Christmas Eve

We decided to get a real tree for Dylan this year. It turned out a lot bigger than we planned, so the decorations are a little sparce. I think we will keep that tradition up. It was fun for us to go to a tree farm and pick out a special tree for our son/brother. Then we all decorated it and took it up to the cemetary. We opened up our secret baby envelope at the cemetary as well. It was a special moment for all of us.
Later on, at my parents house, we re-enacted the Christmas story again. I had thought about just skipping it this year, but the kids would have none of that! All three toddler nephews wanted to be wisemen this year, so that meant that Uncle Adam got to be the star!
What a good sport! The kids were hilarious and very intrigued.
At least it is fun for them to play a part in the story. Hopefully someday they will actually understand what it is they are doing! Baby Matthew was Baby Jesus this year. Maya did a good job of holding him.
The boys really got into the fact that we were calling Matthew, Jesus.
The kids got PJ's again for Christmas eve.
You've never seen kids more excited to get a pair of pajamas.

How many preisthood holders does it take to assemble a treadmill?

Well, five in our case! We got a treadmill over the weekend and we asked a few of the men in our neighborhood to help us bring it in. They were nice enough to stay and help assemble it. I was very, very grateful for that because it would have taken me hours upon hours to put it together! They were hilarious to watch putting the treadmill together. There's something about men and instructions, oh yeah, they don't follow them! I feel bad they were at our house so long, but it was greatly appreciated.
We have been waiting and waiting to get a treadmill. I can't make it to the gym everyday, so this way I can still get a workout in. Plus, Brian makes it to the gym maybe once a month! This will be a great addition for us! We've already used it several times!

And the winner is....

The girls!!! That's right, we found out yesterday that we are having another princess. The girls decided since there was already 3 boys and 3 girls in the family that this baby was the tie breaker. So, the girls dominate! I was fine to keep waiting until the end, but I was outvoted by the kids and Brian. They wanted to find out for Christmas.
I think Brian is a little disappointed, but he loves his princesses, so I am pretty sure he is still excited. Now we just need to go shopping for everything because we got rid of almost all the girl stuff. That's an awful shame let me tell you!

Baking, Baking, Baking

I have been trying for a few weeks to think of something to give my neighbors for Christmas that wouldn't cost a whole lot of money. I really didn't want to have to make something because I am just so tired all the time right now, but I finally gave in and decided it would be fun to make everybody Cinnamon Swirl Bread like they sell at Kneaders. (This is way good if you haven't tried it there!) Needless to say, I have been baking for two days to make 20 loaves of bread! It turned out really good. My kids have been eating it like crazy! They probably aren't as wonderful and perfectly shaped like they are at Kneaders, but I was happy to finally have something to give out! Hopefully they tasted good to the neighbors!

Rub A Dub Dub, Three Men In A Tub

My brother-in-law had to have some surgery done on his arm, so we kept two of my sister's little boys for the day and overnight. I have to say that having 3 little toddler boys was a lot of work for this very pregnant mother! They had a good old time in the tub together. Carter (in the middle) is the youngest, but he is a character. He was washing the two other boys while they were playing. They kept giving him dirty looks, but he was just smiling and having fun washing their backs and their hair. Getting them all dried and dressed for the night was quite the challenge. Gavin and Austin are potty-trained, but that isn't to say that there isn't urine all over my toilet! I am pretty much done with the whole aiming and missing thing! I kind of wanted another boy, but I will be grateful at this point for another girl!
Luckily they all played well together, so it wasn't too much of a challenge. Feeding everybody was my biggest challenge. It felt like I was making, and cleaning up food all day long. I was exhausted by the time they got picked up. I hope it helped to have them at my house. They are welcome anytime!

A Whirlwind Weekend of Joy and Sadness

This last weekend was really crazy. Brian's niece Mylin was born, and his cousin's baby boy Trevor passed away. We drove up to Idaho late Friday night so we could be to the funeral on Saturday. We got to see our new cute niece, which was very fun! It was bitter sweet since a baby was lost on the same day. We felt like we should go up to Idaho because it meant a lot to us when people came to support us at Dylan's funeral. I have to say that it was far more difficult than I could have imagined. I was OK until we pulled into the cemetary. Then I lost it. I don't have much control with all the pregnancy hormones, but being there was just so sad. It's not right to have to bury your child. I was mostly crying because I knew what that couple was going through. It's a rough road. I don't know if it helped for us to be there, but I was grateful to have went. After the funeral, we had to rush home to get to the girls' dane recital on time. They have been talking about it for weeks. It was fun to go and see them dance. Those two love performing more than anything! Gavin and my niece Savannah were super excited the whole time. You can hear them clapping and shouting during the performances. Gavin stood and danced the entire time!

Really, REALLY?!!!!

Brian has been whining, (yes whining!) about wanting to get two monitors for our computer at home. On Black Friday, I went shopping all night long and got some really awesome deals. When I got home, I guess he was feeling left out because he didn't get anything so I told him to check online to see if his monitors happened to be on sale. Well, to my surprise they were on for an extremely good price. So I told him to order them for himself for Christmas. They got here the other day, and let me just say "HOLY CRAP!" Just one of these monitors is almost twice the size of our old monitor, but there are two mind you! So we have this tiny desk (not that all this would fit on any desk!) for two monitors, the case, and whatever other computer parts we need! I guess I should have checked the size myself before he ordered them! Needless to say we have two massive monitors now that would probably dwarf our tvs! What am I getting for Christmas you ask? Oh didn't I mention, apparently one of the monitors is mine! Thanks honey, it's everything I ever wanted!

Dance Central Diva

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we spent several days at my mom's house hanging out with family. My brother-in-law brought his X-Box 360 with the new Kinect. If you haven't seen this yet you are missing out. It is really cool. We especially liked playing the Dance Central game. Maya is quite good at it. You imitate the dancer and the Kinect picks up your movements to see how accurate you are. It is pretty funny to watch people play any of the games, but Dance Central is especially funny. The girls really enjoyed dancing with the game over and over and over! They say the games on the Kinect are a workout and they are not kidding. You can get pretty worn out dancing, running, jumping, etc with the games on this thing. We had a blast playing with it.