Courtesy Of Curious George!

On Monday morning Owen woke up not feeling good so we stayed home from school. While chilling out watching Curious George, Owen decided he wanted to make a vending machine just like George did. I kept telling him that George is a monkey so he can do things we can't do just like the show tells the kids, but he was pretty adamant about it. I decided to give it go!

We had one of the car seat boxes in the garage so I decided to cut square flaps in it for the food. Then I drew in circle buttons to push and then cut slats for the coins to go in. The last touch was the big flap at the bottom to pull out your purchase. With a little imagination we had a vending machine. Of course Owen pointed out over and over that it didn't have a turny thing in it like George, but I think he really liked it since he was pretty excited to show it to Daddy when he got home.

These Are A Few Of Ella's Favorite Things!

Eating  - New favorites are cranberry sauce & celery with cream cheese

Shoes or Boots

Using a stool to help her get up on EVERYTHING!

Drawing - On paper or with her Magna Doodle

Talking - She's saying tons more words and some phrases like "Those My Socks!"

Iced Tea

Doing Motions With Songs - I have to video tape her doing Away In A Manger!

Taking Her Socks Off During Naptime

Our New Ride!

For the last couple years we've known that when the time came for us to trade in our Chrysler Town & Country we would buy a Honda Odyssey. For some reason...probably God planting the thought in my head....a couple weeks ago I started thinking about looking on Craigslist for a van. I just could not get the thought of my head. That weekend we went to Honda of Fife to test drive one. They had a 2006 and a 2008. The 2006 was pretty worn and it was gold. Our current van is gold and I'm not really a fan. The 2008 van was nice, but it didn't have leather and with kids you need leather. They did say they could upgrade to the leather for us, but at the time we just weren't ready to make a deal. We needed to check out our finances a bit more closely first. Last Monday night we decided that it was a good deal and we should head down there and see what we could work out. Unfortunately the van was already in the process of being bought by someone else. The salesman did say that the people trying to buy it had horrible credit so their financing might not go through. We weren't worried though I knew that God had the perfect van in store for us.

Old Town & Country Van

The very next afternoon the guy from Honda of Fife called to see if we were interested in the gold van. I told him we weren't, but if the other van came available to let us know. Then while the girls were taking their naps I decided to check online to see if there were other vans in the area that had leather already. I really didn't want to have to wait for them to put the leather seats in. I ended up finding a 2008 Odyssey EX-L at the Honda of Sumner I wanted to go check out. I called Michael and told him about it and asked him if he'd call the dealership to make sure it was still there so we didn't drive all the way down there for nothing. It was still there so after Taekwondo the kids and I went home, picked up Michael and headed out.

By the  time we got down there it was almost 7pm! Thankfully dealerships are really good about having things for kids to do. They have free popcorn for them to munch on and one of the vans was plugged in so the kids could watch a movie on the DVD player. The salesman Mike had the van waiting for us so I could take it for a test drive. Michael stayed with the kids. It wasn't much different from the 2006 I test drove at the Honda of Fife. The Odyssey drives like a car...it's great!

Anyways when we got back the salesman took the keys to my van and started doing all the research to be able to tell me what they would give us for trading it in. Of course they came back with a ridiculous number and I wasn't going to have it. I actually brought up on their computer the Kelly Blue Book price that I came up with. I told them I wanted 6K for our van and that was it. I also told him I had a check in my purse and this was what we were willing to pay. Unfortunately this is where there was a bit of a miscommunication between me and the salesman. It wasn't discovered though until the final paperwork was being signed and Michael was already installing the car seats in the van. It's okay though...I thought we were going to get a SCREAMING deal, but we still got a great deal! It was fun dealing with him by myself. I felt like a woman in charge! :)

I totally wasn't expecting them to let us take the van that night because I needed to change the check I had from Honda of Fife to Honda of Sumner. They did though! Since it was a bit unexpected we hadn't cleaned out the van. It's amazing what accumulates in all those nooks and crannies. When we had made the deal I called my parents and they came down...the dealership wasn't far from their house. It was nice to have them there to keep an eye on the kids while Michael and I did the paperwork.

When it was time to go we got pictures with the old van and the new one. It was nice that my parents got to see the old van off since my Dad bought that van for my Mom brand new for Christmas in 2000. He even had our friend Santa Al deliver it to her. When we were getting in the van Owen and Ella were quite excited about it, but Jack was SO unhappy. He kept saying he wanted our old van. Then as we got closer and closer to home Owen got more and more agitated and started saying he wanted our old van too. The next morning Owen had finally come around and now he thinks the new van is "awesome"! Jack still wanted the old one back!

We took a long trip to OR for Thanksgiving and it was so nice. It drove like a dream and the kids had fun watching a movie on the DVD player. We have told them that the DVD play is only for long trips. I'm not going to have them watching a movie every time we get in the van.

Place Cards!

About a week ago my SIL Stephanie asked me if I would mind making place cards for the Thanksgiving dinner she was planning for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Of course I said I'd love too!

Didn't they turn out cute? I used my friend Kim's Big Shot Die Cut Machine and cut out the Pumpkin Pie paper. The acorn and the name portion are  actually raised up for a 3 dimensional look. So cute and so simple.

Thankful Bags!

This last weekend I spent a bunch of time making goodies for my MOPS ladies. Of course you can't make goodies without letting the kiddos sample them.

I let each of the kids have one of these triple chocolate balls I made. I'm guessing they were pretty good since this is what Ella's face looked like and all three of them asked for more.

These chocolate cookies were actually stuffed with a York Peppermint Patties, topped with melted white chocolate and candy cane pieces. Yummy!

Goodies bags with 2 chocolate covered pretzels rolled in pecans, peanut buttercup, M & M Cheerios bar, Triple Chocolate Ball and the York Peppermint Cookies. It was fun making these...even though my back was killing me from being on my feet for hours two days in a row, but it was all worth it to be able to say Happy Thanksgiving to some pretty great ladies!

Night Cap!

On Wednesday night right after dinner Jack asked to go to bed. I was doing dishes so I looked up and it was only 5:25pm. Seriously...you want to go to bed buddy? I told him to go upstairs and Daddy would get him ready for bed. So he headed upstairs. Later on I found out (I was visiting with Logan's Mom) that he went upstairs put his pajamas on, got in bed and told Daddy to kiss him goodnight. Poor kids must have been worn out!

The cute thing is he wore a night cap to bed! GG made this nightcap to go along with Owen's "Owen" outfit that he had when he was around 12 months old. We've always laughed about the night cap because it was HUGE in comparison to the outfit. I mean I could wear it! Anyways Jack ended up sleeping all night long and didn't wake up until 7:30am.....14 hours of sleep!

I Feel Like I Can Finally Breathe!

On Wednesday I went in to see the doctor for another check up just to make sure things were progressing well. The PA is so wonderful! I just love her! She never makes me feel bad and we have a lot of fun chatting. She first did an internal ultrasound and we got to see the baby and my goodness that baby was moving around all over the place. In fact so much so it was almost impossible to get a good picture. We also go to see the cute little heart beating away.

11 weeks right on track!

After the internal ultrasound she decided it would be fun to see if we could hear the heartbeat with the Doppler thing. This was something I really nervous about. I wasn't expecting her to check for the heartbeat at this appt I figured it wouldn't be until my next appt and I was thinking they would just check for the heartbeat and not do an ultrasound. That was the way we first knew that Kyan had died...she couldn't find the heartbeat. This was so much better...getting to see the heart beating first and then having her check for it relaxed me since I KNEW it was actually beating. The nice thing was she found the heartbeat right away. It was SO nice to hear that thump thump! She also did another ultrasound this time external trying to get a better picture, but the baby was just not cooperating. Cute stinker! :)

11 weeks 1 day

This week I took out all my maternity clothes. I just couldn't take it anymore! We also decided it was time to officially tell the kids. They were really effected by the miscarriage so we wanted to wait until I got further along. At dinner tonight we talked about how God answers prayers and he answered our prayer for a new baby. The kids had actually been talking about wanting another baby for the last couple of weeks so they were very happy!

New Belt!

Today at Taekwondo Owen got presented with his new belt. I was just expecting them to give them to the kids and it wouldn't be a big deal at all, but they did a little ceremony. Miss Kelsey called each child up and stated that they were now Junior something or other...I honestly can't remember.

Then the kids shook her hands and said, "Thank you ma'am!"

So happy about his new white belt with an orange stripe!

I'm so proud of Owen for being such a good listener and earning this all on his own. He still has a hard time with the idea of going to Taekwondo, but once he gets there he really enjoys it. I hope it's something he wants to continue for a long time!

Blogging Slump

Life around here hasn't been super exciting lately and along with the fact that I haven't really been in a picture taking mood that adds up to little to no blogging on my part. We really haven't done anything super exciting just the normally weekly tasks.

Monday - Homeschool

Tuesday - MOPS & Taekwondo

Wednesday - Stay Home Day (Or this week Dr Appt day for me)

Thursday - Occupational Therapy

Friday - Homeschool

Add on all the other little tasks like dishes, laundry, sweeping, preparing for MOPS Crafts, cooking and so on and it's busy busy busy around here. Normal...life!

But normal life for me right now is EXHAUSTING! I'm so tired that all I want to do is sit or lay on the couch and sleep! These kiddos of mine make that a pretty difficult task. Still I try! I have been popping in more movies lately just to have a moment to sit down with them and relax. Of course for some reason they feel they need to eat AT LOT when they are watching a movie so I usually end up getting up a time or two. I have gotten better at telling the boys to bring me things or go get something for themselves.

As for these pictures they had absolutely nothing to do with this post at all, but I honestly hate posting without pictures and I couldn't really think of a whole post to go along with them. Ella does look super cute in her Hello Kitty boots (on the wrong feet) wearing Logan's gloves though so that's reason enough to post them right there!

June Isn't That Far Away!

This time around we ARE NOT going to find out the sex of the baby!

It was about 2 weeks ago that the thought came into my head and it's just been stuck there and I feel really strongly about it. For me it doesn't matter if the baby is a boy or a girl. Since we have 2 boys and a girl we have everything we need. I have bins in the garage full of clothes for both sexes. I figure I'll just wash the newborn stuff and take a couple outfits for each sex to the hospital. We will have names picked out ahead of time so we'll know what to call the baby once the doctor says, "It's a....". Besides how many times in your life do you truly get to be surprised??

Also we never put the baby in it's room right away...we have an office that's connected to our bedroom so the baby will sleep in the pack and play in there for the first 3 months. That will give us plenty of time to get the crib set up in either Ella's or the boys' room. With this being our fourth child we have all the necessary baby gear....car seat, stroller, swing, bouncy chair and so on. I figure if anyone wants to buy us anything go ahead and get us some diapers and wipes....we will definitely need those!

I think the only time I will be a bit bummed that I don't know is when I'm at the Mill Creek Garage Sales in May. It would be fun to know so I could get some specific outfits, but I figure if I see something in a newborn size that is absolutely adorable I'll just buy it and if it ends up being for the wrong sex than I'll just give it away to a friend.

20 Kids

So what do you think of the Duggar's news about baby #20 being on the way? Were you surprised? Should we really be.....after all the show is called 19 kids and counting!!!

Personally they and their lifestyle doesn't bother me one bit.....okay I did watch the show on Tuesday night and during it they said they don't dance and I would have a problem with that! Also I'm more a jeans girl than a dress and skirt girl so that would bug me too, but those are little things. In regards to their belief that every child is a gift from God I wholeheartedly agree with them. While watching the show you can see they are raising their kids wonderfully. I know the older ones help out and I'm sure it is hard to have one on one time with each child, but I can only imagine what it's like to grow up with so many other siblings to play with. I highly doubt anyone is lacking for attention!

Do I think that Michelle Duggar should give it a rest and stop having kids? No...if that's something that her and Jim Bob want to do that's fine. It's their family! I love that they are hardworking and don't live off the government. They aren't asking anyone for help or a hand out. Also I do have some very strong believes when it comes to birth control so I understand her perspective on that matter. For me personally I will never (again) use the pill or an IUD for birth control. Condoms (although I hate them) and sterilization are okay in my book though.

A couple other things that stood out to me on the show last night was the fact that they don't have a TV. I seriously LOVE this. I wish I had the guts to throw our TV out. I love the way their kids play and play and play. I'm sure it's easier with having so many and the age differences...there is always SOMEONE to play with you. The other thing was the whole courtship thing....I think that's awesome! To actually be asked to go into a courtship with a guy and have him commit himself to you without all that physical stuff. I know it would be hard and it is totally old fashioned, but still I think it's very cool.

So what are your thoughts on the subject?

Our Day!

Today we were all feeling pretty rough...having a cold sucks! So this morning the TV was our friend and we just kind of had whatever for breakfast. Dry Corn Flakes, Nutri-Grain Bars, Bananas and Multi Grain Cheerios. Nothing that took Mama any time or extra energy that's for sure!

Since we were just having a relaxed morning before heading out for homeschooling at Miss Kim's, I brought the girls highchairs in the living room so they could sit and eat with us.

They liked being so close!

Where's Logan? Where's Ella?

Later on after school the girls decided to hang out on the step to the garage and drink their sippy cups. I swear I can envision them 60 years from now sitting next to each other in rocking chairs on the front porch drinking their tea and spying on the neighbors.

Synchronized drinking!

Ella is totally in this goofy phase when she smiles. She thinks she has to lift her head up, close her eyes and smile really really big! Silly girl!

Logan just started saying "chee" and when I snapped this picture I knew instantly I would have to email it to her mom right away. Such a cutie pie!

Testing

Tonight Owen has his first testing at Taekwondo and he did great! He had to do all his moves in sets of 5...5 jumping jacks, 5 punches, 5 kicks and he had to yell. He listened really well to Master Kelsey and now he gets to move up to his next belt. I believe it's a white belt with a yellow stripe.

So Refreshing!

On Friday I went in for my first official prenatal appointment. It's funny because they schedule these appointments to take so long because they assume they are going to have to go over everything with you. Well when it's your 6th pregnancy it's a bit redundant! I kind of feel like I know the in's and out's of it. Needless to say I spent a bunch of time in the waiting room. It was okay though because in the end I got to see this cute little baby again!

It just totally amazes me how much development is going on in there! The baby looks great! The PA spent a good amount of time looking at the baby. I got to see the heart beating and she got some great angles of the baby. The baby is measuring at 9 wks 3 days.

This picture is cool to me because it's like you are looking straight at the baby and it's laying down on it back. You see the two darker spots on the top...those the two sections of the brain! The little arms are right below the head and the legs are at the bottom. When this shot was in motion I got to see the baby moving it's little hands....thinks evil villain in a movie rubbing his hands together and going, "Mahaaa!" I also got to see the baby kicking and moving it's whole body around...like doing a happy dance. It's such a nice relief to know that everything is progressing well. My next appointment is going to be a little further out so I know I will be ready to see the baby again by that time. Prayer for my anxiety level would be greatly appreciated!  

Michael took a picture of me on Saturday night. I'm 9 wks 4 days. Pooching out already...thankfully my jeans are still fitting, but I'm sure it won't be long and the maternity clothes bin will be coming out. Just for my sanity though I think I'm going to hold off until I'm out of the first trimester!

Vroom Vroom!

A week ago one of Michael's coworkers gave us a new toy....a motorcycle. Not just any motorcycle a motorcycle for Owen! At first I was like, "NO WAY!" But I have to say it's pretty darn fun to ride on!

It wasn't exactly in working condition when we got it so Michael had to do some work on it. After 2 hours of changing the oil, replacing the spark plug and figuring out the choke and other stuff he got it running. I also had to take the front tire up to Discount to have them pump it up since Michael's air compressor wasn't doing the job.

After Michael took it for a ride then it was Owen's turn. That lasted about 1 minute...he's still a bit freaked by it.

Then it was time to switch helmets so Jack could go on it. We are going to get real bike helmets for the boys, but for now these work.

Jack LOVED it! He rode on it for quite a while.

The nice thing about the bike is it only has 1 gear so there is no shifting and it only gets up to about 35 mph tops. After Jack's turn it was my turn. I drove down the road a bit and on my first turn I ended up crashing. Don't freak out though...it was just a bump.

See the cover for the cable leaning over a bit? Yeah I hit it! I knew I wasn't turning sharp enough and I freaked out a bit and forgot about the brake. Michael was laughing so hard. If you're wondering this is not the first time I've crashed some sort of off-road vehicle. We've gone on ATV's twice now and I've crashed both times. Don't worry Michael and I will be getting helmets too! It really was a LOT of fun to ride and after my first little bump I got much better at turning and braking!!!

Ella Grace is not a thrill seeker so she wasn't up for ride quite yet!

What A Difference A Week Can Make!

Like I said before with this pregnancy I am being cautiously optimistic. I talked with the PA that did my first ultrasound and she said I could come in as often as I want to check on the baby. This was SO nice to hear. I'm not being a paranoid freak about it, but I have been going once a week and it's really been nice and reassuring to see the baby.

The above picture is my first ultrasound when I was 7 weeks 2 days along. Just a teeny tiny blob really!

Then one week later the above picture is my second ultrasound taken at 8 weeks 2 days. Isn't that crazy how much bigger the baby got. Also you can totally tell it's a baby! I flipped the picture upside down so you could see it easier. You can see the head on top and the little arms and leg buds. It's SO amazing! I go to the doctor again this Friday for what will be my first "official" appointment. I will meet with the nurse and the doctor, have blood taken and get to see the baby again. After that I will probably go in for weekly ultrasounds until I am out of the first trimester....for me the peace of mind is worth it!

Halloween Alternating Titled....The Things We Do For Our Kids!!!

Buzz Lightyear...To Infinity & Beyond!!!!

I ended up adhering Jack's wings with Velcro. I got the sticky kind so it stuck to the cardboard wings and then I stuck it and sewed it to his costume. It worked really well...in fact it stuck so good it actually started to remove the paper with the Velcro when we took them off.

Of course as with a lot of these type of thing with kids they lasted about 5 minutes before he wanted them off and they didn't go back on the rest of the night. Oh well...it was fun to make them!

Arrrr...Captain Owen straight ahead! I wanted to make Owen look like he had a goatee, but he wasn't having it. Also just like Jack's wings...Owen hat and sword only lasted so long!

Cute as a bug just went to a whole new level with this pretty girl! Oh my.....she was just scrumptious!!!

The best shot of all 3 of them! Silly monkeys!!!

Since it was a work night and I had a MOPS meeting the very next day our plan was to forgo going to Ga-Ga & Pa's this year and take the kids to our churches Harvest Festival.

We hung out for a little while and played a few games....like the cake walk!

Jack won a cake and he chose this one and as you can see he wanted to dig in right away.

It wasn't very long after that when this little girl had a complete and utter MELTDOWN. I mean she sat in the middle of the room and sobbed her eyes out. Drama Queen! Owen also kept asking to go outside and go trick or treating. A Harvest Festival is a good idea for kids who enjoy the games and stuff, but Owen and Jack love the experience of going out when it's dark, ringing the door bell and getting candy. So shortly after the meltdown we got in the van and were on our way home. That's when Owen asked to go to Ga-Ga & Pa's. By this time it was already after 6:30pm and Ga-Ga & Pa live in Orting and we were in Tukwila about an hour away.....oh yeah and we needed gas. I asked Owen if he would be happy if we just went to our neighborhood and he said no. Now I'm not one of those Mom's that likes to give into my child's every whim, but I do think there are times for certain things and when it comes to big holidays like this I wasn't going to disappoint him. These times when they are young are fleeting and I don't want to look back and say...I wish I had!

So off to Ga-Ga & Pa's we went! I made good time and we got there right around 7:30 and there were still a TON of trick or treater's in their neighborhood. The first thing we did was surprise Ga-Ga & Pa...they were really bummed they weren't going to see us. To say they were happy to see their babies is an understatement!

Jack and Ella fell asleep in the van on the way down so we weren't sure if they'd even want to go, but once we got them out of the car there was no stopping them. Owen and Jack were literally running from door to door. They were pros this year! Ella wasn't sure about it in the beginning, but boy did she figure out how to work the system early on. First off she did not like it if they put the candy in her bucket she wanted to hold it and then drop it in herself. This meant if they did drop some in her bucket she would look at them like, "Where's my candy?" so of course they gave her more. Then at a few houses they would let the kids grab there own and she would just keep grabbing and they would just let her. I told one lady that she would just keep going and she responded, "How can I resist!" She really did charm everyone!

For the most part I carried her from house to house, but for a little while she wanted to walk...until she fell over and spilled her candy!

We only went down Ga-Ga & Pa's street on both side (lots of houses were dark too) and look at all that candy. I think since we went later than we normally go people were just wanting to get rid of their candy!

Ella had the most candy out of the 3 of them!

So much candy and so much fun! I'm so glad I listened to this cute boy and gave into his hearts desire!

You know it was a wonderful Halloween night when you end it by wallowing in your candy!