Minnesota Farm

I recently realized that I have family only two short hours away! Chris (and Jim) Possin is my dad's cousin, and their family have kids close to the ages of my siblings and me. Does that make sense? Somehow we're related. Anyway, I remember visiting their farm when I was about 13 and playing with my cousin Amy who was my age. We made barbie clothes and pinky-swore that we would find a way to buy a gameboy. The girls had an ongoing feud with the boys -- they put itching powder down the back of our shirts, we put makeup on them when they were sleeping, we had many water fights, but the culminating prank that won the war was stealing their underwear, wetting it down and then freezing it. We then took a hammer to them, which in hindsight was probably going a bit too far. Fun times on the farm!

Brighton and Brooklyn with my cousin Jim and the combine! I kept calling it a tractor and was corrected many times. A tractor pulls things. A combine harvests grain. Got it? We all had a fun ride bringing in the last of the corn.

They went out on their land and chopped down a Christmas tree! How Little House on the Prairie is that?!

Look! Me not cooking! This is Chris and Amy - Amy lives nearby and got to come over every day with her kids (similar ages to my kids) every day! It was so fun to chat with her, and our kids were instant friends, although I don't think they ever figured out names. They would just call out, "hey, friend..."
The front of their house. They had an addition put on a year ago and it seriously looks fabulous. It was so fun to be part of a big crazy household again! Chris has four kids still at home and is a homeschooling mom. Add Amy and her kids, and a husband that comes and goes throughout the day-- I was loving it and so were my kids. Chris has a wonderful "grandma house" with tons of toys for the kids to play with.

We'll be back soon!

Ballerina Boy!

Why should girls have all the frilly fun?

(the boots add a masculine touch)

Our thankful turkey

One of the things we did as part of school last month. Each day the girls cut out a feather and I wrote what they were thankful for. Isn't he cute!? :)

Thriller

Our stake YW/YM had a talent show a few weeks ago, and this lovely group performed Michael Jackson's Thriller. The girls were having trouble coming up with something to do for the talent show, and so I volunteered (like a crazy person) to teach them the dance from Thriller.

The problem: I didn't know it.

So thanks to youtube tutorials, I learned the dance in two days and was able to teach it to some of our young women. It was really fun to learn, practice and perform, even though I am soooo not a dancer. It really tired me out and made me sore for a few days -- probably because I'd had a baby five weeks earlier. Hmm.

Anyways, I have the picture, the video and some good memories!

The Halloween Post

For Halloween this year, Brighton was a ballerina, Brooklyn was little red riding hood, and Logan was a super hero. I made Brighton's tutu and Logan's cape, but thankfully we had Brooklyn's costume in our dress-up box and I didn't have to make anything else. :) Our ward's trunk-or-treat was on Wednesday, and then James took the kids out trick-or-treating or about an hour on Saturday. It was a fun holiday week!

I love to decorate for holidays, and we spend one school morning tracing and cutting out bats and ghosts to hang around our house, and draped spider webs over anything that we could. Spooky!

The ladybugs are swarming!

For some reason unknown to me, our house is being attacked by ladybugs. There are 13 crawling around on my back door right now, and nearly that many on any window. I can see them flying around outside. Is this a sign of good luck? Are they plotting something? They're getting inside through our poorly sealed doors and crawl around on the ceiling. In the morning our floors are covered with little ladybug carcasses. The kids like to gather up handfuls and carry them around. I'm really not sure what is going on.And not to sound paranoid, but these pumpkin bats are glaring at me.

Especially this guy.

and This Boy...

Spencer Rollie Hall
born Tuesday morning at 2:47am
9 pounds 8 ounces
21 inches long

Just a few thoughts/feelings-
surprise he's a boy
surprise he's so huge! (my girls were 5 pounds)
glad for another VBAC even though it took castor oil to get him here :)
11 days late- really, is that necessary?
tired but so happy

This boy!

I'm not sure if it's just another difference between boys and girls, but this little boy gets scraped up all the time! Yesterday was a doozy. Maybe it's his shoes?
Both knees scraped-
His upper lip, nose and forehead. It looks even worse now that it's scabbed over. What a rough-and-tumble boy! But super cute still, eh?!

Oh, and no baby yet. I'm a week over now, and I am tentatively set up for a c-section next Friday if my body is still doing nothing. Such a bother. :)

Stupid Cervix.

Things to keep busy

Knowing full well that my due date will come and go with no baby, I'm trying to stay busy.

I crocheted the edges of this baby blanket. My mom always gave us two blankets when we had a baby, and my kids have loved theirs to death. They love to finger the edges until it pretty much falls apart. Since that's not going to happen anymore- I'm making my own. I'll make the second one after the baby is here so I don't have to be so gender-neutral. I also want to ask around the ward for someone to teach me a different edge. I really like doing it, and it reminds me of Old mom. :)

I also got a fabulous pedicure. :) It's seriously one of my favorite treats to myself. If you are in Ames, get yourself to Serenity Nails!

I also made two Sunday dresses for Brighton, which I'll have to take a picture of and post later. I can't find dresses that are long enough or are the right style, so I'll probably be making a lot of dresses in the future. Brooklyn has to wear a size 6 just for the length, and she normally fits a size 2/3.

Iowa State Fair

"Our state fair is a great state fair, don't miss it, don't even delay..."
Anyone seen that musical? Anyone??

I'm really bad at taking pictures, so I don't have a ton here. This whole week has been a family fun week since James had a break between his internship and start of classes. It has been so great!! He cleans the house and entertains the kids and I mostly just lie on the couch and look useless. He's making me look bad. :)

Anyways- back to the fair. I haven't been to a fair since I was twelve, and this was huge and amazing and exhausting!! This first pic is Brooklyn hugging Clifford at the PBS kids booth, where the kids enjoyed listening to a great storytime.


Looking at the baby ducks. This was probably my favorite thing- they had baby turkeys, chicks, piglets, calves, goats, and I think that's it. I've had a cold for forever (or three weeks) and my sense of smell and taste might never come back. So thankfully, I couldn't smell any of the animals. However, I couldn't smell any of the yummy/fattening fair food either. :(


Brighton's favorite thing: This area where they dressed up as farmers, got to plant and pick pretend vegetables, collect eggs, milk a cow (all pretend), and ride a tractor. At the end they sold their wares at the market and got a $1 to spend at the store!! Pretty cool! :)

I wish I had taken more pictures. The weather was not so great- it kept sprinkling on and off all morning. By the end of the day my legs weren't working very well. I've been taking it easy since then, doing more laying on the couch. Next week James is back to school, and we're going to miss him!

Nauvoo

We went on a family vacation last weekend to Nauvoo. I think it was our first family vacation- we were all really excited to go. We got to stay in a hotel for the first time!! :)

James' parents live a few hours away from Nauvoo and they drove up to spend one of the days with us. This is J and his Dad trying out the stilts at the Pioneer Pastimes. Definitely a skill to work on. :)


Pioneer Pastimes was Brighton's favorite place. She loves to pretend and got completely into character as soon as she was dressed. They had a little schoolroom, a kitchen, place to wash your clothes, games to play- lots of fun stuff!! She told me that her house (the school room) was built after her father died, and the concerned look on her face here is the worry that she won't get to the sheep in time. It was her turn to take care of them. :)

The weekend we went was the last weekend the young performing missionaries were at Nauvoo (fun times, hey Bethany?!:) and so we went to as many shows as we could. Sunset by the Mississippi was a variety show with the senior and young missionaries, and so fun! There was a children's parade before the show, and the kids got to decorate hats and pick musical instruments to play.





Nauvoo closes down around 4, so we found a park to play at until dinner. The weather was so great! This really has been a fabulous summer. We only had one really hot/humid week, otherwise it's been really mild with a nice cool breeze. We're still loving it!!



Other favorites from Nauvoo: wagon rides, the traveling Brass Band, the temple, running into friends from KS and my sis-in-law Rebecca's parents (random!), the hotel pool, the bakery, the blacksmith shop, etc....

Barely Pregnant?!?!

After all those comments from my last post about looking barely pregnant, I thought I better set the record straight. Barely pregnant, my eye. (Brighton took this pic, by the way.)

I'm definitely feeling it this last month! Too much baby stuffed in too little space. But I'm trying not to be that cranky complaining pregnant lady. Even though someone always asks me how much longer I have whenever I go out in public. Every. Single. Time. So fun!

I also have the unique experience after Wymount of being the only preggo gal in the ward. Whereas in Utah I'd be one of twenty. :) I'm definitely a spectacle.

So, there you go. Me pregnant with #4 at almost 36 weeks. Meh. :)

The Bix

James ran in his first 10K on Saturday, the Bix. It's a pretty big race- the biggest non-marathon race in the US, actually. Even though most people have never heard of it. :) There were around 13,000 people running this year. This pic is of the start- you can't even see the end of the runners. Pretty cool. We tried to find James in the crowd, but there were just too many people.







Here we are with my mom-in-law (dad-in-law is taking the pic) bright and early to cheer James on. We brought breakfast and the kids were more interested in that. :)













After the race-

This was the 35th year of the Bix so everyone that finished got a medal. The girls thought that was pretty cool. :) Brighton kept saying, "I knew you could do it daddy, I knew you could get a medal!" Any subsequent races that don't involve a medal will be a let-down.

I was very proud of James. He had only run a distance of 3.5 miles, and it took him about 45 min. I was expecting him to finish in an hour and a half, maybe two hours- but his time was just over 60 min! Way to go James/Daddy!! We're hoping to race together next year, provided we're still close and I'm not pregnant. :)

Life doesn't get better than a cardboard box

Except for two cardboard boxes!! Our dishwasher broke and was out of order for a week. I know I don't get any sympathy from some of my readers... :) It wouldn't have been that big of a hardship if I had a drying rack and if the water hose from the dishwasher didn't keep falling on the ground and spilling sewer-smelling water all over the floor. Anyway.

Our new dishwasher arrived- in a great sturdy box! The girls quickly latched onto it and made it into a playhouse. Our maintenance man- Russ- saw how much fun the kids were having and later dropped off another box from another replacement dishwasher. (He's a sweet guy, and likes my kids. Probably because they always watch him, fascinated by whatever he's doing, and Brooklyn always tells him that he's a good worker. :))

During the two weeks these boxes lived at our house, they were a playhouse with attached garage, a rocket ship, a kitten's box, a mermaid's grotto, a camping tent, and I'm sure a few others that I didn't catch. After they started to sag, I harvested some of the thick cardboard to cover with felt and make into a felt board for the Sunday Box. I saved a bit more in case I thought of more uses. Any ideas?

Superpowers

Two superpowers that I would like to have:

1. The ability to slow time a bit so I was never late for anything

2. The ability to know what exactly I am mad about when I get frustrated about something

Tumbling Class

The girls started a tumbling class that is offered through the Park and Rec, and have been loving it! I got to sit in the first time, and now I just drop them off. It's only for about 45 min, but it's still weird to just have Logan.


They do a lot of practicing at home, using my broom layed out on the floor as a balance beam. It's fun to see them so excited about learning something new. And using the fun equipment!

My 2 year old

A few things about Logan:

he just had his 2nd birthday
looks so cute with his big-boy haircut
started finally talking! I think he can say at least 30 words. I love it when he calls after his sisters, "guys! guys!" He also reminds everyone to share. :)

The girls picked out what kind of birthday cake Logan got. Brooklyn was sure that he would want an Ariel cake, but then we decided on a car. Daddy made this racer!


His car collection. He looooves to play with his cars. Mostly lining them up- on the stairs; on top of books; on the edge of the couch cushion; on the coffee table... his favorite position to play with them is laying down on floor. I'm not sure why, but it's pretty cute!

Logan got a train set for his birthday, and he got right down on the floor to play with it properly. He loves his choo-choo train!

This guy is so sweet and mellow, I could have three more. He loves to follow his sisters around, and is an especially good friend to Brooklyn right now. They chase each other around, play with balls, dance and sing- whatever! We love our Logan!!

My least favorite chores

1. Mopping
2. Cleaning the bathtub
3. Underwear sniffing

My Spouse's Stinky Schedule

Monday: work from 7-5:30pm
Tuesday: work/TA from 7-10:00pm
Wednesday: work from 7-5:30
Thursday: work/TA from 7-10:00pm
Friday: work from 7-5:30pm
Saturday: class from 8:30-4:30pm

Poopy, I know. I make every meal and the kids don't even see their daddy two days out of the week. I've been spoiled and I miss it! Only 10 more weeks left! :)

Our six-state tour

We had a family trip to visit my sister and her family a few weeks ago that took us through six states. Quite a trip! Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and finally Georgia. I think in that order. It was about a 16 hour drive. It was so fun to have James actually go on a big drive with me!! I've done the last several all on my lonesome. We stayed for a little over a week, and packed our days with fun-ness. I don't have any pictures, which is why I haven't blogged about it. I was hoping that Dawnelle would do it and I could just direct everyone over to her blog. But she hasn't. And it's been a month. My conclusion: She doesn't love me. *Sniff*

Some of the fun things we did:
*ate hot dogs and pizza at Costco
*went to IKEA
*made a raised bed garden practically by ourselves!
*bought a lot of food
*got a pedicure and massage
*semi-participated in a city-wide service project that their stake was in charge of
*had a birthday party for her son Carter who turned four! I made a really tacky fireman poster. I have not art skillz.
*filed papers
*watched DVR'd TV
*ate a lot of food
*went to the Dollar Tree
*James did a lot of fix-up work on their house
*got slushes at Cherry Limeades at Sonic
*saw illegal immigrants waiting in parking lots for jobs
*went to the zoo in Atlanta
*drove around and gawked at the huuuge houses. And that was just in her neighborhood! :)
*I mentioned The Pioneer Woman too many times and embarrassed myself. Seriously, I'm sure I sounded like a crazy person.

Easter flashback

We made this fun treat for easter, trying to use up our peeps. Which none of my kids like. :) Cute little peep chick in a rice crispy nest, complete with chocolate eggs! Cute, eh?!

I got the idea from my sister's friend's blog- www.thislittleproject.blogspot.com. I've used her blog several other times for fun/cute crafty ideas. Check it out!!

Everyone had fun making them, and even more messy fun eating them.

Front Room: before and after

Our front room got an updated look with some "new" furniture! (hand-me-downs from my sister, thanks Nelly!) This was our front room before. Ugly Betty (treadmill), small table, very little lounging room.

After: Bigger new table! We can actually fit food on it- hooray!

The luxury of TWO couches! Love it love it!

Not a big change or anything, but I love it. The couches just happen to match perfectly. And we've already had missionaries over to test out the new dining table. Fabulous! I also picked up a new silverware set while in Georgia (at Costco) and that also makes me happy. They feel heavy and sturdy and shiny. The cheap set we got seven years ago definitely needed to go. Fun stuff!