4 Weeks and Counting

I decided that 4 weeks is an okay amount of time to wait for our little boy. I cannot believe how fast this summer has gone. We are a little scared to have a third child to add to the mix, but hopefully all will go well. What can we do now - what's done is done (he he he).

I had an ultra sound last week and the radiologist said that everything looked great and that our little guy was measuring about 5 days late (putting my due date at August 30 instead of August 25). I was half expecting that.

I wanted to post some updated pictures of our little kids, so here are some.

Piper's Birthday

I guess that we are lame parents because we decided to just have a small family birthday party for Piper's second birthday. She was so cute and loved every minute of her birthday. Jack loved it, too, since he was able to help her open her gifts and play with them. They both loved having pink cupcakes with chocolate icing (Piper picked out the combination). Here are a few pictures of her on her birthday (April 19th).
So here is Jack, but he is adorable, too.

This is Piper's excited face. I can't believe we actually caught it on camera.

I guess that we are lame parents because we decided to just have a small family birthday party for Piper's second birthday. She was so cute and loved every minute of her birthday. Jack loved it, too, since he was able to help her open her gifts and play with them. They both loved having pink cupcakes with chocolate icing (Piper picked out the combination). Here are a few pictures of her on her birthday (April 19th).

Some News

We have finally decided to tell everybody since my protruding belly is attracting some stares and funny looks on people faces. We are 11 weeks pregnant. And, yes, we planned this pregnancy. We are thinking that this is our last. We sure love out little munchkins, and we feel we are not the best at managing even their kaos.

Anyway, we have not yet been to the doctor for the first visit. Zac changed jobs in mid January, so our new insurance doesn't kick in until mid February. So, more details are to come.

Other than that, we are just trying to live through the redudancies of life and mom feeling yucky everyday. Poor Jack and Piper, they haven't been out much since Christmas. I am hoping that the sickness decreases soon. We will see though.

P.S. We think it is a boy this time and are in dire need of some name suggestions. Feel free to leave any if you like.

CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS

Christmas is coming so soon. I cannot believe it. I am so sorry for not blogging in over a month. I took a few Christmassy pictures and I wanted to publish them.

Not much is new for us. We are trying to enjoy the last few days of the Christmas Season. I love having children to celebrate holidays with. Jack loves singing "Up on the Housetop" and Piper love listening to him.

I have a new calling in our ward. I am the 2nd Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I am also the Activities Chairperson (until they call someone else to take my place). So, I was in charge of our ward Christmas Party (which went very well thanks to all the people who helped). I am also now helping plan and set-up the Relief Society Christmas dinner. It is fun to be able to set up and decorate the parties exactly how I want them. Hopefully everyone else is pleased.

For all those who read this blog, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I would love to say that I will post again during the Holiday Season, but looking at my previous record, I am not due to post again until late January or early February.

Here are my lovely children. Also, I have to thank Shelley Smith for lending me a book titled, "Supernanny: How to Get the Best from Your Children." Zac and I have been struggling (to say the least) with Jack's behavior (Piper's, too, I may as well mention). The tips in this book have really helped and have brought a little more peace into our home. It is amazing what you can do with the tone of your voice. I hope that these tips keep working. I am enjoying not having the feeling of wanting to rip my hair out by the end of breakfast time.

HALLOWEEN

We had a blast this Halloween. I believe we started celebrating Halloween in the middle of September. We watched the first 20 minutes of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and that was all that was needed to get Jack hooked on the movie and on Halloween. We are still painting pumpkins and drawing ghosts because Jack and Piper love it so much. I tried to get Jack to draw a turkey with me (using our handprints) but his interest only lasted 10 minutes or so.

Here are a few pictures of our kids in their Halloween costumes. They had a blast this year trick or treating. Luckily Jack didn't have the stomach flu like last year, so we partied hard and trick or treated all over town.
This was our run through the night before Halloween.

This is a picture of Piper biting through the wrapper of a 3 Muskateers Bar. She is so like her mother - Give me chocolate and give it to me now.Jack would not wear his mask or get his face painted, so he somewhat looked like a Power Ranger although he has no idea what a Power Ranger is. He originally wanted to be Jack Skellington from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" but when it came crunch time, he didn't want to dress up in black or get his face painted (or wear his skeleton gloves). Thankfully I had bought a Power Ranger costume in September and kept it just in case we needed it (which we did).

Kids really do make holidays so much more fun.

I have not blogged in such a long time. I think the reason is that I have been facebooking. What fun it is, but how time consuming it can get. I hardly think I have enough time to do the things that I need to as it is. Now I am getting a new hobby.

Over the weekend, Jack and Piper were able to play in the leaves at Grammy's house, so I wanted to post some pictures of them. I have to say that I am so grateful that we decided to have Jack and Piper close. They have become good friends. Yes, they still fight, but they definitely love each other. Jack misses Piper when she naps (on the many days that he doesn't nap). The first thing that Piper says when she gets up in the morning is "Gack" which is her way of saying Jack.

What a ride it is to be a mom and wife. Sometimes I feel like I have lost my individuality, but I know that somewhere hidden in the moments of life I get to express my own feelings through my children and through other friendships that I have. There is a time and a season for all things. I will get a chance to express myself more when my children are grown and I miss them horribly because they have all moved on with their lives.

Anyway, on with the pictures:

We both say that Piper is the perfect witch.



What fun autumn brings!

Whoops, If you can't find my finish line picture on the website I mentioned in The Marathon post, sorry. Here are the correct instructions to find the picture. Go to www.customeventphotography.com, click on Top of Utah Runners Click Here, click on View and Order Pictures, and then put in my bib number 2288.

Okay, so I finally wanted to fill out this questionnaire thing from Sara. Here it goes:

How long have you been together? We will be married for 7 years on December 22, 2008.
How did you meet?We met in a Singles Ward and we also attended the same college (Salt Lake Community College).
How long did you date? We dated for 7 months and then we were engaged for 2.5 months.
How old is he? Zac will be 30 in January. It doesn't seem to bother him at all, which I greatly admire.
Who said I love you first? Zac told me he loved me first. It is kind of a funny story, yet fitting for us. We were sitting on Zac's bed at his parents house just talking (and I really mean we were just talking because his house was full of people). He was fiddling with his TI85 calculator. After a couple of minutes, he handed me the calculator. When I looked at the screen, on it was the words, "I love you." So, maybe I was the first one to actually say I love you (I told him that I loved him, too) since he just typed the words in on his calculator. We are such geeks.
Who is taller?Zac is taller by 3 or so inches.
Who sings better? I would say that we both are just mediocre singers who could maybe add something to a ward choir if we ever went to practice.
Who is smarter? Zac is definitely more book and street smart.
Whose temper is worse? We both have tempers, but I can control mine a little better than Zac, although his temper only usually shows when Jack is pulling one of his grand tantrums.
Who does the laundry? I do most of the laundry. Zac is getting better at helping me though. I told him he could watch football on Saturday if he folded laundry while watching. It's a win-win situation.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?It actually changes for us. I usually sleep on the side of the bed closest to the door of the room. It is weird, but that is how we like it.
Who pays the bills? We work together to pay the bills and do our finances.
Who mows the lawn? I have mowed the lawn this summer. I actually like it. I would mow the lawn while Zac worked on the shed he was building in our back yard.
Who does the dishes?I usually do the dishes.
Who cooks dinner? I usually try to cook dinner. I am not the best of cooks, but we definitely aren't starving.
Who drives when you are together? Zac is the driver. He is better at it.
Who is more stubborn? We are both very stubborn, and we wonder why Jack and Piper are so stubborn, too.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?I guess that we both are able to apologize for the bad decisions that we make. It is actually quite nice that we both can say sorry.
Who kissed who first?I kissed Zac first. He asked me if he could have a kiss, and I gave him one.
Who proposed? We talked about it first and decided that we should get married. Then Zac asked me officially while we were on the doorstep of my mother's house. I said yes, obviously.
Who is more sensitive? I am definitely very sensitive.
Who has more friends? We are both quite shy. But, I would have to say that I have a few more friends than Zac. Being a mom, you want as big of a support group as you can get (especially when you don't live very close to family).
Who wears the pants in the family? Sometimes he does and sometimes I do. It depends on the topic at hand and who is more tired.
How many kids do you want to have? That depends on who you ask. I would like to have 5, but we'll see if we get past 2.