InstaFriday!!!

Just some pictures off my phone from the last few weeks. It's become a weekly tradition of getting blizzards and heading to the park. It's finally starting to get warm enough! Hallelujah!!! :)

My little monkey, she loves to climb: (so different from my very cautious Tucker who stays away from anything even remotely dangerous, on the playground anyway!)

 

Oh, and if you're in the market for a make up artist, I know a good one!

 

Morning walks with our friends are the best!!! I loved that Maggie was just sitting outside wearing her Tiger hat when we showed up to head on our walk. She wore it the whole time, crazy lady! :)

And afternoon play dates outside finally with our neighbor friends. It has been so much fun this week being able to get outside and be and meet our new neighbors. Tucker has already become good friends with this little guy, Cade who lives across the street. Although, the begging EVERYDAY after school to go to his house to see if he can play is getting a bit old. I don't want to scare them off by letting Tucker go over every day to ask if he can play, so I've tried to limit it. :) I am glad Tucker will know some kids in his school next year though, when he goes to Sunrise.

My good friend also lives right behind us and it is fun having her so close with her three boys. Her boys are so nice to my kids and always invite them over to play in the backyard when they are out playing. Tucker loves it!

And this silly girls seriously keeps me entertained EVERY SINGLE DAY! I can't get enough of her!

 

She also keeps her self entertained, and is so proud of herself when she does something funny or charming! :)

Of course, for the weekend it turned colder again, and daddy was finally able to make it to a soccer game with us. Taylor was so happy to have her daddy there. These two are as thick as thieves. She loves her some daddy!

{Telling secrets during Tuckers soccer game}

And while I love having my kids come in the morning and sleep and cuddle with me for a while, when they fall asleep in your bed because they think they own the place, you know you have to lay some rules down:

 

But I still love that sleeping beauty of mine!

And we were so blessed that on May Day, it started to get warm and beautiful again! This time I think it's here to stay, hallelujah!!! :) Even the pick up line at Tuckers school was beautiful! :)

April...

April also brought the start of Spring Soccer. This boy loves soccer and it makes me so happy to have him enjoy a sport like this. I asked him this winter if he wanted to do basketball, and he said no, just soccer! Of course, a few weeks later when all of his friends were doing basketball, he wanted to do it. So maybe we'll try that next year. But for now, he's a soccer boy. It's fun to go to his games, because they are still so young that a lot of times they are just in their own little worlds out there on the field, and of course, are still just learning the sport, but they have definitely improved since last fall and even since the beginning of this spring season. He is aggressive though, so I enjoy seeing that in him, and he has a pretty good kick, he can get the ball out when he needs to. They don't play positions or anything, but his coach told him to kind of hang back a bit to defend the goal, so maybe we have a future defender or goalie on our hands? Who knows!:)

It has been SOOOOO cold at the games. And so freakin' windy; We have to bundle up and wear coats and gloves and hats. It is finally starting to warm up to enjoy the games. (Now that there are only 2 games left!) :)

 

Grandma sent Tucker this high flying spinning wheel thing, and Tucker was so excited about our high ceilings to be able to watch it really fly! One benefit of the tall tall ceilings. I do love them, but am dreading having to figure out how to clean the fan up there!!!???

And my little poser...

I love this girl so much!

The view from the playroom window. Total suburbia! But do you notice that big nice pool that our next door neighbors have??? We definitely have to become friends with them!!!

This came home in Tuckers Friday folder a few weeks ago. Apparently he was the student of the month in February and we had no clue. He didn't tell us, the school didn't tell us. They usually have a program that the parents are invited to, but since he is in afternoon he missed it, and the principal just came in and told him during his class time. This little picture was hanging in the hall for the whole month of Feb.:

They have different characteristic traits that they try and focus on each month. February was Diligence, and the teachers nominate their students based on this character trait. This is what his teacher wrote about him:

So proud of my little man!

Kathryn dropped this little snack off at our house one day as a house warming gift. She knows us so well! :) We love us some chips and salsa around here, and Mexican is such a staple in our diet, we went through this pretty fast! Thanks Kathryn! :) Now we don't have to go to Rancho Viejo so much where they think she is my mom! :) She walked into Rancho one day a few months ago, and one of the servers said, 'Oh, you're Taraka's mom!' And when she told me that, I thought there are a few things wrong with this. Apparently we go there so much, that the server knows my name! And obviously knows that Kathryn and I are connected in some way! :) We've made a conscience effort to stay away for awhile! Although I do miss their chips and salsa! :) This home made salsa from Kathryn was pretty darn good though! :)

So glad that things are finally starting to feel a bit more normal and at home around here. April was nice to get back in the swing of things with routines and figuring out life and schedules in our new home.

Spring Break...

The start of Spring Break was a little rough with Tucker being sick, but once we got over that, these two sure had a great time together. Keyton stayed at our house for a few nights, and they had so much fun. Kelli and the girls were going to head back to Quincy after just a few days and Allen & Keyton were going to stay for the whole week, which Tucker was really excited about. But Keyton decided he would miss his mommy too much and decided to go home with her. So a lot of our fun plans didn't happen, and it was rainy and wet outside, so we did what we could, and made the most of it. 

One lovely thing about this new house, is hands down the play room. The kids go up there for hours at a time and I don't even see them or hear them! It's fabulous! :) Most of the time they want me in there with them, and I am, but when I need to get things done, it's great! :) Keyton & Tucker spent a lot of time up there. They called me in and told me that they had made Jurassic Park!

And then the next day they rebuilt it, and they said that the dinosaurs wanted to get a little sun by the window before going into their new home. :)

Next time Keyton comes, we will for sure do our movie night, our hike and our trip to jump and bounce; all the things we were planning on doing while he was here!

We also did have some fun at friends house. One whole afternoon of playing Skip-Bo while it rained outside, was actually really fun! And these girls are all like sisters to Tucker & Taylor. I love it!

A few trips to the library...

And we celebrated this Lady's birthday! It doesn't get any better than a Brazilian Churrascaria!

Some early morning play time on mommy's bed, before she's fully awake. I was awoken by my body being a monster truck race course.

And this girl had some indoor picnics with her animals:

One fun thing about moving is re-discovering old toys, or in this case, dress up clothes. This wig was rediscovered and has made many appearances on the kids as of late. They think it's hilarious! :) And so do I! :)

It was a low-key and relaxed spring break, but that is what we needed right now to get all of the stuff we still have to do around here done. It is coming together, slowly but surely! :)

I also got a glimpse of what our summer is going to be like if I don't get my butt in gear and start getting things planned! :) It just might be a loooooong summer with a newborn and two stir-crazy kids!

Easter...

Easter this year for us, was a bit hectic with the move and everything. We did an Easter Egg hunt with my dad's ward the week before Easter weekend, and the kids had fun there, but then on the Saturday before Easter day, I was just in moving mode, I had Ben home for the day and had all of these things I wanted to get done, and didn't even think about an Easter Egg hunt! Then that night I started seeing pictures and posts on facebook about all of the fun Easter egg hunts my friends were doing for their kids, and I felt really bad! Sorry guys!

I actually barely even remembered to get anything to go in their baskets. Thank goodness for the dollar store and some clothes that I had already purchased for the summer from Old Navy. :) On Easter Sunday we were woken up at 3am by a puking Tucker! The poor child, got it bad. Both Ben and Taylor over the course of the past few weeks had had the puking bug, but for both of them, they puked once or twice and were down for a day and 24 hours later were fine, Tucker was throwing up ALL day. He would tell me he was so thirsty so I would give him some water or gatorade or Sprite, and sure enough a few minutes later, he was at the toilet dry heaving. It was not a fun day! Ben went to church without us, and we just hung out all day.

I sure didn't think I would be spending my day like this:

 

I think Taylor was just tired from watching Tucker sleep on the couch all day. :) She passed out too in the afternoon. I wasn't complaining, this girl has nixed naptime for a few months now.

I had attempted to do something Eastery the night before by putting out their baskets, but they didn't get much action with the sick-o.

I did force them to take a picture, which you can tell they were really excited about! :)

I felt really bad, too. My brother and his family had driven in that day for Easter Sunday and a big dinner at my dad's house. Luckily they were going to be here for most of the week because of Spring break, so I knew we'd have time to play, my kids were just so excited to see their cousins, and of course, that wasn't going to happen with the puking going on. So we had to postpone Easter dinner at my dads.

The next day, Tucker seemed to be feeling better, he hadn't thrown up since 7 the night before, and when he was eating and acting fine on Monday, I figured we were in the clear. We waited for the afternoon to head up to Papa's house to play with our cousins just to make sure, but he seemed fine. So, we were finally able to start the Easter festivities.

Egg's were dyed:

Bubbles were blown, and Papa's driveway decorated with chalk:

It was such a beautiful day!

And finally, when Ben got off of work, the eggs were hidden...

This one sure loves her daddy, they are so cute together!

And then we had a delicious dinner with my dad and brother and his family and it was just a great evening. I felt really bad that we didn't even go to church on Easter Sunday to celebrate the real meaning of Easter, so I tried really hard to always remind my kids WHY we were celebrating. 

Funny Story, a family just moved into our branch and they have a little 6 or 7 year old boy. When we were doing an Easter lesson on the Sunday before Easter (when I was there) this kid knew every detail about the last week of Christ's life, and kept on raising his hand and saying all of these details that I was shocked a little boy would know. So, the music leader asked who the other two men were that were on the cross next to Jesus and Tucker was so excited to finally know the answer to a question he just blurted out 'They were Kings!!!' And he looked at me so proud. I didn't have the heart to tell him the truth! :) I just leaned over to one of my friends who teaches in primary and was like, 'yup, that's MY kid!' :) So maybe we have a few details to work out about the last week of Christ's life, we've got time, right??? :)

Here's hoping to a better and more meaningful Easter celebration next year! :)

(though it was fun having cousins in town!)

Pregnancy Update...

Today I am 34 and 1/2 weeks pregnant! That means only 5 and a half weeks to go! I can't believe it! This pregnancy has gone by so quickly! Things are going well, I have some major Acid Re-flux issues, but nothing a little cocktail of Zantac and Tums can't cure! :) I would seriously die without those two pills. But I can't complain, because other than that I have fairly easy pregnancies. And other than being EXHAUSTED 24/7 I am feeling great!

I sometimes feel guilty for the leisurely mornings we have around here. I am in a great stage to be pregnant with my last baby. Most of the time we have no obligations in the morning, and the only thing we really HAVE to do during the days is make sure Tucker gets to school by 12:30. I used to feel guilty for our lazy morning lifestyle, until I realized that this is the LAST time EVER that my life will be like this and I decided I'm just going to enjoy it. The kids come into bed with me every morning, and we play and talk and snuggle for however long we want to! It is wonderful, and I realize I am so lucky to be in this stage right now. When this baby comes in a few short weeks, these mornings are going to be a lot more hectic and stressful and I will probably even be more tired. Then we will have our summer to adjust to being a family of 5 and then Tucker will start 1st grade in the fall, and our mornings will be a whole lot earlier, filled with routines, and getting kids out the door and cranky kids (probably) so I'm just enjoying it now while I can! Poor Eric Enloe was at our house  yesterday and thought that me and the kids were already out and about at 9:30, and that he was here alone and so he was pretty shocked when Taylor came wandering out of our bedroom at 9:30, so he peeked in and there were me and Tuck also just lounging on the bed. (Yes, I was embarrassed by that one, luckily Eric is like family) :)

I also have started getting the nightly leg cramps and have to sleep with at least 4 pillows propped up in their very particular places, or I can't sleep right. Sleep has left me for most of the night as I am battling the cramps and re-flux and comfort issues, so once I do go down, that is why I sleep so late in the morning. I will be glad to get back to my normal sleeping habits when this baby comes, but will for sure miss the lazy mornings with my kids in bed with me. It is my absolute favorite part of the day with them!

Anyway, this pregnancy has been a bit different than my previous pregnancies. I don't know if you remember with Tucker or Taylor, but I get huge! This time around, I have remained fairly small (for me) and haven't gained any weight! Let me back up, I started this pregnancy bigger than with either of my other two, and so I am actually the same weight right now that I was when I delivered Taylor, and that's because I was that same weight when I got pregnant with this one last fall! I'm pretty sure that has something to do with it. I wasn't obese or anything, but I had some lbs. I could lose, I just didn't think it would happen while I was pregnant! :) I didn't gain very much with Tucker, I only gained 18 lbs. with him and he was 9 1/2 lbs, and with Taylor I think I gained 23 lbs. So either I am going to have a small baby, or this little man inside of me is just a beast who is sucking the life out of me! :) ha ha!

I went in last month for my monthly appointment and the Dr. told me to start eating 300 more calories a day, this was, of course, after he made sure I was eating right. I assured him I was, I have never had a problem with that, and hey, if the doc orders me to eat more, I have no problem with that either! :) Then I went into my appointment this month sure that I had gained some weight, and I was down a pound! So, he wanted to get an ultrasound just to make sure the baby was OK.  Even though his heartbeat was good, I am measuring right on track at 34 weeks, and my blood tests and urine samples all have come back fine.  I told him my theory of how when Tucker was just 3 days old, at his 3 day Dr  appt. his pediatrician told me that she knew why I stayed so small & he was so big, because he had the biggest juiciest umbilical cord that she had ever seen! She told me everything I ate during my pregnancy went straight to him! So, my theory as to why I'm not gaining any weight this time around would be because this child is a huge beast inside of me, who has a huge umbilical cord and is taking everything I have! He laughed and just said, we'll see at your ultrasound! :) He also told me that if I hadn't gained any weight at this point, then really I am losing weight, because the baby is obviously growing. So, I went in on Monday the 22nd for the Ultrasound, and they measured everything from his bones to the fluid around him, and she said that everything looked perfectly healthy and normal! And my doc says that things like this just happen sometimes and every pregnancy is different! But I'm not complaining about having to up my calorie intake, I know that this is rare, and it has been a while since I haven't had to watch what I eat. I am enjoying every minute of it. Fries and milkshakes for lunch every day and as a snack every night before bed, sounds good to me! :) Oh, and I just discovered that Dairy Queen has cheese curds. I love cheese curds, you know I've been there a few times these past few weeks! :)

30 weeks

31 weeks

and 34 weeks!

I realize that I look exactly the same in all of these photos as far as the hair and accessories go. I just don't have the energy to put much effort into my looks, so this is what the next 5 and a half weeks or so are going to look like for me.  I have my staple 5-6 outfits that are comfy and I actually like, so we go through the rotation, and I will happily destroy all of my maternity clothes after this baby comes! :)

And while I am so excited for little man to get here, it has just recently hit me that I don't have a lot of time to get things ready! Aaaack! And don't get me started on  names; we are clueless!

Any suggestions???

Grandma in town...

My mom came into town for almost a week after we moved in. She actually got here on the day the branch members helped us move the big stuff, and was here to help us get settled. It was so nice having her here! My big belly prevents me from doing a ton, in fact I have just recently had to start stopping at the top of the stairs to take a little break after I go up them. I'm pretty sure that the end is near!!! :) 

Anyway, we had a fun time with grandma, as usual, and a busy time filled with shopping trips to get things for the house, Dr. appointments, lots of visits with friends who came to help us get settled and organized, lots of  doughnuts, lunches and dinners out or ordering them in since we didn't have much food in the house, lots of watching the college basketball playoffs, and LOTS and LOTS of unpacking! It was a dream having her here, when she left and I realized I didn't have four hands anymore, it was a really sad day!

Of course, the only thing I took any picture of is our fun trip bowling. Tucker had actually been begging for weeks to go bowling, so we thought that it would be a perfect ending to grandma's trip, to take her bowling. (That and we found an Groupon!) :)

Taylor was very excited about bowling, I think this was her first time!

I got lots of butt shots of people helping Taylor, including one that someone took of mine, but that picture didn't make the cut for the blog...sorry! :) 

Also in this picture, it's so cute, is Owen cheering Taylor on, encouraging her! 

Taylor & daddy... (The kids had bumpers when they bowled, so we just needed to make sure Taylor's ball actually got all the way down the alley! :)

Tucker's BFF, Owen, came with us. These two have been inseparable these days! Which I don't mind, because Owens mom is one of my oldest and dearest friends! :) I love that they are so close too!

It was a much needed break to get out of the messy and unorganized house! If I don't watch out, I tend to let things like that overwhelm me!