New house, well just paint!

This post mostly for my Mom and sister who want to see the new house color.  I always hate picking out colors because it is hard to visualize how it will turn out.  Luckily I love it!  Much better than before.  Of course I had to keep the red door.

Easter and Seattle

I would like to say that we got a family Easter picture but just the kids is good enough right?  No one likes to take pictures when they are pregnant do they?

We had a fun little easter egg hunt at the pirate park, it was perfect because the sun was not out so we had the whole park to ourselves.

My sister and her husband came to visit for the weekend.  Friday we did some baby shopping for both her and I and then Saturday we headed up to Seattle to go to a Mariners game.  Despite the traffic we managed to make it to the game and have a good time.  I hate traffic!

We took a walk from our hotel to Pike Street Market.  The kids thought it was fun to watch them throw the fish!  We actually got flowers this time, they are so cheap and beautiful!!

  The kids also got fun balloons!

We had a fun weekend but it was not long enough.  The kids miss their Aunt Katie and Uncle Rick.  Hailey cried for a while on the way home because she did not want them to leave.  Wish we lived closer to them!

Pregnancy?!!**

So I will admit that I do not love being pregnant, and this time it just seems to be dragging on.  3 1/2 months to go and it seems like it is never going to get here.  I think maybe I have just forgotten how long it really is!!  I am hoping for the sun to come and stay, being outside and warm always makes the days fly by!  So heres to wishing summer would get here soon!  I know a lot of you can feel my pain!

Spring Break 2009

It appears that I am continuing to slack on my blogging, oh well how many people actually read this anyway, right?

So for spring break this year we went to sunny California, it was a dream. I have decided that as I get older I need the warm sunshine more and more.

We left at 5am on Saturday, it is a 16 hour drive from Portland to Disneyland and we decided that neither the kids or Mike and I could handle it all in one day. The kids actually do pretty well on long drives, I on the other hand do not enjoy being in the car for long periods of time especially when I am pregnant. Mike bought a Nintendo DS and kept it a secret until we needed it on the drive. Jackson was beyond delighted at this as Mike had bought him the Legos Star Wars game.

Saturday we drove 11 hours arriving in Tracy, California around 3:30pm, plenty of time left to enjoy the rest of the day. After some swimming(actually hot tubbing because the pool was freezing) for the kids, and a run for me we were off in search of some dinner. The kids decided that they wanted Burger King, really? Needless to say Mike and I did not partake and decided to get something elsewhere and take it back to the hotel. Burger King was an adventure as Noah decided that he needed to poop, mind you that he is still refusing to go in the potty. So Noah and I headed off to the bathroom which would be a 1/2 hour experience of me trying to coax, bribe, do anything that would get him to poop. Amazingly, no one came into the bathroom that whole time, I am sure they would have been very entertained if they had. After getting food and ice cream for the kids we got back to the hotel with arms very full and proceeded to try and get into our room. Our keys were not working so Mike went to the desk got them rekeyed and came back, still not working. Again to the desk, this time he came back with rekeyed cards and a worker. Keys did not work and the master key card did not work. Meanwhile the ice cream is melting the kids are lying on the floor and I am starving. You all know that it is not good for anyone when a pregnant woman is hungry. As the worker walked by me he mumbled a really nice word to himself and at that point I was wondering if we were ever going to get into our room. So I decided that the kids should probably eat their half melted ice cream and as Jackson kept spilling his on the floor I was wondering what I had done. the guy comes back with some tool and proceeds to remove the door lock and was able to get the door open, but we were not going to be able to stay in that room. MArvelous!!! Now we have to move all of our stuff ,which was already unpacked, all the way down the hall. I was not happy and being hungry did not help. So finally an hour later we were settled in our new room. Of course we thought that they would comp the room, they didn't. I let Mike handle it but we all know that he is not mean enough. They will be getting a letter from me soon.

Sunday started out much how Saturday ended. We got up got ready for church, packed and left the hotel in plenty of time to make it to the first meeting. Mike had programmed the GPS for the nearest church with a 9am meeting. We drove and ended up in the middle of nowhere! After calling our friends to help us out we did indeed make it, although a little late. The 5 hour drive on Sunday felt like 12 hours! Jackson was whining pretty much the whole time. We made it though! Before meeting up with my parents at our hotel we went to visit friends from college. It had been about 8 years since I had seen Jillyn and Curt and it was fun to visit with them. Jillyn is a super woman, she made an awesome dinner and did I mention that she had just had her 6th baby that previous Tuesday! We had a great time visiting and catching up.

Now onto Disney!!

MONDAY- We got up early and were in line when they opened the gates! We went all day and the kids did awesome!!! We did everything that we had planned and got back to the hotel around 7:30pm after picking up some dinner.

The teacups, as you can see not my cup of tea!

Just after getting into the park on day1

Jackson got chosen for Jedi Training!! I was jumping up and down so the master jedi would hopefully pick him, it worked luckily! He got to fight Vader! Jack with his certificate

Tuesday-California Adventure

Lucky for us California adventure does not open until 10am so we got a little rest before round 2. This day was so sunny and warm, I was in heaven!

Jackson really enjoying his ice cream bar!

Wednesday-All our favorites and anything we missed

So we got there after a great parking fiasco! We got our fastpasses for Indiana Jones so that we could ride it later, or so we thought! When we went to ride it we got on the ride and then it broke down , this was so frustrating especially for Jack who was ready to drive the Jeep. Oh well! We tooka break and went back to the hotel for dinner and then went back to the park for the fireworks! By this time I think that we were all exhausted but we went anyway knowing it was our last hurrah! WE did not get back to the hotel until about 11:15pm. Luckily we planned on sleeping in and not checking out until the last minute.

Thursday we just recuperated, we had to move hotels and we did a little shopping in downtown Disney. The kids finally got to swim in the pool and they loved it. I loved sitting in the sun by the pool and reading a magazine while chatting with my Mom.

Friday was a sad day as we started our trek home. It is never very fun to drive home from vacation especially whe you have to get through LA traffic! We drove to Redding, CA which was really pretty town.

Saturday brought more driving and it was sad to say goodbye to the sun! As we approached Eugene, OR the rain started. I turned to Mike and told him that we need to move.

It was a very funfilled and exhausting trip! I don't think that we could do Disney every year but maybe every 2 or so. I think maybe next year we will venture as a family to Hawaii!

Thanks to Alex and Ellen, Mike and I get a little R&R this weekend as they are taking our kids while we go see Wicked and stay downtown. I will have to post about that later, I am very excited I have been wanting to see it for a long time!

I Love...

I just had to share a couple of pictures from Valentines Day.

The chocolate marshmallow fondue was a hit!

Hailey worked so hard on her valentines for her brothers and I was actually quite impressed. 

In case you can not tell this is Darth Vader, complete with his red light saber.
This is Yoda, Noah was quick to point out that his light saber should be green and not red.
I love my family and am grateful that they are still putting up with me, especially Mike!!!!

Oh Boy, Oh Boy, it's a GIRL!!!

So I had my ultrasound today and it's a girl.  Everything looks good!  Hailey is really excited!  She came to the ultrasound and told us on the way there that if it was a boy she was going to scream at the top of her lungs.  Luckily this did not happen.  She can be a little dramatic!

I have an excuse!!!

So the longer I go without updating my blog the more guilty I feel. Not because I think that all of you are dying because you don't know what my family and I have been up to, but just because I feel like I am not keeping up with the things that I want to.

Anyway I have an excuse for the long break in blogging. I have been sick and am now getting back to a life that does not involve sleeping most of the day away and feeling nauseous all of the time. Yes you guessed it I am expecting #4! I am currently 15 weeks so most of the sickness is gone and I kind of feel human again, thank heaven!!!

So now on to the many things that we have been up to over the past 2 months, this is going to be the abbreviated version!

I have always loved Christmas and I will continue to do so but this year I mostly wanted it to be over because that meant I was hopefully closer to feeling better. I know that is a horrible way to feel at Christmas time but it was what it was. Don't worry I did not let my kids in on my scroogeness. They were happy and totally oblivious. We tried to keep up all of the regular traditions. Here are a few pics from the season.

We made our annual trek downtown on the train to go and visit Santa. The kids always look forward to this and this year was not exception.

What would Christmas eve be without new PJ's?

Before:After:We decided to tell the kids on Christmas that they were going to have a new brother or sister. We saved these gifts until the very last and had wrapped them in baby paper. They opened the baby food and pacifiers, which confused them a bit at first but Hailey soon figured it out. They are excited and Hailey says that it was her favorite Christmas present! When asked if they wanted a brother or sister Hailey responded- sister, Jackson-brother, and Noah insisted that he wanted a dog baby. When we told him that I would not be giving birth to a dog he responded that he would get it himself. Never a dull moment with that kid!This past weekend Mike had a conference in SunRiver so we rented a house and went down to play on the snow for a long weekend. We already new that Jack was into skateboarding and surfing, but now he has discovered snowboarding also. I personally do not love the cold weather so I made sure to make an appt. at the spa for a pedicure. Thanks Mike!!!
So that sums it up in a nut shell and now that I am caught up I will be able to cross this off my to do list!