Items of Interest

Or at least worthy of me noting to remember later...

• First off, to those of you I really should have called or emailed about this, I am sorry. I am just not excited, therefore I can not bring myself to "announce" to anyone. Don't misunderstand though, this was very planned. I am almost 14 weeks pregnant, due in March {I hate saying the date, since it is probably not the right one, but here ya go-- 18th... maybe for you, Kelli, I will plan that to happen on the 16th ;)}. So I guess I am on to #3! I must say that I am not loving pregnancy as much as I once did... but I will not complain. I just think "hmm I want to get pregnant." And then I am pregnant. So I am very grateful for NO PROBLEMS in that aspect of life. I truly feel blessed- I read or hear so many who want so badly to have children and they just can not (or have a very hard time), so I do not take this ability lightly.


• Ethan has started preschool. He absolutely LOVES it. His boring mom never has anyone over to play, so I fear he is not as "socialized" as he should be, but this has been great for him. I am sure he loves a break from me, too! He has a wonderful teacher (I personally think you are amazing!), Miss Crystal.


• We went to Idaho, Boise, for the weekend {9/6 and 9/7}. I can't really even say it was a weekend. We were there for less than 48 hours. Really, a very spontaneous trip, reminding me of a quick trip to Vegas that I took one weekend, long ago, when I had no one to worry about but me. Well, fortunately, this time went very smoothly. Erica and Weston were having an open house up there, since that is where his family lives, and she expressed (umm at the very last minute, PS!) that she would like us to come. Jody had to work, so it was all me. I was like... umm we can't pay for gas and a hotel room... and she called me back and said she had a place for us to stay.... I had to make sure that she clarified with this poor family what kind of kids (or KID-- Ethan) I have, and she said she did. OKAY... so with a car that is falling apart (or at least I kind of feel like it), my two kids, an audiobook (so I did not fall asleep-- Children of the Promise 5), LOTS of movies + Jody's laptop, LOTS of snacks, and two things of coolant (radiator problems... I guess), and a place to stay (at Weston's brother's girlfriend's house) we drove up to Boise. It was fun. We stopped in Twin Falls, at McDonald's (we ate there in March, when Jody and I went up there), then headed on. We had a great time. The only not fun thing about it was the fact that we spent $180 in gas. YIKES. I must say we definitely owe a big Thank You to the Kerr family for letting us invade their lives. I was a tad nervous, staying somewhere that I did not know anyone-- I had met Erica (that is her name as well as my sister's), and she was nice, but that was for like three seconds. But they were VERY nice- they fed us breakfast and lunch, let the kids play out back, and their youngest (9 years old) played outside with them for a bit while I cleaned all our stuff up. It was good to be somewhere and not feel like I was intruding or like my kids were going to break everything in sight. Don't get me wrong- they had a nice house with nice things, the atmosphere was just relaxed and the mom had told me about her oldest son and how crazy he used to be. It is nice to hear, since I feel like everyone who has kids that have grown have miraculously forgotten how hard it is or how rotten their kids were (hahaha) and that I am the only one with an active boy running around. She made me feel completely at home. Also, the dad is an amazing artist. They have his art displayed all over and he is AWESOME. We had a great time and are so grateful they let us stay with them!

The cute coupleAlliJoelErica and the kidsJenniMy parents-- cripple dad (haha)-- he recently had knee replacement surgery.

I am fairly confident that Ethan ate half of the candy at this party. He is eating Gummy Bears here.Sucking on some candy. What she does best. A little bored???These are at the Kerr's home.

• This morning, Jody was helping Ethan say the prayer and he said something like "please bless Sydney and Ethan" and Ethan went on to say "please bless Sydney and Batman"-- he always replaces his name with that of Batman, Ironman, Spiderman (though he is off that one for right now), etc. He is currently loving Ironman the most.


• Last night, we went to Al (my uncle) and Calleen's house to celebrate another Uncle, Ryan's birthday. He is the youngest, and is just older than me, 31. Happy Birthday Ryan! Ryan manages a website that has some awesome deals, right now the deal is Smith Chino Sunglasses for $39.99, but who knows what it will be later (last night it was DC shoes for way cheap!) so check it out- http://www.whiskeymilitia.com/
• I am not sure I am ever going to make cornbread again. I LOVE Marie Callender's mix, I buy it all the time. But I decided it is WAY to much work. My kids get crumbs EVERYWHERE! I can not believe how long it takes to get my floor looking fantabulous (like an hour) and then the next hour, we are eating dinner (enter the cornbread) and it is messy again! So fast. So, cornbread is out for a while. At least until I forget what a pain it is to clean up, or my kids are old enough to clean up after themselves...
  
• My cute little Sydney. Oh that girl. Feeding her is a long process. She sits in her chair and really enjoys her food-- so much that she savors every bite and it takes her an hour... or two... to eat. Here she is in her little angel dress-up (bought it missing the wings). She enjoys walking around in just one shoe.