Big Girl Bed

Bedtime has been hard lately because Liliana has desperately wanted to sleep in Grace's bed- not her crib. So tonight I took the plunge and removed the one side of her crib, making it a 'big girl bed.' You should have seen the smile on her face. It's going to take some time to teach her that she has to STAY in her bed, but I think she's going to love the freedom of being able to play in her room in the morning with Grace.

On a side note- if anyone wants a 2000 VW Passat, we have one for sale!

And then there were 3 (kids)

So we have now reached that magical point that I can tell you all that we are expecting number 3! I had another ultrasound today that put my due date at January 27, 2009. Grace and Liliana were there and got to see their younger sibling, which was sweet.

My pregnancy has gone well so far- I have not been nearly as sick as I was with the girls- I've been able to keep meals down, which is sooo nice. I'm starting to feel better now, while with the other two I was sick for close to 18 weeks. So I can safely say that I'm enjoying this pregnancy more than the others.

We are all excited to welcome another little one- Grace kisses my belly daily and tries to figure out "what the baby is saying/doing." To make things a bit more exciting, we are frustrating our mothers and NOT finding out the sex until birth. Sure if it's a boy it might wear a few yellow sleepers (no pink, I promise) but we would like the experience of hearing "it's a ..." at the birth. So now you all will actually be excited to hear from us, since you have to wait for ALL the information until the birth date! (See, really, we're just attention seekers.)

* * * * * *

So now that I've announced that, I can tell you my funny story. Grace walked in while I was getting dressed a couple weeks ago and asked, "Momma, why is your belly so big?" I played dumb and asked her what she meant. She then asked, "Momma, is there a baby is your belly?" I about lost it. Kaylon quickly jumped in and asked her what was in HER belly. That distracted her away from my own belly, and kept our secret safe for another week or two. We told her last Tuesday, and she hasn't been able to keep her mouth quiet about it since :) She's going to be such a good big sister!

What happens when you take the morning off as a mom...

So Grace is old enough now to roam the house a bit without me- if she wants to play in her room upstairs, I'm ok with that. Well that's what i THOUGHT she was doing this morning when I heard her yell (over the baby monitor) that she was stuck in my room (the door doesn't open very well). So I go upstairs and open the door to an overwhelming smell of Vick's Vaporub. But it gets better, because a majority of the Vicks ended up on Yoda, the dog. So guess who gets to give the dog a bath today? Yup.

*****UPDATE*****
So while I was bathing the poor dog (who normally hates the shower, but yesterday was so sick of smelling like vaporub that he just walked right in) I noticed that he had lost a patch of fur. I was concerned and brought it up to Kaylon, and started feeling guilty that I haven't taken him to the vet yet this year. Then this morning I walked by the guest bedroom and saw something on the carpet- black fur and a pair of sissors. I had to find my stern voice (cuz I wanted to laugh) and told Grace that we do not cut Yoda's hair, nor do we use sissors without mommy or daddy there. Inside, I was just so grateful that she didn't cut her own curls off!

So I've been telling many of you about the recent emergence of Liliana's attitude. It's pretty funny to watch- although it can be taxing at times too. This morning Kaylon was getting the girls ready for church when he heard a piercing scream coming from their bedroom. He looks out in the hall and Liliana comes around the corner laughing, seemingly very amused and pleased with herself. He walks over to find out what is wrong with Grace and she cries, "Liliana said 'Bye-bye' and left me all alone!" To this Liliana starts babbling back to her, ending her comments with another "Bye-bye," to which Grace cries out in anguish again.

Can I assume that Liliana is starting to find (and push) Grace's buttons?

Wanna know the REAL difference between boys and girls?

I have learned from my 4 year old the REAL difference between boys and girls. We've had her friend Max over this week, so I guess they've been discussing it- drum roll please...... Girls have lips on their mouths, and boys do not. Yup, she informed me of this on our way to playgroup this morning. I tried to convince her otherwise- I used logic and reasoning, but nope, she refused to believe me. I even told her that mommy knows more than her and so she should be believe me. She informed me that I was wrong about that too. Oh well.

Debbie sent the pictures from their visit- so here are some highlights- and here's the video link to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsV9trVKhAA All the kids, minus Liliana
Both Families with Washington Monument behind us
Both Families with Lincoln Memorial behind us
The beloved train ride
Cooling off their feet at the WWII Memorial

Some pics from AZ

Liliana and me at the lake
Grace's bday
My mom and Grace
My mom and Liliana
Kaylon's mom and Liliana

Someone managed to surprise me (and that's not an easy thing to do)

Ok, so I have the best friends in the world. On the 4th of July I woke up and started scambling to get things ready for the activity that I was running at our ward picnic. I'm trying to fill up 200 water balloons (only got about 40-50 done) and I expected Kaylon to watch the girls and get them ready. Instead he's off mowing the lawn and cleaning up the house. Now sometimes he just gets fixated on things, and I figured it was one of those times- the girls weren't being too bad, so I let it slide. We had a great time at the picnic, came home, and put the girls down for a nap. Pretty normal.

So I decide to sit down and relax since I'm still recovering from vacation to AZ. I start out in the living room, but Kaylon convinces me to go downstairs, which I thought nothing of. I ask him if he wants to watch a movie, but he starts 'fixing my coffee table.' Whatever, so I start watching my political videos online when the doorbell rings. Kaylon calls down to me that he's in the bathroom, so I jump up to get the door before another ring wakes up my girls.

I open the door and see noone. I glance down and there is a blond baby sitting on my walkway with a cell phone in her hand. My brain starts making connections, but they don't make sense- This baby looks just like Leora, my friend Debbie's youngest daughter- I know this because I was watching video of them just last night. But that's impossible because they live in Ohio. I mean, that would be crazy. But it looks JUST like Leora. I seriously must have had the most blank look in the world on my face. (I was later rebuked that my thoughts never turned to the possibility that this was an abandoned child). Finally when they could hold it in no longer Fred pops out from behind a bush by the cars with a video camera (can't wait to watch the footage) and Debbie comes out from the bush right next to me. I was still in shock as I hugged them both and they explained to me how just the night before they decided to drive the 7 hours to spend the holiday with us, conspiring with Kaylon to surprise me. It was one of the most awesome surprises of my life- and I tell you, I'm a hard one to surprise.

It rained that night, so we decided to just watch fireworks on the net and play Halo all night. The next day we decided to treat them to a day in DC (you can't drive all that way and not see some sights!). The kids did very well considering- they all loved the train into the city and the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History. We got to show them the major attractions before the kids starting losing it, and and then had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (YUUUUUMMMM). All in all, it was a great day with great people, and I am so blessed to have friends that love me so much to travel all that way just to see ME:)

Anyways, I'll post pics when I get some from Debbie- it seemed redundant to take doubles of all the same stuff. I love digital photography! And I love my Debbie (and Fred).

I have given in to.... blogging

Ok, so even though I have email, myspace, and Kaylon has Facebook, I started getting this empty feeling inside, like I was missing something that the internet had to offer. So after searching many minutes, and listening to the pleas of many friends, I am starting a blog. It might be nice for the Grandmas, and I might actually record some of the cute things my girls do and say, since I'm so bad a journal writing. Anyways, enjoy my musings.