They make me laugh

Sometimes the kids just crack me up and most of the time they don't mean to. Here are some funny things that they have said recently.



In Ben's prayer one night, he asked that Heavenly Father, tell Jesus that we hope he has a Happy Birthday.



Olivia had just woke up from her nap and she stretches, yawns and says "Mommy, I'm going to try to be good...and just a little bit naughty."



One day Olivia and I were driving in the car and she randomly asked me "If Heavenly Father and Jesus work together?" I said, "Yes, they created the earth together". Olivia said "Whew they must be tired!"



Olivia was singing loudly and it was a little annoying. Ben said, "Ahhhh, the singing, it's dreadful!!". I asked were he had heard the word dreadful. He said "Mary Poppins says it."



Olivia calls yogurt 'yogrit' (A true southern girl) .

Christmas things and funny stuff

I just walked in the house from shoveling snow for the first time in my life!! No, Rick is not a slacker husband, he is out of town, which gave me this wonderful experience. Picture this...I have a huge black down coat zipped up with the hood so tightly drawstringed you can't really see my face (it was a good thing, I looked crazy), gray sweatpants, Rick's snow boots (I don't have any yet. I haven't wrapped my mind around being cute and warm, so I haven't bought any boots yet.), and my almost 6 month prego belly shoveling our driveway in 30 mile an hour winds and snow. Funny, really funny!!
I started and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had done about half of the driveway when a sweet neighbor saw me and had pity on me. For one thing, I didn't know if there is a right way to shovel snow. It turns out there is. I was going top to bottom and my angel neighbor told me to go side to side so you don't have to pick up the shovel as much. I learned something new today and I am pretty proud of myself.
Last night, it was snowing like crazy outside, we had a fire going, the kids were making their yearly gingerbread houses (this year they opted for the village), drinking yummy homemade hot chocolate and then watched 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'. It was such a great night. I am looking forward to the kids and I having our first white Christmas.

Two nights ago we went to visit Santa. Isn't this such a sweet picture of Ben with Santa. This is the official picture that was taken. What you can't see in this picture is the bigger picture.

This is the bigger picture...

Rick and I have laughed about this picture for the last 2 days. I asked her to take a picture with the elf but really wanted to get a picture of her with Santa in the background. She wasn't happy!

What's a guy got to do to win a girl over? Apparently yearly presents and candy canes isn't enough.

Thanksgiving

I'm so thankful...really, really thankful. New job, new state, new house, and new baby. What a difference a year makes. I'm also acutely aware of where all of those blessings have come from. I know Heavenly Father knows us personally and loves us.

Our Tiebreaker

Today we went for our 20 week ultrasound. Everything looks great with the baby and we found out we are having a baby boy! Here is a picture of our little guy.
Boys - 3, Girls - 2.

Halloween 2009

This Halloween turned out to be a great one! The kids both had strong opinions this year about what they wanted to be. Ben really wanted to be Mario. I had tried to find the costume everywhere, online, Halloween stores, I even had my mom go to 3 stores in Georgia. I couldn't find it anywhere. Rick and I were trying to convince him to be something else. He wasn't budging. Then thankfully a costume store online got a second shipment. Hallelujah, crisis averted! Olivia said she wanted to be a 'naughty' witch (her words). Since she loves ballet, I asked her if she wanted me to make her a witch tutu. She was a happy camper too. About a week before Halloween she decided she was a 'nice' witch. She also had a sparkly broom too but we left it at a Halloween party the night before.

Don't you love his cute tummy and furry mustache

Mario and the Witch

It was the first Halloween the kids had to wear coats while trick-or-treating. It was quite chilly and the wind was whipping. I made them stand outside for a couple of pictures without coats, so you could see their costumes.

Trick-or-treating starts early here (3 p.m.), but we didn't head out until 5. It just seems funny to be trick-or-treating in the afternoon. Lucky for us, our sweet friends and neighbors let us tag along. The whole trick-or-treating gang!

Our pumpkins this year

Grandma & Grandpa Nutty's Visit

In October Rick's parents came to visit us. We were grateful that they came to Chicago and we enjoyed showing them around. G & G Nutty had never been to Cheesecake Factory so we had lunch.

Chicago skyline

Grandma & Grandpa Nutty & the kids

At the park

At the pumpkin patch

Birthday Parties for Everyone

On labor day week, my parents came up to visit us. We were really excited to see them and to tell them the big news. They were very excited about the new baby but probably not that excited that I barely left the bed or couch the entire time they were here. They were so great and helped us so much. In fact, we had two birthday parties in two days. Don't be too impressed, it was out of necessity. Olivia's birthday had passed 3 weeks before and Ben's was a little early. Since there was no end in sight to my nausea we decided to do both.

My mom made such a cute and yummy cake that was fit for a princess.

We got Olivia ballet lessons for her 3rd birthday. She was really excited about the outfit.

Practicing ballet moves

The next night, we had Ben's party.

His new bike

I can't believe he is six years old. Happy Birthday Ben!

My dad actually requested that this picture be put on our blog. So funny! He looks like he is 'special'.

This is the only picture I took the entire time they were here. I really hope they come back when they aren't forced into working all week.

One thing that I learned that week, is that kids birthday parties don't have to have a theme, friends and lots of cute decorations. I had some guilt about it but the kids were genuinely happy with the parties we had. We love them so much and can't believe it has been another year.