Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Carter and Ella singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - their new favorite song. It really has made Christmas fun this year, seeing their excitement and hearing them sing. Push the pause on the playlist so you can hear it.

Ella turns three!

On Nov. 4th Ella turned three! I can hardly believe my little girl is no longer a toddler but a "preschooler" although technically not in preschool; that would require being POTTY TRAINED! But I'm not frustrated or anything. :) I took her to the doctor for her yearly check up and they gave me a sheet of questions to ask her. One of the questions was to have her identify some animals on the paper. There was a cat, horse, fish, man etc. First I pointed to the cat and asked her what it was. With much enthusiasm she said "a lion"! Great I thought, right family lets go on. Next I pointed to the horse and she said "a zebra"! I laughed did a couple more and then pointed to the man. "It's Jesus!" she exclaimed. There's my little Ella always making things just a little better than they are.

More Home Improvements

More pictures for you Mom and Dad. Of course I thought you would never see these changes because we would have moved before you got back but now it doesn't look like we will be going anywhere until the economy stabilizes.



So we finally moved Parker's crib into Carter's room. He still sleeps at night in ours because he wakes very early in the morning but at least he can now nap in his bed and I can have my room and computer back.



Carter's trophy shelf.



Our new shelves in our Hallway.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!

We decided to celebrate the jewish holiday at Disneyland! Okay, so we're not jewish but Carter had the day off from school so we thought we'd go before Ella turned 3 and we had to pay for her. It was very hot! But lots of fun to forget for a day about the economy, life stresses and most important it was great just to be together as a family.



The kids have graduated from Dumbo. Now only the faster rockets will do.



I'm sure this will come all too soon.



The favorite ride for Ella was the toon town rollercoaster. She cried everytime it was over.



Matt didn't dare ride the tea cups right after lunch. Last year I was pregnant and sick at Disneyland so this was a piece of cake!



It's obvious that Matt did the better job of taking the pictures. He is sadly not in very many and this one is blurry but it's the best I got. And yes, Parker was there.

A Random Smattering of Pictures

Carter played Mighty Mite Basketball in the summer. His favorite thing about it was sitting on the "bench" or lack thereof with his friends. So maybe we don't have a future NBA star on our hands but look he got a cool trophy!




Bath Time! Parker and Ella both love their baths. Carter is now into showers and well he's old enough that he won't let me take a picture :)



Carter and Ella both love their baby broder Parker (in Ella's words). What's not to love. He's cute, smiles at them whenever they talk to him and he's too little to take their toys yet.

Bathroom completion

Okay, so this post is really for my mom. As many of you know my parents are on a service mission for our church in Hawaii. While this is great (especially the perk of going for a visit) it means that they don't get to visit us and see the little things that I've grown accustomed to showing them. Therefore, my blog is my way to do that. This is my downstairs bathroom now complete with it's new towel. It's been over 3 1/2 years since we've moved in here and I never was happy with the towel that I had in this bathroom. I finally found one that I think works perfectly with the pictures on the wall and paint. A fancy towel! I've never owned one before. So I wanted you, mom, to see it. It's funny how happy this little purchase made me. I grin every time I dry my hands.

Trinity Lake

We spent 8 days camping on Trinity Lake with Matt's family and some other friends. Parker was only 9 weeks old but it was fun to be out of cell phone reach for a week.

Trinity Lake cont.

Ella after enjoying a smore



Carter and his spaghetti



Poppy and Parker



Matt showing off his skiing abilities



Taking the kids for a ride

Parker

This was Parker at about 7 weeks. He is growing so fast and it makes me cry every time I look at him and he smiles at me.

Touch a Truck

Every year our city has a day called Touch-a-Truck where the park and recreation district allows the kids to come and explore all kinds of trucks. Carter and Ella had a great time climbing on fire engines, UPS trucks, busses, tractors etc.




They both got to try out the fire hose!

Father's Day

Of course we had to do a Father's Day tie. As Matt said all the kids had a hand in it. Ha ha.

This was a slide show that I made for Matt for Father's Day. What a cute Daddy.

Meeting Baby

One Day Old

Big Brother

Carter and Ella welcome baby home

Big Sister

Ahhhh! Sleeping

Finally Five

Before Baby Parker made his entrance into this world.

Proud Mommy 7lbs 11oz 20 inches

Sleeping baby with cheeks that look extra chubby and kissable

Proud Daddy with his baby boy

Up and at em!

If you have ever felt bad for not working out on a regular basis I can tell you from personal experience that even the small things you do everyday, say like walking into a store or just around your house, really are great exercise. Why do I say this? Because my poor body is in such pain from doing these small tasks. I never knew how many muscles are in my body until I didn't use them for 3.5 months and then I expect them to still know how to work. I was able to start resuming activity this week and basically I haven't done very much but at night I can barely move. It's a good thing that I have a little time to regain strength before I have to deliver a baby!

Almost Done!

I am now 34+ weeks. I can't believe I've made it this far! We have now passed when Carter was born so we know that prematurity wise this baby would be fine in the long run but we are going to go for gold and try to get this baby home with us. I only have to make it about a week and a half longer for that. The last of our family help left yesterday and now we will try to make it work with friends and people from church. We are so blessed and grateful to have the children that we have and this new one to enter into our family. We are constantly amazed at our Heavenly Father's love and that he still answers prayers with miracles. To quote Edwin McCain on my play list "these are the moments I'll remember all my life. I've found all I've waited for and I could not ask for more."

Carter turns Five!!!

When did I get a five year old?

Easter

We had a wonderful CA Easter with temps in the 80's. Of course I was inside in bed but the kids enjoyed it!