Dear Santa

As we were setting out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer tonight, Nate brought a piece of paper over to Eric and asked him to write Santa a note. This is what he wanted dictated....

Dear Santa,
Don't eat all the cookies! Just have one.
Love Nate.

Nate has always had a hard time sharing snacks! Eric and I were laughing so hard (which is really painfully by the way!) We finally convinced Nate we should modify the note to say "don't eat all the cookies, just have some!"

Merry Christmas everyone!

Bringing Home Baby

Just a warning...this post is going to be full of gushy, lovey baby stuff so if you are not in the mood for that, you better stop reading! So we were able to bring Noelle home yesterday (Friday) and she is doing so fantastic! She is just the perfect little baby! I don't want to jinx myself, but she seriously couldn't be a better baby!

I am also recovering quickly which is such a huge blessing. Nathan is doing fantastic so far! He loves having Noelle's undivided attention when she is awake and she is so interested in him too! Its so exciting to think that our little family is reuniting here on earth!

Eric still has a cold. He is pretty miserable but he is trying so hard to help out even though I know he isn't feeling good! We are quarantining ourselves for a few weeks, so I apologize to family and friends who have wanted to come see her but we decided we better try to avoid any further illness. I have always hated the flu season but now its got me constantly praying for good health.

Flu season aside, this is such a wonderful time of year to have a baby because of the opportunity it has given me to reflect on the birth of our Savior. As a mother it has made me reflect on my purpose here to raise my precious children (I love being able to say children now)with the knowledge of the Gospel and for them to know of their Saviors love.

Baby Noelle

She is such a good baby.




Born at 12:30, 8 pounds 5 ounces, 20 inches. Mom and baby are both doing great!


    Click here for some photos of the last couple days:

Day 1 & 2

Christmas Time

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Okay I just need everyone to know that I DID NOT PUT THIS ON HERE!!!! Eric has figured out how post things to my blog without my knowledge....I can't get him to stop! Does anyone know how I can block him from posting these crazy things! :)

7 Random Things...

I always forget to fill these things out when I've been tagged, but since this baby is still not here, I figure I might as well do something....

7 things I can do...

Make "to-do" lists
Budget
Sew
Cook
Clog dance (although it has been a while)
Name most of the superheros, their alter ego's and arch nemesis - thank you Nathan.
Gossip

7 things I can't do...

Touch my toes
Get the motivation to clean my bathrooms
Style my hair as cute as Alison does
Sleep through the night
Remember much
Draw well
Make this baby come any quicker

7 things I always say...

"When is this baby going to come?"
"Eric, what are we going to name this baby?"
"What a nightmare!"
"I'm hungry."
"Dang it!"
"What the heck!"
"Whatch'a doin' Nate?"

7 things I always eat...

Club crackers
Cereal
chicken
String cheese
Milk
Lil' Cutie Oranges
Toast

7 tags...

Sherry
Alison
Donna
Kelly R.
Josephine
Amanda
Amy

Eric's total randomness...

Eric figured out how to post pictures to my blog from his cell phone so he's been messing around with that all day. I don't even know what to say about this picture...

Turkey Trot!

Nate ran his first race today! He ran the 200 meter dash (1/2 a lap around the field) in the annual Turkey Trot at the high school. He did awesome! He was so focused and proud of himself when he finished. Nate came in 4th or 5th but all the kids got a participation ribbon, a doughnut and hot chocolate (yeah that was the highlight for me too!) Maybe it's all the hormones but I got teary eyed when I saw him out there with all the other kids doing something all on his own. Nate told me after the race he was pretending to be Starscream (a transformer for those of you who don't have little boys) and that is what gave him the strength to run so fast! Gotta love the superhero complex!

That's Nate in the orange shirt closest to the camera.

Just Nates size.

Showered

I am so lucky to have great friends! I was given a baby shower this weekend, and it was so much fun. I really enjoyed just having a day to think about and celebrate this baby (still no name, sorry...I hate calling her "the baby" too!). All of my friends and family are so generous, I seriously don't deserve all the adorable things I got. Thank you Alison for hosting the best baby shower I've ever been to! We waited a long time for her to join our family and it was so fun to celebrate the fact that she is going to be here in just a few short weeks!

Everyone always wants a belly picture...so here it is! This is why I don't do pictures!


Alison and Roxy




Carole and Kaylee


Emily and her peeps

All Hallows Eve

Nate as Optimus Prime...leader of the Autobots!

I don't want to complain......

but well.....here I go. It all started two weeks ago when I came down with the stomach flu. It was nasty but luckily over within a few days, then came the pink eye, first Nate, then me, now both of us at the same. Bedding to wash over and over again, hands are raw from endless washing and hand sanitizer, and drops in the eyes every few hours. Okay, we are dealing....Then came the colds...and with the colds, a sinus infection for me and an ear infection for Nate. Coughing all night long, no sleep, can't breath, sore throat, no energy during the day. Totally wiped out, dishes piling up, cartoons (and guilt) all day. This sucks. And that brings us to today....

This morning started out just like the rest of the mornings this week. I am totally exhausted from being up all night, but I manage a good breakfast for Nate, after all we need our strength, right? After breakfast I plop down on in the rocker to watch some cartoons with Nate. The sunlight is streaming through the windows, warming up the house, Nate is quietly watching cartoons. Naturally I begin to get drowsy and the magnitude of not sleeping for the past two weeks hits me and I peacefully close my eyes for a little morning nap. I am not out for very long when a panicked little voice calls "Mom!" I am wide awake and Nate is running towards me with a horrified look on his face. I bark "whats the matter? What happened?!" and Nate replies "I stuck a lego up my nose and it's in there REALLY far!" By this time he is in a full fledged panic and I am not far behind him. I grab the phone, call the doc, grab a flashlight and a pair of tweezers and manage to get Nate to lie down so I can have a look. Yup, its in there REALLY far. The doctor says to go to the ER. We are still in our jammies, so we literally throw some clothes on and run out the door. Of course it's a nightmare there and it takes forever for us to be seen, but when they finally see us, they can't get it out. Apparently it was really jammed in there. Nate was such a trooper, he held so still and did exactly what they told him to do. So hours later they end up sending us to an ENT doc. He takes one look at Nate's nose and says he's not sure he can get it out either! I am just praying he won't have to have surgery. Finally after some medicine that makes his nostril open way up and some Novocaine, they are able to grab it! I have mixed emotions, relief and anger that a damn lego just cost us a couple hundred bucks!

The funniest part of the this whole thing is that when I was 4, I also stuck a lego up my nose. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Hopefully Nate has learned his lesson. I know I have...no falling asleep on the job and skip the ER and go directly to the ENT doctor the next time it happens, because inevitably it will.

New curtains - pictures for Tracy

When it comes to creativity and talent, I got the short end of the stick compared to my sister Tracy. So while we were both pregnant, she would tell me all the cute things she was doing with her girl's room and the beautiful paintings she was painting. No fair! Anyways, were talking about pregnancy bring out our creativity and I decided I needed to make some new curtains for my kitchen sliding glass doors. I knew exactly what I wanted, but couldn't find anything that even came close, so it was time to make them myself! I was so excited they turned out exactly like I pictured them. They are really simple and super easy to make. Eric doesn't want me to mention this but he even helped me measure the grommets. It was fun to have his help on one of my projects! So anyways, Tracy, here are the pictures of the finished product you've been asking for...sorry it's taken so long to get them posted. And they are terrible pictures, the curtains are much cuter in person so you will have to use your imagination a little!





Grommets - so they slide open really easy. Super handy because we are always going out side from that door.


Waverly "Country Weekend" toile with red/cream ticking as the lining fabric.

Definitely , maybe...

We had another ultrasound this morning and they are still saying it's a girl, kind of! It's funny because they keep wording it like "we are pretty sure it's a girl." Since this was the second ultrasound where they saw the same thing, we are going with "girl". I definitely feel like now is the time to start to do some shopping!

So now on to the fun part. She is sooooooo cute! She looks just like Nathan, but she has these big ol' "Angelina Jolie" lips! She has chubby cheeks already! She is only 2 lbs 10 oz, but she is already starting to get some fat on her! She is in the 50th percentile and everything looks great! I tried to scan the ultrasound pictures but it isn't working for me, maybe Eric will be able to get them to scan so I can post them.

One last thing....so the whole reason we had this ultrasound was because they were monitoring an ovarian cyst and a fibroid tumor under the placenta that could potentially cause lots of problems. When they looked today, they said both were completely GONE! It's pretty typical for the ovarian cysts to disappear, and the fibroids can go away on their own but it is more common for them to grow because of the estrogen surge. I was so shocked at our good news! Its so strange and wonderful to have a normal pregnancy and baby I almost don't know what to do with myself! I just feel so, so blessed and grateful and I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers!

Sleepy Time

Okay, so I know I've already done a post about Nate's silly sleeping habits but I couldn't resist this one! Since Nate has started pre-k, he comes home exhausted just about every day. Nate goes to bed nice and early (yes I am a sleep nazi) but sometimes days he just can't make it until bed time! The other day after school Nate asked me if I "had any dollars?" I told him yes and I could see where this was going. In our neighborhood the ice cream truck rolls around EVERY afternoon and has been the angst of many-a-disappointed afternoons. Well, it had been a long time since I let him get an ice cream from the ice cream truck. So when he asked if I had any dollars and then proceeded to ask if he could get an ice cream, of course I said yes and he was thrilled! He ran and brought me my purse and I gave him two dollars. Since the ice cream truck wasn't here yet, he took his money, got his shoes on and sat down on the couch to wait. A few minutes passed and he asked where the truck was but was being very patient. I barely noticed when he decided to lay his head down, but then I did a double take and saw that he was fast asleep - still gripping the ice cream money! Strangely enough the ice cream truck did not come that afternoon and Nate ended up taking a two hour nap! After about an hour he rolled off the couch in a sort of standing position, but he was still fast asleep. Eventually he fell on the floor, woke up, and whined for a minute then crawled back up on the couch to finish his nap! Every time he does something like this, I can't help but think back to when he was a baby and would scream in his crib for hours not wanting to sleep. Ahhhhh the joys of parenting!

Still sleeping....and he still has one of his dollar bills clutched firmly in his hand!

Funniest Man Alive...Eric thinks I am talking about him

On Saturday night Eric and I got to see Brian Regan at the Silver Legacy. Yes I know its shocking, but we actually went out! We had such a good time. This is the second time we have gotten to Brian Regan in person, and I seriously didn't know I could laugh so hard. I was laughing so hard I almost threw up, I think all the belly jiggling bounced the baby right to sleep because she didn't move all evening! If any of you haven't heard or seen Brian Regan's act, just let us know we have a couple of his DVD's and we'd love to let you borrow them or better yet, come over and watch them with us!

The happy couple...happy to be out of the HOUSE!

So it's impossible to tell from these pictures, but we actually had AWESOME seats! We were in the third row from the stage, literally almost right in front of him. It was so cool to be able to see his facial expressions (one of the funniest parts of the entire act) so close in person instead of just seeing him on the jumbo trons.

He usually comes to Reno every year so let us know if you'd like to come with us next year, I guarantee it's worth the ticket price!

A New Era: The First Day of Pre-Kindergarten

We have been looking forward to today for a long time. Nathan started pre-kindergarten this morning. A few weeks ago his teacher came to the house to introduce herself and get to know Nathan. He was hoping she would invite him to go to school with her that day! Nathan was almost too excited to stand still long enough for me to take his picture this morning.

Nate found a rollie pollie (his absolute favorite) right in the midst of our "photo shoot". He just had to save it!!

And show the camera of course....

There were no tears shed today, but I did get a little emotional when I went to pick him up, he was standing there among 20 other kids, looking around the room, trying to find me in the sea of parents. When he spotted me he got a big smile on his face! So precious! Of course I peppered him with questions about his day, what he did, who he played with but he got frustrated with all the questions and said "you just had to be there." Somethings I did find out:

• He had a banana for a snack
• He did not get to play on the computer today
• The class has a cat puppet name "Curiosity"
• He did not find out any other kids name in the class
• He read a Spiderman book with his teacher
  
• He swang on the swings

So if any of you are wondering if I spent the morning at a spa getting a massage and a pedicure, I regret to inform you that I did NOT! I spent three entire hours working on the Primary Program and folding laundry. So exciting I know! Nate is excited about going back tomorrow, I just hope his enthusiam for school continues beyond the first few weeks, poor kid doesn't realize how many years of school he has ahead of him....especially if he is gonna be a doctor!

Better late than never....

So I don't recommend camping when you are pregnant, especially if you have a killer cold! I can now add this to my list of "things not to do next time". It actually wasn't too bad except for the not being able to breath part and yet in spite of problems we had getting there (see below) we actually had a good time. We went with both our families which always provides entertainment in its self. Here are some of the highlights...

• We got the van packed up and noticed the tire was flat, so we stopped in at Les Schwab for a couple of new tires. Thanks Derek!
  
• After the tires we stopped in to Costco for an air mattress, I wanted the best of the best, the Bently of air mattresses....the AREOBED! Turns out it's just as uncomfortable as all the other ones and I ended up sleeping in the car anyways!
• Stopped at about 6 other places for things we forgot...I won't bore you with all the details, but it seriously took forever.
• Finally got to the campground and Eric picked a tent site that was up on a hill! Setting up camp was definitely a work out!
  
• Made dinner and went to bed early, but unfortunately couldn't breath lying down and had to pee every 30 mins.
  
• Got up and attempted to sleep by the campfire, but was afraid of being eaten by bears at every sound, went and crawled in my parents car for about 1 hour of shut eye.
  
• Got up early and snuggled in blankets with my mom for some girl talk while everyone else slept and laughed at how loud Eric was snoring! (and he claims he didn't sleep well! whatever!)
• Ron made a killer breakfast and we stuffed ourselves silly
• Packed up camp and went swimming at the hot springs
  
• Had an impromptu picnic lunch by the side of the road and headed home for some real sleep and a shower!
  

When I was little and my Grandpa took us camping we would always get Spaghetti-o's heated up in the can over the fire, they were my favorite so that's what I made Nate for dinner, of course he loved 'em! Nate is a true camper, he loves it with every fiber of his being! I guess it's a good thing I like it too, except when I am pregnant and have a cold! :)

Our camp...

Nate was so fascinated by the bats!

Good Morning Sunshine!

A hike down the hill!

A new nephew

For those of you that know my sister Tracy, she had her baby this afternoon. She surprised us with a boy this time! ( I could have sworn she was having another girl! I am so bad at guessing that!) They named him Ryan Alan. He was 8 pounds 11 ounces and 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great. Everyone is totally exhausted but happy he is finally here.

Backyard Waterpark

I love that Nate can have as much fun with a $10 blow up pool and a slide as we would have had at an expensive, crowded water park! I know it won't be this easy to please him as he gets older, but in the mean time, he had a blast!

Gotta love a face full of water!

I was wrong...or was I?

So I guess my motherly instinct hasn't quite kicked in! Apparently we are having a GIRL! :) Well I should technically say the doctor is leaning toward it being a girl. She was acting very lady like and kept her legs totally closed the entire time. More importantly, she is healthy. He couldn't see anything wrong on the ultrasound but I need to have a blood test just to make sure. I am so relieved, I can't tell you how stressed I've been imagining all the things that could go wrong. She was so cute wiggling around in there, kicking her legs! It was so fun to see! Nate is a little freaked out by the "skeletor" ultrasound pictures. I think he was expecting to see a sweet, pink, little baby. We bought him a girl Cabbage Patch Newborn so he can have a "baby" too! I was more excited about it then he was! I go back in 10 weeks for a follow up appointment, so hopefully by then we will be totally sure that its a girl! Thanks for voting on the poll too, looks like the majority of you thought it was a girl all along!

I listen to my friends....

So Keri just suggested that I post a poll on my blog to see what everyone thinks we are having...We find out Wednesday so we won't be left in suspense much longer! So if you care to exercise your right to vote, let us know what you think! You have a 50/50 chance of being right, pretty good odds I'd say!

Just for Amy....

So Amy says I need to update my blog....I've been meaning to but apparently reading about our home improvement success is no longer interesting! So here ya go Amy!

On Friday Eric called in "sick" and we spent a really fun day in Tahoe and Reno. Eric hardly ever takes time off work, in fact he has like 3 months of vacation time accrued. I guess that is one of the cons of enjoying your job so much, you never take your time off. So this was a treat for all of us. We headed up to Tahoe in the morning and went for a little hike up to Eagle Falls. We actually planned to hike up to Eagle Lake which is about a mile farther up, but we quickly canned that idea once we got started up there! Back in the good old days, Eric and I would run that hike (up hill the entire way there!) Makes me laugh how much has changed since then! So instead of hiking we decided to take a little dip! We hadn't planned on going swimming but Eric found a great little pool at the bottom of some smaller falls to put our feet in. No one was there, but once we got in and were having so much fun, other people found our little secret way to get in and before long all the other hikers (and their dogs!) were joining us for a impromptu swim!

The water was COLD!!!

Nate decided it would be much more fun without clothes! He tried taking the underwear off to, but we had to maintain a little modesty!
This pretty much sums up how much fun we had!

After we got dried off, we headed around the Lake and up to Reno. I had some work files to drop off and afterwards decided to go to dinner at Claim Jumper. By this time Nate was a little dehydrated so we took our dinner to go and enjoyed a nice quiet evening at home. I love days like this!

Home Improvement

I finally got a new faucet in the kitchen! Ours broke a few weeks ago and when we went to Home Depot to buy a new one, we were floored by the prices! We went on ebay and found the same faucet we wanted for more than $100 less! This is the second time we have had to replace the faucet since we moved here 4 years ago so I wanted to make sure we got a good one. It was worth waiting for it to ship because it looks and works wonderful!

Old Faucet.....


We are not disgusting I promise! I don't know how it gets so gross under there, but it does!
Nate and Eric hard at work! Nate must have thought watching Eric was really entertaining because he brought out some snacks and enjoyed the show!

New Faucet! Ahhhhhhhh.....

So a few weeks ago, Alison posted 5 things she couldn't live with out and asked everyone else to do the same, my fav things were pretty much the same as everyone else (Down East Tee's, Diet Coke, Paul Mitchell hairspray, etc) but I just need to post one of my own. I discovered it a few months ago and I am hooked! Bar Keepers Friend! It is the best cleaner I found and it's soooooo cheap! Everyone from Wal-mart to William Sonoma sells it but you have to search for it, it's on the bottom shelf most of the time! I swear this cleaner takes stains off your counter tops, removes scratches from your sink, polishes stainless steel like you wouldn't believe! It's the best! Notice the hard water stains when we took the faucet off, I just used a little Bar Keepers Friend and it took it right off! We bought a different style of faucet this time so we had to get those stains off or else they would show...not a problem for this cleaner!

Boys just want to have fun!

This past week, I went to Cub Scout Day Camp so Eric stayed home with Nate for a few days. They had so much fun, I think Nate wants Eric stay home with him permanently! Maybe I should start looking for a job!


The ice cream truck rolls around every afternoon and one day Eric gave Nate a dollar to get an ice cream! Nate was SO excited! He ran toward the ice cream truck waving his dollar and he picked out a Sponge Bob popsicle. The lady told him he didn't have enough money and he was DEVASTATED!!! He was crying so hard! Eric gave him another dollar and went back to try again. When he got the ice cream he was squealing with delight and was so proud of himself. He kept saying "I did it!" Who ever heard of paying a $1.50 for a popsicle for crying out loud!!

Squirt guns were also a daily ritual while I was gone...