Still Alive

Two and a half months since my last post?! I know, I know - here's what we've been up to....

I went with Justin to his annual Orthopaedic Conference which was held in Las Vegas this year. His mom came out and watched the kids for us and we spent five days together! We had lots of fun meeting up with old friends, shopping, eating, and even catching a show! By the time we got home we were exhausted! (sorry no pics of my own, I realized on the first day of our trip that my Camera's battery needed to be recharged...oh well) (also, we stayed at the Paris hotel pictured here)









Building snowmen in the cold Iowa winters!



We bought this blow-up bouncy thing for the kids for Christmas...I thought it might use up some energy during the winter "indoor" months.

Anna got her ears pierced, AGAIN! Third time is a charm...and it's true. All went well and she has already started her earring collection.

The kids and I also took a trip back to Minnesota for a friend's baby shower. It was a quick weekend and we got to see a lot of friends that we've missed.....

And that's what we've been up to! Justin and I are headed to Chicago this weekend and this time I'll have some actual photos to post! The baby is due in six weeks and counting which we're all really excited about and we're excited to have lots of famiy coming to visit us this coming summer. Whew, it all sounds like a lot - but you know me, I like to be active!

Christmas

I'm finally getting around to this, but we are here in Utah for the Holidays. We braved two snowstorms and an icestorm to get here, but I should say that we are fortunate to be here at all. Here is a quick recap of our holidays.................

We did a nativity pagent one night with some family and friends. Here are all the cousins in their costumes. Cameron was Joseph, Olivia was Mary, Ian was a wiseman (bearing a lethal looking gift!) and Anna was the Angel.

My whole family (minus the two little boys) went to see Ballet West perform the Nutcracker. Anna is in ballet and tap this year and was really looking forward to seeing all the ballerinas. The performance was wonderful and the set scenery was fantastic. Afterwards we bought tickets to the party with some of the cast and the girls were able to get pictures taken with the sugar plum fairy and mouse king. (you can see my mom in the background there)

Here are all of the cousins posing with Santa Clause on Christmas Eve. Just for the record this is Cameron's third time on Santa's lap this year and every time he had smiled and posed nicely for the camera, however......on this occasion we had waited 2 hours in line to see Santa and when Cameron sat on his lap he started to cry!!! I couldn't believe it! I was so mad! So our photo didn't turn out too well.

This was taken on Christmas morning. At Anna's preschool she went "Christmas Shopping" and picked out a gift for each family member - then it was wrapped there and sent home as a surprise. So Christmas morning Justin opened his gift and it was this angel pin (meant for a girl to wear). I laughed so hard that I was crying, but reassured Anna that I was crying because it was the most beautiful pin I'd ever seen. She was so proud of herself and Justin wore it the whole day!

Here are Cameron and Ian (cousins) posing nicely for a picture. This is one of the few times that you'll see them nicely smiling and posing together - usually they're wrestling or running around together.

It's a.......

We found out today that we are having another girl! It's so exciting! Cameron was at the ultrasound with Justin and I, and when we were told that it's a girl he said, "NOOOOO!" -and then asked if we could have a boy next week. Oh well, I could only please one of the kids....at least Anna got her pick! Anyway, the name will be Emme Rose and we are so so excited! Love to all!

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!