Car wash and Lucy

Yes it was cloudy today, but I just HAD to get the inside of my car washed before this baby comes. And I had a free car wash coupon. The girls really enjoyed watching the car go through the wash and play in the "money water." (The type of water fountains that people throw coins into.) They actually did really well, I was a little nervous taking them, but it was a fun treat! They loved the outside chairs that you wait on while they finish cleaning your car. 

 Marlee wanted to show me that she was three! Not sure why, maybe its because we keep asking Josie how old she is now and trying to get her to hold up two fingers.?

Later, we went to Kyle and Bobbi's to see baby Lucy! She is such a cute little baby. I forget how small newborns are! We had an enjoyable visit. Bobbi looks great. Her birthing story was amazing, she's awesome! The girls were so excited to play with Brody and Mack. Marlee decided to put on Mack's costume! These kids have so much fun together. It was a fun family night!

Another wonderful Sunday

I truly love Sundays! I look forward to each Sunday knowing that I get to be with Ivan and the girls all day and go to church to be spiritually uplifted!
Each of the speakers were great in Sacrament meeting. Topics covered Faith, keeping commandments with Exactness and not being lazy. I could go on and on about the many things I learned today, but already wrote it down, so maybe I will have to add it here one of these days.
We all got to take naps and then have lots of family time. We visited our neighbors, the Stalder's. They are so generous. They are the ones who gave me three bags of baby boy clothes and some nice Sunday dresses for Marlee and Josie, lots of eggs, and tonight they gave us a basically brand new baby car seat. Super generous and righteous family, glad to live across the street from such good examples. I need to figure out how I can be of service to them...
We read from the Book of Mormon for the first time as a family. Marlee and Josie had their own book and just looked through the pictures, but it was short and sweet and something we need to continually do as a family.
Lucy Lesueur was born tonight around 9:00pm. Bobbi and baby are doing well and it sounded like it was a good birth. She was one week early. Can't wait to see the little cutie!
Makes me a little nervous to think I could have our baby boy any day now. I am two weeks away from due date tomorrow. I have the girls bags packed, need to get mine and Ivan's packed and the baby's packed tomorrow. I plan on getting the Van cleaned and putting the new car seat in. This way since I am thirty mins away from the hospital I am ready to go!
Well, its midnight and everyone is asleep, so I better join them:)

Josie's Birthday Celebration

Since we really did nothing yesterday for Josie's birthday, we had a little get together at the park. We had the Mack's and the Maughan side join us. It was very fun. Marlee was more excited about Josie's gifts then she was. It was quite entertaining. I feel very blessed to have such wonderful family on both sides. It was the perfect weather, great food and great company.

 They loved the bubbles!

After the party, I headed to Nat's to start our marathon frozen food cooking. I was there until midnight. but now I have a bunch of frozen meals ready so I am feeling even a little more prepared to have this baby!
Ivan watched the girls all day/night. He took Marlee and Mack to the track with him and said they had an enjoyable time.

Josie turns two!

Its Josie's birthday today. I can't believe she is already two! We let her sleep in. Then Ivan took her and Marlee to Natalie's house while I worked for my mom. Afterward I went grocery shopping for Nat and I to do the 30 frozen meals tomorrow. Then I picked up the girls and took them to my in laws so they could babysit while I went to a regional YW training. It was a good training, we had Sister Dibb from the general Young Women presidency talk and give us instruction. She is the daughter of Pres. Monson and reminds me a lot of him. Her message was basically that we are here on the Lord's errand. We should pray to know what He would have us do. Instead of being so caught up in what the world would want us to do. We need to remember who we are and that we are children of God. If we remember that, we can do many things through Him and our burdens will be lightened.

The five Senses

We taught the five senses in Preschool this week and had a fun lesson today. For smell, the students made these cute smelly cotton ball flowers with different smells on each one. Then we did a closed eye taste test. They tasted lemon, salt and chocolate chips with their eyes closed. It was cute how trusting they are. Then we made kaleidoscopes.
The girls and I got a nap in afterward! Then we went and picked up hay for the goats and pizza for us!

Laundry Wednesday

Got caught up on Laundry. Will see how long that lasts:) Of course I wish I had taken a picture of the many baskets and mounds of laundry I did:)

No preschool for me

Woke up sick and was not able to teach preschool. Thank goodness for Lyndsay and my sister Natalie to proceed without me:)
Natalie stayed after preschool and painted a dresser for the baby, hung shelving in my laundry room, hung curtains, etc. Feeling a lot more prepared for the baby. Thanks Nat!

Preschool Planning

Lyndsay (who I teach preschool with) came over today with her two kids. It was a fun play day for the kids while we planned out the next several weeks for preschool. That way, when I have my baby, lesson plans are set! We had a great visit while the kids napped. Then I headed to the store to get stuff for preschool, but now we are good to go for a while. I guess the baby can come anytime now... 

Book of Mormon

 Marlee got her first Book of Mormon last night from Ivan and I so she could take them to Primary. She was so reverent during church and was excited to have her own scriptures! She said, "Maybe when Josie gets big and tall like me, she can have scriptures too!"  

Later tonight, she called to Josie and said, "Come here Josie, I am going to read the Book of Mormon to you." (She read her the pictures)

I am grateful for the Book of Mormon. I know it is true. I love learning and feeling Spirit while I am reading it.

Bobbi's Baby Shower and moments of gratitude

Went to my sister in law's baby shower today. It was super fun! She is having her first girl (she has two boys close to the same ages as my two girls) and of course we are having our first boy. Girl clothing, etc never gets old. Its still so fun to see all of the cute things you can buy for little girls! Bobbi and I took some pregnancy pictures together since our due dates are only one week apart. I will have to get those from Sasha one of these days to post. I actually won one of the games because of my unfair advantage of only being a week apart from Bobbi in pregnancy. The games was where you had to guess with a piece of yarn how big you thought Bobbi's belly was. I was pretty right one. Which was fun to see how we are pretty much the same size!

Afterward I went to get an oil change and car cleaning. I don't know why they always try to up sell you when you drive in saying, "I have this free oil change and car wash coupon and that's all I would like today, thanks." They still persist to upgrade and when you politely decline, they get mad. I am overgeneralizing, but it seems almost every time I go there, its the same thing. Then while I was sitting there waiting for my oil change/wash I realized, "Man, they must be under a lot of pressure from management to up sale." So then I felt kind of bad for them and realized I am grateful I don't have to do that for a living!They car looked nice and clean and runs great. Its our '95 Camry that has 266,000 miles on it. Another moment of gratitude hit me as I was driving home in an old car that works great.

(Ivan watched the girls all morning while I was gone and then let me take a nap while continuing to watch the girls!--grateful for Ivan)

After naps, we all headed to the track so Ivan and the girls could get a quick workout in before it got dark. Then we headed to the store and watched a movie when we got home. 

Hung ot with Nat and my parents at her house. My girls love playing with their Papa and Nana!
Took a nap (again) played with the girls. Organized lots of girls glothes into bins, now gong to move onto the boy clothes that people have so generously donated:) Nothing too excited.

M is for...

Monster, monkey, milk, marshmallow...Taught the letter M in preschool today. The kids made cute little monsters and music makers. Will post picture soon. Spent the day with S & P for wedding pictures, etc. Very productive. Nat watched my girls, thanks! Ivan watched Ed Bass Master movies and laughed all night long.

One more goatie gone.

We sold one more goat today. Now all we have left is Sheeba and her three new little goats, brownie and princess(who are both pregnant.) Its a nice feeling having less animals to take care of since we will be adding one more addition to our own family. One more thing is that our chickens are now laying eggs! Its kind of fun having your own home grown eggs for breakfast-They just taste better:)
Not much else to report today. I will be teaching Yoga to all of the YW tonight for mutual followed up with some protein shakes. Should be a nice relaxing evening!

Yes! It is worth it!

Had a great moment today.... I was listening to Marlee and her cousin Bromley playing and Marlee grabbed her kite that we made in preschool last week and starting singing the kite song we taught them that ONE day! I was so excited! I always think, "Do any of the kids even remember anything we teach them?" or "Is the prep and time making an impact on anyone?"  Well, today answered my question!

Speaking of today and preschool... we talked about the number 12 and how there are twelve months in a year and they made calendars. They decorated egg cartons last class that had twelve cut out eggs in them. We watched the old school, Sesame Street counting song. You know the know that goes along with the pinball... one two three four five six seven eight nine ten...eleven twelve. And Marlee slept for more than 12 hours last night. Poor girl was so tired, she fell asleep at 6:30pm and I had to wake her up at 8:00am for preschool.

Bromley stayed at our house last night and will again tonight and its fun having a boy around. Its prepping me for our little boy:) He enjoys playing with the girls, but definitely went straight for the cars, balls and trains when he played in the toy room!We love having him over. They all play so well together.

After we ALL took a nap today (yes, including me.) Josie went straight into my bedroom and starting looking for Ivan. I could hear her saying, "Daddy, where are you?" She was looking under the blankets, in the bathroom, in our closet, and couldn't find him. She was sad when I told her that he was still at work. I am sure that when he comes home tonight, she will be beaming and smiling!

Three day weekend

I Really enjoyed the three day weekend that we had since Ivan had today off. We slept in, went to the park, helped Gavin with math, Sasha with wedding planning, hung out with the Mack family, and just had a pretty relaxing day! Back to reality tomorrow!

Two Sundays in a row...

Two Sundays in a row we have had breakfast for dinner and I LOVE IT! There is just something so good about homemade, whole wheat waffles with berries and homemade whipping cream served with a side of over easy eggs! (Must be a pregnancy thing?)
Sunday School lesson on missionary work and being good examples to people through the way we live our life. Makes me want to be more righteous and know that we should be living each day so that "Those who don't know Him will want to know Him because they know you."

Great Date Night

Went out to eat with Ivan, went to the temple and then got some ice cream. Doesn't get much better than that. (Actually, I really don't mind what we do as long as I get to be with Ivan without the kids--Its refreshing!)

Bye Bye goaties...

We sold three of our goats today. Not sad at all. Especially since we have three cute little two week old baby goats.

Carousel

Today was a great day~ We had preschool that afterward we went to the superstition mall to ride the carousel. It was Marlee's reward for sleeping in her room. She had a sticker chart and it was reward time! Its a step up from Marlee looking forward to riding on the "escalator" when we got rid of her pacifier. I wonder what will be the next big thing... Of course i will add pictures once I can. She chose to ride on the pink horse.
Natalie and her boys went with us and it was a fun play date! We also saw my cousin in law Rachel and her girl, McKell there!

I got a whole bunch of baby boy clothes from Hina and Nat. It made me excited to have a little boy and a little nervous for reality to set in that I WILL be having a boy. How am I going to handle it? Its going to be totally different than having a girl. I feel like I have the girl thing down!

I met with Sasha to plan wedding stuff and had an enjoyable dinner with the Macks. Afterward we went to my moms and of course its always fun to go to both Nana and Grandma's house in the same night. They've died and gone to heaven after a day like today!

And as for me, I am worn out from all the fun. I am getting bigger as we speak, it feels like my skin can't stretch any further (Still have four weeks left of skin stretching to do.)
Once again, grateful for the little joys in life-- like riding a two minute carousel ride!

Day of Service

I love the quote by Pres. Hinckley's Father while Pres. Hinckley was serving on his mission, "Forget yourself and get to work."
I feel like I was able to accomplish so much today because of this quote. I taught someone how to make hair clips, made six dozen cookies to drop off to friends for belated birthdays and for other acts of service they've done for our family, was able to do five loads of laundry, dishes, cleaned bathroom, swept entire tile floor, made gross brownies for Young Woman's, fed the animals, etc. (Then at mutual we talked about the importance of motherhood. What an uplifting activity that was!)
Going to go and play a matching game with the girls while Ivan does homework. He only has three classes left til he has his Masters! Oh happy day!

Preschool

Preschool started up again today. Had an enjoyable class: learned about the letter "K", made kites and went for a walk to fly the kites. Kids are so darn cute! Got to take nap with the girls today after preschool. That's it for highlights of the day.

Surprise

Just got back from a Surprise Birthday Party for my sister in laws' fiance... Pedro! It was fun. The kids enjoyed hiding behind the couch with the lights turned off waiting for Pedro to come in. Great dinner and company, as usual. Marlee thoroughly enjoyed dressing up in Grandma's princess dress ups stuff. She was quite the little show off tonight! (once again, wish I had my camera cord:))

Sold one of our goats today-Oreo. She was a friendly little one (we only had her for about a month.)

Battery wouldn't start in the car, nice neighbors jumped it for me and spent some much needed time with the Winters family. My kids love playing with them and we haven't gotten together for a couple weeks.

This baby boy just loves to kick right now, maybe if we ever decide on a name for him, he'll stop kicking me?

Preschool starts back up tomorrow. Better go to bed.

Oh, remembered one more thing... On the way to my in laws, Marlee saw a van that looked like the Lesueur's and said, "Its Brody and Mack's car, just kidding." Then we got closer to it, it really was and the she said in a disappointed voice, "And they are watching Toy Story?" Kind of with this, "I wish I was watching Toy Story'" tone. Its amazing how kids can recognize other peoples cars, different routes we take to familiar homes, etc at such a young age!

Wish I could find my camera cord...

Then I could post pictures of  Life!!!!!

Refreshing Sunday

I just love Sundays. I feel so refreshed mentally, spiritually and physically. At church today, a few things during our YW lesson stood out to me. First of all, the new youth theme for the year is the 13th Article of Faith. Here is a link to all of them...  http://lds.org/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1?lang=eng. 
Our lesson was how all of the Articles of faith are what we believe but the13th AoF is where we take ACTION on our beliefs. It is very easy for us to sit around and believe things in life, but it takes ACTION to fully get the most out of life:)
Then we talked about how all of us should live the guidelines outlined in For the Strength of the Youth (No matter how old or young you are.) Link... http://lds.org/manual/for-the-strength-of-youth-fulfilling-our-duty-to-god?lang=eng
This lesson made me want to be a better person! I am going to try and be more focused on these two guidelines in life:)
After church, we all took our much needed Sunday nap! I seriously look forward to them each week. Afterward, Gavin and Mary came over and we had dinner together and had an enjoyable visit with them. They are so much fun . The girls love playing pretend with Gavin:)
Its ten thirty at night but I don't fell totally exhausted, in fact I feel rested and ready for the up and coming week. Goodnight.

Much accomplished-Saturday

Woke up (at my in laws house) and made waffles for everyone for breakfast. Took Marlee and Josie with me and Sasha to the fabric store to look for fabric for table runners for her wedding. It was NOT fun having Josie with us. She ran around the store (they have no carts) and was just into everything. Ivan met up with us at the freeway after he got off work and was so kind to take the girls home with him so Sasha and I could get some wedding stuff done! BIG THANKS TO IVAN!!!
Sasha and I got to spend some time getting wedding stuff done. It was very enjoyable to spend one on one time with her.
Then I headed to Costco. ALL by MYSELF:) It was amazing. I actually got to fill my cart since I had room for stuff. (Normally I only get to buy a few things here and there since the girls take up half the room in the cart. All you moms out there know exactly what I am talking about!
Came home and was greeted by the cute girls and hubby outside in the yard. The girls love spending time with Ivan and he is so good to let them play outside with him while he works on yard/animals stuff. Hung outside a little til it got to dark. Ate dinner,  hung out and watched a movie and enjoyed another great day!

(The girls LOVE their daddy! Here are a couple of shots of him drawing pictures for them on their princess doodle pad.)

Date Night

Tonight was a fun night. We finally got to redeem our "Birthday" date night from Ivan's parents. (my birthday was in September, but it was very hard coordinating dates, until last night!!!!)
My birthday present included Ivan's parents watching the kids, gift card to Roy's Hawaiian Rest. and then we had movie tickets that I got for Christmas. Bobbi had the same gift so we doubled!
We met up at Roy's, had a fun dining experience. Its a really nice, expensive restaurant where er got a four course meal, but left hungry enough to stop and get a large serving of Cold Stone Ice cream. It was great healthy food, just on the small side portions:)
So after Roy's and Cold stone(which we had free coupons for that too) we headed to Harkins. We watched True Grit. I actually really liked it. I had no idea what it was about going into it, so no expectations. It was funny and I enjoyed the old western plot.
After the movies, we headed home at midnight and all spent the night at my in-laws. Truly enjoyed our "Free" date night!

Play day

Some days you just have to sit and play with your kids! Today was one of those days! ( I did have Laundry piled high, dished overflowing out of the sink, grocery shopping needed to be done, etc. but all put on hold to have a fun PLAY DAY!) Puzzles, barbies, cars, trains, reading, food, etc. LOVED IT!! I even took a nap at nap time!
Wish my camera cord would be found....

Definietly Having a BOY!

Last night, we slept at my parents house and Mar, Jos and Evie had fun playing one last time together this morning. My mom cooked us a great breakfast and then we had to say goodbye to Michala and the girls.
We headed out to an ultra sound apt. The girls got to be babysat by Uncle Gavin and Aunt Mary. THEY HAD SOOOO MUCH FUN WITH THEM!!! and I was very grateful they agreed to babysit. I went with my sister in law, Bobbi. We are only a week apart. We both had great ultra sounds and our babies are measuring right on course for due dates.

The reason for the title of this post is because if you haven't heard the story of our finding out of the gender of the baby, here it is:
Ivan and I decided we wanted to wait to see what we were going to have. Since we have two girls we figured we were set on baby clothes if it was a girl. If it was a boy, my sister said she had TONS of boy clothes. So we thought it would be fun to be excited and find out at delivery. Plus, I thought it was going to be a great motivator for delivery.
I went and got an ultra sound around 20 weeks along. When I went the the apt, I asked them that I not find out since we wanted it to be a surprise. So I was poked and prodded and walked out of the office not knowing the gender. So the next day, on Ivan's way to work, he called me and said, "You have to call the place back and tell me, I want to know." He basically couldn't handle the suspense. So I called the place back and they said it was not on my records because it was a patient request not a medical need for the doctor. So I asked them if the lady who did my ultra sound was working that day and she was. They went and got her and said, "Are you sure you want to find out over the phone." I said, "No but my husband does." So they told me it was a BOY.
So this whole time I have been basing my knowledge on an over the phone, verbal telling that it was a boy. (Plus my first trimester symptoms were different this go around.)
So during today's ultrasound, he gave us a nice view that CLEARLY showed us his BOY parts.
We are excited and he is positioned head down and everything looked good. Can't wait to meet this little guy and hopefully we can find the right name for him!

Our Goat had Triplets

 

Not the clearest pictures, but our goat Sheeba had three babies today. I went outside to get packed in the car to leave and realized, "There are three little goats walking around." Then I went and looked and saw that it had JUST happened and then the placenta came out, so I knew that was it. (sorry if TMI)

I got the girls and they ran right in to see the cute little things. We talked about it almost daily since we knew Sheeba was close to giving birth. There are two boys and one girl. Mommy doing well:)

After that fun and exciting surprise, we headed over to cousin Weston's 2nd birthday party. He is the first of the three cousins to be born within six weeks of each other.

Amazing

My girls LOVE the song "Just the Way You Are," by Bruno Mars. Lucky us, we were able to hear it on the radio FIVE times on our way home from my sister's house. Marlee said, its amazing! We keep finding the song on the radio! Sooooo glad we kept finding it, because it made the half hour drive go by way fast! Marlee knows most of the words and Josie knows the chorus. Its so fun to see them sing along to a song on the radio!
Here is the YouTube link to the song.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhCEhWiKXk

Had an enjoyable day hanging out with my sisters while the kids napped! And had fun watching the cousins play together. That pretty much sums up our day today. 1.03.10

1.2.11 Found a picture!

I  found a pictures of our family-on my parents computer-from our Christmas Eve get together. We made sugar cookies and the kids decorated them.

Today: Marlee went to Primary for the first time and really did not want to be a "Sunbeam." When we got to church, come to find out many other of her nursery friends did not want to be Sunbeams either, so it was cute to see how apprehensive they all were. Marlee and one of her friends held hands while the other mom and I left them. When it was time for pick up, she was super happy and told me she liked her new Sunbeam teachers! :) Josie is still in nursery and loves it. We had a great gospel lesson/discussion in Sunday School. And truly felt the spirit there. YW's lesson was about "What makes someone truly beautiful?" and of course it's the Holy Ghost dwelling in us that radiates the Love of our Savior!Good Sunday!

After church, we headed to my parents house for a family dinner. Michala was still in town with her girls and Nat came over and we had a very nice dinner together. We're headed to the Mack family for another dinner here soon. Its nice to be able to see both sides of the family when we "come into town."

1.1.11

Well, I decided I should start the year off by journaling. Whether its in my journal, blog or facebook, I am going to "journal" for not only the sake of my memory, but for genelogy for future generations:)
Although I can't figure out the new layout, etc of the blog, and I can't find my camera cord,  I am still going to post!

Today we had an enjoyable, day. Ivan had the day off so we had some good quality family time. We went for a drive, stopped and got some good Mexican food from a little carniceria, ate lunch at the park (the girls loved the park,) took naps, read books and played a memory/matching game with Marlee, folded and put away laundry, cleaned out part of the garage, listened to Josie sing along to "The Little Mermaid" songs, and then we to the store to buy  ice-cream as a family at nine o clock at night (even thought it's one of the coldest nights AZ has had in a while.)

Life is Good!