Pregnancy Update

2-16-12
Last night I played capture the flag with the kids in the backyard, and I don't know when it happened, but I totally did something to my hip.  I've been dreading this pain a lot.  I had it in the first and second trimesters with Erika until I fixed it with Physical Therapy.  I so don't want to have to go to PT again.  I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what she would do, so I could have Nate do it.  We'll see.  Bums me out.
I was a horrible Mom this morning.  I'm not sure how to cheer myself up in the mornings!  I feel like crap.  This morning, almost first thing, when I came down the stairs, Bradley jumped out to scare me (he's such a fun kid :) ), and I guess from the jump and quick adrenaline rush, I almost threw up.  I've been really nauseous anyway, but that just threw me over the edge.  It's so frustrating.
I wish I could call in sick today, but I have SO much that needs to be done now.  Since I let things go during the first part of the week like I shouldn't.  I really need to get things under control so that I don't have to kill myself the last half of the week.  It's so hard to get things done when I feel like this.  I guess I'm about 11 weeks right now, so I'm hoping the "morning sickness" will be gone in the next month or so.  It was with my boys.  I guess we'll find out soon enough.  I'm starting to wonder if this baby is a girl.  I can't wait to meet my baby.  Everyone around me is having babies right now and that's always hard.  I don't even feel like holding any of them.  Kinda nuts.  Oh well.  7 more months.... I can do it!

Family Date Night

As a little pre-Valentine's celebratin', we decided to do a big family date night.  The girls all went with Daddy, and the boys all went with Mommy.  Kind of a split up family night, but I think that's good sometimes.

Earlier in the day we took Erika to Build-a-bear to make her first stuffed animal.  Most of our kids got one when they were born or shortly after, but not Erika and she was the only one who hadn't been there.  We thought this would be fun for her since the plans for the evening weren't really geared for her.  I had a few coupons, and we had racked up a few gift cards, so the cute, pink Kitty she picked out ended up costing only $7!  Pretty cool.  She was so cute there!!  I loved watching her face as she walked around picking things out.  It was difficult for her to pick out her animal. She wanted them all :).  She talked to the girl that helped her stuff it, and was SO cute about it all.  She loved "bathing" her kitty :).  She picked out some cute clothes and I'm still wondering why Build-a-Bear keeps the cheapest clothing down at kid level.  My kids have never picked anything up high, so we end up saving a little money :).  Nice for me, dumb for them.  She picked out a little cell phone for her kitty and then named her "Pinky" with some help from Mom.  She wasn't really sure what it meant to pick out a name.  She LOVED the box and insisted on carrying the box all the way back to the car.  Totally toughed it out the whole way!  The box was almost as tall as her, so she had to hang her tongue on the last half of the way :).  She had the cutest face on the whole time.  It's so fun to spoil kids sometimes.  She loved the attention.

So anyway, that night, Nate took the girls on a "shopping spree" to pick out a few outfits each.  I've enlisted Charity to give the report on their half of the night.... here it is in her words:
We went to Kohl's and we got some REALLY cute outfits. I got a blue shirt,  a blue dress, two new pairs of jeans and some new tennis shoes!!!  Kelly got a couple really cute shirts and she actually got jeans (she hates jeans by the way)!!!!!!!! She also got some new tennis shoes. After we went shopping we went to Applebee's for dinner. It was lots of fun!!!

The boys and I had so much fun!!!  We stopped at the mall to pick up a gift for Nate, and then had dinner in the Food Court at Hot Dog on a Stick.  It was so fun to hang out with just my boys!  They're all growing up so much!  Bradley talked all the way there and kept saying, "Do I talk too much?", "I'm talking too much, huh?", "I like to talk a lot."  It was so cute!  I loved it.  So then we got to Nickelcade.  I loved their excitement when we got in the place.  They had never been there before but any small arcade places that they have been were more than thrilling, so I figured a place that big could only be better :).  They couldn't believe how many nickels they got!  Cute little Noah took a long time to catch on to the whole earning tickets part, so he spent most of the first hour riding all the little toys.  It makes me laugh just thinking about him sitting on the horse, moving back and forth and saying, "This is boring now, when is it going to be over?..... Can you get me off?"  And then asking to sit on the next one... a boat :).  They all did the same motion and yet he rode them all at least once, leaving the previous one going as he got on the next.  Made me smile.  He also tried every single driving game as well.  I had to push on the gas pedal for him, but he loved it!  Luke and Bradley went around frantically looking for the machine that put out the most tickets :).  They were fun.  Noah and I got to play air hockey too and I couldn't believe how good he was at it!  He's not all that well-known for his hand-eye coordination, so I was really impressed!  He would hit the puck back pretty quickly and blocked his goal really well!  I couldn't believe it!  At one point, after accidentally knocking the puck in his own goal a few times, he announced that we were going to start trying to get it in our OWN goal from now on :).  Makes me laugh.  He's such a funny little guy.  Altogether the boys and I all got 615 tickets!  We decided to divide them up between the 3 of them and they all picked out a wimpy little prize that they loved :).  It was so much fun!  I couldn't believe how well-behaved they were, they all stayed nearby me the whole time, and even though there were kids climbing all over the machines and cheating, they didn't even try any of that.  I was proud of them.  As we were getting into the car, they said, "We need to bring the girls here! They would love this!"  That made me happy to hear that they actually do love being with the whole family.  And that they had enough fun, they wanted to share it with the others.  

It turned out to be a really fun night for everyone.  They all went to bed SO quickly and quietly, with little struggle ;).  I like it when they wear themselves out like that.  Good times.  Unfortunately.... no pictures.

Some more cute ones!

 On our way to Grandpa Russ and Grandma Ruthie's house on Sunday night, I overheard this conversation between Erika and her big sister Kelly.
Kelly: Do you like the Temple?
Erika: Yeah!
Kelly: Do you like Angel Moroni (Kelly still has her crush on Angel Moroni :) )?
Erika: Yeah, I like baby Jesus!  He's so CUTE!  And he's always sleeping.

so adorable.

Then while we were at Grandma and Grandpa's, Lukey came to me and said, "Mom, I think you should get a job at the Fabric Store!"  I asked why, and he said, "Because you're SO good at making stuff!  I think you're the best at making stuff!"

It was really sweet, but then I got to thinking about a conversation we had had earlier this week about how he wanted us to have more money and the solution he had to the problem was that he wanted me to go to work.  We discussed that if I went to work, he would have to go to a babysitter and that a babysitter would cost about as much as I could make if I earned any money at a job.  Then he chimed in with, "I could just go to Carter's!"  Then I had to explain that he couldn't go to Carter's house because his mom works!
Funny kid.  I wish I was worth the money to him :).... have to work on that I guess :)

Journaling

- I am horrible at keeping up on things lately!  I don't even want to look and see how long it's been since my last update.  We had some fun with the adults in Nate's family on Saturday.  It was his Dad's birthday, so we all got together for some dinner and visiting.  It was actually very relaxing.  It's nice to have excuses to get a babysitter and go hang out with family. 2-4-12.

- Today we took Nate's car in (finally) to have it fixed and when the guy looked at it, he realized it wasn't what he was thinking it was.  We're a little nervous to find out how much it's going to cost.  I hate that about cars.  We'll see I guess.  2-6-12

- We just had our first Kirby demo from Steve.  It was a little hectic, we really made him work for it.... The kids all wanted to be up and watching it with us, so he had to entertain the kids and sell us a vacuum at the same time.  It was a lot of fun to watch my cute little brother be so professional.  He is a great salesman.  I really think this will be a good job for him!  Anybody want a demo??  2-6-12

Play Doh

On Thursday we were bored.  Like really bored.  So we decided to make some play doh :).  It's fun that play doh is still somewhat exciting to my kids.  I know they are easy to please because whenever we have someone else here, they are only slightly amused by the stuff.  Carter was even less that that ;).  

I always say, that's what happens when you send your kid to Preschool.  They are no longer entertained by simple means.  I've said this before, haven't I :)

After we played with it, we squished it into some balloons and made little stress balls :)  Another clever idea from Pinterest.  They were less amused by the stress balls than I was ;)  I think they're awesome!