Thanksgiving with Smiths

One of the things I love about being in Utah is being able to have Thanksgiving with our families. It was my family this year and we had a blast together telling stories about when were young. I always remember how tame I was compared to speeding, fight starting, boyfriend lov'n siblings.

Could this table get any longer, I think we need to put a cap on any more grandchildren right now.

Twilight Party

I am way over my Twilight Obession but when the movie was coming out I couldn't pass up an oppurtnity to have a party. I had previously had an Olympic party and Halloween party at my house so I made someone else volunteer their house and I would help them plan it. So the theme was apples (because of the book cover) and the colors were black, white and red(also because of the books).

So in this picture we are all enjoying our apple beer.

Then of course all the food was apple themed. After we had twilight trivia we went and saw the movie.
Just a side note, I am so not a fan of the movie. Robert Pattenson has ruined Edward for me, oh well I guess Jason is still the only one for me:>

What's new?!

It's been a long time, I know! So much for my once a month blogging. So I just wanted to catch everyone up on the last 6 months of our lives. Well, to tell you the truth there isn't much to catch up on, there hasn't been any major changes or events that have happened. We have just been busy living life.
Brooklyn has probably gone through the biggest change. She has gone from a newborn to a little girl who is crawling. I know parents aren't suppose to have their favorites but she comes darn close to being mine (the other two are a close second). We had a rough start with her having colic but now she is so calm and sweet. She just crawls around the house doing her own thing.
Zack has kind of become the teasing, jealous older brother we thought we had avoided. He is so cute and fun most of the time but loves to scream all day and make sure Brooklyn has no toys in her hands.
Brock just finished up soccer and flag football and will start basketball in January. It is definitely his life that makes ours so busy. Between homework, scouts, and sports dinner often becomes take-out.

We spent Halloween in Disneyland this year with the Allan Family, here are some of the pictures.

Sneak Peak

I know I have been talking about finishing my basement for awhile now, well we just got the carpet installed:) All the finishing touches aren't done yet so I am not going show all the pictures but here are some along the way.

Jason is suited up to spray the basement while me and the kids evacuate the premises. The next weekend we rolled the whole basement (so take notice of the beautiful color on the wall). It took us from 7:30 am to 10:30 at night to get it all done, we even had a babysitter watching our kids and it still took us that long.

This is the future play room, I designed the shelves so they fit my containers exactly. I can't wait to have all the toys downstairs.

This is the Kitchenette. They are installing the tile in this picture. Now there are cabinets there but the sink, microwave and fridge aren't so I don't want to take the final picture til it is all done.

SO there, I have caught you up on some major events in my life: the basement semi-finish, Zack's Birthday, and Baby Brooklyn. Now I remember why I don't blog very often. These 4 blogs have taken me 3 hours, between feeding Brooklyn, getting the pictures to come up right and fixing my horrible English, it takes me forever. Surprisingly what you read is the polished version.

Future Blogs: Finished Basement, Brooklyn's Blessing, and Brock's Baptism

Thanks for Checking my blog now and again.

"Hop-PEE" Birthday Zack

Zack absolutely enjoyed his birthday. Every time someone said happy birthday he would say "hop-PEE" with the end of the word being an octave higher. While the Happy Birthday song was being sung he would waggle his head like an old blues singer. He actually has quite a passion for music, when a song comes on he has to get up and move to the rhythm.

Most of his presents were baseball related, that is his other passion. He can make anything into a bat and ball. He has brought me sticks, swords, and bowling pins to be the bat and anything round will do for the ball.

OK so this is the only non-baseball gift he got. He was so cute, he would only push it long enough for the bubbles to come out and then chase the bubbles. Sweet, now I don't have to blow them for him.

Girls are fun?!

Brooklyn at one week old. She definitely doesn't look like the picture I had in my head. I guess I thought that since she was a girl she would take after my coloring a little (illogical, I know) Where did all this dark coloring come from? If it is Jason's side I sure hope she gets the blue eyes.

Brooklyn at one month old and still oh so sweet.

Yep, we still look nothing a like.

It's kind of like having a little doll you can dress up. How come boys were never this fun to dress?

I thought this picture was precious, Jason only notices his ginormous hand.

Zack can't figure out why he isn't the baby anymore. He actually has been really good with Brooklyn. He loves to give her kisses on the head and always asks if he can "hode her". He tries to be a helper too by giving her the Binky (backwards) and finding a bottle and letting her suck on it air and all.

Three's a crowd

OK, so it has been a while since I have blogged last. I have to say 3 kids have kicked my butt. I am slowly getting into a routine but Oh man have I been busy. I am happy to say that I have 100 percent of my energy back. I don't know what I would do if I still had the pregnancy drag (having Zero energy and taking a nap everyday).
The things that have kept me busy are ordinary everyday things like cleaning, cooking (it's getting pretty rare these days though), nursing(which is slowly taking less time as she gets older), changing diapers x2, chasing Zack, Brock's homework/school parties and baseball, trying to finish this basement, getting the yard ready for summer, and sometimes if I am lucky snuggling with Brooklyn.
I know I am preaching the choir, but I just wanted to let you know I am rededicating myself to blogging and reading every ones blogs.
I will start with blogging four times in one day.

The most beautiful girl in the world

I got through another pregnancy!

So here is the low-down on the whole delivery.

I was so nervous about the whole delivery thing that I couldn't sleep at all the night before. Then during my surgery I went a little psycho, they called it a reaction to medication but I think they were just being nice. I think it just got to me that I couldn't feel myself breath and I could move any of my limbs and my body wouldn't stop shaking on top of not getting any sleep, so I asked them to give me some thing to relax. Well they gave me Versed which makes you relax but it also makes you have amnesia. I think they gave me a little much because honestly I can't remember about 2-3 hours after the surgery even though I was awake and talking.

But the coolest thing about the whole surgery was they found my stomach muscle were way out of position, in fact my doctor said he had never seen them so off to the side. SO they fixed them. Meaning they put them back in front where they are suppose to be and sewed them together, kind of giving me a tummy tuck. Yeah!!! I thought after Zack my stomach was lost for life but I guess when you have no stomach muscles covering your internal organs they just hang out giving you a goota gut. I don't know how much this muscle repositioning will help my goota gut but it has to help some.

When I first saw her I thought she looked like Zack but know I think she kind of has Zack's nose but Brock's coloring. I am so enjoying having a little girl. She is so Chill. I realize she is only 6 days old but she sleeps great and only squeaks when she is hungry. I am really excited about have a girl which is kind of weird because I was kind of indifferent on ever having a girl.

I have tons of pictures of her, I will have to post later when Zack is not calling my name and Brooklyn is not hungry.

My mom just left and I have to tell you I am a little scared to be alone! Three Kids, that is sure sounding like a big number right now.

Hallelujah!!

There are multiple things that make me happy these days. For one, Spring has sprung. I absolutely love spring in Utah. Another thing that just makes me happy is that I am done with this pregnancy in about 8 days. I don't know if I am quite ready for a newborn but I am so ready to be done with this pregnancy. Overall this has been one of my best pregnancies besides always feeling tired. I feel like I walk around in a daze all day long because I don't sleep at night. Today I was up at 5:30 cleaning but then when everyone is waking up the tired hits. I have tried everything to switch my sleeping schedule and nothing has worked. I am almost envious of people who can take sleeping pills.
About the pregnancy picture thing. I have banned all pictures of me during this pregnancy. I hate seeing my already prominent nose become even more prominent. I didn't gain as much weight this pregnancy but my face started swelling around Christmas and has not stopped. My family has been astonished with how big I have gotten. My brothers don't hold back when they are telling me how big I am. My sister on the other hand tells them they are being rude but then later asks me if I am sure I am not having twins. In my eyes they are all saying they same thing.
My basement is so close to being done, it hurts that it won't be done before the baby comes. We have all the doors and trim on, all we have to do is paint and carpet. We kind of ran into a snag with painting though. I can't be around all the fumes, the fumes will be pretty bad since we would be painting the whole basement at once. I will post pictures someday I promise, I just keep forgetting to take the pictures while the sun is still up since our lights aren't hooked up yet.
SO my C-section is planned for Saturday the 29th at 8:30 in the morning. I have lists and lists of things I want to get done before that day, so I am so sorry Diane I haven't called you back and that I haven't e-mailed you back Haley. I have been meaning to post this blog with new pictures of my kids all week long, and the pictures never got taken so I decided I better blog something before this baby comes.
Maybe I will get really ambitious and post Easter pictures but for sure I will post pictures of the baby asap.
Happy Easter everyone.

Feburary

Will this month never end? I know this is the shortest month but it is sure dragging. And it makes it worse that it is leap year.
There are couple of reasons this winter is dragging. #1 I think it has snowed about every other day, although I am grateful for the moisture I just wish it would stop and melt away.
#2 I didn't think it was possible to get bigger than I did with Zack but I have done it! I have about out grown all my materity shirts. But I think the worst thing about it is I have developed more stretch marks. I am going to start saving for a tummy-tuck NOW.
There have been a few good things happening though. #1 I am only 5 weeks away from delivery (Yeah, no more pregnancy) #2 our basement it getting sheetrocked right now. I can not wait to have the playrroom downstairs.
I will post pictures of the progress later.
Let There be SPRING!

I love visitors!

There are a couple of things in life I could not live without and one of them is old friends. We were lucky enough to have Diane and her kids over to our house at christmas time. We did our annual tradition of going to see Christmas lights and then after we had donuts and hot chocolate at our house. It was way fun to be with them, (Jaron had fun too even though it doesn't look that way in the picture).



Then this last weekend The Ross's were coming up for a quick day visit and Lara called to see if Noah could come play with Brock for the day. Of course Brock was so excited. Every couple of months since moving from Iowa Brock would ask when he would get to play with Noah again, so this turned out perfect. It was also fun to get caught up with what is going on with Don and Lara these days.




So if you didn't know already, we always welcome any visitors to good ol' Payson!

It's a GIRL

OK so I kind of knew I was having a girl but I was still kind of hesitant to get excited but I just recently had my "real" ultrasound and he confirmed it really is a girl. SO as I was clearance shopping I found the cutest Princess dresses. I now have 3 girl things in my house, of course the barbie shopping cart and now two princess dresses! Unfortunately they are size 4T but I could not resist.
We have some girl names in mind so tell me what you think. The highest on the list is Brooklyn, but my only hesitation is that it is really close to Brock if anyone shortens it to Brooke. The rest are just back ups like Brynn, Avery, Riley, McKenzie, and Elle.
Oh, I want to apologize for the two month absence from the blog, you all know how busy the holidays get. I do have some fun pictures to post in another blog.