I am officially in my second trimester! Woo Hoo! And I am so happy to say that the nausea is behind me, and I am feeling great! I love being on the other side of the sick part of pregnancy. I had another appoinment today with my OB-GYN and he said everything was going wonderfully. He did another ultrasound, and the baby looks just like a baby now, and not like a huge kidney bean anymore. I love being able to see the baby at each visit with the ultrasound. It’s comforting to get a quick glimpse each time and see for myself that he/she is moving around in there, growing and everything. It’s such a fun bonus. With my other doctors, I used to only get one ultrasound, period, no matter what, and it was only to check gender. With my OB-GYN though, I get one with every visit, and I like this way a lot better.

   And the best part of all…..I only have to wait 4 more weeks to find out what the baby’s gender is! The Dr. said at my next appointment I will be 16 weeks, and that we can go ahead and take a look then and he’s 99% sure we will see the gender. (Here’s hoping for some baby cooperation with no leg crossing.) So I will probably find out right after Thanksgiving, and it will give me a little extra time to get ready for our little one’s arrival this Spring. I’m just thrilled to be feeling better, and this is the best part of pregnancy for me. I’ve always loved the second trimester. It’s the “honeymoon” stage of pregnancy for me, and I’m looking forward to it! And thankyou all for your kind words, advice and sympathy on my nausea. I know several of you had it WAY worse than I ever did, so that’s a contest I am happy to have lost. (Mel, I still don’t know how you did it.) Ugh! Morning/pregnancy sickness stinks, but we all know those babies are SO worth it!

   Yesterday was Estee’s birthday party and we had a really fun time. The cake was beautiful, the food was delicious, Estee was darling, she got tons of super fun Dora presents, and the kids had the time of their lives. Korby really pulled it off, and the party was perfect! My kids were so mad at me  when it was time to go, they were having so much fun with their cousins. I have to say that the only hitch was the mummy cheese log Heidi made. It was so delicious, you couldn’t stop eating it! It was also really fun since it was a cheese log shaped as a mummy with cream cheese piped on top to look like the wrappings. I loved it on the Triscuits and the Wheat Thins the best, but frankly it would have been delicious on a piece of cardboard, it was just so tasty! So Heidi, I am hoping you will share this scrumptious recipe with us, it’s too good to not have again, and I think I need to make one for Craig to take to work.

Ok, we bought this movie sight unseen as well, but we had several family members and friends tell us how much they liked it, so we bought it. In fact I didn’t have any reservations about buying it until we went to Wal-Mart, and right as I picked up the DVD to put it into our cart a checker came over and told me that another customer had said that the movie was really scary, and that only kids 10 and older should watch it. I had N and G with me, and it seemed like she was trying to get me to NOT buy the DVD, and was almost scolding me for even considering it with the fact that I had two children with me obviously under the age of ten. Well, I thanked her for sharing her opinion (she herself had not seen the movie, so why was she so upset?) and went on my way. But not before plopping the DVD right into my cart, and yes, right in front of the disgruntled checker. She thinks I’m a bad mother now.

We finally got a chance to watch it last night, and I loved every minute of it! The animation was amazing, with the most realistic emotions and reactions on animated characters I have seen to date. I just really loved this movie. I do have to say, it is a lot scarier than most kids movies, but my own children weren’t scared by it, and they loved it too. I really suggest renting this before buying it though since I know from experience that what doesn’t scare one child can give another child nightmares for weeks, so you might want to screen it first before showing to your little ones. So I do agree with the PG rating since it is a little more intense, and the house is pretty scary itself, but we really loved it. I recommend this one even for the adults, it’s a lot of fun to watch. Just make sure it’s not too much scary stuff for your little ones.

*(Pictures coming soon, I am trying to find the cable for my camera)

Yesterday was our ward Halloween carnival and Trunk or Treat and it was a lot of fun. Craig and D were helping out with the Spook Alley, and C was helping out in general with the other Young Women. The Spook Alley turned out to be way better than they expected, and it was a lot of fun. For the first 45 minutes of the party they left the lights on, and took out the really scary stuff so all of the little kids could go through. All of mine did, and it was so fun for them to see “spooky” stuff but not have their pants scared off of them. Then they turned off the lights, turned on the fog machine, and turned up the scare factor for the older kids and adults. Everyone agreed it was great fun, and felt it was worth the time it took to set it all up, and then tear it all down afterwards.

I had stayed up really late the night before trying to finish sewing some of the costumes, and I was even sewing right up until it was time to leave for the party. This year the kids all decided they wanted to dress up as characters from Toy Story, and so I was able to buy some of the costumes and then sew the rest. Both N and M wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, so I went ahead and bought them both Buzz costumes, and they loved it. I made Gr Bo Peep, so I bought the dress and then I sewed the ruffled pantalettes to go with it. I still have to finish the bonnet in time for Saturday, but the ward party was indoors so she didn’t need her head covered from the cold just yet. Haven wanted to be Jessie, and after much consideration I decided the best thing would be for me to sew it for her.

Funny enough, H’s costume got the most compliments last night, and I was so excited she really did look just like Jessie. You know how when you’re sewing, and your vision doesn’t always turn into the reality that you wanted? Well the sewing gods were smiling down upon me for this one, and it all went so smoothly, turning out better than I ever thought. The pants were a nightmare to do, but they looked perfect and were so cute, and H LOVED being Jessie. She kept swinging her yarn braid, and flipping it over her shoulder. I did try to get one of the boys to be Woody, but Buzz was just too irresistable for them, and I have to say they were both really cute in the costumes. G’s costume was cute on her, but everone thought she was a princess, so I really need to finish the bonnet and crook for her, otherwise the whole thing doesn’t make sense. Ok, so having two Buzz Lightyears doesn’t really make sense either, but I have learned that if you want them to wear their costumes they are going to have to like, them otherwise they will spend the majority of the night picking at it, trying to take it off, and just hating it in general.

After the the kids trunk or treated there was a potluck dinner of different soups, chowders, and chili that everyone brought, and there were some really delicious ones there. It was all so easy, and it made for very little cleanup for too, since afterwards everyone took their own crock pot home to scrub out, and the dishes and utensils were all plastic and could be thrown away. There were tons of kids dresses up in every different kind of costume, and it was fun to see them all. And quite a few of the adults went all out too, and some of the youth had some pretty elaborate getups going on as well. Scott and Korby tried to come, but A had a performance that night, and Heidi had an appoinment that was at the same time that the party started. We missed them during all of the fun but we will be having some Halloween fun together this upcoming weekend! What are your kids going to dress up as this year? Any adults out there with costume plans of their own? Hope you have a Happy Halloween and have lots of fun!

   Normally we only buy childrens movies that we have previously seen, especially since there have been quite a few really lame ones that I wouldn’t want to waste my time and money on. (Cat in the Hat, Hercules, Racing Stripes, Antz, Doogal, etc…) For Noah’s birthday though we took a chance and bought “Over The Hedge” without ever seeing it. Happily the kids ended up loving it, and I thought it was pretty cute and entertaining as well. I especially liked the soundtrack which has 5 songs specifically written for the movie by Ben Folds (he wrote 3 new ones for the movie, then used an existing one of his, and then redid a Clash song as well). Since I like him anyways it’s an added bonus that my kids love the music from the movie as well, so I am planning on getting the soundtrack the next chance I get. So if you get a chance, I suggest renting this movie so you can see for yourself if it’s one you would want to own. I say “rent” because in my experience, what my children love isn’t always the same as what Heidi’s or Korby’s kids enjoy. There are quite a few movies they all love, but there have a number of times my kids loved a certain movie and Heidi’s or Korby’s kids hated it. So rent it, give it a whirl and may be you’ll like it. (I still have the songs in my head, I need to get that soundtrack soon.)

   Well, after realizing my childhood was spent in front of the TV after taking that TV theme song test of Mark and Mel’s I had to laugh. In reality, I don’t think I really watched all of those shows, but I did watch a lot of them. And quite a few did have really famous and catchy theme songs so I must have heard them elsewhere. I must have since I know I didn’t watch Dallas and yet I knew the song immediately. I did however watch Knight Rider, Miami Vice, Benson, Mash, Lavern and Shirley, Happy Days, and several others when I was growing up. I remember thinking Knight Rider was the coolest show EVER! And who didn’t want a car like KIT?

   Right now I have several favorites that I try to watch, and a few I used to watch but have since given up on. My favorites this season are Law & Order, Law & Order:Criminal Intent, CSI, Numbers, The Office, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Lost, and Shark. And Medium starts up again in November, and that one is also on my list. I have a hard time with any shows that start at 7pm or 8pm, but most of the ones I watch start at 9pm so it all works out. Bedtime around our house isn’t bad at all, but it can still take about 15-20 minutes to get them all ready with teeth brushed, drinks done, prayers said and tucked in and settled. We can ususally get them all into bed by 8:30pm so we then have a whole 1 1/2 hours to oursleves for the night. I know, we are just spending oodles of time together! Hey, 1 1/2 hours is better than nothing!

   I do need to say though that when it comes to Lost I am starting to lose interest. They just can’t seem to have an episode that gives up any more than 5 minutes of new information in an hours time, and they really are creating WAY more new questions than they are answering old ones. It’s hard to keep watching when each week you feel like you have gone several steps backward almost instead of going forward at all. I’m not quite ready to quit just yet, but I am getting frustrated with the writers. And some shows just irritate me period. They don’t seem to be able to see the difference between “drama” and “soap opera” and they end up being so ridiculous. Some of them are The Nine, ER, CSI: Miami, and Desperate Housewives to name just a few that I personally can’t watch. They drive me nuts, and I feel like I just wasted an hour of my life, so I don’t watch them.

   I know it must look like all I do is watch TV, I promise I can and do miss a lot of these shows when I get busy with my kids, family stuff, or just life in general. But Craig has a very early bedtime since he has to be to work so early in the morning, so we don’t have much of an evening social calendar. It was different when we only had 3 or 4 little ones, but now we have 6 kids with school schedules to keep to so we are homebodies for more and more reasons. By the end of the day I am wiped out anyways, and snuggling up with my husband in front of the TV isn’t such a bad way to spend an evening in my opinion. And I know some shows I love, you hate and vice versa, so I hope I didn’t hurt any feelings. Like Granny says “We all get to pick”. So tell me, what are your favorites shows? Which ones would they have to hold a gun to your head to get you to watch? Any shows you quit watching that you used to never miss?

   Ok, I know I’m a day late in posting this (N’s birthday is the 20th), but yesterday was really crazy and I wasn’t able to get a minute, so now the kids are in bed I thought it was time to give it a go. For a fun outing, after I picked N up from school yesterday, we went out for a little birthday treat of ice cream and he helped me get some groceries. He also picked out a treat for everyone to have after supper, and all of the kids loved that. We are having a combined birthday party for the two October kids with all of the family so I am trying to make sure everything is ready for that. I had C go to Chris’ house on her actual birthday last weekend so she could spend it with them and her Grandma Colleen. They had a fun party for her at the ranch, and she got some great presents too so I am really happy it all worked out.

N is a completely different little boy compared to what he was like just 3 years ago. He was SO shy! He would just shut down if anyone he didn’t know or wasn’t really familiar with ever approached him or talked to him. He was so quiet, and didn’t have much to say, and hated any new or strange situations. Well, that’s all changed now. N has a lot to say and has no problems saying it. He will talk to just about anyone, and doesn’t shrink into the background anymore. He’s a little bit reserved sometimes, but completely approachable now, and freely chats with people without batting an eye. He loves going to School and Primary and never needs any coaxing. In Primary he has said the prayer, given talks and reads scriptures, all by himself and without any help from Mom and Dad.

He’s in the 1st grade now, and he loves going to school. He is the top reader in his class, and was so good that they had to switch him from the series of books the class was reading and give N harder ones to try and challenge him. He excells in Math too, and loves all of the problem solving. And everday when I go to drop H off for Kindergarten, I see N outside at recess in a big group of boys playing ball. Although his best friend (at school that is) is Kirk, and they are always together no matter what games are being played. He and Kirk are pretty much joined at the hip, and in the group of boys they sometimes look like one child. But his best friend of all is A, and N begs me all of the time to take him in for a visit so he and A can play. They are so funny together, and I love that they have each other, and always will even as they grow up.

If it sounds like I’m bragging, I guess I am. But for those of you that knew what N was like as a toddler and preschooler, you underdstand all of the fuss I am making. N is such a sweet boy, and I am so blessed to be his Mom. He brings so much happiness into our family, and is such a great big brother. His name  means “Peace” and I always felt that it suited him so much. I love my N, and I love that he gets to be in our family. Happy 7th Birthday son, we love you!!!

   When Heidi mentioned in her blog what a sissy I was about the “maggot rice” I thought I would explain why I’m such a pansy. This pregnancy has been great so far with the very big exception of the constant nausea. In fact this is the worst I have ever had it with any of my pregnancies, and the longest it has ever lasted. I do want to make it clear though that I have not thrown up, but I feel like I am going to all day long. Blah! I’ve tried several different remedies (from friends and my Dr.), none of which have worked, but I know I could be hugging the toilet all day long, and since I’m not, I feel quite grateful. It’s easiest to take it a day at a time and work through it, and I’m feeling a little bit better each day, so I really think this is going to end soon, and I’m feeling really good otherwise. I’m just not a fan of the throw up feeling, but I’m also happy I’m only getting the feeling and not actually throwing up. Eww, I hate throwing up. Melanie, my heart went out to you that whole time, you had it the worst of ANYONE I have ever known! I’m so glad you got through it. You’re so tough!

   It’s getting easier now to smell food, be around food, and I’ve even wanted to eat some food without feeling totally sicko. It’s so funny, right now food just makes me feel ill, and any commercials on TV, pictures of food, most thoughts of food, any food related smells, and especially Heidi talking about maggot rice, just make me feel even more sick. But with the end of my first trimester only a few weeks away I know I’m in the home stretch, and I should be done with this soon. All of this is definitely worth it though, every minute of it, I mean I get the ultimate prize at the end, I get a sweet little baby!  And since my Dr. has a 3-D ultrasound machine in his office he said that we can try and find out the baby’s sex around 15-16 weeks if I want. Do I!! I know, I know, my pattern says we’re having a boy next, so what do I need an ultrasound for. But since in reality we have a 50-50 shot at either, I’m going to make sure of the gender before I buy anything. So I only have a few weeks left until we can find out, and then I can get started on a list of name choices.

   So, what do you think our baby will be, a girl or a boy and why? I am on the fence, and I don’t feel like I know with this one. I tend to say boy since I’ve always alternated genders with each pregnancy, but I just don’t know. So tell me what do you think!

My baby girl has turned 12 years old today, and I am such a dork for saying it, but I really can’t believe the time has gone by that quickly. It doesn’t seem like she’s supposed to be going into Young Womens as a Beehive, but she is. It doesn’t feel like it’s been 12 years already. My C has really grown, she is such a little beauty, and is so sweet too. I just love her kind and tender heart and willingness to help others without complaint. She is also very giving, and selfless too and puts others needs before her own without even batting an eye. She is the best big sister and G absolutely adores her. She is very popular with the little ones, her siblings and cousins, and is so patient with all of them. And at school she is always there for her friends, and makes sure she is kind to others even if they’re not as kind to her. She really tries to figure out what might be hurting them or bothering them so she can try and help. I am so proud of her and the way she treats others. Of course as her mother I only want the best for her, and I hope she gets it becasue she really deserves it. So here is a Happy Birthday wish to my Frannie! I love you sweetheart! I hope you have a great day!

   Heidi and Gary came for a fun visit today so we could take all of the kids and pick out some pumpkins. We drove out to Sumida’s where there were two piles to pick from, the big ones and the little ones. The kids loved the littler pumpkins because they were the perfect size for their little hands to pick up, and they were having a ball going through and finding their “perfect” pumpkins amongst all of the others. They were having so much fun looking through all of them, giggling with delight everytime they found another great pumpkin they just had to have, and running back to look for more after they put their find in the “to keep” pile.

   Scott and Korby tried, but ended up not being able to come because of homework from school, and Mark and Mel couldn’t come because Mark wasn’t able to leave work, so Heidi and I picked out a bunch of pumpkins for them so they didn’t miss out on all of the fun. By the time we were done I had 24 little pumpkins and 5 big ones, and Heidi had 13 little ones and 4 big ones. The prices were $1 for 12 little pumpkins, and $0.05 a lb. for the big ones, so my total for all of them was $4.98 and Heidi’s was $4.08! You just can’t beat that! I took pictures of some of the pumpkin finding fun, so check out the gallery for cute shots of happy pumpkin picking kids!

   I had been wishing there was a Pumpkin Walk or something like it for us to take the kids to, I know I used to enjoy the one the Beutlers used to have all those years ago, and sadly we don’t have one in our area. But I quickly realized as the kids ran back and forth that they were having so much fun regardless, running between the piles picking out what they felt was a perfect pumpkin, showing each other where the “good ones” were, and squealing each time they found one. So I stopped feeling bad and just enjoyed watching all of the kids have a fantastic time. They didn’t care that it wasn’t some huge theatrical and staged production with multiple displays, painted pumpkins, intricate carvings and eerie Halloween sound effects in the background. They were having fun just the way it was, and I was sure having fun watching them, and that’s what it’s really all about isn’t it.

   Afterwards we all drove back to my house for dinner which consisted of pizza’s that Heidi and I had bought at Papa Murphy’s. We had dinner on the table in no time, and the kids were hungry after all of their hard work. It’s not easy picking out pumpkins, so they had worked up quite an appetite and finished eating in no time. The kids loved being together, as usual, and Heidi and I kicked back and gabbed up a storm while Gary discovered CSI on Demand, so everyone had a fun and relaxing evening and it was so fun to get the kids together again. Now we just have to actually carve the pile of pumpkins we got…..but that’s a whole other post!