We're Back......

Can you say 65 degrees and sunny--in December!?

So you can see why we didn't really want to come back.

and maybe we wouldn't have, except for we were really starting to miss these guys.

The weather was lovely, the company couldn't have been better, the food delicious, the shopping devine. Our legs and backs were killing us after all the walking. And we probably gained several pounds each (I was making up for lost "sick" time, and lets be honest I have a built in excuse). Chip takes husband of the year award for sitting for 2+ hours inside the biggest Destination Maternity store I have ever seen. And for not even blinking when the final price was totaled (2 pairs of designer maternity jeans later (thanks Mom for one pair and Santa for the other) and I feel like a new woman--truly maternity jeans that don't make you look like you pooped your drawers. They are heaven sent).

And so is my husband!

a true "christmas cactus"

Me & the hubby
ps. Chip really hates taking pictures. He especially hates when I stop and ask other people to take our picture. Long story short--sorry for the lack of and very upclose pictures.

Drumroll please...

It's a GIRL!

Thankful Thoughts

I am thankful for:

a loving God

my sweet family

the awesome ability to carry new life

my hardworking husband

my crazy boys

fantastic extended family & friends

and too many many more to list...

I am so incredibly blessed.

I hope you are taking today to celebrate the things you are truly thankful for as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a Done Deal

So most of you will remember this post about whether I should take the risk and book a hotel for our Arizona trip using Hotwire. You know, killer rates, but they don't show you the hotel until after you've booked.

Well, I manned-up and did it.

We will be staying downtown Scottsdale at

The Hotel Indigo

Pretty nice, huh? Less than a half mile to Fashion Square and The Waterfront (combined pretty much the best shopping ever), Old Town Scottsdale, trendy resturaunts.

The best part: this hotel books from $110-199/night. We got it for $59/night.

You Bet-cha, I'm thrilled.

19 days--Scottsdale here we come.

December's Top 3

Why am I looking forward to December you ask?

• Ultrasound of Bits
• Scottsdale, AZ
• Christmas Festivities

Whoop-tee-woo...it's gonna be a fun month!

Flutterings

Just thought I needed to post this so I could remember:

Pretty darn sure I have been feeling baby "flutterings" for the past 2 days.

Sure, it could just be gas bubbles (growing belly + too tight jeans= not so great). But, you know I'm "experienced" now. Didn't you know? Your 3rd pregnancy for sure puts you into this new category.

So, I'm sticking with the flutterings.

p.s. Drayson has been "talking" to and kissing my belly.....soooooo sweet!

In Lieu of 15 weeks...

So we are 15 1/2 weeks along and I'm actually starting to feel like eating again. That got me thinking back to the things that I've actually craved/enjoyed/or just plain could keep down in the past few weeks (in no particular order):

• turkey sandwiches from Subway
• mustard
• grapefruit juice
• trail mix
• grapes
• puffy cheetos
• havarti cheese
• eggos with 1 of these three combos: butter & powdered sugar/peanut butter, cottage cheese & syrup/butter, strawberries & cool whip
  ----------------------------

Dear Nice Foods,

Thank you for being so good to me in my time of need. No offense, we can still hang out and stuff, but I'd like to start hanging out with new foods now too.

All the Best,

Sara

Halloween 2009 Cont.

We started off the night at Gma Jane & Papa Larry's. Pizza and candy. Kassie took Caleb around the block trick or treating. Then off to Nonni Donna & Papa KevO's. The boys had about had it by that time. Chip and I ditched the kids with my gracious parents and went off to a Halloween party where we were able to see a bunch of good friends.

Bones & Handy Manny

Yes, that's right, your eyes are not deceiving you:
that is Chip wearing man tights. He is obviously the "tooth fairy"
He tried to make me go into Albertson's without him (a no go). When we were inside he was like a freakin celebrity or something.
One lady said: "look girls, it's the real live tooth fairy right here in Albertson's"
Another guy came up and shook Chip's hand and told him he was a "brave man"
Chip complained all night that the tights "didn't breathe"

Don't you think Drays would be a pretty girl? (trying on Chip's fairy headband)

Handy Manny Goes to School

Caleb decided this year that he wanted to be none other than Handy Manny for Halloween. Do you know this Manny? He is on the Disney Channel. He is the one and only fix-it man in the beloved town of Sheetrock Hills.

Do you see the resemblence?

Thanks to Nonni Donna he is even lucky enough to have the "talking" tool set.
(yeah, that gets old fast :)
When Caleb showed up for the preschool Halloween party today, a very smart mom said:
"awesome, it's Handy Manny!"
Oh, how Caleb beamed.
Bless you, Sweet Mother.

Pumpkin Patch '09

Caleb's Preschool Pumpkin Patch Trip.

Daddy took the day off to come and play!
That's Caleb way at the top

The End.

To Do This Week:

• Pumpkin Patch with the preschool
• Win our final league soccer game and wrap up the #1 spot!
• 14 week doctor visit
• Finish Halloween costumes in time for Caleb's Halloween Party
• put away mounds of clean laundry (at least it's clean right?)
• Watch Caleb play hockey
• Watch Drayson charm other spectators at hockey practice
• Wish my good friend Kara a Happy Birthday!
• Get maternity clothes down from attic. Ugh.
• Continue to dream/countdown our AZ trip

*Sidenote: I bought a pair of Ugg boots this weekend. they are not really Uggs, they are from Costco. they are amazingly comfortable. I'm afraid they make me look ridiculous/sixteen.

But I'm not taking them back. So there.

Risky

We are going to Scottsdale as you well know.
Did you know that we are going to fly roundtrip for $280 out of Pasco (and that would be both of us-not per person). We would not be going on said trip right before Christmas if we weren't doing it on the cheap.
Now I'm bargain hunting hotels. I'm stalking Hotwire.com and then cross referencing Hotels.com. Do you know about this hotwire bit? You go to their site, you select your dates and your specific location/area (like within a couple mile radius) and they give you these awesome hotel options with rock bottom rates. As in $59 for a 4-star hotel in Scottsdale (whoo-ee)! The catch? They don't tell you the name of the hotel until after you have purchased. They list the amenities and hotels that usually fall in to this star category. Then you have to decide if you're willing to risk it. We have used Hotwire 3 times before. Once for a rental car in San Diego, once for a hotel in LA, once for a hotel in Seattle. It totally worked out all three times...actually we were blown away at the awesomeness at such a low price. Like when we were in LA there was a Valet and super swanky lobby (fyi: we don't usually make a habit of staying in dives, but we think a Marriot is pretty nice).
Is this making any sense?
Anyways, the only thing about doing this is: it gives me a stomach ache. It seems too good to be true. I get so scared right before I press the "confirm" button. I get even more queasy right before the page opens to the name of the hotel that we have just charged several hundred dollars to our credit card for. You get me? So here I am back in the same old boat.
But man, I sure do like those Valets and swanky lobbies...

Opinions? advice? tips? name of a good shrink?

PUN-KINS!

Caleb has been begging for a "pun-kin" for weeks now. For the past couple weekends there was a family that would set up a pumpkin stand right on the corner of a vacant lot near our house. So we thought--what could be easier than that? Well, I don't know if they ran out of pumpkins or what, but they were MIA this weekend. And Caleb was forlorn (like it was the only place you could get punkins or something)! So we headed on out to the local Pumpkin Patch to pick us out a few nice pumpkins on Sunday afternoon.

And since Mommy was not in the mood to gut all 6 pumpkins and oversee small children wielding sharp instruments, we opted to paint our pumpkins instead.
Caleb's "scary face" pumpkin (please note the sharp teeth)
And this is what I worked on:
Caleb is really into letters and "what does that word start with?" right now. So I thought these would be perfect. I think they turned out pretty spiffy.

Happy Pun-kin-ing

Let the Countdown Begin

In 54 days, I will be here:

Scottsdale, AZ

Enjoying 4 days of:

my husband

no children

rockstar shopping

sleeping in

sunshine in December

no Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny or Special Agent OSO

good food

doing whatever.we.want

An Explanation of Bacon Bits

So while we took Caleb skating. And he schooled me in stopping. (see video below)

Drayson played at Grandma Jane & Papa Larry's. A sweet little girl from Jane's daycare was a little confused as to what Drayson's name was and kept calling him Bacon! Ha. Imagine my surprise when we showed up and she asked me "why did you name your baby Bacon?" (pretty sure that's a once in a life time question there). Chip and I thought it was hilarious and somehow it came about that Baby #3 should be referred to as Bits. Yes, as in Bacon Bits. It could be like a 2 for the price of 1 deal. Can you imagine: "Bacon Bits time to come in for dinner...." You get the idea.

Here's a quick peek at the growing "Bits": (and yes, I am using the ever popular rubber band in place of button technique if you were wondering). Doesn't look like much yet, but we are 12 wks along this week. (praying that the less nauseous days are just around the corner).

We kinda felt bad that Caleb was left out of the whole thing. Last night we asked him he'd like to be called Cruton. (imagine blank stare from 5 year old here). Apparently Chip and I thought it was funnier than Caleb.

Weekly Highlights

Here's a small portion of what's been happening around these here parts:

The long awaited bunk beds went up. And Caleb loves them. He of course is sleeping on the top bunk. And I am currently folding laundry on the bottom bunk until we switch Drayson over there (which is several months off). We are even getting two huge matching storage drawers that slide under the bottom bunk cause we need all the space we can get. Speaking of storage we are on the hunt for 2 dressers (they can be ugly since I am going to paint them and put on new hardware) so let me know if you are trying to get rid of some or know of someone that is.

*Also, thanks to my Dad for coming and helping with the bunk beds so I didn't have to (you saved us yet again from needing couple's therapy). And to my mother who scrubbed things that I was otherwise trying to forget existed (ie: the really far away part of the counter in front of the sink and the tops of my washer & dryer).

Hockey started yesterday, which makes our already hectic schedule even crazier!

The Bug loves to have his picture taken. Here he is before I took him to get his check up and shots this morning! He wasn't singing quite the same tune after they stuck him 4 times, but perked right back up when offered a dum-dum. He is doing great and is 31 1/4" tall (50th%) & 22lbs 3oz (25th%) And is cute as can be (obviously :)

Saturday morning was hair cuts for all the men-folk at our house. Here is Drays getting his first trim. It got a little shorter than I'd like and I started to cry (before Chip told me to pull it together because I was scaring the children...thanks hon).
On the pregnancy home front: Caleb has made it his personal mission in life to tell every single person we see that there is a "baby in my mommy's tummy." (which makes going out into public slightly awkward). The anti-nausea meds I am on seem to help, but make me extremely tired so I can't take them as much as prescribed. So tired that I don't really like to drive and that's kinda an issue when you're as busy as our family is. My jeans already aren't buttoning, which is a huge shocker to me, because I can normally rock non-maternity clothes until nearly 18 weeks. Doesn't look like Bean #3 is gonna treat me quite so well. I'm gonna go haul out the belly band, buy some more yoga pants and stalk maternity Seven jeans on the Internet!

And yes, Chip is still alive and part of our family (cause ya know, we wouldn't eat or have a place to sleep without him). He is extremely busy with his classroom, his pro-cert/Master's classes, coaching soccer, and helping with the boys.

Ta-Ta for now!

Who Woulda Thought??

That after the conception of Drayson took almost 2 long painful years of:

• ovulation sticks
• morning temps
• calender marking
• meds
• hearing that every other person you somehow know is expecting
• month after month of disappointment

that I would be announcing that we are pregnant with Bean #3 (the good ol fashion way, like without all that un-fun stuff listed above). I'm still kinda shocked myself. When I mentioned as much to my mother she said: "I thought you knew how that all worked." And I do, but when it "doesn't work like that" for ya for 2 whole years and you're pretty sure God decided to only send you 1 baby...and now you're gonna have 3...well that's a kick in the pant for sure.

Then you do the math and realize that #2 & #3 are going to be less than 24 months apart. And then you kinda maybe freak out just a little bit (but your calm as all husband does not and just smiles at you like a goofball, because we all know he would be happy with a farm full of kids).

Then you feel better that the new/bigger car you bought several months back wasn't just a "want" but is now obviously a "need." And that the bunk beds you bought for a very special 5 year old boy who begged and begged for them for 6 months also isn't a "want" but a "need." And realize that with some very serious storage planning (and the before mentioned bunk beds) a bigger house is not a "need" but a "want" (which is a great thing, because we all know babies aren't cheap).

Our due date is April 30th (which means I am 10wks along). I've been terribly nauseous this time (like all day long), which stinks. And very exhausted. Yes, we are going to find out what we are having this time (that should be right around Christmas time). We are going to find out for 2 reasons: 1. I need to mentally prepare if I am going to be the mother of 3 boys. 2. I need to know if I can have a "boy" yard sale (meaning their clothes--not the boys themselves) and then take all that money and spend it on my pretty pretty princess of course.

We are obviously so excited and nervous at the same time (me mostly because that's how I am, but I think I'm especially nervous this time because we have already been blessed with 2 very healthy babies and I don't want my luck to run out). I even went round and round about the appropriate time to post this to the blog...is there a time protocol or something? I know lots of people wait 12 wks, but we saw the dr. yesterday and got to hear the heartbeat so I feel pretty good. And most of our family knows anyways. And since this is a journal of sorts for me it was weird to have to "keep that part" out of the posts. So there you have it, the daily ramblings of my head (prepare yourself, probably a lot more of that to come in the next several months). Keep the prayers and good thoughts heading our way...it's gonna be a wild ride.

ps. For the record Caleb thinks it's twins...I told him to shut his mouth. :)

Not So Innocent

Last night Caleb was "all up in" Drayson's personal space (not unlike the past 4 weeks or so). But instead of just 'yelling' at brother, Drayson smacked Caleb across the face with a plastic hockey stick.

Oh, how Caleb cried.

And Chip calmly said: "I told you to leave him alone."

And for the rest of the night he did (with a bright read welt on his cheek). But the sting seems to have faded overnight and he's back at it again today...what does Drays have up his sleeve this time???

I'm pretty sure Caleb is missing the days when Drayson "just laid there." The days of peace & bliss & loving siblings is gone at our house.

--So when can I come over? (sans children of course)

Caleb's Exciting Travels: Seattle Sounders Game

On Saturday Aunt Kass took Caleb to a Sounders Soccer game for his birthday present!! They left early in the morning and still got back in time for the Ams opening night hockey game. Caleb doesn't wake up well, but as soon as Chip reminded him what day it was, he popped up and started looking for his jersey.

one excited boy on the trip to Seattle

outside Qwest Field (not exactly sure why he's playing the air guitar?..)
getting his sounders tattoo
sporting his crazy hair

look how serious he is...maybe someone should tell him its just a game :)
inside the stadium
Caleb & Kass

I'm sure the people in front of them enjoyed this purchase!
Nothing left in the tank...he slept the whole way home

What a great day. He is still talking about it. Thanks Aunt Kass...you may just have pulled into the lead for best present of 2009.