Thanksgiving

We were able to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with our friends from residency, Britt and
Barron. They cooked a wonderful dinner and it was great to see them and their beautiful house. The kids all played together really well which was a nice bonus. Then on Friday Britt and I did some shopping while the boys took all the kids to the Science Center....just imagine two men and five kids! Way to go guys!

New Bed

This one all started when we went to Hilton Head this past year. We stayed at the Westin Hotel and I fell in love with their "Heavenly Beds" (yes that's what they are called). It was the first time that I've actually looked forward to coming in from the beach to rest on my mattress.....seriously! After inquiring at the front desk about who the mattress maker was, I found out that you could order the mattress' online at the Westin website.
The mattress we have now is who-knows how old and is terrible! I wake up every morning with back pains and Justin has been sleeping the past little while on the new couch which he claims is better than the bed. So a couple weeks ago I woke up, looked him in the eyes and said "I'm ordering a new mattress....today!".
And here it is! My very own king sized Heavenly Bed arrived this morning after weeks of much anticipation! We'll be sleeping in luxury tonight!!!!

Hiking

Last weekend we went to a local state park for a picnic and hike. The kids LOVED playing in all the leaves! We collected acorns along the hiking trail and posed for pictures along the river. Here is Anna momentarily stopping from all her rolling in the leaves to have her picture taken.

The kids wrestling in the leaves. Luckily there were so many leaves that it provided a nice cushioning so no one got hurt.

Posing along the river for a quick pic. Yes, my face has already fattened up from the pregnancy. (I go in Monday to the dietican to start my gestational diabetes diet.....ugh!!!!)

And here is Cameron throwing a MAJOR crying fit becuase he wanted to go swimming in the river. I'm not quite sure why he thought we would be swimming. We even had him feel the water to see how cold it was but he didn't care. We literally had to drag him away screaming.

Halloween

Our Butterfly and Frankenstein getting ready to go trick-or-treating. Justin took the kids out while I stayed home and passed out candy. It was a beautiful night and I sat outside and waited for the kids to come.




Justin dressed as a pirate this halloween. As you can see only Anna is posing with him. We put black eye make-up around Justin's eyes and Cameron refused to go near him, saying he was "scary". So no group picture this year.

Here is a photo from the pumpkin patch we went to last weekend. The kids had a blast and they had lots of fun things to do. We decided to forgo individual pumpkins this year and got a big (70 pound) family pumpkin. That meant a lot less carving on our end!

Here's Justin getting ready to "prep" the pumpkin and very appropriately still in his scrubs from work. Surprisingly the pumpkin had very few seeds inside.

And yes, the surgeon needed TWO large knives to cut the top off the pumpkin. Why? I have no idea. I was just glad he didn't cut off his fingers!

Excuses

There is a good reason as to why it's taken me a whole MONTH to update our family blog. Well here it is.......baby number 3! Now I know that's not really an excuse, but the daily sickness and nausea definetly is!!

I am starting to slowly get better and can now sit down for dinner with the family (which is still consisting of frozen foods). However my energy level is still down and any sort of vigorous activity makes me want to throw-up.

My daily running routine has turned into weekly yoga and pilates classes. The kids' new favorite activity is watching tv in mom and dad's room while mom takes a nap on the bed. The house we bought for the fantastic kitchen has yet to be used and the highlight of my weekend is when Justin takes the kids out to dinner and I get some quiet rest time alone.

I'm around 14 weeks along now (I'm never good at keeping track) and I know that soon the sickness will be gone. Yeah!! So baby will be due sometime in April.

The OB I go too does these 3D ultrasounds which were pretty cool and I didn't get with my first two kids. So I posted a picture of what the little tadpole looks like.

Anna is hoping for a girl, Cameron wants a boy, Justin doesn't care, and of course I have an opinion on what I want; but have always gotten the oposite. After a recent tragedy I've definetly changed my thinking to wanting a healthy child and whatever comes will be loved.

So here's to baby number 3 and I promise to start posting more regularly.

OSU/USC Game

Justin flew out to LA this weekend to go to the big OSU vs. USC game. He met my brother-in-law Eric (who is a huge USC fan) out there and they teamed up for the game. One doning the scarlet and gray buckeye gear the other decked out in his USC Trojans. They probably looked quite the couple. They went to ESPN game day where their photos made it onto the ESPN web page (photos to come on our blog). Then they did a bit of tailgating before the big game. Unfortunatly OSU got trampled over, but Justin still had fun and came home with a smile on his face. He's already talking about next years OSU/USC match-up game and Ohio States come back. Let's just get through this season first!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a nice Labor Day weekend hanging out as a family.


We tarted out by going to a baseball game on Saturday night. Cedar Rapids has a minor league "farm team" for the California Angels. We had hot dogs and ice-cream, and then after the game they had fireworks. Lots of fun.
The photos were taken at the beginning of the night before the kids had ice-cream all over their clothes and they were all happy with smiles on their faces!
Here is Justin on his new tractor. Believe it or not, this is the first time that I have ever seen him mow the lawn.....we've never lived anywhere that didn't have an association who maintained the lawn. The kids were sooooooo excited to ride on it! As you can see Cam is on Justin's lap "driving". I thought the tractor was cute because it's orange.
The kids were riding their bikes and wearing their PJ's, patiently waiting for their turn to ride the tractor.















On Monday we went to a lake about half an hour away from here that has boating and beaches and we hung out there for awhile. The kids loved it, but I refused to get into the water past my ankles. If I can't clearly see through the water, then I'm not getting in! Unforunatly I don't have any photos of it. Next time I'll remember my camera.