The long silence

I promise I have a good excuse...just adjust your eyes over to the right, and you will see why I have been "missing in action" on the blog front. It's not like I've been busy or anything...I've just been busy laying on my couch feeling so crappy! Does anyone else out there get the pregnancy blues when you are throwing up all the time and just plain nauseous all the time? I don't ever leave the house unless I absolutely have to. I finally went grocery shopping today after a 3 week drought of food in our house. You know it's bad at our house, when even the thought of going to Costco just makes me sick! (We've been living on pb&j, top ramen, and takeout.) And I'm glad to say I survived.
So yes, I am just starting my 12th week of my 4th pregnancy...and I'm hoping that I'll be able to emerge from my cave very soon. I'm sick of feeling sick.

Way back in July, when I found out the blessed news, I was talking to my sister on the phone, and the conversation went a little bit like this... me: "I am not going to let this pregnancy get me down this time! I am going to have a positive attitude, I'm going to feel good, and I'm not going to give in to the sickness." my sister: "okay, we'll see" as she chuckles under her breath. Two weeks later, I think I called her and asked her what the "h" was I thinking!!! Oh how soon we forget.

So, maybe there will be a man-child coming to our little family...and maybe not. Quite honestly, the idea of having a boy kind of freaks me out. So I'd be perfectly fine if it is another sweet baby girl. Only time will tell, I suppose. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.

I need to give a shout out to my dear, sweet husband, who is my knight in shining armor. I don't know what I would do without him. He's been so great through all of this to pick up all of the major slack at home. And he never ever complains or makes me feel bad about it...(I give myself guilt all by myself!) So thanks, Trev, I don't know what I'd do without you!

Disneyworld...the top ten

I've discovered that I'm very good at making promises of posts and then taking forever to deliver...! It's been almost 3 weeks, and I still have vacation-hangover. Do you ever get those? Where you can't quite find your groove and the world just seems to be going on around you while your in a stupor... that's me. It doesn't help that I feel like we have been so busy with regular life as well as company at our house. In fact, my brother Jordan and his wife Andrea came out to Houston last weekend. We had a blast with them--went to Sea World in San Antonio, shopped, and ate way too much good food. So I'm blaming my extended-vacation-hangover on them...thanks guys!

Okay, back to Disney World...we had so so so much fun. I like to post things as top tens because it helps me organize my thoughts. So here it is, in no particular order:

1. The magic of it all...

2. Staying on Disney property was a definite bonus. If you've ever been to Disney World, you know how completey gigantic the place is. So being on property was nice and close to the parks and not having to worry about driving if we didn't want or parking. We stayed at Disney's Old Key West Resort, which was nice and very quiet and non-crowded. We had a full kitchen and laundry room, which when you are vacationing with small children is just necessary! When we checked in, they came out with a balloon bouquet and told us we were the family of the day. They gave the kids all sorts of stickers and a pin because it was their " first time at Disneyworld." It was really cute and made us feel special.

3. The kids LOVED meeting all the characters and getting their autograph books signed. I think they loved that as much as the rides. Holly was so excited to meed Ariel, it's all she could talk about for 3 days!

4. Splash Mountain. I think this was our family favorite. The kids could not get enough. One night when we were in the Magic Kingdom, we went on it three times...loved it! There's nothing like seeing your kids get so excited about it. Grace has really become an adrenaline junkie. The scarier the ride, the better. She didn't get it from me, when I was her age, I would never do some of the rides she was doing.

5. Where else in the world can you dine with Cinderella and Prince Charming?! We had dinner at the Grand Floridian Hotel and the girls were so thrilled to meet them. Even Kate, who had been terrified of all the other characters we had met immediately yelled "rella!" when she saw her. She even gave her a hug...so cute! Holly was in heaven, too. I love the picture below, because she was just mesmerized by her...she even got to dance with her later that night. Funny story: when Grace met Prince Charming, he kissed her hand. Later, she told us that it gave her a funny/bad feeling in her tummy. We were rolling on the floor laughing at that. If I can recommend something to all you parents taking your kiddos to Disneyworld, definitely do some sort of character dining experience. It is totally worth the money, and the kids (and parents) just love it. But when you make your trip plans, make sure you reserve your spot as far in advance as you can. A lot of these reservations fill up 3 months in advance...crazy!

(this picture cracks me up because Kate's mouth is full of food while she's smiling.)

6. Animal Kingdom. It is a really cool park. The girls loved the safari ride when we saw elephants and giraffes, and all sorts of cool animals. Grace loved the Expedition Everest roller coaster...Holly was very sad that she wasn't quite tall enough. By the way, I got the girls Mickey Mouse tee shirts at the Disney store before we went on vacation, and I got them for $2.99. (Way cheaper than if I had purchased them in the park!)

7. Fantasmic at Disney MGM Studios. This was a favorite show when we went four years ago, and it didn't disappoint this time, either. This picture is of the gang at the show...doesn't Grace look like her Aunt Marie?!

8. Tower of Terror. We went on it several times right after the Fantasmic show, because there was no line. Holly wasn't so sure she liked it because it's a little scary. But the next day, all she could talk about was going on the "Tower of the Terror." We also loved the playhouse Disney show, and the Toy Story ride was a blast!! This pic is of Kate enjoying the show.

9.Spending so much time with our family. We had an entire week of just playing together. All of Trevor's family came with us (minus Brett who is on a mission), and it was a great time.

10. Who doesn't like seeing castles on vacation??!

Disneyworld update with pics coming soon...so stay tuned!

one of those days

Have you ever just had one of those days at church? You know, one of those days. When you can't seem to get out the door to be on time. And I know Trevor's out of town, so that sounds like a good excuse to be late, but let's be honest. I have to get everyone ready alone every Sunday, because he always has meetings. Nope, I was just late because it was one of those mornings that I really tried to get all three girls hair done cute with ribbons and everything. Those hairdo's take too much time, and are usually the one item to get chopped if I'm in a time crunch.

So, it was ward conference, and we come marching in at about 15 after. Already embarrassing since we sit on the 4th row and the stake president is there to boot. Luckily, I had only missed all the sustainings, and we were still in time for the sacrament...phew! But then commences the three-ring circus. I swear how is a mommy suppose to focus on thoughts of the Savior during the sacrament when her children are all wanting to sit on top of her?! I ask you! Holly was having a meltdown over not getting Goldfish yet (she was supposed to wait until after the sacrament before breaking out the snacks.) Kate's just always bad, let's be honest. She was insisting on holding her huge sippy cup, her stuffed bear, and her temple board book all at the same time and sitting on my lap so I could turn the pages...all while Holly is burrowing her hed into my side and quietly sobbing--thus getting my dress all wet. Grace would start to cuddle up too, and I would just shoot her one of those looks that say "If you come any closer, I'll probably kill you!" All the while, people just keep smiling at me thinking my kids are just so cute! If they only knew. So, the Stake President gets up to speak, and I would love to be listening, but who can hear anything over the constant ruckus of the circus going on around me. Then my cell phone starts ringing! That's right people, judge me all you want...I was that person at church today. I am completely mortified! (Remember how we are on the 4th row and the head honcho is still speaking???) I usually turn it on "stun" mode, but I was so busy dealing with my kids that I had completely forgotten it was even in my purse. Luckily it wasn't super loud, and I scrambled to get it turned off. I was so angry at myself, and I just wanted to crawl in a hole and cry. I'm sure I was completely red in the face.

So, that was my day at church...how was your's?

P.S.--I was asking some friends that were sitting right by us if they had heard my phone go off, and they all said no. It was some kind of miracle! I'm sure the "big guy" heard, though.

the countdown

Only 6 more days of single-parenting, and only 8 days until Disney World! I'm so excited!

Trevor left this morning for a "work" field trip to Belize. He will be spending 7 horribly grueling days of work snorkeling. They like to mask this excuse to go snorkeling with the excuse that they are looking and learning about carbonate rocks. Aren't you just sad for him? I mean, carbonate shmarbonate! I want to snorkel, too! Oh, well , someone has to work around here. I guess it will be me. But, really, I'm not that bitter. Let's change the subject.

Um...did I mention that we are leaving for Disney World in 8 days??? I think I'm more excited than my children. Although, they are pretty excited, too. I just think that it's going to be so much fun for them at their respective ages. Even Kate...who probably won't remember the trip...but she really digs the Disney Channel, so I'm thinking she'll have fun. She's just starting to get into dressing up, and she always completes her dressup with a clutch and princess shoes. She's such a fashionista. I just wish they had a Charlie and Lola type ride or show. She would totally dig that. It is her absolute favorite show on the planet. Whenever it comes on she starts to clap and shouts "Yeah! Tollie and Lola!" Since we will be driving to Florida, I bought the complete seasons 1 and 2 for the ride. Should be a good and quiet 13 hours...in theory.

Other than the countdowns, not much going on out here in Houston except the usual school, preschool, piano students, little-girl-drama, and some beautiful weather, which we've been trying to enjoy. Gotta get out of the house as much as possible before the mosquitoes take over, and the humidity becomes unbearable. I sure love Spring here. Just ask me how I feel in a couple of months--I'm sure I'll be ready to move.

A new post...can you believe it???

Hello, slacker blogger here, and I'm even going to post pictures! So buckle up, here's what our family has been up to lately...

Namaste. (Doesn't she look like a yoga master with mickey mouse ears?) Kate turned 2! I can hardly believe it. She's still our baby, though. She's learning new words every day, but we're still waiting for her speak regular english. Or maybe we just need to learn her language?! On Saturday, she looked at me and said with a big smile "I happy happy happy goal (girl)!" It was too cute. Her smile is just infectious and we love her to pieces.

This is what happens when you have two creative and bored 7 year olds, daddy's in charge, and mommy's gone. Everytime Grace asks me if she can do a lemonade stand, I say no, because--1. I'm a mean mom, apparently, and 2. I just didn't my kids out on the street bugging the neighbors to buy their drinks. Well on this particular Saturday, I was out getting a haircut, and Grace had a friend over. They asked Trev if they could sell fertilizer. (They had been in the backyard concocting their own version of "fertilizer" with berries, and seeds and grass, and water, etc.) They had a whole business plan--they were going to take orders from people and then deliver the fertilizer when it was ready. I guess they were pretty persistent, so finally Trevor said, how about if you just sell Kool-Aid? They were ecstatic. So the girls got to work making a sign, and couldn't find regular sized paper cups, so they used the mini bathroom dixie cups, which they sold for a whopping 5 cents. All of this is going on while I was gone for a few hours, and when I came back the girls were so excited...they had made almost five dollars! (I think the neighbors were tipping.) I'm glad they had fun--but, really, I think they were pretty smart starting with a really crazy "fertilizer" idea, so that Kool Aid seemed doable. After dividing the money three ways, I took the girls to the gas station and let them buy their own treats. Grace's friend kept exclaiming, "this was the best play date ever!"

Last week was Spring Break here in Texas, and the weather was beautiful! We took a couple of days and went camping out in the Hill Country with a couple of families from our ward, and some good friends from Austin. It was so much fun to enjoy the weather, good food, and friends. The below pictures are of the girls playing in the water at the lake and taking a break to enjoy some cartoons.

So, there you have it...that's what we have been up to lately. Don't you wish you were here enjoying the nice Spring weather??? The invitation is always open.

When it rains, it pours

I've decided to just give up and live the life of a cave dweller--since that is exactly what I have been doing for the last several weeks. I feel like I haven't been able to go anywhere, since my kids have all been taking turns getting sick. It's getting a little old.

Poor Grace was home sick from school for 5 days with a fever and an unexplained inability to put weight on her legs, was in the ER (where they said there was nothing they could do), had a blessing, felt better, woke up the next day with pink eye (luckily we have the eye drops on hand since this isn't the first time), went back to school for 3 days, came down with an ear infection and missed another day of school. (Wow, that was a very long run-on sentence...my college writing professors would be appalled!) While I was at the doctor having her ears looked at, the doctor was on her way out the door when I said, "and oh, by the the way, can you take a quick look at Kate? She's got a cold and is sounding a bit wheezy." The doctor looks in her ears, and sure enough, she has double ear infections. I would have never known! Plus, her breathing wasn't so good, so she sent us to the pharmacy to pick up a nebulizer so we could do breathing treatments at home. So, after spending a tidy sum of about a million dollars for the doctor visits and all the medicine and paraphernalia, everyone is on the mend...I hope.

I was blind, and now I see!

Well, it's been a great week for me. I turned the big 3-0...and it was such a good day! I had lunch with some good friends...we had went to Chick-fil-A since we all had our kids, and it was such a miracle because my children were ANGELS the entire time. Holly didn't whine or bug me--she sat and ate her food, and then played in the play area. And Kate just sat silently in the high chair and ate her food, and was (did I already say this?) SILENT. She is not by nature a quiet child...nor does she like to be held down in one place. So, it was such a great birthday surprise to have them both behave so well while my friends and I chatted for an hour and half. Another reason why my day was so great was I was able to talk to most of my family on the phone, as well as my good friend Julie, who lives in Austin. And so many of my friends contacted me through facebook. I felt so very loved. What a lucky girl I am to have such great friends and family.

Trevor and the girls took me to dinner that night, where I opened up my very own and first iPod. I know I'm from the dinosaur age or something. I am probably last person in the known world who has discovered a love for the iPod. I have so much music that I never listen to anymore because I just never think to get it out, track down a cd player, and turn it on. Now that it's at my fingertips, and I have a little speaker system in the kitchen I've been jammin' to my music ever since. In fact, today (Sunday) I was listening to Greater than Us All by Kenneth Cope. It's been years since I listened to this album. It brought back so many great memories from high school when my friends and I performed this production for many different firesides. How thankful I am that I had such great friends who are all spiritual giants and I could share those memories with. I think about my own kids and I just hope that they have as many good friends that I did during those formative years. So, thank you, friends, you know who you are, and I hope you know how much I love ya!

And if all that wasn't enough...on Thusday, I had LASIK eye surgery. And I can see!!! It's a frickin' miracle. I have been blind since the 4th grade. I remember being so devastated that I had to wear glasses. And what made matters worse, I had the "ugly" glasses. The cool and cute glasses were too expensive, I guess. But I did survive. It is just amazing to me that such a simple and quick surgery was able to fix my vision. My eyes are still pretty bloodshot and bruised, but it was totally worth it. Trevor recorded part of the surgery from his cell phone...I was even thinking of posting it...but I will spare you the grossness.

So all in all a pretty amazing week. I have much to be grateful for.

The Holiday Top Ten

Well, here we are in the middle of January, and I'm not keeping my new year's resolution to keep up on my blog...so in an effort to remedy that, here's a top ten of our Christmas vacation in Utah: (in no particular order)

1. Spending time with all my brothers, sister, parents, in-laws, cousins, aunts, uncles, and all the rest. I love my family, and it is ALWAYS the highlight of going home. Presents under the tree are nice, but they don't even compete with all the game-playing, movie-watching, late-night-talking, karaoke-ing, and teasing that goes on. I love it.

This picture was taken at the Glazier Christmas Party. All the kids got to dress up for the nativity. My kids were the biblical cat, the biblical unicorn, and of course, Eeyore...who would say "hee haw" everytime you asked her what the donkey said.

2. Baby Kate learning so many words and finally starting to express herself. I love how whenever I would walk into a room, she would triumphantly declare, "Der's Da Mama!"(if you don't speak baby, that's "there's the mama") So, now we all lovingly referr to her as "the baby Kate."

3. Attending Grandma Nabbie's funeral in Kanab with my family. Trevor and the older girls weren't able to be there, but it was so nice to be able to go and participate in celebrating such a wonderful woman's life.

4. The food. I just don't think I need to say anything else on that subject. Well, maybe one more thing...I think I ate enough to last the rest of the year; hence the reason my new year's resolution to stop eating junk is really sticking, so far....

I just needed to throw in a picture of Holly's cute new hair cut.

5. Watching my mom bowl on Christmas Eve. Really, I should have caught it on video. It was hysterical. She could really throw that ball down the lane, but it almost took her with it every single time.

6. The snow. I don't remember having so much snow for Christmas in a very very long time. The only downfall is it made Trevor, Grace and Holly's flight get cancelled...but they did get in the following day. Watching Kate play in the snow was so funny. Since we have lived in Texas for the last 5 years, we aren't really prepared for snowy weather with all the right gear. So, Kate was out without gloves in a huge storm, and she loved it so much she didn't even care that her hands were probably numb. She cried and threw a huge fit when she had to come inside to dry off. And it never failed that if she was outside, she would run over to the snow, grab a handful, and shove it in her mouth with a big smile. She loved to stand at the window and point outside and say " 'no, 'no" (snow snow).

7. Playing Ticket to Ride numerous times and until the wee hours of morning. I don't care what Trevor says, I DO beat him a lot!

8. Going clay pigeon shooting with the boys. I don't think I would have been invited if I hadn't said something. And I'm glad I did...it was so fun! The picture is of Katie, Robbie's wife, and I think she enjoyed herself, too!

9. Making sock bunnies for my girls and neices was such a delight! Check out my friend Abby's blog if you want instructions on how to make your own.

10. Seeing and spending time with our friends from Australia, as well as all our friends in good ole Utah. It's always so fun to catch up, and we can just pick right back up like we've never moved away. I love that.

Well, I hope everyone else had as much fun over Christmas as we did. Now that we are home we are adjusting to getting back into our regular routine. It always stinks the first week back, but that's under our belts now, so hopefully next week won't be too painful! Oh, and check back often to see if I keep my resolution to blog more often!!! I really will try.