We had such a fun Thanksgiving weekend. I'm sad I didn't take very many pictures. I was having too much fun I guess!
A few highlights~
1. We spent Thursday with my Pearce family out in Queen Creek. My Grandma and Grandpa Pearce have a house out there that is a very fun place for kids. My boys never tire of spending time there. They place outside playing games, riding bikes, scooters and four wheelers, and spend a lot of time with cousins. I enjoy it just as much I think because I get hang out with family playing games, eating:), crafting, and just visiting while my boys are happily playing. I will always treasure our times out at Grandma Pearce's in Queen Creek!
2. Thursday night I got to go shopping with my sister in law Steph. We really didn't want that much that was on sale but it was just fun spending time together. Love you Steph:)
3. Friday we spent the afternoon with Jared's family. It was great fun! Very yummy food, visiting with family, and even an impromptu talent show. I also got to meet and hold my new nephew, Rhett, while he slept (only about three more months until our baby girl is here:).
Part of our talent show:) I think Kyson decided to sing Eensy Weensy Spider at least three times at the top of his lungs. The older girls were quoting movies...mostly Nacho Libre. Fun times!
4. Saturday Jared went golfing with some of his family and I headed back out to Queen Creek with our boys. Another fun day was spent doing all the fun things we do out there!
Overall it was a super fun weekend filled with time spent with family. What more could you ask for?
As I mentioned before, Jared is doing his second rotation at the hospital in Show Low. I am so grateful he is able to come home on the weekends. It is seriously a life-saver for me right now. It's what I look forward to...spending time together on the weekends!
Two weekends ago was an especially fun-filled weekend. First we got to go to the drag boats at Thunderbird raceway on Friday courtesy of Hopekids. Our boys were so very excited to go. We got there about 9:30-10:00 and thought we would just stay a couple of hours. Every time we decided were ready to leave our boys begged to stay for more. It did get a little long as you waited for the boats to line up to begin each race so the boys got restless in between, but they had fun regardless. We ended up waiting until the super fast top fuel boats went around 4:00pm, so we were there a long time!
Saturday we had another Hopekids event that I took the boys to while Jared studied. To say they had fun would be an understatement. There were tons of bounce houses that the boys never tired of. Kyson especially loved the "obstacle course" one and Caleb really enjoyed the big slide. I lost track of how many times they went around and around to do them again and again! I didn't mind, the weather was perfect, and they were having fun. There was also tons of food and many games to play. We ate pizza and other snacks galore!
That night (Saturday night) my sister, Katie, came over after we put the boys in bed so we could go watch the ASU football game at Jared's brothers house. It was so nice to have a chance to get out and do something without kids! Thank you so much Katie! And thank you to everyone who has been so willing to help me out with our kiddos these past few weeks. A lot of people have offered and stepped in to help me out and I appreciate it so very much.
I am sad I've neglected my blog lately. There are so many posts I need to do to "catch up," and every time I think about doing a post, I just feel overwhelmed with how far behind I am. I decided to just do an overview of the last month and then try to keep up with it from there. Watch out...this is probably going to be long:)
Highlight #1: We found out we are having a baby girl! More importantly we found out she has a perfect little heart. A true blessing. She has begun moving around quite a bit. I am currently 22 weeks and everything is going great. I'm grateful to be feeling better lately. Also, I've noticed I haven't been as light-headed with this one as I was with my boys. That is a wonderful thing as I had several embarrassing moments of passing out with both previous pregnancies!
Highlight #2: Jared began his second rotation. This is both a highlight and a lowlight (I don't think that's even a word, but you know what I mean!) It's great because we are one step closer to graduation but it also means eight weeks of him living in Show Low doing his rotation at the ER there and me living here in Mesa. Gratefully he's been able to work out his schedule so he comes home on the weekends. He seems to be enjoying his rotation so that his a big bonus as well.
The weekend before Jared started this rotation we all went to Show Low together. It was so beautiful up there! All of the leaves were changing colors and the weather was perfect. It was a really nice weekend.
Caleb took this picture of some leaves I had picked up. I just love all of the colors...colors we just don't see much of here in the desert!
Highlight #3: Over a month ago I made a "sticker" chart for the boys to help motivate them to do their chores, be nice getting ready for bed, keeping their pull-ups dry at night (both boys still wear pull-ups but I know they are dry when they wake up sometimes and are just too lazy to get to the bathroom), and cleaning up their toys when I ask. We told them when it was complete we would take them bowling. It was great for Caleb! He loved working to fill in his chart. Kyson on the other hand, he just wasn't motivated by that chart one bit! He eventually got it filled in but more because we wanted to all go bowling together as family and didn't want to leave Kyson behind so we helped him out a little. We did end up having a great time bowling. I got my first turkey ever!!! I wish I would have taken a picture of the screen but I didn't even think about it. Most importantly it was a fun night spent together as a family before Jared left for his rotation.
Highlight #4: We went to a pumpkin patch with my sister Natalie and her husband Dallas. I found a good deal on groupon for the Vertuccio Farms Pumpkin Patch. I think that was one of the funnest things we have done. The boys loved it and keep asking to go back. We spent a couple hours there and they were so sad to leave. They loved the go-carts, the big trampolene thing, the playground, the mazes, and so much more! We will have to do it again sometime!
Highlight #5: Halloween! It was kind of low-key for us this year. Jared did help the boys carve small pumpkins the day before Halloween and they enjoyed that. Unfortunately Jared had to "work" on Halloween so it was just me and the boys. Caleb dressed up as Bullseye (a horse on Toy Story) and Kyson was Buzz Lightyear! They both loved their costumes and I was happy I didn't spend a dime (last year Caleb was Buzz and we borrowed the horse costume from my Mom). We went to our ward trunk-or-treat for a bit and then headed over to the Moore's (tradition!) and did a little trick-or-treating around their house. The boys came home happy, tired, and full of sugar (at least more than they ever get around here normally!).
Highlight #6: Time Out For Women last weekend (TOFW)...just what I needed! Last week was just a long week for me. Long nights with sick kids, no husband around to help me out, and then being sick myself. By the weekend I was excited to get away and do something fun. I really should do a whole post about everything I learned at this conference, it was that amazing. I'll just add a couple videos to highlight it a little.
One of my absolute favorite talks came from a lady named Kris Belchar. If you want a good laugh, just take a couple min and watch this video. I think it was even funnier the day we were there, she's perfected telling this story:)
Another favorite was Hillary Weeks. She is an LDS artist that writes and sings her own music. This song truly touched my heart. It explains very well how I feel about my experiences with Kyson. I promise you won't be disappointed if you watch it as well!
Even though I've seen both of those video before, they still make me laugh and then make me cry. That is what is so wonderful about TOFW. The speakers are so inspirational, they make you laugh and then they make you cry and you walk away a better person for being there that day.
Wow! What a month! Now that I'm caught up, I hope to do better this month. I love the month of November here in Mesa, the weather is finally cool enough to enjoy and it's almost the holidays. Yay!
The day Caleb started pre-school I took him outside to take a few pictures before we left. He was so excited to be starting school.
He goes to school four days a week and is only there for 3 hours. I think it has been a good transition for him before he starts kindergarten next year. I love to talk to him about what he is doing and learning at school. Sometimes it's hard to get it out of him, but if I kind find the right questions to ask he will say some pretty funny things.
I'm just a little disappointed Kyson is a month too young to be in the same class. Every day we drop Caleb off he is so sad he can't stay too. Next year, buddy, next year!
Enjoy the pictures! How did I get blessed with such a handsome little man? :)
My exact due date is March 11th. I was completely shocked when I looked up my due date online just after we found out we were expecting. That was my due date with Kyson! HERE's the post I did when I was pregnant with Kyson. I mean seriously, what are the chances of that? I've gotten over it and don't mind anymore but at first I wasn't sure what to think of that!
Kyson and this baby will be pretty much exactly four years apart. It's kind of hard to believe it's been four years since the last time I experienced all of this pregnancy stuff!
The first person (besides Jared and I:) to find out we are expecting was Jared's cousin Reyn. Jared accidently sent a text to Reyn that he meant to send to me that spilled the beans.
I'm pretty sure no one is more excited about having a baby than Caleb is. We told him there is a baby in my tummy and told him to tell all is Grandmas and Grandpas. It was so cute watching him run up to them and tell them, "My Mommy has a baby in her tummy!" He has since told his entire primary class, his pre-school class, and many friends. I know he is going to be a lot of help and such a good big brother.
Boy or girl? I honestly don't care whether it's a boy or girl but I think Caleb is going to be quite disappointed if I have to tell him it's a boy. When I showed him the pics from the ultrasound he said, "Is that the picture of the baby girl?" I had to explain that we aren't sure what it is yet:)
I am excited to be done with the first trimester and I'm hoping it means I can start feeling better. I am so grateful I don't get as sick as some people but I'm getting tired of spending an hour making dinner and then not even being able to eat it.
Of course more than anything we are hoping for an uneventful pregnancy and a healthy baby. My doctor said when I'm about 24 weeks he's going to send me to get a fetal echocardiogram. He said I can get it done at Kyson's cardiologist's office. The two ladies who do the echos there know us well and love Kyson so it will be fun to have it done there. I'm just praying they only have good things to tell us!
And last but not least, I had to add these two pictures. I thought it would be a fun way to announce my pregnancy on my blog but of course I forgot about them when I did! This is from our trip to CA at the beginning of August...
See this cute little one? He/She will be joining our family in March 2012!!!
I am almost 14 weeks and my belly is not going to be hiding it any longer:) We started telling family a couple weeks ago but I decided to wait until after my first doctors appointment yesterday to announce it on my blog/facebook. It was so exciting to see the baby on ultrasound. I know it hasn't quite sunk in because deep down I am a little apprehensive. Kyson has taught me so much throughout his short life (I have so much more faith and trust in my Savior than ever before and many more things) but with all I have learned I realized how difficult life can be. I'm doing my best to have faith, not worry, and feel grateful for the blessing growing inside of me. I love my children so very much and I can't wait to meet baby #3!!!
At the beginning of August Jared had two weeks off before his rotations began. One of those weekends we decided to head to California to visit Jared's sister, Stephanie and her family. We really enjoyed spending a few days with them. We had so many yummy meals made by Steph and got to go to the beach twice! We all had such a great time!
Jared buried us and made us mermaids...Kyson wasn't sure what to think of that:)
