30 days of thanks starts now!

I almost forgot that today is November- the day that I usually prepare myself and my family for the tough month ahead. It was November 2007 when I went home to be with my dad during his last weeks of life. It was a beautiful, yet heartbreaking time. He ended up passing away on November 30th. Every November since has been very dark for me. I always try to combat the sadness with an extra effort to talk about all my blessings. This year, it is not tough to find. We are counting down the days until November 9th- when we find out whether or not we are having a boy or a girl!
So, today, I am thankful for this little unborn baby. He/She has already brought a lot of extra love in our home. The kids talk about the baby a lot and what they will teach him/her. Emily wants the baby to share a room with her. Bryce said he wants to teach the baby math and sports. I am confident that my dad took care of this special spirit for the last 5 years while we have been preparing to be ready for another one. I was never able to give up on one more. After the miscarriage, I thought maybe it was time to move on. I am glad I was never able to give up.

(This picture is probably pretty close to what our baby will look like. All 3 looked almost identical!)

An 8th Birthday She Won't Forget!

 I have been so excited for Emily's birthday to get here! I have had too many secrets that have been making me want to explode!

 We went out for dinner the night before her birthday and informed her that she was going to be a big
sister again! I have been so anxious to tell her this news, but also a little nervous. I am 16 weeks and feel like everything looks great! My kids were all very happy! It has been tough to hide!

  sis

 

The next surprise was a trip to CA to see her grandma and grandpa and aunts and cousins.She was really bummed we were leaving on her birthday, so we decided to bring her with us! There is more to this story, but this is all for now. Let's just say, I am so grateful she was there!

 Her baptism weekend was beautiful. We are so glad that Grandma and Grandpa Marker were able to come and that so many friends and family came. We really missed Grandma Nise, but unfortunately Grandpa Harold had some surgery and my mom needed to be there with him. We are glad Emily was able to spend time with them last week.  I don't have all the pictures on this camera, so I will add more later, but I wanted to share my emotions of the last week. It has been miracle after miracle. I am so grateful for all of my blessings.

I LOVED cheering Jeff onto his first marathon- but you will have to wait to see the proof! Suziepetunia and I were back together for 8 fun miles and another good friend, Annie, qualified for Boston!! Whew!

That's it for now!

Every once in a while...

...I get a picture I love!

All 3 kids in school- how did that happen?

I was asked quite a bit if I was sad about seeing my baby go to kindergarten. It is hard to feel sad when your child is so excited that they set out their clothes 2 days before school and then sleep in their clothes the night before!

So, it made it much easier on me that Bryce was thrilled to join Dallin and Emily at their charter school. It also helps that he has the same teacher the other 3 had and she is phenomenal! I feel very comfortable with my kids there.

We started the morning with oven pancakes and pictures at the door. :-)

And really, 3 1/2 hours goes by very quickly! I had met up with friends for breakfast, ran an errand and then it was time to pick up Bryce. We went to lunch together and then went home and had some one on one time playing Ticket to Ride. He then went upstairs and played some video games and I relaxed in front of the TV. We made cookies for the other kids and then they came home!

I guess we were ready for routine after a summer with no rules. :-)

I will post more summer pictures later.

Teaser Post

We have had a very low key, but fun summer. We had the wonderful experience of watching our children participate in events that they loved! Dallin's baseball team had a great season and ended up getting 6th in the state. There were many highs and lows, but I loved every minute! Emily had her theatrical debut in not one, but 2 plays and they were a week apart! She was in her element up on that stage. It definitely warmed my heart to see them find their niche. It was a lot of time, but I wouldn't change a thing! 

Due to the baseball and theatrical commitments, we did not pack a bag until our camping trip on August 9th! We have been gone pretty much ever since! Jeff's family came into town for 6 days and it was wonderful being with all of them. We rented a house on the beach and had a great time all together. We were only missing one of Jeff's siblings, so we had 33 people in one house (I think that's right.) Jeff and his family left the beach on Sunday, and I was lucky enough to be joined at the coast by my dear friend, Ranell and her kids and we stayed at her beach condo for the next 4 days. It was heaven for me to be at the beach for a glorious 8 days and I couldn't have asked for better weather! Here are some pics and there will be more to come! 

 Emily was Cleo the Cat in the Cinderella play. 

 Dallin played pitcher and shortstop and lives and breathes baseball!

 Dallin's coach and team were awesome! What a great season! Go Dirtbags!

 Dallin with his loyal fans!

 Emily's favorite part was singing modern songs up on stage, like Rolling in the Deep, by Adele!

 This is her second play, Love's True Tale, and it is a musical written by our talented friend, Alicia Moore. It was performed on our city's outdoor stage and we loved it!

 All of the adults in Jeff's family on our couch! :-) 

 Bryce loves to tube!

 Dallin ended up getting first place in his grade in this fun run!

 Bryce ran his little heart out!

 Kristyn, Rylan and Mialee joined Jeff and Rob for an early morning ski run! Jeff had to show his brother our awesome skiing river. :-)

 Spent one day at the beach with a good friend of Jeff's at an amazing house!

 Ella and Emily adopted this dog while we were camping!

Gotta love camping!

Whew! That's it for now, but I have a lot more pics to upload! Thanks for hanging in and seeing my post about Guacamole for so long. :-)

Holy Guacamole!

I interrupt my blogging break to bring this announcement! I can now get guacamole (REAL guamole, not processed crud!) in single servings. The hardest part will be limiting myself to one a day.




That's it, folks. Carry on. More blogging later.

My Comeback Marathon

I wrote about my marathon from this weekend.

Here is the link.

Lots more to write about. Here is a quick synpopsis:

1. Baseball, baseball, baseball- I LOVE watching Dallin play. My favorite way to spend an evening. I even accept that he is the pitcher now and I am not QUITE as nervous. 

2. New entertainment center getting built. (Today!) We will love this!

3. I have a kindergartner- wow! All 3 kids at the same school next year.

4. My mom and Harold came out to visit and we had a fantastic trip to Silver Falls. Needs its own post! We had a wonderful time with them on the boat, at the Bonneville locks and just hanging out!

5. Emily is just a doll and I love her!

Celebrating Bryce

My youngest is 5. That just seems unreal to me. I am sure loving my time with just Bryce. He makes me laugh every day. He still cuddles me and offers to help with chores and he is smart as a whip!! He definitely keeps me on my toes. Today he asked, "Mom, what kind of animal is a grenade? " I was a little confused until I realized that he was talking about the song, "I would catch a grenade for ya..." He knows the words of almost any recent song on the radio. I try to keep him listening to only the clean ones! :-) It used to be just the Kids Bop versions, until my kids discovered Pandora. I love how much he loves music and dancing. He is a pretty good little breakdancer. He has his tough moments too, such as when he thinks he is smarter than me, but let's focus on his good qualities. :-) We had a birthday party on Saturday. I wanted to go to Pump it Up or some place similar but he wanted to have it at home like his friend Spencer. I am not a huge fan of throwing birthday parties, because it is not easy for me, but I am glad we did this. It took me out of my comfort zone and I think it went well. It was a sports birthday party.

Today, I just tried to make as special as I could. I let him play video games all morning and then we went to a frozen yogurt place for (ahem!) breakfast! He wanted a haircut (silly kid!) and then we went to Costco for a hot dog (and other things, but he thinks it's for the hot dog!). We had gone to Red Robin on Saturday, our birthday tradition and he whispered to me right when we got there (Mom, are you going to tell them it's my birthday?!). So, tonight for dinner he wanted Wendy's. The other thing he asked for was to go to Fun Club. This is the Child Watch at the YMCA that is only for 5-10 year olds. He has been watching his brother and sister go and was just excited to be old enough. I hadn't planned  on working out, but I checked if they had openings and they did. We brought bathing suits in case they got to swim and they did- woo hoo! They had so much fun!

I just love this little guy so much and I am so grateful he is mine.