Busy Bees

September continues to fly by while we stay busy busy. On Friday I let Weston pick a fun outing. We had worked hard all week keeping the house clean, so Friday was our "day off." We had such a good time playing at the dinosaur museum. It was pretty empty, so the kids just did the whole thing at their own pace. Afterward we went out to lunch and the boys got to play on the playplace at Carl's Jr. They were starving too, so they ate really well. The Carl's Jr. we went to was in the same little shopping complex as a See's Candy shop. On our way back to the car we had to walk right past See's, and you know I can't do that without stopping in for a bordeaux. :) It was a fun outing and we all came home ready for naps.
Friday night was our ward game night. Weston got to play Hullabaloo with some of the bigger kids in the ward. It was a fun game. I might have to add that to my list of stuff he would like. I am always out of Weston gift ideas by the time his birthday rolls around in January. I got to play some Bananagrams and Boggle. I heart word games.

Saturday morning was the Relief Society choir dress rehearsal. We carpooled to the Conference Center, got checked in (with our special green security badges), and went and sat in parts in the regular seats. They re-organized us by height and filed us all up into the choir seats. In case you are looking for me this Saturday I will be sitting in the 2nd soprano section (middle left when you're looking at the choir) 3rd row up, 5th seat in. During the entire rehearsal there were a couple people going around shifting people and moving them so everyone could be seen and looked balanced. It was quite the process.

Sister Beck stopped in to hear us for the first 15 minutes or so of our rehearsal on her way to a sealing. She spoke for a couple minutes and told us how much she appreciated our time and talents. She also talked about the preparation everyone has been putting into this Relief Society meeting. I know it's going to be awesome. She went and sat down in the seats with the other RS board members while we sang The Spirit of God. When we finished she jumped up, pumped her arms in the air and shouted "Yes! That's just what I wanted!" It was pretty gratifying.

During the rest of the rehearsal we figured out sound with the organ and special instruments (flutes and french horns), recorded each of our songs for time and to listen back to, and took some group choir photos. It was a long morning, but still such a neat experience to be singing in the Conference Center.

As soon as we got back I ran into the house to change my clothes then drove over to meet my family at Ian's work picnic. It was a lot of fun. They had it catered by Goodwood BBQ. Yum. The boys were happy as clams with their party bags full of treats and toys and the playground to play on. They didn't really eat any lunch, but jelly beans and Pez has to count for something I guess. We have been having really great September weather and it was in the 80's on Saturday! Perfect BBQ weather. It's always nice to get to visit with Ian's co-workers and their families. Today is the CEO's birthday, so we sang to her and had cake too. Good times.

I was pretty exhausted when we got home. Ian watched the rest of the sad BYU game, then he was all kind of productive cleaning out the desk and setting back up our TV hookup to the computer because Fall TV starts back up this week! Thanks babe! It looks awesome! He took the kiddos to Best Buy with him to get a USB hub and brought me back In N Out for dinner. What a good hubby.

Sunday was pretty normal. Ward choir started back up with a new director, so that was interesting. And we spent Primary practicing for the program. Weston is doing really well memorizing his part. He was seriously the only kid who knew his part. Yikes. The program is next week. I know all the songs pretty well, so hopefully I play ok when it counts. I will be glad when it's done.

After dinner I went to my last RS choir rehearsal. It was good to listen to our recording from the Conference Center. We certainly don't sound professional, but it will definitely help that we had last night to fix some of the little things that were noticeably bad on the recording. Participating in the RS Choir has definitely been a unique and fabulous experience. I am grateful to have gotten to be a part of it. I'm excited for the actual performance on Saturday too. It's going to be great. Don't miss it!

Spoiled

I have been a spoiled stay at home mom (SAHM). All Summer I got away with sleeping in until 8ish every morning. Not getting showered and dressed until 10am. I had no pressing obligations. I mean keeping my house presentable, my kids fed and in clean clothes, but other than that nothing I HAD to do every day. Some days I didn't even manage to do the basics. Whoops. But I have to admit it was kind of lovely being lazy. Our new school routine has thrown me for a loop.

I have always considered myself a morning person. I like being up and getting going. I am most productive in the mornings. We have been getting up at 7am every day this week and been ready to leave the house by 8:30. On the one hand I love the routine of it, but on the other hand, I'm so tired! I found myself looking forward to Friday this week just so I could sleep in. Friday is our day off preschool and tee ball. And you know I will not be showered and dressed until at least 10 am tomorrow. :) Most mornings we are at this point by 8:30. . . aren't they cute?
On a completely unrelated topic . . . I sometimes get obsessed with the classifieds. You may recall my ill fated compulsive classifieds checking when I was looking for a puppy last year. Well this year I am compulsively checking for baby gear that I don't want to pay full price for. Baby stuff is expensive!

Last week I went and looked at the Sit N Stand stroller at Babies R Us. I wanted to play with it before I bought one. While there I also checked out diaper bags. My friend, Alison, has a diaper bag I really like the look of. It's not too big, is made out of this cool material that is super easy to clean, and has lots of great pockets and compartments. She swears by it. It is a J.J. Cole Collections diaper bag. They had a couple different styles of it at Babies R Us, but they were $70. Yikes. I kind of half heartedly looked at the other diaper bags, but I had pretty much already decided I wanted this one.

When I got home I checked Amazon to see if they had them for cheaper. They had some for $55. Next I checked the classifieds. There were 2 listed. One was brand new with the tags for $50. The other was "gently used" (the listing said it had only been used 5-6 times) for $15. Um, yes please. I emailed the seller, drove down the next day and picked it up. The only flaw was that one of the velcro tabs in the back pouch pocket had mostly ripped off. I figured I could either sew it back on or at least hot glue it back on. :) Yesterday my neighbor helped me fix a hem on a skirt and while I was there she also used her heavy duty sewing machine to fix my diaper bag. Good as new for $15! What a steal.
My next baby purchase will be crib bedding, but since I can't decide on anything I will probably hold off for a little longer before buying. I have been checking the classifieds for bedding sets too, but I think maybe I need to block the classifieds website for a couple weeks. There is just always something on there that is a great deal. Here's the crib bedding I like best from the classifieds. Here's the bedding I like best from Amazon. Which do you like best? I need some outside opinions.

Tee Ball!

This week has been pretty busy and exhausting. And it's only Tuesday! It's our first full week of school and we started tee ball! The coach decided to have a first practice Monday evening. Normally there really aren't practices. They just have 2 games a week and they kind of learn at the game, but I'm glad that they had a first practice. Weston got to meet his coach and the other kids on his team and learn a couple basics like how to catch a ball with his mitt on and how to run to/through first base. He's such a goofball, but he had a blast at his practice. (Hint: he's in the royal blue shirt and navy shorts)
Today was his team's first game. We were excited that the team hats and shirts were ready for the game. The kids all looked so cute. Watching a 3-4 year old tee ball game is actually really comical. The kids were tripping and falling all over the place, running the wrong direction, dog piling the ball, drawing pictures in the dirt, throwing the dirt, and generally being adorable. Weston did really well and had a lot of fun.
He skinned up both his knees falling in the dirt, so next game we are definitely going to be putting him in pants, but he was a trooper and didn't cry or whine at all about his knees. They basically play as many "innings" as they can in an hour. Each inning is when all the kids have had a turn to hit. I think they got in 3 innings tonight since I only remember Weston hitting 3 times. Hitting the ball was his favorite part. He also had a chance to do some fielding with his coach's help. They didn't bother having the kids try to throw to 1st base though. :)
Davin was pretty good about watching. He climbed around the bleachers and stood at the fence. He was good at cheering too. Ian managed to make it in time for the last inning, so he got to see Weston hit and field a little. Weston was stoked that he got a whole pack of Oreo's and a Capri Sun at the end of the game. He was nice to share a couple cookies with his brother too.
Weston's first time at bat . . . (Warning: don't turn the volume up too loud on the videos because I am cheering rather loudly)

Scoring his first run . . . after which he said "Mom I scored a goal!"

Unfortunately the long day and the pain in his knees caught up with him when we got home and he kind of lost it when I put him in the bath and cleaned his scraped knees. By the time I got them all dried, Neosporined, and Cars BandAided though he was fine. Hopefully they heal quickly so that he's good to go for Thursday's game. In the meantime I'm betting he is going to get a good night's sleep!

Date Day

This weekend Ian and I went on an all-day date. It was so fun. I needed the break and we needed the time together. We had already scheduled massages for the middle of the day, so we started with that and went from there. I bought the certificates for the massages on Groupon when they were only $20/hour massage. Pretty great deal. I was quite impressed with the spa too. It was quiet and beautiful. We even got to have our massages in the same room, which was kind of fun. I really enjoyed getting to lay on my stomach (in the belly support thing) for a full hour and my massage felt amazing. Ahh. I will have to do it again before I have this baby.

After our massages we drove up the canyon to Snowbird to check out Oktoberfest. They have it on weekends for about a month every year. And every year we talk about going up to check it out, but had never actually been. The weather was gorgeous, so it was fun to be up in the mountains.

Oktoberfest was a little disappointing, but I was still glad we went. We only stayed for a couple hours. We got some German food and hung out in the big food tent where the "traditional" music was being played. I put traditional in quotes because the band played the Chicken Dance. I don't know how traditionally German that is. :) Outside we watching the Yo Yo Man do his thing. It was impressive. There was a marketplace area with vendor booths, but it was pretty sparse and there was only one really German booth. I guess the big draw of Oktoberfest is the beer, which we did not sample, of course.
We drove back down the canyon and went to the Nickelcade to play some serious skeeball. The crowd at the Nickelcade on a Saturday afternoon is kind of funny. There were a lot of little boys with a mom or two trailing along, a handful of teenage boys with scantily clad teenage girls following them around, a few kinda creepy loner adult men playing the real video games (not just the ones that give tickets), and us. I loved playing skeeball. It's so fun! Seriously, when I am rich and have a huge house with a huge basement I am definitely putting in some skeeball lanes.
There was a Burlington Coat Factory across the street, so I dragged Ian in to look at the baby bedding. He ran out of steam for that pretty quickly. I guess I won't worry too much about his opinion of the nursery decor. We got hungry and headed to the Cheesecake Factory for some food. We ended up just getting an appetizer to share and our own slices of cheesecake. I couldn't finish my white chocolate caramel macadamia nut cheesecake. It was so rich. Ian's was amazing too. His was the red velvet cheesecake. He said that the restaurant is ruined for him now because he will always get the red velvet cheesecake and not want to try any of the other flavors. Finally it was time to head home. I was pretty exhausted actually. I'm not used to being out and about all day long.

Later that night we set up the projector to watch Bourne Identity with some friends out on the patio. It was fun. We should have done it earlier in the summer too, but we were just too busy (and by we I mean Ian). It was a very fun weekend.

Sunday I spoke in church. I always think that I won't have enough stuff to talk about and I will be done in 10 minutes, but this time I managed to take a whole 15ish minutes and didn't leave very much time for the last speaker. Whoops! In my defense I haven't spoken with 2 other people in awhile, so I forgot that I probably only needed to do 10 minutes. Anyway it went pretty well, so that was a relief.

Today has been busy and it's not over yet. I dragged Davin with me on a bunch of errands while Weston was at school. He was ready for a nap by the time we were done and was not happy when I made him put back on his shoes to go pick Weston up at school. Later this afternoon we have our first tee ball practice. The first game is tomorrow. I can't wait to see how Weston does.

Reason #58 I love my minivan . . . I bought our new Sit N Stand LX stroller this morning at Shopko. I have to brag a little about it because it was a great deal. They are normally around $130-150, but I have seen some on sale on Amazon and Walmart for $115. Not too bad for a stroller really. Shopko had theirs on sale this week for $115, BUT I also had a 20% off coupon that was only good yesterday and today. That made the stroller only $92. I love getting a good deal.
After Shopko we also went to Sams Club. I love that I can fit everything so easily into my van. It is seriously the best. I probably could have fit it all with all the seats up too, but the one side was already down, so I just loaded it in that way. I am so glad that we went with a minivan as our family car. It is the most convenient car ever. Now if I can just decide on some nursery decor then I would say we are more or less ready for baby girl!

School Days!

We are all SO excited that preschool started back up this week! Weston couldn't wait to see his friends. I couldn't wait to have some time with just Davin to get things done and enjoy my 2 year old before a new baby enters the mix. Tuesday morning we all went to the preschool open house. The parents were all invited to stay. It was fun to watch Weston play with his friends and at all the "stations" like an old pro. This year he is in the 4 year old class and goes to school Monday through Thursday 8:45-11:35am. So far our morning schedule is working out well. We were about 20 minutes early for school today. We took some pictures and got to play on the playground for a little while before it was time to drop Weston off.

Playing at the sand table during the open house. Davin loved this spot too.
Weston and his teacher, Mrs. Palmer, at the preschool open house.
Showing off his Transformer's light-up backpack. He stuck those pencils in the side pockets himself. Just in case.
Brothers and buddies. Davin kept asking where Weston was this morning.
The big 4 year old preschooler!
Weston had a great first day. He came home with a paper bag puppet of a frog, which is of course awesome. He immediately asked if he has school again tomorrow. Yes!

Best Weekend. Ever.

Well, certainly best weekend of the summer. Having this entire weekend with Ian home and not trying to work was fabulous. It also made me realize how much we missed having him around this summer. We definitely made up for it a little by getting tons done, playing lots, and also relaxing a bit this Labor Day weekend.

Saturday we worked around the house/in the garage. Things had been piling up since Ian was never home to put things away and the garage was too full for me to even take stuff out there. We got the extra building materials from the den project listed on ksl and hauled off within an hour. That helped clear out the garage. Weston and I vacuumed out the van. It was a mess from our wet and muddy camping trip. I also dusted the dash and cleaned the inside of the windows. Hooray for a clean car!

After doing some work on the garage/car we all went to the pool. It was pretty windy, but sunny and warm. The splash pad and some of the slides were turned off because of the wind, but the big twisty slide was still on and we went on it several times. Weston wore arm floaties and went down the orange slide all by himself for the first time. He also got to show off all his new swimming skills to Dad. When we got back from the pool we were starving, so we decided to bbq hot dogs for a late lunch instead of dinner. It was a good call.

That afternoon while Davin took his nap Ian took Weston to see The Karate Kid at the dollar theater. He was so excited to get to go to the movies just him and dad. He said he liked the movie, but apparently he thought Jaden Smith's character was a girl the whole time. When he was telling me about it he kept saying "she." He does have long hair in the movie, and we live in Utah where fewer little boys have long hair like that. Whoops. :)

Sunday was a nice down day. I didn't have RS choir rehearsal, so I got to be home and it was very relaxing. On Monday we all went and ran a couple errands in the morning then headed down to the Thanksgiving Point gardens. Ian had never been to the gardens even though we have had a Thanksgiving Point pass for 2 years now. It was beautiful day and we had fun showing Daddy all the fun things at the Children's Garden and the big waterfall in the main gardens. When we were done we had lunch at the TP deli. It's so yummy.
Monday afternoon we all came home and took naps and relaxed. We also went over and said goodbye to our friends, the Severinsen's, who are moving to Missouri today. We will miss them. That night we grilled again and ate outside since the weather was so perfect. We cleaned up, had FHE, did back to school blessings, and baths then called it a good weekend.

Check out Weston's major summer tan! His bum is SO white compared to the rest of him. Hee hee.
Today was our trial run of our new morning routine and school. Weston's preschool had an open house. It was great fun and we are all very excited for the regular days to start tomorrow. Since Weston's preschool this year is Mon-Thurs I decided we needed more of a structured morning routine. I also thought it might be a good time to try out doing scriptures and family prayer in the morning. Ian is gone at least a couple evenings a week, so it's really hard to be consistent with that. We decided since the kids are generally up right at 7am every morning anyway we would just all get up then and read scriptures and say family prayer. Weston has certain morning jobs he has to get done. If he finishes them by 8am then he can watch Super Why or play on the computer until 8:30 when we leave for school. So far so good, but I'm looking for some kind of way to reward him for doing his morning jobs without fussing and being ready for school on time. Any suggestions?

Weston's morning jobs:
-Eat breakfast (this is a hard one for some reason)
-get dressed
-go potty
-put jammies in the hamper
-make bed
-get hair combed and teeth brushed with Mom's help

It was really just the best to all be together this weekend and have time to play and work and rest. I am excited about the new routine of Fall, but at the same time it was nice to have a long weekend to bid the long, lazy days of Summer farewell.

In Honor

In honor of the end of summer we have been playing a lot this week. Monday was our down day at home to clean, do laundry, and go to the library. But on Tuesday we cranked into gear. After I went to Weston's preschool orientation I took the boys to the West Jordan park. Weston has been asking to go there most of the summer, but it is not a fun park to be at in the heat. It has no shade for me to lounge in and I can't see the kids from any one spot so I have to follow the kids around the whole time. Tuesday was nice and cool, but still sunny. This week is a good week to play too because all the rest of the world is back in school, so everything is less crowded.
In honor of school starting I let Weston pick an outing for the week before school and he picked the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. Luckily there was a coupon in the paper on Sunday, so it was a little cheaper. It was also less crowded than normal and when it did get a little busy it was all the 4 and under crowd, which is still fun. When we came back to keep playing after lunch it was pretty empty. We all had a lot of fun, but after about 4 hours we were wiped out and ready to head home for some down time and a movie.
In honor of the fact that my pregnancy countdown has dipped below 100 days I thought I'd post a belly picture. I'm generally not a fan of a belly picture during my 3rd pregnancy, you know? But I do enjoy looking back at the few belly shots that I have from my first pregnancies, so I figured I'd better document it a little. Sorry this is so blurry. That's what happens when I try to take a picture without the flash. I had Weston try to take a few of me, but they were a little scary. So here is the belly at 25 weeks.
In honor of the weather cooling down significantly and the nights being borderline chilly I decided to start cooking again. :) I tried a new baked pasta recipe that turned out decent. I don't know that I'll make it again since no one wanted the leftovers, but the first night Weston said he liked it and ate it all gone. Here's to being a better homemaker between now and December!