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?

random pictures...

it feels like there is a lot going on and not much all at the same time...do you ever feel that way? we are getting ready to go on a trip...all the daily stuff still has to be done...don't want to go to the grocery store because we'll be leaving soon so meals are getting interesting...i feel like i want to sew but get way tired at night so the list gets longer...you know the drill...

ethan found part of a bird egg outside one day...i wonder if it was from one of the birds from the nest in our tree...

blake fell asleep in the car today...i thought bringing him in and laying him on the ground might help him wake up...uh...apparently not! bless the third child (and the fourth!)

as a younger person, i collected a lot of things...stickers being one of them. the kids found some of the stickers one day and in the box with them were blank bookmarks...so a decorating of bookmarks party ensued. my favorite part is that blake is sitting right in the middle of it all! cuties.

every time i am having a baby it is during the summer (in AZ people, come on! what bad planning huh?) and every time i say to myself and out loud that THIS pregnancy needs to be a "skirt pregnancy" well this time, it totally is! i found this tutorial and i made one up this last week, i love it! it's comfortable and i think it will be very nice after the un-named baby is here as well! this knit has a silvery thread running through it, i am kind of in love with it! i got the fabric at SAS in Tempe...cheap and good!

it has a soft waistband (i have a skirt from target made in this same vein and i was wanting to make one like it and so i was SO happy when i saw this tutorial! awesome!) don't mind the trashcan...i'm just keeping it real here folks!

this baby has hardly any belly shots so i thought i'd take one at 27 weeks...

more freezer paper stenciling..

it is a sickness!!! i can't seem to stop...although i might stop for a bit now so i can get some other things done:)

here is avery's shirt, i finished ethan and little man's shirt a while ago (didn't realize i hadn't taken a picture of those yet...they all have a "monster" initial on them. i used the font kingthings lupine size about 400 or 500 depending on the size of shirt) and avery reminded me the other day that i hadn't done hers yet...so i did it last night! and she wore it today...how's that for instant gratification?

this pillow used to have pink hearts sewn in lines down the front...and over time the hearts curled in on them selves and i didn't like how it looked anymore. i didn't want to go and sew each heart down individually again so i unpicked the stitching and went to town with the fabric paint again!



and nothing says springy/summery goodness to me like vibrant bunting so i made some for the lockers and i just love it:)


i got to use my new favorite metal eyelets and i used those command removable hooks. i might be in love with those too...depends on if they come off just as easy as the commercials say they do:)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I hope all you wonderful, hard working mothers out there have an awesome day! Happy Mother's Day!

Projects...

per Rachel's request, i believe, here are some of the things i mentioned i was working on before...i figure i'm safe enough to post them now, most of the gifts are given or will be very soon....

For Ethan's teacher, for Teacher Appreciation Week, we made this little sack of goodness...the bag topper was from 30 days, shared on Skip to My Lou i just had to go with a pink bag as well, so bright and fun. inside we put some highlighters (to go with the "bright" theme), a gift card to Dairy Queen (who doesn't love ice cream?), and the wrapped little box is a box of Jiffy mix for chocolate muffins, one of our favorite treats with a handful of chocolate chips mixed in...makes only about 6 which is perfect for not overeating them. The gift card little holder i made, saw some inspiration from Martha and decided to give it a go...turned out well i think.

back (above) front (below)

For my just-turned-one-nephew, Theo, i made some freezer paper stenciled shirts...i can't help it! they are so fun and easy to make and i just love the results! so here are the two i made for him...hope he enjoys them:)

For Mother's Day there were many ideas chasing around in my head, but what i settled on was (a few things); starting with some of this great sugar scrub , my jars are Ikea spice jars (4 for $4), and i got the "flavoring" at hobby lobby. the ones i made for Mother's Day happen to be grapefruit.

i took this picture of the kids and framed it in some great distressed black frames i found at Big Lots.

i wrapped up some more Jiffy muffin mixes (i just can't get enough chocolate muffins).

and i tried making some quilted notecards, to use up some of my endless fabric scraps...it was a fun, quick project and i actually loved the small composition of each card... i will definitely be making more! the idea for those came from MADE ...i just want to make up bunches of them and have them on hand to give as little gifts..i know i would love to use them myself, perhaps others would as well! (don't be surprised if you receive some in the near future!)

is that all? seems like there had to be more...but i think that's it for the projects, for now.....

while i was at Big Lots (love that store!) getting frames, i found this set of notecards and envelopes...

but it had no price tag. so i took it up front and had them try to find a price, they couldn't, apparently it was the last of it's kind, so the guy let me buy it for $.50! awesome! and all the envelopes and cards were there so it was perfect for $.50. i love it when stuff like that happens!

wow...

(unrelated picture...he fell asleep one day like that! so funny!)

i think i was so focused on easter for a while there that mother's day is totally creeping up on me this year! yikes! i have wild half-formed ideas/thoughts in my mind...wonder what will actually get done:)

right now, my kitchen looks like it blew up (i'll spare you the photo...) i have a project for my one year old (today!) nephew, a teacher gift for ethan's preschool teacher that is half done, the remnants of painting by avery and me...half of mother's day presents for some people strewn across another counter...it's a fun day:)

i just need some concentrated time to pull it all together...hmmm...maybe tonight?

egg hunting...

we had a couple of easter egg hunts...one with our ward, super fun at the park and the other was at our beloved nana and papa's house, but inside because the threat that one or more of them would jump in the pool was great! so i only have pics of the outdoor one. blake loved it but as with his siblings before him, he would get an egg, shake it, and try to open it right then, if it opened, he would want to eat the candy, if not then he would find another egg! that boy has a SWEET tooth, man! i had to put everything Easter away today, if the candy is out, he is "asking" for it (and by that i mean pointing and making "uh uh uhhhhhh" noises) ALL. DAY. LONG.

ethan and avery had a great time with the egg hunts too, ethan was very meticulous to count up to the number we told him he could have and then stop...and then try to make others stop so that no one would have more than anyone else...what a kid he is! Avery was all about getting all she could and i wonder if she has x-ray vision because she got the MOST marshmallows, which are her favorite!