Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday to Dad (Dan's dad)! We hope you have a wonderful birthday! We all miss you and the kids miss their cowboy Papa!

Which Jane Austen Heroine am I?

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

The Results are In!

The Earl clan is happy to announce that we are having a baby. That's right, one. For the last 15 weeks Donovan has been quite adament that there were 2 babies in mommy's tummy, and since my tummy was getting large quite quickly we were really wondering. We were prepared, but are a little relieved that there's only one. I wanted to show the ultrasound pics, but for some reason our scanner is behaving badly. So I will post those if I can figure out what's wrong.
As for gender, it would seem that I am destined to be the only girl (besides the cat) in the house. That's right, we're having another boy!!! And we are so excited. A little confused at the way this pregnancy has been, but very happy. Hey, we know how to take care of little boys!
Now I really have got to get my act together in getting my scrapbooks caught up. Looking at Dono's pics, he's looking like Elliott and vice versa. Chances are this one will have striking resemblences as well. So I need to label everything to avoid confusion or mistaken identity. I guess I'll be busy the next few months!
I hope you'll enjoy our happy news!

FHE Game Night

Tonight for family home evening we learned about sharing. For an activity we got to play games. The kids chose to play connect four. I know it's for older kids, but that didn't mean we couldn't have fun anyway!

The boys had so much fun 'sharing' the colors and putting them in the spots. We didn't play it the normal way, we just see how fast we can fill it up and which color gets finished first. The boys really got into it and had lots of fun. It was fun to watch Elliott concentrate on getting his into a good spot.

My G Pillow

I know the title sounds weird, but that's what I call it. The first time I heard about this maternity pillow was from my sister-in-law Amy, when she was pregnant with Aidan. Anyone who has experienced pregnancy knows how uncomfortable it is to sleep at night. This is a solution. The pillow wraps around your body comforting the areas that need it most: a head pillow that wraps around your back to keep you from laying flat on your back, goes through your legs to aide those darn separating hips, curling around to additionally support your growing tummy.
I've gotten a larger stomach faster in this pregnancy and therefore have a hard time finding a comfy way to sleep unless I have 20 million pillows, especially being an avid stomach sleeper. I finally found this type of pillow at a local store but about died seeing that it cost $60. For those who really know me, I'm as frugal as they come. I couldn't stomach paying that much. So I debated whether I should just buy the darn slip-cover for $20 and just stuff it. Then I thought about that more (penny-pincher, remember?) and remembered that I love to sew, why not create it myself? So I found some material I had literally laying around and had Dan help me chalk outline my design so it could be custom fit. With the sewing and stuffing it took maybe 30 min. to make and cost a wopping $5.50 for the stuffing. That was something I could live with, and I got to choose my own pattern, have it custom fit my body, and spend the rest of my 9 months with more comfortable sleep. So, happy dreaming, and if you become pregnant and struggle sleeping, remember that with a little dedication you too can have the amazing G pillow that really shouldn't cost an arm and a leg (unless you don't mind spending the $$). Did that sound like a commercial? Sorry, I just really love this invention!

I Love to See the Temple

Detroit Michigan Temple

Dan and I were so excited to finally get to visit the Detroit Temple! This was my first visit since we moved here. Now that I'm feeling much better I am willing to make the 2 hour trip. Dan's made it a few times before to help out with youth baptisms. We were grateful to have found wonderful babysitters that we and the kids love so that we can go out. This temple is so beautiful, inside and out! It was finished in 1999 and is a bit smaller than what we've been used to in AZ. We're also not used to having to make a reservation to let the temple know how many they are to be expecting. But it is totally worth it. We love the peace that the temple gives us and hope to be able to make the trip at least once a month.

Happy Birthday Stephan!

Happy #24 to my bro-in-law Stephan! I hope this will be a great year for you!

Where's Daddy?

We've been having some snow storms here this week (surprise, surprise). But to tell you how cold it has been, Wednesday morning after a wintery-mix storm it was

-21 with wind chill and the rain had frozen our garage door shut. Dan now teaches seminary (religion for the teenagers) for church every weekday morning and has to leave by 5:30am. So that day it had to be canceled and Dan had his work schedule for him and his employees delayed 2 hours. By the time he had to go to work, thankfully the garage door finally popped open. It really popped! Ours is the kind with 4-5 different sections, so as the door lifted, the sections popped as it broke the ice between them. I'm glad I had no reason to leave the house that day! The weathermen anticipated a decrease in temperature (as if it wasn't cold enough) to a possible

-40 by the evening. YOWSA! Not a day to be outside!Can you find Dan??

There he is!
Today, we thought we'd have some fun with the boys while we shoveled our driveway. We made snow angels, and a sort of snowman (Elliott would rather scoop the snow out of the creation and throw it. I knew it was a lost cause.), played snow soccer, and then when Dan was pooped, he layed down and we buried him. What a nice way to cool off.

Who needs a chair?

My silly boys! With all the chairs that we have available in the basement, my boys would rather sit on a ball while watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. They make me laugh.