Christmas Presents

so here is what I got for christmas this year.

My mother -in- law got me these cute little end tables for my living room. I needed a table to put my lamp on..it's been just sitting on the ground for the last 4 months.

Craig surprised me with this camera. I think he is tired of me never bring my "big" camera places so he got me this little point and shoot I can just keep in my purse.

Craig also surprised me with these sunglasses.

I've been wanting to get the magic bullet blender for a while but they have always just been a little to much money, but this one was on sale for 20$ this christmas so I decided to get it. I love it and have made shakes 3 days straight now. So easy and convenient and apparently this thing makes salsa and chops stuff too.

I bought myself these cute shoes that just happened to be on the clearance rack at macy's one day and couldn't resist. My mother in law doesn't believe that a pointy toe helps slim you down but just looking at the picture the shoe looks so long and thin when really my very wide foot fits in it.

I bought myself this wallet. I have been needing one for some time now. :)

Since I have so many siblings we have been drawing names for the last few years and just buying one big gift instead of trying to come up with 20 separate gifts. My brother Felipe got me this year and got me this rocking/glider chair.

I got this Willow Tree "rose in my garden" statue set from my mom. The top is obviously kaydence and then Soren and then the bottom is the little boy who hasn't come yet.

Winter Wonderland

We woke up this morning to about 6 new inches of snow. Looked to be enough for the kids to finally get a good play in it. We got them all dressed up and they went outside in the backyard to play, while I went to work shoveling the sidewalk/driveway. It's kind of nice because all your neighbors are all out and about doing the same thing and you actually get a chance to talk to them :) But having a corner lot I had about 3 times what everyone else has to shovel and a 3 car garage makes the driveway huge...It seemed I was out there for so long and by the time I got in I could barely walk...the kids had already come in leaving the screen door wide open and it was freezing in the house.

Christmas EVE!!!!

Christmas is finally here!!!!! Kaydence knew she was going to open one gift today and asked if it was time about every 10 minutes. I figured she would be setting herself up for disappointment when she realized they were only pj's. Soren's reaction when he opened it up was...hey I already got these!!! (he was with me when I bought them a few weeks ago) Kaydence was more concerned that they were pants rather than a gown. She has been asking for "winter pj's" for quite some time and when I told her thats what these were she said "but they will make me too hot hot hot" They quickly warmed up to them and loved them. We had a crazy photoshoot because they had just had some sugar cookies and mixed with bedtime equals crazy energy!!! They couldn't stop giggling and running around and goofing off. BUT THEY SURE ARE CUTE!!!!!

After we opened up our eve gifts... (craig got a robe and I got slippers) Craig read the kids some christmas stories. They looked so cute all cuddled up on our very comfy sofa. We all could have slept there :) It was a very nice evening untill it was time to go to bed and I caught the kids rushing up the stairs with stashed sugar cookies in their brand new pj's...ugg! good thing I caught them on the first few steps or they would have made a terrible mess in their rooms....but now the mess stayed in the kitchen and on their sleeves. oh well that's our life :) They just don't look the same when clean, I don't recognize them :)

STOCKINGS!!!!

The last few days I have been making stocking, and finally finished the last one this morning. I like how they turned out. I have 2 that look like this and one without the snowflake overlay (just the blue stripped fabric) and one without the blue stripped fabric under the snowflake overlay...kaydence wasn't to thrilled about having blue so without that fabric and instead I put it over white fabric it made it a really light blue instead. like Lindsey my sister in law said..."she won't mind having blue once there's candy and toys inside"

it's the little things in life....

I've been trying to think of something that I have been doing the last few weeks but can't think of anything since I don't have pictures...it's like I didn't do anything :)

I went to my second cookie exchange last night and it was so fun. I never heard of this cookie exchange before this year and was invited to 2 :) must be big here in meridian idaho.... for anyone else who is as clueless as me its where you have this get together and everyone brings a dozen or 2 dozen cookies (depending on how many people are invited). while there everyone switches their cookies with everyone else so you leave home with a dozen or 2 dozen different kinds of cookies. While there they can be judged or you can just play games like any other get together. It's been nice to be invited and get to know some of the lady's in my ward. I wasn't sure I really wanted to go to this one last night...simply because the last one threw me into this eating binge for days afterwards and I really didn't want to start that up again...but I'm glad I did and had a blast. The cookies are now on my fridge and as long as I stay upstairs I am safe....

another thing that we did was installed some cabinets in the garage and cleaned and organized the garage a bit this week. So much more room in there now and I feel better than my photo stuff is off the floor. Derek, my brother in law, works for treasure valley closets which makes and installs cabinets for closets and garages among other things, but when they get a scuffed up one or return than the employees get first dibs and Derek has been gathering them for us since getting our house. We now have 2 and I love having them.

on a different note Kaydence felt the baby for the first time today. She laid her head on my belly and felt a kick and got so excited. Soren wasn't patient or quite enough to wait for one. I am so excited that they're old enough to kind of understand what's going on...

hair cut

so for some time now Kaydence wonderful perfect curls have been getting less and less curly and perfect. The longer her hair gets the more weighed down they are. They have been becoming a mess to try and comb through. I've been wanting to take her in to get a professional hair cut but couldn't wait any longer. It looks much better now!

BEFORE

....and obviously this is a very bad before....before bath or brushing even but this is what I have to work with every morning

AFTER...

I got some privacy door panels for the front door windows on black friday for a good deal so I put those up. And also, I put up a curtain in the kitchen window finally and we got barstools for the bar. The kids eat there most meals now and don't dirty up 3 tablecloths everyday which was getting pretty annoying.

Christmas TREE!!!!

This is our very first christmas tree we have had as a married family. We have always traveled to either my parents or Craig's and were never home the last few weeks of december... and didn't bother with a tree until now. Craig's mom got us this tree a few years ago (she got for cheap after christmas sale) and it's been in storage. So I busted it out a little early this year in excitment :) We also had a box of Craig's old ornaments his mom saved of his growing up so we were finally able to put those up. My mom had giving me this tree skirt and all the little village people decor a few years ago as well.

yes I have wrapped all my christmas gifts and put them under the tree already....did you not just read that I mentioned this was my FIRST tree!!!!

baby bump-26 weeks (6 months)

Crib Bedding!!!

Once again I looked on craig's list and found some amazing deals. Here is what I got.

( http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/coc/coc713033.html?utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ComparativeShopping. )

Here is a link to the line to buy online. I got the sheet, dust ruffle, bumper, comforter, diaper stacker, 2 curtains and the lamp all for $60.

Here is an actual picture of the bedding on my crib.

I thought this was so cute becuase I have been giving craig a monkey for valentines day every year since we were dating and so now I can decorate his room with all the monkey's craig doesn't know what to do with :)

I got this crib, mattress and all the bedding/decor for the same price I was able to get when returning my old crib. :)

luck for the unlucky

Craig and I aren't usually people who are lucky with anything. But yesterday, since we are both sick just lounging around all day on the computer, discovered that our crib that has been out in the garage for a year was on a recall list. We were able to take it back for a full refund!!! We never had any problems with it, but apparently a few babies got hurt when the slide down side forms a gap somewhere and traps them... It's like a huge deal now and over 600,000 cribs have been recalled...you might want to check on yours if you haven't heard. anyway... so we took back this used scratched up crib I wasn't to happy about having to bring upstairs and clean off anyway, and got over twice what I actually paid for the thing at the time :) It was on clearance and then actually mismarked and we only got it because we moved to moscow and the 13 year old crib didn't make the 3rd move. I was able to use the money to buy a new, much better, clean crib that actually matches our new changing table and I have money left over to buy a bedding set I might go pick up today from someone on craig's list.

New Purchase: crib and mattress for $75

thanksgiving dinner

Yesterday was our celebration for thanksgiving dinner with all of Craig's family. It was a great weekend. Craig and I went and saw new moon friday night and then spent the night at his mom's house. All saturday morning we spent cooking and ate at 2. All the food turned out great. My cheese cakes are gone and my green bean casserole was all gone... (NO LEFT OVERS FOR ME :( ) It was great company, kids had a blast playing with cousins. 4 pregnant woman all due 6 weeks from each other and all having boys with various sized belly bumps might have something to do with the NO LEFT OVERS :) Craig and his good friend Dinko from law school and Derek (brother in law) all went shooting and busted their recently made target to smithereens. The evening ended with a few casserole dishes and bowls being shattered and craig and I apparently getting sick. ( we were just tired last night but after waking up sick, realized the tiredness was a early symptom.)

baby fun

Last week I got a bunch of the baby stuff out of storage and washed, cleaned and put them back together again in early anticipation of the little guy's arrival. You'd think with the third one we would have everything but after 2 kids and 4 years in storage some things have need to be replaced...ever since I have been on Craig's list looking for good deals. So far I've gotten a really nice changing table, and a boppy with the toy/food tray.

Soren's old baby clothes: these are his NB-3M clothes..im pretty sure baby #3 will most likely be 10 lbs and zoom right past these onto the 3-6, but I've got those all washed as well and ready to go. Except Soren was born in sept and this little guy is due in march so the weather should be about the same for the first little while but for 3-6M Soren was in full blown Winter and this little guy will be full on summer so it seems every 3 months or so we will have the right kind of clothes and then the next 3 month change we will need different.

Bassinet: this has been used by a lot of babies starting with my younger brother Mack who is now 13 (he might have just turned 14 last october..I can't remember now if he turned 13 or 14)

Car Seat with new baby head support.

The Swing/Gilder

New purchase: Changing table (got for $30)

New purchase: Blue Bumbo with tray

Great dilemmas

The last 6 years, being the first 6 years of our marriage, were spent being young poor college students. And starting a family when you are young poor college students leaves you with certain dilemmas that you usually don't get to pick the outcomes of. You aren't usually giving much choice of things to get for the babies or where to put the nursery.... You live in a very small 2 bedroom apartment and the kids are gonna share :) You get the hand me down clothes and cribs you can get your hands on and smile with gratitude :) Being Young I never really felt like I was without anything. Being young and in college you still have the willing help of your parents and they both have been life savers over the years.

We actually have nice sturdy trim around the door so we can actually hang up the jump a roo thing :) I love how the most stressful dilemmas I have is whether or not I am going to put the baby in the SPARE room or if he will share with Soren. I HAVE A SPARE ROOM!!!! Or if I am going to put the swing upstairs in the family room or downstairs near kitchen so I can swing him occupied while I clean up.

We are going to put up our very first christmas tree this year because we will actually be home for christmas. We have always lived far away from both parents and so have taken both holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) off each year to travel to see them.

It has just been really nice looking forward to the future and being able to plan and choose and experience this new phase in our lives. I am really trying to take it all in and enjoy all these great dilemmas for once before all the really hard dilemmas of this phase in our lives kick in.

Halloween again :)

The kids got all dressed up again for halloween so we could go to the discovery center halloween party. We enjoyed (except kaydence who was scared) the haunted house. We enjoyed a few experiment shows with making slime and liquid nitrogen. Kids made some crafts and we ate some cupcakes. I got some great photos of the kids before we left and before my camera battery died :)

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On a different note the afternoon was fun too. Lindsey had to come to town to get the H1N1 vaccine so we went out to lunch with our kids and took them shopping at "baby's R us" and looked for outfits for our boys in vetro..she is a few weeks behind me and just found out she is having at least one boy...out of two she has in there. Then we stopped by "Kidz Again" a resale store where we could actually afford some baby clothes :) Then when I got home I heard about the Payless Shoes 50% off ENTIRE order coupon and rushed over. I got kaydence her snow boots and a nice black pair of church shoes to go with her early christmas dress her grandma connie got her. I got myself a purse and a scarf. Soren's supply was pretty scarce but did get him his first pair of converse tennies that were already on sale. The line was about an hour or more long and the store was a mad house because of the Oprah 1 day sale, but we got some great deals so the wait was worth it.

OFFICE

We finally filled our downstairs office. It has been a storage room for the last month or so and now we can raise the blinds on the french doors and not be embarrassed to show off this room. :) We got the desk and matching bookcase at Sam's Club for an amazing deal. We need a few more things to complete this room but it's a great start.