Counting Down

Here I am at 32 weeks. I am glad that I have a little bit of time still so we can get some more remodeling done, but I am sure anxious to have more energy and no nausea. We have her name narrowed down to 2 names. I am kind of rooting for one over the other, but I think I will let Grant decide this one.

Singing Time

Trevor had his first grade performance tonight. He was so excited! He reminded us of this event all month long--almost daily.

But Trevor definitely holds his excitement and any other and all emotion for inside the walls of our home. So even though the pictures don't show it, he really is enjoying himself (: It is so funny going through all the pictures (have I ever said how much we enjoy taking pictures), we have about a hundred pictures and the kids on either side of Trevor are talking and making different gestures; which verifies that they are different pictures, but Trevor has the same stoic look. I love this kid!

Here he is before he found us out in the crowd (do you see him--he is the one in the 3rd row up, 2 kids in from the music teacher's back):

Okay, now he thinks he sees us:

And he does see us, so he has a little wave for us:

And there is even a BIG smile:
He got to play the bells during his favorite song:

What a fun night! Our sweet quiet boy was a star!

Another Year older & Wiser Too

Grant took the day off for his Birthday. It probably wasn't the most fun day for him, but I sure had fun having someone to spend the day with. Mondays are very busy days for me and Grant got to come along for the ride. After getting the boys to school, we took Karmin to speech. We skipped the errands for the day that I usually do and Grant went to a short meeting while Lydia and I took our naps. After he got home we picked the boys up and then headed over to Karmin's dance class. (So I guess Mondays are all about Karmin this year.) It was Grant's first time to see Karmin in her ballet class. They are getting ready for their end-of-the-year performance, so it was a little different than it normally was, but I think he got the gist of it. She is so fun to watch. Then we went out for dinner at a "fancy" restaurant (aka--not drive through). It was so yummy. The last time we went there was about 3 years ago, and I don't know why we waited so long to go again. Todd and Heather came by and dropped off some goodies.

Here is Karmin decorating the cake. She ended up putting a "guy" on the top. It was a smiley face with someone who had no hair; therefore, it was a guy.

We are singing "Happy Birthday" to Grant (and I think he was signing along with us--he knows he has to help us carry a tune):

And then as you can see the kids blew out the candles before Grant did:

So Grant had to light his own candles again (but Ben is getting prepped again):

He tries to block them, but with little luck:

He finally has to take the tactic of letting them blow out the fire starter itself:

And I think after relighting the candles 3 times, he finally got them himself (and since it is 2011 we could multiply the year --obviously the last two numbers--by the number of candles and that is his age--What an Oldie!!):

Happy Birthday to the best man ever!

Daddy's GiRL!

Grant and Karmin ended up matching for church today, so we took the opportunity to photograph them together. What a cute pair!

Flower Girl

Lydia came out and helped me move some flowers up to the house the other day. She loves being outside and she loves to help. She was very obliging to have pictures taken of her---usually cocking her head to the side like she does for the camera. I thought she was really hamming it up when she put her hand over her mouth and was "looking so cute." Until I realized that there was a bee after her sucker that was in her mouth. Oops. In the picture, I actually caught the bee in the corner. She was done with pictures after that.

She had a big week last week. She is usually the one who reminds us to say prayers at meal times--and is often times the most reverent. It seems that her vocabulary has grown so much lately, so we decided to have her start saying her own prayers. I think next she will be added to the Family Home Evening rotation and family prayers. I think she would do well with any of the assignments with FHE except maybe picking the activity. She is a sweet girl. A very dramatic sweet girl. I think the picture with the bee captures her personality very well. But all of the things that she does, reminds us how exciting life really is.

Seating Arrangements

This picture is a year old now. Only a couple of things have changed. Kids have gotten bigger...and so have I. And in this picture, we were "forced" into using a whole bench. If you add all of us up there are 6 (and a half) of us. So if you were to guess how many chairs we need at church to sit in...what would be your guess?

Two. All we need is TWO. Grant holds Karmin and Trevor on his lap. Ben sits in between Grant and me (sharing 1/2 a chair with me) and Lydia sits on my lap. Every time we add another child to our family, I always think that we will actually need to add a chair at church--you know maybe expand to 3 chairs. Then the next one comes, and we manage to sit there in our same two chairs all together (sometimes barley able to breathe).

Fashonista

Need I say any more??

Toothy

I think Trevor has a hard time losing teeth. The little things just want to stay in his mouth. After losing his first tooth in February, the permanent tooth came in, but it started growing behind all his others because he hadn't lost enough teeth to make room for the new one. Then the baby tooth next to it started to become loose. And it stayed that way. That thing has been loose for so long. But it finally came out at dinner last night.

The tooth fairy wasn't very good this week. Ben lost a tooth (actually had it wiggled out by the dentist), and the tooth fairy totally forgot to come...again. When I woke him up the next morning, he told me the tooth fairy didn't come. I apologized and told him that the next night would be better. He then told me that I could just go get my money right then and then I wouldn't have to worry about it. Smarty Pants. I jumped on the opportunity of not having to remember again that night though.

So Trevor had finally lost his second tooth, and did the tooth fairy remember? Nope. Trevor gets up every morning and hangs out with Grant while he gets ready for work. This morning, Grant woke me up while Trev was in the bathroom and asked if I could get his tooth while he distracted Trevor. We need to hire a new tooth fairy.

Mother's Day

I got the coolest gifts this year for Mother's Day.

I got flowers from Grant (my favorite):

Ben made me a clock at school. I love it--it is right next to the calendar that I got for Christmas:

Trevor made this cute picture frame with a picture in it. I think it is so cute--bright and cheerful:

And Karmin once she figured out that everyone was giving me gifts kept telling me all day that she was trying to think of the best thing to give me. I said that her being happy and listening well was the best, but she didn't go for it. She spent about an hour after church making this picture:

Ben also made all the kids lunch when we got home from church so I didn't have to do it. (Grant has to stay after church every week.) I didn't have to change any diapers, I got a nap in (but that is a must-have every day), I didn't cook--I loved it. It was a great day. I love being a mom--it is the best.

Our Own Fairy Tale

I am the type of person that I have a hard time leaving my kids to go on vacation without them. I have so many reasons for this. Sometimes I wish I could be the type of person who could go and travel the world with their spouse...all alone...without kids. But I am not that type of person. I know that I could do it if needs be, but in general I am happy to be home with my kids. And I am okay with that.

However, that being said, I think I could have gone to a tropical place this year for our anniversary if we would have planned accordingly (so maybe I am warming up to leaving my kids for a few days to travel). It is like the sun, a beach, and a chair are just calling my name.

Hawaii wasn't an option, so we decided to bring a bit of Hawaii to us. First we thought of things that we did in Hawaii or could do in Hawaii. I thought that going on a canoe seemed very Hawaiian. We borrowed a canoe and took it down to the lake. Grant brought some Hawaiian music and played that in the canoe as we paddled around the lake. It was so much fun. There were even waves to help us feel like we were on the ocean. (There was wind and a bit of rain too, but who's keeping track.) We thought about Hawaiian food and that a hike would be fun. But not wanting to cook ourselves today, and the only Hawaiian restaurants were a bit of a drive, added to the wind and rain, we decided to just get lunch at a restaurant Grant has been wanting to take me to. Then at night we thought that it would be fun to go to a really expensive restaurant just once--I mean it is our anniversary. We thought of The Melting Pot (think fruit from Hawaii); however, to make a long story short the UPS man infringed on those plans. So we just went from place to place doing different things. It turned out to be a great day.

It was a fun way to spend our day. I love the man that I married. Life is so good. He is a great person. And I am pretty sure that we have the best marriage in the world. I feel that we have been so blessed. When we decided to get married, we hardly knew each other. But if you know something is right, it is--and we both knew it was right.

Day of Sunshine

It was so nice on Sunday. The sun is something that we can pretty much count on one hand how many times it has been seen this year. (I think this has been a common theme of my blog posts lately. I blame it on pregnancy for feeling like it has been such a long winter. I don't think I have ever felt so couped up before.) Well anyway, we decided to take a nice long walk, part of which was in a neighborhood. Karmin was about 1 when we moved from our old house, and so she hasn't really been exposed to "neighborhood life." We started off by playing Pooh Sticks--a race with sticks in a river. Then we spent some time teaching Karmin what sidewalks are, fire hydrants, and the importance of staying off people's property. We finally ended up on the trail that we normally go on that runs along a golf course. The kids enjoy looking for golf balls along the path. It is kind of like searching for Easter eggs. They came home with 5 balls this time. Karmin also came home with a collection of sticks that she acquired and dutifully carried along the way. It was so nice to be outside and enjoy the fresh air.