How can I catch up???

Hi.  My name is Rachel.  In case you have all completely forgotten me, I thought I would re-introduce myself.

It has been so so long since I have posted and I feel like I just keep putting it off because I don't even know where to begin in order to catch up.  And then I realized that I don't have to catch up at all.  I might try and write a few things about what we did over the summer and such, but I am just going to start from where we are today!

Ty started Kindergarten!  He is in the dual immersion program for Spanish here at our neighborhood school.  He is loving it.  He comes home each day with a new phrase he has learned and it is so great for him.  He goes from 8:30 to 2pm everyday (except for thursday, when it is a minimum day) so it is a long day without him!  Ty comes straight home from school and loves to get his homework done right away.  He loves reading and writing and spelling.  He is such a social butterfly and we just cant leave school without saying "nos vemos" to all his friends.  His teacher said he has quite the little fan club of little ladies that follow him around.  When I asked him about it, he just said "Oh those girls?  They are just my friends.  Sometimes they watch me read or play computer games and when they sit and look up at me, it kinda looks like a puppy."  I tried so hard not to laugh and I understood completely the phrase "puppy dog eyes".  Ty has lost several teeth and he is really proud of it.  He is an incredible big brother and sometimes I feel like he is a 10 year old.  He helps me out so much with Andrew and the three of these boys are just as cute and sweet as can be.

Cam does Joy School and, despite my initial concerns, I think things are going great.  Last year was kind of hit or miss with Cam and Joy School.  Sometimes he would absolutely love it.  Sometimes he would throw a tantrum on the doorstep and refuse to go inside.  So, I was really worried about it this year and wondered if it would be better for him to just do a public preschool.  But with such a great group of women, and such cute kids for Cam to be with, I thought we would try it again.  I am so glad we did and so far, we haven't had any problems!  Cam`has just grown leaps and bounds these past few months.  He is really beginning to be able to communicate how he feels and what he needs and it has been paramount in us getting past a little bit of a rough patch.  His most common phrase now is "My body has too much energy, Mom!"  And as soon as he says that, I let him pop on his shoes and run laps up and down the parking garage.  It is so awesome!  Or after a long time sitting in his library storytime class (30 min) he usually said the other day "My tummy hurts from being calm for such a long time.  I was jumping in my mind though."  When you ask him what he wants to be, he says he wants to be an Olympic athlete...in anything.  I wouldn't put it past him!

Andrew is still a wonder-baby.  He really is.  Easiest baby yet.  He eats and sleeps and smiles. 22 pounds of happiness.  He doesn't cry all that often.  He usually is just content watching Ty or Cam color or play with toys.  Some of the kids at school and their parents nicknamed him "Happy Baby" because he gives the best smiles to anyone who even looks his way.  The nickname kind of stuck and now everyone we pass hollers out "Hi Happy Baby!"  Kids I have never seen before are smiling and waving at little Drew, who grins and giggles at all the attention.  He started crawling a few weeks ago and since then he has become a bit more of a handful.  He LOVES loves the bathroom.  LOVES.  He crawls straight for it as soon as I put him down.  He goes straight to the bath and giggles.  Now that he is mobile, he isn't as content just sitting around in his carseat and watching all the action.  But, since he is just a crawler and not a walker yet, when we are outside, that makes it pretty tough.  He loves the sand...and takes big handfuls of it and puts it right in his mouth.  He crawls right through big puddles.  He gets sooo dirty.  This is that hard phase where they want to be able to play, but without walking it is pretty tricky, especially with all the rain we have been getting (no crawling on that yucky ground!)  I can't believe he is going to be one at the end of the year.  How did this year pass so quickly??  Even as I was typing that, I can still remember some of those nights a few months back when I felt like I was going to die from lack of sleep and I wondered why time was going so slowly :)

Scotty and I have been doing great as well.  I don't really know what to say about us...we are just parents now and we don't do anything interesting :)  Scott plays softball with a bunch of friends and has a blast.  I try to be "crafty" and I painted horizontal stripes on our living room wall.  I totally love it!  Now all I need to do is update the family picture so we have one with all three kids in it!

A few McPhie moments:
Last week, Ty and Cam were arguing over a toy and Cam started to run away with it and Ty stuck out his leg to stop him from getting away.  Cam tripped and hit is forehead on the corner of the piano bench and just started gushing blood.  Of course I stayed totally calm (yeah right) and handled the situation with ease (screamed and called for Scott who had just barely walked in the door from work).  It totally freaked me out and I realized I need to work on my response to things like that, as I am sure it won't be our last experience.

Our neighbor came by the other afternoon to bring a knife back to us that he saw the boys playing with and assumed they had just left it out on accident.  I told him it didn't belong to us and he said he was sure he saw the kids trying to cut branches off a tree with it.  I turned around and saw two little heads peeking around the corner of the kitchen and I said "Do you guys know where this knife came from?"  Silence.  Cam's sweet little voice said (shaking a bit) "So, I told a tiny little lie before and now I am ready to tell the whole truth.  Aren't you proud of me mom?"  My boys playing unattended, out by the street, with a knife they FOUND IN THE GUTTER, trying to cut off branches from a tree.  Yep, I am a super proud mom.  I am doing an awesome job at this mothering business.

On Sunday, Cam was drawing during sacrament meeting and he drew a big circle.  Then, inside that circle he drew another circle just barely smaller than the outer circle and then a small circle next to that.  Then two lines coming out the side and two lines coming out the bottom.  He looked up at me and said "Look Mom!  I drew you!  Here are your arms and your legs, and your one big eye and your one little eye!"  I love that he said that as if it was common knowledge that I have one big eye and one little eye (duh, mom!)

We have totally gotten into the World Series as our very own San Fran Giants made it!  We have watched both game one and game two with the boys in their Giants shirts, sitting on the couch, having snacks right before dinner time, cheering "lets go Giants, lets go!"  I am pretty sure they don't really have any idea what is going on, but when we cheer, they cheer.  It is super cute.

The boys are really excited for Halloween and keep changing their minds about what they want to be.  Cam recently asked what I want to be and when I told him I wasn't sure he said he thought I should be a princess cause I already kind of look like one.  Made my day!

Hopefully many more posts will follow!
(Cute pic of Scott and Drew at the high school football game)

This is the real deal, people.

What???  Am I really posting on my blog?  This is not a dream people, this is really happening.  Listen up.

I feel like life just kinda happens around here and I have no time at all to sit down and write it down so I can remember these fun years forever. Well, fun and also crazy and hard. But still fun.

In no particular order:

Ty had a birthday! He is our wonderful 5 year old! Scott took him skiing on Saturday Feb 25th (the day before his birthday). Ty was over the moon excited for his special trip with Dad. They woke up early and left to get to the ski resort right when it opened. As soon as they got there and started changing from pjs to their ski clothes, Ty suddenly threw up all over Scott and all over the car! Poor Scotty spent the next hour cleaning up the inside of the car and wondering if he was going to have turn around and drive home. But Ty sat patiently and said he was feeling great and ready to ski. So those boys spent the whole morning and afternoon on the slopes and by the end of the day, Ty was doing the bunny hill like a pro! (Did I mention that Ty has never been on skiis before? So it was the bunny hill all day long, but I think that for his first time that is pretty good!) He keeps asking when they can go back.

When the boys got back, Ty still acted like he wasn't feeling well and was "under the weather" for a day or so. Nothing too bad. Oh...but this began the worst few weeks of my life! Right after that, Cam got this yucky flu bug that was going around here. TOTALLY. WIPES. YOU. OUT. Seriously, it was awful. So Cam got it. Then I got it. Then Scott got it. Then mine turned into the worst sinus infection ever. Then Scott's turned into pneumonia. Then Cam's cough (yes he still had it after three weeks) turned into bronchitis. I am just thanking my lucky stars that little Drew didn't get it. Nothing short of a miracle.

In other news, Ty lost his first tooth. Soo cute! He feels so old now and seems particularly interested in how many teeth others have lost. He asks everyone he can! He even leaned over during general conference and whispered to me "Mom, do you think President Monson lost all his baby teeth yet?"

Ty also got accepted into the Dual Immersion program at our neighborhood school and I am really excited about it. Walking distance to school and lots of friends are going to be there with him. Can't believe I am going to have a kindergartener soon!

And then there is our darling Cam. It has been so fun to watch Cam "grow" into loving little Drew. He begs to hold him all the time now and always tries to make him smile. He loves him a little too much even...a few days ago I was trying to discipline him (and was holding the baby at the same time) and Cam kept looking at the baby and each time I would remind him that he needed to be looking at me until finally Cam just said "Ok mom, but hurry. I just love the baby so much I can't stop looking at him!"

Other favorite quote of Cameron's these past few weeks Cam when I was explaining to Cam why he didn't get a sticker for his kindness and obedience chart. He was so sad that Ty got a sticker and he didn't and I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to him about how obedience brings happiness. But after going through my explanation and reminding him that the chart is called the "kindness and obedience chart" and so that is how he needs to behave, he promptly replied "I want to change my chart to 'the wickedness chart'".

And then there is Drew. Drewby. King of the Babies. Wonder-baby. Drew-Drew Binks (the boys thought of that one...from Jar Jar Binks in star wars). This boy is the center of attention at all times in our house. When we go to parks Ty always wants to take Drew on walks and push the stroller around. Cam invites complete strangers into our house to look at his little brother (true story). He is smiling like you wouldn't believe and it is just marvelous. He is starting in that laughing phase...just little giggles here and there. But last night Scotty got him to do a really good real laugh. It made tears come to my ears to hear that precious little boy laugh. He coos and squaks ALL day long. I think he is going to be a real talker, this one. He is almost always just a happy little trooper that goes from place to place with us and doesn't really make a sound until he is hungry. We love our little guy.

The latest

So, I know that what I really need to do is post pictures...but I am the worst mom in the world and I am not great at taking pictures. I do have some pictures, but I never have the time to move them from the camera to the computer.

So if you only like reading posts with pictures...you are out of luck! Sorry to disappoint. But this is what we have been up to lately..

We got Ty all signed up for Kindergarten! He is so excited! He was definitely NOT excited about his Kindergarten shots, but now that those are over with, he is just looking forward to learning Spanish (he is doing the dual immersion program at the school), walking or riding his bike to school (the school is literally a stone throw away from our house), going to school where his cousins go (sad that this is Linsdsey's last year at the school, but happy that Lucy and Sophie will be there!), and just genuinely excited to learn. Ty is just doing phenomenal at reading and he is picking up books left and right and reading them. We are just so proud of him.

Cam is so super fun. He is wild and active, but he has really started turning the corner on obedience. I think that the older he gets, the more he "gets it" as far as how to listen and be obedient and make good choices. Before this, I think he mostly made decisions based on what was the most dangerous thing to do or what I had previously told him not to do.

He is loving earning stickers for his obedience chart and he has recently been enthusiastically saying "Sure Mom!" when I ask him to help. He loves little Andrew and keeps asking when Andrew will be able to play "people" with him (that means playing all the little army men that Cam has).

Ty and Cam lately have been working on their "dirt biking skills" on their bikes. When I asked them what it means to have dirt biking skills they showed me what they have been working on with their bikes. They ride down to the end of the parking lot and then ride as fast as they can towards me. Just at the last minute, they slam on their brakes and then turn the wheel so that their bikes skid to the side. Ty can get his bike to do a complete 180 degree turn. Where do they come up with these things?? Heaven help me when these kids are older.

Andrew is a little piece of heaven. He is an angel baby. (You can't see the halo in his pictures, but it is there!). He sleeps 10-12 hours at night..every night for the past few weeks. He eats so great and then when he is awake, he is just so happy and smiley. He dirties more diapers than I ever thought was possible (he is almost 8 weeks old and we just bought our 4th box of costco diapers...216 in each (I think)...that is a TON of diapers!) But I love that he never has a tummy ache! We are loving this little guy. The boys call him "King of the Babies" all the time now. I don't know how it got started, but it has totally stuck. They always ask when "King" is gonna wake up or holler "Mom, the King smiling at me!" Last night in Cam's prayer he blessed Dad, Mom, Ty-Ty, Camer, and King of the Babies. I love it so much!

In other news, Valentines Day was a blast. The night before Valentines Day, I made pink heart shaped pancakes and pink scrambled eggs and hashbrowns for the family. I did a fun meal for the boys the night before so that I could do a fun dinner for just me and Scott on actual Valentines day. The boys had mac n cheese and hopped off to bed and Scott and I had the most delicious Honey Dijon Baked Salmon, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and then for dessert we had chocolate fondue with fresh strawberries and bananas. I think it might have been my favorite Valentines Day yet. We stayed home and didn't have to deal with reservations or over-priced meals or babysitters. I got to get all ready for Scotty and do my hair and make-up and feel pretty, but then as soon as dinner was over I changed into my pajamas and we got to just cuddle on the couch watching tv til we fell asleep.

Scott has been working long long hours for the past several weeks. He gets up to leave early early in the morning and doesn't get home til way after the kids are in bed. We miss him so much and it is such a treat for the boys when Dad is home to tuck them into bed..way better than when Mom tucks them in :)

Anyway, I can't think of much else to say and I have a cute little baby looking up at me and smiling and I just want to hold him!

I want to be like my mom when I grow up

My mom came and stayed with us for a week after we had the baby. It was heavenly. Really, it was so nice that it made me consider having another baby right away just to have her back again :).

My mom is almost perfect. I only say "almost" because I am sure she does have a flaw, even though I can't think of one. I am so lucky to have a mom like her...but it is also hard! I mean, how can I ever live up to that? I try, but I can never be quite like her! Here are some of the hundreds of things we did while she was here:

She put up valances in both my family room and kitchen. I already had the fabric...oh wait, it was fabric that SHE had sewn and sent me from Idaho. I am really really embarrassed that she sent it to me months ago (it was the same fabric that I bought up there and recovered our kitchen chairs). So it looks great. I love it.

She help me organize my whole house. Literally, the whole house. We went from room to room and just tore things out of closets, decided if we wanted to keep it, made a box for it, and put it away or threw it out. All my linens and towels now have a place to go. All my cleaning supplies are organized. Kids clothes...ALL purged. We went through so many baby and kid clothes and organized everything. Oh man, I felt so free! Even the kitchen stuff...she made space in our kitchen I didn't know we had. Everything looks so much better and the drawers aren't so cluttered. It was amazing. Now (as Scott put it) my job is just not to mess everything up :)

She cleaned. Oh she cleaned. Every cupboard, every drawer. Every inch of the floor. Every item that could be washed, she helped me take to the laundry mat and then fold it and put it away (I think we did eight or nine loads). The bathroom was perfectly spotless. She dusted every shelf and desk and fan and dresser. She vacuumed every nook and cranny in this place. I wish you could have seen this woman work. She is a true professional.

She went to Target, Costco, and Walmart several times for big trips in stocking up on groceries and buying bins for all of our organizing and even random house items that would make our home more functional. Then she would go back and return/trade them in when we wanted a different color or size.

She cooked and cooked. Not only did she make all the meals for the week that she was here, she made two of everything so that we could put it in the freezer and have another meal. She also cooked probably 10 lbs of ground beef and put it in different bags in the freezer, so now I can just pop one into the microwave to unthaw it and my ground beef is ready. She also just helped me brainstorm lists of all the meals I want to make in the next few weeks and made sure I had all the ingredients for everything on hand. She did anything and everything ahead of time that she possibly could have to make things easier for me.

The first few days, she took the baby in the middle of the night. She woke me up when it was time for Drew to eat...but feeding him is the easy part. It is the countless times that the binky falls out or he needs to be burped or held to sleep that is really hard. But she sent me off to bed and I put in earplugs and got lots of sleep. Unfortunately, after the second night, she was starting to feel sick and we didn't want to take the chance of getting the baby sick. (By the way, she did all of the other things I have mentioned all while feeling under the weather). But during the day, I got nap after nap after nap. I got at least a two hour nap just about every day she was here.

She played and played and played with the kids. She did SO much with them. They went on walks, played at the park, went to Happy Hollow (I went with them and mom rode on the rides with them), played "The Green Arm" which is a game that she made up with the boys and they played it for hours out in the parking lot and apparently I don't know how to play it right because I have tried and they always tell me I am doing it wrong. She made them delicious meals and the boys continue to ask for "Grandma's oatmeal" or ask that I cut the toast "the way Grandma would cut the toast". She made cinnamon rolls and cookies with the boys. They played with light sabers that Grandma made out of paper towel rolls or something and just this afternoon I told the boys that I was going to throw them away because they were totally smashed and broken. They both cried. And when I finally said they could keep them but it would have to be back in their rooms and not right in the family room they said "We can't. Grandma put them here so that our light sabers would charge." When I told them that I was pretty sure that the light sabers could charge in their bedroom they both looked skeptical and asked to call and ask Grandma. (Like I said before, I will never live up to the legacy my mom is leaving)

She "helped" me give Drew his first bath...which turned into my mom taking pictures of Drew getting me very dirty (yep, it is what you are thinking) and me calling for her or Scott to help me and they just laughed so hard that they cried and kept taking pictures.

Last of all, but probably most importantly, she and I just talked and talked. We laughed so hard. I pretty much sat on the couch while she did all of these amazing things and she just listened to me and gave me advice and made me feel like I was the most wonderful person.

I am completely blown away by how amazing my mom is. I am not at all joking when I say that I want to be like my mom when I grow up. She is truly just the kind of person I want to be. I love my mom so much. I am 30 years old and I cried like a baby when we dropped her off at the airport. She is my very best friend (besides Scotty, of course). I just keep on trying to be just like my mom!

Here is my wonderful mom with the three boys. They love her so much!

Riding the roller coaster..Cam is with her and Ty is right behind them. You can tell that Ty wasn't very happy that he didn't get to ride with Grandma.

Riding around on these little scooter toys. It might look easy..but those things are hard to ride and she chased the boys around forever!

This is a very embarrassing picture for me to post...so you should know I am posting this so you could see that she took this picture while laughing hysterically as I am begging for her to help me.

Loving little Drew.

Just three weeks ago...

I can't believe it has been three weeks already! Sometimes it feels like it has been three days. And other times it feels like it has been three months!! (the wee hours of the morning tend to feel as if they go on forever).

Three weeks ago, our precious Stephen Andrew McPhie was born. He was 10lbs 10oz and 21 1/4 in long.

Here is the deal about his name....

We are calling him Andrew or Drew. We LOVE LOVE this name. It has been on our list from the very beginning. But, we also really wanted to use the name Stephen, which is Scott's dad's name. We considered doing Andrew Stephen...but something just didn't sound right about it. We really liked the sound of Stephen Andrew. It just sounded better to us. And since Scott is really Michael Scott and he just goes by his middle name, I thought it would be just fine to name him Stephen Andrew and call him Andrew. I will tell you what...I LOVE his name. I love that we call him by his middle name. For some reason it just totally seems to fit him. But we do keep getting the raised eyebrow and and the puzzled looks when we tell people that he is going by his middle name. It doesn't bother me though. Scott and I both feel like it is the perfect name for our little guy.

I wish I had more time to write all the details of the birth and how things went. But for now, I will just say that the C-section went perfect. All went smoothly and I feel like it was the easiest birth yet. I am recovering very well and feeling wonderful. For me, the greatest part was right after they pulled Andrew out, the doctor leaned over the curtain and said "I think you just gave birth to a 3 month old!!" Andrew was HUGE! All of the doctors and nurses couldn't believe it and many of them came into our room during our stay just to see the "nearly 11 lb baby".

He is such a joy and we are loving this little guy so much!

39 weeks and 3 days

Today we...

Took down ALL the Christmas decorations, including the tree, ornaments, and all the other random things we put up and packed them up and put them in storage.

Cleaned the entire house from top to bottom. We are talking...dusting, vacuuming, wiping, mopping, scrubbing, organizing, etc. I went way overboard with dusting all the pictures that are hanging up and even started doing all the baseboards on my hands and knees until I realized that I wouldn't be able to stand up if I kept it up. Scrubbed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees too.

Bathroom toilet got clogged...it had been working off and on for the past few days but flushing the toilet isn't something that you really want to be "off and on". So we called the plumber to come out and fix it. He checked our house and said it must be the main line and he was heading out to fix it. So we were putting the Christmas decorations away while he did that and Ty came in and said "There is yucky stuff all over the toilet and floor." So nasty. I mean, I am glad the main line got cleaned out, but did it really have to come out of our toilet??

So, I spent a good long time cleaning the bathroom. A good. long. time. But, not it is sparkling clean. I even had Scott take off the shower sliding doors and I scrubbed those puppies down. I had wiped them down before, but this was intense.

Scott finished up some more caulking in the bathroom. And it made it look even better than just sparkling :)

I cleaned and vacuumed out the car. I LOVE MY CAR SO MUCH. I really do. I feel like I treat it like one of my children. It has to been cleaned and wiped down at least once a week (don't worry, I make the kids bathe more often than that). Anyway, I knew I might be neglecting the car over the next few weeks so I gave it a last good clean and scrubbed it all out and wiped down the inside. I even got all the car seats cleaned up and wiped down and then put in the baby car seat base. So the car is all ready to go.

Then there was the laundry...oh, the laundry. I think that we did 7 loads. All the sheets, towels, and all the clothes that we want to wear in the next few weeks :) And then the real kicker is that we folded it all and put it away! That is always the hardest part for me.

Guys, this was an incredibly productive day. Baby boy McPhie, we are SOOO ready for you!

9 Days and Counting

I suddenly realized that I should do at least one more post before I have the baby and totally neglect the blog. I don't have too much to say, but I thought I would just give some little updates.

First off, I went to the doctor one week ago (last Monday) and he said that the baby is already measuring at 40 weeks! To be honest, I didn't think it was that crazy. I feel like I have been ready to deliver for a couple weeks now. Everywhere I go and everyone I see has some comment to make about how massive my stomach is or how it looks like I am going to pop. I don't even really care anymore about the random people that touch my stomach as I walk past them. The doctor said last week that he really thought I would go into labor within a week...and here I am, one week later and still pluggin' along. I go in tomorrow again for my last appointment and then my C-section date is still on December 28th.

Another important piece of information about my pregnancy is that over these past few months this thing called "pica" has gotten out of control. Pica (isn't that what it is called??) is when you have the desire to eat non-edible things...and I totally suffer from this. I tell you what, I have almost tried to lick the leather seats in our car because they smell so good. When we were walking around Walmart the other day looking at bikes, it was all I could do to keep from biting the rubber tires...they smelled delicious. And all of our cleaning supplies smell so yummy too. The lemon scented kitchen cleaning spray is my favorite, but when I get out the Oxi-clean...man, I have to remind myself that I can't even have a little taste. Everything just smells like it would taste so good. Oh the things that we go through during pregnancy...

We are just giddy with excitement at our house for all the fun things that are going to be happening. Christmas is, of course, making everyone so excited and wondering what they are getting from Santa Clause. Ty and Cam stay up talking every night about what they think they are getting. When Ty sat on Santa's lap the other day at his preschool Christmas party and Santa asked him what he wanted he confidently replied "I would like a double barrel shotgun, please." The laugh that came from Santa and his elves was some serious belly laughing. They couldn't believe what came out of Ty's mouth.
But the honest truth of it all is that Ty and Cam are probably more excited for the baby than for Santa to come. They just know that Santa has to come first, and then just a few days later, the baby will come. Plus, they know that while I am in the hospital having the baby they get to play with Papa and Mimi. Nothing could be more exciting. And then to top it all off, after Papa and Mimi leave, Grandma gets to come. Truly, these boys are in for an exceptional next few weeks. I am mostly nervous for how things will go after all the dust settles and everyone leaves and we don't have anything to look forward to. Luckily, the boys will be settling back into their routine with preschool and joy school and hopefully things will normalize without many problems.

Next lets move onto my wonderful Scott. He has been "nesting" lately (although, I am pretty sure he doesn't like it when I call it that). He has just been picking project after project and fixing up things around the house and making things more organized and clean. I love seeing the difference and how much more functional our house is. He put in a shelf in the bathroom this weekend and now we don't have to keep our clean towels in on top of our dresser. And we actually have a place to keep our cleaning supplies that is out of reach of small children. I love it!
And a few weeks ago (maybe I already posted about this) he re-grouted the bathtub. It was in serious need of some cleaning and he spent many hours in there fixing everything up. It looks amazing and I actually don't shutter at the thought of my children bathing in there anymore :)
Speaking of cleaning the bathroom...cute Tyler is really into cleaning lately. I have been trying to show the boys lately that if they aren't careful when they go to the bathroom, then it can make our toilet really gross. (Did I say that in a way that wasn't too descriptive, but also got the point across?) Anyway, Tyler has started getting those Clorox wipes and cleaning the toilet and floor almost everyday. He really likes doing it and does it without me even asking. He recently came to tell me that we needed to go to Costco to get more of those cleaning wipes or else he can't keep up with cleaning the bathroom :) I am not complaining because cleaning the bathroom is my least favorite thing to do. He does a great little touch up and it makes it easier for me when I have to do it.

Lastly, I did want to say what great friends I have who threw me a "non baby shower" just to celebrate our upcoming addition. It was SOO much fun to just come in our comfy clothes and hang out together one night. They decided to bring my favorite restaurant to me...Plutos. It is a make-your-own-salad place and it is no joke people. They offer tri tip steak for your salad and about 50 different toppings. And yes, these ladies offered just about everything, including the tri-tip. It was amazing. They actually went and bought the dressing from the place so that it would taste just like it and then they had the entire table full of toppings. After that, we had an amazing dessert selection with cheesecakes and an ice cream sundae bar complete with homemade hot fudge. Seriously, I have the most amazing friends ever. The conversation was delightful and I am pretty sure that I didn't get home til almost 11:30pm.

I also had the most amazing birthday ever. Truly, Scott really outdid himself this time. We had almost an entire day to ourselves (Many thanks to Amy and Erik who took the kids for us...especially Erik who was the one who fed them dinner and put them to bed at their house). We started the afternoon with the movie Breaking Dawn..which I was really disappointed with. I love the other Twilight movies..but this one was mostly just funny and kind of boring. Not my favorite. But what was my favorite was that we got to go see a movie in the middle of the day and not worry about nap times or if someone was hungry or if someone had to go to the bathroom. Then we went out to dinner at our all time favorite restaurant The Melting Pot. So perfect. Oh man...even just thinking about their cheese fondue is making me hungry. We love that place so much. I love just being able to sit for 2 hours and just talk with that cute boy I am married to. We never run out of things to talk about and he always seems to make me laugh so hard I can't control myself. After the most delightful dinner, we drove up to San Fran and saw the cirque du solei called Totem. AMAZING!! It was so amazing. We loved it. After a long fun day, we picked up our kids after midnight and brought them home and put them to bed and we even got to sleep-in in the morning. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday.

I think that is it for random updates for our family. Hopefully I can get one more post in about Christmas before the baby comes.