The Things I Used to Do!

I used to clean my fridge out every time I went grocery shopping.

I used to bathe my children at least every other day most of the time everyday.

I used to make dinner (this is not one of my strong suits) 2-4 times a week.

I used to scrub my bathtubs more regularly.

I used to mop my floors by hand.

I used to wash my sheets once a week.

I used to get dressed and ready everyday.

I used to get my kids dressed and ready everyday.

I used to volunteer to help friends more.

I used to have a pretty happy disposition.

I used to do these things until this happened......



Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to be having this little baby, and to have been able to carry a healthy child but this pregnancy has been rough! Now we are 37 weeks into it and only 21 days away from delivery (I refuse to go over)! The days still seem like an eternity, but I know they will eventually be gone and one day I will miss the spastic movement in my belly. I'm trying to see the positive here. After all it is a recent thing that I am so grumpy all the time!

Brie's first sleepover!

Some may say I am crazy to start this at such a young age. I say to them you don't know my Brielle. She has been begging and planning and hoping for a sleepover for months now. It has been so long that I can't even tell you when it started. I thought over the break was a perfect time. We started the night off at Chuck E Cheese, where they always have fun. Brielle thought it was really cool that Sadie got to come with the family. Then we came home and got in sleeping bags and turned on a movie. It was pretty mellow and low key, but it made Brielle's day, maybe even month. I'm sure it won't be long before she is begging and pleading again.

Now this is a different story entirely! We went shopping for a coming home outfit for the baby. I already had a cute little sweater outfit in mind, but Hope saw this little bear outfit and was not leaving the store without it. I thought it was so cute that she was so adamant what her little brother wear. It was on sale so we got it as well as the outfit I wanted.

When we got home she sneaked into her room and came out crying because the outfit didn't fit. OH!!!(the lightbulb went off) she thought it was for her. I quickly explained that she was too big for it and that it was for baby brother in my tummy. She didn't understand until I went and found this doll and put it on. "See" I said. " it's for the baby." She hasn't let this doll go since. She call it her teddy bear baby. I am afraid that we just bought a new outfit for her doll because I really don't think the baby will get to wear it.

Christmas Time.......

I had a lot to post so I thought I would just combine it into one. So here goes, lots of pictures lots of stories!

Josh was in the middle of finals which is usually pretty crazy but he had been promising the girls forever that we would go see this movie as soon as it was out....
They loved it. Josh had set his expectations a little too high and didn't think it was that great. It was a fun activity to break up all the studying. Josh finished his finals on the 16th and packed up his bags and flew to Kansas City to do some carpet jobs on the 17th. We were sad to see him go but happy about the extra money it would bring.

Brielle kept telling everybody that her daddy moved to kansas city. Her sunbeam teacher was a little confused.


While he was gone it snowed, if you can call it that. Let's just say it fluttered and the ground was kind of white over night. It reminded me of when it is really foggy in Utah and everything just gets white. But no matter the amount Brielle was THRILLED! It made me sad that she doesn't really remember the Utah snow.

Look at the excitement on her face!

I love Christmas Sunday! I love getting the girls all dressed up in their new Christmas dresses and I love how much music is sung or played. It bring such an amazing spirit. Thanks to my Mom the girls dressed were amazing this year.

Hope was not in the mood to get a picture so I thought we would make due with what we could get.

Brielle loves to take pictures so she is always telling me and Hope to get together or Josh and I to. She gets so mad when Hope wont cooperate.

We were so worried we wouldn't get our daddy home by Christmas. His flight was scheduled to leave Christmas eve (Thurs.) at 6 am. There was a storm coming through so I was in a panic. Wednesday night at about 11 pm he comes strolling through the door looking absolutely beat! He had pulled an all nighter, finished the job and jumped on an earlier flight. Good thing too, because the flight he was supposed to be on got canceled. He was EXHAUSTED, but he was HOME! Lets just say Josh and I don't do well apart. We had missed each other so much!
I was so excited that I found all of us matching jammie pants, well all the girls. Christmas eve we went over to dinner at the buttars and then came home and opened jammies.
On Christmas morning I heard Hope get up first. She usually brings us in a sippy cup and a thing of juice to pour for her. When I walked out she had been stopped in her tracks just staring at all the presents. I don't think she knew what to think. She just asked for some juice and then came to snuggle with us. We told her she had to wait for Brie. A second later she went in and we could hear her saying "Brielle, Brielle, wake up!" She eventually gave up and came back into bed with us. Brie woke up at about 8:30 and we heard footstep RUN down the hall and then RUN straight back while she was screaming "Santa came, HE CAME HE CAME!" She then ran back and forth until we could get out there. Hope was a little overwhelmed and just stared at all the presents. Brie immediately started handing them out since she could read the names.
Hope got more into and loved everything! Everything she would open she would say "wow a puppy doggy." or "Wow, dress ups." It was really cute!

This facial expression is priceless. She finally got her very own camera. She is always begging to use mine and that is a little scary since it is a really expensive camera. I hope that will stop now.
"Santa remembered!" She said when she opened her quick gems. I was surprised that with everything else this kind of got put on the back burner, but she was definitely happy he remembered. And everyday we have to put them in her hair, so I would say that she liked it.
Hope really was so excited about her snow white movie. She just wouldn't show any emotion for the camera.
And as usual she loved her dress ups.

We had a FANTASTIC Christmas. I think the favorite gifts were the scooters, leapsters and for brie her puppy. Hope got a magnadoodle that she really likes as well.

Now we are on to new years and enjoying the rest of Joshs break. It is so nice to have him home all the time.

Dear Walmart Lady: ( I wish now I noticed your name)

Thank you so much for taking a potentially horrible and humiliating experience and making it ok. I was mortified when I got to the check out and realized I didn't have my card. 50% was panic because I had no idea where it was, and 50% was embarrassment that I $250 worth of groceries and no way to pay for them. After shopping for 2 hours and standing in line for 30 minutes I would have cried on the spot had you been unkind to me. But your calm gentle reassurance that it was ok, and happened all time just made my day.

You definitely made up for the other Walmart worker who told me she had never seen a pregnant lady with 5 weeks left "Look so big and out there". That is just what you want to hear when you still have 5 weeks left. You definitely made up for the people in the mall who were so rushed and busy they were bumping into me and everybody else around. So, thanks again for remembering that there is more to time, rushing and hurrying. I couldn't have made it through that night without you as my cashier. Now, I wish I knew your name so that I could try to get you a raise for going above and beyond!

Christmas Party

Wow! We had had a day. It was one of those days that I wondered why in the world I was having a 3rd child because I couldn't even control the 2 I had. It was one of those days where one thing after the other seemed to either go wrong or make me upset. It was a Hope peed in the chick-fil-a playground kind a day. Yeah, we had had a day. Regardless it was the ward Christmas party and my girls couldn't wait to see SANTA! So excited I even got BOTH of them to take naps saying that we wouldn't go unless they did. And they did, so I braved the party alone because Josh was busy braving the library for his final the next day.

Brielle got up to sing with the primary kids and didn't surprise me at all that I could hear her beautiful yelling voice over all the other kids. Love that spunk of a girl!

And boy did we talk Santa's ear off. I wasn't close enough to hear, but I have a pretty good idea of what was being said. I was so proud of Hope when he asked her her name she screamed "Hope". I think this is the first time she has ever told anyone her name. Usually Brie steps in before she answers. I also heard her at the end say "Can I have your hat?" Both of them were so excited to see Santa they could hardly wait. Santa told them he liked chocolate chip cookies and Brie said "I know, but we are making you the kind I get to frost. and we will leave out peanut butter and jelly for rudolph ok."

It was a fun night, the kids were a little crazy and I have never seen Hope as hyper as she was ALL DAY today. Despite the downs of the day I am so grateful these little girls are mine!

The list that keeps on growing......

Brielle saw a commercial for one of these bad boys right as we were walking out the door to our Christmas party. She was instantly mesmerized. It puts tiny little jewels in your hair, and she thought that it was the coolest thing. She asked me all night long "what is it called again?" When she got off of santas lap she came running to me and said "He said he would bring me a quick gems, now I will have the most beautiful hair."

Do you think she will forget or do you think I should make sure this shows up under our tree on Christmas eve???

Thanksgiving AKA "Valenties Day!"

Thanks to my brothers persistent nagging I have not totally forgotten about my blog. See, he thinks that now that he has a blog that HIS WIFE updates he can bug me to keep my updated on a day to day basis. I am not complaining though, at this point in my life if he didn't I probably would never post. Then I would be so sad later! So THANK YOU CODY for constantly asking me when I am going to update my blog.

We went over to the Burtons again this year for Thanksgiving. Brielle couldn't wait for Thanksgiving and kept counting down the days. Except she kept calling it Valentines day. "Only 2 more days til Valentines Day!" We would correct her and she would say "Oh, yeah Thanksgiving." But then an hour later she would call it Valentines Day again. I finally just let her.

This picture once again proves my theory that funny face constitutes 'open your mouth really wide'. Except for in Katrinas case, but shes a little extreme and goes above and beyond in almost everything she does.



We were happy to have Matti here with us, and I don't know for sure, but I don't think he was even homesick!
The girls love the Burtons and were so excited to go over there. You can see they make themselves right at home.

Caroline had us all do a little skit and the kids all got up and sang a song. Brielle didn't know the song because Brody and Hailey learned it at school, but she got up and sang anyways.


We all know one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is black friday. We had been planning and talking about it all week. Toys R us opened at midnight this year so we went to stand in line at 11:00. Since Matt was here Josh joined in the fun. He hit the electronics line, while I grabbed everything else and stood in the check out line. We were there until 2:30. It was crazy but we luckily got everything we needed. Which we wouldn't have if I had gone alone. Afterwards Josh headed home and I went out with the girls. We hit Ihop, target and Kmart. By that time it was 7:00 and we were BEAT. We headed home where I crashed til noon and then went to bed at 8:00 that night. Sometimes I wonder why I do things like this, then I realize I am just naturally a late nighter.

All in all a successful start to the holiday season. Counting down the days til Christmas and our baby boy!

I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

Tonight Hope offered some much needed entertainment. For starters she ran up and down our hallway for at least an hour. She would do little dance moves in between and I saw her stop and watch her shadow occasionally, but for the most part she just ran back and forth. I really don't know why. I wish I could get inside that little mind to find out. That in itself was pretty funny.

We were getting ready to read stories for bedtime and I asked Josh and Brie where Hope was. Nobody knew. The little patter of feet running up and down the hallway had stopped and it was quiet. We finally yelled for her to come and read stories knowing that she would come because she loves to read. Josh starts laughing as she is coming down the hallway and it is not running like earlier. In fact it took quite awhile before I could even see her. Josh mind you was laughing the whole time. I kept asking him to explain but he just let me wait to see her. When she came into my view she was walking like this....
Both hands covering her face, walking very slowly so she would not fall or trip or run into anything. I knew immediately what she was doing. I knew she was covering something up. I knew she got into something she wasn't supposed to and didn't want us to see. Josh lifted her up to his lap while I am laughing so hard my face is soaked with tears. She still would not uncover her face. In fact she buried it into Josh's shoulder. I still am laughing typing this. When we finally got her to move her hands this is what we found.....

I couldn't even get mad at her. She knew she shouldn't have done it, and was obviously feeling guilty about it.

good news is I also had a pair of scissors and nail scissors (which have been used to cut the hair before) in my make-up basket and the hair is all still intact. So either the makeup was more appealing or we have passed the urge to cut the hair.

YES! It is a little INSANE! YES! We all felt like teenagers and LOVED it!

Our evening started at 6:00 pm where we met at the Jacobs for a FANTASTIC party where they out did themselves once again.


This was my favorite amongst the decor. Right next to it was the dog treats.(below)
Yes, those are cookies shaped into dog bones and the sign on the bear is in muddy buddy mix and says "werewolf kibble" It was so cute.

They replaced all of their family pictures with pictures of the cullens or scenes from the movie.

Type O positive punch. I don't know exactly what was in this but it was good. they also had a chocolate fountain dyed red and fed us all dinner that was so good.

Here is the whole gang and were all a little crazy. Josh was a little embarrassed by me because I won the first place in the trivia games. He said he was kidding when he said that, but I know deep down he thinks I'm a little nuts!



It was INSANE at the theater. I can't believe how big this whole thing has gotten. I have never been into any other series like , Lord of the rings, or Harry potter so it just astounds me that such mayhem could be caused over a book series. This is STANDING IN LINE to get into a show that everybody already had tickets too. CrAZy! They were handing out Red bulls. Keep in mind it was the midnight showing.

Right before Victoria spewed her red bull all over everybody!
We had a great time and it was so fun for all of us married mommies to get out and feel so crazy again. We have all been recouping for the last 2 days but it was well worth it!

Beautiful Ballerinas

Brielle's ballet class had a visitors day. So We went and picked up Josh and we got to spend the afternoon with these little cuties.

But of course, the one we really truly couldn't take our eyes off was this little beauty.

She kept turning around to make sure we were all there watching. It made us realize how important it is going to be to her and us to be supportive parents.

And this sweet little thing just couldn't get enough of the camera. She kept saying "mommy like this now"........

"Ok, now like this".........


"Mommy, mommy, like this, like this........"
Then when I finally had had enough and was trying to watch Brie she grabbed the camera and put it up to my eye and forced me to take more pictures. How could I resist this....

It was so fun to see Brielle learning and to see her with her friends.



She is absolutely loving ballet. She told me the other day that "Ballet and Preschool were the greatest things in her life."

Every morning she wakes me up and says "Mom what day is today." I am trying to teach her the days of the week so I always say "what comes after {yesterday}?" She usually knows and then will proceed to say " What do we do on Tuesday (or whatever day it is) Mom?" The days that I say she has preschool or ballet she is so excited. She gets so excited when I have something planned for that day too, even if it is just the grocery store. This girl just loves to go and it reminds me of myself when I was younger.

I am currently in the process of thinking of more activities to keep her going and happy. Feel free to offer any suggestion. What have you done with your busy little people?