Gingerbread Houses

Last night we made some gingerbread houses I had been promising to make for 2 weeks. We used graham crackers and the kids loved it. I am no construction worker, so none of the roofs stayed up, so we made flat roofs instead. Grace ended up making a man out of her crackers
Jed tried using all the candy in the house. I think he ate the few pieces he didn't use.

Olivia is proud of her work. Lately if she sees a bib, she insists on wearing it so her shirt doesn't get dirty.

Christmas Treats

We decorated a gingerbread tree with the missionaries the last time they were here. I stacked it a little lopsided, so I guess now it looks like the tree in our house! Not the best picture of Jed, but he wasn't really into taking a break from decorating Our finished product

Adding green icing to the branches. Grace was helping spin the plate.

On Friday, we had a friend spend the night. She was nice eough to bring cookies for us to decorate. It got a little messy, and I am still finding sprinkles in the cracks of the floor, but we had fun.

Our finished cookies. Even better since I didn't have to bake them!

Little Indians

About a week before Thanksgiving, Jed came out of school dressed like a little Indian. He loved his outfit and has worn it on a near daily basis since. He decided that he and the girls should hunt animals for their "buckskin". They trooped off into the trees behind out house in search of their prey. They ended up in the driveway of a sweet older lady that lives behind us. She has 3 cats. We have had a problem with cats in our yard, and the need they have to poo on our trampoline. As they were talking to this lady, I came out to find them and see who they were talking to. Jed and Olivia told her they were hunting cats.

Jed said they were going to kill them for the skin, and Olivia said she was "going to knock their teeth out!" I don't know what the lady was thinking, but I am sure it was along the lines of how crazy my kids are and how sad it was I am going to have another one soon.

We still do not have any cat skins or teeth for our collection, but we also haven't had any unwanted carts for a while. They go cat hunting on most days. Yesterday Olivia was carrying around a bat and Jed had a toy ax. I guess they mean business.

My little hunters. They are outside and happy and busy, they can kill all the cats they want.

Halloween

Hiccup, a witch and Dorothy before trunk or treat
We went trick or treating at the mall because the neighborhoods here stink and you have to walk to about 10 houses to get one piece of candy, so anyway...Grace was a witch, but she didn't think it turned out very well.

Jed was Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon, he didn't want to wear his viking helmet beause it always fell off, but he still carried his ax.

Olivia as the cutest Dorothy there was. Instead of saying "trick or treat" to people, she would say "I am Dorothy"

Stats

I was "lucky" enough to be able to take all 3 kids to the Dr. last week for annual checkups. They pricked Grace and Jed's fingers to run blood tests, which was new for me. It was interesting. Jed went first and couldn't see what was going on. Then he watched Grace and I could see him losing color. I told him to leave the room and went out to find him 15 seconds later. He was white as a sheet and gagging. I had him start to put his head between his knees when he puked down the front of his shirt and in my hands. Thankfully there was a bathroom about 10 steps away, so we could both wash up. Poor Jed had go through the rest of the appt. with no shirt on. On the bright side, their blood work was great!! Jed was sad to get 4 shots and Liv ended up with 2. A night of fevers and Advil later and they were all better. Here are the current stats:

Grace
46" tall (can you believe she is almost 4 feet tall??)
46 pounds

Jed
42.5" tall
41 pounds
can not handle the sight of blood

Olivia
37" tall
32 pounds
believes you have to limp for 3 days after shots

At least they are all healthy and growing. Baby 4 is growing and will be coming on the 7th of February if I am induced, but lets all pray for an earlier day.

Miss Olivia turns 3!

Friday was Olivia's 3rd birthday. I seems unreal to me, but she was super excited. We dropped the older 2 off at school and came home to some fun girlie time. She is in love with pink right now, so we painted all her nails bright pink. As you can see, she was very happy about it. She also wanted to wear a dress so she looked extra pretty.

She chose to go to McDonalds for her birthday dinner, then we cames home, sanitized, and opened presents. Here she is digging in a box from grandma and grandpa.

What could be better than a pink and purple pillow pet???

She also requested a pink cake, so we had funfetti with pink frosting. I think she had a good day. On Saturday we took her to get her ears pierced. She loves them, and of course, chose PINK flowers.

It's a ...

We learned today that we are having another

GIRL!!

I Finished 39.3 Miles!!!

Not only did I finish, but i finished ALL 40 miles without help from a motor vehicle. My awesome friend Joy helped me pretty much every step of they way.
Here we are giving a little love to John Wayne. He was at the top of a VERY steep hill, so a little picture break was in order, along with a wet rag to tie around our neck. Surprisingly the first 20 miles were pretty "easy" except for the hills, but foot wise there were no problems. Mile 13.1 of day one. It was about lunch time and we were still going pretty strong.

The very end of day one. There was a huge line to take pictures by the official sign, so we grabbed a nice person cheering and used their sign. The last five miles of this day were terrible. My feet and ankles were throbbing and we were walking on horse trails and busy roads. Thankfully Joy was willing to go as slow as I needed even though I am sure she just wanted to be done.

After seeing the doctor for some swollen ankles and blisters, and sleeping in tents, we started again the next day. Mile 7 of day 2, or mile 33.2 for us. Fanny packs and pregnancy do nothing for me!! This was when the ankles started swelling and feet started hurting again.

The finish line. We were so ready to be done. It was a great experience and very emotional. It was hard, but it made me realize I can do pretty much anything with enough determination and a good support system.

Thanks to Joy for letting me join her for the weekend and for everyone who donated. I am awed and honored.

First Day of School

Since we are now in our third week of school, I guess it is about time I posted the pics. They were not too happy about this shot being taken because a bunch of other kids were coming in without having to have their picture taken. Grace saying "I love first grade!"
Jed with a slightly evil look. I walked him to his classroom and I think he was trying to absorb it all and smile at the same time.

Happy 5th Birthday!!

While SueAnn and Bonnie were here, we decided to have Jed's party a few days early so they could celebrate with us. SueAnn and Bonnie were awesome and did a great job decorating and even making the cupcakes. Jed wanted a Train Your Dragon party. We played pin the tail on the dragon(Jed won),

Dress up like a viking...no, it was Mother May I, but whoever was mother got to be the viking captain,

Stop the "dragons"(balls) from entering the "volcano"(bucket).

Opening presents, or in this case, looking at a cool new bike.

Here are the very cool viking helmet cupcakes my sister made.

And here is my 5 year old waiting for his candle and cupcake. I can't believe he is five and in kindergarten! He is still very sweet and worries about others a lot. He wants to make people happy and is such a good boy. He told me if the baby was a girl it would be okay, because then he would be my "special boy". I love this kid!

We've Been Busy...

getting strikes
keeping cool

brushing our teeth

loving our cousins

riding the zoo train

playing with jelly fish at the beach (they didn't sting)

bowling with cousins

jumping waves

just being cool

learning to sew,

and so many other things. School starts a week from today, so I will be able to have a rest then.

I have been busy for 13 weeks growing a new addition to our family. Baby number 4 is due to arrive in early February!

4th of July

We are in Wisconsin spending some time with my family. We had a reunion on the weekend of the 4th with 22 grand kids and 15 adults. It was quite the gathering and a good time. We had various activities to keep the kids busy and a good fireworks show.

Olivia working on the dirt pit.

Jed showing his talent of crossing his eyes. All the kids did a talent for the parents.

Grace posing with her sparkler.
We all had a good time were able to be acquainted with cousins. We are looking forward to 2013!

Close Encounters of the Reptile Kind

While we were eating dinner about a week ago, Chris looked outside and found this little turtle under our trampoline. He picked him up and showed the kids, then put him back in the wooded area behind our house. About 10 minutes later we see him in our yard again, going towards the neighbors house, and the 5 dogs that live there. This time the kids went outside to love him a bit before he was put back in the woods. 20 minutes later, we had to rescue him again, and Chris put him in a box and drove to a dead end in the neighborhood that is backed by woods as well. Hopefully he was safe there.

The next day I took the kids to the library and the "gator man" was there. Grace and Jed had a chance to sit in a class and learn about alligators and at the end, they all had a chance to pet or hold a baby one. Olivia LOVED it. She oohed and aahed and giggled like it was a baby. Funny girl.

Once again, my children have no idea how to take a picture, except Grace.