Three red heads and a "blonde"

Come out squishy!

2012-01-27T11:39:00.000-05:00

Here is a little recap of the recent events...

Last night we finally got the results about the preeclamsia. And I do have it infact it is pretty severe which is so weird to me. From what I have learned from the doctors and nurses there are 4 factors they look for:
High Blood Pressure
Protein in urine
Something in blood work
Dizzyness, blurry vision, headache, seeing spots and pain in the chest

My blood work came back beautiful and I have had no other physical symptoms (dizzyness etc) I have had high blood pressure which was why they were keeping me at the hospital to await the results of the 24 urine test. The doctor said that if the protein count was above 300 it was condsidered preeclamsia. Well my number was close to 5000! Woah. I am glad they figure out everything when they did especially since I have been feeling fine.

To be "eclamtic" is to have a sesizure, so that is why they moniter me so closely, they don't want me to seize out. To help prevent this I have had to be on an IV of magnesium sulfate. It is pretty icky, it is making me feel groggy and hot, blah. So last night I had to be on the magnesium and had cervidal put in to help soften my cervix to be ready for pictocin this morning. I kept hoping the cervidal would put me into labor but it didn't, oh well. At least I got a little sleep last night exept for being hot and having to pee all the time.

Now I have been having pitocin since 8:30 this morning (it is 11:30 now) but nothing has started yet..... the nurse said the magnesium fights with the pitocin so it is a little battle. I really really hope that things will get started soon.

I am feeling pretty groggy and kind of nauseous, I am not allowed to eat anything of coures, not that I want any food. Surprisingly I am looking forward to some nice contractions because that means I will get to meet this baby sooner!

I was thinking how glad I am that we are being surprised this time around, it adds something fun to look forward too since this is not the birthing experiance I had planned. But I am staying positive and trying to enjoy it as much as I can!

Thanks for all the nice thoughts and prayers, I love that we have technology that I can share this with my friends and family so quickley. And all the nice facebook really make me feel better!

Hopefully the next time I post it will include pictures of a baby!

At the hospital

2012-01-26T17:19:00.000-05:00

So I am sitting here in the hospital waiting to see if I have preeclamsia or not. From what I know it can be dangerous for mom because of high blood pressure. I looked it up yesterday and was sure I couldn't really have it because well I have no symptoms of it (blurry vision, head aches, seeing spots or pain in my tummy) I have just had some protein in my urine and my blood pressure kept creaping up.

Yesterday my doctor had me do a 24 hour urine sample, I won't go into details on how fun that was... that is what we are awaiting the test results. The blood tests came back normal. But my blood pressure is still high as I sit here in the hospital so I am guessing that I will probably be induced...

I am not really excited to be induced, for the last couple of months I have been mentally preparing for a wonderful natural hypnobirthing using hypnobabies. I have had quite a few friends use it and had wonderful experiances. And I anticipate everything to be wonderful this time even though it is not beginning the way I want it. I am trying to stay positive about the whole situation. I am really really excited to meet this baby and I am certainly DONE being pregnant, I just keep hoping I will spontaneously go into labor right this second :)

It is weird to me since I have had such a normal pregnancy just like the other 2. The doctor said it can come at anytime and there is nothing I did to cause it, I guess that makes me feel a little bit better.

I am so happy I have wonderful friends that can watch Mason and Lily and Ralph while I wait here at the hospital forever and ever! Danny is at home right now getting all my stuff that I didn't have packed because I was sure I would have a least a week before anything happened.

It is snowing outside, how beautiful! All right back to my book and awaiting the doctors word. I just wanted to write a few thougths down before I forgot.

Prayers are much appreciated :)

xoxo

Boy or Girl? Red hair? I am so excited to meet my baby :)

2011-12-31T21:36:00.000-05:00

Alright here is my last post of the year...I haven't been that great at updating and keeping a journal of this pregnancy but I have been good at taking a pictures every week (minus 18 and 19 weeks) After the initial terrible all day sickness until about 16 weeks I have been feeling pretty great. I am certainly more tired this around since I can't rest and sleep as much as I did when I was pregnant with the other 2, and I haven't exercised AT ALL, but whatever. Taking care of a 4 and 2 year old has to count for some exercise :) We nick named our baby squishy because we are being surprised and don't know the gender, and squishy seems perfect since my babies are so big! So with out further a do here is my belly, 17- 34 weeks! We can't wait to meet this baby in early Feb :)

Lily and babies

2011-12-31T21:25:00.000-05:00

Lily loves babies, both real and dolls. She has such a great nurturing nature even though it can be a little scary at times (with real babies) My favorite is when I find what she has done with her babies around the house. Here are some from the year when I remembered to take a picture :)

Mason's Photography

2011-12-31T21:05:00.000-05:00

I thought it would be fun to post a year in review for Mason's photography. These are some of my favorite pictures that he took this year with my iPhone. I love it when I get random surprises of 20+ pictures of feet and toys around the house, what a cute kid!

Going for a walk

2011-12-31T17:06:00.000-05:00

We have seriously had a crazy winter. Besides the freak snow storm in October there hasn't been anymore snow and it has been unseasonably warm. Which we will take! One of the warms day Danny happened to be home so we decided to go for a walk! The kids love running around in the street (we don't have sidewalks, boo!) And running around at the pavilion. Danny was excited because he got to try out his new 5 finger shoes, overall the walk was a success!

Kitchen Remodel part 3

2011-12-30T22:06:00.000-05:00

Here are some final pictures of our kitchen remodel, there are still a few things we need to do but for now we are good! And I am so happy with the way things turned out :) Click to see part 1 and part 2 of the kitchen remodel.

Looking into the kitchen before:

And after:

Standing by the window before:

And after:

Things that still need to be done:
A new stove!
Stainless steel cover for the dishwasher
New blinds for the window
New windows (eventually)
New table and chairs :)
New light fixtures
Doors on the new big pantry
White outlet covers

Some of those items may not happen but for the most part all the big projects in the room are done, hallelujah!

Mason's first professional haircut

2011-12-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

Danny usually cuts Mason's hair, but I have a friend in the ward who cuts and colors hair so we thought it was time to try her out. I have really wanted to see if Mason can pull of more of a shaggy hair do and I wanted it trimmed evenly to start out (we will see how it goes though, I am not sure he has the right texture of hair...) He was a good sport and was super happy because he got a blue ring pop at the end.

Lily and jack hanging out in the love sac waiting for Mason and I to get our hair done :)

Potty Training?

2011-12-28T21:09:00.000-05:00

Danny thought it would be a good idea to try and potty train Lily. She has been interested lately, she loves to sit on the potty but will never go. I really wanted to wait until after the baby was born but since he was going to be home for a week over Christmas I gave the go ahead to try.

Well she really really really loves to wear her big girl underwear and watch "Go Potty Go" a million times a day. The first couple of days she had a couple of accidents and a few successes but then she got a little sick in her tummy. I am pretty sure she got the bug Mason had with out throwing up. That put us on a set back because her tummy hurt so she wouldn't always get to the potty. Plus I really wanted to veto everything because she really wanted to wear her underwear but she wouldn't sit on the potty, ahhh. So now we are just going with whatever she wants. If I we are at home she can wear her big girl underwear but if we go out she knows she has to wear a diaper because I don't have enough energy to deal with the mess until after the baby comes :)

She is cute because 1. She will only use the big potty when she actually has to go, she will sit on the little potty just for fun. 2. Underwear looks cute on her :) 3. She surprises me and actually uses the potty and goes sometimes with out warning! So hopefully these are good signs that once I get more serious it will work out quickly like it did with Mason!

CHRISTMAS :)

2011-12-27T20:36:00.000-05:00

*Warning this is a bit long and little detailed with bodily fluids so if you are sensitive to that just go ahead and scroll to the pictures :)*

I have to say that having a 4 and 2 year old make Christmas so much fun! It was nice that Lily was old enough to enjoy the celebrations this year and that she just wasn't destroying the tree and presents (though it did happen at times) Mason was so cute and so excited with the presents under the tree and getting ready for Santa to come.

We had quite the adventure Christmas Day. Mason woke up in the middle of the night throwing up, which was too bad. He had been sick on and off for the last couple of weeks it just seems like the bug couldn't get out of his system. Anyway he woke up, threw up a couple of times, I had him on a little bed on the floor next to my bed in case he needed me. We all woke up around 8 (thankfully Lily also slept in!) Mason was acting fine and told us he felt better. I think it was all the adrenaline of the presents that made him feel ok.

We went downstairs and checked out all the fun things that Santa brought us. (Funny side note, Mason immediately ran for the Christmas tree looking for presents from Santa, not on the couch where they were. I think it was from all the Christmas movies he watched, hehe) Mason and Lily got a play kitchen and the table and chair. Then each of them got a couple fun books and little toys to play with. Santa was even thoughtful and brought baby squishy a couple of bottles, binkies and a giant bear :) Since Christmas fell on a Sunday we didn't even mention to the kids that we could open the presents under the tree since they were so content with all the other toys (we were just going to wait until we got home from church). We played for a little bit then the kids got to have a special breakfast of Lucky Charms, I don't normally buy sugar cereal, so they were excited, and we got ready for church and out the door early enough to arrive 10 minutes early (which never happens). As a side note I normally wouldn't have brought Mason to church since he had thrown up during the night, but since we only had sacrament meeting and no primary, and because he said he was feeling better and acting better we decided to bring him, well......

That was a mistake, haha. When we arrived at church, Mason was acting a little grumpy in the car and said he was too tired. He does this sometimes so we got him out and made him walk as we went into church. Danny needed to go to take a picture outside for a video he was making so I took the kids myself. It was exciting getting there early since we had our choice of pews to sit in instead of hard chairs. I had Lily and Mason was following close behind, but lagging (again normal) I sat Lily on the pew and I looked for Mason and there he was in the aisle a few rows back with throw up all over his face and shirt..... oh goodness.

THANK GOODNESS, we were early to church because not too many people noticed. So I grabbed Mason to take him to the bathroom to get cleaned up. I was sort of freaking out because Danny was still outside and I had no way of finding him without dragging poor Mason around. I even called loudly (in the chapel, oops) to one of the young women who babysits Lily to come sit with her because she was not happy that I jumped up and left all of the sudden. So I took Mason to the bathroom and got him cleaned up the best I could.

By the time I got back to the chapel Danny was back and informed of what happened, and two wonderful men had already cleaned up the throw up off the floor even before Danny got there. I am so grateful. I was so embarrassed and they were so kind about everything. Again I am grateful that we got there early because we all got out of there before church even started. The next week people were confused because they saw us come in and leave so quickly but they didn't know why. Mason threw up again in the car on the way home ( I was ready) then after that he seemed fine and was bouncing around the rest of the day. I still think that had to do with all the new presents!

The nice thing about him getting sick is that we were able to open presents over skype with my family. We wouldn't have been able too otherwise because they would have been leaving for church when we would have been getting home. The rest of the day was spent playing with our toys. Lily LOVES the kitchen and chairs and fed all stuffed animals and dolls in close radius, and us of course. Mason really loved playing with all his action figures and building his lego sets with dad.

Later that night Lily and I went to our friends the Yeagers for dinner, while Danny stayed home with Mason so we didn't "share" anything else with the public. Then Lily and I quickly stopped by my friend Karina's home because she invited us over for Christmas too. It really was a lovely day, and happily Mason and Lily constantly remembered the reason we celebrate Christmas was to honor Jesus' birth. They are so sweet and so much fun. Merry Christmas everyone!

Amazingly both kids automatically ran toward the giant bear, haha. They were bummed to learn that it wasn't for either of them :)

Christmas Eve

2011-12-26T19:22:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve was spent together as a family. Even though we missed our families on the other side of the country. We took some fun treats to our neighbors that said : "You have been naughty, so here's the scoop, all you get is snowman poop, Love the Newmans" Then we gave them a goody bag with marshmallows, hot chocolate and a mini candy cane. Mason also gave the presents to his sunbeam class which he thought was pretty fun :)

Then of course later that evening we got to open one present with our Christmas jammies. Mason and Lily were so excited to finally open something from under the tree.

I am so happy we got a smaller tree this year :) It looked so nice and pretty with out taking over our small house!

And just because we can't leave out the Christmas Tree Bokeh :)

Even "Squishy" is excited to celebrate Christmas :) I am just glad I could get my Christmas Jammies over my belly :)

More potty training iPhone pics

2011-12-26T16:49:00.000-05:00

2011-12-25T23:20:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas family and friends, here is a little (umm kinda long) montage of Mason and Lily in 2011. All thanks to my iPhone :) So if you have 11 minutes to spare feel free to watch because my kids are super cute.

Funny things I noticed: Lily has straight hair at the beginning of the year (and a mullet of course) My kids, especially Mason, don't wear clothes :)

I hope you enjoy! Love you all

ps if you subscribe to the RSS feed or use a reader to look at blog posts I apologize in advance because I am going to be updating the blog from oct-dec in the next couple of days so I can turn it into a book! Most will be back dated so you won't see it unless you scroll down or, like I said, you are subscribed :)

Christmasy

2011-12-25T16:46:00.000-05:00

Mason and Lily by the tree :)

Lily playing with the new kitchen she and Mason got for Christmas. The best part is that she loves to wear her new apron Grammy made her but she refuses to wear clothes under it. Oh boy...

Looks like the giant bear had a little too much to eat :)

I found this antique doll high chair at a garage sale. One day I turned around and saw that Lily had somehow gotten herself in there. She was pretty stuck and hasn't tried since :) She is sure cute!

Preschool Christmas Party

2011-12-22T16:37:00.000-05:00

Anjanette put on a super cute preschool right before Christmas. The kids sang some Christmas songs and then put on the Nativity. Lily just jumped in because she thinks she is a big kid! Mason was Joseph, Claire was Mary. Clara and Kaylie were Angels and Mary Katherine and Lily were shepherds. They did such a good job, you could tell that they had practiced for a couple of weeks! It was also one of those days that I was banging my head against the wall because I forgot my real camera. Oh well...

My little monkey

2011-12-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

Lily has been really really trying to give up her nap. So instead of my freaking out, I am trying to go with the flow (but really it is crazy because Mason is 4 and puts HIMSELF down for a nap, Lily is only 2, sigh) Anyway.... gratefully she will play nicely in her room for an hour or 2 for rest time so that is nice. Though sometimes when I go and check on her she is doing naughty things like climbing on the dresser to check out her and Mason's Christmas tree. This little chicka keeps me on my toes!

Naughty Lily

2011-12-13T16:22:00.000-05:00

I have to watch this girl constantly or she does things like color all over herself, the walls, floors, mirrors etc. At least crayon on the mirror is easy to get off. And you bet I made her clean it herself. I am not really sure if she thinks that is part of the fun though, sigh...

Random December iphone pics

2011-12-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

Lily LOVES to have her fingernails painted, I have to do it like every other day :) Thank goodness I found a nail polish that really dries in 45 seconds, it is awesome

Mason is crazy

I saw this picture at the doctors office and I couldn't believe how much it looks like Lily!

I had the great opportunity to take pictures of my friends birth, well almost, I missed it... but I did get to take pictures after :)

I love it when Ralph sticks his tongue out like this :)

Lily's ringlet :)

What is with this crazy smile?

I really need to get some nail polish remover :)

Lily loves her daddy!

Trying on some crazy hats at the store

Mason's nativity :) Which he calls "activity"

The kids actually sat on Santa's lap this year!

I got a new computer from Danny, love him!

It is so much prettier than my old one!

I saw Santa driving around right before Christmas

Daddy's are so much fun!

Lily has become obsessed with this dress up dress...and her usual "picture" face ....and that she wants to climb into her babies pack and play.... love her!

Caught you naughty dog!

These are the presents we gave to our naughty neighbors and Mason's sunbeam class

Lily's First Haircut

2011-12-01T14:51:00.000-05:00

I am so grateful that we have a wonderful friend in our ward that does an amazing job cutting hair! Lily was in desperate need because her mullet was getting out of control :) She was such a good girl sitting still the whole time, and her curls stayed in tact yay! I forgot to get a picture of the hair on the floor but Roo cut off a good inch of mullet and just barely trimmed the rest, yup my kids and their mullets :)

Mullet, pulled straight because her hair is all wet! I can't believe how long it got :)

The last one is after her first hair cut, so so pretty. I am just obsessed with this girls curly hair!

Goodnight Lily

2011-11-29T14:27:00.000-05:00

Oh Lily, my little stinker. She won't take naps, but seriously needs them. She handles it well most of the time but she is usually done around 5 or 6 and then we have to keep her happy until 7 :). Well one of the nights while Grandma was here, Danny and I were both doing something in the evening so Grandma watched the kids for us. She said at around 6pm Lily got upset about something and went upstairs, Denise could here her for a second and then around 6:15 decided to check on her and well she had put herself in bed and was already asleep. I guess she was really tired, haha! I was so nervous she was going to wake up at like 5:30 in the morning but she did great and slept until 7:15! The funny part is that she had brought up and fell asleep with some balloons that Mason got at Clara's party, too funny!

Side note, this girl LOVES to get her fingers and toes painted, such a girly girl!

Clara's Rapunzel Party

2011-11-28T14:16:00.000-05:00

One of Mason's favorite friends is Clara, and she had a fun Rapunzel party for her 4th birthday! Like I have said before Mason is the only boy his age (with church friends) but luckily the girls don't leave him out even if they are "girly" parties, he still has fun! Allison made a cute cake with Rapunzel and her tower, the girls got to do their hair with bows and fake hair, and play "hot and cold" as they tried to find the missing crown. They also watched the beginning part of the movie, Tangled, when Rapunzel sings her song of what she does that day. Then they had cake, opened presents and went outside to run around :) Overall it was so much fun, thanks for inviting Mason Clara!

Playing "hot and cold"

Mason found the other boy, haha, and a car and some dinosaurs :)

Dancing to the movie.

Opening presents

Cake and ice cream!

Happy Happy Birthday Clara!

Grandma

2011-11-27T13:58:00.000-05:00

Grandma stayed a few extra days after Thanksgiving while everyone else had to get home. It was so nice having her stay and visit with us. Mason and Lily especially loved it because she would read books, color and play with them galore!

I am so grateful I have such and awesome mother in law :) Thanks for hanging out with us Denise, and for all the much needed help around the house!

Oh Christmas Tree :)

2011-11-27T13:45:00.000-05:00

I like to put up the Christmas tree the day or the weekend after Thanksgiving! A happily we got a new tree this year (bought on clearance last year) because our other fake tree was TOO big for our little house. This one was perfect and so much easier to put together. Mason and Lily loved seeing all the lights and then decorating it the next day! Mason was being so silly and kept asking me to take pictures of him by the tree.

Phone

2011-11-26T13:36:00.000-05:00

"I play game on your phone, K mom"

Her favorites are the matching games and talking Carl. It is amazing to me how well she navigates the phone for only being 2 years old geesh! Now Apple needs to come up with a harder way for apps to be deleted because she also does that a lot accidentally :)

Kitchen Remodel Part 2

2011-11-25T13:39:00.000-05:00

After Kristi left from her first little visit the beginning of October (kitchen remodel part 1), Danny and I kept working on the kitchen so we could get some of it put back together. We finished priming all the cupboards and got them all painted white, put the doors put back on with new hinges and painted the rest of the walls (sea salt on top, white on the bottom). All in preparation for the free labor to arrive over Thanksgiving :). Jon, Kent and Danny did a great job of putting in a new floor, yay, and building an awesome pantry so I could get some of the stuff off the top of the cupboards and off the counters. Here are some pictures of their labors :)

White trim, and white cupboards (bad lighting) the wall is primed but the final color is the pretty sea salt (a light bluish, grey, green)

Here you can see the color on the walls and the old microwave cabinet, soon to be replaced by the pantry. Also the boxes of the new floor on top of the old floor.

New floor left, old floor right.

The boys building the pantry, luckily for them it was a beautiful weekend in NY!

Oh Jon, he is so funny and super patient. I had to plug my ears every time Danny and his dad started getting technical about the pantry, and Jon patiently hung around them almost the whole time :)

Mason liked playing in the saw dust, until he realized it stuck to his gloves :)

Mason and Lily liked to help and watch the men work!

Yay getting closer :) eeeep!

Stay tuned for part 3 and the finished product!!!

More Thanksgiving fun

2011-11-24T15:19:00.000-05:00

Lily really wanted to take a nap IN the couch

Hanging out with the family

Bath time fun :)

We played lots of games, I love it when the girls win :)

And playing with baby Judah is always fun :)

We had yummy food

We made some pretty snowflakes

And then of course we put our family to work! That is how the Newman's roll

Turkey Trot

2011-11-24T14:43:00.000-05:00

Danny is the YM president in our ward now. Him and the other priests decided to challenge anyone in the ward to see if they could beat the average time of all the priests together. Kristi and Jon signed up for the challenge since there were here over Thanksgiving, the High Priest Group leader and some of the other young men came for the challenge as well. Overall they ran really well except a 13 year old decon kicked all their trash, haha. Oh goodness, they all look so cold :)

Can you find Danny?

Our Bishop ran with the priests, what a trooper!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T14:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures during Thanksgiving time but we had lots of fun because Kristi and Jon drove up from DC and grandma and grandpa flew in from Seattle! Thanksgiving day was fun because Danny, Kristi and Jon ran a 5K turkey trot in the morning, Kent went with them to take pictures. The rest of the day was spent cooking and watching movies. Here are a few random pictures of the visiting family over the weekend :)

Enjoying some yummy ice cream and apple pie for dessert after our wonderful Thanksgiving feast!

Mason and Lily loved hanging out with Uncle Jon

Getting out the Christmas decorations is always fun :)

Awe, they are so cute :)

Mason and Lily loved hanging out with Grandma :) Mason is coloring and Lily playing with the play-doh

Oh Judah, this kid kills me. I love that he just started walking right before visiting us. The drunken sailor gorilla walk is the best :) Especially when he insists on having something in his mouth at all times!

Grandma was such a great help and trimmed back all of our bushes. Mason liked helping too!

Painting turkeys

2011-11-11T14:49:00.000-05:00

One day I got the bright idea to paint turkey hands to send to our families for Thanksgiving. It was messy but the kids really enjoyed it. Awesome fact, I got all these turkeys made for the family and NEVER mailed them. Yup, I am awesome like that :)

Playing in the leaves

2011-11-10T14:30:00.000-05:00

Luckily the Yeager's have lots and lots of leaves to play in since we have no trees right by our house. The kids had so much fun running around and throwing the leaves with their friends after preschool one day.

More outside fun

2011-11-09T14:21:00.000-05:00

We love playing outside especially on freak 70 degree days in NOVEMBER :)

And this sweet baby Ella who we get to babysit :)

Mason likes me to take pictures of things, before he will let me take a picture of him

And then I get crazy faces, nice....

Lily and her crazy smile face and dirty hands...

Her curly hair just kills me!

Check out that ringlet!

Sword fighting

2011-11-08T13:48:00.000-05:00

Boys are so weird. I don't get this whole fighting/wrestling/swords/gun thing that goes on. I tried to stop it and then regulate it. Now I just give in as long as Danny is home and/or there is an adult in charge :)

To the temple we go

2011-11-05T13:42:00.000-04:00

My friend Ashley had a great idea to trade days watching our kids so that we could go to the temple. We watched her little girl Gwen in October and She came over and watched my kids on a Saturday in November. It was really great because I hadn't been to the temple in forever and it was even better that I could go with Danny :) For those of you who don't know we have to travel to Boston to the temple which is about 3 hours away :)

Home sweet home, this a bridge right by our house :)

Splish splash part 3 :)

2011-11-04T13:57:00.000-04:00

And here are so more bath tub pictures when Judah came again to visit for Thanksgiving. I love his open mouth stare and the fact that I couldn't get all of them to look and me and smile at the same time :)

more trampoline fun

2011-11-03T13:37:00.000-04:00

Pre-K review

2011-11-02T13:42:00.000-04:00

This week for pre-k we did a review of the letters M, F, H and P. Claire and Mason did a great job writing all their letters and then had fun coloring the back of their paper. Then I had a big box of stuff and they had to figure out which letter the object started with and put it in the correct piles. They both did a really good job sounding out the words to figure out which letter it started with. Pictures of the finished piles are below :) Then we had a yummy snack of fish, muffins and popcorn :)

Random November iphone pics

2011-11-01T13:30:00.000-04:00

We made this for family home evening one night. Mason and Lily colored the tree, and Mason cut and glued everyone's name.

Mason has really been into building with his little legos. Danny has been patiently (very very patiently) teaching him how to follow the instructions and find the right pieces These are some of his creations, he was especially proud of the helicopter because it was the first thing he made by following the instructions himself!

Mmm, water

Yup we still had Halloween stuff clear into November, oops

I got a new camera, yay!

I think it is so funny when he spells his name right to left, crazy kid!

Loving afternoon naps

Also love it when the kids actually take a nap

I won a free meal for 10 people at Chipotle, it was so much fun. I invited a lot of my friends at church to partake in the goodness. The best part is that a friend I took, also won so I got to go again, yay!

Lily likes to practice her stacking skills!

We have been doing a lot of painting!

Pretty sunset

Playing with friends, aka wrestling

Mason is doing a great job practicing his writing skills!

This is an oldie, before her hair started getting really curly :)

This is an old one too :)

I love getting pretty things in the mail

And I LOVE hot chocolate with lots and lots of marshmallows!

Hi camera :)

Oh, this boy just cracks me up!

Mason has been really great at getting the table all set up in the mornings for breakfast. As you can see we don't switch it up much... mostly just cereal :)

Pretty morning

I love feet! Well Mason and Lily's feet :)

Yummy food, I am glad that my kids love fruits and veggies so much!

I love this hard working guy!

Christmas tree up right after Thanksgiving! The kids loved decorating it :)

Lily snuggling with Grandma who came to visit

Baby squishy snuggling with me and Lily on the couch

We had a crazy warm November, which resulted in Ralph getting some ticks and fleas, YUCK!

My kids apparently like Rachel Ray, haha

Dewy morning

2011-11-01T13:29:00.000-04:00

Good morning everyone!

Trick or Treat!

2011-10-31T21:29:00.000-04:00

This Halloween we had a couple of our friends come over for some trick or treating and yummy dinner. I can't emphasize enough how much fun Mason and Lily have been this year because they are old enough to do things! Danny even made himself a really cool costume of him being carried in a box! The kids LOVED going to all the houses, saying trick or treat and thank you. My favorite was Lily because she didn't take a nap that day and she was soooo tired, she was about 5 minutes behind everyone, Danny couldn't hold her because of the costume and I couldn't hold her because of being pregnant, haha. She was at least really happy the whole time.

The Newman family: fairy princess, batman, giant witch and guy in a box :)

Piepgrass family: Bob the builder, Kitty Cat and cute little butterflies

McAllister family: Mickey Mouse Club

Mason insisted on being the leader because he was the oldest kid there :)

Our train of trick or treaters (isn't it annoying that we don't have sidewalks in NY)

And Lily at the rear, per her exhaustion!

Applesauce

2011-10-23T21:33:00.000-04:00

We made applesauce 2 times this year. First time my neighbor let me pick the apples from her tree, they were a bit icky but I got all the good parts out. The next time we went apple picking and got over 70lbs of apples! YUMMY. The kids really like helping me put the cooked apples in the apple strainer thing. And of course they loved eating it at the end :)

Special Olympics

2011-10-22T21:28:00.000-04:00

Our ward had the special opportunity to help out with the Special Olympics that were going on in Glens Falls NY. We were assigned to Bocce Ball which was quite fascinating to watch as I didn't know what it was. The athletes were really great and took it very seriously :) The kids made signs to cheer them on and then they just ran around after. Danny got to help score keep and take everything down after.

Carving pumpkins

2011-10-21T21:03:00.000-04:00

Mason was so excited to carve his pumpkins this year with Danny. He looked at pictures on the internet and chose is favorite "scariest" faces. He was a great little helper making sure Danny was doing everything right :)

Halloween costumes!

2011-10-21T20:52:00.000-04:00

Mason and Lily were so excited about their costumes that grammy made for them! Batman and a cute fairy princess :)

The day before Halloween our neighborhood put on a Halloween parade to go around the neighborhood. Well my kids plus one other showed up, so mostly it turned into playing in the snow :) Don't let the images fool you, just because there was snow on the ground it was actually a pretty warm day!

I love my cute little monsters :)

Snow in OCTOBER, boo

2011-10-21T20:41:00.000-04:00

So umm it snowed in October.... Thank goodness grammy send us some snow coats early enough to put them to use!

And from of my iPhone:

I realized that I am too big for my coats, hmmm I have never been this pregnant in the winter before :)

2011-10-21T20:39:00.000-04:00

We have some cute little friends! The first is Mason and his pre-k buddies :)

And here is sweet baby Ella who I babysit sometimes and cute squishy baby Peter :) Yay for babies!

Into the woods

2011-10-21T20:17:00.000-04:00

We love exploring the forest in our back yard. It is especially nice that the kids are a little older and can watch where they are walking so they don't trip as much (well AS much, it still happens!) We found all sorts of fun leaves and treasures to bring back to the house :) We had lots of fun until Mason fell down and got a whole bunch of burrs stuck to his sweater, he wasn't a happy camper after that, haha. Anyway, I love when I get cute pictures of these two together, yay they really do love each other!

Dinosaur Birthday Party :)

2011-10-21T19:08:00.000-04:00

Mason was so excited this year to have a birthday party, 4 years old is the greatest! He really wanted a dinosaur party which turned out to be great fun. My bestie friend here in NY made this amazing cake for him. It was a red velvet cake so it looked all bloody when we cut it up but the kids didn't get it haha.

Have you ever read the book Dinosaurumpus? It is one of my favorite kids books for little boys. It reads like a rap and song which if fun for the kids to jump around.

We invited way to many kids... I just don't know how to say no to Mason :) But he loves all his girly and guy friends!

Mason really really really wanted to have a pinata but I wasn't about to spend a bazillion dollars finding a dinosaur one so we found a "monster dinosaur" at target :) It was funny watching the difference between the girls and boys swinging at the green glob, haha!

Picking up the candy and treats from the pinata

Opening presents was so cute. Each kid brought up the present, some even helped him open it :) He was gracious and kind and made sure he said thank you and gave everyone a hug afterward.

Then of course the best part :)

Later he opened his presents from the grandparents... I like how he put it on the ground so he could open it :)

Danny drew pictures on all the balloons, these are a couple of my favorites. He is so talented :)

Also I didn't get many pictures of it but we had a "dinosaur egg hunt" each kid got to find 7 eggs with different toys and knick knacks inside. Danny was in charge of taking the kids to the basement in between activities so I could get is set up. He is so much fun and told them about a dinosaur living in the basement, the rest of the night they kept going down there to find it. What would I do with out Danny, he makes everything so much more fun! It was a crazy successful party, thanks for everyone who came and made it so fun and special!

Happy 4th Birthday Mason!

2011-10-21T15:08:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet boy! I can't believe he is already 4 years old, my how time flies! Here are 4 reasons why I love him:

1. He loves to snuggle at any time during the day, and if I am being sad or hormonal he will always come give me a hug and tells me he loves me.
2. He is already a little engineer like his daddy. He loves to know how things work and once he figures it out he will explain it in great detail to anyone who will listen. He is also getting really good at building complex things likes planes with his legos all by himself!
3. He is so helpful and listens really well when I need him to get me something and or clean up. He especially loves helping in the kitchen.
4. I love that he says funny things and has a vivid imagination, he comes up with the craziest stories that are so cute, and he usually gets Lily wrapped up in it too :)

Happy Birthday Mason, Mommy loves you!

NYC

2011-10-20T20:56:00.000-04:00

On a whim, one of my photographer friends was going to be in NYC for 2 days and I really really wanted to get some family pictures taken. Danny thought I was crazy because ummmm, I am a photographer. I didn't take long to convince him that I want to be in the pictures too :) So down to Brooklyn we went for the day. It was pretty long and the kids were pretty crabby but it was all worth it in my mind! Here are some random pictures from Driving. You can see a sneak peak of the pictures here.

Family Pictures

2011-10-20T13:43:00.001-04:00

Wow, it has once again been over a month since I have posted to this blog, yikes! Once October is over with all its craziness I hope to catch up. But until then I wanted to share some of the family pictures that we had taken this week. I am so in love with them, and it is so nice to be in pictures for a change. We hired my beautiful friend Gina Zeidler who happened to be in NYC for 2 days. So we packed up the kids and drove down to Brooklyn for the day. I am pretty sure Danny thinks I am crazy but as a photographer it is important to me to have beautiful family portraits worthy to hang on the wall. I am so excited! Here is a sneak peek of the pictures so far, I can't wait to see the rest. Oh and random detail I don't want to forget, Gina is so cute she kept taking pictures with her iphone of the pictures on her computer and texting them to me on the drive home, it made the 3.5 hour trip so much better :)

Photo by Gina Zeidler
http://ginazeidler.com/
http://ginazeidler.com/blog

iPhone Happy Birthday Mason

2011-10-19T21:09:00.000-04:00

Trampoline Fun

2011-10-18T21:06:00.000-04:00

The trampoline has been the BEST THING EVER, especially since I was so sick this summer with this pregnancy :) I love that they can get in themselves, zip it up, and I can read a book on the deck. Even if someone gets "hurt" I just have to blow a kiss at everything is better, ahhh heaven! I love that the trampoline makes Lily's already crazy hair even crazier :)

Bowman Orchards

2011-10-12T20:45:00.000-04:00

For play group one day we took all the kids to Bowman orchards to pick apples and play in the play area. I didn't need to pick anymore apples so we just went to play and took our friend Kaylie. They were all so cute the whole time, Mason and Kaylie are only 3 weeks apart and have been friends since birth! I love the last one with them walking holding hands, too cute!

Random October iPhone pics

2011-10-11T20:17:00.000-04:00

Mason found some foreign money

Mason's feet :)

Mason is a pirate in a boat :)

Apple picking with friends

I can't believe they have Christmas stuff out even before Halloween! Crazy

Mason sandwich

Lily loves Ralph

Pretty rainbow!

I love it when Lily puts on her flip flops herself!

She is a magnet to dirt!

One day she brought all of her loveys and declared that it was nap time :)

Oh babies are too cute!

Miss Lily took off all the caps to the markers, I didn't notice until they had already gone to bed. It took me a minute to find the lids....

Ta-Da, they were behind a book on the book shelf, she is a sneaky one :)

photoshoot

2011-10-10T14:30:00.000-04:00

I try and attempt and actual photo shoot with my kids every once in a while and it is like pulling teeth. They are usually crabby and resorting to candy and bribes is loosing its savor. But this time with Aunt Kristi's help I was able to get a few cute ones with them together and others showing off their little personalities! Like the first one, Miss Lily calls a thumbs up "New York" haha, pretty funny!

Ready, set BLOW! Hehe, I love these 2 pictures together!

My little stinker :)

And Lily with her lovey :) I am so glad I have these pictures because she really really loves her pink elephant!

Awe, I love my red heads and their fiery personalities!

Grandma Fitt visits

2011-10-06T20:29:00.000-04:00

One evening right as I put the kids to bed I got a random phone call from my Grandma who was traveling the east coast on a church historical tour. She said they were staying in Albany for the night and if I could come visit. Once we got talking we found out she was staying in a hotel in Clifton Park, literally 3 minutes away form my house, yay! It was so fun, I got to go see her and visit with my Aunts. What a great surprise! I love my little pocket grandma!

splish splash again

2011-10-06T14:25:00.000-04:00

I can't help myself, here is another fun bath time :)

Kitchen remodel part 1

2011-10-06T13:48:00.000-04:00

While Kristi was visiting we decided to take advantage of the free labor :) It started while Danny was at work and Kristi and I took down the wall paper. Haha, what a surprise for Danny when he got home. Later that day we sprayed down the walls so we could remove the glue part of the paper and see what was underneath, luckily nothing too scary! Mason really really loved spraying water all over the walls, he is such a great helper!

Then we took off the doors to all the cupboards so we could start turning the cupboards white and change the color of the walls. Danny and Kristi did a great job priming everything in the kitchen!

Our new refrigerator! I am so happy we don't have to defrost this one once a week to keep it working :)

This is what we did in the evenings after the kids went to sleep, priming and painting the cupboard doors :)

We had to bring the pack and play upstairs when this one was awake and we were working because he is a mischievous little one year old that likes to get into everything!

We decided that Lily is just as naughty so we threw her in the pack and play with Judah :)

This is part one of many parts of the kitchen remodel, it looks prettier each time!

Outside fun

2011-10-05T19:59:00.000-04:00

We love playing outside! Here are some of the fun things we do while we wait for Daddy to come home!

Get some veggies from the garden, Mason and Lily love the tomatoes, now I just need to figure out how to get Lily only to pick the red ones :)

Play with sidewalk chalk

I think it is funny when Mason writes right to left. He did the M, A and O by himself

Some more yummy veggies!

Learn some letters :)

And going for runs with Danny!

2011-10-05T13:42:00.000-04:00

One of Mason's little friends had a super cute birthday party where the girls got to dress up like princesses and the boy like knights. Mason, like I have mentioned before, is the only boy his age at church so luckily his girly friends don't leave him out and he doesn't mind going to "girly" parties. Anjanette made Kaylie this adorable castle cake, and of course all the kids looked so cute dressed up. After the party Mason said " Daniel (Kaylie's older brother) wanted to kill the princess, I told him knights don't kill princess they save them. But then I did decide to chase them" haha so cute!

My pretty Lily :)

2011-10-05T13:27:00.000-04:00

I love her :)

Dress up time!

2011-10-05T12:32:00.000-04:00

Splish splash

2011-10-05T11:28:00.000-04:00

Aunt Kristi and baby Judah came to visit the end of September for a week and it was wonderful. Yay for cheap Southwest flights! We had so much fun playing with Judah who was crawling around and being as cute as ever! Here are the mandatory cousin bath tub pictures :)

Preschool letter R

2011-10-04T22:31:00.000-04:00

It is that time of year again. Mason is doing pre-k with his friends again, Kaylie and Clara from last year and our new friend Claire. We are rotating houses again and it is working great, Mason and all the girls love it, and it makes me happy too that I can help him learn new things. This year we are focusing on the kids learning how to write the letters correctly, sounds and letter association. Here are some pictures from my first week of having the kids!

I found a pre-k book that has some great ideas about leaning how to write letters, here are some practice sheets to figure out the right direction to write!

Then I had the letter R. We decorated letters with Ribbon, made robots, had rainbow rice crispies, raisens and raspberries for a snack and then lastly we ran outside on the trampoline. It was a fun fun day!

Mason's

Claire's

Kaylie's

Showing me some food!

Puddles!

2011-10-04T22:24:00.000-04:00

These two are magnets to puddles, which is fine as long as we are coming home and not going somewhere. Poor Mason has learned the lesson of wet socks and pants at the store when he doesn't listen to mom :) Our walk way up to the door makes a nice puddle when it rains really hard, but it will only last for ~15 minutes after it is done raining so we have to get there are the right time, and as you can see they have tons of fun playing in it! Oh and Lily loves to dip her hair in the water (any water she finds anywhere!), funny and gross but whatever!

Sisters

2011-10-03T22:34:00.000-04:00

I love my sister so much, they are my best friends. And they are funny and beautiful. I hope they forgive me for putting up the funny "test" pictures that I do for correct exposure haha.

These last 2 are my favorite!

Bear Lake round 2

2011-10-03T22:29:00.000-04:00

We went to Bear Lake again after Danny flew back to NY, though I didn't really take many pictures because I was always holding a child. But I did get a few :) Mason and Lily loved throwing rocks into the water with papa! And Mr. Callum is so cute :)

Aquarium

2011-10-03T22:20:00.000-04:00

Favorites: Jelly fish, octopus, stingray and penguins :) Thanks Grammy for the fun day!

backyard fun

2011-10-03T22:09:00.008-04:00

I love watching my kids play with my family :) Oh and I love watching Lily run, it may be one of my favorite things EVER!

Feeding the duckies

2011-10-03T21:57:00.000-04:00

Sugar house park + ducks + bread = lots of fun!

My favorite part is that Lily had to taste each piece before she would throw it, crazy girl!

Family party

2011-10-03T21:39:00.000-04:00

Growing up I spent alot of time with my cousins. It was so much fun and I loved them so much. It makes me so happy when we get to go spend time with them now and of course I love it when Mason and Lily get to spend time with their cousins!