Halloween

Beauty and the Beast. The second I put their costumes on they started dancing together and asked me to sing the song from the movie. It was cute.




The beast is just a lion costume with a purple cape, felt horns and navy blue shorts. And thanks so much AGAIN to the amazing Jessica for sewing pretty much the whole Belle dress. We hit the mall with some friends...




And visited two sets of great grandparents with cute cousins.




We were going to trick or treat at least a few houses, but everyone was so tired we just came home and had baths and went to bed.

Adam and I tried to go out for one last date after the festivities and before a newborn invades our schedule. Time alone with Adam gets more and more precious the older we get and the more kids come into our lives. I love our kids but I also LOVE date night!

Nursery

I don't know about you other moms out there, but I feel like nursery leaders deserve a lot more credit than they get. I vote that they should have a plaque with their picture up on the church wall kind of like currently serving missionaries do. The service they provide me just puts me on cloud nine!

This last week was Lulu's first week in nursery and like her older brother, she loved it. She's been waiting to go. And I for the first time in nine months was able to sit in Sunday school and hear the lesson and not feel guilty for being so distracting. I felt almost giddy, just overwhelmed with gratitude for the nursery leaders for watching my kids for me.





Doesn't she look so grown up? Just in time for nursery, she has beautifully mastered the phrase "Mine!" and executes it at ideal moments when she can push the right people's buttons (like her brother's). I'm sure it comes in handy at nursery.

We had to wait a few weeks to take Lulu to nursery as well as Baylub actually. My doctor, self proclaiming his view to be extreme, said that we shouldn't send our kids to nursery until we could all get the H1N1 vaccine because it can be so horrible for pregnant women. We've been taking turns just staying home from Sunday School for about five weeks.


(This is what not to do to avoid swine flu)

Last Thursday, we headed over to the county health department before they opened to get in line for the newly arrived H1N1 vaccine in needle form that Lulu and I could have. Baylub got the mist a couple days previously. Needless to say, the line was already out the door and wrapping around the building. We waited for over two hours with our wonderful Daddy, munched on Einstein bagels and skittles, and eventually made it in to get our shots. Dad got the mist and Lulu and I got poked. For the rest of the day she kept saying "I brave, Mommy brave, Daddy brave, Baybuh brave..." and so on. Although I kind of take middle ground on vaccines, I was very relieved to get this shot just to avoid any chances. Swine flu is definitely around and is definitely dangerous for pregnant women. I feel empowered. Go ahead, sneeze around me, I'm not scared.

Banana Surprise!

This is what I found cleaning up the kids' toys today. I guess the T-Rex was hungry.





If you can't tell, that is a browning banana in his mouth.

An event to remember...

For the first time, yesterday afternoon Baylub gave me a big hug and said "I love you Mommy" without me saying it first. Melt my heart *two tears*. I wasn't expecting that to happen for a long time. We are having a wonderful time this fall just us three (Lulu, Baylub, and me). It will be kind of sad when that ends with the whirlwind of adjusting to a third baby. I know we will find our rhythm though and things will be wonderful still.


5 mos. old

Fall

Fall is most definitely upon us. The weather dropped from a comfy 80 to chilly 50 in less than a 24 hour period. I hope we don't skip some nice 70-ish temperatures completely this fall. Luckily we enjoyed the leaves up Provo Canyon before it snowed. They are breathtaking.

Some small updates, nothing too big or exciting. Lulu and Baylub are growing up and as evidence, Lulu is becoming more fashion conscious in spite of the fact that her mullet is getting more and more difficult to hide. Her sassy little boots are her favorite. That and her squeaky shoes. She just has a shoe fetish in general and loves her jackets. The boots and the jacket in this photo were all her own choice. (note the long hair in back and still no hair on top)



Some other fun facts about the kiddalids, Baylub is becoming more and more reasonable and picking up so many things that shock me. The other day we were having some hot chocolate with lunch (because of the cold weather) and he said very quietly to himself "Oh my heck, this hot chocolate is bery yummy." I laughed for a while and then talked about saying "oh my goodness." I don't think I say "oh my heck" very much but I must if he's picking up on it. He listens better now and I can reason with him through some tantrums (not all, just some).




On the other end of the spectrum, Lulu is declaring her independence with the word "no" and we have little battles of will already, mainly over the books. If it was up to her, we would read picture books all day (mainly Go Dog Go, Leo the Late Bloomer, Green Eggs and Ham, Oh the Places You'll Go, and Clap Your Hands and Stomp Your Feet). I am constantly putting the books back up on the shelf. I LOVE that she loves books, but I have started to try to push the "one at a time and then put it back" concept. She gets it, but she tests her limits refusing to touch the book on the floor until I end up holding her hand to do it. When she does do it on her own after me asking a MILLION times, I praise her up and down. Hopefully it will click soon. It's actually quite funny to watch her try and stand up to her parents. I mean, does she really think she's going to win?

She also surprised me the other day by climbing to the very highest slide on the playground all by herself when I wasn't around and my sister-in-law was watching. She headed up there like she had done it a million times, turned around so she was feet first and zoomed down the very tall twisty slide. I had never let her even climb to that area. Sometimes I think I hold her back because her size and her lack of hair make her feel so much younger to me than she really is. She talks like crazy though, saying new words everyday.

Baylub is also becoming even more social, dying to go outside and play with the older neighbor boys. I really look forward to the day when I can just let him go play without keeping an an eye on him. He always wants to play with the older boys though, like those 3 or 4 years older. Someone once told me that is a sign of intelligence but I think people say pretty much anything is a sign of intelligence in children including hitting, not hitting, focusing or not focusing. People just love to hear that their kid is a genius. I know I do.

Last of all, we found an awesome deal on a bassinet. I have borrowed bassinets in the past but none are available this time around. Bassinets are really pricey so I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I just happened to look on KSL one Saturday morning and saw a barely used one not far from here for a great deal. We went and checked it out. The family looked nice, the house was clean, and the bassinet was in good shape so we got it.




I'm not sure if this is the case with other people, but with each baby so far, there comes a point near the end where some object or piece of clothing just makes something in my brain click and in my mind the baby becomes even more real and almost here. Because of one little baby object, I all of a sudden can't wait to hold him, see his face, touch his fingers and toes, hear his cry, all of those things. With Baylub, it was just one little outfit that I picked out to take to the hospital. With Lulu, it was a second ultrasound I got at 34 weeks. And now with this one, this bassinet has me so excited to see this little guy. I can just imagine him (or her we still don't know I just don't like calling him an "it") lying in it all wrapped up tight so small and cute.


Can you picture it? So, that is my biggest most recent news. Not much, but sometimes no news means life is still good just moving along.

Homecoming

Here are pictures of my baby sister going to her senior homecoming dance. This is for all of those far away who are wishing they were here for the occasion.

Anna Marie, you are a superstar!

We tried out the two dollar Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point during the month of August and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The last Tuesday at about 7 pm, we decided to quickly check out the dinosaur museum. I thought people would be leaving seeing as it closes at 8:30 and we didn't get there until almost 7:30, but many people had our same idea. It was PACKED!




It was worth the two dollars though. The museum is very impressive. Here is Caleb obediently posing, pointing out ancient crocodiles but in reality anxiously wanting to run over to the camera and look at the picture of himself. That is our new problem with taking pictures. They want to see the back of the camera and not have their picture taken.



Here is a lovely shot of mullet head (aka Lulu). That's what we call her and probably will call her until her hair grows out or until she figures out what we are saying.


So, being heavy laden with a bambino, I get free baby ads in the mail. I still don't know exactly where they get my information from or the fact that they even know that I'm pregnant. Doctors do have the whole confidentiality thing going on still, I hope. Anyway, in this parenting magazine we've been getting, there is an add for baby orajel with a little boy sitting on a Thomas the Train riding toy with tracks and all and simultaniously brushing his teeth holding the orajel bottle. Baylub became obsessed with the picture, asked to ride Thomas everyday for quite a while, and even slept with the ad (we tore it out of the magazine). He kept asking. The toy on Amazon is about $400 so that's not an option. It was so cute that he loved the ad so much, so we finally built him a Thomas to ride on with his big legos and he went and grabbed his tooth brush and tooth paste so that he could completely recreate the idealic scene of the orajel ad.



I was so glad that it satisfied him. There is no way we are buying that Thomas the Train toy, even though it is really really cool.