We're Having a Girl !!!

What's Making Me Laugh:

the box that Darren fell asleep in one night,

the $2000 check that Darren made out to himself,

the doll that somehow got stuck all the way up here,

And this conversation:

Me: On Wednesday the doctor is going to take a picture of the baby inside my tummy so we can know if it's a boy or a girl.

Claire: I know, if the baby's shirt has a flower on it it's a girl!

(Then Darren and Claire laughed and laughed and laughed when I told them that the baby was naked inside of me.)

Thanksgiving in Utah

Finally, here are a few pictures from our trip. The drive went surprisingly well. We had lots of snacks, movies, and surprise activities. One of the activities was to make tin foil crowns and jewelry. For some reason, the boys got into it more than the girls.

Can you believe that Grandma Jan put Miles to work as soon as he got there?!

We went to a dinasour museum and a really neat canyon that reminded us of a smaller version of the Grand Canyon. At the bottom of the canyon were some really cool paintings done by Indians hundreds of years ago.

We were also able to see my sister Christy, and her family, and my brother Ellis in Provo. We forgot the camera that day.

At Thanksgiving, we were especially grateful to have such a wonderful family!

Soccer

This was Darren's first season to play soccer. He liked it better than T-Ball. There was a boy on Darren's team named Diego. Every time we cheered for him, I kept thinking of the song, "Go, Diego, Go! Go, Diego, Go,!" from the Diego and Dora the Explorer shows. Although Darren was self-appointed goalie much of the time, he was able to get in a few kicks. We're looking forward to next year.

Another Road Trip

We are leaving for Utah today! Hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Taco Supper

Tonight was Darren and Claire's annual taco supper and fund raiser at their school. I made mint brownies for the bake sale. I told Claire that people could buy the brownies at the Taco Supper. She asked if we were going. I said yes, and she said, "No! I think the tickets are too expensive!" I assured her that they were not, and that we were indeed going. Later in the car, she said,"Mommy, if I don't wear my seatbelt a police man can give us a ticket!" I told her not to worry (she really wanted a brownie,) we already had tickets, and that policemen don't give out those kind of tickets anyway.

Phone-obia

We recently went from having one phone to four. I was against having more than one phone, but when the battery on our cordless phone died, we replaced it with a set of four. (No more running up and down the stairs like a crazy person trying to answer the phone in time.) It took Jerry two weeks to decide on the perfect phone. Meanwhile, I was tied to the kitchen counter with an old corded phone whenever someone called. While Jerry couldn't be more pleased with these new phones, I'm not so sure.

As I feared, every time someone calls us now, more than one person answers - usually Darren. He loves to talk on the phone. I was taking a nap the other day when Darren came into my room and told me Cooper's mom wanted to talk to me (I don't know Cooper, or his mom.) Apparently, Darren had found his class directory and was calling all of his friends. He said most of the moms said their kids couldn't talk, but Cooper's mom thought he was pretty funny and talked to him for a while.

Book Club

Our book club, from front left: Susan, Michelle, Lisa, Rachel, Gena, Debbie, JoLynn, and Tiffany. Not pictured: Sheree, Jen

This has been a busy week for us. Starting with Tuesday, I had a doctor appointment and got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I have finished the first trimester and am feeling much better. I spent the entire rest of the day cleaning house for book club. I had not hosted in a long time, so I wanted to make it special. Instead of doing the usual treats and snacks, we had dinner and dessert. It was well worth the effort, and I enjoyed sitting around the table with all my friends while we ate and discussed the book.

Last night, I got to spend another late night talking and laughing with some of these friends after enrichment. It reminded me of my college days. I'm thankful to have good friends here, and I'm even more grateful for such a sweet husband who puts the kids to bed, and doesn't complain when I stay out too late sometimes for much-needed girl time!

The Longest Day Ever!

Seriously, I love Daylight Savings, but today seemed really long! Maybe it was because the kids woke up an hour earlier than they should have, and went to bed at their new bedtime, an hour later than usual.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

WHA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Update

Today, I tried to take some pictures of the kids to use for our Christmas card. The lighting wasn't quite right, but here's a cute one:

I've been so tired lately, that even Miles has had to take up some of the slack!

All that hard work called for a nap with Kitty.

Last Saturday, Darren and Claire won a $50 gift card to Wal Mart at a Fall Festival. This is what they got with it:


Here's a sneak preview of Claire's room, whichI painted a couple weeks ago. The stripes make me sick to my stomach so I haven't finished everything yet.

Suprise!

Well, not for us, really, but thanks to having had three children already, I have quite the belly at 9 1/2 weeks. (Nice. ) So I thought I would just tell everyone and avoid speculation!

In other news, we had a wonderful weekend visiting with Jerry's sister, Christina, from Florida, and our niece, Sydnee, who is from Utah. They both went back to Utah today. One fun place that we went to was "Babe's Chicken House" in Roanoke. They serve either Chicken-Fried Steak, or Fried Chicken, with mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, corn and salad. Very southern, and very yummy. Besides that, we planted some flowers, went to the park and the mall and watched movies. We love them, and we are thankful that we could spend some time with them!

(Seriously, why does my hair look messy in every picture? Maybe I should check the mirror first!)

Happy Birthday, Claire-Bear!!!

Today was Claire's 4th birthday. We celebrated it early by going to Chuck E. Cheese's on Friday. Today we had cake and presents. Claire also chose the menu. We had donuts for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and Corndog Casserole for dinner. She had a "My Little Pony" Cake, and got a microphone, Hannah Montana dress, a My Little Pony and DVD, and a birthday cake play set. We are so thankful to have Claire in our family!

In honor of her 4th birthday, here are our four favorite things about Claire:

1. Her laughs - she has a giggle, a "he-he-he" cackle, and a really evil laugh
2. She loves to cuddle.
3. She has a sweet little singing voice and remembers many songs.
4. All of her funny pronunciations - like preat, brink, becision and many more!

There are so many things we love about Claire, so here's one more: her sixth sense for treats - I guess you could say she got that from me! When Claire was a toddler, she always kept a stash of crackers, cookies, or cereal hidden away in her purse or inside Darren's fire truck, or other random places. Now, she can hear a candy wrapper opening from upstairs, or smell chocolate on my breath, so it's hard to hide treats from her! What a talented girl!

What's the Latest?

Sorry about the lack of pictures and posts lately! Not much going on lately. I've been enjoying my spare time by painting and finishing up some projects. I am down to just three more rooms in the house to paint - Claire's room, the media room, and our bathroom!!!

Right now I should be preparing a talk for Sunday. With almost five hundred people in our ward, it's going to feel like speaking in Stake Conference, and I'm slightly stressed. Last week, I had to accompany a vocal solo and made the mistake of not taping the five pages of music together. All of my music fell into my lap near the end of the song! The bishop rushed over and picked them up for me and the song continued without interruption.

In other news, Jerry has been working A LOT lately -like 60 hours a week. It's a good opportunity for us to save lots of money right now, but we wouldn't be doing it if we weren't saving to have another baby. (Our insurance does not cover maternity expenses, although we get a discount.)

Miles seems to enjoy the quiet while Darren and Claire are at school. He takes several practice steps on his own each day, but still isn't walking regularly. Darren and Claire like school, although Darren doesn't like going every day, and Claire wishes she could go every day. I will leave you with a recap of our conversation this afternoon when I picked them up from school:

Me: So, Claire, tell me what your favorite part of the day was?
Claire: Umm, lunch!
Me: What did you learn about?
Claire: We learned about the "Bb" - AND I DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU ANYMORE!!!
Me: Darren, what was your favorite thing today?
Darren: Beating the girls in the bathroom!!!

Quote of the Day

"Mom, I really love candy, but I like Jesus even better!" - Darren

First Day of School (Finally!!!)

It's hard to believe that Darren is already in Kindergarten! The time goes by so quickly, and it makes me want to cherish each moment with them!

Darren and Claire picked out their school clothes this year.

Super-stylin' Shoes

Good luck, kids! We love you!

Another "Claire-ism"

On Friday I watched my friend's little boy named Cameron. Claire called him "Camera" all day long! She said she couldn't say Cameron.

Miles and Miles

A couple weeks ago, I had Miles with me in Primary. It was right before Pioneer Day, so there was a special sharing time. Rachel McLelland was holding Miles up front while she talked to the kids about how pioneer children had to walk "miles and miles". When Miles thought she said his name, he grinned and clapped his hands. It was SO cute! Here is a short clip of Miles walking "miles and miles" with his shopping cart. He has been extremely possesive of it lately, and gets really upset if he gets stuck. I think he's cried more over the cart than he's cried the rest of his babyhood.

Two little monkeys, jumping off the bed . . .

A little side note, here: it's 11:15 P.M. as I post this, and Darren and Claire are still jumping off the bed! I swear, it's a party in Darren's room pretty much every night. Darren just called down to me that he was going to try to do a back flip. Great. That's just what we want.

Playroom Pics!

FINALLY! It's clean! I spent all afternoon cleaning upstairs today, and I also put two big boxes of toys in the attic. I'm going to rotate them out every couple of months with other toys. I'm guessing that Darren and Claire won't even notice they're gone, though! I love the playroom. It is where we spend most of our time, and I've had so much fun doing projects to make it look fun and cozy. Here are some of those projects:

I ordered the letters on EBAY, then painted them. Okay, so I realize they're not up there straight, but they are stuck on REALLY well and I don't want to take off the paint by fixing them! I also ordered the bookcases online. I thought they were going to be white, but they were beige, so I painted them to match.

Here's our chalkboard! It is a piece of wall board from Lowe's framed with molding, primed with a metallic primer, and painted with chalkboard paint. It is about 4X6 feet tall.


I have always loved the colorful kids furniture at Pottery Barn Kids, but it's really pricey. This is a dining set I bought at a garage sale for $60. It was stained oak. I had Jerry cut the legs shorter on the chairs and table so it would be more kid-friendly. Then I sanded, primed, and painted them.
My baskets were plain straw, so I also spray-painted them and added labels to keep everything organized.

Last but not least, I made these cute tie-up drapes and pillows! These were another imitation of Pottery Barn Kids, but way cheaper! I just love a good project!

Trip to the Fire Station

Ridgmar Mall Fiascos #1 and #2

At the Ridgmar Mall, January 2008

#1: We love the Ridgmar Mall. It is about 20 minutes from our house, and in theory, should be a great place to take kids because it has a really fun indoor playground right next to The Children's Place, the Pretzel Place, and Haagen Daaz. So, about six months ago, I decided to take all three kids there in hopes of passing a few hours until Jerry got home.

At this time, Claire was just potty-training and Darren was still going - um - #2 - in his underwear for some reason. We left the house in high spirits and then the van started smelling like you-know-what. So we spent the first half hour at the mall in the bathroom. By that time, everyone was hungry, so we decided to get pretzels. After eating, I turned to throw the trash away and Darren asked if he could go play. Since it was right there, I said yes. Less than a minute later, I walked up to the entrance of the playground with Miles, and didn't see Darren or Claire, but I thought maybe they were in one of the tunnels.

After several minutes I started walking around, calling their names, but couldn't find them. I started running through the mall calling their names and quickly came upon Darren, who was looking for leftover candy in the row of candy machines. I asked him where Claire was, and he said he didn't know. As I called out her name, a couple of girls coming from Dillard's asked if I was looking for Claire. They had seen her wandering around and taken her to security. I picked her up, we left immediately, got stuck in traffic for an hour, and I vowed that we would never go there again!

#2: Fast forward to last Tuesday: Darren and Claire asked me if we could go to the Ridgmar Mall, so I decided to give it another shot. They needed some new school clothes, anyway. I gave them a big lecture about staying with me at all times, going to the bathroom before we left, etc. We got there and as I was putting Miles into his stroller, I heard Claire say, "Oh, Crap! (!!!I don't know where she got that!) I don't have any shoes in the car!" UUGGHH!!! I put her in the stroller and carried Miles all the way to Old Navy and bought her some flip-flops. At least they were cheap. Then we did a little shopping, had a pretzel, and played.

The afternoon ended with a security guard telling me Darren was pushing a girl down the slide (Darren said it was part of their game, and she wanted him to.) We left after that. The kids said they had a great time. Maybe in another six months I'll be brave enough to try again. Unfortunately, by that time, Darren will probably be too tall for the playground!

Funny Sayings

Claire has been a great talker for a couple years now, but still can't say certain consonants, like "g."
Here are a couple funny things she says:
"Brone-up" (grown-up), "Brink" (drink), "Preat" (treat), and "Hannah Batanna" - she loves her, or at least her clothes anyway! Up until recently she called my parents "Frama and Bampa." That's all I can think of right now.

Picture of the Day

Jerry and Michalann + 10

Hey, Jon and Kate have nothing on us! Last night was our turn to babysit in our babysitting Co-op. We had 10 kids, counting ours, from 5:00 until 9:00. It was a little intense, but the kids were great and played well. We walked down to the park where the boys immediately found a crab hole near the water. They also found some very large animal prints - this caused a lot of excitement, as you can imagine. Now that our turn is over, I'm looking forward to three Saturdays in a row of dates with Jerry! And I'm also looking forward to a clean house. This week was so crazy. Besides the big brunch on Thursday, I had my primary class over on Friday for an end-of-summer party. I didn't have time to clean upstairs where all the toys are before they came, but I figured they would mess it up anyway. It was a little embarrassing when one of the kids said something like, "Wow! This is a really messy playroom!" That's when I KNEW it was bad!!!

Project Pictures

I finally finished up some projects that have been on my list for a long time. Here are some pictures of the guest room, which I painted. I moved the bed and hung some stuff on the walls. I also spray-painted the bookcase black to go with the bed. One day I might make some curtains. IF I get the playroom cleaned up tomorrow, I'll also post some pictures of the chalkboard, curtains, and baskets that we've finished.

Sorry, this is the only "before" picture I have. This is from when Darren and Claire cleaned up the playroom by moving all their stuff into the guest room.

After!

Isn't this bookcase pretty? Seriously, I love spray paint - it's so easy!
See the candle sconces that I installed BY MYSELF, WITH A DRILL. Aren't you impressed?!