Snow Day!

We don't get too much snow here but we had enough the past couple of days to have fun in. Here are the kids freezing their noses off and loving it!

Christmas

We stayed in Sunnyside this year for Christmas. It was wonderful to keep some traditions that Kent and I grew up with and then decided as a little family what new traditions we wanted to start. We had a great day with each other. We were delighted to be invited for dinner at Reagran's home. Reagran opened her home to another family in our ward, along with the missionaries. It was a full house with 2 people sharing some chairs around the table. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. We laughed, ate, played games and enjoyed the wonderful Christmas day together. We are thankful for the Spirit of Christmas and the wonderful blessings that are poured out upon our family.
Can you guess who got what? Poor little poinsettia in the corner- needs water!!

Christmas Eve

Some pictures of Christmas Eve - opening the traditional "pajamas" gift. Then a couple from Christmas morning. I'll come back soon and add some journaling to let you know what a wonderful Christmas we had, but I thought I'd at least get the pictures up for now.

Ethan's 7th Birthday

I know Ethan's birthday was over a month ago, but with all the trouble of our computer crashing, I'm just now getting pictures up and posted. This year Ethan had a Star Wars party. We played lots of games, had the house decorated like a star ship, and designed our own galaxies. I can't believe Ethan is seven! We are so blessed to have him in our family. He has the biggest heart and is always trying to take care of all of us. I just love him so much.

Ella's Christmas Concert

Ella's little preschool class put on a Christmas Concert. It was so fun to go to the High School and watch Ella perform these songs they've been practicing all month long. It could have gone either way- happy or grumpy. I was beaming with pride that she made it through with a smile on her face and even seemed to know what she was doing. The little boy next to her kept telling her to stop swaying back and forth as they sang and for a moment I thought he was going to be shoved off the back of the risers. Luckily my little Ella just stepped away from him and kept swaying to the songs. Now we just need to work on getting her to look at the camera for pictures. Oh.. thank heavens!

Just go with it...

so i'm having issues keeping my brain functioning i'm blaming it on pregnancy in other words if you see sentence fragments run-ons or just words clumped together that make no sense at all just ignore it and go with the flow and keep reading or don't keep reading just look at pictures either way i am saying that i know i am making mistakes and i am asking you to just go with it and try not to let it drive you too crazy

George and Laura visit

I know this is out of order, but I still haven't taken any pictures off of my camera, but I did steal some from Laura's blog so I thought I'd post them here. The weekend before Thanksgiving we had the pleasure of entertaining George and Laura in our home. This was George's first trip to Sunnyside and we were very excited to have them. After all the sacrifice and support that George and Laura have done to help our family get through dental school, it was a real joy to have them see Kent, his success and where he is working hard with the education he received while we were in Florida. We had lots of fun showing them our little town and introducing George (Laura is a veteran here now) to the people that we have grown to love in Sunnyside. Some of the activities that kept us busy were dropping off and picking up the kids from school, going to dance practice, going to basketball practice, going to a basketball game, eating lunch at Ethan's school and playing football in the house. Ethan was so proud to have his grandparents come to school lunch that he even talked them into staying for recess. George had the boys running a game of football and he taught the girls how to do the Gator chomp and a little Cheer saying "It's great to be a Florida Gator!" One of the girl's in Ethan's class came up to George and grabbed hold of his hand and said, "My grandpa died in a car accident a little while ago and I miss him so much." It broke our hearts. I told her that Ethan will let her borrow his grandpa every time he comes to Sunnyside. She was so happy to hear that. The kids had a great time playing with "grandpa and grandma." We are thankful that they came up to see us in our own little corner of the country and hope that they will come back to visit again very soon!

San Francisco

Last weekend, Kent and I were able to leave the kids (thanks to MANY helping friends) and meet up with Kent's brother, Kyle, and his wife, Kim. Kyle was there on business so he was able to get discounted rooms at the Ritz-Carlton. It was fabulous to be there during the holidays. They had a gorgeous tree in the foyer and held a Teddy Bear Tea-Party for girls and their moms. For just a moment I wished Ella was with me- she would have loved that. Each girl was dressed up in her patent leather shoes with a beautiful Christmas dress and their little white Teddy Bear. They had a beautiful dining room with tea-sets and an Elf there singing Christmas songs.

Being within walking distance to Union Square was perfect for shopping and eating. Although it rained on us, we had a great time trying new restaurants and fighting the crowds at the shops. Kent and I arrived a day earlier than Kyle and Kim so we went out to dinner at the Wharf. It was a gorgeous site to be surrounding by the fishing boats and Christmas lights.
Saturday we shopped the day away and then went to see "Wicked" at night. It was an incredible performance and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. As we were waiting for a taxi, Kyle and Kent were approached by a limo driver with a discounted rate back to our hotel. Once I started climbing into the limo, I realized why it was discounted. It was already full! So we rode back to our hotel with about a dozen strangers crammed into an already full car. We laughed and made it home safely so I guess that is all that matters. Kent and I probably won't be able to do our little "get-a-ways" before the baby comes so it was vacation. Thanks to all of our friends that helped so much with Ethan and Ella while we were gone. We are thankful to have so many wonderful people in our lives. I do have a few pictures that I took, but haven't quite figured out how to upload them to the computer yet (or haven't had the time) but I didn't want to fall behind again. I already have lots of pictures to catch up on.

Have I mentioned....we are having a boy?!

With all the ups and downs of this pregnancy early on, we were able to get lots of ultrasounds. I'm sure most of you know, but in case you don't... we are having another little boy. It took Ella a little while to agree to this, but I think she is okay with it and can't wait to have the baby sleep in her bed with her. HAHA! The kids are so excited to meet him and they already talk to him and hug and kiss him, via the belly. We are still on the search for the "perfect" name. Since this will probably (Kent says definitely) be our last baby, do we stick with the "E" names? Ella has been watching a lot of Barbie and now wants to name the little guy Prince Louie after the prince in her show. Hmm. We went along with it at first because we had nothing else. Well, it's been two months or so and we are still calling him Louie. HELP! Any suggestions? Ideas? We have a couple names that we are bouncing around, but none of them seem to settle in. Oh well. We still have 3 long months to decide. After all the scares and testings, ultrasounds, and numerous Dr. appointments, we are just so thankful to be having a strong, healthy little fighter that is still here and we can't wait to meet him. He is getting bigger (as am I) and we are just happy to know that we have already come this far and pray that the blessing of good health will continue.

Ella the Dinosaur

Kent is very good about always encouraging the kids to be whatever they want to be when they grow up. He reminds them that hard work and good grades will open doors to let you do whatever you love. So yesterday after his little pep talk to the kids, Kent said, "So, Ella... what do you want to be when you grow up?" Of all the things in the world Ella says, "I want to be a dinosaur when I grow up." I laughed and laughed. I guess she better keep her grades up so she can be the most successful dinosaur out there. Aren't kids great about keeping us laughing. Oh little Ella, what will she come up with next?

Back Online!!

It feels so good to have a computer again. Our old computer crashed about 6 weeks ago and never recovered. We ordered a new computer a few days after the old one gave up. We waited over 4 weeks to get our new computer shipped to us, only to have a crack in it so we had to send it back. Yesterday we finally got the replacement and today we are up and running. I have LOTS of pictures that need to be added to my blog and I hope to get to it early next week. I wanted to just say "hi" and let you know that I will be getting caught up with my blogging soon.

Baptism Buddies

These two girls are both getting baptized as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints tomorrow. Earlier this week I was able to take pictures of them in their beautiful white dresses. I love serving in the Primary, at church, and watching these amazing children make correct choices. Congratulations to both of these girls, they are beautiful!

Senior Pictures

One of the assistant's at Kent's office asked if I would be willing to take Senior pictures for her little sister. I was flattered that I was considered for such an event in her life. This young woman is so beautiful that I had a great time taking pictures of her.

Loving Kids

As I sit on my computer, checking emails, I hear the kids brushing their teeth and making their way into bed. As they climb under their covers, I hear Ethan say, "I love you, Ella." "I love you too, Ethan." It's moments like that that make it all worth while.
Good night. Very good night.

Laura's Visit

Luckily for me, Laura takes pictures as much as I do. In my condition, I was not thinking about pictures and so I borrowed these from Laura. I wanted to show you all the things we did to keep ourselves busy during her 12 day stay here.

After her VERY long trip from coast-to-coast, Kent and Ethan picked Laura up at the airport. Ethan held up a sign he had made that said, "Welcome to Sunnyside!"
When they arrived at our house, Ella held up the sign she had also made for Grandma.

The second night Laura was here, we decided to BBQ hamburgers and hotdogs. While Kent was busy coming in and out from the grill, Laura was busy cutting vegetables and getting condiments ready. As we started getting our plates ready to eat, we noticed an abundance of flies swarming the food. We kept swatting and swatting, while counting 10 flies we had killed! Whew. Then Kent said, "DO NOT look up." Of course we all looked up at the ceiling and saw over 30 (I counted) flies just waiting to "dive bomb us" as Laura would say. It was disgusting. We grabbed the food and ran in the other room. We do live next to a cow pasture but we have NEVER seen the flies so bad. We were counting over 50 casulties a day. After just a few days, our fly swatter was nearly useless but Sunnyside Wal-Mart and Dollar store were sold out!! Look closely at this picture, you can see a dead fly on there- so gross.

During Laura's stay she cleaned, cooked, carpooled, did laundry, did dishes, cleaned garbage cans, washed the truck, made a trip to the dump and played with the kids. Ella loved following grandma around with this sponge, helping however she could. We started calling her Cinder "Ella"


Laura and the kids spend an entire morning cleaning Kent's truck inside and out.
As if Laura wasn't doing enough, as Primary President, I needed someone to substitute Ethan's primary class. Who better than grandma?! I know Laura loves me (and Ethan) because she is NOT a fan of primary and she did it without hesitation.

Kent and Laura took Ethan to Wal-Mart to get him a new bike. Ella loves it as much as Ethan because it has pegs that Ella can ride on.

Soccer season started this week so Laura was able to go to a practice and see Ethan play his first game. He played very well, I lost track of his goals but I know of atleast 7? One of the players on the other team came up to Ethan, stuck his finger in his face and said, "You are going DOWN." Kent and I laughed so hard!


Since Monday was a holiday and Kent didn't have work, we decided to take a ride and get out of the house. Whenever we go to Florida, it is tradition to go to Chuck E. Cheese so we headed to the tri-cities to have a fun day out. I rode with a pillow and then sat at the table the whole time. The kids had a great time and it made it so Kent and I could chat with Laura while the kids played.


While Laura was here, Kent was able to do some dental work on her. I was glad that we were able to do something for her, for all the sacrifices she has made to be with us at this time. Laura also took Ella for a "check up." Ella loves to go see Daddy and get her teeth brushed.
We had so much fun with Laura and we are thankful that she came to see us. We gave her a little gift with a saying that reads, "A Mom's hug lasts long after she lets go." We truly believe this. We know that Laura loves us unconditionally and that even when we are from her she is suppporting us and praying for us. Laura, I hope that one day we will be able to do for you what you have done for us.