My Sister

My sister Monica got to come and visit for about a month during Christmas break. She left toward the end of Jan. to go back to school in Rhoade Island (I think I spelled that right). Anyway, before she left we got a going away picture of her with all the kids. Emery, especially has been really attached to Monica. The whole time she was here she would ask where she was and had to keep tabs on where she was at all times. She also liked to go up to her room and knock on the door until Monica let her in. Emery loved to hang out with Monica and get her picture taken and watch movies of herself on Monica's camera. The other day Emery called Monica on her toy phone. We had fun while she was here and felt it was too short of a visit. I especially, will miss exercising to our made up dance moves at Curves.

Gingerbread Houses

Chase and Bailey's Gingerbread Houses
Cam's and Addie's Gingerbread Houses
Emery and her Gingerbread House. Emery won the award for Best Gingerbread House by a 2 year old.
Cam won the award for Best Creative Design.
Addie won Best Color Coordination Award.
Bailey won Best Recovered After a Natural Disaster.
Chase won Best Over All.
Fun decorating!




Emery mostly ate, not much building went on with her house.

So, here's another late post that I'm just getting around to doing. It's not as late as you may think however, because it was a belated Christmas activity. We never got around to doing it at Christmas time, so a couple of weeks ago we put together gingerbread houses for family night, I think it may have been right before Chase left for Texas.

We used a ton of candy and graham crackers. The kids had a lot of fun building, decorating, and eating their houses. I was impressed with what they came up with. Chase also built a house and accused the kids every couple of minutes of stealing his ideas and copying him. Anyway, when we were all done I was trying to take pictures of the kids with their houses, when Bailey's had an accident. She was able to recover from the tragedy fairly well with some quick repairs.

I had my parents and my sister who was home from school come down and do the judging of the houses. Each house won a special award!

Giant Cinnamon Roll

For your viewing pleasure, I give you the biggest cinnamon roll I have ever seen. From a previous post you would know that Chase was in Texas and brought back a huge cinnamon roll we saw on a food show. It was huge, it was tasty! It probably would have tasted better fresh at the restaurant, but it traveled ok. Chase got stopped by airport security over it, but he was allowed to bring it home after they had a good laugh about it.
Cam and the giant cinnamon roll.
The girls and the cinnamon roll.
Nice bug eyes for a dramatic effect.
Chase showing us that the cinnamon roll is as big as his head. Thanks Chase for bringing us home such a lovely and gigantically proportioned treat!

I Miss Chase and Other Random Happenings

Chase has been gone to Texas since Wednesday. He doesn't come home until this Wednesday night. It seems like he has been gone forever. Hopefully, this trip will lead to better things though. He first flew to Houston and did his interview, physical, and ploygraph test. He was really nervous though and said on his polygraph it had some "possible deceptions". He claims though that he has proof that he has never lied to me because one of the questions asked if he'd ever lied to a loved one and he passed- kind of weird question for a job interview. Anyway, not that I've ever had reason to doubt him, but I guess he will always have that to fall back on. He was passed on all of his tests and now we wait I guess.

Sunday he drove to San Antonio and will start his test their tomorrow. Wednesday Chase is going to check out this place we saw on the Food Network and bring home a giant cinnamon roll for me and the kids. The kids have been talking about it, and I have to admit I have held it over their heads if they don't behave... "Mom and Dad are going to eat the cinnamon roll all by ourselves if you don't knock it off and be good!" Anyway, it's supposed to be about as big as your head, it's huge and looks yummy, I hope it travels well.

The kids have been good for the most part, especially considering it has been a long vacation weekend. Cam had Thurs., Fri., Mon. off and the girls had Fri., and Mon. off. So, I let them have sleepovers in the basement on the mattress and have movie parties, etc. Anyway, we are all excited to have Chase back home soon. Emery asked were Dad was today and I told her he was in Texas. She said, "Teckas?". I said, "Yep, Texas." Then Emery replied, "No, not Teckas!" So, I don't know what that is supposed to mean, apparently she disapproves of him being in Texas. I'm not looking forward to the possible snow storm that may be happening when we are supposed to be picking up Chase from the airport, however. We are just hoping things happen quickly and smoothly and that Chase will have a job soon!

Other news, I killed a duck the other night coming home from work. I am officially a bird murderer now. I also killed a huge pheasant while driving students to jobs years ago when I was working for PHS. I guess my driving from work coincides with me hitting and killing birds. I guess I should be lucky it wasn't anything bigger like a coyote or deer. It was 3:15 am and I was driving down the farm road away from work when I saw something in the road which appeard to be a rock, or clump of dirt or something. Right at the last second I saw a head turn to the side and realized it wasn't a rock. It was too late to do anything, but try to center it under my van in hopes that the tires would miss it. Well, I think it must have got up or tried to fly away and I heard and felt sickening thuds underneath the van. It was really loud and prolonged and I knew it was a goner.

I pulled over up ahead and my friend from work pulled up beside me. I asked if she'd seen it and she said yes and that it was a duck. We both couldn't figure out what the heck a duck was doing curled up in the middle of the road at night in the middle of winter. I thought I had hit a chicken, I guess it was a Mallard. I thought about going back to see, I felt bad just driving off, but short of backing over it again to finish the job so it wouldn't suffer, I couldn't do anything. I need to mention here when I hit the pheasant I had students with me and couldn't do anything either, but fortunately a guy in a truck driving by stopped. He got out, picked up the pheasant, threw it in the back of his truck and drove off... only in Payson. Anyway, so I drove home knowing now that I am a bird murderer.

I was also worried about damage to the car, it sounded really bad. I tried to look under the car, as best as a 7 1/2 month pregnant woman can, to see if there was damage. I couldn't see anything and I've driven it around a little and it appears to be ok, I guess the test will be when I drive to Salt Lake to pick up Chase. Well, I'm sorry for those of you who I've bored to tears with my tales. I know this is a sorry excuse for a post, but oh well, please don't hold it against me and please don't hold it against me that I'm a bird murderer.

Christmas Cookies With Grandma

So, I'm a little late posting some of our Christmas time activities. My mom decided to bake Christmas cookies with the kids and we had our cousins come and join in the fun as well. I think a lot more tasting than decorating went on.

Emery was so excited to use the rolling pin.

My four little boogers happily decorating away. They were a little too sprinkle happy.

Addie showing off her finished cookies and very excited to try them out.

I love Cam's "Christmas" dinosaur cookie.

All Emery wanted to do was frost the cookie. She spent probably a whole hour or more just spreading more frosting around on her cookie, then she'd scrape off a little with her finger and eat it, then keep frosting constantly swirling the frosting around on the cookie. She would throw a fit any time we tried to take the frosting away. I was surprised she was so entertained by that for so long. I guess next Christmas all we have to get her is a jar full of frosting and some cookies to decorate...hours of fun.

Emery and her 2 cookies she had the entire time, but a lot of love went into those cookies.

Bailey and her masterpieces.

Aunt Rachel and Cousin Noah.

Cute Noah with his finished cookie.

Cousin Jaron decorating away.

Temple Square

Picture of the Salt Lake Temple from the reflection pool. You can see all the luminaries that they had which had words written in different languages like Love, Peace, Joy, etc. They were really pretty.

Me and the kids in front of the reflection pool. There didn't seem to be as many lights as last year. It looked like there were more lights outside the temple grounds on the surrounding easement property and reflection pool. It was still very pretty.

Cam, Bailey, Addie, & Emery with the lights and temple behind them.

Statue of Mary, Joseph, & Baby Jesus in the middle of the reflection pool with lights floating in the water.

The kids in front of a large tree with red lights. Some of the lights didn't show up very well in the pictures.

Bailey, Cam, & Addie

Me and Chase.

Bailey, Cam, Emery, & Addie in front of the New Zealand nativity scene. They had a bunch of creches from different countries set up around the reflection pools. My favorite was the one from New Zealand of course, you can see the kiwi next to the Mary holding Jesus.

Good News and Bad News

Good News: Had 4th ultrasound today and the baby's head finally turned down and we now know for sure that we are having a girl. So, now hopefully we can be prepared and find some girl clothes, if not in our storage then from the DI or somewhere cheap.

Also, Emery went pee pee in the potty twice today, and poop yesterday! Maybe too much information for you, but I'm excited to get one less kid out of diapers hopefully before the baby comes.

Bad News: I have to get Non-Stress-Tests done twice a week now, plus another ultrasound next month, plus my normal OB apts. So, it looks like 3 doctor apts. per week now, should be lots of fun, especially since I have to drive to American Fork for the apts. The baby is measuring 5 pounds already and I have borderline abnormal amniotic fluid, plus my sugar levels are all whacked. The maternal fetal doctor put me on insulin today to be safe. I have to inject myself 5 times a day now and still test my blood sugar 7 times a day. Lots of fun! I was hoping to not have to go on insulin, but was not to be.

Anyway, those are the updates.

Snow Much Fun Sledding!

A few weeks before Christmas we surprised the kids for Family Night and went sledding. We drove over to Payson and went sledding at Peteetneet where the girls also have their Irish dance. During the holidays they had Christmas lights set up and also had Christmas music being played over the speakers which was fun. We left right when the girls got home from school, so we were pretty lucky that we beat the crowd. We thought it would be really crowded, but when we got there, there was one other mom and her two kids and that was it for a good hour before it started to get crowded. The kids had a blast, and Emery loved it, of course she didn't have to do anything but sit there because Chase would pull her back up the hill because it was too slick and steep for her to walk it herself. At one point Chase tried to take the kids down the all ice part with several jumps and I was very against it, so he didn't. I just pictured the kids flying off and cracking their heads open. If you look in the pictures maybe you can see behind on the far side how it's just ice and lots of bumps, too scary, at least for mom. We had a great time and it wasn't too cold either, which was nice. There's even a token picture of me with the kids, since being pregnant I wasn't actively able to participate in the sledding.
Chase and the kids doing a train of sleds down the hill together.

The kids and me after sledding.

Chase pulling Emery back for more sledding.

Addie and Bailey getting ready to go down the hill.

Cam and Emery going down the hill with Chase.

Bailey and Addie trudging back up the icy hill.

Chase trying to pull Cam and Emery back up the hill, it was really slick.

Cam making his way back for more sledding.

Bailey getting ready to go down again.

Our daredevil Addie going down the hill head first.

Emery having a blast sledding.