seven

(that's ethan)

it's a well known fact, at least to me, that kendall never reads this blog and really...that' s fine. but yesterday was our seven year anniversary and i am going to say something about it here.

i couldn't ask for a better companion to spend my time with, to have cute kids with, to raise said children with...to have fun with, be happy with or go through trials with.

for many years (we met when i was 15 and he was 16) kendall has been my best friend and continues to be. he is a rock. he works hard. all the time. he is an excellent person in my mind and i really couldn't ask for more. (which also happens to be "our song"..."i could not ask for more" by edwin mccain)

thank you honey for being so involved in our family life and for being the best husband to me and father to our children that i could ask for. i love you a million times over and i am so happy we get to spend our time together.

merry christmas!!!!!!

we wish you all a very merry christmas, happy holidays and lots of love!!!! blake was helping us hold the ornaments when we decorated:) happy christmas to you all!

love,

us crazies:)

still here...

we are still here. we are getting ready for a visit from my mom and dad, they arrive tomorrow, which i am very excited about! the kids are doing well...avery is...well avery is having a rough time of late, she's got a bad cough and it makes her frustrated and keeps her from resting and makes her REALLY grumpy so we are dealing with that. ethan is doing well and blake is as well. we are all adjusting and that makes mom happy.

some pictures from lately...i haven't taken a lot of pics of blake..yikes third child syndrome, but our batteries just got charged so i'm gonna be better now...

ethan made a pilgrim costume at preschool....

aunt elise cutting avery's hair...

the way we found ethan one night around 11 pm. taken with a flash...funny boy:)

Give Thanks...

we are so thankful for all we have and for all our friends and family!

we wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

more pictures of blake...

sorry to not have posted this sooner but i just love all the pictures that my talented friend alacey took of blake a couple of weeks ago! they are so cute and i am so happy she was able to fit us in her busy busy schedule!

i saw it...

and i liked it a lot!!! so much better than the first i thought. and my requirement for the wolves being AWESOME was totally fulfilled. i was so happy about that. because seriously, if you have the opportunity to have horse-sized, awesome wolves in a movie and you DON'T do it up right...what kind of silly person are you????? but i thought it was done well, the volturi were good, dakota fanning kind of scary, red contacts done well, jasper still weird, hair to poofy, bella and edward still don't smile enough for me but this one is definitely more of a depressing story line than the first so that might be expected...all in all, a good flick i thought.

conversation...

avery is in love with fruit snacks. she is addicted to them. for the sake of this little conversation, she usually has one package a day sometimes two...

yesterday:

a: "can i have fruit snack?"

me: "avery, you've already had two fruit snacks today."

a: "i want three!"

seriously??? amazing:) i am amazed everyday.

pictures of blake

taken by the lovely and talented alacey! these are just a sneak peek! so cute, if i do say so myself:)

adjustments...

i forgot how many newborn diapers you change in one day...i still don't have a hard number, it's a lot:)

i forgot what it's like to have a 2 year old adjusting to not being the youngest anymore. avery has certainly hit her stride as far as "terrible twos" go and adjusting to blake on top of that seems to be proving difficult for her. let us hope she can get by on her cuteness for a while...i think she will:)

ethan is not having as much trouble but some. yesterday was avery's day to be hideous, today seems to be ethan's...at least they are switching off.

blake is a good baby. he eats well, he sleeps well (i didn't just type that, please don't jinx myself!!!) and he sure is cute! we will have some cute pictures (like all of them aren't cute but you know) after tomorrow because our good friend alacey is going to take some newborn shots of him, i'll share when i have them:)

on the whole we are doing well. just doing the normal adjustment and of course sometimes i act as the human waterspout because my hormones are CRAZY and i laugh and cry at the same time sometimes. confuses the kids a lot:)

take a deep breath....

my mom just left today. it's always a little sad when mom leaves. then it means i'm the only mom here! but we are doing well. thanks so much for coming mom!!! we love you! ethan just couldn't understand why nana sharon couldn't stay longer...we love you tons!!!!!

we are home...

the kids met blake for the first time today and it seemed to go well. here's to a good tomorrow too:)

blake's delivery went really well. i was induced on halloween and it went quickly, which i was grateful for! he was born at 3:15 pm and i have felt really good. this is by far the best i've felt after a birth so i am very happy with that. and only 3 pushes!!! yahoo!!!! we are just settling back in and enjoying our little man...he's still so sleepy:) the kids are trying their hardest not to maul him, they like him so much. it's very sweet. onward and upward!

due date....

so today is blake's due date.....hello due date. nice to have finally made it.


now what???

:::UPDATE:::

i am scheduled to be induced on Saturday (Halloween! EEK!) at 7:30 am if little man doesn't come before that...yahoo!

pumpkin patch...

we went to Mother Nature's Farm that is just down the road from us last night to find some pumpkins...it was lots of fun. avery and ethan had a great time climbing the hay and pumpkin mountains and trying to find a pumpkin too big for daddy to carry!


we think my stomach is just the right size for the $10 pumpkin slot....what do you think?

ward trunk or treat...

in an effort to say that we MIGHT be otherwise engaged on halloween....here are pictures from our ward trunk or treat that we had on saturday...it was lots of fun and the kids had a great time at all the carnival games and with the actual trunk or treating. i think the costumes turned out pretty good...


{on the podium for the costume contest}


{the trunk}



{let this serve as my 39 week and 2 day picture}



{all the incredibles}

heartburn....

heartburn is something that has been a constant part of this pregnancy pretty much. really, from VERY early on i had a lot of heartburn and now at the end, it is pretty much with everything and anything i eat. it varies by the day, though. today was an auspicious day...i finished the huge bottle of generic tums from walmart that i bought at the beginning:)


kendall and his dad took the kids to the fair last night, which ethan has been talking about since we went last year...seriously! the kid has a memory like no one else i have ever met! amazing. but they had a super great time it sounded like. here are a couple of pictures from their excursion..

doctors...

why is it that with each of my pregnancies my doctor goes out of town during the last two weeks???? my doctor this time was just gone a few weeks ago and then at my appointment today i learned he's going to be gone next week as well! next week people! ethan's doctor in utah had to come back from boy scout camp to deliver him! he looked like a moutain man...full beard! so in an effort to speed things a long this week the doctor stripped my membranes...that did not feel good! i'm 90% effaced, at a 3 and his head is very low (which i could have told you just from walking around:)) so we'll see if this gets things going here...my mom is going to fly in tonight so she can be here...the doctor said if i hadn't had him by thursday then i could go back in and they would do the membrane thing again. so now i feel even MORE like a walking time bomb and am a little scared of my water breaking in public! yikes...has that ever happened to you? interesting...so we shall see what transpires....

are you ready???

i am getting this question a lot lately...are you ready for this baby to come out? frankly, probably not. materially we'll be fine, but how do you ever prepare for someone totally new to come to your family and be TOTALLY NEW???? lest we forget, babies have to learn to eat, poop, sleep and eventually smile and the learning is fun but it is sometimes hard and you help them do it all on very little sleep. that being said, i am way excited. i am excited to see what he looks like, does he look like his daddy, because the other two kids definitely favor that way...does he look like me? he has my "second-toe-is-longer-than-the-first" thing going on...what else??? i am excited to see how the kids respond to him. i am excited to see my toes again:) and while waiting for baby to come it's like BAM! one day you are doing your normal thing and the next, life has changed again, and always for the better. babies are nothing but happiness really, what a blessing it is to be able to have a baby, a new baby in our family. i am grateful for all that entails and i am so happy to be a mom. the "blake countdown" says 15 days today...we shall see when he decides to make his entrance. just know little man...we are as "ready" as we can be:)

featured...

hey look who did a little phone interview!

awwww...cute:) it was my first time doing something like that, kind of fun:)

check it out here

we've got a lawyer!!!!

it's official!!!!

kendall passed the bar exam! yahoo! way to go kendall!

if you care to see the press release...it's here

banner giveaway...

i love this banner! i want to win it!

halloween wreath...

so i got an itch to make a halloween decoration this weekend and i made this wreath:


i don't know why i got so fixated on the "rag wreath" kind of look, but i did and i liked how it turned out. the "form" for the wreath is actual a 14 inch embroidery hoop that i found at DI for $1.00! i just need to find my wreath hanger that i already have and then hang it on the front door:) it took a bit to tie all the fabric to it, but not THAT long...

****i forgot to mention that the sign is from the dollar store! so the whole project ended up costing about $5.*****


as a side note, it's 9:28 am on tuesday i feel like i have been up FOREVER already! whew!

TA DA!!!

okay, let's remember what the chairs and table used to look like:



and after a couple of weeks of sitting on the back patio...here they are now...i took these pictures at night, so they aren't the best light.





the stencil on the table and chairs is actually paper doilies that i pressed into service as a stencil:) it worked well i think. i like how they turned out. i also like that the placement of the stencil isn't the same on each chair. makes it kind of interesting:) whew! so now we can actually start enjoying them! yahoo!

also, today avery and i happened upon the goodwill while waiting for ethan
at preschool and they had these beauties...$9.99 EACH! come one people, and they match our cabinets! awesome!

my finger....

this is my finger after a first washing. can you guess what i've been doing this morning? it really is cooler today, so i am glad. i really want to get this project finished up! so that's a sneak peak at the colors....i'll leave you in suspense, hopefully, only a little longer.

patience is a virtue...

that the weather is trying to teach me, apparently....

today's high: 99 degrees
sat high: 106
sun high: 105
mon high: 105
tues high: 101

and then after that it's in the lower 90's.

someone remind me not to have any other children in the summer okay??? seriously.


i went outside with the intent to get at least one coat of paint on the chairs and lasted for only ONE chair and one coat of paint! i was sweating after only that! lame. don't worry girls that i am seeing tonight, i'm gonna take another shower:)

(**all temperatures according to weather.com)

update...

we got the table and the other two chairs primed yesterday...whew. now, on to the paint!

thus begins our painting adventure...

ethan LOVES to paint, i mean loves it. doesn't matter what it is, on paper, furniture whatever. so i knew he'd be into it. i stripped them both down to underwear/diaper respectively, and out we went. i gave them a pretty stern talking to beforehand, and although avery did rub paint on her leg, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. we got two of the chairs primed and then avery was very done with the experience. ethan, of course, wanted to do more and when he woke up from his nap, wanted to start in on the table....since today was a two bath day for them already, i thought we'd wait to do more until tomorrow:) ethan was actually a HUGE help and did a really great job! i was very proud of him! he is quite a good helper:) i love those kids! even though i think i said, "avery you have WAY too much paint on your brush, hang on!" and "avery, stay way from the house with your brush!" about a million times! she's two people, it was a good accomplishment overall! and so it begins. i'm giving myself a week to get it done. i'll let you know...

FOUND!!!

okay, so anyone who has ventured around me lately has come away with an earful of my woes about finding a round table for our "breakfast nook" or whatever the space is called that i have right now that is empty between the kitchen and living room. i have gone to SOOOOOOO many thrift stores it's amazing. i usually do a few in one outing, i don't want to string it out. so one day,for example, while ethan was at preschool, avery and i went to the goodwill by our old house, the saver's, a salvation army and the goodwill by our new house. then we went to big lots. all in all, over the past 2-3 weeks i have been in probably 12-13 thrift stores, multiple times, trying, in vain to find a table. and i have been searching craigslist about 19 million times a day. a week or so ago i found two chairs that i really liked at the goodwill by our house. they are barrel shaped and green. {$6.99 each}


obviously a fixer upper project but i really like those kind of projects so i was fine with them. then we spend another couple of weeks trying to find 2 more chairs and the all important table...i wanted a round one for our space we have, i thought it would use the space better than a rectangle one. i was even up for a square near the end...but alas, no. i just wanted it to be structurally good...cosmetically i could deal with whatever you know?

then yesterday the kids and i ventured out again to more thrift stores. this time we went tempe way. we went to a saver's and two goodwills and at the last goodwill we found...a table! i think i just stood there in front of it for a minute or two (it had a bunch of stuff on top of it so i wasn't sure what i was seeing) and marveled. i took all the stuff off of it and made sure the top wasn't damaged and that it was sound...and it was. and how much was it???? $20. amazing. then we also found some chairs at that same store for $7.99 a piece. wow. and just like that, the search for a table is over.


now the search for the right colors of paint begin. i will definitely keep you updated as to the "after" of this project. now on to find a dresser for blake....

and as to my motivation post a few days ago...i decided today to use a nursing cover that i made and really liked for my shop, it's gray with tiny orange and light blue shapes that make circles, and i finished a sling for myself from fabric i already had to go in the shop as well. it's nice to have that stuff on hand so i don't have to run out and find things i like...i already have a locker full of things i like:):) so just the quiet books are left on that list...but as we just saw in this post, this week is all about the table and chairs, baby!

reusable grocery bags....

i want to win this pattern from Puking Pastilles! so cool!

this is september 16th in Arizona...

kendall's lovely mom gave us a little green swimming pool and little blue pool/sandbox yesterday that came from the preschool class at the school she works at and the kids wanted to swim in it right then of course, but we compromised for doing it today. mid september and it's still so warm...we swim:) although this is a first for me, i am watching them do this activity from inside the house, through our sliding glass door...ahhhhhh...that's nice:) don't have to be so hot outside:) gotta love arizona heat....and thank you nana!!! (yes we need to cut the grass....)

motivation...

in an effort to motivate myself i am going to write down the stuff i want/need to sew before baby blake gets here.

**fix bumper pads: CHECK (and i actually didn't swear...but i thought about it:))
**make myself a new sling: CHECK
**make myself a new nursing cover: CHECK
**hem flannel for swaddle blankets: CHECK (4 40"x40" blankets)
**burp cloths for little man: CHECK (set of 8 done)
**make e and a quiet books...i just think these would be fun! if i don't get to them before blake then by Christmas i hope!

it might look like a long list but honestly, the amount of time it takes to do these things is nominal, i just need to motivate myself but right now i need a nap:)

give a boy a camera....

and you end up with lots of blurry shots of the carpet and couch but some are really cute...and he gets a kick out of being able to use the camera and take actual pictures:) thank goodness for digital huh? can you imagine if we still had to use a film camera!






we are getting more and more settled i feel like. i just put up blake's crib (i.e. ethan's crib, which was avery's crib...you get the picture:)) we don't have a matress for it yet but i put the bedding on it just to see what it looked like...didn't take a picture yet though because...i neglected to remember that the bumper side pattern is longer than my crib is and i didn't measure it this time like i did before because the crib wasn't up in the house as it was before...so now i have to alter the long side bumpers...bummer. but then it will be all good:):)

we had avery's birthday party in august and i never posted pictures as far as i can remember because right after that we were packing and moving...so here are some of those:)she had a great time, thanks to all our family that was able to be there for that! i love making the cupcake in the cone for a second birthday party, it's easy and the kids get a kick out of it as well:)





here's me...at around 32 weeks. looking more and more like that planet juno....

{oh how i need a haircut...SIL elise is going to take care of that on thursday i think, thank heavens for that!}


i think the cricket finally moved on from behind our dishwasher, happy day!
and just for kicks here is papa jerry doing his best impression of me:)

not really but he did pretend the swallow the balloon and avery and ethan were getting lots of fun out of that!