Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today is Heather's Dad's birthday. Dad has been a great example to his 4 kids teaching us the importance of hard work and providing for ourselves. Dad set the example by getting his 4 year degree from a university while working full time and helping raise 4 children. Since then, our mom has gotten her degree, Heather has a degree, Jason gets his degree next month, and Jeffrey will finish his up in the next year or so. Joshua is just getting started on his. We have a lot of good memories as a family taking vacations and going to Disneyland. Our Dad spent 5 years serving as a Bishop for our church and has since taken on the calling of Grandpa or "Papa" as the kids call him. He has 4 grandchildren with 3 more on the way. I've included a flashback picture of Dad's 24th birthday and a more current one from when Kaya (His first grandchild) was born. Happy Birthday Dad!!

Baby # 3 Ultrasound Update

We had our ultrasound today to check the baby's stats. (I'm about 21 weeks along) The ultrasound was a little rushed because my doctor was right in the middle of delivering a baby. The woman was still pushing when he finally came in late to do the ultrasound. He was hoping he could make it through without being paged otherwise he was going to have to excuse himself. (And here we were thinking we would get extra time since we were the last appointment before lunch).

The baby was in a difficult position which made it hard to check several things. Everything he did see looked great, however, he wants to do another ultrasound when I go back in 4 weeks to see if the baby has changed positions to make things more accessible. The baby was breach and facing my spine. We weren’t able to see the face or get any good profile pictures. I got a great view of the baby’s bum but not the genital area. There didn’t appear to be any boy parts but we really couldn’t tell. The doctor determined the baby’s sex as undetermined!! He said he can check again for us next time. By the time we wait another 4 weeks, we might as well just wait until the end!! Who knows, we may not even be able to see any better next time. At least baby appears to be healthy and everything seems to be right on schedule. Yeah!!

The New Family Addition

Well....we did it!! We have officially upgraded to the status of a Minivan Family. We purchased a 2002 Chevrolet Venture from a private party here in Utah. We got a great deal and ended up paying less than what we sold our Impala for. That was helpful when it came time to pay the sales tax and license fees. Our new ride has low miles, is extra clean, and happens to be the same color as the "G-Ride". We are REALLY happy with our purchase and glad it all happened to work out the way it did. Now we're ready to add that 3rd car seat in August!!

Happy Easter

We are grateful for the opportunity we have had to celebrate Easter this year. Aaron's Mom from CA and brother from CO were able to join us for the weekend. Aaron's brother & sister who live locally were also able to be here. We did some fun things over the weekend and had a good time visiting with everyone. We had a nice Sunday dinner where Heather's brother & his family were also able to join us. The neighbors let us borrow their backyard for a small family Easter egg hunt. (Our backyard is currently still dirt) Kaya "cleaned up" and Logan had a great time finding eggs to put in his basket. The kids' cousin Preston figured out that if he threw the plastic egg on the ground, it would break open to reveal the goods inside. All in all we had a good time and enjoyed each others company. We hope your family had a good holiday too.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

Today is Heather's parent's 32nd wedding anniversary. This is our flashback picture for the week. This picture of Robert, Jill, & Heather was taken sometime in late 1976. A lot has changed since this picture was taken. They have added Jeffrey, Jason, Joshua and two wonderful daughter-in-laws to the bunch. They also have 4 grandchildren with 3 more to arrive this year. They've lived in Nevada and all throughout Southern California. They have been able to travel throughout the United States, Europe, and Chile. They have raised a good family and we want to wish them a Happy Anniversary!!

So long...Farewell...See-Ya "G-Ride"

Today was a sad but happy day. I watched my beloved "G-Ride" drive away with someone else. The G-Ride was our 2003 Chevy Impala. This was my college graduation present to myself and it has served our family well. This was the car we brought Kaya home from the hospital in and it has plenty of good memories from the last 5 years. We decided with baby #3 coming that it would be a good time to up-grade to something a bit larger. We're still debating which direction to go with this. (Minivan vs. Full Size Van or SUV) Now that the car has been sold, we can start looking for some new wheels. In the meantime, we'll be sharing Aaron's truck!

How well can you do?

36

So...you've got to think creatively when it comes to the colors. I thought I did pretty good until I realized how many I MISSED!! Maybe I can blame this on being pregnant.

37

I learned all the countries in like 5th grade. I remember knowing ALL of them. And this is how many I can think of? That's scary. I guess geography isn't my best subject!!

Flashback Friday

Today is my (Heather's) 1/2 birthday. Aaron still laughs that I acknowledge this, but it's the halfway point to my next birthday. Since my birthday is in early September, it usually came during the last few days of summer before school started. It was in early morning seminary my junior & senior year where the teacher acknowledged the 1/2 birthdays of the students that had birthdays during the summer so that we could celebrate everyone's birthday. It just sort of stuck with me. I don't expect presents or for anyone to even remember. It's just a fun thing for me.

In honor of my 1/2 birthday, I came across this picture of an actual birthday when I probably turned 6 or 7. I laughed when I saw this picture because it brought back several memories and my obsession with Barbie. I had a Barbie house, a horse, a Corvette, a Motorhome, the Barbie Dream Pool, and I remember having a garden bathtub (that made bubbles) and a studio/office. I LOVED playing Barbies. Most of the big items didn't survive the years of play but I did keep several of my Barbie dolls and most of the clothes, accessories, & furniture. Kaya now loves to play Barbies and has enjoyed playing with all my old dolls. I knew I saved all this stuff for a reason!!

Do you need a haircut??

This is what can be accomplished with kids' safety scissors that can barely cut paper. Kaya decided to give herself a haircut on Sunday. Considering the circumstances, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. She came out of her room and I noticed that something didn't look right. I asked her about her hair and she informed me that she needed to cut some of the pieces that were in her eyes. Her hair used to be one length all around the bottom. She did a little bit of layering in the front and on her bangs. With a little bit of blowdrying and barrettes, it doesn't look too bad. I was trying to grow her hair out a little longer for the summer so that we can pull it back in a ponytail. I think we can make this work without a visit to the salon. I only found a few strands of hair while doing damage control, thinking this wasn't too bad. Then a couple days later when we were cleaning her room, I found the rest of the hair in a pile shoved under the bed. All I could do was laugh. I couldn't even be mad at her. I just told her that the next time she thinks she needs a haircut to let me know and we can take her to the kids salon!

I FINALLY joined the club...

My friend let me borrow her copy of TWILIGHT almost 3 months ago. It sat on my shelf waiting desperately to be read. I'm so not into vampires or anything remotely science fiction. However, I LOVE to read and everyone assured me this book was a GREAT read and I just needed to give it a chance. After finally dusting off the cover, I picked the book up and surprisingly read it in 2 days. (Of course the dishes didn't get done and the house was a wreck, but I managed to keep the family fed and still read the book in record time.) I traded in my borrowed copy of book 1 for books 2 & 3. I had all 3 books read in just about 8 days. I shudder to think of all the things I could have accomplished during that time I spent reading. I really demonstrated a serious lack of self control! I guess I just haven't gotten into a good book(s) like that in awhile. I'm looking forward to book #4 in August and I'm interested to see the movie. I saw pictures of the actors for the movie on Stephenie Meyer's website (http://www.stepheniemeyer.com). I was a little disappointed because they weren't quite what I imagined, but isn't that how it usually is? If you haven't read these books yet, find some to borrow or check them out at your local library. You won't be disappointed!!