Touch a Truck

Once again this year, we went to the Warren Birthday Bash. The kids loved going last year, so we were excited to go again this year. The kids had a birthday party earlier that morning and were pretty tired (plus it was HOT outside), but I think they still had a blast again this year.

We started with Touch a Truck. They love the opportunity to climb in many different types of trucks.

City Bus (An organization was there that gave out bicycle helmets to the kids, so that’s why Max is wearing a helmet in most of the pictures. Makenna is wearing a crown from the birthday party that morning.)

Fire Truck:

SWAT Team Truck:

Mail Truck:

Ambulance:

18 Wheeler:

(“Push your glasses up, Max!” He broke his glasses again and this time they aren’t fixable. So we continually have to remind him to push his glasses up until he can get new glasses!)

Army jeep:

Preschool van/bus:

After the Touch a Truck, the kids and Austin visited the petting farm (sick Mom was not feeling very well in the heat, so I sat out on this one). Max is fearless when it came to the animals. Makenna is much more timid:

Like I said, it was hot and I didn’t feel well, but it was still a nice, family activity and I’m glad we went.

Where Have We Been???

Wow, it has been a long time since we have posted to our blog! I’m sure our blog readers (all two of you!) feel neglected! : ) So what’s going on? Where have we been (if you are Facebook friends with me, you KNOW where we have been because I am on there complaining at least a few times a week, ha ha)?

Well, first I went to Girl’s Camp. At camp I got this in my fortune cookie:

New clothes? Why would I need new clothes? Well, I also nonstop cried at camp and was super emotional… hmm…

The very next day after coming home from camp I got this:

Yup, I guess that would cause me to need new clothes! : )

I felt pretty good until I reached week 6. Then the morning sickness started and it was RELENTLESS. Oh man, I have been so, so sick. I had to go to the hospital for an IV in week 7 after throwing up 22 times that day and not being able to keep food or drink down for three days. I ended up being diagnosed with HG (hyperemesis gravidarum) after losing over ten pounds in just two weeks. HG is a severe form of morning sickness that comes in just a small percentage of women. It is NOT your normal morning sickness, friends! I throw up all day, every day. I can’t keep anything down. Smells drive me CRAZY. I can seriously smell EVERYTHING and it all makes me sick! Our windows have had to stay open to try to get all the “inside smells” out of the house. Austin has to do all of the kitchen work, grocery shopping, and a lot of the other cleaning (just this week I threw up just by vacuuming the living room floor. Crazy!). For the past two weeks, I have finally got a handle on my throwing up by getting the perfect range of meds in my system. I still feel pretty miserable and nauseous, but I now only throw up one or two times a day. Going into the kitchen with its high concentration of smells still makes me sick (and the times I throw up are usually because I went into the kitchen to make breakfast or lunch). Talking about food and a lot of strong odors still make me sick. I try to spend most of my time outside because there aren’t as many smells. I still can’t drink water (for some reason it makes me instantly sick) or eat meat. This week I had a salad. I gave the chicken in my salad to Austin. Well, as I was eating it, a tiny sliver of chicken was left and I accidently ate it… and could not stop gagging. Can’t do meat! I still get sick when people get too close to me (I don’t care how clean you are. Each and every person has their own distinct odor and it WILL make me sick when I smell it!). The kids have to kiss me goodnight on my hand because I gag when I try to kiss them. I get sick when I go into other people’s houses because of their unique smells. I can’t walk into the food side of Wal-Mart or even THINK about going to a grocery store (I am literally gagging just typing the word “grocery store”). I am still having to be SUPER picky about what I eat. It is extremely crazy and a big headache, but at least I am not dropping weight or throwing up 20+ times a day any more!

Anyway, so that’s where I have been! I can’t say it has been fun. It hasn’t. It has mostly been some of the worst weeks of my life. I have truly felt at times that I may not make it! But Austin has been a CHAMP and is doing a GREAT job of taking care of things, despite working at least 12 hours every day and being on call most nights. The kids have also been great. There were days I didn’t even get out of bed and one day they fed themselves whatever they could find in the pantry (Max was seriously eating uncooked rice before Makenna stopped him), yet they have been totally fine with it all and are just thrilled to be getting a baby. I have also had some great friends bring us dinner and help out. One day my parents even drove up from Alabama to help out. My dad and brothers played with the kids while my mom made some freezer meals and did some cleaning. It was super nice to have them come help, and we were so sad to see them go and wished they could stay longer than a day.

Max and his new BFF Grandad:

Anyway, enough with being sick! On to ultrasound pictures! : )

Because of being so sick, I have had to have appointments with my OB once a week. He has been concerned about the baby (I guess they worry the baby will not grow correctly if the mom can’t stop throwing up!), so I have had the opportunity to get several ultrasounds.

At first, our little baby looked just like a jelly bean:

Ha ha, in fact, when Max saw the picture he said, “Yummy! I want to EAT the baby!” Umm, gross, Max!!! : )

However, our last ultrasound showed something that is starting to look like a little baby!

Can you see the little face, hand, and body? So cute! Makenna LOVES looking at the ultrasound picture and carries it around to see HER baby!

At my last appointment we heard the heartbeat (Makenna and Max go with me to my appointments). Makenna was so thrilled to get to hear “her baby” make noises. My meds seem to be working and I didn’t lose weight that week, so now I’m moving to the usual once a month appointments.

Our next ultrasound will be to determine if we are having a boy or a girl. I’m not sure exactly when we will find out—I will be 16/17 weeks at my next appointment in September, so they COULD find out then (I found out at 16 weeks with Makenna and like 14 with Max), but they may wait until my October appointment when I am 20/21 weeks. I guess we shall see! I personally am SO sure that it is a girl! This pregnancy mirrors my pregnancy with Makenna (I wasn’t as sick with Max), so I think it is another girl! Of course we will be fine either way, but I think I am getting my heart set on a little girl now. : ) Austin has not stated a preference, but Makenna wants a girl and Max wants a boy.

Hmm, I think that is about it. I seem to be getting better (though I still definitely have bad days). I have been able to get out more lately, so hopefully soon I will really get to enjoy this pregnancy. Whatever the case, we are all super excited to just welcome a new little one into our family in February or March (my official due date is March 10. However, since Makenna was born a week early and Max was born 2 1/2 weeks early, we are thinking it will be the end of February when our little one joins us. My guess is February 27. I correctly guessed when Makenna was going to be born, so let’s see if I am right this time too!)!

Max’s Three Year Old Pictures

So anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE having pictures of my kids taken. I had their pictures made at birth, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, a year old, and then every year after that. Seriously, my house is completely bursting with pictures (well what can I say? I have cute kids!)! Well, needless to say, all of this professional photography business gets EXPENSIVE. And also, we are super poor right now… so with Max turning three, I decided it was time to put my nice camera to use and attempt to take his three year old pictures by myself! So yesterday I dressed him in some cute clothes and we hit the backyard… and I learned why I pay people to take pictures of my kids… it is HARD! Max wouldn’t smile for me, I had weird shadows in the backgrounds of my pictures, I forgot to keep a lookout for my background and I have the garage in some of my pictures, I never got exactly the right angles I was shooting for, etc. I probably took a MILLION pictures of that kid, and out of the million I only got a few I actually liked! But hey, I DID get that few! : )

So in most of these pictures, I just accidently managed to snap a picture right when Max was naturally smiling. It was a good thing because the kid WOULD NOT SMILE FOR ME!!! He would stick his tongue out or smile with his eyes closed or make a silly face, but he wouldn’t just SMILE! So I don’t think it’s ALL the fault of the brand new photographer! : )

Also, part of the problem was Makenna was following me around BEGGING me to take pictures of HER. So here is her own picture collage:

Okay, Grandmas, here is what you need to do. You need to look at all the pictures and tell me which pictures you want (and what size you want them and how many you want of them). We can print out the whole collage, or you can tell me specific pictures within the collage and I can have just those individual pictures printed out. I will just send them to your Wal-Mart for you to pick up. : )

Okay, that’s all (also, I will just keep my day job because obviously I’m no photographer!).

Tomorrow I am off to Young Women Camp! Austin starts his first “real” week as a doctor tomorrow, so a family in the ward has volunteered to keep my kids while I am gone… so here’s hoping things go great for all of us!

New House Pictures

So last Monday we started moving into our new home. Things didn’t go as quickly as I would have liked. On Monday I had a doctor’s appointment and some other errands and was gone from home for about 6 hours. On Tuesday it was Max’s birthday so we didn’t do any unpacking. So it wasn’t really until Wednesday that we really got to unpack. We finished most if it then and had odds and ends to finish up on Thursday and Friday. I really felt like it took way longer than usual to get unpacked and settled and there are still a few things left to do before we can be completely DONE. I also feel like it took me way longer than usual to take pictures of the house and get it posted, but here they are!

When you walk into our home, you walk into our living room.

The view of the living room from the entrance:

The view of the living room from the den (so you can see our red walls. I actually REALLY like the paint colors in the house!):

Right off of the living room is a room we are using as a den. We have our loveseats in there, the computer and desk and all of the office things, and Austin and my bookshelves. (The closet in there is supposed to have doors on it, but it had a hole in it so our landlord took the doors off to get them fixed. They will be replaced soon.) :

Also off the living room is our dining room. This is a nice sized room (I eventually want to get a bigger table!) and has a nice coat closet in it, as well as doors that lead out onto the deck:

The dining room opens up into the kitchen. The kitchen is definitely a plus in this house! The updates may not be the newest or the most expensive, but they are still really nice. I have so much cupboard space that I actually have cabinets that are totally empty! I also have a whole double cabinet just for cookbooks and another display case just for my vases and glass bowls! I love it! (Also notice the flowers—a friend got those for us as a house warming gift! They are GORGEOUS!):

From the back of the kitchen you can head into the den, or you can go into the laundry room. The laundry room is also a plus in this house. It is nice and big with plenty of cupboard space (which half of those are also empty!). It also has a door in it leading outside, so we are also using it as a mudroom (excuse the mess on the dryer. Austin hasn’t got my hooks put up yet for my purse and our church bags!). You can see the rest of the kitchen in the background of the picture as well:

So that’s the front of our house. I really like the front half and think it is perfect for our family! The back of the house, I do not like as much.

First we walk down the hall and reach a small linen closet and then the bathroom:

The bathroom door doesn’t fully open because the tub is behind it. The whole bathroom is just really small. It isn’t horribly bad, just small.

Across from the bathroom is Max’s room (eventually we will get a rug to go on his floor so it’s not just hardwood floor). It is an incredibly small bedroom. You can’t see in the picture, but behind the door is his closet and also on that wall is his new dresser. There is something in basically every inch of his little room. But I guess it doesn’t matter too much because so far he hasn’t spent very much time in there…

Down the hall from Max’s room is Makenna’s room (her canopy is still not up yet; it goes over her bed and is why the wall above her bed is blank. We also plan on getting a rug for her floor one day). It is also pretty small, but bigger than Max’s room. So far it has worked out fine for her and given her enough room to play. You can’t see in the picture, but behind her door is her new dresser and her old dresser is now full of dress up clothes. Her closet is also on that wall. On the wall beside her doll house is her kitchen and bin of play food and all of her baby doll stuff.

Our room is across the hall from Makenna’s room. It is also very small (and we also need a rug on our floor), but I guess it is perfectly fine for the amount of time we spend in there. Behind the door in our room is our closet which is also pretty darn small (also, who puts closets behind bedroom doors? I can’t open the closet doors without first shutting the bedroom door!):

Somehow in the move I have lost my bed skirt… so sorry you had to see the bottom mattress in our bedroom picture! I just don’t know where my bed skirt is!

Our bedroom also has a bathroom off of it. We haven’t used the bathroom yet because there is no bathroom doors! Our landlord said that because both the room and the bathroom were so small, they never put a door on it. I told him we would NOT be using the bathroom without a door, so he is ordering a door for us. Until then it will NOT be used!

So that is our new house. Outside we have a detached 2.5 car garage. It is super nice and big and can hold all of our storage stuff that used to be in the basement, plus the cars, plus the outside stuff (bicycles, lawn mowers, etc.). We also have a fantastic deck and backyard. The backyard is really awesome at this house! I couldn’t quite figure out how best to take pictures of the yard, so here is all I got:

The yard has definitely been a perk of the house! The kids go outside in the morning after breakfast and stay out until lunch and nap time. After naps they are right back outside until dinner time! It has really been a nice backyard to have so far!

And that’s our house! We still have a few things to do, but we are settling in quite nicely.

Max’s Birthday Party

On Saturday we had Max’s birthday party at our house. With our trip, spending every second of the week moving and unpacking, and preparing for Makenna’s preschool graduation I am POOPED! So this birthday party was very low key.

The party was a construction (or “worker man” as Max calls it) party, and I did everything in yellow, black, and orange.

The decorations:

We went VERY simple with the decorations and just decorated with caution tape, balloons, and printed-out construction pictures:

The Activities:

Max invited both boys and girls in varying ages to his party, so we decided to just have all the activities out and let the kids play wherever they wanted and however they wanted. We put out five different “stations” of activities to choose from.

Activity 1—Demolition (A ball tied to a string. The kids stacked up boxes and knocked them over with the ball like a wrecking ball.)

Activity 2—Draw a Truck (We put the sidewalk chalk out and let the kids draw in the driveway.)

Activity 3—Construct a City (The kids were able to build with the blocks and Legos.)

Activity 4—Excavation (We put sand out and buried some buttons and jewels in the sand and then put a bunch of little construction trucks in there and the kids just played in the sand):

Activity 5—Pack Your Tool Belt (We bought little tool belts at Home Depot and the kids were able to decorate them with paint and markers and then as take home gifts, they packed their tool belts with carpenter pencils and construction stickers):

The Party:

Because this was such a chill party, we just let the kids wonder around and play however they wanted. They would all play for a minute in one spot and then move somewhere else and then come back to their original spot. The kids also played on the swing set quite a bit. Very simple party!

The birthday boy was pretty anti-social, but I still think he had a fun time. He spent quite a bit of time playing the in the Demolition station. He also had fun just using his toy tools to play.

Birthday presents:

After about a hour of playing, Max opened his birthday presents. He got some AWESOME presents and we are very appreciative for everything! He is having so much fun playing with his new toys!

The BBQ:

After presents, we had a BBQ. Let’s see, we served hamburgers, hotdogs, Munchies, Goldfish crackers, watermelon, and veggies with dip.

Then it was back to more playing!

After we let dinner settle for a minute, it was time to sing Happy Birthday to cute Mr. Max and have birthday cake!

And then it was more play time! : D

It was a fun little birthday party! Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate our cute three year old!