for fun!

32 Weeks down

...8 more to go. Thought I'd post a picture for memories sake. I went to see my doctor a couple of days ago. Had a short ultrasound (as usual). Baby has never given us a great photo of himself. This past time he had his arms up in front of his face. Plus, his head is low, so it's hard to get a face shot anyway. So, alas, you have to just get a picture of me. He's doing well though. Growing quite well (almost 4 pounds), has good amounts of fluid around him (I had low fluid with Brandon), and I haven't been having contractions. Hooray! Since this was the point I went on bedrest with Leah, and the point that Ashlyn started to show signs of slowing down in her growth, I have deemed this my most problem free pregnancy.

So since he is already about 4 pounds and is gaining about a 1/2 of a pound a week at this point, this little boy could potentially be an 8 or more pound baby(my biggest for sure). That is assuming I actually make it to my due date. That would be a first for me too. I'm still feeling torn between wanting him here early and wanting him to actually come IN November. Especially since Halloween is just 6 days before my due date. I would hate to miss Halloween with my kids, but by that point, will I really be up for a big ole Halloween Bash? I doubt it. But, I guess we will just have to wait and see. Lucky for me, my doctor is not opposed to inducing me a bit early.

Because I'm so Proud

A few weeks ago, my friend Jenn posted her nicely organized cupboard full of craft, art, and school supplies ready and available for her kids to use. I fell in love and decided it was HIGH time I did the same thing to our cupboard. Especially since I just kind of dumped everything in ours when we moved in, with the "intention" of getting around to organizing it soon after moving in. WELL, that was 1 1/2 years ago, so this was long over due. It took me all day and pretty much wiped me of energy for the next day (remember I'm almost 8 months pregnant), but I did it. And I love it, so I have to gloat....just a little bit.

Ashlyn and Leah's homework folders.

Leah's important papers wall.

Ashlyn's important papers wall.

This is the top cupboard that I should have taken a "before" picture of because it was just a mess. Things were stuffed everywhere and the kids couldn't get anything by themselves, without half the cupboard falling out on them.

The bottom cupboard, which use to be full of food storage. But now the food storage has been moved to an upstairs cupboard so that the kids can easily reach their games. And you know the best part? Yesterday after church, the girls came home, ate lunch, and then got out three games and played together for close to an hour.

And the craziest part was that with the exception of the playdough, all this stuff was jammed into the top cupboard. Yeah, I would say that is pretty bad. I'm so happy with how it turned out and I find myself going over to look at it from time to time just to admire it. Silly, I know.

Pregnant Barbie

Can you tell from the picture? Look closely. Leah made her barbie "pregnant" by stuffing an outfit up her dress. Hilarious!

Shows what's on her little mind lately, huh!