blurred vision

If you know me well, you know I wear contacts and glasses. I have had glasses since 3rd or 4th grade, the big ugly brown and clear, covers half your face kind. Then I finally convinced my parents to get me contacts when I was in 7th grade...I think. My vision is pretty bad, if I am not wearing either of these I can not see anything clearly, -4.50 and -5.00, I believe is the vision in my eyes. So I wear my contacts during the day and my glasses in the morning and at night.

I don't know how I did it, but I didn't have glasses from the time I got married (to embarressed to wear ugly big glasses I still had) to the time that I had Joseph. Just contacts. This meant that while I was pregnant with Megan and when I would have to get up in the middle of the night with her, I was pratically blind. Good thing I knew the way around our house just fine.

So I finally got glasses before I had Joseph, I would need them. Moving into a new house shortly after he was born and needing to get up again, I needed to be able to see. I can see when I get up in the middle of night now, but sometimes, since I know my way around, I don't put them on, so my vision is blurry combined with darkness, things are even more blurry.

The other night Sarah got up, she cries in her bed, I go in, without my glasses, and lay down with her. She usually goes to sleep again pretty quickly. This night she did, she curled up after I put the blankets on her. I was already awake when she woke up so I wasn't in any hurry to head back to bed where I would just lay there awake....thanks pregnancy insomnia. I laid there and looked at Sarah and felt little Daniel moving inside me....he was awake too. We have often wondered, like other expecting parents if he will look the same as our other kids did when born. As I looked at Sarah, with my blurred vision, she looked JUST like one of the 3D ultrasound pictures we have of Daniel,. It was so adorable, it was like a little glimpse of what is to come. I think he WILL look a lot like his brother and sisters.....can't wait to see him, cross my fingers, in about 4 weeks!

Megan, Sarah and Joseph

Daniel

PICTURES....it's about time

It has been over a year (and maybe a half) that we have taken the kids for "professional" pictures. So on our day off on friday we jammed the day with first picture takings, then science center, then a play to go see one of Megan's best friends, then opening ceremonies for baseball, then finally home to relax! (I was so exhausted I couldn't do anything that night!)

Here are the pictures we had taken, we were very happy with them!
We have a cd with all the pictures on them and I included some funny ones and some that we purchased. (click on them to see them bigger, some of their facial expressions are priceless)



Got this one....she needs her bangs cut. (maybe in another 5 months, hopefully, after Daniel comes and is a couple months old, they will be shorter)

Got this one for our wall.

Got this one because it is sooooo her.

Loved this one, but didn't get it.

We got this one and the one of Joseph standing in a collage and love it!

Got this one of our 2 precious girls!

Hope you enjoyed seeing them. We had fun picking them out!

Today

1. Megan likes to bring a stuffed animal on the bus just about everyday. She is on the bus in the afternoon for about 30 minutes and it helps pass the time. This morning she gets ready, goes down to the bus stop, I always watch her from our front window until she is on the bus and it goes past our house. So I am watching out our window and the bus stop sign and lights come on as it gets to our house and I think "did the bus driver not see Megan get on the bus and think she is still home?" If she misses the bus at the corner, he will pick her up at our drive way and he always drops her off at our drive way instead of the corner.
So I see Megan get off the bus and come running up to the house, I open the door and ask "what are you doing?" She forgot her stuffed animal....so the bus driver let her get off and come in and get it!!! Can you believe that? He is a great bus driver. I really need to think of a gift to give him at the end of the year to thank him for being so great.

2. This I am embarrassed to admit. I was at Walmart and I was in a little hurry, I had 20 minutes to get what we needed and to be on my way to get Joseph from preschool. I had my sunglasses in my back pocket (that I got for mother's day last year, expensive ones) and as we were headed out, they weren't there!!! I look in my pockets, not there, look in the cart, not there. So I back track some of my steps and can't find them, I go to customer service, they don't have any lost sunglasses, so I leave my info in case they are brought in.
We are walking out and I let out my monster growl, Sarah asks why I am mad. I tell her I lost my sunglasses. So we walk to the van and I go to pull out my keys and low and behold, my sunglasses come out with them!!! I don't know how I missed them. I felt so lame. I put them on and Sarah says "you found them!"

Nothin' to Blog about

Not much has happened lately. Just the usual everyday happenings. Yesterday I felt morning sick all over again and actually lost my breakfast, then got a major headache. Wasn't to fun.

We had pre-school conferences with Joseph's teacher last friday and she said his alphabet and number skills are Excellent. Which we already knew since he is constantly reading words where ever we are. The last one we had with her seemed so negative because he is shy at school and doesn't want to participate in activities until he sees them done a couple times. Did she want him to get all roudy and not listen like the other 5 boys in his class? We were a little confused about that. He participates more now but if he doesn't feel comfortable he won't do it. I don't see the point in making a 4/5 year old in pre-school being forced to participate.
Anyway, we know he is a smart kid and I think when it comes to kindergarten he will join in more often. He doesn't really like preschool but claims he will LoVe kindergarten.

On another note I have been doing really good on washing all our laundry and folding it and putting it away all in 1 or2 days for 2 weeks in a row now. This is a major accomplishment. I usually let 3-4 loads sit there for a few days before I even attempt to put it away. It feels good to get it all done and put away on about a days time!

Sarah has figured she can now get up and out of bed whenever she wants, i.e. 3:40am, 4:45am, 6:15am......Hopefully she will have a growth spurt soon and sleep and sleep and sleep.........

Megan has now decided that doing homework is fun. To bad the school year is just about over!

Sorry if you read all this, I told you there was nothin' to blog about. :)

Easter

First of all, this is what happens when you are busy and let the kids play unsupervised. You can hear them playing so well together and then you come to find this:



This is the bathroom. It was their "home", complete with a piano, blankets, crayons, balls, books, paper, cars, food (the sink was the kitchen that held many cracker boxes), and many other little fun toys. It wasn't so fun cleaning it though :)

Sunday morning, Sarah looking through her Easter basket.


Megan and Joseph enjoying their baskets

I didn't want to post this picture, but I did. Everyone else looks great expect me and my big pregnant belly and and face that looks fat. Do I look like that in person or is it because she was sitting down when she took the picture? Hopefully it is the second one.

I love this picture of the kids. I told them to give each other hugs. Pictures were done before church.

A little out of order, this is coloring eggs the night before. I was exhausted with little sleep the night before and it was 9:00 at night and all I wanted to do was go to bed, but no Easter would be complete without this fun tradition. (at least fun for the kids)

It was a good Easter. We had talked to kids about the true reason for Easter and they seemed to get it pretty well and we kept it in mind all day. We thought we were going to miss stake conference up at our ward but it turned out to be regional stake conference broadcast, so we were able to go and watch it also. It was nice to hear talks from leaders of the church 2 weeks in a row. Especially the Prophet. I had an even more horrible night of sleep saturday night and could have easily stayed at Brent's parents and not go but I forced myself to go through the motions and go, which in the end I was very glad I did.

I hope you all had a great Easter too.

The Monster in Me

I must admit there is a monster in me. Sometimes I don't have the patience to deal with whiny, crying children, or 2 year olds who won't sleep at 3:00 in the morning, or kids who won't cooperate and get coats or jackets on (because it is still cold outside GGrrrrrr), or just plain anything because my tummys getting big and it is getting harder to breath and is quite uncomfortable, and I feel my house is an unorganized mess. (it would be better if it was an organized mess, but I feel it isn't)

So the monster in me comes out......in all of these situations I have let out a low sounding throaty growl and this warns the kids (or myself) that the monster is ready to come out. So they better hurry up and obey or go to sleep or that I better do something about the mess.

Kids have quickly obeyed. From getting coats and shoes on to helping clean up toys, to a 2 year old who will stop whining and crying in the middle of the night and curl up next to me (scared) and finally go to sleep. When all else fails, Is this mean?

I do admit though and Megan told me this last night, that I don't get mad or angry and yell very often anymore. Brent also commented on how nicely I handled Sarah when we were on vacation and she was up and crying from 1:00am to 4:00am, and the trains were waking us every hour, the monster in me definitely growled a few times and that is how she finally fell asleep, scared in my arms, at that moment I was grateful for the monster. (I was bad at the beginning of this pregnancy, I think I didn't have a patience then) I think the answer is because this little monster in me warns us all that things could get ugly if situations don't change quickly.

So for now I am willing to keep the monster in me and hope she doesn't come out to often and that a certain little 2 year old will continue to be a little afraid of her coming all the way out......

Birthday FUN!

Joseph turned 5 yesterday! What a fun 5 years it has been. He was 8lb 5oz when he was born and he started growing and growing and won't stop! He is a joy in our family, he has a great sense of humor. He can have a quick temper but at the same time is quick to give me and his little sister hugs. He Loves playing with his big sister and loves playing ball and boxing with his dad. He is a smart boy and learns quickly, thanks to big sis he sounds out words now. We are so blessed and happy to have him as our "not so little" boy anymore!

Joseph is the bottom right picture (click on the pictures to enlarge and see them better)


Last night at his birthday party my memory card was full so I put in a different card and it had pictures of Joseph in it when he was a baby!

He is about 6 months in this picture.





At my brothers wedding a couple years ago, showing us he is 3.


He has always loved making funny faces, especially with his sister. And he taught little sister some good faces to make also!

Another one from when he was a baby, about 6 months and Megan was about 3 and Brent hasn't aged a day!

The much awaited birthday party at Rainbow Play Systems. It was Awesome. The kids played we had pizza, opened presents, played some more, had cake, played some more and then it was over to quickly, according to the kids.

We will definitely be back there some day, not to buy one (hello EXPENSIVE) but for their open play time mon-sat. 10-8. So FUN!

Blowing out the candles. I think Sarah was trying to help. (when she gets hurt or upset we tell her to take a big breath to calm down, so she was all ready to help with her big breath!) He really wanted cake and brownies. There was no way I was making both so I made Texas sheet cake, a good mix of cake but more to the size of brownies. He also really wanted caramel on it so we did little squiggly lines on the frosting. (THANKS Sandy for giving me the recipe, it was soooo delicious and Joseph Loved it!)

The whole party gang eating pizza and making funny faces.

I wish we had a tire swing! So much fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSEPH, WE lOVE YOU!!!