the monkey strikes again!

on sunday we were all getting ready for church and kendall comes over to me and says, "look where your son is..." and this is what i found. he'd climbed onto the bench next to the table and gotten up on the table...presumably to look at himself in the mirror...i'm not sure:)



before that, this is how we found him on the couch...he's like his daddy, he can sleep anywhere, through anything...cause i'm pretty sure that the kids kissed him like 10 times and they were scrambling all over the couch next to him! sweet kids:)

9 weeks...

9 weeks seems like a short amount of time. considering that you start a pregnancy with 40 weeks ahead of you and now we are down to single digit weeks...it seems a little crazy! and i feel like we have much to do. although, i am very happy to say that i was able to go through the kids' rooms, and bookshelves and the toy closet this week and take out probably 5-6 bags of stuff...without much complaint at all! it was fabulous. we make an effort to clean out things before birthdays (which is where we are now) or before Christmas...times when i know there will be an influx of new things coming into the house. and i think the kids are pretty used to it by now. they really didn't protest at all. but i do have a strict rule that they are NOT allowed to take things out of the bag once i put it in. No backsies.

the other accomplishment i was able to get through this week was to go through the boxes of kid clothes and organize them by age/size and get them packed up and labeled. i was very happy about that.

now onto my major list of other things to do: (sometimes if i write it down publicly then it helps me to be motivated...)

**baby bedding (this has been a big obstacle for me...i just didn't have any "inspiration" fabric...except when i got back from UT i kept thinking about this black denim my sister had at her house when i was there and i decided i was foolish to not take any with me and asked her pretty please to send some to me...and she said she would! yahoo! and so now i am onto a black/gray, yellow, green with a little bit of blue color scheme...)

**Need to get Ethan and Avery into their shared/bunk bed room. first phase to do the cleaning out, which i have done, second phase is to find dressers for people...we have one, need one more...then we need to get Avery a mattress. we already have her bedding she picked out at Ross...we should be good to go, hopefully by Ethan's birthday which is scary fast in it's approach.

**ethan's birthday party: a family one on that weekend...then a friend one the next weekend.

**i could go on and on with other sewing projects i want to do...finish the fishing hole project, make some washcloths, make another skirt for me, make a shirt dress (or two) for avery, have craft day at my house next week...it goes on and on...


i digress.....

i love this picture of blake...so funny!


before we left for UT, one of ethan's friends had a birthday party, which was SO MUCH fun, she's into tigers and they had a super fun party! they made a jungle room, netting hung from the ceiling...animals hidden all around, jungle noises...it was great! i made this bag for her (used this tutorial mostly)...and of course, freezer paper stenciled on it! i think it turned out cute:) my model was not super still but it's still cute:)

when your vacuum doesn't work...

it's a good idea to take it apart and find what may be blocking it...


ahem...


i have no comment.

30 weeks and our UT trip...

(this is a SUPER long post and has lots of PICTURES so if you make it to the end, give yourself a chocolate from me!)

today i am 30 weeks! yikes, time flies huh? i always feel a little sentimental at 30 weeks of a pregnancy because i was born at 30 weeks. i didn't have a chance to call my mom today and thank her for all of her bedrest and pain and frustration i am sure she endured around my birth but i think i will tomorrow. i am always so thankful that i have healthy babies, even ones who want to go some days after their due date...to me, that's okay. i would so much rather have my baby be healthy and me be a huge sweaty pregnant girl, than be super early as i was and maybe have issues. i was remarkably issue-free when i was born, but still scary to have someone so little!!!!

and i FINALLY got the pictures off my camera of our UT trip...so here are some!

we celebrated my birthday when i got there, which was so fun!

we also had my sister Amanda and her wonderful kids over for dinner the first Sunday we were there...they are so OLD now, which means i am OLD! i did just have a birthday but i changed all these kids diapers at one time or another and bathed them etc. Geoff is in college, Courtney is headed that way (and SOOOOO pretty!) and Mike is doing awesome in high school...wow...amazing.

my sisters, beautiful ladies, with Theo who just turned one and is super cute (and looks, a bit, like Blake, we think)

the younger set of cousins, wow, these kids had SUCH a great time together and they actually let Blake play with them really well too! My sister Erin gave Ethan some awesome How to Train your Dragon PJs and then found some she had for Avery too, so this foursome lived in those pajamas for the first two days we were together...and they let Blake be the dragon-slayer! he loved it!


these boys are approximately one pound different in weight (Theo 26lbs., Blake 25lbs.) and just about the same height. the age difference is 6 months


heading into the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point...

a cool part of the exhibit...you can "build your own dinosaur"


the whole crew at the dinosaur museum...

plus Theo

they had a cool sandy area where you could "discover" bones and things...Dellah is demonstrating in this picture


one of the days we were there, as previously mentioned, Blake and I went shopping with my sister Erin to NPS and Tai Pan Trading (very fun) and Kendall took Ethan and Avery to Temple Square in Salt Lake to see some sights. They got to ride the TRAX system to Temple Square, they loved the trains!



(i'm really not sure how she fit herself in that dog house!)

One of the days we were there we took the kids to BYU. We went in the HBLL (Harold B. Lee Library) and showed them how part of it was underground, which they thought was cool. We saw the planetarium and other really cool things in the Eyring Science Center. Our little scientists LOVED all the cool experiments you could participate in at that building.

Air cannon on the stair landing, you can aim it down below you and when you hit the end with the leather stretched over it, a very directed "whoosh" of air would come out the other end at the person you aimed at. pretty cool

optical illusion of a dollar bill

we got to visit with Kendall's uncle Scott (sorry Scott, i didn't get pictures that day!) and his aunt Sandy...here's a new picture so they can replace the old one on the fridge! Blake was in rare form, doing his "funny face" for us and being really cute in general.



we also went to Heritage Park, which is huge and is home to the "This is the Place" monument as well as others, and a petting zoo (the kids FAVORITE thing), panning for gold, and pony rides...that was a big hit!





we also went to the awesome Dimple Dell pool...(no pics) the first time our kids have been in an indoor pool, i think. they had an awesome play structure in the shallow end of the pool that was spouting water out of every hole it could, it was very cool. They also have a small lazy river, which Avery got sucked into a little bit and had to be rescued by me...she refers to it as when she drowned. no pictures of that though.

we celebrated Miss Dellah's 7th birthday! we have such wonderful cousins and i am so glad we had the opportunity to spend time with my family on this trip. Mom and dad were great, Blake immediately started following my dad around and he would wander around and look for my mom all the time if he couldn't find her. A great time was had by all! Thanks Utah family for having us to stay! let's do it again soon!

we were gone...

and now we are back...betcha didn't even miss us!

i am avoiding downloading my pictures off my camera...i'm not sure why but i am...i guess i don't want to admit that the trip is over...it was a really great time in Utah with my family. i really enjoyed myself.

i had a birthday

we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point

we went to Dimple Dell indoor pool

i went to the Salt Lake Temple with Kendall

we played with cousins (of all varieties...old and young:))

i got to go to the infamous Tai Pan Trading and NPS stores and they were AWESOME!

we went to Heritage Park and did all the fun things there (pony rides, petting zoo of sorts, old timey store, saw This is the Place monument among others, lots of walking, train ride...etc)

kids got to go to Temple Square with Kendall while i shopped.

really we had such a great time, we did all that and more, eating out, eating in, visiting aunt sandy and uncle scott and their awesome kids....

pictures to come of awesomeness

just not today. i am feeling very self actualized because i got the car washed yesterday, and today vacuumed it out and cleaned the windows inside and out....i am nesting, what can i say?