Day Twenty Four

I've been tagged!  Post five things about your kids that others may or may not know.

 Kid #1:  Ammon

1. After twelve hours of labor,  Ammon was born via c-section.

2. Ammon was mobile at an early age,  he started crawling at 7 months and walking at 10 months. He is still always on the go.

3. Ammon loves fruit,  he considers fruit cups, mandarin oranges and strawberries a treat.  A couple of months ago we took the boys to Mcdonalds for icecream and Ammon asked if he could have a yogurt parfait instead.

4. Ammon loves Science.  He knows more about sharks, snakes and other reptiles than I do. He loves reading books about animals and watching the Discovery channel.  He especially enjoyed watching "shark week."

5. Ammon loves to swim!  He recently started "diving" for dive sticks at the pool and swimming on his own  (without a life jacket!) This Summer,  he got swimmer's ear and it was miserable. He now reminds me that we have to blow dry his ears after we swim.

Kid #2:  Carter

1. Carter spent his first week in the NICU,  he recovered quickly and has not been sick very often since then. 

2. If you ask Carter to do something that he doesn't want to do,   he will tell you that he is sick. I don't know where he learned this- but it only took a couple of times for me to figure out that he was "crying wolf."

3. Carter loves to play soccer.  He learned to dribble a soccer ball about the same time that he learned how to walk.  He loves to go to soccer practice with Colby and Ammon, and although he's not officially part of the team he got to play in the game on Saturday (we didn't have enough subs). I guess that's the benefit of having daddy be the coach.  He was grinning from ear to ear.

4.  Carter likes to play with my hair when he's tired.  This started when he was just a couple of weeks old and he still plays with my hair when he's sitting on my lap or laying next to me.

5. Thanks to a state puzzle,  Carter knows the location of many of the U.S. states.  He can also tell you which states you have to drive through to get from Iowa to Utah (to visit Grandma and Grandpa),  from Iowa to Michigan (to visit Cannon), and from Iowa to California (to see Lightning McQueen race).  He also knows which states Isaac and Megan live in.

Day Twenty Three

Sidewalk chalk and ladybugs.   We are so grateful that it's still warm outside!

Day Twenty Two

Playing catch with daddy.

Day Twenty One

What do you do with an excess of apples fresh from the orchard?

Make homemade apple pie.

Widget disclaimer:  I have had a couple of people comment that my widget is showing me at 40 weeks (I wish).  On my computer it is correct (36 weeks) and I'm not sure how to fix it.  I am going to try a different widget, but I'd like to know if it is correct for you.  Let me know!

Day Twenty

School lunch with big brother.

Day Nineteen

I was looking through some of our old pictures today and I came across this one of Colby and Carter.  It was a nice reminder to me that pregnancy is worth it.

It also made me so grateful for Colby, he is such a great guy.  I am so glad he puts up with me. While we were watching conference on Sunday I was trying to paint my toenails and no matter how I tried to bend, I couldn't quite reach them.  Without me even asking him, Colb came over and clipped and painted my toenails for me  (and he did a great job!)  Later that night,  I was beat and all the energy I could muster was only enough to make grilled cheese sandwiches for Sunday dinner.  Colby didn't even complain, he actually even said,  "that sounds good."  (Anyone who knows how much Colby loves food knows that this is a big deal).  I am so blessed to have Colby in my life and babe, hopefully in a month or so I will be back to normal (or at least closer to normal).

Day Eighteen

Not the greatest picture, but I was so excited about this "breakthrough" I had to post it.  After picking his own apples at the apple orchard,  Carter decided he wanted to try one.  (This is big for him because he usually refuses to eat fruit).  I let Carter pick the apple, sliced it for him and watched in awe as HE ATE IT!  He ate the whole apple,  he liked it, and he asked if he could have another one.  Three (small) apples later,  Cart declared, "mmm, I love apples." HURRAY! What else can we go harvest?

Day Seventeen- The Apple Orchard

While Colby was busy having a "man day" (i.e. golfing, going to dinner and attending Priesthood session), the boys and I decided to have some fun of our own.  So, we headed to Cambridge, IA to the apple orchard with the Nances. 

It was a beautiful Fall day, perfect weather for our outing.

We were surprised how many other people had the same idea.  The apple orchard was VERY crowded, we had to wait in line to buy tickets and get snacks at the country store.

The kids had a blast playing in the corn pool (something I'm convinced you could only find in Iowa).

Carter loved feeding the animals, but he fed them one corn kernel at a time.  Some of the animals got frustrated by his slow pace and wouldn't come back over to eat.  He ended up yelling, "hey pigs, over here, I have some food."

Of course, we also had to pick apples (which I went to great lengths to help the kids reach, doing acrobatics no pregnant woman should do).

We also went on a hay ride, let the kids jump on the giant "jumping pillow" and got apple donuts and cider to snack on.  Thanks Lisa and kids for joining us, we had a great day!

Day Sixteen

A couple of nights ago we went to check on the boys before we went to bed  (they had been in bed for two or three hours).  We found Carter laying in the hallway outside his bedroom.  I don't know how he got there, or how long he had been sleeping like that- but we both got a good laugh out of it.  What a silly little boy.

Day Fifteen

New Fall shirts,  Thanks Grandma!

Day Fourteen

On Monday, the boys were out of school for teacher prep day.  We took advantage of the day off and headed to the Science Center to check out the new Robots exhibit.  Of course, Ammon loved the Robots (Carter was anxious to go visit the snakes) and we had a fun afternoon. 

Ammon and Rodney Copperbottom.

Ammon building his own robot.

The boys and the "tricky" snake (which we watched for 25 or 30 minutes).

It was doing some cool tricks (I was a little concerned that it was trying to escape, 

but the kids thought it was cool).

Day Thirteen

Playing super-heros with Dad.

Day Twelve

The Mumu.

Super Comfortable.

Super stylish (it's the new must have for fall fashion).

If you come over to my house unannounced, 

this is most likely what I'll be wearing.

Ahhh, the mumu.

Day Eleven

Brothers!

Day Ten

My two favorite TV shows.

Two Season Premieres.

The same night at the same time.

What's a girl to do?

I guess I'll go to enrichment night, I just don't feel right about skipping out on Relief Society to watch TV (besides I could use the blessings).

Someday we'll have Tivo.  (sigh).

Day Nine

Swimming Lessons.

Day Eight

My swollen feet after a night at work.

And you thought they were ugly before.

Day Seven

Colby's first day scrubbing in to surgery. 

Way cooler than suturing pig's feet in the nursery.

Day Six

Nachos, homemade salsa and a mug of rootbeer.

The perfect after church snack.

Day Five

A perfect day for a soccer game.

Day Four

Eight Months Pregnant

Homemade Apron

Chopping Fresh Tomatoes and Peppers from the Farmer's Market

Canning Homemade Salsa

Does it get any more "1950's"  than this?

Just call me Martha,  or Betty.

Day Three

Mommy's little helper.

Day Two

Bedtime stories.

Day One

My friend Skye posted a challenge on her blog to post one picture a day for 30 days.  I love seeing her new pictures every day so I decided to give it a try. Here is day #1-

Crazy hair day at school.

It's raining, it's pouring

On Saturday,  my friend Lisa threw me a baby shower.  It was so much fun to get together with friends for the afternoon and be "showered" with cute things for our little girl.  Lisa made a ton of yummy food and there was a great turn out.  I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends in Iowa.  I am so grateful for their generosity and their willingness take the time out of their busy schedules to spend the afternoon with me.   Thank you everyone (and an extra big thank you to Lisa), you are wonderful!

Shauni, Lisa and Oakley at the shower.

This is a really terrible picture of me, but what picture nowadays isn't? 

This is one of the only pictures I have of me opening gifts, and I love this cute little dress- so you'll have to ignore the strange expression on my face!

Sara and her cute little girl Maddie.

Heather and Brenna.  (we were lucky to have lots of cute baby girls at the shower)

Laura and Natalie.

Tausha, Lily, Julie and Zoe. (still more cute little girls at the shower)

Kelly and Becca.

I know my picture captions were pretty boring, sorry.  The more pregnant I get, the less creative I am.  Thanks again everyone for a great day.

Farewell to Summer

Summer is officially over and we are slowly getting back to a normal routine.  I have been a slacker at blogging and I have a bunch of random pictures of us saying, "farewell to Summer." School is back in full swing for all of the boys, and I never gave Colby an official "first day of school" blog entry.  This is probably because he started school this year in JULY- which just didn't seem quite right.  So far, Colby is enjoying his third year and loves all of the clinical and hands on learning that he gets to do. I was less than thrilled when he brought home pigs' feet to suture in our "nursery,"  but Ammon and Carter thought it was great!

As you can see, the "nursery" is now doubling as an office/sewing room/study room/storage room/pigs' feet suturing room. We have a lot of work to do before this baby girl is born.

We have also been trying to take advantage of the last little bit of nice weather before the nasty Iowa Winter hits.  Sunday we went on a LONG walk on the beautiful trails in the area.  Ammon rode his bike and Cart ran almost the entire time, we think there is a possibility of cross country running in his future.

Labor day weekend, we took the boys miniature golfing.

We also talked the Campbells into joining us for a Saturday at Adventureland.  Believe it or not, I took four pictures of these boys together and this is the one that turned out the best.

Ammon also started his fall soccer season.  Colby is coaching Ammon's team this season, which means that Carter also gets to play (at least at practice). Carter loves being one of the big boys and grins from ear to ear while he is playing.

One more picture of the beautiful Iowa trails. 

We hope you have all been enjoying the end of Summer/beginning of Fall as much as we have.