The Joys of a Three Year Old

This last weekend we dove in and began a much needed project. Keira and a friend had "helped" our wallpaper in an attempt to make a "nest for a spider". I really don't know what that means except they thought they were being helpers. They ended up peeling a 4'x4' section of the wallpaper off in our dining area. Silly me, I was in the other room thinking they were eating their lunch.

With our fall party just days away we needed a quick fix and fast. Saturday afternoon we began stripping the wallpaper which, thankfully, came off very easily. I ran down to Home Depot for some paint and picked a color to match our wallpaper, I chose Haystack. I began to paint and realized quickly that the lemon color on my wall was not a match to the color swatch I had picked out. John suggested giving it a chance and to go ahead and paint the second coat. By the end of the day the paint was dry... and still not a match. As we turned off lights in the kitchen before bed, I said "now it matches!"
So here is a picture of the finished color. We decided to just strip and paint only the one wall in an attempt to keep the project small. I have hopes of returning to Home Depot and coming home with the correct color of paint. For now this works, and I'm on the look out for a picture or item to cover the now large blank space. Any suggestions on what might look good there and not fall off the wall easily? I guess I should keep my eyes open at thrift stores for the next few weeks to get some ideas.

I'm the Mommy....sigh*

Mooooommmmmyyyy! Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy....Mooommmyyy! This is the sound I woke up to this morning. Keira was calling me. I tried to ignore it. I tried to pretend I didn't hear it. I hoped someone else would see what she needed. No luck. So after a few minutes of her serenade, I finally got up to see what the urgent need was. I found Keira sitting on the potty. "What do you need Keira?"

"I pooped."

I love potty training.

Soccer, Salsa and Applesauce... Oh My!

Saturday turned out to be one of the busiest days we'd had in a long time. The soccer season has officially started so we got up early and headed down to Mission School for Jonah's 9:00am game. They played the Foothill Lightning Bolts for their first game on a U-12 field. During one of the scuffles for the ball, Jonah was kicked above his knee with the bottom of a cleat. He was bruised and a little scraped but kept playing. Jonah plays left defender because he is left footed kicker. He did a good job running up and down the field and clearing the ball. Jonah's team won 5-1. Go Doom!

After soccer we picked up ingredients from the farmers market to make salsa. We'd decided last minute on Friday that Saturday had better be a salsa day or we might run out of time and not make any this year. We bought enough for 3 recipes, and at 4 quarts per recipe that's a lot of jars! John did all the prep and chopping while I took a nap. When I woke up I did the cooking, stirring and canning. I think we ended up with 23 jars of salsa in the end. By John's calculations that will last us over a year.
As it turns out, I needed to make applesauce also. My lovely visiting teacher was kind enough to drop off a box of apples for me earlier that week. Jonah and Katie John assisted me with the apple chopping, but I couldn't start them simmering just yet as it was time to start dinner. Oven burritos are a favorite at our house and are pretty quick to make. While the burrito insides were cooking on the stove I got out a box cake and made some birthday cake batter for a cake I needed to decorate for the next day. Then when the burritos were done, in went the cake. About an hour later the apples were on the stove and ready to go.

This weekend was also the 50th anniversary of our stake. There was a big open house at the stake center and there was a need for kids to sit in the fake primary so that passing tours of non-members could see what a primary looked like in action. Katie John and Sariah said they were willing to go, so while my apples were cooking I ran them down to the church building and dropped them off. I came back just in time for the first pot of apples to need "saucing". Keira was my on-looker as Jonah snapped a picture of me putting the apples through my colander. We had a fun time squishing the apples through until it was time for Keira to go to bed and for me to pick up the girls. The applesauce turned out wonderful and I'm so glad I made it!

Now for those of you who imagine that I'm normally like this on a Saturday... that is simply not the case. It just turns out that things fell into place to get done. It is so much better once things are done and out of the way! Now on to our Fall party!

New Baby News!

Things were really crazy this week as we waited for our ultrasound appointment. Our original appointment for Wednesday was canceled as of Monday, I had to wait until Tuesday to see if they could even get me an appointment the same day but at a different facility... maybe. I find out mid-morning that the news was good... whew! The new appointment was only one hour later than the original appointment and at a closer Kaiser. So John didn't have to reschedule his day off which was really nice.

We didn't tell the kids until yesterday morning that "today is the day" we find out if our new little one coming in January is a Boy or a Girl. All of them were really excited for school to be over with so they could hear the news.

John and I gathered everyone for a family meeting. I asked who thought it would be a girl (Jonah, Sariah and Keira) and then I asked who thought it would be a boy (John and Katie John). I split them into the separate groups boy/girl and had Keira reveal the news "a boy". At first Jonah didn't react. He thought Keira said the wrong thing, she should have said girl. Because it's always a girl. I had to convince him that the baby really was a boy and that he would finally have a brother. After that... he was really happy. The girls reacted well and are now asking me all sorts of questions about names for this baby and is the baby kicking and when can we feel the kicking. John made it a point to joke with the kids that they didn't notice that he voted for a boy, knowing that they all knew he knew. Jonah pointed out that he'd noticed, but thought that John was trying to throw everyone off track.

Since John and I have decided that this is our last little one and have made sure the kids are aware of our decision we've been getting interesting thoughts from them. Yesterday Sariah said, "how can this be our last baby? You can have babies until you're 60."

"Well Sariah, 60 years old is awfully old to be having a baby..."

"Ok, well at least until you're 50!" Sariah is showing high confidence in her answer at this point.

So in the end we struck a deal. After this baby we'll just wait and see if anymore babies come along. Sariah is very satisfied with that arrangement, she is content to wait and see. Jonah is happy to be finally getting a brother but he's made it clear he's hoping for the best "Mom, I really need TWO brothers!" Sorry Jonah. Katie John thinks she knows why this is our last baby. "It's because after this baby is born our van will be all filled up, we won't be able to fit any more babies in!" Good try Katie John.

So with all the girl or boy excitement handled, I can get on with the giant clothes giveaway as I will now happily dump all the girl clothes bins up to size 2T into the donation pile. And I will no longer have to store anything Keira grows out of! Yay for less stuff! Yay for bookend boys!

Scroll down for new posts!

I'm still working on my back log of posts. scroll down to see my new stuff. I added TEN new ones just today!

NEW POLL at the bottom of the page!

Missionary Jesse RWH !!

My brother Jesse has returned home from his Pittsburgh, PA mission!
This kids are waiting anxiously for everyone else as well as information on Jesse's flight, which we soon found out that was arriving EARLY!

Our first glimpses of him coming down the escalator.

We only had a few moments for hugs, chatting and pictures before he needed to rush off to the high council to be released.

Here is the whole group (me of course behind the camera) that came to the Sacramento Airport!
Back row: Emily, Joseph, Justin, Christina, Jonathan, Jesse, Mom, Dad, Julie, Keira, John
front row: Eden, Logan, Jonah, Grace, Max, Katie John, Mason, (in front of KJ and Mason) Paul and Sariah.

New Baby Cow!

On a visit out to Grandma Myrick's house we were able to see the new calf. Rosie, the cow had recently given birth right before our visit.
Keira and I have a fun time posing for a picture in the hay!
Sariah, Keira and Katie John were all able to pet the new calf and spend time learning about taking care of a momma and baby cow.

Daddy Daughter Dance

John took the girls to the "Daughter of my Heart" dance, a fun event our school hosted for Valentines Day. Katie John and Sariah have been looking forward to this "date night" with their dad for about two weeks. There was a chocolate fountain, pictures and tons of dancing. They really had a great time.

In 3D!

Jonah is checking out a comic book in 3D! The glasses looked so good on him I just had to take a picture!

Adventure Base 100

As a den leader for cub scouts I get to attend all the super cool activities that they do. This year the Boys Scouts are celebrating 100 years of scouting. The adventure base 100 is an event that we attended at Cal Expo. I escorted my little wolves around to each station, but occasionally was able to snap a picture of Jonah doing fun things like the ropes course (above). We saw a digital pinewood derby, tons of scouting memorabilia, did a ropes course, saw a short movie and took pictures in front of green screens.

This is Jonah and his friend Mitchell "white water rafting" for their picture.
I was able to have my picture take with the other attending den leaders, Joanne and Dara. What a good time we had, despite the long walk, downpour of rain and the gigantic puddles!

Katie John has reading glasses! She is super happy to wear her new glasses anytime she can. She has a pair for school and a pair for home. Her reading improved on the first day she took them to school!

Christmas Rings!

When I was growing up we always made Christmas chains. This year will be our first Christmas at home so we are continuing all the fun traditions that we can!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year. It's fun to visit family and to let the kids run free with cousins while John and I are able to rest a little and chat. The family dinner tradition has always been on Thanksgiving @ 1:00pm. Those of us that make it bring side dishes or veggies to help round out the meal. My mom always makes a giant 25 lb. turkey, a big bowl of pink jello and of course an extra tray of stuffing! Grandma Betty always brings the pies for dessert. A fun tradition that started several years ago (I think my sister Angela started this) we began a "Thankful List" on which we write down all the things we are thankful for. The butcher paper is always filled by the end of the day. I am thankful for my family, friends, our house, John's job, being able to be and like being a stay-at-home mom, being healthy and of course my super helpful, caring, huggable other half, John.

Missionary James

My brother James is going on a Mission to Sophia Bulgaria! As he opened his mission call my sister Christina said "he's probably going to Bulgaria or someplace." She totally called it!

He is the most excited person I've ever seen going on a mission. He is truly happy to finally be a missionary! At his farewell party we got a taste of the Bulgarian language. In his excitement he's already started learning the alphabet and some words. It's definitely not a Latin based language!

Finally a Missionary

James was set apart last night with a lot of family showing up for support. He is now a real missionary and will leave for the MTC Tuesday. Thank you James for being a good example to Jonah!