DAellsworths

2 VS 3

2012-01-26T11:56:00.000-08:00

So I should have added this to the last post, but I published it too quickly since I was in a rush to get up to the baby.

It's interesting that I feel the transition from 2 to 3 is easier than from 1 to 2, in that I haven't had the baby blues like I did with the others. At least so far...

I'm trying to figure out why.
Is it because
1. My mom was here for 2 weeks helping to get the house in order for little William to come and then helping so much after he came? (And she basically potty trained Tristen before leaving to go back to AZ!)
OR
2. Because the Relief Society in the branch set up and had 9 people bring us dinner after my mom went home?!
OR
3. All our friends out here have been great at checking in to see how we're doing and being thoughtful to take the boys here and there?
OR
4. A great husband who is mindful of being helpful by getting dinner together some nights and to help get the boys ready for bed if I'm feeding the wee one?
OR
5. Kalvin who is old enough to really be a great help by getting diapers for the baby or giving him his binky?
OR
6. It being too cold outside to play so I don't feel bad not getting out?
OR
7. My primary counselors being willing to take over primary responsibilities for 3 weeks.
OR
8. That William sleeps pretty well at night (first stretch is at least 4 hours and then every 3 after that)
OR
9. That BOTH Kalvin and Tristen will watch cartoons if I am deathly tired.
OR
10. That we have a darling, healthy baby boy?

Probably a little of all of the above.

We are very blessed!

(picture taken at 3 days old)

At three weeks now, he's squeezing into this outfit. We'll probably have to retire it in the next week... :-(

William's Photo Shoot!

2012-01-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

So these pictures are a little old maybe, but I've been kinda tired and out of it lately...

Let's see, William was 3 days old in these pictures. I took them while the rest of the family were at church. I spent about 2 hours prepping and getting the shots, but he never really fell asleep, the little stinker! After 2 hours we were both pooped and took a 30 minute nap together till everyone came home from church.

The day after I took the above pictures, a friend in the branch gave me some knitted photo props. Fun! I had to try them in a shoot as well. I took these pictures at 8 days old and again he would NOT fall asleep. I took them during Tristen's nap the day after my mom went home.

I felt bad because Kalvin was with me and wanted to be included in the session as well (either with being in the pictures or using the camera to take the pictures), but I really just wanted to get photos of the baby. I did let him in some of the pictures when he'd beg, basically.

Me+Tired=Not a Patient/Nice Mom

Trying to comfort a sad baby... ah...

Kalvin actually did a good job getting this shot of William and I.

We love little William! He is a good baby, really and I don't have much to complain about. His record so far for night time sleeping was just a couple nights ago. He went 6 hours at 2 weeks old, wahoo! He usually sleeps at least 4 hours at first at night and then wakes up close to 3 hours later twice before getting up for the morning (about 1.5 hours). I'm extra hopeful that he will continue his good sleeping patterns. He is fairly content during the day as well and doesn't mind his brothers running around the house making lots of noise (Grandma Mickelson is a witness of how loud they really are...).

He's naturally fallen into a pattern of waking up in the evenings, then I give him a bath about 8 when the other boys go down to bed and then I nurse him before he goes to bed around 9.

He sleeps in a baby swing right next to my bed. I can easily see him and get him when he wakes up in the night. Duane seems to be doing alright at night with William waking up. I get him up before he's full out crying so we are fairly quiet.

Kalvin loves his new brother and is usually the first on scene to help put the binky in his mouth or find anything out of place that he can help with. Tristen is getting more use to sharing Mommy. He woke up pretty grumpy a couple times from naps and upset that I was holding the baby and not him.

Sadly, the boys watch more cartoons with mom being preoccupied with sleeping in the mornings or feeding the baby.

Well, baby's up and ready to eat, gotta run!

William Duane Ellsworth

2012-01-17T14:03:00.000-08:00

William's Birth Story and where the name came from.

Several months ago we had Stake Conference and one of the men who spoke from the stake talked about how he was named after his grandfather, I believe. His grandfather asked what he (the man speaking) had done with his (the Grandfather's) name. It got me thinking... our other two boys first names are names we picked only because we liked the sound of them. This time around I wanted our child's first name to be the same as someone significant so we could tell him stories of this person and how he (our child) could live up to this name. The name William first struck me after listening to I think a Mormon Message about William Tyndale. He was the main man in translating the Bible to English and was burned at the stake for it. We also had a friend in Med School who named their son William and nick named him Will. I liked it.

In November, my Grandma Mickelson passed away. Her funeral was inspirational! She lived an amazing life of caring for and serving others as well as keeping a strong testimony of the Savior. After pondering the wonderful things she did in her life, my thought of naming our next son after a family member was solidified; the amazing people in our lives and those who lived before us to make our lives possible, should not be forgotten. After coming home from Arizona on December 1st, I pulled out all the family history books we have from ancestors and looked through the names and read many many stories of remarkable people. After going through many pages and learning of so many deceased family members, we stuck with William. Duane's, father's name was Edmund William Ellsworth. He lived a life of caring for others and thinking more of others needs than his own. This was apparent when at Thanksgiving he'd give all his turkeys away, saving none for himself.

After having William set in my mind, I moved on to a middle name. Again I looked over the famly history books and names and couldn't decide on one name to go with William. After again pondering and thinking of the great family that we have and questioning, "Who do I want our son to hear stories about and who's example can he follow?", Duane's name came to mind. I love my husband. He is a great example of patience and charity to me and our children. I've always said that if our children can grow up to follow their father's example (as apposed to mine...) and to be just like him, they'll be set!

I ran the name by Duane and he wasn't apposed and so William Duane it is!

I really do not see him becoming a Bill or Billy. Instead, we've come up with a few of our own favorite nicknames. The first was just moments after being born; One-Eyed Willy. Just after being born, they placed William up on my chest and for several moments he only opened one eye. We laughed at this. He sure is a cutie! (missed getting a picture of it at birth)

I've also called him Little Man and then Will Man.

Duane's called him Willy.

Kalvin says "Will" "ee" "um". Very cute!

Tristen is pretty good at pronouncing his name as well since Grandma Mickelson helped him with it while we were still in the hospital.

And on to the birth story!

For each of my other two births, I was induced. It's kind of a bummer to not know what it's like to go through labor without having drugs throwing your body into unnatural contractions. So, like the other two births, I was really hoping for a natural labor (but didn't want him to come till his scheduled induction date because we were so busy with getting the rest of the house ready before his arrival). Well, the night before the scheduled induction, January 4, we all (Duane, me, my mom, Kalvin and Tristen) went out to Chili's for our last supper. We had a great time and I was feeling contractions starting at dinner and for the rest of the evening. Of course they were not very intense, but it was fun to feel them since with the other two I was pretty much strapped to a hospital bed while experiencing the contractions.

5 minute version of the birth:

* went to bed at 1 AM after finishing my blog posts about the attic (we had been working hard all day long and it took till 1 AM to get everything done that we wanted. No, that I wanted done).

* woke up at 4 AM with contractions that wouldn't let me sleep and timed them at 7-9 minutes apart and 1.5 minutes long

* got to the hospital at 7:50 to finalized paper work and insurance info

* talked to the nurse forever about my health history (didn't think I was an unhealthy person till I had to tell the hospital visits and surgeries I've had)

* had the doctor check me and then she broke my water at 9:03 when I was dilated to 3 cm and 80% effaced.

* Soon after she broke my water, they started pitocin (about 9:30 probably)

* 10:00ish, Duane went to get some breakfast

* 10:15ish, contractions were getting very intense, I told the nurse I'd like to have the epidural sooner than later

* Resident OB doc came in and check me, she said, "you have to be at least 4 cm for me to give you clearance for the epidural. I crossed my fingers. I was at 5 cm and 80% effaced.

* The nurse called for the anesthesiologist who was there quickly (THANK YOU!)

* They gave me the epidural (Duane got back from breakfast about half way through them giving me the epidural) and before the anesthesiologist left I could feel the urge to push.

* 11:12, The resident OB doc seemed annoyed that we would call her in again to check me so soon, but then proclaimed I was at 10 cm and ready to go.

* We waited what seemed to be an eternity for the attending doc to come deliver. The scheduled attending OB was in a C-section so they wanted me to wait till the other attending came.

* 11:48 William was born! Apgar 8/9 (came out blueish)

8 pounds, 10 ounces, 21 inches long

Moral of the story is, even if you've had two other babies where you've have to be induced, labor and delivery can go from 3cm and 80% to "ready to go" in just 2 hours and 9 minutes!

He was born on his 41 week birthday! Being slightly over cooked, his skin was peeling off and even now, almost two weeks later, we are fighting peeling skin.

He's got about as much hair as Kalvin had at birth. Then it all fell out at about 4 weeks. We'll see what William does with his hair.

Tired Mamma!

Duane was good to get a lot of pictures :-)

First picture with Baby William.

Sometimes I make myself laugh! You can laugh at this picture too.

My nose is not so swollen now :0) so I look less like Little Miss Piggie.

The boys coming for their visit to see their baby!

Tristen was very enthusiastic about William at first asking to hold him.

Kalvin was curious and almost afraid to touch him to start.

The whole clan, happy or not.

Then Kalvin warmed up to the idea of sitting next to William, but still didn't want to touch him right away.

Maybe William's flaking skin was a little intimidating... not sure.

But he really wanted to see the umbilical cord (we had just looked through the entire book "A Child is Born" the night before that is VERY graphic and shows the growing baby from conception through birth. It's a very cool book, BTW.

Tristen soon lost interest and wanted to watch Ratatouille instead.

Grandma admiring her newest grandson.

Kalvin wanted a turn all to himself.

It was very sweet to see my mom with William she was talking away to him and he seemed to be talking right back with little coo's.

Tired Daddy!

William's skin was pretty red the first two days.

Mommy loving her time with baby!

William loves physical affection! I got up to go to the bathroom and William started crying. All Duane had to do was rub his tummy for a moment and he'd stop crying.

The doctors had to wait for William to pee before they could do the circumcision and he didn't pee till almost 24 hours after birth so we had to wait longer than I wanted to go home and then just after they finished the circ. and we thought we were good to go, the nurse informed us that we were waiting his billy ruben (sp?) lab to come through. It was kind of nice because Duane being a doctor at the hospital was able to call the lab from our room phone and inquire as to the current status of the lab and ultimately was able to have it expedited.

I was very anxious to get back to my own place and I really missed my boys! Kalvin and Daddy picked me up from the hospital.

This is Kalvin's latest smile. It's so funny, he says, "Isn't this a great smile, Mommy?!"

While we waited for them to let us go, Kalvin made use of the time by taking everyone's temperature.

Here is the Journal excerpt from the day after William's Birth:
(Basically a drawn out version to the details of the birth I have above and mostly for my own record)

My mom has been in town helping to prep the house for the baby that would soon come. She has been so helpful! The day before I was to be induced, she helped to sand the walls and paint them upstairs then we moved our furniture around. It felt so wonderful for it to look so great and to be organized. That night, we went out together as a family to Chili's to celebrate our Last Supper. I was having contractions through dinner and the rest of the night that were very mild, but encouraging that I was having them :-). We all had a good time. On the way home we stopped by Lowes to get some switches and outlets to finish up the upstairs. We didn't get home till about 9 and the boys weren't in bed till about 10 since Kalvin wanted to read the book A Child is Born. We talked all about how babies are born while looking at the pictures. Tristen had fun playing with his helicopters and airplane while we read.

After getting the boys down I went into the office to work on the blog (I really wanted to post about the attic updates before going to bed). I finished the posts close to midnight then went upstairs to see Duane finishing a show in bed. We went to bed close to 1AM. Then at 4 AM I was awakened to contractions. I started timing them at 7-9 minutes apart and 1.5 minutes long. I was in and out of sleep while timing them till 6:00 when I got up to go to the bathroom, put on my makeup and call the hospital to know what time I should come in.

The contractions had to me too excited to go back to sleep after the hospital let me know to come in at 7:30. I had a long time to put my makeup on and my mom came out and talked to me a little bit and let me know that she had a dream about the baby and that his hair was long blonde (she showed with her fingers that it was about 1/2" long). She wasn't sure if it was a "real" dream or just one that she had on her own. (Still don't know her feelings on this after meeting William in person).

Duane and I made it to the hospital at 7:50. We had to go over several things with registration before they sent us to our room.

The contractions I was having at this point were strong enough that I didn't really want to walk through them so we stopped on the way to our room to allow me to breathe during a contraction. The nurse, Buffy, took several more minutes to go over more things with me about my health. After Buffy was finished we had an OB resident check me. I was 3 cm dilated and 80 percent effaced (two days prior I was 1-2 cm dilated and "still pretty thick". I was happy with hearing about the progress and I asked if she would break my water. She broke my water at _____________. About 20 minutes after breaking my water, they started the pitocin and about 20 minutes after the pitocin was started, I began feeling more intense contractions. I told Buffy that the contractions were getting pretty intense and that I'd probably want to epidural sooner than later. Within 5 minutes the resident OB doc. was there. She let me know that I had to be dilated to at least a 4 before they'd give me the epidural. I was at a 5 and 90% effaced. The nurse called for anesthesia and they were there and ready in just a few minutes. All this had happened while Duane left for some breakfast (he was gone 25 minutes). He came back in the room to see I was having an epidural placed. The epidural took 20 minutes to really start working, but it was a neat experience because I could still feel the contractions they just didn't hurt. Within 25 minutes of getting the epidural, the nurse asked me if I felt anything down in my crotch. At first I didn't, but I let her know seconds later than I thought I did. She called for the resident to come check me again. The resident looked slightly annoyed that we would be calling for her again so soon, but when she checked she let the nurse know I was ready to go! 10 cm and fully effaced! So, from the time they broke my water (3cm) to 10 cm it was only 2 hours and 9 minutes!

Then I had to wait about 25 minutes for a doctor to get there so I could deliver. It felt like FOREVER! William. Dr. Bruce Clark came and William was out within 10 minutes. Just after Duane cut the cord, they put William up on my chest and I was able to hold him there for about 5 minutes before he got too cold and they had to put him under the heater. I loved this time we had together. I had been so excited to meet him. I loved listening to his cry. I'm not sure why I think newborn cries are so sweet. He is a tender hearted baby though and loves to be touched and spoken to. When he was just under an hour old my mom was able to hold and talk to him and she loved that as she spoke he talked right back.

All went well with the delivery. I tore only a little (a level one tear). The doctor said it was fairly superficial so I expect an easy recovery :-).

I was so excited for the boys to meet their little brother, William and just after I nursed him for the first time, my mom was at the hospital with the boys. I had sent Duane out in the hall to meet them when they came up. From inside on the bed I could hear Tristen yell from a distance, "Daddy!" followed by quick pitter patter of feet running down the hall. Duane let them all in the room and the boys came running. Tristen saw the baby and immediately said, "Hold him?! Hold him?!" I had Tristen come up on the bed with me and he was able to hold him. After a short time Tristen wanted down. He ran to the other side of the room where he saw Duane's XOOM tablet and asked, "Ratatouille?"

Kalvin was interested much longer. He asked, "Can I see his cute hands?" so we unwrapped William. Kalvin didn't really want to touch the baby for the first little bit. He asked questions and wanted to see my tummy. I showed him and he said, "but where did the baby pop out?" I explained that he came from my pee pee and Kalvin wanted to see that but I declined at his few attempts in asking for me to show him where the baby came out.

Kalvin was also very sad that I wouldn't be coming home with him and he posed the idea a couple times that they could take the baby home in the car seat.

The boys soon left with Grandma who took them to pick out toys at Target and to eat at McDonalds. I hear that Kalvin got a monster truck and Tristen got a helicopter. I talked on the phone with Kalvin for a few minutes this morning. I asked what cool things his monster truck can do and he said, "it's a surprise!". Kalvin is such a sweet boy. When we first got on the phone together he asked, "So Mom, how are you doing at the hospital?". He has always been very thoughtful just like his dad. I hope that he grows to follow in his father's footsteps as well. Tristen was fun to talk to on the phone as well. When I asked about him being a big boy because he is wearing underwear and going to the bathroom in the potty he replied, "Ummmm... no." I laughed and questioned if he really was not a big boy. He soon changed his mind.

It is now just 24 hours after giving birth and I am waiting to go home. We had to wait for William to pee this morning before the OBGYN was allowed to perform the circumcision. The procedure took only 10 minutes before Dr. Clark was back in the room and said that it went well. Now I am waiting an hour to see that the bleeding will stop and then the nurse will show me how to care for it before I am to leave. I have been very anxious to get home and to see my other boys as well. I miss them and their energetic personalities. I miss seeing Tristen's beautiful smile because he thinks so many things are funny. I miss Kalvin's creative mind coming up with games for he and Tristen to play. Soon I will be there with them though. I am also anxious to see how they do with William.

Actually, this morning, my mom called to let me know that she is potty training Tristen. She said, "I'm sorry, I probably should have asked you first..." I am happy to have her try to potty train him. I just hope that the 6 days she has left here is long enough to get him fully trained cause it's gonna be hard for me for a little bit trying to be a good breastfeeder for William and a diligent at asking Tristen to go potty.

Albany Medical Center

2012-01-05T06:27:00.001-08:00

He's definitely coming today. Dilated to 3cm and and the doc just broke my water...BRING IT!!

Attic Update!

2012-01-04T19:14:00.001-08:00

Duane has been able to get a lot of time off work (December 31 to Jan. 8) as of late and because of this we've been able to get a lot done on the attic as well :-)

Since the last attic update a lot has happened:
* We've had carpet installed

* We (Duane and I) are moved up there!

* We've finished painting and re-mudding and re-sanding the walls
* All the outlets are in (as of about 10 minutes ago)
* And probably others that I can't think of right now

Here are pictures from this morning before my mom and I sanded the walls and painted:

My closet (the smaller of the two)

Not sure that you care to see both sides of my closet, but oh well. Oh and Duane just put these nice lights in for me, two days ago it's been great to be able to see much better :-)

Here's how we had the room set up 12 hours ago...

This is Duane's closet; the much more intricate of the two by personal preference and design.

Inside Duane's closet.

Behind the knee walls in the large room of the suite, is a long hallway (about 20 feet) that the boys think is about the coolest hideout ever. They'll take a laptop, blanket and a snack back here sometimes and watch a movie while Duane and I work in the attic.

I asked Kalvin to roll up some of our leftover carpet from the instillation last week and he put it down in the tunnel. I thought it was a good idea so he and Tristen wouldn't have to crawl on the dirty planks. The light you see on the side is a ball I threw that bounced down the hideout while I took the 2 second picture (it's dark in the tunnels).

We hope that this will eventually be an office/play nook/theater (we will watch movies from our computer screen while laying on the love sac :-))

Here's the play nook where the boys have already stored their favorite toys.

A different angle of the nook.

Soon after cleaning up and taking the photos above, my mom and I got to work.

Duane snapped some while my mom and I were at work today (Duane worked on fixing our computer all day, and now it works so I can post this, yay!)

My mom and I finished sanding everything that Duane had mudded yesterday, then we got to work painting, followed by a good vacuum job to get all the mud dust up and then we rearranged the funiture. In all, it was a much bigger undertaking than I thought it would be lasting from about 11 this morning to about 6 tonight.

Here are pictures after working all day:

Notice that the furniture is moved? If it weren't cloudy out tonight we may be able to see the stars.

You can see that we still need to put rods in Duane's closet for clothes, but then it will be ready to go and I can take all his clothes out of my closet :-)

We didn't have to paint all the way to the carpet because some day we'll put the base boards in... :-)

The boys were not allowed upstairs as we painted, but Duane let them know they could see the surprise when we were all done. The anticipation was rough for them, but loved it when we were finished.

I love that my boys love playing with eachother :-)

(See video below)

I can hardly believe that we are up in the attic now. By the way, we really need to call it something else because saying we live in an attic really is an understatement to the way I feel about what we have up there. We have called it the master suite, but that sounds a little over the top, maybe. On the other hand, perhaps after countless hours of working diligently we have earned the privilege of calling it such. So from now till I decide later, it will be referred to as the suite.

Back to what I was saying... The idea of having the suite finished EVER, was incomprehensible about a year ago. Each project that seemed like it would be small, took longer than expected, it seems. It's almost like Duane's first year of medical school; I felt like we were never going to be finished with that part of our lives, but after what seemed more like 7 years, the four years of medical school were finished and were able to transition into another four year program, residency :-).

I don't know the words to express the happiness I feel knowing that we are now moved to our suite. Many of the thanks for our recent success in moving upstairs is due to my mom. She has been a great motivator and been more than willing to do all that I ask her to help with. Without her out here, there would be much less done in the attic, our house would look like a disaster, and the kids would have been eating cheetos and peanut butter sandwiches for days while watching Wall-E about 5 times a day as well.

Duane has been more than diligent in his efforts in the suite as well. His work is precise and very well thought out. We have two closets upstairs, the smaller one I designed for myself. It is simple and I am satisfied that it will fit my clothes easily (instead of being crammed into the one we had on the main level), but Duane's closet had much thought put into it. We had cheap shelving board I had purchased about a year ago for my own closet and that I used, but Duane could not comprehend using it in his own closet, so we made a trip to Lowes where he bought MDF or MFD or whatever it's called, and he spent the day getting it all just right. His closet will look very nice in the end AND it fits everything we need easily.

Well, it's late... actually I will be calling the hospital in just under 6 hours to see if I can come in to be induced, YAY! So, I better be off to bed. Check the blog tomorrow for updates on our hospital stay :-)
Loves,
Angie

New Years Eve

2012-01-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

My mom has come out to Albany! She arrived on Dec. 29, the baby's due date and we've loved every second having her here! She's made, I think, 100% of all the meal's we've had (if you don't include pouring ourselves cereal for breakfast), she's cleaned my house so beautifully a number of times and definitely provided great company. It's so been so wonderful to have her here to help get things ready for the baby! She and I have worked very hard to get the house in order for the baby and to rearrange the house since Duane and I have moved into the attic (there has been lots of moving things around)! (More on the attic in the next post)

As we were driving in the car running errands on New Years Eve during the day, Duane mentioned going to the movies. My mom said, "That's a great idea! You and Angie should go on a date together tonight!" and she continued the rest of the afternoon telling us how she was going to take care of and put the boys to bed so we could go out. That evening just after she made everyone dinner, she pushed us out the door as she sat on the couch with the boys reading them books before bedtime. She is so great! What an example of a mother to try to live up to!

My mom got a couple shots of us before we left for the night.

(Me=40 weeks + 2 days here)

Duane and I saw half of Sherlock Holmes: A game of Shadows till the audio went poopy then we went to Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol to finish the night.

The movie got out at 3 minutes to midnight so we didn't miss our New Years Kiss :-)

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T05:43:00.000-08:00

At our 3rd Annual Christmas Eve dinner at the Ettekals, Yashar made the entire dinner. We brought drinks, pie homemade toffee and sugar cookies.

The dinner was to die for! He made some kind of dill rice, mashed potatoes, salmon, chicken (little chickens), an awesome salad, and asperagas. We left with very full bellies.

Kalvin brought his helicopter to show Sonnet. He demonstrated how he is able to land it on Duane's hand. He's become quite the helicopter expert.

Tristen was very intreged by the train that goes around the tree and tried for at least 10 minutes to put it together.

After the delicious meal, the kids opened gifts from each other. Kalvin got a car and ramp and G.I. Joe.

And Tristen ate 3 sugar cookies.

Tristen got a car and G.I. Joe.

Then we acted out the Christmas story. Tristen was a wiseman, Sonnet was Mary, Sela was an angel and Kalvin was Joseph. It was cute to see them all dressed up and all the adults including the girls grandma and grandpa were tickled to death.

I was able to get a picture of our cool tree just before going to bed the Christmas Eve.

I love how the lights and shadows make a colorful glow.

Tristen was the first up on Christmas morning. He found the candies on the couch and watched a movie before Kalvin got up.

Just before the chaos of presents Duane read the note from Santa (he responded to Kalvin's letter to him)

and we took a family picture.

Christmas was great! You can see I got my vacuum. Duane spent hours online researching the best one and Christmas Eve morning we went to the vacuum store to try out the one we had our eye on, the Miele S7 Salsa. It looked great and Duane soon discovered he could buy it cheaper from them than anywhere online so we were able to make the purchase knowing we were getting a good deal.

Kalvin had constantly been asking for a Lazer Stunt Chaser weeks prior to Christmas. Santa tried to talk Mrs. Claus out of getting it because "$40 is too much", but Mrs. Claus saw how important this was to Kalvin. He even made up a little tune about it (the only words were Lazer Stunt Chaser, but he would sing about it often). When he saw Santa briefly at the mall (since there was no line), he told him that's what he wanted then Santa said, "Okay, what else do you want." Kalvin looked at him blankly. Christmas morning, Kalvin went straight to the RC car box to open it before Duane told him that he should open all the smaller gifts first. I guess all those times passing by the car at the store, he recognized the box shape. Needless to say, Kalvin slept with the Lazer Chaser that night and has hardly let it out of his sight for a moment. I would compare it to a girly girl getting a doll for Christmas. He'll hug it often and say, "I'm so happy to have my Lazer Stunt Chaser." We still need to write Santa a thank you note. In the end, I think Santa is happy Mrs. Claus got the car for Kalvin.

Tristen got an airplane that shoots bullets. He loves airplanes and helicopters so this has been a favorite.

These are the infamous toys. Kalvin's beloved Lazer Stunt Chaser and Tristen's FAVORITE airplane.

Thought I'd throw this last one in as well.

The mornings (and day's actually) here in Albany are pretty cold. We've kept our thermostat at about 64 to 65 degrees. Some days Tristen will run around in his underwear till we leave the house and I make him put clothes on, but other day's I'm able to talk him into grabbing his own clothes. The only problem with that is that he always reaches into the top drawes of the dresser and gets Kalvin's pants and shirts. So, I decided to label the drawers. It may look a little confusing, but the idea is that on the left of the drawer are the actual words that describe with the drawer holds and to the right are pictures they can read to know what's inside.

It's really helped Tristen to understand where his clothes are and where Kalvin's are because he's able to read them so now when he runs to get clothes, he get's the right size :-)

(I only had time to put this together because my mom had already cleaned the whole house!)

School and Belly

2011-12-27T04:53:00.000-08:00

So, I thought I'd just add these so in years to come I can remember this time in my life.

I bought Fruit Loops so we could make necklaces at preschool. The boys enjoyed stringing themsleves necklaces. Tristen was doing pretty good and then I helped him finish up.

Ready to pop! (38 weeks)

Attic Update

2011-12-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

We are getting carpet tomorrow! I can hardly believe it! There is still a lot to finish up the attic even after working today from 9:30AM to 5:30 PM we still need to paint some before we go to bed, Duane needs to finish putting down some screws into the OSB and in the morning I need to make sure there is a clear path for the men to get the 12' carpet up the stairs. This will be interesting to see how they get it up there.
So, for Christmas I asked for a new vaccuum. Duane got me a great vaccuum, indeed! It's no Kirby (in price), but I am more than pleased with it's performance. It is a Miele Salsa. It's amazing how much dirt we've captured in the bag just by vacuuming our suede sofa's and one 6'X9' rug. There has been so much junk stuck down in the carpet in Kalvin's room. I had no idea how bad our shop vac was (that's the vacuum I've been using the last 4-5 months since we only had three rugs and the rest is hard wood).
Notice the painted walls in the pictures done by the Jessee's with their paint sprayer.
I have full intentions of starting my move up on Wednesday. The carpet crew said they'd be done by tomorrow evening, then Duane and I will put in the closet rods and a couple shelves and then Wednesday I will start moving our clothes up. Duane will be working a 24 hour shift on Wednesday and will be home Thursday (the same day my mom comes into town). By that evening we should have our bed up there and my mom will have a twin mattress to sleep on in what is now our room. Busy. Busy. In just one week from this Thursday I will be induced at 41 weeks. Hopefully I go that long so I have plenty of time to get my house ready for this baby we still don't have a name for...
I am so excited for my mom to be out here! I know she's going to be a great help and motivator to get things ready for the little one.
Hopefully before the baby comes I will make time to post pictures of the carpet upstairs. And our closets full of our clothes and our bed. It will be great to be up there! :-)

Here is the bathroom this morning just before I started moving stuff in (so the carpet guys can't charge us for moving anything). Duane has been able to get all the OSB down in the bathroom, he got some more framing done and plumbing since the last post of pictures.

Then tonight after I filled it all up :-) Okay, Duane helped with the love sac and the sink...

While I was busy filling up the bathroom, Duane was busy putting up bead board, mudding, throwing more screws down on the OSB, and getting some more frame work on some of the closets; all together a lot of work.

The boys were up there tonight as I was taking pictures of it all cleaned up (I should have taken before pictures of the outside of the bathroom). You can see the boys are fighting over the helicopter and controller.

Duane had some finishing touches to make upstairs after our break to make a fire outside with leftover OSB and the boys brought up his tablet to watch a show together on the naked love sac (I'm washing the cover since it's SOOO dirty). I couldn't help but take a few pictures of them being cute together.

The boys love sitting one on each foot while Duane or I try to walk around. After a long day of working upstairs and going up and down the stairs, dragging them along was a little more difficult than usual, but they still enjoyed the ride even if it was more of a shuffle and me taking actual steps.

November Boston Temple Trip

2011-12-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

Just days before flying out to Arizona the Branch had a Temple Trip. Duane was working, but I and the boys got up early to make the 3 hour drive to the temple. It turned out to be a great day and the boys did great! I setup Duane's tablet on my center consol, got the audio working by putting one of those radio devices into the cigarrett lighter and tuning to the right station. It worked like a champ.
Anyway, I was able to do baptisms for the dead with 3 sisters in the branch (2 are sisters and one is a daughter). The two sisters together are one of my visiting teaching companions. They were all baptized themselves just before our family moved into the branch. They were going for the first time so I was able to help answer a lot of questions they had about the process and how it works. They are so tender hearted.
It is a special treat for the primary children as well when they get to see the temple. We had fun walking around the temple as reverently as we could with these 6 kiddos while some of their parents were in doing a temple session.

The picture of the woman here is another sister who was going for the first time as well. She is very sweet as well and actually came to be baptized for her mother who passed away about 10 years ago. She was so excited to finally get to the temple. She is now one of my primary teachers too! :)

December

2011-12-24T14:20:00.000-08:00

I got a new cell phone the day before I flew out to AZ and didn't seem to notice till after I had it that it does not take video which I'm very sad about. I could have switched phones, but never made the time while in AZ to do that. So, I've been taking lots of pictures on my phone instead.

I love all the random things about my boys that make them unique. In March, while in Mexico, Duane and I picked up this Spiderman cape. Tristen loves it!

He's turning into quite the superhero lover.

We still need to post updated pictures of the attic because while we were gone in Arizona, our friends, the Jessee's were kind enough to get a work crew together and have the whole upstairs sanding finished and actually painted before we got home! It was so wonderful! We will be getting carpet on Tuesday (WAHOO!) so I will take pictures just before they do that since we'll have the place cleaned up before they get here to start installing.

Since getting home from Arizona we've been very motivated to work hard upstairs and Duane has spent many a long nights working up there in the last few weeks.

Tristen has had fun a couple times "helping" with mudding in the bathroom.

I love these pictures of Tristen and Daddy working side by side.

One evening after a long day of working in the attic, Duane suggested we take the kids to The Melting Pot and to use a gift certificate we purchased from Restaurant.com. We had a good time considering trying to keep the boys in their seat for over an hour and a half.

A typical morning, cuddling with Loki.

My mom gave this nativity set to us a couple years ago. It's perfect! I found Tristen setting it up one morning.

Kalvin spent months saving his money from doing chores around the house (10 cents a chore) to buy this helicopter. Finally, soon after we got home from Arizona, he had saved $20 to buy this from Amazon.com. Way to go, Kalvin! All that hard work paid off and he now has his dream helicopter.

Tristen was equally as excited and kept calling it his own with Kalvin calmly explaining how he had saved his money to buy it. I need to post pictures and video of how well he does controlling it. After having it a few weeks he is able to control it well enough to land it in Duane's hand.

Tristen has a fascination with Super Why. He often puts on these glasses and his backpack and says "Super Why, Power to Read!". He is so serious while proclaiming this. Too cute!

Super Why eating spaghetti.

Tristen also loves to play "Doggy". Many times throughout the day, he and Kalvin will play doggy and owner with them switching roles periodically. Being at the store is no reason for Tristen to not bust out his doggy crawl. It's not my fave while we're out and about.

The other day I thought it'd be fun to take the boys to the Museum for fun since it's only a 5 minute drive, they get to run around and it's free with a carousel on the 4th floor. We brought along a friend, Logan, who Kalvin does school with twice a week and it made for a fun trip!

Tristen loved the "spinning" one.

On the way home from the museum Tristen thought it silly to put the Nilla Wafers on his eyes. The other boys joined in as well.

Duane and I have become very familiar with Lowes with our work project upstairs. Bringing Duane's tablet has been a lifesaver many times so we can think out loud with one another rather than chase the boys around the whole time.

Tristen found my Omega 3 Fish oils and Kalvin joined in on the funny face decorating.

Tristen does not mind a little lip gloss, in fact, he uses it any time I'll let him.

Taking Kalvin to school one morning.

Here Tristen took a picture of us while I was trying to get through school with Kalvin and Logan.

Cell Phone Pics from November

2011-12-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

Some times while we were in Arizona all I had on hand was my cell phone so here are some of those glimpses.

My parents cat, Magic, loves having anyone pet her since she doesn't get it often. She quickly learned to be afraid of Tristen.

Kalvin thought it was fun to put Uncle David's glasses on and run around the house saying, "I can't see!"

I think he looks like a Duane's cousin's son, Connor (2nd cousin?)

Too cute to pass up a picture of him sleeping only half way on the bed.

Sleeping kids are the cutest!

Memphis, David and Marisa's cat, learned fairly quickly as well that Tristen was not the softest, but this first morning we were there, he came right up to say hello (and probably wanted to get outside after being inside all night). Tristen was in heaven.

Tristen absolutely loved the bubble bath at Grandma and Grandpa's. You can't see it, but his cousin, Raquel was here watching him dunk his head in the bath of bubbles and jump up. She kept saying, "Again! Again!". Tristen didn't need much encouraging to play along.

I love watching my siblings enjoy my kiddos. Kevin took Tristen on a trip to Water and Ice about 1/3 mile from my parents house. He gave him a shoulder ride on the way there and walked next to him on the way home. Tristen enjoyed his time with Uncle Kevin and I thought it sweet that Kevin included him on this fun trip. Kevin really is going to make a great father. He's already great with kids and from what I see, he genuinely enjoys them.

Tristen put this sticker over his eye and said, "Pirate Treasure!" It made me think about how I don't want to pass up and miss the small, cute things my boys say now.

Arizona!

2011-12-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

Our family was able to get out to Arizona for Thanksgiving and my Grandma Mickelson's funera. It was a wonderful trip! I and the boys looked forward to being in Arizona for months previous and I felt like the trip was too short. We keep telling ourselves that we only have about a year and a half left out here, then we'll be back with our extended family.

Before Duane got out there, one of my good friends from the Albany 2nd Branch, McKenzi, was visiting her sister in Glendale for Thanksgiving so her and I we were able to get together during the day for the kids to play and then that night with just the girls. It was great to see her again and to catch up.

In the morning we took the kids to the park just up the street from my parents house to feed the ducks and play on the playground.

Tristen did so well sliding down the fireman pole, but it was a little far from the landing so I'd help him to the pole and he'd slide down himself.

As we got up to the playground, we found this man finding treasures. The kids loved watching him and the man found several treasures giving many of them away to the children. He told us it was therapeutic for him.

Then McKenzi and I got to go to Macayos for lunch while my mom kept an eye on all the kiddos.

That night we all went to the Scottsdale mall and enjoyed eating yogurt, walking around Apothecary and watching a movie.

Good times.

The boys were so excited to ride on Grandpa Mickelson's ATV's! I loved how Tristen was very serious about his rides and spoke only in a low, slow, gruff tone. It show's in the pictures.

Waiting for his turn...

Very Serious.

Bathtime with the cuz's.

Duane was supposed to follow me and the boys by two days, getting into town the evening before our anniversary. As it turned out, his first flight was delayed making him miss his second leg of the flight out to AZ so they kept him overnight at a hotel with an early flight in the morning. He got to us by about 1 PM, Nov. 18 (we were supposed to have gone on a date in the morning). There was no time for a date before that night (my grandma's viewing), but we did get to play in the irrigation!

Kalvin thought the water to be a little cold after riding down the big hill into the chilly water.

Duane soon brought out a plywood board for skiing on.

Tristen has been in a "doggy" stage where it's fun to be a dog. The water is no exception for an ideal place to play doggy. He loved the water and didn't seem to notice the cold.

Kalvin's first try at surfing.

Duane and Kalvin made it look like so much fun, I decided to join in.

Just before I tried for a second time, I took the phone out of my back pocket... good thing too, cause I lost it.

Then I figured I was already wet so I kept trying for a longer skid. It's hard getting around with a big belly!

Tristen had a good time with it too!

Then Duane took a dive.

It was funny that immediately after Duane fell in, Tristen wanted a running start to try his luck. He actually did pretty well.

That evening, my sister in law, Marisa, was kind enough to watch our boys while we went to the viewing. So, for our 6th anniversary that's what we did together, went to my Grandma's viewing though it was really nice to see extended family and my family was equally happy to see Duane for the first time in months. There was just one uncle who's house I stayed at for a week in Colorado a few years ago, who did not recognize me. I still laugh thinking about the situation. My brother, David, tapped me on my right shoulder and quickly ran to the left. I spun to my right and first saw my Uncle Marvin. He had a suspicious look on his face, though he looked like he was trying to hide that he had tapped my shoulder so I playfully said, "It was you. You did it." He looked at me blankly so I continued searching and saw David with a grin on his face a few feet away. In an attempt to avoid awkwardness I gave a small hug to my Uncle Marvin and quickly explained what happened. Then he said to me, "I'm sorry, I don't think I know who you are." Good times. He was clearly embarrassed when I told him who I was and he remembered me staying at his place (Duane was actually at his house for 3 weeks before I got there). I blame pregnancy balloon-ness (and maybe my haircut too) for him not recognizing me.

The following day was a big day. My grandma's funeral was in the morning/early afternoon, then I went to Marisa's baby shower, and then to the Mickelson Family Talent show that evening.

This is about the only "Candid" picture I have of the funeral. I was busy taking pictures for families and sadly didn't get any of my own family. I told myself I was too hungry to eat the delicious food than to take any more pictures of Duane and the kids.

Instead of having a sibling only dinner this year, Vaughn put together a Talent Show that was a definite success with so many fun talents from everyone.

Vaughn's kids played Heart and Soul together.

Maycee had some kind of poem with actions. cute.

Lydia showed how she was just learning to walk.

David did a trick on the swingset, flipping out backwards.

Kurtis recited a poem with actions. He said something about how he was supposed to do it in 6th grade, but never got around to memorizing it all so he wanted to do it now. Don't remember the poem name.

April and Blake did a cute dance together.

Ruth made this cute dress for Maycee to model.

Larry showed us his spiffy business attire that is, I think, all fireproof in some way.

My mom and dad did a version of the princess and the frog story. It made for good laughs.

Vaughn and Kindra had a piano, violin duet.

Kalvin didn't get any pictures that I have (though my mom may have taken a few), but read the book A Roar of a Snore. For not reading it for almost a month prior, he did pretty well (and with voice fluctuation in the right spots).

Tristen was bashfull.

My Grandma and Grandpa Brown came for the night and brought a huge variety of donuts. I had to put my face by this one. Huge!

My family wasn't all available at once at the funeral earlier that day, so we got a family shot in the rumpus room after the talent show.

Lydia. Cute as a button.

Most of the my Grandma Mickelson's things had been sifted through, but my dad brought home one piece of jewelry for every daughter and daughter in law to choose something. It was funny how crazy April, Ruth and Rachel got about how we should take turns choosing. It makes me not look forward to when we have to go through our own parents things. Anyway, we were all happy in the end, I think and we have this picture to show each of us showing the necklace or watch that we each picked.

I had a long list of things I needed to get from the second hand stores out in AZ so one morning I got to go shopping with Blake and April to a bunch of Savers and Goodwill stores while Duane took the kids to Camelback. After looking at the pictures of them enjoying themselves though I wished I would have gone with him. The Trift stores had all just had big sales I heard from Labor day and I hardly got anything because they didn't have much of a selection.

Duane said they made it all the way to the saddle and that the boys were great!

Number 1!

Seeing these pictures of Tristen jumping scares me cause I know how slippery the steps can be!

Just after Camelback we met at Bass Pro Shops where they had fun holiday games that were all free!

The boys loved holding Maycee's hand and I think she liked the attention as well.

Something about watching Kalvin look at and handle guns makes me think that I am looking at a little boy Duane. They have so many similarities.

Duane found some sunglasses in Don and Dia's car. AZ is too sunny to not have sunglasses.

On two different occasions Aunt Ruth took Tristen to the park to feed the ducks while riding in the basket of her bike. So fun! What a great Aunt!

I'm bummed that I don't have more pictures of Uncle David's helicopter, but Tristen absolutely loved watching it and holding another controller while "pretending" to control the helicopter himself.

I was feeling like I missed out on the Camelback experience so I talked Duane into going again though I shouldn't have pushed going because the second time around was much less wonderful. Fifteen minutes after we got going, Kalvin decided he needed to poop so he and Duane went back. Tristen and I made it almost all the way down before Duane and Kalvin were finished in the bathroom then we all took a different path on the hike. It's right at the beginning where instead of taking all the stairs, we took a right and ran into trouble.

The start:

So, after turning right and following the path for just a bit we found this big cliff-like incline that seemed to have a landing at the top. Kalvin took off to go up and Duane and Tristen were shortly behind. I was going to stay behind.

After Kalvin was about 3/4 of the way up we decided it probably wasn't the best idea, but Duane had to fetch him anyway and ended up taking Tristen the rest of the way up as well.

Lol. They were not happy to have to go down the steep and slippery side of the mountain. Duane took Tristen down first and by the time Tristen was down and Duane was coming back for Kalvin, he was crying.

It took about an hour to get down, but they all made it safely, thank goodness.

About the time that Duane had left to back and get Kalvin I discovered Tristen was terribly poopy and it was burning his bottom so he was not a happy camper going back to the car.

That night my sister watched our boys while we went to Rockin' R Ranch with the Ellsworth's and my parents. Yummy food and fun songs. :) The pregnant ladies, Marisa and I got to sit in the bucket seats of the van while the boys were in the back, a little squished. :)

The whole clan! DJ and Rachele had just left for Show Low and were not there though...

They asked if anyone was celebrating an anniversary or birthday so our family ratted us out and had us go up on stage (though our anniversary was about 5 days prior).

Then they asked my dad to come on stage later to show his skills.

Fun night together! Thanks Mom and Dad Ellsworth for the fun times together that night and always!

The next day was Thanksgiving and we had a good time at the Ellsworth's with all the cousin's. Uncle Justin brought some barrels he had put together for a big Ellsworth family reunion earlier and the kids loved being pulled behind the lawn mower.

Kalvin thought it was the best being able to drive it!

Then Fransica a friend of the family jumped with the kids as well!

We drove up to Show Low on Black Friday and stayed till Sunday. Kalvin tried a paint ball gun for the first time.

And the boys and I went exploring while Duane worked diligently on putting in a new projector and the security system.

Then on our way back we discovered what I think some of the other cousin's put together. A neat fort.

We got back into town just in time to see the temple lights with my family on Sunday.

I love seeing my siblings hang out with my kids.

I remember the days of texting friends all the time... both of them at it.

Tristen's getting good at Duane's tablet. This night he really wanted to sleep in this box.

I think Grandma is the one to get this going for the kids. They loved every second of going up and down the stairs on the mattress I just wish we had more time to do fun things like this while we were out there. Our vacation out there felt so busy.

Family, we will miss you till we get to come again! Maybe in May we can make an appearance just after school gets out. :-)

Gory- Beware!

2011-11-13T13:10:00.001-08:00

Those who don't like seeing cuts and blood, beware!

Last week, Kalvin was playing in the office closet while I was cleaning around the house. I walked by a few minutes after he first when in the closet and saw him standing in the middle of the office room with a surprised look on his face while looking down at his knee. It was cut about an inch wide and 1/8-1/4" deep. It wasn't bleeding profusely, but I knew it needed stitches so I called Duane to let him know I'd be coming into the ER.

After we talked on the phone a few minutes, he told me that if I could stop the bleeding it was not an emergency and that he'd stitch it up when he got home. I was able to stop the bleeding easy enough so when he got home at 8 that night he pulled from his backpack just about everything needed for surgery minus the surgeons table.

It was actually kind of fun to watch him at work.

It was actually kind of fun to watch him at work and took pictures of it all. Kalvin was excited as well and was a GREAT sport through the whole hour of working on his knee!

Just the salt water to flush it, first.

Then the mosquito pokes. The leftover Halloween candy came in handy here as I shoved it in his mouth every time he'd wail.

Is it mean that I think this picture is funny? Poor Kalvin...

Kalvin really was a trooper for the whole thing and stayed very still for the amount of pain that it seemed to be inflicting (by watching his facial expressions).

As I watched Kalvin lay here and take the pain in the tough way that he did, I thought, "Is this what it's like watching a pregnant lady give birth?..." Maybe kind of weird, but I kept trying to tell him things that I would want to hear. lol.

Then, three stitches...

By the end, he didn't really want to smile...

though he still gave funny faces.

And a kiss from Daddy as a way to say sorry for all the pokes.

The next night... Lookin' good!

A couple days after the stitches were put in, Duane took them out, but the very next day his wound was opened again just as big as it had been before, so he had to stitch it up again. Kalvin just can not slow down enough to let his knee heal!!! I think we'll leave the stitches in a while this time.

So, here's a quickie picture of Tristen. Found him in the kitchen with Loki this morning.

Attic updates!

2011-11-07T18:49:00.000-08:00

So, we are busy here getting ready for our trip to AZ. There is a lot to do in the attic since our Drywall guy bailed on us and decided the job was too hard... in 9 days I've probably put in 18 hours of work up in the attic. My muscles are very sore, but I can feel I'm getting stronger by scrubbing all the extra joint compound the drywall guy put on the wall. It's been a lot of work, but I'm going to fight to the end trying to get it done up there before baby #3 comes.
My goal was to have the walls paint ready by Saturday (yesterday), but even after all my hard work, I was not able to get it ready in time... :-( I still feel that the day ended well. We had our home teachers and missionaries come over and we by the end of the day, we had all the OSB put down on the floor. It was very encouraging having all that done! I didn't realize how great it would feel to have that finished, but it looks great! We are so thankful for our those who helped yesterday.

I gave Tristen an apple last night while we were working upstairs. He got creative with the screws we were using to get the OSB down.

Kalvin thought it looked fun so without me knowing he went downstairs for a second apple and put his on display as well.

Here's what it looks like right now... YAY for OSB!

You can see on the left the stairs that come up from the main floor. What you see here will be a study or some kind of office style area.

This view is from coming up the stairs (notice the boys artwork). On the far left is an opening for the AC unit (still not sure what kind of door we'll use to close this off). On the right is the bathroom that is far from done. I'm not concerned about getting totally finished before the baby comes (it would honestly be a miracle, between Duane's work shedule and me not having a clue as what to do in there).

Another view of the messy bathroom (the toilet will actually be on the opposite wall) hiding behind the shower).

Here's bedroom. It's clutery because we started laying the OSB here first, then moved everything from the "office" area to this side and didn't make it very organized.

Ao, today at church I was talking with the Jessee's (a great husband and wife who are retired, have been on a mission together and live outside the Branch boundaries but have been called to work with the YSA though they seem to make it their calling as well to fellowship and help EVERYONE!). The wife still works as a Real Estate Agent and they actually flip homes on the side. Anyway, so Brother Jessee said, "I've been recruiting a group of workers to come work in your attic". What a great couple they are! They want to help get it done before the baby comes. When he heard that we were leaving out of town in just 2 days, he said, "Would you mind leaving the key and we'll just work on it while you're gone...?"

What great friends we have here in the branch. We are so blessed to be so close to the members here. I desperately want to move up to our suite upstairs before the baby comes, because frankly I don't know after the baby comes when I will be motivated again to get it finished, so I told them they could come over while we were gone.

Really, the big things left to do before we could move our bed up there is to have the carpet put in and the walls painted. There is still more mudding and sanding to do before that though... not near as much as there was, but definitely not there yet. Life is so busy with Duane's schedule and the requirements he has to put together outside of his 10 hour workdays: presentations, an article for a journal that will be published, and studying for the cases the following day that I'm not sure how getting this attic done, will happen. All I know is that I would be thrilled to have it done and I'm going to do everything I can in my power to make it happen.

You're welcome to check up on me to keep me motivated to work up there!

October 2011

2011-11-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

It's become an anual tradition to make it to Liberty Ridge Farms. It was a little pricey: $10 each, minus Tristen, but we had a good time and the pumpkins were fairly cheap (50 cents a pound).

Just before leaving we were able to watch this big pumpkin canon. It launched that pumpkin so far! This is after the shot, but Tristen is still scared with his hands over his ears.

The boys were excited for the hampster wheels again. Tristen thought crawling better.

A new addition. A life-size spider web.

And of course the corn barn filled with dried corn kernels. The boys swam and jumped in it for about 15 minutes.

Duane took the camera for a few minutes and got a picture of me watching the boys in the corn.

They also have a big sand pile with lots of trucks that the boys liked to take up and down the hill.

And the race cars. Kalvin had one and I helped push Tristen (they are heavy!).

They called this the big pillow, I think. One boy (on the far right), was able to get all the kids to listen to him to pop him very high. I was impressed with Tristen being attentive and following the instructions.

Apparently, it says no somersaults, but Kalvin couldn't read those signs.

Just after the cornmaze, I snapped a quick picture of Kalvin and Tristen. This is what they do when I say, "hug for the picture".

Also, a new addition are these horse-looking swings. Kalvin was proud of using no hands.

As the boys were playing on the horse swings, I looked over to see Duane on the wooden bull. Kalvin hurried over as well because Daddy made it look like so much fun! Wouldn't you agree? Love it!

Duane gave Kalvin a quick run-down for how to lasso a bull.

He caught on pretty well.

Then, Duane went in for the kill.

The coolest Tunnel slide down a step hill.

What fun day it was at the farm. I think it was on a Friday early afternoon that we got there. I was surprised at the few numbers of kids and families that were there. Maybe we were too early in the season for the big crowds.

After getting home, Kalvin immediately wanted to carve his pumpkin. I tried to hold him back, but that only lasted about a day. So, his pumpkin was thrown away by the second week in October.

And... I forgot to get a picture of the final masterpiece... but it was the ghost patter you see here on the table next to him.

At the end of Halloween last year, I stalked up on supplies to throw a party this year. I invited a bunch of kids and mom's to my place for cupcake decorating. Only a few families showed up, but it made for a fairly relaxed environment.

Because I had over estimated how many kids would come, I ended up eating WAY too many cupcakes myself...

One thing I stalked up on last year after Halloween were glowing candle-looking lights to put in our pumpkins. Duane found another use for them.

Then Kalvin wanted to be apart of the fun, but couldn't hold them in his eye sockets, so Duane helped him out.

Then we just taped them to his closed eyes...

Loki is getting bigger! The boys love him to DEATH! Poor little cat has to put up with so much from the boys. Duane makes play time for the kitty after the kids have gone to bed every night though. He is a fun cat to tease when there are no kids around to snatch and scare him.

Duane is Loki's favorite, I'm sure. They like to tease each other.

Kalvin and Tristen will use a laser for Loki to chase as often as I let them get it out.

Kalvin makes sure to always have his cuddle time with Loki while watching a show (latest favorite show is Shaun the Sheep).

So, the other night, the boys were playing with these blocks. We hadn't seen Loki in a while, and somehow I looked from where we were playing with the blocks to see Loki in Kalvin's work desk right next to where we were.

The boys soon became curious as to what I was taking pictures of and soon discovered Loki. That was the end of that hiding place for the poor kitten.

I couldn't help but put together another Halloween party with kids dressed up in their costumes. We had it down at the church and actually, it was real easy. All I did was send out an email with ideas that I thought would be fun, told mom's to sign up to bring something or to help with a game and everything was taken care of so, none of us had more stress over putting something together than another because we all pitched in. This is my idea for partying!

First, I had some foam pumpkins for the boys to decorate while all the kiddos trickled in.

I was fairly busy getting supplies to gether that I didn't have much time to help Tristen with his pumpkin...

So, this is his pumpkin face.

Once I thought all the kids were there, we took a group picture. I think there were 19 kiddos.

And at least 11 moms. Fun!

I love that the three boys, Kalvin, Logan and Griffin were all in muscle costumes. Such boys!

Lots of yummy treats!

And fun decorated pumpkins!

One friend put together musical pumpkins. If you were standing on the number she called you got a bottle of bubbles! What kid does not want their own bubbles?!

Tristen could hardly wait for his number to be called and asked every time for a bubble bottle, only to be told to wait till his number was called.

Finally, he got what he'd been waiting for!

And made a new friend while he practiced his bubble blowing skills.

My big pregnant nose, and Tristen. Cute!

Pizza snake, so yummy too!

Another mom, did face decorating.

After the party, my friend took a picture of us outside.

Trying to get Kalvin to show his muscles...

Tristen loves our sandbox. It had just rained quite a bit a few days prior and made a nice thick much in our sandbox. The boys went at it.

I told them no throwing in the face, so what did they do?....

Kalvin was a little more timid about getting muddy so quickly, but thought dirty hands was fun.

Kalvin had dug a big hole about a week before so they took turns standing in it.

And pushing each other out of the way so they could have another turn...

Kalvin attempted a mud ball.

About a week after the mud playing, we had our first snow... Earliest snow here in about 20 years or something. So, even the local were shook up by it.

The boys had so much fun with it though! Kalvin has literally been asking since July when it would snow here again. I told him that it wouldn't snow till we got back from Arizona. whoops!

Tristen was a good sport about Kalvin's snowballs.

I love my boys!

Our Branch met with the first Ward for a trunk or Treat at the stake center. I've been two other years and they've both been a lot of fun. I was equally excited this year. Here's Tristen at a cookie decorating station. Yum!

The kids loved their cookies!

Tristen just makes me smile. :-)

We came up with the booth, Spider Surprise. It's a web with spider rings on it. According to which color spider they pick, they get a prize.

The two Spidermen.

A "haunted house".

A quick shot of us at the entrance to the cultural hall where the activities were before the treating.

After we got home, Tristen asked me to take off his costume. He thought it was so funny having green hair for a moment.

I spoke in church last Sunday. Thankfully, I had my talk ready to go the night before since Duane had to leave an hour before to shovel snow at the building. I had enough time to actually comb the boys hair. Tristen looked so cute in his jacket, I had to snap a picture before leaving. When I got out to our car, the battery was dead... so I called Duane to come jump us. So he came back home and helped us get there BEFORE church started. That's how every Sunday should go... (at least the getting to church early even if you have to wait for your hubby to come back home to jump your car).

The talk went well, except that I went over my time... oops. I'm usually fairly good at looking at the clock, but this time I wasn't as prepared so I was all over the place with my notes (though I think it ran fairly smoothly). My talk was probably almost 20 mins.

Isn't Tristen a stud?

Our only pictures from Halloween since I forgot the camera before the kids ran out the door. These were taken after we got back.

We had some friends from the branch for dinner that night. It was a lot of fun having them over for the evening.

I figure I've got to put a few pictures of myself on the blog before coming out to AZ so that you're not all scared to death when you see how big I am... :-(

Can you be allergic to pregnancy?

September 2011

2011-11-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

Ever since we went to Adirondack Extreme back in June/July, Kalvin has been very excited to someday be able to use a zipline for himself, so Duane got Kalvin a harness for his birthday (it can fit Tristen too though). We hooked them up to our clothesline in our backyard and the boys loved the feeling of being dangerous without the risk of falling all the way to the ground.

Kalvin was a little more nervous than Tristen (Tristen is still at the invincible stage where he doesn't know the dangers of some things).

To give some perspective at its height. It was probably a little over 8 feet high.

Vaccuum fun.

Call us crazy; we got a kitten.

He is a cute little guy. Duane named him Loki (after the god of mischief). I'm not sure why we chose to set ourselves up for having a mischievous cat, but it was better than the name they had for him at the vet; Damon.

Tristen loves all things soft, so a kitten is very tempting to squeeze.

It was cute to see Tristen go into my room, grab a pillow and put it next to Loki's bed so he could lay next to him for a few moments.

Then Kalvin took over the bed next to Loki's...

And Tristen got mad and attacked him.

Kalvin used to just take a beating from Tristen and walk away crying, but now Kalvin has found his less tender side and I have to break up brawls, daily. I still can't complain. I don't think they are either quite old enough to go at it all the time so they do have a lot of fun together still. I do not look forward to the day when they bicker and fight as much as I did with my siblings growing up.

Each year our branch makes a trip out to Seneca Lake (about a 3.5 hour drive from Albany and just a half an hour past Palmyra). I was so excited to go this year since I didn't have any real babies and being pregnant I'm making sure to get all my "lasts" in before the next little guy comes! I went up on Friday morning with a friend (since Duane had to work that day) and then Duane met us up there that night at almost 10PM. The sad part was that we left by early afternoon the next day, so Duane didn't get much of an outdoor experience, but I still think the trip was worth it (plus we stopped and got a shower door off CL on the way home, though doing so made the trip home almost 5 hours). I just keep thinking, at least we didn't have a little baby that we had to stop every other hour for. We are very excited for this baby boy we'll have very soon though despite what it may sound like... lol.

So, on Friday at Seneca Lake we went out on the lake with the paddle boat, row boat and canoe. The kids had a blast and I really enjoyed the cool water as well.

One of Kalvin's best buddies, Logan and his dad and another sister in the branch.

Logan's sister, Lucy was nice to hold on to Tristen's hand, just in case he had any bright ideas about abandoning ship.

Lots of kids to tug around. The one in the blue, is the girl I drove up with. Her hubby drove up with Duane later that night.

Great buds!

And... the boat! The kids LOVED the boat so much and Brother Jessee was so nice to be very generous with ride times for each group of kids. Having the Jessee's in the branch the last couple months has been so wonderful. They teach our kidstitute class for now, till the next older missionary couple comes in November. Kidstitute is an institute class for mom's to bring their kids to during the day. It is the greatest idea! So, Brother Jessee gives us the lesson while Sister Jessee stays in the back of the room with the children. She is so great at coming up with activities for them. A couple things she's done is to have them frost sugar cookies (which made them wild! lol), they decorated paper pumpkins, picked colorful leaves outside and glued them to paper, coloring, paper airplanes). Anyway, Kalvin has grown very fond of Brother Jessee and literally EVERY time we see's him, Kalvin tries to tell him why he needs to come to our house. A couple weeks ago it was that Kalvin wanted him to come play basketball (though we don't have a hoop) and a frequent phrase from Kalvin is, "You can come in our car if you want." This week, Kalvin was telling Brother Jessee that he was welcome to come see his train set and brother Jessee kindly declined saying that he would come when we could plan it out a little better (next Sunday). Brother Jessee did suggest that he could drive them home from Kidstitute though so we got the kids car seats out and they were able to ride in Brother Jessee's BIG truck back to our house after kidstitute. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the ride!

Well, back to Seneca Lake...

It was so great riding with the boys in the boat. I love being out on the lake in a boat and the boys seemed to love it just as much as I did.

Then the Jessee's got out the tubes and Kalvin could hardly wait for his ride. He went with a great bud, Logan.

About half way through (after I told Brother Jessee to speed things up), Logan decided he didn't like it much anymore and hid his face.

I thought it'd be fun to jump in with Tristen to go for a ride...

It really was not the best idea... being about 18 weeks pregnant, I decided not to go belly down and because of that, the first half of the ride Tristen was crying because we were getting splashed so much. The water was very cold... Once they got going a little faster, the water did not splash near as much and our ride was much more pleasant.

You can see how Tristen and I were just dragging... lol.

After I went, I decided to let Tristen try it on his own. He LOVED it! Of course Kalvin enjoyed it very much too. :-)

They just took things a little slower with the little guy on there, since I wasn't sure if Tristen would just decide to abandon ship.

All was good. Nearing the end of their ride I had looked away from them for a moment and when I turned back around, Tristen was gone. I didn't want to panick, but I asked around the boat if they saw if Tristen fell out. No one else knew either. Soon enough Tristen popped his head back up. He thought it was funny to pop up and down. Here you can see even after they stopped the ride Tristen was hiding on the bottom of the tube.

That night we had a fun campfire (that I was in charge of putting together). It was a lot of fun. We had a short spiritual thought by Brother Jessee and then played some games as the children roasted marshmallows for smores. I brought up a lot of hangers for roasting, but everyone seemed to have brought their own roasters. Tristen found use of all the other hangers that were not used...

The branch had a catered breakfast the next morning. It was yummy!

Then, we went out on the boat again. Here Tristen went with one of his buds, Lucas.

Duane got up to Seneca Lake late Friday night (about 10PM) then we were the last to leave camp at about 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, so his vacation was a bit short, but it was so worth the long drive.

Kalvin is not the most confident swimmer (AZ will fix him of that in a couple years), but his two buds had fun pulling him around in the kayak.

Duane went out for some fun on the tubs, he tried doing some tricks, but couldn't manage it with the odd triangle shape of the tube.

The boys went out again (Tristen is hiding).

Duane had a better idea to sit the other way with Tristen.

Our family in a canoe.

There is a tall 8ft. brick wall next to the lake that the boys couldn't stay away from... Here, Tristen is attempting to climb down to Duane.

Phew! September. Done.

October is even longer... but I've got to get it done before we leave for AZ in just 11 days! Wahoo! So excited for the trip and the boys are counting down with their paper chain. :-)

Buckingham Lake Park (August)

2011-10-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

This summer we discovered a park within a couple miles of our home, Buckingham Lake Park. There are ducks in a pond that surrounds the park and fountains that go off at random times (I've never figured out their schedule). We met a friend at the park one morning in August to feed the ducks. It was so fun watching the boys faces as they fed the ducks and tried to be brave by holding on to the food for the duck to come to them.

Kalvin may have been slightly intimidated sometimes...

Laughing probably after chasing the ducks around.

Kalvin getting brave.

Tristen thinking it's funny.

I love this look on Tristen's face when he gets serious. Makes me smile every time.

Arizona March 2011

2011-10-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

(This post was started back in March)
This Arizona trip has been a world of fun! I was telling Duane today that since I (and the kiddos) have been here for so long (about 5 weeks now), it feels like we actually live out here again and I can't imagine going back to Albany now. It's almost like Albany is just a dream and that Arizona is reality. Arizona will always be home.
Waiting for Duane to come out here as well was difficult, especially toward the end (since it was a full month before he joined us), but as hard as it was for me, I'm sure it was 10 times harder for Duane. He was all alone at home. I couldn't imagine being in his shoes. Work at the hospital, come home to eat some dinner, work on the attic, maybe study from his anesthesia book, and go to sleep alone. His strength and patience is nearly exhausting. Thank you, Honey, for keeping me happy and I am determined to recommit myself to not taking advantage of your kindness to me.

(Finishing post now, in October)

It's crazy to think that by the time we get back to AZ (in less than a month, WAHOO!!!) it will have been 8 whole months since we were there last!!! I never would have thought we could last this long away from home. It has been hard. I think the hardest part is hearing Kalvin talk about Arizona and all his cousins. He will still point out to me things about AZ that he remembers. Some things seem so simple, but they stuck out to him. There is a clock at Grandma/pa Ellsworth's house that is above their stairs. At the top of every hour it plays a special tune. It also has a little black button that you can push to hear it any other time you wish as well. Kalvin liked to push the button to hear the music and just a few days ago he was telling me about that clock. It was crazy because to me, it was something small that he did while there 7+months ago, but to him all these little memories are much more.

Things Kalvin is excited for about our trip back to AZ:

1. Seeing all his friends (cousins, granparents, aunts, uncles, etc)

2. Playing baseball with Stratton

3. Playing in Brighton and Adaira's backyard

4. Riding the ATV's (at both grandparents)

Things Tristen is excited for about the AZ trip:

1. The airplane ride. He LOVES all things that fly in the sky, though our last trip to AZ was funny as Tristen was petrified of landing (I may have laughed at him a lot while he tried to climb above me to somehow escape the approaching ground)!

Our sweet boys loving the cool morning on Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth's swing in the backyard.

Good times being pulled by the lawn mower.

Tristen obviously loved the ride.

Only boys would think of something as crazy as...

riding down the steep dirt hill in the back of Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth's backyard.

Duane is giving more rides behind the mower.

Duane found it funny to start driving while Kalvin was standing on the back board, to watch him fall over.

Still haven't decided which of these two pictures I like more. The motion of Kalvin and Duane moving, or Kalvin's confident pose while surfing behind the mower...

Climbing the grapefruit tree outside Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth's house.

A little irrigation.

Don't remember what this picture was from, just that Tristen is a cutie pie.

Playing in Grandma and Grandpa Mickelson's house. I could hardly believe how hard it was to keep my feet from dropping Kalvin. I look like I'm laughing or something in this picture, but really I'm yelling for someone to stop us so I wouldn't drop Kalvin on his head.

Hope the weather is nice for Thanksgiving visit!

Mother's Day (May 2011)

2011-10-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

So, the day after my fun trip to NYC with McKenzi, it was Mother's Day and Duane was on call. So, I got home at 2AM and Daune had to leave at 6AM to work his 24 hour shift. That day was hard at church running with little sleep, but Duane made it as easy on me as he could by having the house cleaned nicely and making me a Mother's Day cake with the boys (AKA, our breakfast Sunday morning). Also, Duane helped Kalvin write this cute card for me.

The triple layer cake was yummy :-). By afternoon I was a walking zombie, but I couldn't help but think of my thoughtful hubby. I am lucky to have a great eternal companion. :-)

NYC back in May

2011-10-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

I don't think I ever posted about this amazing trip I had back in MAY!

So, way back in May I went to NYC with a great friend, McKenzi. It was so much fun! We saw so many things and she is such an outgoing person, it made the trip perfectly awesome! The only down side to it all was that just a few days prior to leaving, I discovered that I was pregnant (after feeling nauseous and taking a pregnancy test). I still remember the strange food cravings I had. McKenzi had brought Twix candy bars which I typically LOVE, but every time she offered, I had no desire to eat them. Weird.
So, McKenzi is going to be a famous pro photographer someday for families and babies. She has a great personality for it (actually, she has a great personality for just about any field) and she has a naturally artistic eye. I only wish that she hadn't moved away so that she and I could create the greatest photography studio together.
I've got TONS of pictures from our trip. I'll try to remember and label which ones were taken by McKenzi.

So, the two of us drove to NYC with our bikes squished in the back of McKenzi's car, parked in a garage, and rode our bikes all over town, all the meanwhile, taking pictures.

Here we are just before leaving the garage. I totally miss my smaller figure... (10 more weeks till this baby is due!!!)

Just before getting going though, we stopped to go to the bathroom (you ladies know how early pregnancy is with peeing all the time). This is the fancy pot we found to relieve ourselves in. Notice the sign above the toilet.

It was neat riding our bikes through Central Park (that place is huge!).

We stopped for a bit here to watch this bubble guy. For a little bit, he was trying to teach this homeless man how he made the bubbles.

It was nice listening to this band play nice music from just next to the bubble guy.

I believe it was a Friday afternoon, so there were a few wedding/engagement sessions while we stopped to walk around at the park. I could not believe my eyes with this photographer. I mean, he looks totally ligit and high end professional, but look what he did with his camera! He took the lens off one camera and put it on another while leaving his second camera and lens totally exposed to the bubble juice! Sadly, just moments before he picked up the camera and lens a bubble popped just above the equipment (the photographer did not see this happen) and the photographer picked up the camera and lens, put it together and walked on to his next photo op area. I could hardly believe my eyes. I mean seriously, this guys pictures had to have major spots in them for the rest of the day, not to mention that it is thousands of dollars he put at risk for breaking. Hopefully he took a look at the pictures he was producing from this other camera eventually. How mean am I to not tell him what I saw happen?! I guess I just felt like he thought he owned the park ordering strangers to move from his shot (and I'm sure his army look intimidated me also). It was interesting though to watch many photographers interact with their subjects. I learned that even "high-end" looking photographers have malfunctions with their equipment and that they're not perfect...

That night we stopped by a hamburger restaurant that had broadway stars for waiters and waitresses. They sang songs. This guy game and sang part of a song to me. Clearly, I was embarrassed and didn't know how to react.

Just behind where McKenzi is sitting, some of the performers would walk.

After dinner, we took our bikes back to our car and walked the strip. Here we are on the steps at Times Square.

We sat on the steps a bit and watched some actors. It was a little strange, honestly as they took clips from lots of different broadway shows and put them together for a 30 minute show. I couldn't follow. I guess I don't know my broadway shows.

We left a little early from that show and I saw this lady wearing a pink ski suit (in MAY!). Seriously, you can get away with wearing some strange things in NYC, but this one just didn't make a bit of sense to me!

The next morning we got up, ate our very good complimentary breakfast from the hotel, and set out on our bikes!

(McKenzi)

Our first stop was China Town. I guess I imagined it differently. I thought China Town would have been a neighborhood of cheap Chinese trinkets, but I was wrong... I honestly felt like I had traveled across the world to China. Very few spoke English and it reeked of seafood.

These crabs were still climbing around.

An Asian market.

Dried sea creatures...

After a couple hours of Chinatown we made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge.

After the bridge, we walked around Brooklyn Heights which is a very cute neighborhood just beyond the bridge and where McKenzi served part of her mission for the church. Actually, she was serving here when the twin towers fell. She told me several miracle stories of members in her ward who were sparred one way or another from the devastation of that day.

Here we are on the Brooklyn side of things, at sunset facing the city. I love this shot of McKenzi!

After a bit, McKenzi and I switched lens's so she could try out one of my wider angle lens's. She made me laugh as she modeled her increased bosom size after putting the camera and lens safely down her shirt.

The trip was so much fun! We stayed very busy and by the end of it, I was completely exhausted! I remember coming home at 2AM and being so physically drained, but I couldn't fall asleep for a bit because I was so riled up from all our adventures!

I'm so excited to be able to see McKenzi again when we come to visit AZ in the next couple weeks since she'll be coming to visit her sister who lives in Glendale!

Cat's out of the bag! Here comes boy #3!

2011-08-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

Duane and I are expecting boy #3 on December 29, 2011! We are both very excited for this new addition to our family and so far ultrasounds have shown a very healthy baby. We waited so long to announce because I thought it would be fun to tell family once we new the gender of the baby. I will NEVER wait this long again to tell my family and Mom. It was so hard going through morning sickness and talking to my mom on the phone so much (we talk on the phone A LOT, mostly she listens about my life. She's such a great listener!) and not being able to tell her why it was I was complaining that I couldn't keep up with the house and boys, was near impossible.

It was a pretty depressing 2 months of my life being sick and seeing how dependent I was upon my husband to help out with dishes and the boys. My friends reassured me that it was okay for me to be taking a nap EVERY day after already having had 9 hours of sleep the night before, but I still couldn't help but think less of myself as a wife, mother and woman. Bleh!

A couple weeks after finding out I was expecting, I had a series of migraines that were off and on for about 4 weeks. For one of the loooong headaches, I was taking the max dose of tylenol every day for over one week, but with little relief and with new symptoms coming into play because of the migraine, like slight double vision and extreme sensitivity to synthetic odors. Toward the end of two weeks I had an appointment with my OB and she prescribed me a different pain med that cleared up the headache completely within less than two days! I was so grateful to have that because it was just in time for a wedding I was to shoot. Actually, the day I was to shoot the wedding, was the day the headache was alleviated. I was on the pain meds that whole day though and it made the day a little rough because the medication makes me tired and kind of loopy in a way. I was able to get through the wedding though and that was all I prayed to be able to do.

Early pregnancy is really the pits! But even though I struggled in so many ways, I did make up a gratitude list back in May so that I would remember more than just all the terrible things I felt. I've been waiting to share it on the blog since then.

The Plus Side to Morning sickness:
* I don't have the energy to yell at my kids or to be impatient (this was literally true on many occasions, especially when I was on my migraine medication!)
* I can't run a hundred miles an hour so I'm patient enough to let my kids play a little longer with what they are doing before I nicely transition them to get out the door. It's okay to be late.
* Noticing that children are aware of our feelings. (Here's an example story from June 9):
After throwing up a wonderful smoothie Duane had put together for me, I went to the living room to lie down. Kalvin had heard me in the bathroom with the upchucking and so soon after I came out to lie back down on the couch in the living room, he followed and began rubbing my feet. After a few seconds he ran off and within moments had returned with his blanket (something that is very special to him) and covered me from neck to toe, making sure there were no exposed parts and tucked me in all around. He asked, "Is that cosy?" Although I was not cold (it being June), I appreciated his compassion. He had some smoothie left over in his own cup so after climbing in the covers with me, we finished the drink together giggling and enjoying the cosiness of the blanket and moment. After Kalvin had enough mommy time, Tristen came over for a snuggle. So, there it was, even with a messy house all around me, I was still happy.

I really feel great now! I'm at that prime time in pregnancy where I'm not too big to get off the couch on my own and I have energy to clean my house. I really LOVE that I can clean my house now. It's really not perfect or even close to spick and span, but it feels so wonderful to be able to stand and do the dishes without wanting to barf looking at the small bits of left over food in the sink and to be able to drink a full glass of water without throwing it up because I drank too much at one time (I had to drink in very small portions in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, otherwise I'd be running to the bathroom for a vomit once it hit my stomach all at once, so I often felt thirsty).

Boy, I didn't know how much complaining I had to catch up on...

Duane was a wonderful husband and father through the very hard time. I remember him coming home one day from work and saying (as he was doing the dishes seconds after walking in the door), "I feel like it's a routine now. I come home and the first thing I do after giving the kids hugs and you a kiss, is to sweep the floor and then to do the dishes in the sink." He said it in the most positive way, but it still made me feel bad that I just couldn't get myself together enough to have those two things done just ONE day in 2 months. I couldn't imagine being sick for the entire pregnancy like some women have to endure!

Well, anyway, on to the pictures! The ultrasound tech wouldn't let us take a video or pictures during the ultrasound and the DVD they gave us only had video footage so I had to take pictures of the pictures they gave us. Lame!

It was great to see that the little guy in me has all his limbs and the technician said his heart looks great (I had been very nervous that he'd me missing an arm. Weird.). The boys were not overly excited about the announcement of a new sibling and Tristen had no idea what was going on, but Kalvin has mentioned to a few people on the street that there is a baby in my tummy.

It was not the most flattering moment having Duane take pictures of me. Seriously, my belly section looks more like after baby gut than baby bump. I tried all the angles and Duane was very patient with my frustrations, but here's the best I could come up with:

I was 19 weeks when Duane took the pictures last week. So, I think I kind of cheated by having my white shirt blend in with the background... Also, according to my weekly emails, at 19 weeks the baby should measure 6 inches long, hens the tape measure to the belly shot.

So, I've seriously been wanting a baby girl for a long time and in fact, I painted a room purple in our home over a year ago, for just the occasion when we did have a girl. In the first several weeks of being pregnant I desperately wanted a girl, for mere selfish reasons, but as the weeks past, I eventually became afraid that I would have a girl. I feel there is an expectation of cuteness with girls that I wasn't sure I'd be able to live up to with bows in their hair always and the way cute matching outfits, etc. Well, by the day that the ultrasound came along, I was wanting a girl again. To be honest, the day we found out we were having a boy, I was a little let down though Duane was very relieved to hear we were having another boy. He said something like, "Angie, we don't have money to buy a wardrobe of girl clothes." To which I replied, "I'll find a way to buy boy clothes." (with a smile on my face). In reality, this boy is going to be born in the winter and both our other boys were born in the Arizona summer, so we will need warm clothes for him to start. After that Duane said something like, "You can have all your girls when I'm an attending doctor." So, as long as the next two children we have a both girls, I'm okay with having a boy now... I mean, really, don't get me wrong about boys. I love boys! And I love how easy they are to get ready out the door and the little drama they bring and I love how much energy they have to be adventurous, but now that I'm older, I LOVE having sisters. And, girls usually stay close to home, if not physically, then emotionally. I know there is a big price to pay before the payback with girls, at least in my circumstance there was with growing up and fighting CONSTANTLY with my sister over everything from "you're wearing my shirt" to "I wish you weren't in my seminary class", but after moving out of the same house, I feel like we've become so much closer, I love it and can't imagine life without a handful of sisters to give advice to ;-).

Sprinkler Park

2011-08-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

The boys and I love this new sprinkler park that just opened in June. It's called Westland Hills Park. It doesn't have foam on the bottom, just concrete to fall on, so there is a lifeguard on duty that helps to yell at kids to walk, but so far my kids haven't had life threatening injuries. The most Kalvin's cried there was when Tristen bit his inner thigh.

and Tristen stubbed his big toe once.

Tristen is at the age where he doesn't seem phased by cold. Like he can't feel it so even on a mildly warm day he'll be run all around drenching himself and laughing. I love watching him be so excited and happy. I am still waiting for the time when Duane can join us and see the fun the kids have at this free public splash park (there are other parks with splash pads, but a lot of them you have to pay for).

Tristen came and sat by me for a few moments and wanted to take some pictures. I helped him figure out how to hold the camera to get some shots of himself.

Kalvin's friend, Logan, has an older sister that was at the park this day and she and another friend from primary were getting annoyed by the boys monster games (the girls were crying) so I came up with what I thought would be a good idea. I held a contest for the boys to see who could spit a mouth full of water the furthest. They followed the directions the first couple times...

But then they all came after me, the little stinkers!

Logans family may be leaving the branch within the next six months. I will be heartbroken once again to see a family that we love and do a lot with, leave us! Without fail, every time I have become really good friends with someone, they leave the branch! It's seriously driving me crazy!

The Aunt Haircut

2011-08-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

So, one afternoon, I was taking a catnap while Ruth was here and she decided to help me out with the boys haircuts (I had mentioned the idea of her cutting their hair before she left for AZ).

And this is what I woke up to:

A couple mohawks!

Tristen's age can still pass for it being cute, but Kalvin is too old and his hair is too thick for it to look "cute" anymore (at least It think so). He's at the stage now where it kind of looks white trash. I did think it was fun though to have them sport it for a day for Dad to see when he got home. Then the plan was to cut it off the next morning before the Branch Picnic.

Well, I didn't put forth the effort to cut their hair the next morning (as I was in charge of all the kid games at the park and we had to be there in the AM), so they went with hawks to the park and actually got a lot of compliments on their hair.

The proud aunt, hair chopper!

Tristen has the cutest smile lately. I just love it! He smiles like this all day (especially when he's being sneaky and he'll look at me at give me this smile and I just can't help but smile along with him as he disobeys).

Niagara Falls

2011-08-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

After the Hill Cumorah Pageant we made our way to Niagara Falls, the Canadian side (and the better of the two sides, for sure!). We got a great rate on a hotel room that had a complimentary buffet breakfast (I love Priceline!). We ate so much at breakfast that none of us were hungry till about 4:00 PM.

Here are the kids enjoying the jacuzzi tub in our two bedroom, room, the night we got there (at 2 AM)

A view from our room of the falls in the morning. This shows the American side (on the left) and the horseshoe falls on the right.

American Falls with Rainbow Bridge on the left.

Horseshoe falls, again.

Horseshoe from a lower view.

We were able to go on a journey behind the falls as well that was neat to see. The Canadians built tunnels that came out about half way down the falls and just next to it. There's a great view of the falls from the half way landing. It is very wet, but Ruth was nice enough to snap a picture on her iPod for us.

Duane is laying under the shade of a tree talking to his parents about their Alaskan Cruise and Tristen can not help but jump all over him while he's trying to relax. I love how patient Duane is, it's great for our marriage.

Hill Cumorah Pagaent

2011-08-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

So, the Hill Cumorah Pagaent is pretty awesome. I still have yet to find the best seat there where I can see the whole stage, to not be rained out, or to not sit right behind a smoking couple (this is our 3rd time going while we've been out here), but they do have really cool effects and it's a great sum up of the Book of Mormon and it's meaning. This year, Ruth was with us too.

Tristen was ready for the show!

Kalvin got to meet Mormon. He was a little frightened at first, but I kept him close for the picture. Mormon even tried to explain that he was a good guy, but it was still a little tough seeing him dressed kind of funny. When Kalvin saw him on stage, he said, "There's Mormon!" and was super excited.

You can see Tristen in the green. He saw some friends from church about 15 feet from where we were and decided to sit with them for about half the show.

July Randoms

2011-08-08T04:43:00.000-07:00

A bunch of fun/random pictures and videos from when Ruth was here (July):

Ruth and I thought Kalvin was so cute at the doctors office for his four year old visit. Kalvin LOVES going to the doctors office, still, and he calls it "Doctor Watson's house". He did great with the shots though he was nervous, he only cried out for a moment then he composed himself and tried being tough. He talked the doctors ear off when she was asking him questions. She loved talking with him though and he loved telling her everything he knows. I wish I had the visit on video because I was just cracking up laughing as he would get his "mature" manly voice to answer in the most sophisticated way he knew how as she asked him to recite the alphabet and to tell which shapes she was drawing. The doctor said that most four year olds she sees are very shy and quite and don't want to talk to the doctor so I think Kalvin brightened her day. I do have to say though that I'm not sure I've seen even one other white child in our Ped doctors office.

Sadly, Tristen LOVES movies! His favorite right now is Diego, but any time someone will sit and watch something with him, he'll snuggle right in.

LOTS of carrots from the garden. Still working on finishing them off, but they are GOOD!

Adirondack Extreme

2011-08-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

July was a lot of fun with tons of random adventures

(mostly captured by Ruth's iPod--Thanks Ruth, for being prepared!).

One weekend we went to Adirondack Extreme which is a rope course about an hour from our house. For days after, I could not stop talking about how much fun it was. It was interesting how much freedom we were given when climbing through the trees with little Staff supervision. There was a 30 minute demonstration and trial run for each person to pass before you could start, but besides that, there was not A LOT of supervision. It was a neat feeling. The cost was $45 per person and totally worth the 4 hours of climbing. There were 5 courses total with at least 13 different obstacles in each course. The courses started off easy and by the end, it was sure thrill, adrenaline, nerves and strength testing. I couldn't believe some of the things they had set up. The coolest part is that they are building one in Flagstaff, AZ! It will be called Flagstaff Extreme. I think they just got their permits to start building in AZ, but I'm hoping that they can be done by next year and I can come out and enjoy it with some family.

So, some of the obstacles they had at the last course were monkey bars at 60 feet up (you have a safety harness at all times), a Tarzan jump to a webnet of rope that you have to then climb up 10 feet to the next platform, about 25 different variations of challenging bridges through out all the courses. Ruth and I did the last (and hardest) course together while Duane watched the kids and that course alone took us about an hour to finish because of how strenuous and nerve racking it was. I would seriously finish one challenge, get the next platform and laugh out loud thinking, 'Are you kidding me?! They think I could do that? After just doing what I did?!' We were all sore the next few days and after Duane did that last course he said, "How did you two finish that?!" It was great and we would love to go back again when some other enthusiastic family members out here.

FYI, the pictures are only from the easiest courses. The last course does not have any visibility from pathways below which was a bummer since we couldn't get any pictures of it.

There was a playground for the kids to play on as well though they preferred to be standing at the trail trying to find us in the swarm of trees (you have to be at least 7 years to be allowed to be on the rope course), but Kalvin did great on the monkey bars.

Tristen is our little climber!

Tristen was exhausted by the end of the long day there!

June Pics

2011-08-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

Ruth came into town June 21st at 1AM. We had a lot of fun while she was in town! We had things planned for each of the weekends she was here with either her (and the YSA) being out of town somewhere, or her and our family were somewhere. The first weekend she was here, we went to the Palmyra Temple. Ruth could not find her recommend to do baptisms for the dead, so instead, while Duane and I were at a session, she went to the sacred grove. She said she enjoyed her time there.

There were several other children from primary there as well, so Ruth let me use her iPod to take some pictures of them all together.

It was so nice that the Temple President lived less than 1/4 mile from the Temple and their basement was large and had a lot of toys and VHS movies for the kids to watch, so the parent couples switched off babysitting and going to a session. They also had a very big yard that opened to this pond. The kids had a great time watching and looking for frogs there. Kalvin still talks about being there.

We also made it a trip to walk to and around the temple. We talked with the children about what was happening inside the temple and they liked all the flowers.

New York has SO many parks. Really, they are everywhere and you can live in the same house for two years and still be discovering neighborhoods with great parks that are less than a 15 minute drive. I will surely miss the parks out here (but not the high taxes it must take to build and maintain them all).

Here we were playing duck, duck, goose with some friends. The girl with a bandana was a random girl who wanted to join in and the other two girls are my friend, Sommers.

Strawberry picking was a lot of fun too. There is seriously NOTHING like fresh from the vine strawberries. It's amazing and can only be understood if experienced. They tasted good warm and if they were supper red (like the kind you get from the store), they were too ripe and didn't taste as good as the ones that had a little pink.

Duane was proud of his "manly" strawberry.

June 2011

2011-08-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun in June, there were a lot of projects to finish up, and, what summer would be complete without WATERMELON! I have fond memories of cold watermelon outside on hot summer day's in Arizona.

Random picture of the boys playing in a dog bed at Petsmart
(our go-to place for free fun, but mostly in the winter when we can't play outside for more than 5 minutes).

The kids really enjoy making smores and still ask if it's cool enough to make a fire yet.

Marshmallow slime.

We were on the way to the store when Tristen decided he was going to be grumpy in the car (I should upload the video). Duane was saying all kinds of things to get the grumpy look off his face. I think the trigger word was ice cream.

Soon, I hope Duane starts reading the Calvin and Hobbe series to Kalvin. I remember being pregnant and having Duane read them to me. I dreamed of the day when Duane would do this with our boy, Kalvin. (Here is a drawing of Calvin and Kalvin)

Have I ever mentioned my dislike for laundry? It seems I feel a need a lot of times to take a picture of it before, so afterward I can see how much work I really accomplished.

Shouldn't keep things out on the counter, Mom. Tristen will dump to them.

I don't know what other parents will let their kids do this...

It was great that Duane was home one day when it hailed because he enjoys the rain/hail and storms just as much as the rest of us.

With hail this size, we were a little afraid it may damage our car, but thankfully, there was no visible damage in the end.

Since Duane ran out to snatch up some hail, Kalvin and Tristen wanted to as well.

Tristen looks like a little who baby to me here.

The health department had been breathing down our backs to get some potential "lead" risks taken care of in our home so we spent one weekend ripping down the ceiling on our porch. Duane did the hardest and dirtiest part, but I put in my fair-share of work as well cleaning up everything he took down.

The day I finished cleaning up the mess in the porch (all that wood you see on the floor), Ruth came to town (at 1AM)!

Next, post, fun things we did while Ruth was here (but just the month of June's activities). Kalvin made this paper chain for Ruth's coming out here.

Dad, you have to follow the link at the end of this email to be able to watch the videos I posted on the blog.

More May Fun

2011-08-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

All the way back to May…

In mid spring, there are these tree/bush/flower things that have the prettiest pink flowers. You can kind of see it here in the background and they last less then 2 weeks before the petals fall off, but they are just beautiful and before we leave Albany, I will definitely get a great shot of these!

So, all the way to August, I still can't say that Tristen is potty trained (this picture was of him back in May using the toilet) and I'm really doing it the hard way by dragging it out, but Tristen sometimes likes going to potty on the toilet. I find that I only have energy for about 1.5 days before I give up and say I'll do it later… I've really paid for doing that so many times.

Kalvin was a great help in getting our garden together and Tristen was equally curious as well put the planting soil in the cups.

The only plant we never saw come up that we planted was the onions. Gardening out here, really couldn't be simpler. We've been blessed to not have squirrels eating our plants and it rains so much, there really is not a need to water the plants, but maybe once a week.

For Labor Day the stake had a picnic at some park (forgot the name…) that was huge and green and HOT! It was, I think, one of the first really hot days where there was no escape because you can't escape humidity even by going in the shade; it's still muggy and sticky.

Overall, the kids did seem to have a good time though. They had some foot races for the kids. I think the youngest group they did though was 6 and under. Kalvin was in this group and got smoked by some older boys. He was pretty upset to have done poorly (being the oldest, he thinks he has to be the best at just about everything, though he's not one to totally make someone else feel bad that he had done better at something, I think he just expects that he is better, so when he's not, it's kind of hard on him).

Here is the start of the race (VERY zoomed in).

I think this when Kalvin realized he wasn't going to beat the 6 year old (plus, Kalvin was in flip-flops)

You can see Kalvin in the tan and brown shirt on the right, as the boy in blue is crossing the finish line.

It's so sad to see his face like this because it's really like he was REALLY sad and trying not to cry. Kalvin is not the whiny or crying type either.

Well, we can move on, Kalvin was only sad for a few minutes and he did get a participating prize, fruit snacks, YAY!

Tristen drank about 3 cans of soda and the equivalent of a half a bag of big chips (Momma's boy through and through being a chip-boy). I think he'd take the soda to another adult and they would open it for him or he would just sneak another kids drinks. About the chips, he and his girlie friend, Cecily, just sat in this train-like toy at the playground and let other kids bring chips to them on a plate. When I saw a new cup or plate of chips, I'd just laugh and tell myself that he only gets this much junk food every once in a while so he probably won't die from it.

Strawberry soda seemed to be the favorite for him.

And then there was the pole dancing.