Happy Anniversary!

Greg and I celebrated our ninth anniversary on Saturday. At the time we got married, it was great to get out of school for Christmas break and be married three days later. What were we thinking? It is tough trying to celebrate so close to Christmas. On the other hand, it is a beautiful time of year that is already full of nostalgia. All I wanted was a nice dinner date. We went to the Garden restaurant.

After dinner I wanted to experiment taking night shots with my camera. I've never had a chance to do this. Now that I have a nice tripod and a little knowledge, I thought I'd give it a try. It was so fun. We walked all over temple square taking pictures and remembering the day we were married. Luckily our wedding day wasn't as cold! Not that it was exactly warm.

I believe in the Mimi Fairy

Could it really be that easy? The mimi fairy came on Monday night and the pacifiers are gone. We may have overdone it a little on the presents left by the fairy, but I wanted to make a BIG deal about it. We have been talking about it for a few weeks. Monday night, we put them all in a basket. Paige couldn't resist when she saw so many together and grabbed one. She wouldn't let go. I kept telling her the fairy couldn't come unless ALL the mimi's were in the basket. Finally, reluctantly, she put it in the basket and we went off to bed. Luckily, she was dead tired and fell asleep quickly. I expected to be up with her in the night in a panic, but it never happened.

She loved the gifts from the fairy, but didn't quite put it together. Later she asked where her mimi's were and I explained that the fairy took them. Nap time- no questions. That night she got right into bed and didn't even mention them. Now she plays with her ball that she says the fairy mimi gave her. Seriously, I thought this would be such a war. Here we have been fighting to enforce the "only in your bed" rule and taking them away has been so much easier.

WOO HOO!!!

Paigey and her babies

Paige loves babies right now. There is just something about little girls where the mommy instinct kicks in at a VERY young age. I made some blankets for her babies that match her own blanket. This picture is what she did with them in my room.

Then there is the side of Paige that still wants to be the baby. I am a little nervous about how she will respond when our new arrival gets here.



This video is Paige doing just that. She found it in the basement and drug it up stairs. I let her get in since she is only 25 lbs. But at 2 1/2 she is performing maneuvers that I don't think the toy was intended for...

We are all doing great. I just finished my three day weekend and now I am off until next Monday. I have all week to sew pajamas and enjoy the Holidays. I am so excited for Christmas this year. These are the magical years- kids are young, Santa is real, presents are awe inspiring. I want to enjoy every minute because I know they are special times.

Happy Thanksgiving

Okay, I'm a little late on this one. We had a great Thanksgiving holiday at my mom's this year. The weather was awesome. The kids got to play outside and run around. That always makes it easier to get everything prepared. We couldn't keep the kids out of the backyard. Preston reluctantly came in for dinner.



Cindy made these wonderful pies. I think I ate about 4 of them. They were so small,I had to try as many as I could right?


Paige loved dinner because she got the sucker hiding under a turkey afterward.



When I got this shot of Paige, I couldn't help but remember the next one in my own photo book from when I was a similar age. She is a monkey. We always say she got it from Greg, but seeing her on MY tricky bars made me realize that she actually gets it from me.


Preston has no fear riding down the big hill on the side of the house.


My little princess and mom.


Finally, a pregnant sisters shot. Megan is 25 weeks and I am 22 here. It is crazy that with five girls in a family only seven years apart, that this is only the second time any of us have been pregnant together! Lucky me, I'm the only one that has been pregnant with sisters both times. It is fun going through this experience with Meg.

The dentist?

I took Preston to a dentist about a year and a half ago and everything looked great. He didn't act like it was a big deal to really take them until they are five. We didn't put the kids on our dental plan because, hey, they didn't need it yet. This last few weeks, Preston's teeth have been bothering him and he keeps getting food stuck between his back molars. I made an appointment with our new dentist, who is also our kind neighbor. Preston was excited to go because he had just been to the dentist on a school field trip. That was a nice prep thing.

Anyway, it turns out he has four cavities, three of which are close to the root and may need a mini root canal. We called the insurance to see about getting him on it. They cover check-ups, but no dental work for a year from when you sign them up. Wow. So here I am with decent insurance, but no coverage so I get to pay cash. $$$ Ouch. Good thing we learned this lesson now.

The moral of the story- take your kids to the dentist as soon as they have teeth! Put them on your insurance even if they ARE only two.

My Big Girl

Greg and I have debated how we are going to get Paige off of her pacifier which she affectionately refers to as her "mi-mi". When a child can carry on a conversation without removing it from her mouth, or flip it right side up without the use of her hands, she is entirely too old for it. The silly thing is, she still uses the 0-6 months ones and doesn't like the bigger ones.

While Greg was on the deer hunt, I tried to put her to bed without it one night because they were all lost. She seemed to understand that. She woke up at midnight traumatized. I got her back to sleep and she woke up at 1:30. This time there was no calming her. I decided it may not be worth the trauma to just go cold turkey.

Our new approach is to restrict it to bedtime. On Sunday, we told her that it was only for bed. Then, we had to stick to our guns and follow through- the hard part. There is something so satisfying about making our children happy that it is difficult to withhold something she wants so bad. But, we persevered. We distracted her all through sacrament and almost gave up twice.

When we got home, she beelined for her bed. So, the funny part is that I didn't specify sleep only, I merely said if she wants it, she has to suck on it in her bed. She quickly discovered that it didn't matter what time of day it is, if she sat in her bed, she could suck on it. I went with it. All week, she has been going into her room at random times to get a "hit".



Two days into it, she started getting sneaky. She came out of her room with her blanket over her mouth thinking I wouldn't know what was under there. She pretended to be a ghost and when I lifted up her blanket, there it was. I heard my door shut and went to open it. She locked it and sat behind it sucking on her mimi. Now, we are on day four and she is doing much better. She still claims to be tired so she can sit in her bed a little, but when she gets out, she leaves it there. Or, she brings it to me and says "don't need it, I'm a big girl". Hopefully, we can phase this thing out before the baby comes. Any advice would be most appreciated.

Cindy's Family Pics

I took the Bee family pictures last week. I love taking photos outdoors, but I never know where to go. I love Murray Park, but so do about 15 other photographers when you go there during "golden hour". It's annoying because there are always people in the background. Cindy knew of this great place. She even recognized it from photos done by Mar Del. They were shocked that she knew where it was. We decided to check it out. The colors were great and she dressed her family perfectly for it. Her kids are a great age because they will listen to what I ask, even if not very willing. We took them out for Golden Corral after so they weren't complaining.

Happy Halloween

Halloween isn't complete without seeing the witches at Gardner Village. I met up with Kari and Perry in the afternoon. The weather was actually pretty nice.




The kids had so much fun pointing out witches and running around. Preston kept getting ahead of us in search of the next one. Here I got Paige copping a feel on the same witch she tried to kiss the year before!



Kari hanging out with the chocolate loving witch.




We promised the kids a treat in the end and headed for the bakery. Their prices were ridiculous and the line was long so we left. Preston was traumatized and I needed to stick to my promise so we headed over to Dunford bakery on my way home. All I could think is why am I buying donuts on the biggest candy day of the year?



Preston was so eager to get out trick-or-treating in the evening. He did NOT want to eat food,especially food that is long. Apparently some food is short to him in terms of how long it takes to eat it. I should have given him a nap earlier. We finally got everyone fed and ready to head out. The kids lasted a lot longer this year than last year. I think we did half the street last year and Preston said his bucket was heavy and wanted to go home. This year, I couldn't get him to stay with us. He just kept running ahead. We went around our entire huge block. I couldn't believe how much of it Paige was able to run. She had on her light up princess shoes so she was this little white angel bopping down the side walk with red lights going crazy. She definitely got the whole trick-or-treating thing this year. It rained on us the whole time, but it was just a light sprinkle. The kids didn't wear jackets and didn't even complain about the rain. Candy was the number one focus. It was a great evening and good to spend time with Kari and Perry.

Mom's Halloween Party

Mom's Halloween party was a lot of fun this year. Kari and Perry came to visit from Arizona so Preston had all of his cousins at this party except for Bentley and Landon who live in Texas.




Aundi put together a great scavenger hunt for the kids that led them all over the yard to find treasures. The kids were a little out of control, but I think they had fun. Preston and Karli played in the playhouse a lot. Preston liked finding ghost suckers on the scavenger hunt.





Cute baby Drew. This week was our first time meeting him and he is already a year old! He is so adorable. I love his angel face and sweet giggles.

Rock wall is finally done!

This is our house last year just after we moved in. We definitely didn't care of the burmed up flower beds in the front yard when we moved in. All summer we talked about making a retaining wall and all summer we played. We finally bought the rock and Greg went to work on it. He got so frustrated because the rocks are all different widths and heights. It was tough to overlap them and still keep the wall even.



He has worked hard the last couple of weeks to get it done before the weather changes for good. Once he got the dirt all filled in behind, it really made a difference. I like the end result. Now we just need some shrubs. Oh, Cindy...

Baby Crockett is a...

I love the ultrasound. I love being with a new doctor who does a free gender check at 16 weeks plus the regular one at 20 weeks. Today is 16 weeks and I had my appointment scheduled bright and early. The baby is around 5 inches long. It was moving and wiggling all over. I love watching the little hands move and seeing the kicks. It's so surreal seeing all that movement when you can't really feel any of it yet. I think I've felt it a couple of times, but it is so faint that I'm not sure.
The best part about this ultrasound was that we didn't have to wait through a bunch of measurements to find out what we were having. She knew exactly why we were there. We took a few profile shots then moved to the legs. She got "THE SHOT" and Greg says "It's a boy!" She laughed and said "you can't really miss that can you?"

We are so excited. We not so secretly really wanted a boy this time. Greg and I both have all sisters so we were hoping Preston and Paige could get a brother. Poor Paige though, she gets the shaft being the only girl. Somehow I don't think the tomboy in her will mind. So now I can clean out Paige's room and switch out the bedding.

The other thing I was so excited for was telling the kids. Greg had to go right to work so I had to wait until he got home! We sat them down for a family meeting. I said "Preston, do you remember when you thought there was a baby in mommy's belly? What if you were right?" He got a big grin on his face. Paige was oblivious. Then he asked if we knew what it was. We asked Paige what she wanted and she said a Gool baby. Preston wanted a boy. When we told him, he said "that's going to be so cool!" It is so nice to finally share this with the kids.

Life at Home

I normally work just two days a week and have found it to be a great balance. This last three weeks I've picked up some extra shifts and ended up full-time last week. I discovered that there are a lot of little things I take for granted about simply being at home. For instance, I actually WANTED to be at home cleaning my house. It drove me nuts that I didn't have time for my weekly routine. I like having three days to get my laundry done instead of one. I missed my kids a ton. Preston asked me if I hate going to work. I told him no, I just don't like leaving you. I found myself even more determined to spend quality time with my kids in the time that I had with them.

Now that I'm back to my regular schedule again, it is nice to just be at home. I am a bit overwhelmed by how behind I am, but I don't mind so much because I'm with my cute kids.

Speaking of cute kids. I had the following conversation with Preston last night. We had just eaten dinner so I was full. I was standing there and he walked up and put his hand on my stomach.

Preston:"Mommy, why is your belly big like that?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Preston as he is rubbing my belly:"It looks like you have a baby in there!"

I looked at Greg and said "I think it's time to tell them" Luckily that day will come tomorrow after we hopefully find out the gender of this little one. I am surprised that Preston is so observant but I think it is because his babysitter just had a baby.

Paige is so funny too. She has three particular things she is a little obsessed with right now: bouncy balls (but don' t bounce them), sandwich bags, and the color pink. She loves to hold the little bouncy balls in her fist or put them in her pockets. She gets upset when her pants don't have pockets. Anytime she gets a treat or has a toy or anything, she goes to the bag drawer and has to put it in a bag. I can't believe she knows the color pink. She can pick out anything that is pink and got real excited when I brought home her pink princess sheets for her bed.

All these little things that they do are so fun. I don't want to forget them. I don't want to breeze passed this precious time with them. I know I will miss them being this young and innocent. I may not miss them fighting and hitting, but I'll miss cuddling at night and reading books to them. I don't even want to think about them growing up on me.

I am excited to see how they react to the baby. Paige loves babies, but will probably be jealous of all the attention. Preston should be easy going about it. He loved Paige from the first day and never acted up. I am so excited to find out what I'm having. For the first time, I don't have a clue on names though. Both of my kids had names by the ultrasound. We'll see what grabs us.

The Sad Truth

We woke up this morning to realize that sad truth that Summer is over. All those days of warmth and green seemed like they wouldn't end and here we are. I just don't like the cold. We had such a long winter last year that I'm simply not ready for it yet. I hope it warms up enough to get a few more days in at the playground with the kids. Greg still hopes to get out skiing more. If not, he will have ended the season skiing 31 times and only taking our own boat out for 9 of them. That's a whole month of the year! Now, we realize that we let a lot of things go around the house this summer in the name of playing. It was a unique year. Next year, we'll have to be better.

We did spend Saturday cleaning out the garage, then organizing the basement. Those were two huge projects that we were happy to get done.

At Your Leisure

Greg started his hydrofoiling club about a year ago. We have brought a lot more people into the sport this year and hope to get more next year. I know many of you saw it, but here is the link in case you didn't.

Click here to view video

There are a couple of sound bites with each of us. Greg and Jeremy both have blue helmets on so it is tricky to tell who is who. There are some good wake rolls from Greg. All the footage that is shot from the shore is of Greg. There are a couple shots of me doing some jumps. I don't wear a helmet so it's easy to pick me out. The other two riders are Scott (52) and Jeremy. Jeremy does a front flip toward the end that is pretty cool. Greg wants to start working on that trick next year.

The Human Elastic

We have had a lot of fun playing on the swing set now that the weather is cooling off a bit. This is Preston doing his "trick" that he is so proud of. The swing set has been so much fun all year.

I found the human elastic at Cindy's the other day and happily reclaimed it. When used for it's actual intent, it can be rather dangerous. We've had a friend crack a rib while playing. Anyway, we have more fun just hanging it from the swing set. Preston and Paige can't get enough of swinging and bouncing.



Their favorite thing to do is twist in it. I am surprised Preston hasn't thrown up because he does it over and over and over.

This is the self-entertainment way to play with it. Just wrap it around the chair and use it like a catapult. This one kept Preston busy for a good 45 minutes. When he feels like being nice to his sister, they play together until one of them gets hurt.