My morning laugh

I honestly laughed so hard I almost couldn't see anymore because of the tears in my eyes. I have to share the joy. Watch this little video.

If you don't think it's funny, maybe watch it really early or really late, but I'm still tearing up about it. :)

AND another story.

Me: Katelyn, what should we name our new baby girl?

Katelyn: I don't know. Maybe mommy or Santa Claus.

:)

It's the most wonderful time...

Happy Birthday Dave!! My sweet, wonderful Dave has finally caught up to me in age. (And no, I won't be posting that number.) Dave is the most amazing person that I have ever met and I just love him more every day. Here he is with out sweet kiddies.

Now, I'll admit it. I've been listening to Christmas music for a few weeks already and I've loved it! The tragedy is that I'm starting to get worn out already! Oh boy. I'll get my second wind any day now, I hope.

While we were AZ, we found this little Christmas tree at Walgreen's for about $10. Since we're moving in 2 weeks, we don't want to get our big tree up (that we've only used once), so we pulled out the little guy. The kids were THRILLED and had so much fun decorating it.

And the best part... when it gets bumped and falls over... it's not a big deal. :) Timber!

Katelyn was so excited to get out in the snow. Especially since she got to wear her new "sparkle hat and gloves." Note to self... if you want Katelyn to wear something, put glitter on it.

"I can't put my arms down!" He wasn't so sure about the snow so he hung out in the garage for a bit. We had fun though and I got to show Katelyn how to make a snow angel. Love it.

Dave LOVES gingerbread cookies and we had an AWESOME recipe. Let me know if you want it. Tonight was the night to make some cookies and we had so much fun!

Ethan was almost covered from head to toe in flour.

Now this was clever. All the sudden, both kids toted in their own chairs and sat in front of the oven to watch the cookies bake. Who needs a TV??

Jungle Jim's

I heard about a half-off coupon the other day for Jungle Jim's and it sounded like fun. I'd never heard of it before, but when I told that to the man at the door, he smiled and said, "Really? We've been around for 20 years." Oh. Well, it was a lot of fun, especially since the kids have been such troopers as we've been looking at homes, and I've been on the phone and on my computer sending e-mails, signing papers and whatever else for this soon-to-be home of ours.

We had such a great time and the poor kids got so tired. After a while, they would just sit on the rides in a daze because they were ready to go to sleep. We ended in the soft play area and we were proud of our little Ethan because we thought he was too short to climb into a tube that took him to a slide. Well, he showed us and finally muscled his way in. I wish I had a picture of that because it was so cute watching him work so hard.

Where are the pictures??

I've posted way too many times without pictures and I'm getting behind! We've been busy with house stuff, but have tried to take time to have some fun.

Or sleep. The kids put daddy down for a nap.

It wouldn't be complete without their favorite Winnie the Pooh bear. And notice that he's laying down too. I tried to sit him up, but was quickly corrected that he was taking a nap like daddy.

Katelyn loves movies. I have a book though that's called Play Unplugged and I love it. It just gives simple, great ideas of activities for kids by their age. The other day I read about making a fort under the dining room table. I always LOVED doing that, so we tried it and the kids had a great time. And bless my mom for letting us making a mess with blankets, books, chairs and whatever else, all the time.

Katelyn's loves: her daddy, to dress up, music and to dance.

Oh, look at my little man! This is Ethan on his first "official" day of nursery. I'm a nursery leader so he's been going for a few months, but check him out. What a handsome kid.

They just got the new (old-school) Christmas DVDs! Do you think she's happy?

Check out their cute turkey hats. We got the papers and pattern from the library. Love that. (And raise your hand if your TV is as dirty as ours. Ewww.)

Ethan loves to redecorate with my pots. I was really shocked and proud of him though because after he had pulled out every pot, he put them all away and shut the door. I have to document this for future occasions when I can show him that he used to clean up his messes.

And look at this precision in helping me put away the silverware. He did so good. Check out the concentrated look on his face.

The first big snow. And no, this wasn't the so-called blizzard that we were supposed to have last week. This was the week before when we got about a foot of the beautiful white stuff. Will someone go skiing for me?? I'm 21 weeks now and I'll have to suffice with doing snow angels with the kids. So pretty.

Looking for a renter

Hi guys,

Here is the link to the ad for our townhome. Please share it with anyone that you know that's looking for a good deal in renting a cute townhome.

We are moving on December 18th and hope to have it rented before then so they can move in the next week. Wishful thinking?? Yep, but somehow this is going to work. :)

Note to self...

... a normally happy, full of life, 19 month old may get cranky, whiney and pale when getting three new eye teeth. OW!! Wish I would have noticed a couple days ago. I couldn't figure out what was going on! Now just to figure out why Katelyn is acting the same way.... oh wait... she's three.

Our Christmas Present...

... we're getting a new home!! (Sorry no pictures... I don't have any. We'll post later.)

We just got accepted to buy a beautiful home and we're so excited. We should be in before Christmas. Nothing like keeping it busy during the holidays! We feel incredibly blessed to be buying a home and to be honest, it's not real to me yet. It's almost as much of a shock as it was when Dave and I decided to get married. :) All that waiting and then *boom* here it is. It will be a wonderful Christmas.

We're trying to find someone to rent our town home. If you know anyone that is looking for something at Daybreak, let us know or have them contact us. Our town home is 1980 square feet (a pretty good size), 3 stories, 1 car garage, 3 bed, 2 1/2 bath. We have a great ward and there's a green grassy area kind of in our back yard. The rental price is great, in fact the best we've seen at Daybreak, and comparable to other places for what you get.

When our landlord officially posts it, I'll include the link. Let me know though because the sooner we can get someone in here, the better! :)

It's a....

...another...

....GIRL!

We are so excited to be having another girl! We just found out and are thrilled. Feel free to post your favorite girl name that you think we should use. Katelyn's was Koolah. :) And why not because she was also the only one that was totally sure that it was a girl. Ethan said girl too... but I think he was just copying his role model. Yahoo! Pull out the bows and cute girl clothes again! :) Katelyn has vetoed bows for about 1 1/2 years now so it's about time to use them again.

Preschool

In case you need some good preschool resources, I just heard about this at my library. It links to some great sites. Just google Preschool Pioneer. My kids were in love.

"Decorating"

Katelyn has noticed that everyone was decorating for Halloween with pumpkins, hay, ghosts on their lawn, you name it. She started asking when we were going to decorate. It was so cute. Well, we're lacking in the decorations department so we took a family trip to Target and found some simple decorations to put on our walls. The kids have loved them, especially the big spider that keeps falling down. They love to run around the house with it since it's just a big plastic poster-sized spider.

I also bought some battery-powered lights for our pumpkins. It came with in a big package and I guess today, Katelyn decided that she needed to "decorate" again. This is what I found.

Preschool

I'm teaching preschool on Thursday to Katelyn's class. We're learning about the letter Dd, the number 7 and the color brown. I've never done this before. Any ideas or websites that you love?

Tantrums...

...and three year old mood swings are very tiring.

Family pictures

Dave's family met at the Noni gardens last weekend to get some family pictures. The leaves were so beautiful and I love the gardens. It's were I got my bridals taken and Dave and I got our engagement pics. Anyway, it was fun to see it in the Fall weather this time instead of Spring. Here are a few pictures that we snapped that night.

I love this one! Look at my handsome boys.

Here's some of our trip to the Children's Museum. The kids loved it. But who wouldn't love driving your own helicopter? I know that was one of my favorite parts when I was a kid.

Happy 3rd birthday sweetheart!

Our Katelyn turned three last week! I can't believe my beautiful baby is getting so old. She's a smart little cookie and gives me the best Koala hugs you could ask for. We love you Katelyn!

Just a wee little one

1 year and cute as a button

2 years. Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?

3 years and still smiling

Happy birthday Sweetheart! We love you!

Just cute

You can just hear him saying EEEEEEE! (His version of cheese!) What a cutie-pie.

Katelyn found a new bed. Why not sleep in the tube! That way Ethan can't get in and after all, that is the purpose to everything. Move the dolls out of reach. Move Ethan's toys out of reach. Move the snacks out of reach. Anything that Ethan might want to play with, eat or look at... move it, play with it or eat it. (True, though they really are the best of friends.)

Katelyn got some beautiful princess dolls from her cousin Hannah. Thanks Hannah!! Katelyn loves to dress up and play with them.

The 4th of July and friends

I've gotten the sewing bug lately, so I made these three cute little skirts for my 2 nieces and Katelyn. The love to wear their matching skirts and dance around. Here they are waiting for the inevitable candy throwers at the parade.

We just finished children's parade and Ethan didn't want to stop eating his Pace bar for a camera break. My beautiful sister is on the right. It was so much fun to see all the kids all dressed up and their bikes, wagons, strollers, you name it, totally decorated.

Ethan, Daniel and Katelyn are exploring at the Daybreak lake. It was so cute to see Ethan and Daniel try and figure out how to walk in the sand.

Jace, Zoe, and Austin came to visit a couple months ago. We had so much fun swimming and playing together.

Here's the whole group... trying to smile for the picture. :) Katelyn just loved having all her friends from Highland over to play.

A little more

The kids love to stand at the back door when Dave comes home.

They took a little nap on our rainy bike ride.

The bike ride. Okay, I can't figure out how to delete the next duplicate.... and I'm too tired to figure it out. :) Just check out the last, very kissable, picture.

Fun at our new home

A Katelyn/Mommy family drawing. Katelyn was in charge of telling me what color of clothes everyone needed to wear. For example, Daddy should NOT wear pink shoes. You can see that they are now green.

Loving playing in the tent of balls

Family room picnic. A definite favorite.

The two girls.

All of Katelyn's friends lined up for a good time. About a minute later, she had them all laying down for nap time. So cute.