N.Y.E. @ Desi's

We had a GREAT time at Desi and Mike's tonight. We ate a dinner made by Seth and Lexi and I brought my Tortellini Salad that was requested by Felicia. I remember making it once when Cherstin was in the hospital and we brought it to her and she never ate it. Haha, So Felicia and I took it home and ate it on the way. After eating dinner the kids wanted to watch Toy Story 2 so that is what they did and the girls chatted a while and then had to coax the men intot he other room to play games.As you can see from this picture, Nathan likes Toy Story as much as Lucas. Hahahaha
Here we are playing Would You Rather and Desi and Mike our awesome hosts were captured in a true moment of fun. You can't really see her on Mike's lap but Bridget LOVED being with Mike. I think we need to go over more often because she really really liked him! :) Speaking of true moment, here is one of Felicia's Challenges that she not only picked but was eager to complete...This looks like a Facebook profile picture to me! :) Hahaha. We left around 8:45 and came home and celebrated the New Year with the kids by giving them a special Treat...Dippin Dots! Yum and then it was time for bed. Nathan and I plan on watching some movies...He really wants to watch "The Last Starfighter" so we will see if I can keep my eyes open long enough to actually watch it. Oh, and no I have never seen it! :)

Have a great 2009 friends!

A New Day/Year

"This year, I find myself thinking more about what I AM rather than what I WANT... And I know that when the end of the year arrives next week, it is more likely that I will want to craft a written statement that explains my worldview at this time in my life.... rather than write a list of things I want/should be working on. I guess I just feel like I KNOW what I should be working on, and every day I try to get a little closer. Already. Without needing to declare it in a brash, year-end promise." ---Emily S.

I couldn't have said it better myself. We never make resolutions in our house. Goals are how Nathan would describe it, but in 2009 we are looking forward to so many things that instead of goal setting we are just waiting for certain things to happen or celebrate. 2009 will be a bunch of celebrations for our little family.

In January, Nathan will have been at OST for 2 years, in a new building, in a new nice office and doing something that he is not only good at, but loves. He is king of the nerds at work and I don't think he would want it any other way.

In February we will celebrate our 4th year of marriage. This is a big deal for us, and each year it just gets more and more exciting!

In March we will be celebrating the birth of our 3rd child, which just happens to be another girl.

In April, Nathan and I both have birthdays to celebrate, and my parents are coming out to meet the new baby.

In May we are going on our 1st camping trip of the summer season. I am so very excited about this particular camping trip. Also we will be celebrating Bridget's entrance to Nursery!

In July, Lucas will be turning 3. This is just CRAZY to me. To celebrate...he is getting a new room!

In August we are going to California to visit my family before we have to pay for Bridget's seat! :)

In September we are going on a road trip with RV Witte's. Where we don't know yet, but we know we are going.

In November, Bridget will be turning 2. Can you believe it already?!?

In December it will be another Christmas to celebrate. We are going to try and coax my parents to come out and visit...but we have to convince my father that snow is not that bad. :)

I hope that everyone has a great 2009 and gets new haircuts like we always do. Nathan and Lucas already have had theirs-I am next and Bridget-well...she needs to figure out how her bangs are going to grow in! :)

PS***today was a MUCH better day****

12.29.08

When I see this date I don't usually have any sort of reaction, like I hate the 29th, or what a more perfect day than the 29th of December--but--today when I see this date I just want it to go away. Be the next day already. (if your birthday is today I am sorry)

Nathan had to leave work early and come home at 8:30pm because they are having their BIG move today. I knew about this day, it was a long time coming, but I was not prepared for what was really in store for me back at home.

Lucas thought that Stephanie was coming back. So he would dump all of the toys out to see if she would come out of hiding to help him clean up.

Bridget found every random cup in my room (4) and decided that today was the day she was going to FORGET how to drink from a cup. I had several puddles on my comforter.

Danielle's husband came home early and so I had no one to talk to ALL day. LAME.

I didn't think about even going grocery shopping because I was waiting for Wachovia Bank to call me back about some unfinished transfers that were supposed to happen today.

I thought to myself, Nathan is eating dinner at work, I will treat myself to potstickers and give the kids spaghetti, let them be VERY messy and then take a long extended bath before putting them to bed. The plan was working until I turned on the water to give the kids a bath and went to turn off the lights down stairs when I hear Bridget scream. I run upstairs and find out that I have a bathtub FULL of FREEZING water and Bridget is in it with a diaper on. So of course I was thrilled to take her 29 pound body, and 10 pound diaper out of the bathtub to change her when I realize that the pilot light went out on the water heater! I can't get to it in the basement because Nathan is finishing the basement thanks to his Christmas present from my parents, and now I have 2 naked kids who are half wet and cold.

I run them (yes run them) downstairs and start microwaving water so I can at least get the spaghetti off of their bellies, faces, necks, hair and any crevasse I have not mentioned. Don't believe me?Oh yes, yes I did. Please remember I am 7.5 months pregnant and have a very very large belly right now. Lucas asked me why I was doing this and I said because today for FHE we are taking Pioneer Baths! :) Neither of them liked this, in fact for 20 minutes they both were very uncomfortable and upset and whiny.

I got them dressed into jammies and then put them in my room to watch a movie so I could just breathe and calm down and then out of no where I hear a crash and see that Lucas was running and accidentally kicked one of the glass cups that Bridget was drinking from earlier make that 5 cups now, into the door jam, and it shattered, and I mean shattered everywhere. So of course I was not calm and had to carry the vacuum up 3 flights of stairs to clean the new mess up.

I think that I will just sit here, finish this blog and leave the spaghetti mess on the table for Nathan to clean up when he gets home at 8:30. Yes, it sounds good to me. So December 29th its time to be over. Its time for the 30th. I can only imagine what tomorrow will bring, the problem is that Stephanie ate all of my Snickerdoodles! DANG her!

Almost January

Isn't that weird to think?
Before January comes I thought I would blog about last week...well this week that just passed. I am glad that Christmas is over, but sad that my sister is gone. That is right SAD! We had a really great time together and my kids loved having her here. We took a ton of pictures and had a lot of fun and here are a few highlights!

Even though it didn't snow Stephanie was able to fulfill one of her lifelong dreams...
Making a snow angel! Our backyard gets little sun (which I love) so there was still about 3-4 inches back there. She also wrote Lucas's name with her boot prints! :)

We took her to Hammond's Candy Factory to see how candy canes are made and eat some too!We watched a lot of Prison Break ate WAY TOO MANY cookies and then it was Christmas Eve. Over the years I have picked up a few traditions from random families that adopted me. Opening Christmas jammies like the Bainbridges was one we did this year. After everyone opened up their jammies the kids jumped on Auntie Steph!
This picture sums up Christmas for me, my kids all dressed up and happy its Christmas time, the gathering of families and the sweet smell of cookies!After we cleaned up for Santa we headed over to the Witte's for the usual Christmas Eve party. This year was super cool because we made gingerbread houses and got to have a little fun before we ate Cindy's "Yummy Sandwiches"
Lucas and Nathan made a Lucas house (see it?) and Lucas shared all of his extra candy with Noah. He told me on the way home that he was mad that we didn't eat more candy and Gamma Witte's house.

Then it was Christmas morning. Lucas opened his door looked down the stairs and saw that the stockings were filled and he knew Santa had come! We (the adults) were all waiting in our rooms to hear what Lucas would say or do. He was just so excited it was so strange to see him so quiet and excited! You will notice in this picture that Bridget is crying, its because she had a meltdown because she wanted to color on the new art table instead of sit and take a picture. *sigh* such is life! :) the kids had a great Christmas, I had a GREAT Christmas thanks to my parents, and Nathan too. Although you couldn't tell in the pictures! The best part for Nathan was his last minute surprise gift that I had been hiding for 3 months in our basement and he almost didn't get because I forgot, thanks to Stephanie for reminding me!We ate delicious snowflake shaped pancakes made by Nathan (as usual) and then opened our stockings! Aren't they so cute? This was one of my gifts from my sister, they all match and have everyone's name on them including baby #3! After all of the fun the kids played on the art table more which they loved. (It's from Auntie Steph too) and then we revealed our share gift to them. A kitchen! Stephanie and I put it together and actually played with for a while without the kids. Haha. It is the coolest thing I've ever seen. This was a big purchase for us but I wanted to get something for them to play with when baby#3 comes because it will still be cold outside.

It was a good Christmas and I hope everyone had a great holiday!

Zoo Lights

Every year (so far) we have always met Ryan and Veronica and the kids at Zoo Lights. This year was no different, except Elijah was no longer in Veronica's tummy and Bridget was no longer a newborn. I am pregnant, that's not really different but I wasn't last December so I guess I can add that to the list right?Lucas had been waiting all day to see Noah. Bridget had been giggling the whole time because of the lights.

Our annual Polar Bear picture.
The kids went on the train, We always do this without fail!
Another time Nathan didn't know how to take a picture, Grrr.
Oh well. We loved the carousel!

We had a good time and can't wait to go again next year with extra formula, batteries and of course one more lil' Witte will be there too!

Holiday Spirit

Besides getting yummy cookies from the Jones's (in my ward) every year I have found that music really gets me and my family into the spirit. This video in particular really did it for me this year...



Enjoy!

Must Be Santa!

My kids think Santa is pretty cool. Our Ward's Christmas Breakfast was this morning and I think it went pretty well. I also think Courtney and I did a pretty good job keeping things organized and rolling considering we had such a huge turn out! :) Thanks to Brian for taking the Santa pictures and thanks to Brother Olds for being the Santa! :)Lucas laughed and laughed when he saw Santa, he told Santa that for Christmas he wanted "Stephanie to come get her box because it was in the way of presents" Then he said he wanted a basketball like Robert's. (of course) He thought that if he made animal sounds for Santa he would get an extra Candy Cane but Santa's no fool! :)

Bridget just snuggled up to Santa, she wasn't scared just happy to be getting her picture taken! :) Hahaha

The food was pretty good, the turn out was great, and my kids were happy. What more could I want? "Happy Mismis!"

That's what I thought!

People tell me that Bridget looks like Liz or Stephanie but I have the picture that proves that she looks like me! What do you think?


The problem is that I was such a big baby that we look almost the same age in these pictures. I think I am about 6-9 months in this picture and Bridget is a little over 1 in her picture.

Oh well...
P.S. What about Lucas?

Florida part 2

I think I am finished with all of my pictures and here are the last of the highlights....
Most of these were on our second beach day but I couldn't pick just one! My kids had a great time with my cousins and theirs! They were mad we had to leave. I guess next summer when we go to California we will have to make sure and spend a day at the beach!

I told Bridget we were going to go outside and see the ocean and this was her face.

I love this guyBridget admiring Aiden

Nathan teaching the kids the rules of the beach.Loving the sand
Enjoying the 74 degree ocean
Nathan fulfulling a life long dream to be in the Atlantic Ocean. Long story...
I had to include this one because it is just proof that my kids LOVE Grandma and Grandpa
(Lucas especially)

We had a great trip and hope to do it again soon. I love my parents and am so glad they helped us get there! :) Can't wait to see them again in April! Yea!!!

Ode to the Third Trimester

Ode to The Last Trimester

Oh, first of Trimesters I remember it well
Nausea crept its way in As she began to swell
The cravings of food None of which seem to mix
Like pickles and ice cream With a serving of Twix
The second trimester “Do I look pregnant yet?'”
The question we husbands Pray that we never get
“I have nothing to wear!” But it's all truth this time
As she thanks God aloud For elastic waist lines
But Oh third Trimester Moods change like the seasons
She pees when she sneezes Tears come for no reason
Her stretch marks are forming And her feet disappear
But this time it's OK She has reason for tears
PUPPPs again begin forming Oh the itch with no end
With all the discomfort Why'd we have one again?
She recalls the answer Asking “Why in the world?”
When the pain goes away And she's handed her girl

I am grateful that with 90 days and only 11+ weeks to go I am still feeling great, no nausea, no sickness, no pain, nothing really, just this baby girl is sitting really high like the last two and only really kicks hard at night. I haven't had any strange cravings and I have only cheated once with Sushi! :P I am not swelling and haven't had any weird things happen to me since the beginning. I have a ton of baby hair like I did with Bridget growing on my head but nothing to complain about. I did complain that I was huge earlier but with the other 6 women due in March with me in my ward, I look just as pregnant as them, which is a good thing considering this is my 3rd and the rest of them are on their 1st! :) The best part about being due in March right now is that this baby girl will have 6 other little girls to play with who all were born in the same month. Another good thing is that flu season will be over, the cold weather will be on it's way out and Spring will be here in no time!

I am also grateful that my husband is so sweet and will call me in the middle of the day just to make sure I'm okay, not the kids, not the pregnancy just me. I love it! :)

Florida part 1

I have a lot of people asking me for more pictures, but I took 796 pictures while we were there, so I will have to do two or more posts to really highlight how much fun we really had. Here is the first part of our trip...

(please feel free to feel bad for us as most of our trip was 70 degrees or higher in temps with little to no humidity!)

The view from our room. Gorgeous right? We had 6 huge windows and this was just one of our beautiful views.

One of Lucas's favorite parts of the trip...GRANDPA!
I took this picture so you could see the awesomeness of the interior of the Boca Resort...just lovely right?The kids when they first saw GiGi (my grandma their greatgrandma)
The main reason for this trip!
My grandma's reaction to them. Isn't she so young looking for having 2.6 great grand kids?
Swimming. This was one of the places the kids always wanted to go.More swimming and lounging.The kids waiting for their lemonades.
A weird photo of us.... Look out for more pics of this trip....

Weird and Strange

Happenings

I was determined to keep the kids on Colorado time while we were here. I was so successful that at 2:30pm Florida time 12:30 Colorado time the kids would just instantly fall asleep no matter where they were. Bridget fell asleep at lunch, Lucas fell asleep while he was painting it was great. It also worked out well because they would wake up at 5:30 and dinner was at 6 and we would put them to bed at 10:30 which is actually 8:30pm. This made our trip extra nice because they were so used to my schedule it was nice to be able to nap ourselves or go out to lunch or hang out with the family because they were so on schedule. High Five to me! :) Just Kidding! Me and my Sista and "The Bridge" on Italian night

Strange things with the kids:

Bridget

*cut four top teeth

*weaned herself off a bottle

*enjoys the attention she has been getting

*expects applause when she is naughty

*started really talking this trip

Lucas

*pretty much potty trained himself fully

*started saying weird things like "this Gouda is delicious" "I prefer croissants" "my cousins are my friends too" "Calamari is yummy" "Peas are only for squishing" "Jellyfish give you owies if you have yellow hair" (Aiden my cousin was stung by one at the each a few days ago) "I think I like the beach too much mommy" "My doctor telled me to keep this hat on when the sun is shining" "We made it to the jungle!" "Where is Diego? He lives in the jungle" There are lots more but these are the ones I like the best.

Me and my Dad on Italian night (looks like he doesn't wear his hat when the sun is shining! :)

Another really weird thing is that I have been looking barely pregnant for the past few months and we went swimming and when it was time to get dressed that night my belly popped right out. I went from looking 4 months pregnant to 7 months pregnant in only a few hours! It must be all of the great food I have been eating! (look at my header I look GIANT!)

Sunshiny Day

I know you all have been DYING to see pictures for our awesome Florida trip but we forgot the cord to the camera, scratch that...NATHAN forgot the cord to the camera. Mmmhmmm that's right it was him! Anyway I managed to get one on to the laptop so here is one of Grandma, Bridget and Lucas on the beach. It was so beautiful - 78 degree high - low humidity and a slight breeze. It was almost not real. What really made our day was hearing that Colorado got 4 inches of snow that very day!My Uncle and my cousin (his son) went para sailing and we could see him from where we were swimming! We ate a delicious Chinese dinner with the whole fam and I feel so lucky to have been able to be apart of this momentous event. I promise more pictures to come. When I get home and can properly log this awesome VACATION.

Quotes

After a crazy, hellish, and fun first few days here Lucas said to me:

"What is dis mommy?" I said a Palm Tree, these are the trees that grow here in Florida. He says "They are spiky and so sharp mommy" I said yes, not like the trees in Colorado. He replied "Not crunchy? That is so sad, I'n gonna tell Robert 'bout dis!"

I laughed and laughed. Robert is one of Lucas's friends at church, and I think it is funny that he felt he needed to report this leaf problem to his friend. Haha

One more cute little quote/story: When we were flying over the Atlantic Ocean Lucas shouts "Pirate Ships Daddy!" "Not the piggy kind!" He loves the Dora Pirate game on NickJr.com. Haha

Tomorrow everyone is getting together and I will have lots of pictures from that. So far this has been a pretty good trip! :)