Shopping, Bowling, Food

I got to celebrate my birthday more than one day. :) It was great. On my birthday (Tuesday) my parents and sister, Sara, came over for the day. They got to our house before lunch. I made taco salad and then us girls went shopping while Kyle and my Dad held down the fort during the kids napping/quiet time. We hit the the most important stores on our list, Forever 21 accessories store and Motherhood Maternity. I found some cute things at Motherhood too which was exciting.

We left the mall and went to Southcenter to meet up with Marci. She was just getting out of school so that is our half-way meeting point between where we both live. Kyle, my Dad and the kids left from our house and we all met up at a bowling alley down there. I wanted to go bowling for my birthday, random, but we all had fun. Kate is still talking about it.

Kate loved the hand dryer. She was getting frustrated that she wasnt hitting any of the "white things" (aka pins). At first she was doing fine, but then she went on a gutter streak. Her ball would lose steam at the very end and go into the gutter so my Dad helped her push it harder and then she was happy again. It was cute.

After bowling, we were worn out (ha) so we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was delicious.

Even the kids loved the food. :)

It was so nice of my family to come over just for the day on my birthday. We had a great time with them. Shopping, bowling, eating out- what more could I want?! It was fabulous.

Party Time!

These are my friend's that came to the surprise party that Kyle planned for me! I turn 30 on Tuesday (sniff, sniff) and I'm the type that likes to have friends over for a party. Kyle is the type that likes to keep it simple and easy. Well, lucky for him he is married to me and got to plan this whole thing on his own! I'm just glad he did. It was a lot of fun. I wasn't really surprised...I kind of knew something was going on, but that's okay. It was still fun. (Even though I realized I like surprising people WAY more than being surprised!).

Kyle was "running errands" while I took both kids to the Stake Primary Activity in the morning. He was setting up for the party and buying stuff. After dinner, he got me to go to the Church with him claiming we had to get some paper products from the Activities closet for a friend of ours in the Bishopric. We got to the Church and there were only a few cars in the parking lot and I didn't recognize any of them. Well, Kyle had told everyone to park in the HS parking lot next to the church. We went inside the Church and headed to the Activities closet. Kate asked to go into the gym to play so we went in there and that's where everyone was!

Kyle set up the couches and chairs from the church foyer's into the gym to make it a living room setting. (cute idea!) Then he asked two young women to come babysit while the adults could hang out and play games. We played a game like catch phrase and then we played the game Curses. We laughed a lot and snacked on popcorn, pop, licorice and peanut M&M's. After the games we cut the monstrous 4-layer chocolate cake from Coscto and had ice cream. It was a great night. Thanks Kyle for planning everything (it was perfect!) and thanks to everyone for coming! :)

Reptile Zoo

Kate had a preschool Field Trip to the Reptile Zoo. It took a while to get to it- it's a ways from where we live. It was smaller than I expected and they didn't have that many animals, but afterwards, Kate said, "that was awesome." So I'm glad she liked it. She had fun with all her friends from preschool so that made it even better. This worst part is that the place STUNK! The minute we walked in the smell overwhelmed you, but then you were in and kind of got used to it.

This is a snapping turtle and it didn't move AT ALL the whole time we were there. I wonder if it was even alive...

A two-headed turtle. Pretty cool!

This is a small alligator that the kids could touch. Kate would touch it, but she was too scared to hold it. This boy (who just volunteers at this place) was letting the kids hold it if they wanted to. Well, later after all these kids had already held it, the main lady in charge comes by and sees him letting the kids hold it and she got mad! She told the boy that he shouldn't let them hold it and they can only touch it. Well, come to find out if you wanted to hold it and wanted a picture while holding it you had to pay $5!!! This boy just lost the zoo a lot of money then! We got all the pictures we wanted for free! I'm glad the lady didn't come by sooner. ha ha. The boy was embarrassed (I felt bad for him) and claimed he didn't know that.

Two huge snakes. The one in the center is an albino one. Weird looking, huh?

Kate with all her preschool friends (minus Zander, who must have been around the corner). She sure loves preschool and gets so excited to see her friends there. I'm glad we have her in preschool. It has been fun to hear about the things she learns there and it's been totally worth it.

IT'S A ...

GIRL!!!!

We went for the ultrasound on Thursday morning and we took the kids too (call us crazy, but they did good). Kate was super excited when the lady told us it was a girl, but then she lost interest for the rest of the time and Kyle had to keep her entertained. Preston sat in his stroller and jabbered to himself and ate snacks. We are glad everything looked good with the ultrasound. I was nervous so it's always a relief to hear everything looks normal. The lady kept saying how pretty the heart looked because you could clearly see all 4 chambers pumping. It's amazing how babies develop. Kate is especially happy it's a girl. Tonight she asked me, "where's the baby?" I point to my stomach to show her it's in there. She says, "it's a girl. I knew it was a girl." ha ha. She thinks she had it figured out and I guess obviously she did. :)

I scanned 2 of the ultrasound pictures. With Preston's ultrasound they gave us a 3-D copy, but they didn't this time and I didn't ask why. The baby was very active during the appointment. She almost didn't get all the measurements she needed because of how the baby was laying, but then it turned so she could get everything. Now it's onto deciding what room to the put the baby in. It would be easier to put it with Kate b/c then I don't have to redecorate any rooms. If I put it in the room where Preston is and move Preston in with Kate (like originally planned) then we'd have to redecorate two rooms. That would be way more work so we'll have to see. We don't have any names picked out yet (or at least one's we are definite on) and we told Kate that mommy and daddy get to name the baby. :)

Both kids are getting over their colds and coughs. This sickness has been lingering for a while. Both of them had fevers and threw up so we are hoping for some healthy kids soon. I worked 4 days this week filling in for a hygienist at a nice office that was put on bed rest. She is due at the end of the month. The dentist knows I'm pregnant too and there is another assistant prego so he's thinking something is in the water. ha ha. Kate finally got to go to preschool today. She was so excited and it was cute to see how excited her classmates were to have her back. We played outside for a few hours today with the neighbor kids. It was a beautiful sunny/blue sky day today and I only worked a half day so I got to enjoy the nice weather. Then, we went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner tonight because I didn't want to cook and I worked a lot this week. Kyle didn't think we needed to go out (boring!) and I told him we were helping the economy. ha. Then we spent most of our rebate check at Costco which was fun. Then we got home after bedtime (8pm) and the kids crashed in bed. It was a good day.

Need a Nap

This picture is at 7:00 at night on Sunday. Can you tell we have late church? Preston was so tired. He was laying on my lap like this and I was scratching his back and talking to family on the phone when I realized he was asleep!

Surprises All Weekend

What a weekend. We had a big surprise for my Mom planned in lieu of her birthday. All of us girls had planned on kidnapping my Mom and then taking her on a shopping spree for her birthday. The surprise was almost spoiled, but due to our damage control (big time lying) she didn't catch on and the surprise was still on. Phew. It was close.

Kyle and I left Saturday morning and went to visit Melanie and Milo and their new place in Tri-Cities. Melanie cut and highlighted my hair (sweet). In the meantime, Jeni is getting decorations to decorate the table at the restaurant and Sara on her way to Othello to kidnap my Mom at the Stake Center to bring her to Tri-Cities. Marci was coaching a bball game Saturday morning so she left right after that and came over. We were all over the place! Around 5:30pm Jeni, Marci and I met at the restaurant and waited for Sara and my Mom to arrive. Sara had to stall her b/c they got to town sooner than expected so they stopped at Costco. Well, that took even longer because they ran into people they knew! ha ha. So Jeni sat in the restaurant with Hailey hanging out (funny!) and Marci and I were in the back of Jeni's van trying to stay out of sight. Finally, Sara and my Mom show up. Marci and I see them walk in and see how surprised my Mom is to see Jeni and Hailey and the decorated table. Then a few minutes later, Marci went in and my Mom was like "how did you know about this?". Then, about 5 minutes later I walked in and my Mom said, "how did YOU know about this?" She got teary eyed and it was a perfect reaction. She was kind of sad about missing the adult session of Stake Conference, but I think this made up for it. We ate, shared all our lies we told her (hee hee) and how the surprise was almost spoiled. She said she didn't catch on so good thing.

My Mom was a good sport and even wore the birthday hat! We all gave her money for her birthday so she could go spend it. We went to the mall and got amazing deals. My Mom got 2 pairs of shoes, lots of jewelry, 3 shirts and perfume. She made a haul and we had a good time. Then we treated her to dessert at Dairy Queen.

Preston was a hot mess on Sunday. Sara and Derek spoke in their new Ward so since we were all home we all went. What a crowd, huh? They did a great job. Kyle and I even snuck out after sacrament meeting and took the kids to see Arlene. After Church, we went to Sara and Derek's place to see their new apartment. Preston had thrown up on the way from the Church to their house (he had a cough and he coughed so much he threw up, fun times) so I had gotten him out of his car seat and let him walk inside on his own. He tripped walking into the house and hit his head on the metal threshold and split it open. Blood was going everywhere! All over his white shirt and cute vest and on my Dad's suit (my Dad was the one to pick him up). So he had throw up and blood all over him. He threw a huge fit when I was trying to apply pressure to his cut with a towel, but if I didn't it was squirting out everywhere. Two of us had to hold him down so I could apply pressure while my Dad drove us to the hospital. Thank goodness the hospital ER was slow because they got us back right away and we were out of there fairly quick. I didn't have my purse or insurance stuff though. I had left it at my parent's house not thinking I needed it since I wasn't driving. I won't do that again! They didn't put stitches in, they put dermabond on it (like superglue) and steristrips. I don't know how good of a seal it got so he might have a good scar like Harry Potter.

My Mom with all her grandkids.

Kate with Hailey. Hailey is getting so big!

Adorable!

Happy Birthday Mom!

The family at my Mom's birthday dinner celebration.