Carson's Birthday and Conference Weekend

I love conference weekend!  It is one of my favorite times of year!  This year our Saturday was filled with football games so I brought headphones to try to listen to conference.  I wasn't able to hear all of conference, but the parts I listened too were exactly what I needed to hear.  On Sunday during the afternoon session, the girls and I made spider cookies from homemade Oreos.

Evie was so excited about them!  

We celebrated Carson's birthday all weekend long!  On Sunday, the night of his birthday, my mom had us over for dinner, cake, and presents.  

So proud of this 11 year old of ours.  He is all good things!

These four.

So no big deal that I haven't blogged in over two years.  Our four kids are at such fun ages and here's a little update on each of them.  

I always love conference weekend and the October one definitely has a special place in my heart.  Eleven years ago we were living in our condo and my siblings spent Sunday watching conference with us.  The next morning I was induced and at 10:14 on 10/4/2004 our Carson was born.  This Sunday he'll be 11.  I could not be prouder of the person he is.  He's getting close to some tricky years and I hope he continues to make good choices.  We are so lucky to have him as the oldest in our family.  Such a great example to his siblings.  He is so funny.  He wakes up every morning around 6:30, takes a shower, then does coding through MIT.   He is obsessed with football and talks about it all the time.  He is so smart, witty, and has the sweetest testimony.

Annie is really loving dance!  She does Jazz and ballet and is in the Bon Bon dance for our local Nutcracker.  She still loves tumbling, started the violin, and is doing so great in school.

Kai is playing football and loves it, but is worried about tackling because he doesn't want to hurt anyone.  Such a sweetheart our Kai.  Kai is doing awesome in school and is really into science.  He wants to be a dentist or orthodontist and thinks teeth are pretty cool!  

And Evie!  Evie is at one of my most favorite ages and one of the hardest ages for me.  She reminds for so much of Carson at this age.  So sweet, cute, and fun, but she really needs her sleep or watch out.  She's really independent like Carson and keeps telling me I can leave her home when I have to get the kids from school.  Of course that never happens.  She goes to preschool three days a week at the same school our other kids went to.  The teachers tell me they just think she's the cutest thing.  She always wears a watch and necklace to school.  She started this thing where she says, "you got it" and gives me a thumbs up.  I'm practically raising Michelle Tanner.  

So Proud

Tough competition for spots on the fridge tonight.  We received the sweetest note in the mail from Carson's teacher.  So proud of him.  If that wasn't enough good news for one day.  Todd came home from laser tag with the young men and said, "Just so you know your husband is REALLY good at laser tag.  He unfolded his score card to show me his ranking of first.  Ha!  Proud of these two today;)

Love this!

Another pictureless post.

This week I actually tried to consistently exercise.  I recently started running for the first time in two years and felt really good and then felt like I was for sure going to die.  I sat on our sofa for hours after.  I've ran more since then.  The second time I went Todd said, "Pace yourself".  I laughed because of course I'd pace myself, but last time I really didn't.  I felt way better after my second run since I followed that advice.  Evie is doing little crawls this week.  Mostly backwards.  It's so cute.  If she doesn't have a bow in, her mop of hair hangs almost to her eyes.  Kai has been saying the funniest things.  Today he kept talking to Annie about Groundhog Day because she is really excited for it.  He was getting confused though and started calling the groundhog a warthog.  At on point he actually said, "Actually Annie if the warthog sees his shadow we have six more weeks of Christmas."  Todd and I were dying laughing.  He also said "My stomach loves food so much it's jiggly".  Don't know where he gets this stuff.  Annie has a stack of Valentine's in her room she's been making for us all week.  I act like I don't notice because I think they are a surprise.  For a while Kai kept saying he wants to be a doctor when he grows up...like me.  I thought he was understanding I'm not a doctor until Annie asked me to talk at her school for career day.  I was so curious what she thought my career is.  I thought she'd say mom or close to that.  "Aren't you a doctor," she asked me?  Then Kai agreed, "you are a doctor".  oh wow!  Poor Carson has had a fever the past few days.  One minute he's fine and then he can hardly move.  It's so sad.  I'm hoping they think I'm a doctor because I help them feel better.

Sometimes I like Saturdays

Soon I'll have to go back and update, but today I'll start with what's going on with our family now.  I've realized I don't write things down that I want to remember very well when I don't blog.  Today was a very good Saturday.  Which for me is not always the case.  Saturday's are my least favorite day of the week.  Carson had one of his last basketball games of the season.  He is pretty funny to watch.  He has lots of energy on the court and gets a little goofy.  He is getting so much better.  He's really good at passing and dribbling.  After Carson's game I was craving fish taco's so I took the four to lunch with me.  Their kids meals are huge!  Carson had a spy birthday party at our neighbor Spencers.  Perfect day for it.  Gloomy and foggy.  I took the three to the mall with me. Kai is so sick.  His eyes are goopy and swollen.  His nose is a faucett.  When we got to the mall he didn't mind being there, but I felt like a bad mom taking a sick kid out.  We had some extra time before we needed to pick up Carson so I let Annie get her hair curled at one of the kiosks.  While Annie was getting her hair done Kai was telling her how beautiful she looked.  The lady doing Annie's hair was in love.  She asked Kai if he'd be her boyfriend.  Then with a runny nose and everything she had him give her a kiss on the cheek.  Such trouble with that one.  Even when he's sick Kai is such a flirt.  Annie lost a tooth.  It was getting really gross hanging on by a tiny bit.  You could turn it right side up and it remained attached.  Annie wrote letters and drew pictures for the tooth fairy.  She writes the sweetest notes.  Almost every day she writes me little notes or draws me pictures.  They are priceless.  Evie crawled on her hands and knees forward once today.  Why is she growing up so fast!

Just a few more weeks.

Time just might fly when you don't blog.  In three weeks or less our baby girl will be here.  It's been so long since we've had a newborn.  I can't wait.  This pregnancy has definitely been an emotional roller coaster.  Just when I find myself relaxing something will come up.  At my last doctors appointment my doctor checked and she's either breech or transverse.  Hopefully she'll turn on her own.  If not my doctor will try to turn her next week.  If that doesn't work out I'll probably be having my first c-section.
So that I'll remember.  This pregnancy...
our little girl has moved more than any other baby before.
I've actually liked most of my maternity clothes and still feel like some fit.  (H & M came to Utah at a good time)
I'm enjoying the end more because I know it's the last time I'll ever experience this.
I've loved it that Carson gives my tummy hugs every night, Annie can't wait to have a sister, and Kai keeps asking when his baby will come out of mommy's tummy.
I feel like Todd and I have talked enough about the hard things for each of us when I'm pregnant that I'm not as much of an emotional roller coaster and he's the best husband to a pregnant wife I could imagine.
I've been craving Cafe Rio, Orange Soda with tons of ice and snow cones...blue cotton candy or pina colada.

My heartburn/reflux makes it so hard to sleep.  It's by far the worst of any pregnancy.  I'm too paranoid to take anything but Tums.
Annie saw my stomach with my shirt up the other day and she gasped so loudly Todd heard it down the hall.  I don't think my stomach can stretch anymore.
Carson hopes this little girl has blue eyes or blonde hair or both so she'll look like him a little.
Loved being pregnant with these girls and other friends that are still pregnant.  These girls both have baby boys now.

Making me happy.

St. Patricks Day.  

Even though it was a few days ago, dreary weekends are the perfect time for a holiday.

The leprechauns dyed our milk green and brought a little breakfast surprise.  Of course our kids pretty much just picked out the marshmallows and left the rest.  They are the best part. 

 Corned beef dinner.  

We had corned beef with my family last weekend.  I had to have it again this weekend.

Happy kids just out of the tub.

Kai has been giving me a run for my money lately.  He is in a whining phase.  

Today this boy made me very happy.  He hardly whined at all and he was so cute and happy after a really long bath.  

Making me happy today...

Golden Spoon- I have been craving it.  There is one right by Kai's school.

Just before we pick him up this girl has been sharing my craving with me.

 Bright skinny jeans on a sunny day. My cousins wife has been trying to convince me to get these from Target for weeks.  She has so many different pairs and every time we pick our kids up from kindergarten I see her wearing a different color.  They always look cute on her so I thought I'd give them a try.  I got them in a way bigger size and I am loving not having a maternity panel.  I got so many comments on them at Ikea today.

This outfit makes me laugh too.  Todd thinks the maternity shirt I'm wearing from H & M looks like the one Jay Leno always wears and he is not the biggest fan of skinny jeans.  Perfect outfit for a girls night tonight.

Think Pink!

Last year at this time our family went through some hard things.  Gratefully the quotes I posted the other day hopefully won't apply to us again anytime soon.  Grateful for cute friends that text to make sure everything is okay when they read them though.  For almost 28 weeks I have debated sharing this news on our blog, but here we go.  The three people that read our blog probably already know all this.  We are having a baby girl in June.  Could not be more excited or stressed out about the whole thing.  

Pinked out at 26 weeks.
Since then I've said hello to the third trimester, a much bigger tummy (girl is growing), heartburn, headaches, and randomly falling asleep mixed with insomnia.  Sunday and Monday began the anniversary of 6 weeks of heartbreak for our family.  So for the next 6 weeks I'm going to blog about everything that is making me happy lately.  This growing baby girl of ours is a good place to start.