Pink or blue?

Today we had our 20 week ultrasound. It was so great to see our little one. It makes all the sickness and everything so worth it. She looks great. As far as we can tell anyway. Did you catch the she? Yes, it's a girl! I guess I was a little shocked. Somehow I was expecting a boy, but am thrilled with another little girl. Boys are great but there's something fun about pink and bows and all that stuff. Plus I need girls to take care of me some day in my old age right? It really is such a miracle to see a real live child moving around in my tummy. The ultrasound tech said she was one of the most active little girls she had ever witnessed. Should we be nervous? I guess we'll just put her dance or soccer to get her energy out.

When I told Anna she was very excited and said that we should name her "Katie", which is funny since if it was a boy she wanted to name him "Nathan". Call me crazy but that seems just a tad close to Kate, and Ethan. I was a little more nervous to tell Ethan the news. When he came home from school I told him and asked him how he felt about that. He just said "I guess I'll just be the big brother." How sweet is that? I am really glad that he wasn't sad or disappointed it wasn't a brother.

Here are some pictures of our little one.
This is one of my favorite looking at her back and seeing her little ear. It just seems so incredible to me that she is all developed and you can see even her ear!

She liked to keep her arms up by her head and kept covering her ears or face.

Her arm streched back.

The best profile picture she would give us. She wasn't very willing to cooperate.


This is a view looking straight on at her face with her hand in front pointing up.

She had her arms over her ears like she was mad we woke her up and trying to go back to sleep. Isn't she cute?

A view looking down above her head with her cute little fingers.

Her legs all stretched out.



I told Rand that seeing her I already love and am endeared to her so much more. Half way there!

On our way,

To Christmas that is. Friday we went over to my parents house to help them put up Christmas, and to "shop" through the oodles of decorations my Mom has accumulated over the years, to bring home to our house. Friday night before bed we watched "The Grinch" before sending the kids off to bed. Yesterday we put up our tree and decorations. I had forgotten what a huge mess it is to take down the fall things, clean up the house, put up Christmas then clean up the remaining mess. Other than a wreath for the front door I think we are set. While we decked the halls we watched "A Christmas Story" which is Randall's favorite holiday show.

This morning we thought we would load up the kids with sugar before church and let them decorate the gingerbread house. The house has been sitting in my closet for probably over a month and the kids haven't been able to wait. Last night Anna was devastated going to bed because we just didn't have the energy on top of everything else we had done to decorate the gingerbread house.

Ethan and Anna did very well at first. I explained to them that they were working together as a team and had to communicate with each other. Initially they used their manners and were very polite and things were working out. After about an hour into it they both ended up in time out because of the fighting over who's side was who's and who had more candy etc. They are now back to finish their efforts, and almost done since almost all of the candy has been used.

Kate likes to participate too of course so I thought the best thing for her would be to "decorate" the gingerbread men that came with it. She had a different idea. If we tried to show her how to attach the candy to the man she would quickly rip it off and throw it in her mouth. At least she was occupied and happy and I'm just glad she didn't think that she needed to be in on the house as well.

I'm feeling pretty good about things. I feel like we are on course of having fun filled holidays. My shopping was mostly done weeks ago, other than little stocking things to pick up etc. The gifts are half way wrapped. My invites for my cookie exchange went out about two weeks ago and that will take place this Saturday. Hope your holidays are happy and less time- out filled than ours.

Giving thanks on Thanksgiving

I am sitting here nearly baked out. For me the fun of the actual Thanksgiving day is the baking and preparing. If I had nothing to do or bake it just wouldn't be the same for me. So to make this holiday extra special I took it upon myself to make 4 different desserts as well as the mashed potatoes and homemade cranberry sauce. I think I like to make pies for the challenge of the crust. I even chill all the ingredients including my wooden rolling pin to do everything in my power to make that pie crust as beautiful and flaky as possible. I made a pumpkin and apple crumb pie, then a pumpkin cheesecake roll, that looks so pretty when cut all swirled up. Then for the first time ever I made a pumpkin cream cheese creme caramel. It looks basically like a glorified flan with pumpkin and spices. I've had it in the back of my recipe box for the past year or so and I finally tried it. I can't wait to find out how tasty it is. Oh, and our home teacher brought us by a banana creme and berry pie from Kneaders. I think we will be set for dessert, you think?

We have had the Macey's day parade on today as we have made our preparations. I thankfully have a wonderful husband that also cooks and bakes. He is able and willing to do whatever I ask of him but knows I'm a tad particular about the details and how things look, so he generally sticks to things like potatoes that don't have to look that great.

One of my dreams would be to one day go to New York city the week before or after Thanksgiving, to enjoy the sites and smells, and shops of course for Christmas. Last year Rand and I had the chance to spend a few days down town NY while he had some business meetings. I tagged a long of course and enjoyed a few days of alone time exploring the city and attending "Wicked". We loved every minute of our experience and would like to return many more times and for a much longer period of time. I think I am truly a city girl at heart but for now am content being a Mother to my great kids.

On that note, I know that Thanksgiving is a lot more than pies and potatoes. I love this season that gives us a little more time to reflect on the many things we are blessed with. We have been very blessed this year in many ways. Randall has been very blessed in his work and we are so grateful to have not just work but in a place where he wants to continue his career. We enjoyed our first "real" vacation as our own family at Disneyland for a week, one of my favorite places on earth. We are living in a comfortable home and have been blessed with health and strength. We are expecting our 4th child, something I don't take lightly. There are so many people I know that struggle to have a child or who have lost a child this past year. It is truly a miracle and blessing to have 3 healthy and happy(some of the time) kids. Monday we have our first ultrasound and initially thought we weren't going to find out the sex of the baby, but being the planner I am I can't stand it anymore and have to know what this baby is going to be. We are hoping to find a healthy growing baby and don't care even the tiniest bit whether the baby is a boy or girl. Anna wishes we were having a dog instead of a baby but you can't make everybody happy.

Well, I could go on and on and feel very blessed and know I have much to be grateful for. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and blessed holiday season.

The witch is in

Do you ever feel like you've been tagged to have lots of little things come your way to make things more difficult. Nothing life altering mind you, but there have been several in my life lately. Today I just kept getting dumb news or having conflict somewhere. I was dealing with some of that "bad news" on the phone today when a friend came calling for Ethan. When I got off the phone he wasn't home anymore. I found him outside down the street. I told him to come home and he couldn't play right now because had broken some of the rules. 1st he has to ask if he can play with friends, and 2nd if he can leave the house and tell me where he is going. He was really mad and I just said "what would you have done if you were me?" his response, "clean the house". Are you seeing a reoccurring theme here? It's moments or days or weeks like these where I try to count my blessings. Today I'm not in the mood. Maybe I will just put on a big witches costume and go with it!

Things to come

I am so excited! In just 6 days is Halloween, and before that on Friday is Rand's work Halloween party and they go crazy all out. On Thursday Ethan has his Halloween carnival at school that I am helping with. Wednesday is my 15 week Dr.'s appointment which is a huge milestone.

Then in 1 month is Randall's Birthday on Nov. 24th with one of my very most favorite holidays, Thanksgiving closely to follow in just 1 month and 1 day! I already have my Thanksgiving dinner assignments and I am so excited. This year we will be with my husband's side of the family and there will only be 3 or 4 of the siblings of the 7 together so it will be comparatively quiet. We get to make pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and bring black olives and celery with easy cheese on top, a tradition from my side of the family.

Then the mac daddy of them all, in just 2 months from today is CHRISTMAS! Can you believe it? Are you ready? I have purchased one gift. Today Rand and I have decided to sit down and go over our Christmas budget. Such a challenge that one. We want to stay within our budget while ensuring that our kids kids are thrilled Christmas morning while not being spoiled and not being dissapointed all at the same time. Is that even possible? I really want to get the must do's done early this year so I can enjoy the fun things. I have decided I want to host my first ever Christmas cookie exchange the first Saturday in December. Won't that be a fun way to kick of the season with friends and yummy things to taste and take? That way, I have no choice but to make some of the cookies I have dreamt about making for years pouring through magazine after magazine, cook book after cook book dreaming about, things other than the typical sugar cookie, like Giant coconut macaroons, chocolate-gingerbread drops, spritz blossoms,oatmeal spice cookies, redvelvet shortbread cookies, the list goes on and on. I figure each weekend we could spend time with the kids making a new cookie each week. Cookies freeze right?

Out on the town

Friday Randall and I went to the Opera to see Macbeth. We initially weren't too excited. We had both had a stressful week and would have preferred to do something low key. Once we arrived down town we were glad we were there. It's fun to get away from the normal things of life and feel like for a moment you are someplace different and a tad more exciting. We even dressed in our Sunday best. People were dressed in everything from jeans to formal attire.

We had planned to just stay through the first intermission thinking we would find it boring especially since it was in Italian. We weren't aware there would be subtitles on a small screen above to help you along. Surprisingly we both really enjoyed it. The first intermission came and we decided we weren't ready to leave yet. The second intermission came and we would have stayed for the 3rd and final hour but it was already close to ten o'clock and had a drive ahead of us.

We're really glad that we took the chance to experience something we haven't done before. We enjoyed it and think should the opportunity arise again, we just might find ourselves at the opera.

Focus!

This morning Randall asked Ethan to say our family prayer before we all went our various ways. Ethan prayed first that he could focus in school and pay attention to his teacher. That he could focus on his tasks and do well. Then he prayed that Randall would be able to focus on his work and get everything done. At this point Randall and I had opened our eyes and kind of quietly smiled to each other. Ethan finally ended by asking "that Mom could please focus and get the house more cleaner". Well I can't argue with that. I'm usually a good house keeper but blame it on the pregnancy or laziness I don't know but I have not been as motivated lately as I probably should be. With Ethan's help, I am determined to focus. I already have the kitchen picked up with dishwasher running a load of laundry going, and the living room picked up ready to be vacuumed. I think I'll ask him to pray that I can be focused more often. It's made for a pretty productive morning. I sure love that guy!