Work

This week Tyler had some excitement when the company next to his caught on fire. This wasn't just a little fire either, and he ended up being "forced" by firefighters to evacuate his building and go home. It was scary to get a call from him and then see the huge blaze on the news but at least it was in that order. And I am so glad the firefighters were able to contain it and no one was seriously injured by it. Here is the picture he took of Farnsworth Wholesale Company on fire.

I also had some "excitement" this week with my job. My boss (who is also the only other tutor) told me this week that she took a teaching job again. She is going to be working full time as a reading specialist this coming school year but she wants to keep her tutoring company. That means that I will get a lot of her clients so I probably won't have to sub anymore. Yeah! So glad because subbing was not going to work well when I have a nursing baby to feed (inconsistent breaks would make pumping hard). It will also be nice that my boss will finally have to let go of some control a little too, I like being independent :) This is truly perfect timing and I feel so blessed! 

Cleaning

Lately I've been thinking that maybe I should just shift rooms and have Steven take the guest room, Ben take Steven's room & the baby in Ben's room.( I'm really worried that nap time will die when the boys share a room.) But that thought always involved the intimidating job of clearing out all the junk from the guest room so I was set on the boys sharing a room....until I went crazy yesterday and majorly cleaned out the room. Now it consists of bedroom furniture & a few storage bins. If you had seen it before, I promise you'd be impressed by me! After all (by myself) I moved a bookshelf into my bedroom, took all my old school supplies and organized them into cupboards in my bedroom, and dealt with other miscellaneous items. 

The sad part, is that after all that work, I presented this bedroom as an option to Steven and he turned it down. He is dead set on having a bunk bed with Ben and I'm not sure I can convince him otherwise. Although he may not have a choice depending on what we decided to do. And I guess even if he doesn't sleep there, it is nice to have an empty guest room.

Also, in all this fiasco I managed to get Tyler to do a DI run, getting rid of some stuff that's been hanging around for too long AND I managed to get Tyler to FINALLY hang up the mirror above my dresser. After 3 years of it sitting on our bedroom floor, it is now where it belongs. YAY!

The cleaning also involved going through a container of Tyler's old thing. Basically his parents had thrown all the contents of his old room in it and there were some interesting finds. Like his old retainer.... Oddly enough (or should I say disgustingly enough) Ben has taken to carrying it around and even went to sleep with it last night...

Giving In To Temptation...

After I did initiatories at the temple I had some time left before I needed to pick up my boys so I decided to stop by Carter's which wasn't too far from the temple. I love the way Carter's clothing fits my boys so I just though I would have a look at their girl's stuff. Just a look...

Mistake! I knew as soon as I walked in and my eyes made contact with the large sale signs posted everywhere, bragging of deals from 50-70% off, that I was in trouble. Just as I was thinking about calling my mom to tell her what big trouble I was in, who should call me but her! And as I said "hello" I heard her voice respond- in the store! We were now both in trouble.

Seeing how little I am working this summer and how broke we are, I was very naughty and spent too much money but I like to tell Tyler that I just needed to get it out of my system. And at least I chose to get it out of my system by purchasing things that were way good bargains. My mother, of course, also made a couple of purchases and below you can see our spoils. This is going to be one amazingly well dressed little girl. And one amazingly broke mama...

Blessings

I am so blessed! I haven't even known a week that I have a little girl on the way and already I have TONS of little girl things. Thanks to my good friend Karen Eberhard and my mom (who had clothes from my niece) Ben's closet (poor kid!) is full of dresses, jackets and sweaters. And that doesn't even account for all the onesies, pants, shorts, sleepers, shoes, etc. that I was given. I spent all of Saturday afternoon giggling over pink & frilly things as I organized what I was given into my own mad system. If you went into our spare/guest/storage bedroom you may think it looks a bit chaotic  but I promise, it is extremely organized!

Saturday afternoon was eye opening for 2 reasons. 1: It helped me realize I don't need to spend money we don't have. We have the essentials which is such a blessing. 2: I realized what a completely new world I'm stepping into. I have never needed to use the boys closet except to hang maybe a suit or  two. Now I have filled up a closet. My boys have usually owned only one or two pairs of shoes that fit at a time, my little girl already has WAY more than that. I have never had to concern myself with hair, now I have a baggie and jar full of bows. Not to mention the beauty of flowers, lace, ruffles, pink and purple. I am so excited (and a bit nervous) for all this newness!

The other blessing we received this weekend was a new couch! Well...new to us! Tyler's parent's got a new couch and were kind enough to give us their old one. They had already given us it's love seat awhile back and now we are super excited to have its matching couch and chair. Our old couch has definitely been through the ringer and we are not feeling any pains to let it go. Yeah for a fancy new leather couch!

And just because I don't want to leave out my boys. Here's a cute picture of Ben after he picked out what clothes he wanted to wear. And then a picture of Steven being invisible. 

My Baby Girl

Yesterday at 19 weeks along, I had my second ultrasound. This time I brought along a whole crew: Tyler, my mom, Steven and Ben. This doctor's office is SO much more child friendly than my last one and the boys had no problem waiting because they were able to watch "Up" and play with Mr. Potato Heads. When we went back to our room, Steven was disappointed that he couldn't stand by me and he remained focused on that throughout. Ben had his Grams and Daddy so he was pretty content to just sit with them. He really had no clue what was going on.

When it came time for the gender reveal I could hardly believe it when they told me I was having a girl! I was so sure I was in for my third boy that I even asked, "Are you sure!?" (while crying). She replied that of course you won't know for sure until it comes out but there certainly was nothing between my little one's legs. So I don't have a 100% guarantee but I have more of a guarantee than I have ever had before. 

This will be the first grand daughter on Tyler's side- she'll have 4 boy cousins and her 2 brothers to  contend with. Poor thing will be outnumbered but I am sure she will be spoiled enough to make up for it. It is taking every ounce of my self control not to go out there and buy every cute girl item I have been dying to buy for years but I have remained strong. We'll see how I do throughout the course of this pregnancy and when she makes her presence. 

Right now I am content to dream big about how I'll decorate her room and think about names, Lucy or Abigail. And I love being able to remind my boys constantly that they are going to have a little sister. Steven claims that he's happy it's a girl, although he is sad he won't be able to name it Jayden or Jacob Two Two. Really, I think we're all excited for this sweet new baby and all the fun that will come with her!

San Diego 2012

Against my normal cheapness, my better judgement and my own smartness I planned a last minute trip to San Diego. Savings is for having fun right!? I know we will be rolling in bills soon due to an upcoming baby but I have to say that it was SO worth it. There was minimal child drama, for the most part they were really well behaved and I found myself wanting to stay another day...or 2.

Day 1: Drive & Seaport Village: Highlights:

•  A nice gentleman gave the boys a pirate kitty kite to fly. Then of course he held out a tip jar when they were done...so kind :)
• The boys loved posing by a naked statue/fountain.
• An excellent shop owner let our boys play with balls inside a store.
• An excellent grandpa like man entertained our children while we ate dinner.
• Walking along the pier.
• Enchiladas and pretzels.

Day 2: San Diego Zoo: Highlights & Such:

• A peacock showing off its feathers.
• A vulture coming to say "hello." So ugly!
• Watching an elephant get a manicure.
• Riding on the skyfari. I have an issue with heights apparently. I made Steven hold my hand and would not let him move. He probably wished he had sat by his daddy...
• Eating cotton candy! It cheered everyone up- Steven immediately stopped complaining about wanting to go back to "the big house." (his name for the hotel)
• Steven grabbing a gorilla statue's breast and exclaiming "These are for milk!?" Oi!
• The happiness that Cheetos' fingers bring!
• Seeing a real live Kung Fu Panda!
• After our feet could walk no longer, we took a bus tour and saw all the animals. Surprisingly you really could see the animals and surprisingly the boys behaved the whole ride.

Night of Day 2: Event:

• The boys clunked heads together. It was super sad because they hit right on a bump Ben already had and his forehead swelled back up. However they did normally sleep pretty peacefully together and Ben only fell off the bed once...

Day 3: Balboa Island & Beach: Highlights & Such:

• Riding the ferry. Ben was amazed by the "Big boats!!" 
• Buying a butt load of salt water taffy at the Balboa Island Candy Shop. Which btw I have already devoured almost half of. I am so addicted!
• Also satisfying my undying sweet tooth with ice cream. It's really not the best idea to travel pregnant- super expensive!
• Steven's ridiculous lollipop face. It looks like he's in pain but truly, he's enjoying it.
• Watching Steven and Tyler chase the waves and ride them.
• Watching Ben fill up buckets with sand but insist that they shouldn't be tipped over.
• Seeing a family of dolphins close to the coast.
• Watching Ben get clobbered as a big wave hit the sand castle his dad and brother had built around him (not a highlight).
• Watching a man with a hydro jet pack face plant it.

*Sad to say that my camera's battery died while on the beach so I didn't get pictures of the dolphins or the hydro jet pack :(

Night of Day 3: Event:

• Keshia & Scott were in San Diego too and we got to meet up with them on Mission Bay Beach. Keshia played some Badminton with our boys and they did splendidly. I may need to invest in some racquets and birdies. 

Day 4: Travel Home: Events:

• We got a phone call at 9am from the hotel manager telling us there were complaints about our children being too loud. I'm sorry my child was crying (lasted maybe 3min). Next time I will be sure to gag him!?
• My bumper started to fall off on the drive home- apparently a little fender bender I had with my father's truck didn't do well for my van's bumper. Luckily we were able to stop and get duck tape. Duck tape solves everything :)
• We managed to have a speedy, smooth drive home and only had to stop once- it was great!