Christmas Day and a Pregnancy

Christmas Day we actually had to wake up the kids.  I stood in the doorway to their bedroom and when Presleigh woke up the first thing she said was that Santa had come into her room:)  It was pretty cute.  They got to enjoy their new kitchen and a couple other Santa gifts before church.  We ate my mom's delicious cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa for breakfast which is what I was most excited for. 

 We got the kids all spiffy in their Christmas outfits.  Of course Presleigh refused to wear what I had originally planned for her but she still looked adorable:)

 I'm glad we got a picture of the two of us since we barely have any of these.

 And a quick family shot.  After Church we fixed part of dinner and took it over to the Lewis family's house for a large Christmas feast.  It was pretty nice outside so the kids got to play outside and a few of us played nerts for a while.  It was a really fun day and we were grateful to be able to celebrate the birth of our Savior.   

 And of course a belly shot. I should probably write a little about this pregnancy since it's almost over:)  This picture was taken at 30 weeks.  I had gained about 15 pounds (All in the last couple months) up to that point but I'm sure i've gained more since then.  I played basketball up until about 25 weeks and was hoping that all that activity would slow down my weight gain this time around.  I guess we'll find out in the end if it worked.

 I felt my usual sickness at the beginning and then at about 18 weeks I started to feel a little better.  Then the sciatica kicked in and I started having a really hard time sleeping and sometimes even moving throughout the day.  I had been meaning to go see a chiropractor but now it seems to be getting better.  I have been low on Iron the whole time and did pretty well taking my supplements up until a couple weeks ago when I immediately threw up a couple times after taking them.  I am actually sleeping ok these days but i'm sure in the next couple weeks that will change.  Baby girl has definitely been playing soccer with my ribs because they are constantly sore.

A few weeks ago when I took a tumble outside of Old Navy my doctor had me monitored at the hospital.  Everything came back great which was a huge relief.  We are so grateful for this pregnancy and for the opportunity to enjoy another little one.  It really is a huge blessing and we can't wait to meet her.   

More Christmas

Our festivities began on Wednesday when Julie, Paul, and Laila got to town.  Thursday Jules and I went and got some crafty things so we could work on projects.  I was a crazy person this year with all of the homemade gifts I decided to make, and I was still making them just days before Christmas.  I didn't even get to everything on my list but that is probably a good thing.  So Jules worked on hair pretties for Laila and I made Presleigh's Dino Tail and a couple bracelets. 

My mom, dad, and brother Dev oh and their dog Howard showed up Thursday night.  The kids were in heaven.   They loved Howie and were having so much fun playing with their cousin Laila and of course uncle devin too.  Noah was attached to uncle devin at first.  It seemed like if devin would leave the room for a couple minutes noah would ask where he was.  It was super cute. 

Friday we ran errands.  We had to stock up on food and get last minute gifts and things.  After running errands we got home and Wayne said I had a huge package in our bedroom.  I was super excited imagining what it could possibly be thinking that he was surprising me with some amazing gift, but it was something better:)  My sweet sister Kim and her family were all grouped together in the corner of our messy room.  We had no idea that they were coming and it was so good to be able to spend Christmas with them.  I was holding back the tears. 

I didn't take too many pictures I tried to take more video this year.

Kendra got a kindle fire for her birthday and was playing games on it.  I loved how Noah just got right up next to her and cuddled.  He was lauging super hard too.  I think she must have been playing angry birds:)

 I'm not really sure which night this was but it was a cute little moment. 

 Christmas Eve morning we took the kids swimming at Josh and Kim's hotel.  Then we made sugar cookies.  Kim was in charge of helping the kiddos frost them:) 

 We ate our traditional soup and  read the Christmas story in Luke.  And then the kiddos got to dig into their presents.  Here Presleigh is with one of her hat and apron that I made for her.  Pres was funny opening up her presents.  She didn't get too excited about any of them but just wanted to keep opening and opening.

 Noah opened his present from the Wynia family first which was a geo trax train set and he didn't really want to open anymore presents after that.  He sat and played with that train for quite a while before he would open his other presents.  Here he is with his dino tail on and the spider man that Presleigh picked out for him. 

We are use to opening all our family gifts on Christmas Eve and then only Santa Gifts on Christmas Day but we are thinking about changing that little tradition next year.  It was a very fun night.  It was so cute how excited the kids were for Santa to come and they even went to bed really well:)

Christmas Happenings

The month of December of course flew by.  We went to our ward Christmas party and enjoyed some yummy food and pretty music.  This is also where our kids got to enjoy seeing Santa.

 Both the kids were pretty freaked out by santa and niether one could really tell him what they wanted.  Santa would ask Noah questions about things he would want and Noah would just answer with a, "yep."  It was pretty funny.  Everytime I would ask Noah what he wants for Christmas he would tell me, "presents."  Then I'd ask what kind of presents and he would respond with, "Blue Presents."  It made me laugh because I'm pretty sure we had this same issue with Pres last year.  But she wanted her presents to be pink:)

 Presleigh couldn't even look at him.  He gave her a candy cane which she snatched from his hand very quickly and then kept her head down the rest of the time.  She assures me that she won't be scared of Santa next year though:)

 Preschool was at my house the week before Christmas which was pretty fun to plan.  The kiddos made sugar cone Christmas trees and reindeer ornaments. 

Presleigh loves preschool and I love that she gets a little break every once in a while from Noah and me.  It's been really nice to have that one on one time with Noah. 

Christmas Tree

First I have to talk about Presleigh and her choice of outfits.  These pictures were taken at the beginning of the month and she now usually refuses to wear leggings under her dresses and undershirts under them as well.  We battle over the undershirt/sweaters because she loves to wear her tank top dresses without them.  She will put on leggings and sweaters when we leave the house which is good because it is around 40 degrees here.  Wayne and I are always telling her that her shoulders need to be covered and so sometimes she will ask us while holding a sweater or piece of clothing over her shoulders if we can see her shoulders. 

 After Wayne was all finished with his test we went to a tree lot and picked out our tree. Presleigh was so excited and even stayed with Wayne at the tree lot in the freezing cold while I ran to the ATM to get some cash.    

 Then she even helped her dad carry it in:)

Then the kiddos and I decorated it.  A few days later most of the ornaments were all over the place so our tree was only decorated half way up.  Noah loved pulling the bulbs off and throwing them at the tree. 

He Passed!!!

First off, Wayne passed all four sections of the CPA exam!!!!!!! We are both super excited to have all of the studying out of the way.  We will now have a lot more time together as a family which will be so nice.  I am so so so proud of Wayne.  He really showed amazing discipline while studying for that thing.  We found out yesterday and celebrated by finishing up Christmas shopping for the kids. 

The day before we found out about the test was Wayne's 33rd b-day.  Seriously, he's getting old;)  Our awesome friends took our kids from us for the evening so that we could go to dinner.  We did our traditional dinner at Tucanos on Tuesday and will have cake and ice cream tonight with the Lewis fam. 
It was so nice to be able to go out on a date with Wayne.  We were in need of a night out after all of the studying that he's been doing.

In other news we may have narrowed our baby names.  Well these have pretty much been my top three from the beginning but we don't discuss it too much and the other night Wayne put his in order so here they are. 


Wayne's                                                Amy's
1. Eleanor                                                                           1.  Hazel
2. Holland                                                                           2.  Eleanor
3. Hazel                                                                               3.  Holland

Silly Kiddos

I was having issues with posting on this blog so I have been writing silly things about the kiddos in my written journal.  But since this is our family journal and it will eventually (hopefully soon) get printed I have decided to post them on here.


The Other day I caught Noah trying to clean out his poopy undies in the toilet just like his dad.  It was pretty funny but he also made quite the mess:(
 ***** Reading this back I just realized that it sounded kind of funny.  Wayne cleans out Noah's dirty undies in the toilet not his own:)

Presleigh and Noah held hands the entire way home from the Lewis'.  When I asked if they were trying to stay warm, Pres said to me, "no, we are being safe."

Presleigh told us that the man at the tree lot was a dog because his hat looked like it had puppy ears:)


Noah pulling at his undies, lookings down and saying, "Look mom, my puppet is shaking."


The way Noah says ha ha ha ha ha when he gets away with something or is teasing.  Or when he is playing the mean character from one of their favorite  shows to act out.


Noah tries to stuff all of his favorite little toys into his pockets, and then gets frustrated when they don't fit.


Presleigh likes to get herself dressed these days.  She changes clothes about 3 times daily.  She usually has one piece of her outfit that stays constant, like her favorite skirt or dress but then she changes her leggings or tights and her tops.  She comes up with very creative ways to put her outfits together.  I guess this is probably my fault because I like to put random outfits together too.  I use to try to fight her on it but now I let her dress however she wants, well usually:)


I am having an extra hard time understanding Noah.  He is talking a lot more and it takes me a few times to catch some of his new words.  Sometimes I just smile and say, "that's so cool Noah."  But then he sometimes responds with a, "No, it's not cool mom." like he was being super serious about what he was telling me.


I love the way that Noah talks though.  He has the cutest little voice.  I love it when he says to us "Come and get me,"  when he wants us to chase him or play.  Or when he pulls on my hand or pant leg and says, "Mommy, come here."  Or when he asks me to hold him and then points to another part of the house and says, "Mommy, hold me over there." 


We've been working quite a bit with the kids on their alphabet and each of them can identify almost all of the letters in the alphabet.  Noah is a lot more interested in letters and colors.  He loves to tell me what color things are.  My favorite is when he will pick out letters randomly on things though and then make the letter sound.  Especially when we are on the computer, he will show us where all the x's are:)


They both have the silliest reaction to the word bum and most potty words.  Noah thinks saying bum is hilarious and can crack himself up by saying it over and over.


Presleigh is finally able to buckle her own carseat, except when she has a big puffy coat on.  She can't unbuckle it though which is great.


On Sunday Presleigh wore a cute bracelet to church and it broke during nursery.  She was so sad and kept asking me to fix it.  I told her that it couldn't be fixed and that she would have to ask for one for her birthday.  Wayne and I both told her a few times that we couldn't fix it.  Then while we were having dinner she looked at us all excited like she had the greatest idea in the world and said, "I know how we can fix my bracelet!!!!" and we responded with a, "how?"  and she said, "With teamwork!!!!!!"  It was dang cute, because Wayne is constantly talking to them about working together and using teamwork to get things done.  Plus it is something that her favorite tv say too.  Teamwork was not able to fix her bracelet though:(


These kiddos keep us busy and laughing constantly.  They are so fun to watch and even more fun to listen to.  They are constantly pretending and sometimes we can't tell if they are using their own imaginations or if they are role playing from some cartoon.  Presleigh is like her uncle Devin and has a lot of movie lines memorized.  We love our Sis and Buddy and can't wait for this sweet baby girl to join in on the fun:)  

Our November

I can't believe November is already over. I'm pretty happy that it's over though. It was a crazy month for our family.

I finally stopped working. I had been planning on quitting for a while but never got around to it. I am officially done:) I spent the first part of the month working on tons and tons of projects for the kiddos for Christmas. This was the fun part of the month:) I'll have to take pictures of everything soon. I love having some homemade Christmas presents for my kiddos to enjoy. My plan was to get all of it done by Thanksgiving so that I could focus on real Christmas shopping after that. I did get it all finished but it sort of got me in the mood to keep going so I've been working on some other things like fixing up my house:)

The last couple weeks Wayne took off from work so that he could study for his (hopefully) last CPA test. This was the not so fun part of the month:( He locked himself in our spare bedroom and studied from 7:00 in the morning til sometimes midnight every single day. He took his test yesterday and we are hoping that he won't have to retake it. I am so proud of my hubby and all of his hard work. I cannot even imagine spending that much time going over boring accounting stuff but he was so diligent and studied his little tail off. We can't wait to have that test out of our life!!!

The kids have been doing so well with all the craziness around here. Presleigh has been asking for a while now when we will get our tree and Christmas decorations up. We had told her that we had to wait until after daddy's test. So last night we went and picked out our tree.

I don't know what I was thinking but I decided to start potty training Noah this month. Yeah, I probably should have waited until after Wayne's test. He has been doing really well with using the potty though. I tried to do the three day potty training with him and it seemed to work pretty well. We still have accidents though and this week we've had to resort back to diapers because Noah has had a little stomach bug. He is back in his buzz undies today though:)

Our Thanksgiving was really nice this year. We ate dinner with the Lewis family and enjoyed spending our day with them. I got Wayne to take a couple hours off from his studys so we got to enjoy it with him too:)

I chose to go to Target at midnight for black friday. It was a dumb move because I didn't really need anything there but black friday shopping is sort of tradition in my family. It was crazy and the line was super long but it was still fun:) Goodbye November!!!!!!